Sven Dahlstrand

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:45:01 +0100

Shock! Shock! I learned yesterday that an open problem I’d been working on for several weeks had just been solved by Claude Opus 4.6 […] ! It seems that I’ll have to revise my opinions about “generative AI” one of these days. What a joy it is to learn not only that my conjecture has a nice solution but also to celebrate this dramatic advance in automatic deduction and creative problem solving.

What a joy, indeed. To be 88, like Don, and still have your mind changed. Still curious. Still surprised. Still learning.

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 10:48:13 +0100

Viktig samhällsinformation: snåla inte med isen i drinken. 🧊

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:22:32 +0100

I’ve seen the movie more than once, but this is my first time reading Carl Sagan’s Contact. 📚

For a million years humans had grown up with a personal daily knowledge of the vault of heaven. In the last few thousand years they began building and emigrating to the cities. In the last few decades, a major fraction of the human population has abandoned a rustic way of life. As technology developed and the cities were polluted, the nights became starless.

It makes me think of the cabin. How you can just step outside at night, tip your head back, and there they are.

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:08:48 +0100

I still write my own code, because I enjoy it.
I have never been a normal programmer, and maybe you aren't, either. So, let's just do things the way we want — the way we like.
😌

Robin Sloan Public service announcement

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 16:59:17 +0100

I enjoyed this conversation between Margaret Atwood and Katie Drummond. Here’s Margaret on large language models:

That is a subject about which I know very little, except that it’s a crap poet and a pretty bad imitator of me.

[…]

It’s like absolutely every other human tool that we have ever come up with, including fire and language. So it has good news, it has bad news. It’s got stupid consequences that nobody was thinking about and they’re all like that. Name one, and that is what you will see.

So true! She’s such a gem, sharp and funny.

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:49:21 +0100

We’re having ice cream for dessert this New Year’s Eve. Our very first attempt at a pistachio-flavored batch, so fingers crossed it doesn’t turn out terrible. 😋

I hope you (yes, you) are having a cozy end to the year. See you on the other side.

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 13:17:45 +0100

The spruce has moved in. 🎄

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 13:16:07 +0100

After breakfast (banana pancake) I took a short walk and lake Viken decided to show off. 🌫️

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 21:13:33 +0100

Hehe, love this. 😍 (via Chris)

Fake courtesy machine.

Stoccafisso design @stoccafissodesign2569

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 21:51:14 +0100

Here’s the music video for Robyn’s new single, Dopamine. I guess everything is 4:3 now? Dope track, though! 🎵

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 16:12:04 +0100

Lente has it figured out. More people should embrace enough, whatever that means for them right now. The Game She Wrote on a Boat Kept Her Afloat (via Lee):

As long as I have enough to just chill and do my own thing and not have to wake up in time to show up somewhere, I’m really, really happy.

I don’t know why, but I’ve got such a soft spot for people who code and create on boats. See also Rek and Devine also known as Hundred Rabbits.

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 22:02:43 +0100

Yeah, I know, I know… Find My is a thing. But that feels like cheating! Instead, I just fire up the camera remote on my watch and figure it out from there.

Of course, it was in the kitchen, on the counter, right where I’d already looked.

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 13:03:36 +0100

vlnn asks:

What are you reading this week? Also what were you reading? What are you planning to read next?

I’m currently juggling four books, which is about two more than my brain can actually handle, but it just kind of happened.

Solaris by Stanisław Lem
Forty-Four Esolangs by Daniel Temkin
Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

I just finished volume 6 of Hirayasumi by Keigo Shinzo. As for what’s next… I don’t know yet, maybe We Who Are About To… by Joanna Russ.

What are you reading this (or next) week? 📚

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 18:41:45 +0100

Neat concept, and a fitting choice of book to make the point. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 would’ve been another solid choice.

In connection with this year's Banned Books Week, with the theme "Censorship is so 1984", a special edition of George Orwell's classic 1984 is being released. The book is unreadable, bound on both sides, as a symbol of the growing censorship of books around the globe.

The Dawit Isaak Library The Bound Books Project

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 17:37:41 +0100

Had a lot of fun making this! Last time I made a zine was twenty… five? years ago, so yeah, I was rusty. And nervous as hell that I’d mess up the page order or end up with pages upside down or something. But it made it all the way to Canada! (Yay for snail mail.)

Sven sent me a zine letter after I sent him some of my zines, and I am in love with it. Look how prettyyyy it is. The pink paper and the red ribbon are so gorgeous. No one has ever made me a personal zine before, so this is very special to me. I shall cherish it foreverrrrrr.

véronique field notes and a beautiful zine letter

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 19:48:00 +0100

I’ve gathered the best URLs I found in the cozy, poetic corners of the web this summer. For you. Yes, you. 😊 Grab your favorite beverage, get comfy, and dive into my End-of-Summer Hyperlink Dump: Stones, Streams & Scarf Machines. 👀

End-of-Summer Hyperlink Dump: Stones, Streams & Scarf Machines

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:19:55 +0100

It’s September 4, and even though the sun is shining and it’s warm outside as I type this, you can feel summer’s on its way out in the northern hemisphere.

