Pages Tagged “Imported Post”
Blog Posts
- Avatar and Manta’s Gift
This is kind of funny. When I watched the movie Avatar way back in 2009, I was struck by the similarity of the premise to Timothy Zahn’s 2002 novel Manta’s Gift: The main character, a human who’s suffered a severely disabling injury, is offered the chance to place his consciousness into an alien body and […]
- Marketing
In retrospect, it’s wild that so many tech people who were hyper-aware of the fact that Microsoft’s dominance in the 1990s and 2000s was due to more to marketing (“never underestimate Microsoft on marketing”) than technical merits…fell for the idea that a “marketplace of ideas” would coalesce around the best ideas, and not just the […]
- SubdoMailing
Interesting spam/phish technique: Look for subdomains with CNAMEs or SPF records that point to abandoned domains that you can then register…and effectively take control of the subdomain or SPF. They haven’t seen any cases where it’s been used to host a phishing site at, say, an msn.com subdomain, but they’ve seen thousands of cases where […]
- The Firehose and the Jetpack
I’ve been meaning to disconnect from Jetpack for a while now. This seems like a good time to do it, and to finally clear out the older Tumblr and WordPress.com blogs I don’t use anymore. Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools — 404 Media It’s the kind of thing that […]
- Not the Same
Option 1: will do some things you want, and some things you don’t. Option 2: won’t do anything you want, will do all the same things you don’t want that option 1 will do, has promised to do more things you don’t want, undo the things you wanted that have already happened, make it more […]
- Caught the Superb Owl
Props to Niantic for both the timing on the raid day and for letting the players connect the dots themselves.
- Not Cruel Enough
The “bipartisan” immigration bill currently in Congress is a right-winger’s dream, but since Trump wants to run on anti-immigration, the GOP is suddenly opposed to it, arguing that it’s not draconian enough. Nothing will ever be cruel enough for them, no matter how much Democrats do to appease them. Biden could do everything they asked […]
- Hammers and Kneecaps
It’s one thing to say “I make hammers, and can’t be responsible for the fact that some people use them to break people’s kneecaps.” It’s another thing to hand out free hammers to the kneecap-breakers, or pay them to use your hammers instead of someone else’s, or hire them as spokespeople, or use their testimonials […]
- They’re Made of Meth
You know the old joke about “drugs would be cheaper?” The Adderal shortage has gotten so bad that Mexican pharmacies are selling counterfeit pills to tourists…made of meth. (I should clarify that it’s the counterfeit pills, not the tourists that are made of meth.) — Update: Sadly, science fiction author Terry Bisson (who wrote “They’re […]
- Black Friday: Lesson Learned?
I usually make a point not to go shopping at all on Black Friday if I can help it. The kid really wanted to go to Micro Center. Now, after waiting in a line that went all the way round the store, he understands why I don’t go shopping on Black Friday.
- Last Tweets Standing
Popped over to Twitter to delete the last handful of posts I left there when I deleted most of them back in December. Decided to leave two for now, though I might still delete them before the new TOS takes effect. Oct 2008: If only the super high-tech jet fighters had identified, clarified & classified, […]
- Subdomains vs Subdirectories, IndieWeb and Identity
In response to girrodocus’s question: #PersonalWebsite creators… what’s your rationale for deciding when to use a subdomain or a subdirectory? I usually prefer to put sections in subdirectories. That makes it possible to make the entire site portable (depending on authoring tools, anyway). Ideally, I want something that could be zipped up and moved. Or […]
- Eye See You
Spotted on a sidewalk in Santa Monica.
- Impact Contrast (meteor impacts, that is)
One of the things I find fascinating about the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk impacts is that in one case it took decades of scientific research and multiple theories to settle on what probably caused it, while in the other we have video footage and the actual meteorite. But there were eyewitnesses to Tunguska despite its remoteness, […]
- Well is it a problem or not?
Love how the same people who are all “COVID isn’t a problem” are also dead set on keeping certain people out of the country just in case they might bring COVID in. No wonder they distrust actual public health measures and think the government is just using COVID as an excuse for…something. Because that’s what […]
- Venting on Metadata Schemes
For human-readable HTML, I can write: <a href=”https://example.com”>Lois Lane</a> For machine-readable HTML: <a rel=”author” href=”https://example.com”>Lois Lane</a> For IndieWeb microformats: <a class=”p-author h-card” href=”https://example.com”>Lois Lane</a> But for inline Schema.org I have to write: <span property=”author” typeof=”person”><a property=”url” href=”https://example.com”><span property=”name”>Lois Lane</span></a> I’ve been grumbling about all the redundancy in putting multiple sets of metadata on a page: […]
- Been Waiting a While?
Saw this while out walking this morning. I guess holiday decorations can last as long as you want them to!
- Overstuffed Websites
I’m not ready to give up on the flexibility of WordPress for my main blog yet, but holy crap are these pages heavy. Even with compression. There’s no reason it should take 450K (before compression) and 20 requests to display a 500-word post. And I don’t even do ads, popups, social sharing buttons or anything […]
- Oh, Hi There!
Saw this while walking around the neighborhood the other day.
- Meloetta is Ready for Rehearsal
All set!
- Reflections of Manhattan Village
An outdoor mall extension completed in 2020. Which wasn’t exactly ideal timing. The courtyard was at least someplace they could set up chairs and signs reminding you to keep your distance. I saw a few people walking through on their way to somewhere else (like I was), and could hear an exercise class running in […]
- 2020: Overachiever (The Monoliths)
November 23: Helicopter pilot finds “strange” monolith in remote part of Utah. November 25: Using Google Earth to look for the Utah monolith site. One candidate that matches the landscape seems to have something vertical that appeared between the 2015 and 2016 images. No coordinates in the article. Attempt no landings there. December 7: After […]
- Patch the Electoral System
Whatever you think of the electoral system, the fact that we have to wait for people to copy down those electoral votes is no longer helpful, and the fact that they can choose (or be pressured) to vote for someone else is a vulnerability in our democracy that should be patched. You want to keep […]
- “Tyranny”
Seems like the only reason certain groups aren’t complaining loudly about the “tyranny” of traffic signals and refusing to obey out of “fear” is that the consequences of running every red light you see hit you faster than the consequences of not taking precautions against covid.
