Stephen Ramsay

I have a new album out. stephenramsay.bandcamp.com/album/the-ob... Apologies to those who follow me for DH. (Then again, the Venn diagram between DH-ers and lovers of microtonal drone records may be wider than I think).

After 34 years, gforth has hit 1.0. grthrg/manual/1.0/N... Step aside, AI . . .

What works does the r/classicliterature subreddit consider "classic"? This post gives you an answer (and some media ecological theorizing for good measure): cforster.com/2026/09/redd... With thanks to @mellymeldubs.bsky.social & @mariaa.bsky.social, whose work on Goodreads I borrow from.

The good news is that tei2jsonl can generate a JSON record for //w in eebo-tcp at a rate of about 1.8 million tokens per second. The bad news is that it takes 12 minutes (end-to-end) to process the 1,387,424,934 <w> tokens in eebo.

Fun fact: I have known Matt since we were both in our (early) twenties. I think we were in our fifties before I asked, "Dude, what's with your eyes?" But I think that's because for the thirty-plus-year interval, it was very hard to imagine Matt any other way. Like, he looks like Matt! I.e., perfect!

Every time I see the ballroom, I think, "This is exactly the aesthetic that inspired the Bolsheviks."

I think MZ would rather not have to play this game at all. He'd rather fund his yacht the way he always has and not blow all this money competing with AI companies The bright solarpunk future he describes is one in which he doesn't have to worry about this shit and still wins at being super rich.

The lettuce thing? Whatever. Jalapeños? I practically live on chili peppers. And sure, most of us spice freaks moved on to serranos years ago after they started breeding Js for normies, but this still poses a serious nutritional emergency.

List of Individual Birds: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

People seem to be confused about the basic motivations of tech oligarchs. Here's the deal: If it makes lots of money, it doesn't matter if it's a *soap bubble.*

Funny how nearly comical levels of security incompetence are being cast by AI companies as "It's alive!"

New Blog Post: "The Fate of the Hobbyist Programmer" stephenramsay.net/posts/fate-o...

Well, I have my Pedantry Merit Badge. I've read it in English several times and in Greek at least once, generally prefer books to people, and I thought the movie was amazing. Lots of clever choices. Several moments of true visual/thematic brilliance.

It must be like banging your head against a wonderwall.

NPR: "The 'Great American State Fair' will run from June 25 through July 10, promising to bring state-themed pavilions, movie screenings, musical performances, military flyovers, nostalgic snacks . . " What, pray, is a "nostalgic snack?"

*The New Yorker* has a review of Nolan’s *Odyssey,* which, of course, they have not seen. They don’t hate it, but I’d say they’re ready to do so.

During World Cup matches, I periodically hear an arpeggiated (and doubled) C-major chord. Does anyone know what this signifies?

The press keeps saying that tonight's match is "meaningless." The US is playing a country with metal dots in its name. This is serious.

"Archaeologists Unearth ‘Prototype’ of Stonehenge Monument Nearby." Thing is, it was written in Python by a bunch of physicists. No comments, no structure, no tests. A big dude with a black robe and very long beard kept saying, "Can we just build this fucking thing in C already?" So they did.

i love world cup

What? You're trying to keep track of the scores without Plain Text Sports? You need Plain Text Sports. Here's the overarching concept: You click on this link, and it gives you . . . the scores. It does not give you "not the scores," but since you want the scores . . . plaintextsports.com

Tips for new readers: The “map” between *Ulysees* and The Odyssey is probably the least interesting thing about this delightful, often hilarious novel. It’s a story, not a crossword puzzle. #bloomsday

Normally, I try to engage in as much aggressively pedantic gatekeeping as I can when it comes to drone. But on #droneday? Everyone should just hold that note as long as they can.

The idea of a Texas Senate race hinging on a theological dispute from the fourth century is actually kind of interesting.

One thing this whole encyclical business has made plain yet again: The media absolutely loves saying the word "pontiff."

It's a shame Reggie Foster didn't live to take a shot at "Babel Syndrome." "Syndroma Babelicum" is one option, but where's the art in that?

Thinking about a programming assignment where I give students a bloated, slow, increasingly typical piece of garbage software. Assignment: Make the fans stop, make it idle at ~0%, and stop the earth from crying out over the user's tortured battery.

Way back in the day, I suggested, as a THATCamp prompt: “Why does every CMS suck?” If I could have seen the SaaS future, I might have used . . . stronger language.

Are there any sea shanties specifically about the Strait of Hormuz?

I don't know quite know what to make of the "convergence toward the mean" that we see in AI-generated video animations. Does all of human art ultimately tend toward a combination of Thomas Kindade and Fraggle Rock? Huge, if true.

Great! I'm glad you're all here for our annual Professionally Facilitated Visioning Exercise for the university. As you know from the updated Envisioning Our Future packets you received this morning, our question for the afternoon will be "Where Do You See Yourself in Eight Hours?"

Connecting to a repo that is giving the warning, "connection is not using a post-quantum key exchange algorithm." Love this. Whatever the next thing is, we need to call it "post-quantum." "I'm undertaking a post-quantum analysis of Dickens." "My work is situated firmly within post-quantumism."

You know how when the title of an article on the web ends in a question mark the answer is “no?” There’s some version of this for articles declaring things to be over.

This is marvelous.

Coming this August! Have me come tell your students that everyone is a digital humanist now, in an age of pervasive digital mediation -- happy to bring free copies

How does anyone work in Python with this virtual environment nonsense? I remember when Python was new. "Batteries Included!" Uh huh. Today: We give you the batteries. You're on your own with the single-use hex wrenches. And the instructions are in Linear A. Also requries knowledge of darke magick.