Canned Dragons

Strategems, gambits and wiles.

  • Tapes Of Yesteryear

    Niko Stratis writes about the comfort of physical media and older technology.

    Let us suffer no worries or troubles, we have salvation in our walkmen and their analogue batteries. Never mind the truth of these eras, the 90s and the days before and after are years often cast in imperfect light as moments in time when we were a proper society. That’s not true for all, and you only need to engage with the culture of the time with eyes open enough to see the hardships and downfalls for many. But still, I understand the desire to glamorize it, and hold the past as indelible proof of a better time.

    Pockets have gotten smaller, I’ve noticed, and I imagine that’s because of the shrinking of technology. We don’t have to carry Walkmans and CD Walkmans anymore, and so the pocket industrial complex has responded in kind. Who needs all this space when we no longer own anything we’re able to hold.

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  • I tend to avoid podcasts in the style of Joe Rogan, those that begin with a 15-minute long ad block selling mushroom supplements followed by hours of meandering conversation between two people who may or may not be under the influence. Who in the world has the time?

    Infinite Regress

  • The Intelligence Is Still Artificial

    The opinions on AI that you find on the internet tend to fall in the extremes of the other side. Either AI is the downfall of humanity or its savior. My thoughts on the subject, as on many others, ride in the middle of the road.

    In my professional life, AI has been a great equalizer. If you know the problems you are trying to solve, absent the knowledge of how to actually go about doing that, AI can be the bridge between concept and reality. It would take me many hours to probe the depths of the Azure cloud through labyrinthine Log Analytics workspaces to find the causes of a spike in ingestion costs. With the Azure MCP and Claude Cowork/Code, it’s done in minutes.

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  • Canvas Attack

    Matt Blaze

    Extremely glad I didn't have students submit their coursework via Canvas, or use it to manage grading, this semester.

    May 8, 2026, 2:23 am 6 boosts 38 favorites

    Hacktivism can sometimes be understandable. Yet it amazes me that some people would think that to attack school teachers and students is to live a meaningful and purposeful life.

  • A Show of Respect

    Whether marching for a Sikh holiday, visiting a Jewish children”s center or attending Divine Liturgy, I’ve never seen a politician put so much effort into respecting the faith traditions of others as Zohran Mamdani. New York is such a diverse city and you truly get the impression that the mayor sees the strength of this. In the words of one commenter, he really knows how to make people feel seen.

    Today marks 205 years of Greek independence. I was grateful to stand in solidarity with Greek Orthodox New Yorkers at the Divine Liturgy, commemorating this triumph of self-determination.

    — Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) 2026-04-26T22:24:58.761Z

    It’s exciting to keep up with what Mamdani is doing in New York. His agenda feels like a sea change in political priorities. I hope to see positive effects coming from the work his adminstraction is engaged in. 

  • The Perfect Indie Pop Song

    A few weeks ago, I saw Mark Robinson from Unrest/Air Miami/Flin Flon open for the Wedding Present at the Motorco Music Hall in Durham. Although the bill clearly stated that Robinson would be playing Unrest songs, imagining him doing those songs without the two other band members, Phil Krauth and Bridget Cross was challenging. Whatever images I could conjure didn’t match the actual show.

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  • Olly Thoughts

    Olly, the developer of the Pagecord blogging software, just published a post on something I was thinking about with regards to music. I’m not buying a lot of physical media these days, but when I do, it’s usually CDs. I just went to a new record store called Hunky Dory that just opened downtown near me, but they weren’t celebrating Record Store Day. I wasn’t sure about going because I didn’t think I would buy anything. So I can relate to Olly.

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  • You Could Do Anything

    Shelly Ridenour penned an article for Qobuz on the stellar alternative albums from 1991. One observation that I found particularly poignant from having grown up during this period was around the change that Nirvana’s Nevermind brought to mainstream music with regard to gender dynamics.

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    Fediverse reactions

  • The Collection

    Everyone has been posting about the Aadam Jacobs collection. Since I love indie music from the 90’s, I’m certainly going to spend some time with the massive 10,000 live recordings collection. I went to the page on the Internet Archive and one of the first recordings I saw was neo-classical band Rachel’s at Lounge Ax. I bought The Lounge Ax Defense and Relocation compilation created to save the venerable Chicago club when it released. I’ve spun that disc hundreds of times. The song Rachel’s contributed to the comp, “Those Pearls…,” is probably my favorite by the band.

    Immediate download. Let’s get this exploration started.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Portland Town

    One of my greatest joys in 2026 has been the release of new material by British riot twee band Heavenly. I’ll admit I approached the release of this year’s brilliantly named Highway to Heavenly LP with a certain amount of skepticism. After decades of radio silence, it’s hard to know what to expect from a long-time favorite and easy to be disappointed.

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