Nathan Contino's personal website and blog, Lambda Latitudinarians.
Do you use an app other than Apple Music to listen to music on your Mac? Personally I use Feishin, sometimes TauonMusicBox or Manet. Perhaps you've experienced the same frustration I've dealt with: sometimes your media keys work to skip, play, and pause. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they launch Apple Music, right when you're trying to pause your music before a video call!
Ever installed an app on your Mac and been greeted with this lovely dialog?
I recently read Klara and the Sun, my third Ishiguro novel. Halfway through, my impatience got the better of me; I was ready to label this the worst Ishiguro novel I've ever read. But I eventually came around. While Klara lacks the nostalgic charm of Remains of the Day or the punch-in-the-gut reveal of Never Let Me Go, it nevertheless feels like an important statement about technology, science,…
Do you use a Macbook or an Apple Keyboard with backlighting? Was your keyboard made after 2016? Take a look at your keyboard. What the hell are the magnifying glass and microphone keys? I miss my old dedicated keyboard brightness keys. Here's how to bring 'em back.
Not another AI blog post! Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of (sometimes grudging) AI acceptance from holdouts in the tech space lately. You can only fight back against top-down directives and endless UI 'suggestions' for so long. I gave LLMs a serious shake earlier this year, so I wanted to add a slightly different take to the conversation.
Occasionally I revisit fantasy novels that I read, or that I wish I'd read, in my childhood: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Dragonriders of Pern, The Phantom Tollbooth. Already this year, A Wrinkle in Time both impressed and disappointed me: it was somehow simultaneously both much weirder and much more simplistic than I had hoped. Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is far from…
2025: what a year! So much happened, it's hard to keep track of. So here's a big collection of photos from my year.
I've been using a Raspberry Pi 5 as a home server for years now. Simultaneously, I've been using Apple's Macbook Pro series as personal and work laptops for essentially my entire life. Normally, this grants me access to a proper Unix command line, no AI garbage or ads in most system menus, and the best ratio of energy usage to computing power in the home computer industry. But ever since I started…
The Diamond Age: Or, a The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer has gotten a lot of attention lately in the tech community. That's largely a result of one very important object: the Primer itself, which is basically an interactive Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-esque ereader, but with physical, turn-able pages that rewrite themselves. The Primer was specifically designed to teach a young woman…
We are idiots. But maybe we're slowly getting better.
I first read Cryptonomicon back in college. The book impressed me by introducing me to all kinds of weird ideas, from Linux nerdery, to the first seeds of cryptocurrency, to the optimal way to enjoy Captain Crunch, to the general gist of World War II cryptography. Revisiting Cryptonomicon in 2025 wasn't quite as fun. All of the tech startup bits left me with a bad taste in my mouth: I think a lot…
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor." "Okay, I’ll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler and a piece of string." "That’d be great." I first read Anathem back in high school. I liked it a lot, but found it a challenging read. Revisiting Anathem this year, I liked it even more. It only took a day and a few dozen pages to wrap my head…
I recently re-read one of my favorite classic sci-fi tales, Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. While TMiaHM remains my favorite Heinlein novel, some cracks started to show on this re-read: notably, characters (especially non-male characters) and character development. Modern science fiction has really surpassed the classics in this regard. But Heinlein's worldbuilding and storytelling…
Whenever you download a file in macOS, your computer automatically sets a special bit called the quarantine bit. Apple has a complicated system that makes this precaution invisible for popular apps, involving developer certs, code signing, a system called GateKeeper that evaluates trustworthiness, and surely plenty of 30% mafia-style protection fees. For many users, this system acts as an extra…
There's been a lot of talk lately about Meta's antitrust trial. But one discussion subject subject in particular has been stuck in my brain for weeks now, ever since early May. Specifically, Mark claims that the average person: has three people that they would consider friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's, like, 15. Sure. It's not exactly news that…
I've been using a Crossland CC1 just about daily as my home espresso machine since 2020. The CC1 is my first "real" machine, having begun my home espresso journey with my Delonghi EC155 back in 2013 (and having begun my espresso journey in general when I got a job at Chrissy Beanz in Sackets Harbor back in 2012). Overall, I highly recommend the CC1. It is a well-priced, well-featured, reliable,…
This weekend, we biked about 30 miles around Brooklyn, Queens, and (technically) Manhattan in honor of my 30th birthday.
