Notices by James Gilbert (jgrg@mstdn.science)

@WarnerCrocker There is a style of terraced townhouse common in parts of London where foundations were dug out half a storey deep, and the spoil put onto the road, raising its level. The basement is a separate dwelling, down a flight of steps, and there are a few steps up from the road to the front door of the main house.

@WarnerCrocker It's interesting how local house building differs around the world. Having a basement or cellar is unusual in the UK, but there are cities where it's more common. They would typically be unheated though, and have low ceilings.

@WarnerCrocker I guess they're larger than the rooms in the house above, where the space is subdivided?

@skinnylatte I think one of the problems in the UK is that few chefs own their business. Restaurants are chains, or the owner isn't the chef. Cooking has culturally been a menial occupation. Rents are high, pay isn't good.

@skinnylatte It's not all bad. There is now more street food, sold from food trucks. Jack's Gelato here in Cambridge started selling from a bicycle rickshaw under an umbrella on Silver Street bridge, and now has two shops with people queuing outside in winter. Expensive, but all made by them. The cafe and bakery round the corner from me makes great bread.

@skinnylatte I eat a meal prepared by someone else less than once a week. I take sandwiches (actually filled pitta breads) to work. I love cooking, and find eating out somewhat stressful. I get annoyed by dishes which have been cooked worse than I can.

@skinnylatte I watched the Steve Martin documentary last year and was amazed that he never learned to cook because he ate out every night of his life, mostly in LA, since leaving home. I think that would be miserable here in the UK.

@WarnerCrocker @ianRobinson I didn't notice its length.

@steter @WarnerCrocker What's this story? I can't find anything.

@skinnylatte I've heard there are Indian meals which start with incredibly sweet desserts.

📢🦆 New #DuckDB release 1.3.0❗️
Looks like a solid release, including better compression of strings. #SQL #Analytics
https://duckdb.org/2025/05/21/announcing-duckdb-130.html

@nikitonsky Which version is this? Is it the new USB-C one? (I've been using two Lightning versions fine with Sonoma.)

@nikitonsky Oh, yes. I see it is USB-C. That's terrible. Sounds like Apple haven't ported the new driver to earlier OS versions, which is really weird, given the developer resources they have.

@skinnylatte The kelp forests are my favorites on my Apple TV screensavers.

@thomasfuchs The Commonwealth Games do it too. On a train in Birmingham (UK), on our way to watch some hockey, we met a dentist who was providing free dental care to athletes. She said it was well used by many who did not have access to dental services in their own countries.

@thomasfuchs I find it amusing that during the live streams their announcers don't remark about things that are quite obviously going wrong, such as "no the starship is not supposed to be spinning like that!”

@thomasfuchs @GossiTheDog It does. But it doesn't say what make of toothbrush it was, or what the Swiss website that was DDoS'd was. There are toothbrushes that can connect to a smartphone, presumably via Bluetooth, but I don't see how you could make a botnet out of them.

@thomasfuchs @GossiTheDog says this story is not true.