- Be sure to wear a face covering when out in public
- Devovid
Bizarre story (how could it not be?) in the LA Times on Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh’s experience with Covid-19 and the delusions he experienced at the height of the illness during two weeks in the ICU. Among other things, he became convinced he’d written an entire new Devo album and hallucinated the band performing it […]
- Mount Doomscrolling
The way the Palantir network compromises Saruman and Denethor shows the danger in who controls the algorithm that manages your newsfeed.
- Summer Survival Rate Up
Infections are still high, but the LA/CA case-fatality rate has dropped since spring. Partly we’re spotting more of the mild cases, and younger people are a bigger percentage of cases now. But also we’ve learned more about how to treat it: dexamethasone for patients on oxygen remdesivir shortens recovery time nasal oxygen turns out to […]
- Hypothetical Jack-Boots
As usual, the people who yell the loudest about hypothetical jack-booted government thugs are perfectly happy with actual jack-booted government thugs as long as they’re aimed at someone else. Note also that the small-government, local-is-always-better anti-Fed/states’ rights crowd is totally happy with the feds overriding the state and city government in Portland, even while they […]
- The Masked Guitarist
- Cocktails to Go 😵
Still not used to that being a thing.
- How to Order Coffee During a Pandemic
Hmm, hope they didn’t leave anything out!
- Social Distancing Piplup
Sorry, there’s no exception in the rules for Pokemon.
- Wishful Thinking
Some wishful thinking on the part of auto-complete, here.
- Covid Garden
Finally made it out to the botanical gardens up in the hills for a hike. They’ve actually stayed open this whole time by requiring reservations to limit the number of people on the grounds at a time. (Also face masks, distancing, and closing off benches and some sections.) Ironically there were more people there than […]
- Objection!
Went out for a walk. Group of jerkwads in a pickup covered in conspiracy slogans about Bill Gates, beaches, and Wal-Mart were driving around shouting about not believing stuff and “freedom.” First time we got stuck at the same light, I studiously ignored their attempts to get my attention. (I was the only one at […]
- Almost Got It
The kid has been watching a zillion teardown/repair/dismantling videos of various devices on YouTube, and wants to learn to repair phones. So I took the old phones and tablet that I’d set aside for e-waste collection, and the tools I used to do battery replacements on a couple of devices a while back, and let […]
- The Last Normal Weekend
I found myself thinking back to the last “normal” weekend in southern California before it became clear that covid-19 was spreading locally and closures started. After a busy Saturday and Sunday morning, I went out for a calming photo walk at the beach. Not many people were there. I’m not sure if it was just […]
- That’s What They Want You To Think
I know there’s essentially zero chance that the audio stream from my phone playing the Cracked podcast on ridiculous psy-ops that governments have actually considered will get picked up by my kid’s video-conference class session on another device. Even if Zoom is listening for more traffic than it should, there’s HTTPS, WPA2, etc. I’d have […]
- Fitbit vs. Coronavirus?
I was thinking about how my step count is waaaaay down just from staying home, but I’m still wearing the tracker for heart rate. So I wondered what else it might be able to infer and went looking… It turns out some newer fitness trackers can measure oxygen saturation. Imagine hooking that up to an […]
- Poor Substitute
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to find isopropyl alcohol in stock, but the “related” results are…questionable.
- Lack of Audience
Back in my college theater days, I remember one of the teachers remarking that what sets theater apart from other types of events is the audience. A sporting event with no one watching still counts for the rankings and records. A play without an audience might as well be a dress rehearsal. Well, sporting events […]
- Fragments of a sun halo and a couple of contrails
Looks like the usual 22-degree circular halo.
- Coronawhere?
A lot of the maps I see showing coronavirus cases, even from sources like the CDC, have a problem: They’re labeled by country, or by state. It’s too big to be useful. Labeling the number of cases reported in the US doesn’t tell you that they’re mostly in clusters in Washington and California. Labeling the […]
- Bluebird Valentine
I spotted a western bluebird on Valentine’s Day morning. Seems appropriate. (Spotted in a tree at a city park. As I was trying to aim my camera, it flew down and landed on top of a birdhouse nearby, making it easier to see.) Update: This was the last photo I posted to Instagram before I […]
- Glass Sundog
A bright sundog next to a glass-sided building. The sun is off to the left out of frame. The sundog had a bit more color and more of the spectrum in it as seen through my polarized sunglasses, so I kind of wish I’d taken a shot through one of the lenses, but at least […]
- Halo and a Dark Cloud
A 22° sun halo.
- Ghost Pokéstops
I need to start collecting screenshots of ghost Pokéstops in Pokémon Go. Not ghost-type nests, but the stops that highlight something that isn’t there anymore. In my area there are several murals that have been painted over, fountains that have been converted to planters, a park pond that’s become a splash pad, a sculpture in […]
- I Guess
I’ve got to appreciate this network error UI from Minecraft Earth. Especially the button text.
- Um, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind…
- Ten Shots
Off-duty cop fires ten shots at an unarmed intellectually disabled man and his family from twenty feet away, killing him and critically wounding his parents, because he pushed him in a Costco food line 3.8 seconds earlier. No charges filed, because he had “no choice.” 10 shots at 3 unarmed people. 20 feet away. In […]
- That’s Not Federalism
So, does denying California the ability to set its own environmental standards fall under “states’ rights” or federalism? And is it pro-business to tell automakers that they’re not allowed to make deals with the state? Your daily reminder that the GOP only cares about states rights when the states are trying to interfere with people’s […]
- Talk About an Understatement!
