SDF is a member-funded, nonprofit public-access UNIX system and online community that began in 1987 as an Apple II bulletin board for anime fans. Its history reflects the broader role of bulletin board systems in making personal computers tools for communication, and its survival through attacks, hardware failures, and relocations shows the durability of a noncommercial, community-run network. Today, members can use NetBSD shell accounts, host websites, and publish through Gopher and Gemini, alongside services such as email, chat, social platforms, games, and access to historic computing systems. Free accounts are available, while a one-time $36 ARPA membership unlocks development tools, expanded network access, hosting features, and voting rights.
The author describes joining SDF and making a small Perl CGI guestbook to demonstrate the appeal of building for a personal site rather than optimizing for scale. The practical walkthrough explains how to keep the guestbook’s data outside the public web directory, store entries in a simple text file with locking, block direct access, and install the script with SDF’s required permissions. A honeypot field helps filter automated spam. The result uses no database or framework, deliberately embracing older web techniques for their simplicity and charm. The piece also turns toward lightweight, older-browser-compatible web design, inspired by the Dillo browser, as part of a broader appreciation for the less corporate, more hands-on internet.
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Jeff Atwood promotes an interactive wealth-inequality graphic whose endless upward scroll is designed to make extreme wealth concentration tangible. He argues that the deliberate inconvenience helps viewers feel a fraction of the hardship faced by people living on very low wages. (blog.codinghorror.com)
Elon Musk’s Grok-generated Odyssey adaptation is dismissed as a dull, pointless response to Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed film. The review links it to Musk’s earlier complaints about the film’s casting, made before he had seen it. (theguardian.com)
An interactive graph visualizes U.S. household wealth, showing the median household’s wealth as a 9-inch stack of $100 bills compared with 145 feet for the average top-1% household. It uses 2023 household wealth estimates adjusted to 2026 dollars and offers printable and video versions. (dreamagainusa.org)
Harold Blauer, an American professional tennis player, died in 1953 after Army Chemical Corps researchers injected him with a fatal dose of MDA during secret experiments tied to a CIA program. He had sought treatment for depression at a New York psychiatric institute and had asked to stop the drug tests after experiencing severe hallucinations. (en.wikipedia.org)
Walter Koenig, best known as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek, died in Los Angeles on October 25, 2026, at age 90. The actor and screenwriter also played Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 and reprised Chekov in six Star Trek films. (en.wikipedia.org)
Donald Trump has introduced a new name for artificial intelligence and is unhappy that people are not adopting it. The dispute centers on his effort to replace the widely used term “AI.” (neowin.net)
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