This guide explains how to permanently install the Pebble app on a new iPhone, assuming you already downloaded the Pebble app from your Apple ID/Account at some point in the past. I've had this written up in a text file on my laptop for a few years now. Given the announcement of new Pebbles today, I figured I'd share this, in case anyone else was inspired to use their Pebble again but got stuck on…
The Power Broker is probably one of the largest books I have ever read. I suspect it's one of the largest books anyone has read, since it likely stretches the physical bounds of 'pages attachable to a book spine'. Spread across 1156 pages, the 700,000 tiny tiny words of The Power Broker measure up to: 200% the length of the entire The Lord of the Rings series a similar length to all six Dune books…
In 2025, Google killed the Pixel 4a.
All bicyclists ride bikes. But not all bike riders are bicyclists. I'm a bicycle enthusiast: someone who spends enough time riding and repairing bikes to know a thing or two about them. But I'm not a bicyclist, because I don't race my bike, or care about power meters or pacing or compete in events. I wrote this article to help non-bicyclists better understand bikes: which to buy, what features…
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
For this year's bike tour, Meg and I rode our ATBs from Littleton, New Hampshire, in a loop around Vermont, and back to New Hampshire. Along the way, we checked out some new spots, and visited some old favourites. We connected it all with a collection of class 4 roads, singletrack, dirt roads, and -- occasional -- pavement.
I like riding bicycles. The Tanglefoot Moonshiner is a very, very weird bike. It's also an excellent bike. It might just be the perfect bicycle for Northern New England in 2024.
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 7 here. In this post, I reflect on what went well -- and what went not so well -- in our first big international bike tour. And to finish things off,…
I just finished a very, very, very long read of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. This is the second-longest series I have every read, second only to The Wheel of Time. But Malazan stands out as perhapas the most unusual, most unique, and most impactful series I have ever read. It has been a long time since a piece of writing made me think this much. Allow me to explain...
I recently finished reading The Lost Cause, by Cory Doctorow, which asks (and answers) the question: Do some people seriously want to watch the world burn?. Here are my thoughts on the book. Warning: This post contains (minor) spoilers!
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 6 here. In this post, we'll cover our experiences in Bristol, Bath, London, and our journeys between those cities.
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 5 here. In this post, we'll travel from some tiny horses we met in Wales all the way back into England, to Bristol. We found the bicycle infrastructure…
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 4 here. In this post, we'll travel from Manchester, England to some tiny horses we met in Wales. We took a bit of a shortcut from Manchester to Wales,…
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 3 here. In this post, we'll ramble around the countryside of England in the vague vicinity of Northumberland and the Yorkshire Dales. This leg of the…
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 2 here. In this post, I'll cover our journey from the English border to Hadrian's Wall. Did you think Hadrian's Wall was located on the border with…
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. If you missed the previous post, you can find Part 1 here. In this post, I'll cover our journey from Glasgow, Scotland, to the English border across quite a few miles of breathtaking, sheep-filled…
A month on our bicycles, unsupported, spanning the entire isle of Great Britain. Three countries. Five major cities. Tens of thousands of feet of incline. 800ish miles. Literally millions of sheep. In this post, I'll cover our journey from Syracuse, NY, where we boxed up our bikes and hopped on a plane, to Edinburgh, Scotland, where we unboxed our bikes and rode right out of the airport to our…
Meg's mom visited us for Mother's Day weekend to continue the tradition of the Meg-Lyneé National Golf Championship. This year, they're touring in two previously-unseen states: Vermont and Maine. Since any good golf tournament includes beers afterward, I latched onto the tournament as an opportunity for Meg to dump me on the shoulder of a random dirt road with my bicycle, Bill the Moonshiner.…
Our latest adventure took us across half of the state of Vermont: from St. Johnsbury to Stowe, and back. This trip gave us a chance to try: Vermont's new Lamoille Valley Rail Trail (LVRT) (note: a rail trail that is almost, but not quite entirely unlike complete) our bikepacking bag setups on the Moonshiners
A year ago today, we moved to Littleton, New Hampshire! It's been a wild ride, and this weekend might just be the wildest yet. Biking with skis, skiing, biking, mountain biking, and skiing again. It had it all! Thanks to several days of unexpected 80+ degree heat, mud season has been postponed. The snow is (almost) all gone, the roads are clear, the trails are bone dry, and the skies are vivid…
What is the Fifth Season?
This season, give the gift of reading.
2022-2023 was the first winter season Meg and I spent living in remote, scenic, sometimes-snowy Littleton, New Hampshire. Join us on a recap of the highs, the lows, the adventures, and the silliness that happened this season.
I recently finished reading Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of Oxford Translator's Revolution, by RF Kuang. Here are my thoughts on the book. Warning: This post contains spoilers!
I recently switched to a "new" smartphone. This post explains why and how.
Technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing. When I was young, I read books. When I was slightly less young, I read books off of a Kindle Touch. I replaced my Kindle with an Android e-ink tablet. This article explains why.