Several local cities will send out SMS notices for emergencies and “avoid this area due to collision/police activity/etc.” All weekend they kept sending reports about an intersection being closed due to a “traffic collision” Saturday morning. One alert mentioned a vehicle had crashed into a building. What all of the alerts failed to mention, and […]
- Doom and Gloom are Not Enough
Doom and gloom alone aren’t enough to help us deal with climate change, or any of the other problems we face. Fear sustained turns to despair, and to inaction – because why bother? We have to celebrate successes to keep hope alive so we can keep going. We do need to know what we’re up […]
- Trees vs. Heat
Just walking around the neighborhood near work there’s a huge difference in temperature depending on: How many shade trees? (Palms don’t help) How much space between the sidewalk and buildings? (This affects both airflow and reflected sunlight.) Is that space paved or plants? Within the same block it can be… Comfortable along a stretch with […]
- Art or Eyesore?
A few miles from Hearst Castle, a trash collector spent fifty years cobbling together his house out of junk and found objects. As Cambria became more trendy in the 1970s, neighbors wanted him to tear down the multi-level “eyesore,” while others saw “Nitt Witt Ridge” as a folk art monument. It’s still there, and still […]
- Rational?
“I’m rational, unlike you, and if you look at this supposed problem rationally, you’ll understand that it can’t possibly be real because I politically disapprove of some of the proposed solutions.” — Just about every conservative comment on climate change I’ve seen on Quora.
- Disco Mickey
Found this yesterday at a used book/media store. I think I may have heard it back in the day, though the only thing that comes to mind is “Macho Duck.” No, I didn’t buy it.
- Random Thoughts on Self-Hosting
I’ve been thinking about what it means to self-host a service, and that there are degrees even within that. I have a self-hosted WordPress blog in the sense that I manage an installation of WordPress, but I run it on a VPS at a web host. It’s not as self-hosted as someone running a server […]
- Taking the Safety Off
Purism’s explanations for removing various safety features from Librem One’s social network sound like someone explaining why they removed the mirrors, brakes, horns, seat belts, airbags and signals from the cars they’re reselling, because they know those cars are only ever going to be driven on a track where they’ll never have to change lanes […]
- Minimum Viable Blog?
What’s the minimum viable blog feature set these days? Rich text posts (output; the source can be anything) Titles Permalinks Tags/categories Navigation RSS feed Images hosted locally Media embed (remote or local?) Author info for multi-author blogs I won’t back down on RSS/Atom, because there’s SO MUCH you and subscribers can do with it. I […]
- Somebody Else’s Problem
Guys, “Check your privilege” isn’t a moral judgment against you, it’s a reminder that we all have blind spots. The human brain is very good at downplaying or dismissing problems that we don’t see much ourselves to focus more energy on those that we do. It’s the same psychology that makes Douglas Adams’ “Somebody Else’s […]
- Boom Today
Downloaded MCEdit so the 8YO can edit Minecraft worlds. He used it to fill ten entire chunks with TNT…then lit one of the edges. The chain reaction has been going for at least ten minutes, punctuated by periods of major lag.
- Earthquake Warning System: Now in Los Angeles!
Because seismic waves are slower than internet signals, it’s possible to send an alert after an earthquake starts, but before the shaking reaches you. A few seconds’ warning is enough to pull over to the side of the road, climb down from a ladder, step away from a high shelf or window, put down a […]
- Individuals or Groups?
I often see conservatives say that they see individuals where liberals see groups. But it doesn’t track. Conservatives are regularly willing to exclude whole groups of people, then allow exceptions. On the same issues, liberals often allow groups, then exclude individuals. Put another way, liberals want to ensure everyone eligible is allowed access, and conservatives […]
- Facebook-Forced “Business Pages”
Anyone familiar with what Facebook Pages considers to be a “business?” Facebook decided to group my “business pages” (two blogs, neither of which is a business, one of which I had already marked for deletion a few days ago) into a “business account.” I thought maybe they’d flattened their definitions, but another page (for a […]
- Bringing Back the Old Camera
A couple of weeks ago, the almost-8YO found my old manual SLR camera – the 1967 model my grandfather gave me. I bought some film, and picked up a light meter app while waiting for the battery to arrive (the light meter is the only powered part of the camera), and I showed him how […]
- A Dynamite Approach
Working through a book on modding Minecraft with the kiddo. It knows its target audience: the first few lessons are all about explosions! It’s written for 1.8, which is a problem because a lot of the structure has changed between then and 1.12, but a decent IDE with auto complete and a sense of common […]
- Possibly Out-There Federation Idea
Now that Pixelfed federation and Pterotype are taking shape, I can hook up my photos and blogging directly into Mastodon and the Fediverse, but you know what would be even cooler? Connecting them to each other. A lot of my blog ideas grow out of photos or statuses that I’ve posted previously, as I find […]
- Who am I blogging for?
Why am I blogging these days? Who is my target audience?
- Catching up on photos
Somehow this year has just gotten away from me as far as posting general photos. Oh, I made sure to post albums from events like comic conventions and hiking trips. But the random one-offs and two-fers? I’ve been tossing them up on Instagram, Pixelfed, and/or Mastodon, but I haven’t been maintaining my Flickr gallery. Part […]
- Considering a month of daily blogging
I don’t have the time or ideas for Nanowrimo this year. It’s actually been a decade since I last did it, now that I think about it. But I’ve done NaBloPoMo a few times, and I think I can manage a month of posting one blog entry a day. Plus it’ll be a good way […]
- Location-Themed Advertising
A few blocks from the airport. I have no interest in the movie, but I do appreciate when advertisers make an effort to make use of a location instead of just being generic.
