Bill Ray

Judge denies ex-judge’s bid to change name to ‘Judge’ A Ramsey County judge denied former Anoka County Judge John Dehen’s request to legally change his first name to “Judge,” calling the move misleading and made in bad faith.

Maybe Trump should just change his name to "President Trump", that way he could stay president forever without having to muck about with the US constitution.

www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...

Oh nooooo, Lindsey Halligan, this is not how any of this works

(15 screens into a Signal exchange) www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

From Google Translate this seems to be Satellites as a service, using modular hardware for sensing and communications. However, that requires that no-one wants to differentiate on orbiting hardware or orbits, which seems unlikely.

Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement tomorrow at 2?

The weird thing is that (in my limited experience) teenagers today aren't glued to their phones, it's their parents who are. Which makes this standard "back in my day" stuff, only with worse graphics.

Some really interesting analysis on how pervasive AI is getting (there's a less controversial example at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd69...).

"soon" is good, but "when" would be better - I've been waiting for this film for a very long time.

No one ever "leaves" El Reg, we just take a temporary leave of absence - it's like Hotel California in that way.

Welcome home.

A view from history on the future of American science:

American science is what ultimately won Sagdeev over to his new home ... He appreciated that scientists could move freely between institutions, and didn’t have to grovel before party leaders to get funding.

This is, legitimately, the best marketing I’ve ever seen. For anything. Ever.

The existing mode can be bypassed by swearing in your search terms. Anyone know if that's still going to work in "AI Mode"?

Looks like more than a quarter (26%) of the accounts on X discussing Scottish Independence were fake - created to politically destabilize the UK.

Scary stuff - details are at cyabra.com/.../the-bot-....

EXCLUSIVE 💥

Aneurin Barnard is #RogueTrooper in our exclusive first look at Duncan Jones’ upcoming sci-fi blockbuster, based on the titular 2000AD comics.

See more images from the movie here: www.empireonline.com/movies/news/...

You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who is coming to save you?

So arguably, at least in philosophy-related social media, 1 Bluesky follower is worth about 4 on Twitter.

Trump to launch branded crypto trading application New crypto trading and wallet application, created in partnership with Magic Eden, invites fans of President Trump to buy his memecoin

SCOOP: Trump to launch branded crypto wallet and trading application, encouraging his supporters to purchase his memecoin and other crypto assets.

www.citationneeded.news/trump-crypto...

Can I recommend reading "The Last Pink Bits", while there's still time... www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Pink-Bi...

In Taipei for #computex, speaking on Wednesday, if the heat and jetlag don't kill me first.

Three things we learned about Sam Altman by scoping his kitchen All Drizzle, no sizzle

This is marvelously snarky stuff from the FT by someone who knows a bit about Altman and a lot about olive oil.

Ray Harryhausen was wonderfully tolerant when I admitted I didn't know who he was, despite having just said how much I loved the Sinbad films.

Finally published "Humanoid Robots Are Overhyped and Overvalued", on how humanoids are mostly used to artificially inflate company share prices (something we can all appreciate right now).

Gartner customers can find it at www.gartner.com/document/634....

Virtual reality: The widely-quoted media experts who are not what they seem Press Gazette investigation into the widely-quoted national media experts who either do not exist, or whose credentials have not been checked.

An interesting study by the Press Gazette on the use of AI-generated comments. Journos really need to be sure of their sources.

Careless People #1 New York Times Bestseller“Careless People is darkly funny and genuinely shocking...Not only does [Sarah Wynn-Williams] have the storytelling chops to un...

Not normally big on book reviews, but I have to recommend "Careless People". It's the inside story of Facebook, and shows just how sociopathic (and misogynistic) a big tech company can be.

Scary stuff, but important: us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Most of these are too depressing, but this one made me laugh out loud.

Check out the Fairhair Alliance - Bluetooth united the tribes under Christianity, Harald Fairhair united Norway under a sword (and for the purposes of impressing a woman). Sadly, the Fairhair Alliance didn’t take off like Bluetooth (or Christianity) did: openconnectivity.org/developer/sp...

Begs the interesting question of who we might want to nuke?

The thing that everyone thinks is nuts, but I absolutely think would work: a presentation that looked like an Apple keynote product launch, but for all the cool shit that the government makes for people. Cancer treatments, national parks, space discoveries, free tax filing, cool new airports.

Elon Musk suggests we should look forward to a Mad Max future.

Everyone thinks they're going to be Mad Max. Most are just going to be Johnny the Boy at best.

KM3NeT xkcd.com/3053