It has been several months since I last made a significant change to my computer configurations. This past week I rebuilt my old Lenovo ThinkPad X240.This is an old machine with 8GB RAM. I removed Windows 10 from it back in October. It cannot cleanly run Windows 11, but has no problem with Linux.
Ní fearacht sí n don tseanduine bocht. Is beag an [d.l. 41] t-ómós a bhí dhósan. Nuair a déanadh freastal air, ba le grá Dé é agus ní le fonn. Ba mhór leo an chomaoin is lú a chuireadar air.
“Féach ar an seandiabhal sí n,” adeiridís. “Níl brabach ag Dia ná ag duine air, caite ina smíste cois an teallaigh ó mhaidin go hoíche. B’fhearr dhuit bheith ag iarraidh na déirce ná bheith ag freastal air.”
That’s not like the poor old man. There was little respect for him. When he was served, it was out of love for God and not out of desire. They liked the smallest favor they gave him.
“Look at that old devil,” they used to say. ”There is no profit for God or man in him, spent as a large lump by the fireplace from morning to night. It would be better for you to beg for alms than to serve him.”
| fearacht | Like, as, in the manner of | |
| ómós | Homage; reverence, respect | m |
| fonn | Desire, wish, inclination, urge | m |
| comaoin | Favor, obligation | f |
| brabach | Gain, profit | m |
| smíste | … Large lumpish object…. | m |
| teallach | Fire-place, hearth | m |
| déirc | Charity, alms(-giving) | f gs déirce |
Bhí an mháthair ina luí ar chlár a droma, a súile dunta agus a lámha sinte amach os cionn an éadaigh leapan. Bhí sí ag oibrid a cuid méar gan sos. Bhí a corp ar fad cloíte ag mórobair an bheirthe. Ansan do scread an leanbh. D’oscail sí a súile chomh luath agus chuala sí an glór. Rug sí greim cruaidh ar an éadach. D’ardaigh sí a ceann agus bhreathnaigh sí go fiáin ar an tseanmháthair ag a raibh an leanbh á chóiriú thall le cois na tine.
The mother was lying on flat on her back, her eyes closed and her hands stretched out above the bedclothes. She was working her fingers without a break. Her entire body was exhausted from the great labor of childbirth. Then the baby screamed. She opened her eyes as soon as she heard the voice. She gripped the cloth firmly. She raised her head and looked wildly at the grandmother who was dressing the baby over by the fireside.
| cloíte | Subdued, exhausted | |
| fiáin | Wild | |
| cóiriú | Arrangement, dressing | |
Ar mheán lae samhraidh agus teas mór ann, bhí cailín óg ag baint bhairnigh thíos ar íochtar díththrá, in aice le gob na leice móire a bhí mar theora le taobh thoir an chuain. Bhí sí ag imeacht léi go righin leisciúil í áit go háit ar lorg na gceann ba mhó agus ba spéisiúla, a lámh chlé ag coinneáil ciseoige in aghaidh a gorúin agus bior iarainn ina láimh dheis. Bhí a sciorta gorm craptha suas thar a glúine, a léine gheal oscailte ag a scornach agus a mainchillí dúbailte suas go barr gualann. Ní raibh ar a cosa ach brúigíní beaga bána canbháis a raibh boinn robair fúthu.
On a hot summer noon, a young girl was gathering limpets down at low tide, near the great stone that was the border of the east side of the bay. She was going stubbornly and lazily from place to place looking for the biggest and most interesting ones, her left hand holding a shallow basket against her hip and an iron spike in her right hand. Her blue skirt was gathered up above her knees, her white shirt open at her neck and her double sleeves up to the top of her shoulders. On her feet were only small white canvas shoes with rubber soles.
| bairneach | limpet | m gs npl bairnigh |
| íochtar | Lower part, bottom | m |
| díthrá | Low tide | f |
| gob | Beak, bill; Tip, point; projection | n |
| leac | Flat stone or rock; flagstone, slab | f gs leice |
| teorainn | boundary, limit; border, frontier | f |
| cuan | Haven; Harbor | m gs cuain |
| righin | Tough; tenacious; unyielding, stubborn | |
| leisciúil | lazy, slothful; Reluctant, loath; Shy | |
| ciseoig | Shallow basket | f |
| gorún | haunch, hip | m gs npl gorúin |
| bior | Pointed rod or shaft; spit, spike | m gs beara |
| scornach/i> | throat | f |
| muinchille | sleeve | f pl muinchillí |
| bonn | sole | m gs npl boinn |
These are notes from a presentation by Bill Higgins and Henry Spencer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not the speakers’. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:
Bill and Henry fill you in on recent developments in space, starting with a look at the latest interstellar comet, Comet 3I/ATLAS (as seen mostly by spacecraft).
These are notes from a presentation by Henry Spencer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not Henry’s. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:
Near-Earth asteroids (and their cousins, comets) are interesting objects, possible future sources of metals and other materials… and potential threats to civilization and even life on Earth. The good news is, this is the only type of major natural disaster that we might actually be able to prevent. A look at what we know about asteroids (and comets), what sort of threat they present, and what we can do to anticipate trouble from them and maybe head it off.
These are notes from a panel at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not the panelists’. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:
As the means of production falls into fewer and fewer hands and new technologies like GenAI arrive on our phones with unseen agendas and impacts, the value of thinking about the political dimensions of future tech grows. What political ramifications should we consider in our near future? How has SF commented on the politics of its futuristic technologies? Our panelists explore these and other political questions about the future we’re building now (and the future still to come).
These are notes from a presentation by Henry Spencer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not Henry’s. I have amplified my notes with web links for further clarification. Here is the blurb from the convention program:
The real history and technology (so far as they’re publicly known) of nuclear weapons, and the ways SF gets them wrong — aimed at authors, techies, and interested readers.
These are notes from a presentation by Ada Palmer at Capricon 46. Any mistakes here are mine, not Professor Palmer’s. The room was crowded and I had to stand, limiting my note-taking ability. Here is the blurb from the convention program:
Why It’s So Easy To Be Wrong About Vikings. We recently realized Heimdall is a tree! A new lost Loki story was discovered on the Faroe islands! It turns out Hel isn’t black on one side after all, she’s blue! Mixing storytelling with the latest discoveries, Ada Palmer discusses recent advances in Norse myth research, both what we’ve found and why it took so long to find it, a history which involves not only the Medieval sources but the nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarly debates, feuds, mistakes, and corrections in this live and rapidly-changing field whose constant new discoveries mean every decade brings new material to draw on for our own Norse Myth fiction projects.
Mia and I had a good time at Capricon 46. Unlike last year, it was held at the Marriott Chicago O’Hare. It was OK as a hotel, but compared to the Sheraton in downtown Chicago, it is in a culinary wasteland. There were no restaurants with in walking distance. We were stuck with the hotel restaurant (I hate monopolies) or what what we could buy from a well-stocked grocery store a quarter mile away. We did see some old friends again.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 