- Up Late…
But I got the new printer set up on just about everything, and I bought and downloaded the latest Humble Bundle full of Java reference books, and I fixed the .htaccess on this site to force access over HTTPS. Regarding the printer: When CUPS works, it’s more or less automatic, and stays out of the […]
- Modular Sidewalk
All tiles are modular (like WordPress’ new editor). Some go a bit further, like these tiles on a sidewalk corner that look like LEGO bricks.
- Overloaded
Someone was trying to move boulders on wooden pallets for landscaping, and they seem to have been a bit much for the pallets to handle…
- When Local Rules Aren’t Enough
The other day I saw an argument that things like environmental regulations should be done locally, because if we don’t rely on the federal government, a change in administration can’t just roll back protections. Ignoring the fact that pollution doesn’t stop at the city, state or national border, I can’t help thinking of crap like […]
- California Earthquake Alerts “Falling Into Place”
KQED reports: Pieces Finally Falling Into Place for Earthquake Warnings in California We still can’t predict them, but data is faster than seismic waves, so we can give people away from the epicenter a few seconds of warning. That’s enough to pull your car over, put down a scalpel, climb down from a ladder, get […]
- R2-D2 is looking extra boxy
Not quite Minecraft IRL
- Need to Find a Safe Point
Interesting vocab mixup with the 7YO last night: He agreed to stop a game at “the first save point” and get ready for bed. When he didn’t, he said he hadn’t gotten to a “safe point” yet. It turned out he didn’t understand what a save point was, because all the games he’s played up […]
- What I Miss About CDs
You know what I miss about CDs and other physical music media? Liner notes. Art, lyrics, sometimes stories… …and credits. Who is that familiar-sounding background singer? Who wrote the song? Is it a cover? This one really reminds me of a certain composer, lyricist, or arranger’s style – can I confirm that? The performer and […]
- Bird, Bird, Bird
They were everywhere. But at least most of them were out of the way.
- To the Limit
Kiddo’s been wanting to learn programming, with the ultimate goal of modding Minecraft. We’ve done some Ruby, but he’s impatient, so last night I we started Java with a simple program that repeats a println X times. He wanted to pass it the integer limit. After a few minutes, I suggested we watch a movie […]
- Finally starting to miss SDCC
I’m half-following the build up to San Diego Comic-Con. I haven’t been there since 2014, though I’ve been to WonderCon and Long Beach every year. The first year I couldn’t get tickets I shrugged. It’s exhausting, and there are other cons. I didn’t even try this year or last. But now I find I’ve started […]
- Dementors on the Train
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, when the Dementors search the Hogwarts Express, Professor Lupin derisively says that none of them in the compartment are hiding Sirius Black in their robes. But Ron has Scabbers in his robes, not knowing his “pet rat” is the actual murderer who committed the crime Black was […]
- The Wrong Shop
You needed to fix your car. You could have gone to the established shop, but the new guy told you they were crooked. You went with the new guy. Now he’s stripping your car, telling you he’s doing a great job & complaining about the cops investigating a stolen car parts ring.
- Are you SURE You’re Registered?
A family member was incorrectly removed from the voting rolls. She hasn’t moved in about 7 years, hasn’t done anything to lose eligibility, and has been active in every election during that time. Even the local ones. She cast a provisional ballot and is trying to sort out what the hell happened to her registration. […]
- Mobile Minecraft
The first time I played mobile Minecraft, I ended up stuck in a tree all night, trying not to move so the skeletons wouldn’t shoot me down. Every time I ventured down to try to finish my shelter, I got killed and re spawned in that tree, so I finally just set the phone down […]
- Minecraft’s Hierarchy of Needs
Minecraft’s hierarchy of needs: Tools Shelter Light Food Once all those are taken care of, you can start exploring and building.
- Plastic Guilt
I hate when any organization preemptively sends a membership card in the mail hoping to guilt you into joining. But an environmental group? On plastic? Not. Cool.
- It’s ALL the off-topic boards now.
Remember when we’d talk on topic-focused message boards? Flame wars got heated, but rarely spilled over. If you dared, you could also visit the off-topic boards, at the risk of seeing people at their worst. Social media dispenses with topics. It’s all the off-topic boards now.
- Personas and Facets of Online Identity
Back in the day, @SpeedForceOrg was my comics fan persona on Twitter, as well as the newsfeed for the Flash blog. As more people joined me there, that seemed less appropriate and it became just the newsfeed/editorial voice. I find myself replying with my main account account to people I follow on the other. Which […]
- That’s Not Your Conscience
If your conscience is telling you to refuse someone medical care because you think they’re icky, maybe it’s not your conscience that you’re listening to.
- Some dudes just really like potatoes, you know?
Some dudes just really like potatoes, you know?
- Free Brick!
- Gondor Calls For Aid!
Actually it’s just the last light of the setting sun reflecting off of a structure (the observatory?) atop Mt. Wilson. Also, you can see the sign on the Wilshire Grand tower is seriously bright, even from this far away.
- New paint: They made this pattern look *interesting*!
They’re in the process of adding another building to this office complex in Torrance. Meanwhile, they’ve cleaned up the existing buildings a bit, replacing the traditional stripe pattern of windows and narrow strips of wall with this broken-line pattern that actually looks interesting. Originally posted on Instagram. When I imported it here, I decided to […]
- The Color out of Cyberspace
The Verge ponders: Has the internet been overtaken by the eldritch horror of Yog-Sothoth? We’ve got this dimension right next to ours, that extends across the entire planet, and it is just brimming with nightmares. We have spambots, viruses, ransomware, this endless legion of malevolent entities that are blindly probing us for weaknesses, seeking only […]
- What Religious Freedom Isn’t
One more time, religious freedom means you get to practice your religion, not force other people to follow yours. This isn’t complicated. Imagine for a moment that [insert religion you don’t like] lobbies the government to force you to follow their rules on behavior, dress, etc. You see where this is going, right? Because you […]
- Bedtime Stories
Wow, bedtime stories have really changed in the last couple of years.
