Automated Archives for May, 16th 2026
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Chess For the Day
Record: 1-0-0
Net Elo Change: +5
Games Played
Blog Posts On This Day
- May 16, 2025 (1 post)
- May 16, 2024 (1 post)
- May 16, 2023 (6 posts)
Passbolted
As noted yesterday, the signs all point to an impending sale of Bitwarden and ahead of that I decided to go ahead and move to Passbolt's selfhosted solution. I could have stayed on Bitwarden and simply shifted it to be selfhosted, but then I wouldn't necessarily even trust their mobile app and browser extension.
So, I went ahead and stood Passbolt up on my homelab server. The biggest issue I faced was getting the mobile app set up. It kept erroring for me, and it was because of the need for me to manually install the server certificate on my phone. So, not the most user friendly, but that's necessary for security.
The export from Bitwarden worked flawless with no extra work. I just output the csv from Bitwarden and it imported perfectly into Passbolt.
We will see how it works over the next week. My Bitwarden is set up still, in case I run into issues.
Just quietly reading
Last night we had a nine-hour power outage. While my laptop had power, I ended up spending more of the evening reading on my e-reader. It was nice. I am so often distracted by a device. Even as I write this, I have an audiobook playing on my phone.
The thing they are saying about rotting brains and shortening attention span, I definitely feel. So it felt nice to read the book and just focus on it. I need to do that more and push back at the always-on television or audio on my phone.
May 15th, 2026
Bitwarden likely looking to be sold
In February, longtime CEO Michael Crandell moved to an advisory role, according to LinkedIn, with no announcement from the company. His replacement, Michael Sullivan, former CEO of both Acquia and Insightsoftware, touts his experience with “all facets of mergers and acquisitions” on his own LinkedIn page, including experience working with leading private equity firms.
Very disappointing for an app that I've supported for a decade now. Looking at Passbolt as where I move next, but we'll see.
May 14th, 2026
May 10th, 2026
I am Nostalgic for iPods
I love technology. I have a handful of my defunct eletronics from over the years, from my first Droid phone, and a few between, to my most recent Surface Duo 2. I don't have an iPod. And I should.
I am nostalgic for iPods.
I watched this video of someone customizing / refurbishing an iPod and found myself wanting one. I don't need it. I don't even need it for the purpose of breaking from streaming. We don't pay for streaming music and I have a home Plex server that I can stream our music from.
What I realized is that this is less about the technology item itself. It's not about an iPod. It's about my being nostalgic for the feeling of excitement at the unfolding of new technology. Going from a portable CD player to an iPod felt like jumping to light speed for the technology around us.
May 9th, 2026
The Hunger Games (2012)
I rewatched the movie yesterday and then this morning to finish it. I am reminded now how disappointed I was by the adaptation, it did wonderfully in creating the world and setting but so much of the written story and its nuances was lost in the adaptation.
Nature Wants Diversity
I went to bed earlier than I meant to last night. Around 6pm I was dozing off on the couch so I told Katie I would go lay down for a bit. Next thing I know it's 12:30am and I wake up. Oops.
I eventually got back to bed and slept until the dogs woke me up.
But as I was trying to fall asleep I had a thought and made a note to myself. I realized that the different human traits we perceive are the evolutionary tips of these traits, and that they represent genetics doing what we call evolution. More than that though, I realized this is also true of traits which are spectrums, not solely ones where we have different colors for example.
Nature wants diversity, it's healthy for there to be a range of something as it helps ensure survival of a species rather than relying on a monolithic genetic model that is at risk of a single critical flaw.
This isn't a new realization for the humanity, but I had never consciously recognized it in this explicit a perspective.
May 8th, 2026
Relational K Values for Elo Calculation
I woke up with a bit of an epiphany relating to the movie rating system I built. The biggest issue with the Elo system is how dynamic the top rankings are. So what I actually want is not an evenly fair system, I want favoritism for the top 50 ranking. So what I am doing is applying bands to the k-value based on the position of the higher ranked movie.
So a top 50 movie has a K value that is 25% of the total K value, which is used for a bottom ranked movie.
May 7th, 2026
Study: "ChatGPT as a cognitive crutch: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial on knowledge retention"
I was tempted to get ChatGPT to summarize this abstract... Instead I just bolded the second half which is the key takeaway from this study. Obviously, small sample size, etc. But noteworthy none-the-less.
The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence into higher education has outpaced empirical understanding of its effects on fundamental learning processes. To address this gap, this randomized controlled trial (n = 120) tested ChatGPT's impact on long-term knowledge retention in undergraduates learning AI. Participants were randomly assigned either to use ChatGPT as a study aid (AI-Assisted Group) or to use only traditional, non-AI study methods (traditional learning group). Knowledge retention was assessed with a surprise test 45 days after learning. Students who used ChatGPT scored significantly lower on the retention test (57.5 % correct) compared to those who studied traditionally (68.5 % correct), t (83) = −3.19, p = .002, Cohen's d = 0.68. This suggests that unrestricted ChatGPT use impaired long-term retention, likely by reducing the cognitive effort that supports durable memory. The findings align with cognitive offloading theory and the ‘desirable difficulties’ principle: while AI assistance may ease initial learning, it appears to undermine the effortful processes needed for robust learning. These results have important implications for how generative AI tools should be integrated into higher education.