Remember my June experiment? Still going strong! No social timeline = less doomscrolling (not that it was a huuuuge problem for me, but still). Even with that going on, I’ve been hoarding links all summer from newsletters, my feed reader, and friends. Ready for a little hyperlink party? Let’s go!

Martin shows us how to store data on paper.

Stones, streams & toilets. Why do those feel like they belong together? Is it just me? My brain’s weird, right?

Can a composition be organized in space rather than time?

I love how this machine is knitting a super long scarf—powered by wind! “When it is windy the machine knits fast and with less wind the machine knits slowly.”

Starting in ‘95, girls and women were making movies and mailing VHS tapes to each other. Proto-TikTok?! The Joanie 4 Jackie archive is a treasure chest.

“The Anti-Subscription Catalogue unites 112 non-subscription, free, open-source, and one-time fee software in 16 categories." Bookmarked!

One Saturday in August, people all over the world gathered in parks (or indoors if it was raining) to write and celebrate HTML. If you missed this year’s HTML Day, go browse the site and hit up the event links. So much HTML energy. 🤤

Speaking of everyone’s favorite markup language, Our HTML Cookbook is the cutest little pamphlet to print and stash for HTML Day 2026.

Oh, by the way, you do not have to use generative ai “art” in your blogs because there are websites where you can get real, nice images for free.

Or maybe we skip images entirely? Here’s a directory of websites that mostly stick to text.

The hacker e-zine Phrack just turned 40. If you missed it back in the day (I was a baby), go read The Conscience of a Hacker from ‘86 and then follow it up with The Hacker’s Renaissance.

Not into hacking? How about the history of Mac settings, 1984–2004? You can actually click around and use the old interfaces!

The New York Times declared The Death of the Cyberflâneur back in 2012. I don’t think we ever really left, but the word sure did. I wouldn’t be too sad if it came back, though! Seeing the team at The Syllabus calling themselves cyberflâneurs warmed my heart.

Now… personal websites! These are some gems I found this summer:

I wish my site was in 3D like Elle’s. I wish it had shadows like Daniel’s. I wish I was half as stylish as Raymond. I wish my website had a custom Game Boy cursor, beautiful postcards from visitors, and an interactive background like Bekah’s, Robin’s, and Jenn’s.

The Tiny Awards 2025 winner drops soon. (I voted for Elle!) Go peek at tinyawards.net, hop on their mailing list, and check out past winners and finalists while you wait.

That’s all, folks! Twenty-four links collected by yours truly during the summer of 2025. Damn, I realize as I type this that it should have been 25 links. You know… for the rhyme? Let’s see…

One more: if you found any of this interesting, you’d probably enjoy my Hyperlink Hodgepodge. Fresh links every week!

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 20:20:15 +0100

Working on my website and bringing back some fun 90s features. My favorite? Background music (optional now!). 🥰 I’m building in the open, so if you don’t mind a few bugs or weird-looking pages, take a peek!

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 20:44:09 +0100

We’re getting new stamps here in Sweden featuring Benjamin Nørskov’s photos of kids with their EPA/A tractors (cars converted into slow tractors that teens are allowed to drive). Check out Cecilia’s absolute beast of a tractor (top left, high-res version here). 😮

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 22:10:42 +0100

So Ava just dropped an informative, well-researched zine about cookies, copyright, GDPR, and all that “fun” stuff for personal websites and blogs. Definitely worth a read! The behind the zine-s post is excellent, too.

I just know that there is often too much fear to even engage with possible legal obligations, and I wanted to take some of the insecurity and confusion out of it for people in the indie web.

Ava zine—personal websites and the law

Thanks, Ava!

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 09:51:40 +0100

Folkification is the antidote to enshittification.

Folkification (noun) A process in which a product, narrative, recipe, machine, or other object is made more accessible and less centralized.

Jake Fee jakefee.leaflet.pub

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 21:32:38 +0100

Back home again after a trip to Brösarp. We stayed at Talldungen, which is quite possibly the bestest hotel I know. This was our seventh visit, and I loved the cute desk (and the view!) in the room we got this time.

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 21:59:02 +0100

Went to a sing-along with Charli in Slottsskogen yesterday and it was the best!!! <3 🎵

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 19:08:46 +0100

Birthday party today. My niece and I lay on our backs in the grass, in the shadow of a tree. In a couple of years, she’ll be old enough to drive a moped. She already knows what she wants: a motocross.

— “What kind of moped did you drive back then?” she asks. “I bet it was a dorky one, like the one mom had.”
— “No, no, no,” I say. “Mine was amezeballs. Yamaha DT50MX. Look it up!”

She starts fidgeting with her phone, scrolling through photos. I lean over and point at the exact model I had. (via Semestergas)

Hey, that one actually looks kind of badass!

Approved cool. By a 13-year-old.

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 21:29:01 +0100

7 × albums on heavy rotation, in no special order, with links to sample tracks. 🎵

Equus Caballus by Men I Trust
Dream State by Kelly Lee Owens
Live a Little Die a Lot by Virgin Miri
SOPHIE by SOPHIE
Hornet Disaster by Weatherday
Sagte Forbi by Hvalfugl
Kristall by Axel Ruby