- Nether Mined
Kiddo talked me into Minecraft. Today we made obsidian from a pool of lava, and gathered enough to make a Nether portal. We got back from the Nether OK, but it sent us to a new portal hundreds of blocks away, in an unexplored cavern…under the ocean. We spent all afternoon tunneling up (slowly) and […]
- Latte Art in the Sky
A hole-punch cloud, also known as a fall-streak hole, seen from Redondo Beach, looking toward LAX airport. These form when an airplane passes through a thin cloud layer, disrupting the cloud.
- Rogue One (Star Wars) and Imperial IT (SPOILERS!)
Spoilery thoughts on Star Wars’ IT practices and where the Rogue One characters actually find the Death Star plans.
- Still amused whenever I pull Order 66
- Wyland Mural: Sharks and Orcas
At the Long Beach Convention Center
- Talk Less. Smile More.
Such Gentlemen!
- Teal Pumpkins Go Retail
Cool: Michael’s is selling plastic teal pumpkins for people who plan on offering non-food treats for allergic trick or treaters as part of the Teal Pumpkin Project. You can still paint a pumpkin teal, of course, but this simplifies the setup. (Are we really that close to Halloween already?)
- Sun Halos: Always Look Up
Have you ever seen a ring around the sun? Or a pair of bright spots flanking it? Or a rainbow-colored cloud? Just as sunlight reflecting and refracting inside raindrops can create a rainbow, sunlight reflecting off of ice crystals can form fascinating and beautiful halos. It doesn’t even have to be cold at ground level: […]
- The office snack tray. Or as I call it, the minefield.
Sure, there are a few things that don’t have peanuts in them (or at least aren’t supposed to). And there are potato chips too. I’ve taken to bringing my own string cheese and keeping it in the fridge. It’s one way to be sure there’s something I can eat safely.
- Halo and Hawthorn
I think the tree is an Indian Hawthorn. It’s got the same leaves, bark and flowers as the bushes that are all over the place in this area, and Wikipedia says they can be pruned into trees.
- Take One
I can imagine: “No one will miss it if we just take one.”
- Allocating Smiles
Dina from this Dumbing of Age comic. Originally posted on Tumblr.
- Locked Out at the Boundary
Behind this gate, a path leads up a narrow access way to a railroad bridge. Clearly people do get in there from time to time based on the trash – or maybe they just throw it over the fence from the sidewalk. Once I saw two people up on the bridge doing a photo shoot. They […]
- Battery Life: 1½ Days Doesn’t Matter
Interesting point on phone battery life in Wired’s article on the Google Nexus line: One and a half days doesn’t matter….In the morning you want your battery to look 100 percent when you leave for the day. So either somebody solves it for a week battery, or you have to give reliably one solid day […]
- Still Dangerous
I’m not sure this fence is entirely stable. Update: Here’s another section of the fence that I don’t think I’d want to lean on! Photo album on Flickr: Del Cerro Views Originally posted on Instagram
- Top of the Hill
Del Cerro Park, at the top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, on a super windy evening. I saw two tumbleweeds roll by, and kept worrying I’d drop my phone while taking pictures. I need to get out here (and other scenic spots) more often. Even though it’s not that far (one of the great things […]
- A Confluence of Intelli-Jet-for-Brains
I’m programming with IntelliJ by JetBrains. J. just launched a game by IntelliJoy. Katie is reading an article on BrainJet about Meyers-Briggs personality types, and has just gotten to INTJ. Yes, all at once.
- Starbucks Meta Art
A bit meta, since both the art and the logo depict a two tailed mermaid with a crown, and the two circular light sources in the piece resemble the circular light in the room and the logo itself.
- Fallen Tree
A tree in a city park, knocked down during a heavy storm. What struck me most about the view from this side was the patch of sod hanging off of the exposed roots. You can see where the first tree knocked over another tree. Yes, one tree fell on another and knocked it down too. […]
- Ring around the Target
Ring around the Target. I found the perfect spot to block the sun and view this ice #halo.
- Contrast: Whales at the Power Plant
Yes, that’s a Wyland whale mural on the side of a power plant. This plant in Redondo Beach, California is set to be decommissioned when new environmental protections go into effect, and the city and plant owner have been debating* the future of the site. *To put it mildly! Originally posted on Instagram with a […]
- Open Space. Good!
Final pieces of Irvine Ranch complete ‘open-space puzzle’ in O.C. – LA Times This spot in eastern Orange is now part of a proposed 2,500-acre gift from the Irvine Co. to Orange County — 1,400 acres here and an additional 1,100 in Anaheim Hills. Well, good. I’ve lamented the loss of both open space and […]
- Purple Sunset
A magenta sunset in the distance, below the cloud cover, reflected in a bike path wet from a rare summer storm. (Update: I located the original photo on my hard drive and replaced the square Instagram crop with the full version, which I also uploaded to Flickr.)
- Empire Strikes Back (Hoth) Leia Hairstyle
Katie decided to go with an Empire Strikes Back Leia hairstyle this year.
- Wait, FOUR flavors? Shouldn’t that be a Chocolate Quadrilemma?
Chocolate Dilemma cheesecake?
- Kale soda. Now they’ve gone too far.
- SDCC Lottery: The Least-Bad Option?
SDCC is moving to lottery-based pre-registration for 2014 to even out the crush of everyone hitting the site in the first 10 seconds after launch. Instead of first-come first-serve, you sign in anytime within a window and it randomly assigns your place in line. Looking back, the turning point for crowds and being able to […]
- Lamppost Forest
Urban Light at LACMA is a large square filled with over 200 lamp posts that the artist collected from various locations over several years, spaced wide enough to walk through comfortably. It’s like being in a forest of lamp posts — perfect for this week’s challenge. The funny thing is, I wasn’t even planning on […]
- It’s a Big Rock
They don’t have a rock this big.
