Books and some interesting stuff I read in August 2026
Fiction
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)
- 374 pages
- 5 stars
Dystopian science fiction story about a virtual reality world, called OASIS. In his will, the creator has left the ownership of OASIS as well as his fortune to the winner of a conquest. This power and this amount of money leads to a fight between good and evil.
After reading the book I discovered it was also turned into a movie, and watched the trailer. If you haven't seen the movie and the trailer, better first read the book. From the trailer I expect that the book is much better. Even watching the trailer takes a way your change to build your own vision of the main characters.
Short stories
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury (1950)
Short story about a house that stands intact in an area that has otherwise been obliterated by a nuclear bomb.
The title was from a poem from 1918 during World War I.
https://www.libraryofshortstories.com/storiespdf/there-will-come-soft-rains.pdf
The Nothing Equation by Tom Godwin (1957)
Scary short story about lonlyless in space.
https://www.libraryofshortstories.com/onlinereader/the-nothing-equation
Interesting internet reads
Some noteworthy internet reads:
Re-Noted: 3 Lessons on Writing from Joan Didion's Notes
A wonderful piece by Jillian Hess.
Jillian takes us on a tour discovering the workflow of Joan Didion.
https://jillianhess.substack.com/p/re-noted-3-lessons-on-writing-from
Taste Is All That's Left
A must-read essay by raf about the damage AI does and its impact.
https://notashelf.dev/posts/taste-is-all-thats-left
Climate: Two Hypotheses, Two Futures
An easy to read explanation of the effects of the emission of greenhouse gases.
No speculations, just physics and chemistry. Highly recommended must-read.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/29/800091113/community/climate-two-hypotheses-two-futures/
The Last Collapse
A very thorough essay by Sarah about why after the collapse a reset to even a bronze age or iron age kind of life is not an option.
What the end actually looks like, and why humanity can never rebuild.
Depressing indeed, but we can't hide from the facts. Another highly recommended must-read.
https://www.collapse2050.com/the-last-collapse/
what to do with a retro computer
In this great blog post, mavica explains the problems that rise from the lack of availability of older software.
Very recognizable.
https://maple.pet/blog/what-to-do-with-a-retro-computer
Jabber/XMPP: 25 Years of Digital Independence
There is something fascinating about the fact that XMPP has developers in its community who are younger than the protocol itself.
Treating digital communication as true infrastructure can only be achieved by adopting and mandating open standards.
A changing geopolitical situation and the realization that Big Tech holds too much power lead us to seek out and develop alternatives. But what if the alternative has been right under our noses for over 25 years?
https://gultsch.de/posts/25-years-of-digital-independence/
Two Providers, a Stubborn Plateau and a Very Long Tail: Email in the Tranco Top-1M
The internet society reports on research done on MX-records
Some outcomes:
- Google and Microsoft now process 38% of all email.
- Self-hosting is in decline, currently at 22%
- Only 47% of domains with DMARC, enforces it
Or, in other words, Google (22%) and Microsoft (17%) process a big chunk of the world's email traffic. This chunk is only growing.
Many domains have adopted DMARC, but less than half actually enforces it. The promise of DMARC is to end email-spoofing. It is really bad that the enforcing level is so low.
Email is the most important step in the journey towards digital sovereignty. Not only are most email messages unencrypted and therefor spilling all your secrets, but when your email is in the walled garden of either Google or Microsoft, it is impossible to escape their walled gardens.
There are many smaller email hosting companies in Europe, there is no need to put your communication in the hands in these two evil and unethical US empires.
Stanislaw Lem foretold the current LLM mania in 1964
This blogpost from Nibble Stew about the novel "The Cyberiad" written by Stanislaw Lem in 1964. This novel contains a story that is remarkable close to the current LLM-events.
https://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2026/08/stanisaw-lem-foretold-current-llm-mania.html
Cores in space: The core memory module from a 1980 Spacelab computer
Nice post about the core memory in the 1980 Spacelab computer. With photos.
Cores in space: The core memory module from a 1980 Spacelab computer
https://www.righto.com/2026/08/spacelab-core-memory.html
Is this really a good reason to triple datacentre capacity in Europe?
Capitalism at its best.
The European strategy to regain its perceived competitiveness seems to be based on a a blog post from a commercial real estate firm. The more people invest in data centers real estate, the more money they make.
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