- I Gave the New 52 a Try
But over the past two years I’ve dropped half the series I was collecting, and the others (the ones I liked) have been canceled. I’m down to one DCU series. (Again) The New 52 DC universe no longer feels like the same DC universe I used to follow. The tone is off (though to be […]
- Layers by the Sea
The Palos Verdes peninsula sits at the southwest corner of Los Angeles. Parts of it are built up in old, grid-style suburbs. Other parts are of the more modern, winding type. And still other parts remain open space, due in part to the unstable geology of the area. Parts of Portuguese Bend are sliding toward […]
- I Dream of Holiday Creep
Christmas decorations already up and it’s not even Halloween. How about letting holidays actually, y’know, HAPPEN before moving onto N+2 (what happened to Thanksgiving, anyway?)
- That’s It!
Overheard on the playground: — Well I’m going to go on the internet! — Well, I’M going to go on the internet and READ A BOOK!
- Wrong Number (Email Edition)
Have you ever abandoned an email address? Did you make sure everyone switched to your new one? If your old provider has reissued the address to someone new, your old contacts could still be sending mail to someone else with your personal information. This shouldn’t be a surprise, but InformationWeek reports that Yahoo! users who’ve […]
- Lessons From a Teen Food Allergy Tragedy
Allergic Living has advice on how to respond to a severe allergic reaction, particularly when to administer epinephrine and seek emergency medical treatment. At first she didn’t show any symptoms and her mother gave her a dose of antihistamine; but in 20 minutes the systemic reaction began. Her father, a physician, gave her three doses […]
- Tilted Ocean and Sideways City
Tilted ocean, and a little more city in the in this alternate entry. Originally posted on Instagram as part of the #WHPSidewaysCity photo challenge. The theme: tilt the image so that the horizontal aligns with a diagonal.
- The Self as a Touchscreen
Interesting idea: The Human Body as Touchscreen Replacement. The downside to using a touchscreen over something with physical controls is that you lose that instant feedback of where the buttons are. (Skip a song on an old-school iPod while driving? Easy. Do the same on a touchscreen? That’s trickier.) Your own location sense plus knowing […]
- Death Star Window
Partway down the central escalator at the San Diego Convention center, you can look down the long cylindrical skylight that makes up the roof of the lobby, rings forming the appearance of concentric circles. Years ago, a friend of mine referred to it as the Death Star Cannon shot, and it’s a popular one to […]
- Safety Record
I want to know who broke that streak.
- The strict shuttle arrives exactly every 17.5 minutes
The strict shuttle arrives exactly every 17.5 minutes.
- Curves of Morro Bay
Morro Bay lies along the central California Coast near San Luis Obispo, and is known for two major landmarks: Morro Rock, a large volcanic dome right near the shoreline, and a power plant with three very tall smokestacks. Some miles north, Highway 46 cuts through the coastal mountains from Cambria to Paso Robles, revealing cattle […]
- Crisis of the New 52
I think my biggest disappointment with the New 52 is that they didn’t go far enough. They had a chance to completely reinvent the DC Universe to an extent that we haven’t seen since the dawn of the Silver Age. Instead, we have the same basic characters: Superman is still Clark Kent, Batman is still […]
- To the Lighthouse
Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro, California, at the southern tip of Los Angeles. The Victorian lighthouse is surrounded by a city park, and the park is lined with a walkway along the top of the cliffs by the sea. Off to one end is the infamous sunken city, a suburban development that was abandoned […]
- The Mutant Three-Eyed Fish of San Pedro
On the side of the road between Angel’s Gate Park and Point Fermin Park. A little ways downhill there was a one-eyed octopus.
- Party like it’s 1977…
Believe it or not, the record player is new. It turns out there’s a whole subset of the toy market for retro toys. It’s a bit different under the hood – I’ve had to fix it once already, and it’s actually chip-driven, not classic music box works. I figure it’s probably cheaper these days to […]
- May the Fourth Be With You
- No More Origin Stories
It’s bothered me for a long time that movie studios seem to think the only story worth telling about a superhero is the origin. You get a trilogy if you’re lucky, then back to another origin take. It would be like only ever running the pilot of every TV show even though they’re designed to […]
- Overloaded Cell Network? Send a Text
BoingBoing explains why SMS messages are more likely to get through than phone calls or mobile data during a large emergency. (Short version: They’re async, so the phone or tower can retry later, and they’re momentary, so they don’t tie up a channel like a call would.) The article doesn’t bring it up, but I’d […]
- Megacommuters
I did this for a few months. I had a 40-mile commute that typically took 90-100 minutes outbound and 2 hours back. It wasn’t so bad on the days when I could catch the train halfway there, but usually the lot was full by the time I arrived. It was horrible, and I moved. Megacommuters: […]
- Trapped!
I love the expression on this warning sign on a laundromat washing machine.
- Easter Already?
Just a few days after Valentine’s, even the Easter Bunny is disgusted at how early the decorations and store products go up. (What happened to St. Patrick’s Day, anyway?)
- Earthquake Alerts
Interesting idea: We can’t predict earthquakes, but we can broadcast alerts faster than the shaking travels, giving people a few seconds to prepare. (Save your work, climb down off a ladder, etc.) Quake experts call for an advance-warning system for California (Originally posted on Google+)
- Star Wars Director – A Close Second
I was kind of hoping Disney would pick Joss Whedon to direct the next Star Wars movie just to watch fans’ heads explode. But going with the guy who rebooted Star Trek? That’s what I call a close second. J.J. Abrams Will Reportedly Direct the Next Star Wars Movie Originally posted on Google+
- The Saga and the Franchise
I suppose it’s silly, but after thinking about it for a bit, what really bothers me about the Lucasfilm/Disney deal is that by continuing the movie series with Episodes 7-9, they are undermining the distinction between the Star Wars saga and the Star Wars franchise. Originally posted on Facebook
- Slight problem with the ice cube tray
Um…oops!
- Facebook Sync Messes Up Users’ Address Books
Fury after Facebook messes up smartphone users’ address books: Remember how Facebook sneakily changed your default email address to @facebook.com? … Some smartphone users…are reporting that their on-phone address books have been silently updated to make @facebook.com email addresses the default way to send a message to their contacts.Graham Cluley at Sophos The lesson: Whenever […]
- Everything Clear?
I think someone’s confused about the concept of step-by-step directions. (Not to mention the definition of “above.”) (Originally posted on Facebook and Google+)
- If you wish, charts and diagrams will be provided to show you precisely how wonderful your blog is to me
So I’ve been getting generic comment spams on Speed Force today, the kind that look like someone took a bunch of compliments and a thesaurus and stuck them in a salad shooter. I started reading. I started reading this one aloud: Thank you a lot for providing individuals with remarkably pleasant chance to discover important secrets from […]
- Not Sure About a Laptop Phone Dock
Techcitement writes: The Universal Lapdock Is Coming: Enter the ClamBook, the first Android-compatible product by iPad keyboard-case maker ClamCase. Using a single MHL cable…the ClamBook provides an Android-laptop experience delivered by your phone. The problem I have with this idea is that it’s essentially a second device, but one that can’t be used without the […]
- I have cobbled together a pinhole camera
I have cobbled together a pinhole camera out of two Amazon.com boxes (one at first, but the image was too small), a piece of paper, a piece of foil, and a lot of packing tape. The test run looks good: The image isn’t that big, maybe 3/8 of an inch, but I was able to […]
- File Transfer
I just spent too long troubleshooting a failed file transfer by email. Appropriately enough, it turns out this cartoon is the top search result for “file transfer.”
- Glow
It’s true. I’ve been staring at two large glowing rectangles for 8 hours now, taking occasional breaks to stare at a smaller glowing rectangle (as I did on my lunch break), and will probably spend some time staring at one of several glowing rectangles during my evening at home. It really sounds pathetic when you […]
- Is This Thing On?
A series of spam subjects in my junk folder, sorted alphabetically. I can’t help but read them as someone repeatedly trying to get my attention, getting more frantic and frustrated as time goes by. how are you doing? how are you getting on? How Are You Getting Along? How are you, HOW ARE YOU. How […]
- Bored?
I’ve got a handheld connection to a worldwide network of information, communication and entertainment, and the signal’s solid. If I’m bored waiting in line, it’s my own fault.
- A lot of web developers have forgotten the lessons of IE6
A lot of web developers have forgotten the lessons of IE6, and just as they used to build desktop websites coded only for one engine, now they’re coding mobile sites specifically for Webkit, even when other browsers would be perfectly capable of rendering the designs they want. This is exactly the sort of thing that […]
- Klout’s methodology confuses me
Klout’s methodology confuses me. When I first signed on with two profiles — one personal, the other for Speed Force — they classified my personal profile as an “explorer,” and Speed Force as a “specialist.” This makes sense to me. Speed Force also had a higher score for quite a while (it certainly has a […]
- Origins of Unix
IEEE Spectrum article on The Strange Birth and Long Life of Unix. This was an interesting read, especially for the cloak-and-dagger tactics they had to resort to not only to create the OS in the first place, but to do things like distribute bugfixes (because management was afraid that distributing bugfixes would be considered “support”). […]
- Now you can have that bacon latte you’ve always wanted!
Seriously? Bacon flavoring syrup?
- New Moon and Venus
- Delivery Confirmed…Somewhere
I’ve lost some confidence in USPS’s delivery confirmation service. Even though we put mail delivery on hold while we were on vacation, USPS claims that delivered a package at 4:08pm on Saturday. So, either they didn’t honor the mail hold and delivered it…in which case who knows where it is now…or they did honor the […]
- Mercurial View
I’m 90% certain that I managed to (barely) spot Mercury below and to the left of Venus from the grocery store parking lot just after sunset. Appropriately enough, the one other time I think I spotted Mercury, it was also from a grocery store parking lot. It was like trying to spot one slightly brighter […]
- Blast from the past: dredged up my old netscape.net address
Blast from the past. Doing some email testing & dredged up my old netscape.net address. Had to re-activate it, and the handful of messages I probably saved way back in the day were gone, and now it’s aim.com instead…but it’s still got my years-outdated contact list, including people I haven’t interacted with in a decade. […]
- Facebook, or Firehose?
Between the ticker and the plans to auto-share even more activity on the timeline, I’m beginning to think that Facebook should call itself Firehose instead. I’m tempted to ask, “Who the hell wants this?” but based on past experience, that usually means I’m just not in the target audience. TechCrunch | Share Buttons? Ha. Facebook […]
- Netflix Drunk-Dialing
Spam comment on Qwikster: ‘I keep getting these creepy late-night phone calls from the CEO of Netflix saying that no one else is ever going to love me like he does.’
- Dietary “Demands”?
I’m not sure who annoys me more: The people who think that those of us who have food allergies are all a bunch of whining hypochondriacs and/or drama queens who just want attention, and the tiny percentage who really do have allergies shouldn’t expect to ever eat outside the home, or… The people who lie […]
- To the New 52
I’m completely uninterested in the mainstream part of the DC Comics relaunch, but then DC’s been slowly killing off my interest, dismantling everything I liked about the DCU for the last several years, so it’s more of a final nail than anything else. I checked out Justice League #1, which basically confirmed my opinion. I’m […]
- September Christmas
It’s September 13. Technically it’s still SUMMER.
- It came from the spam trap!
Opened up a spam trap I’d forgotten about and found ~40 copies of some — well, I hesitate to call it a newsletter, but it was a long collection of headlines, summaries, and links to news items and dubious reference sites that looked like someone had taken a few dozen conspiracy theories, put them into […]
- Smartphone: Blogging Irony
Years ago, I wanted a smartphone so I could write down all the blog posts I compose in my head when I’m away from a computer. Now that I have one, I end up reading Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus instead, and I compose blog posts in my head when I’m away from both my […]
- Most people don’t know how to use Ctrl+F
Wow: A researcher studying the way people use computers found that most people don’t know how to search for a word on the current page! Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don’t Know How to Use CTRL+F Google’s resident search anthropologist, Dan Russell, dropped this incredible statistic on us. And no, he couldn’t believe it either. […]
- Web Intents
Cool idea: Google is designing a “Web intents” system for web apps similar to intents in Android. For those who haven’t used Android, “intents” allow apps to register actions they can take — such as “I can share (or edit) images!” — and other apps to hand data over to them. That way your camera […]
- The Late Train
I haven’t really kept up with the photoblog since moving a few months ago. I’ll try to get back on track with a new post each week. This is Aviation Station along the Los Angeles Metro Green Line, the closest station to LAX. (It doesn’t actually stop at the airport, but you can take a […]
- Comic-Con: Down the Barrel
Comic-Con International sold out this weekend. The convention isn’t until July, which makes the January sell-out surprising enough…but tickets didn’t even go on sale until this past Saturday, and were all gone by the end of the day! In past years, tickets haven’t been a problem. This year, they’ve become as hard to get as […]
- Marvel or DC? It’s the Universe
I’ve always considered myself a DC fan. I think it’s mainly that it’s where I got started, so I got invested in the DC Universe. That’s what’s familiar, while Marvel always seemed like I’d need to do a ton of research just to get started. (Not necessarily true, of course, that’s just how it seemed.) […]
- SDCC Ticket Meltdown
Comic-Con 2011 ticket sales crashed under heavy load shortly after going online. I think we’re seeing another shift in the process of getting to Comic-Con. It used to be that, as long as you were aware of the onsale dates and could both plan your trip and pay for your tickets far enough ahead of […]
- Writer’s Block: Search for intelligent life
Do you believe there is other intelligent life in distant galaxies? If no, why not? If yes, do you believe this is something to be feared and avoided or actively sought out? Could there be? Certainly. Have we seen any sign of it, or any reason to believe that it is there? Not yet. I […]
- Rainbow Lagoon & Wyland Mural
An artificial lagoon on the seaward side of the Long Beach Convention Center. I was there this past Saturday for the first Long Beach Comic Con and did some sightseeing. I’ve got more photos, both of the convention and sightseeing, and a write-up of the con. Originally posted at Parallel Lines
- Boom!
We took our annual trip down to Laguna Beach to watch the fireworks display launched off the bluffs. This time we made reservations for dinner at a restaurant we’d walked by a bunch of times, Ocean Avenue Restaurant and Brewery. Would definitely go there again. Around 7:30 we staked out a spot on the beach, […]
- NASA and Aliens
If NASA really knew about aliens, wouldn’t publicizing it be the best way to solve their chronic budget problems?
- Hot and Cold
Switched to long-sleeved shirts & started wearing sweaters this week. And now it’s supposed to break 90 DEGREES today and all weekend. WTF?
- Shifting
I find it ironic that McCain spent ~2 years moving himself toward Bush’s positions in order to make himself more electable, only to find out when he got there that (a) it still wasn’t enough for the Uber-Republican base, necessitating a choice like Palin to mollify them, and (b) Bush had lost so much popularity […]
- Well, that was a wash
I’ve been putting off getting my car washed for several weeks. Over the weekend, I decided I was going to take it to a nearby car wash Monday morning before work. So I did. It was sunny and clear, with a few clouds off to the south that had made for a very nice sunrise […]
- Mastercard Chase: SDCC Security Snafu
A very long story about the adventures of a credit card at Comic-Con. May be funny someday.
- It Pours
My desktop computer has been a bit flaky for a few months now. Well, more than that. There’s the problem where it won’t display anything in plain-text mode, but that’s not really a big deal. It was when it stopped running anything higher than 1024×768 that I started getting annoyed. That turned out, oddly enough, […]
- YouToons
Re-watched some classic cartoons yesterday. It started when we were talking about Duck Dodgers at breakfast, and wondered when it had been made. That led to an IMDB lookup, which mentioned it was #4 on a list of 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time from 1994, and that had me looking up “One Froggy Evening” to verify that […]
- Reservations
Possibly jumping the gun, but last night I reserved a backup hotel for next year’s Comic-Con. Although considering that most of the big-name hotels right by the convention center are already booked (though I’m sure they’ve set aside blocks for the convention already) or want incredible amounts of money per night, perhaps it’s not that […]
- PayPal Asks: What Makes a Safe Browser?
Last month, eWeek reported that PayPal intends to block unsafe browsersfrom accessing their site. They’ve focused on phishing detection and support for Extended Validation SSL Certificates. So what are these features, and why does PayPal think they’re critical? And just which browsers are they likely to block? Phishing protection has an obvious appeal for a […]
- Comic-Con: Hotel Anxiety
Spent a good chunk of last night looking at travel websites. Accomplished 2 things: Arranged for a hotel to stay in San Francisco next month. Arranged for a back-up hotel for San Diego Comic Con, just in case we can’t get a room through the convention desk. Hotel rooms during Comic-Con have become a scarce […]
- Safari on Windows: What effect will it have on Opera?
Following up on my previous post, Apple just dropped a bombshell: the Safari web browser is now available for Windows. I’ve posted some general reactions at K-Squared Ramblings as to how it will benefit web developers and users overall. The most obvious is that Windows-only web designers will no longer have an excuse for not […]
- Where do you keep the euphemism?
Someone walked into the restroom talking on a cell phone, explaining, “it’s going to sound really bad now, because I’m in the executive washroom.” Executive washroom? Sure, if by “executive washroom” you mean first-floor lobby restroom that’s available to anyone who walks into the building. I couldn’t tell whether he was joking, or trying to […]