Thoughts on Routine Revelations

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 13:12:41 -0400

Read Joan Westenberg’s essay, Optimism Is Not A Personality Flaw. Christians actively working to initiate armageddon are the most dangerous of the pessimists that Westenberg describes.

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:40:51 -0400

Dave says, We Are All Good Germans Now, and I get his point but while he is using metaphor, there is an actual act made by the United States for which we all Americans should feel is our birthright shame. The United States is the only nation on earth to drop a nuclear weapon on another nation, and this reality, which is our shame, is how most of the world sees us. Consider the reason why you never hear U.S. politicians suggest attacking North Korea.

Ever since World War II U.S. citizens have been told to fear the possibility of other countries dropping nuclear weapons on us, while the rest of the world knows the U.S. has and thus is willing to drop nuclear weapons on them.

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:30:05 -0400

I agree with this representative in pushing back against those who want to make light of the recent threats the President made. The consequences of not taking a mad man seriously is that the mad man being emboldened to keeping and someday following through. Fear does not lead to greatness.

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:56:03 -0400

Very cool dashboard for the Artemis II mission around the moon. There is so much more technology now than when we last traveled to the moon 50 years ago, including our ability to check in on the voyage via the Internet. I wasn’t home to watch the launch on TV but I got a notification on my phone about it and was able to watch the launch on my phone sitting in a strip mall parking lot.

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 12:05:29 -0400

When you know what one has done in the past you cannot be surprised when he does it again. Politics as usual will prevent us from conducting the self assessment of how Trump was reelected in the first place because that says more about ourselves than were might be willing to face. Meanwhile we have to survive the next three years and that is not assured.

Contrasting Between What Is And What Intended

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 11:47:59 -0400

Tomorrow is the start of the Christian Holy Week. For those wondering whether Christianity is relevant to our current time, the stories about this week ought to provide the answer, but one may only see that with the help of leaders who connect the dots.

For me one of the best descriptions that sets the scene was written by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in their 2006 book The Last Week. It begins:

“Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day in the year 30. . . One a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives, cheered by his followers. On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire.”

While this is not a report on what literally happened, it’s plausible contrasts the differences between what we all consider the norm of civilization, peace through violence, and the alternative rule of God of peace through love.

Palm Sunday is about hope, yes, but that is only appreciated in contrast to what is going all around us. If you get caught up in the hoopla then you are missing the point.

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 11:26:31 -0400

I think the MacBook Neo presents a dilemma, what is the worth of really good physical construction of a laptop if the computing capabilities inside may not be as valuable over the long haul? I think people considering buying the Neo need to consider how they will feel if after just a few years they will want to replace it with a more performant computer. At the root of this is the question of whether or not one thinks $599 is a lot of money.

Most likely what the Neo is really about for Apple is increasing cash flow from Macs. Previous Macs tend to be useful well beyond five years after release, which makes it hard for Apple to convince people to buy their new models. I think Apple hopes that today’s Neo owner will replace their Neo next year or the year later at the latest.

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:20:12 -0400

Boox has released second generation of their 10.3-inch Go series e-Ink tablets that appear intended to compete with the Remarkable 2. There are two versions of this generation, a $400 without a front light and a $450 model with a front light. A major negative, in my opinion, is that Boox has replaced the Wacom EMR stylus support with their InkSense capacitive stylus is that is less accurate and requires charging. I would not buy this tablet due to this choice by Boox.

I would wish that Boox would release an 8-inch e-Ink tablet with Wacom EMR support but that appears to be less likely to happen as time passes.

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 13:54:06 -0400

My thought this morning is that we have entered the equivalent of COVID in Trump 2.0. It should not be a surprise that a global crisis would be poorly managed if not triggered by administration that demonstrated this ability when it was last in office. Voters in the U.S., despite claims to the contrary, have to accept some responsibility because it was us who put this man in office after what he did before and said plainly what he would do once in office.

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:21:59 -0400

Which is a better value? The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air for $1,099 or the new MacBook Neo for $599? The M5 Air probably has up to seven years of good life ahead, what about the Neo? The Air has a better processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage.

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 11:58:10 -0400

Reading Craig Mod’s description of the accounting app he has written for himself with the assistance of Claude Code give’s me a “back to the future” vibe. Personal computing began with the idea of one writing their own software and the idea of buying software didn’t really exist. People shared software they wrote, but requiring payment for it was a big against the unwritten rules.

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:37:56 -0400

The 2026 iPad Air M4: Early Impressions:

The second change is memory. The M4 brings 12GB of unified memory, up from 8GB on the M3 model. More RAM means better multitasking and more headroom for demanding tasks. Transcription in Voice Memos and background removal in Pixelmator happen almost instantly. I feel it in Lightroom as well.

My primary concern about the MacBook Neo is that I don’t think the 8 GB of RAM is enough in the current AI era of personal computing. While the quote above is about the new iPad Air, I think the point about the benefit of moving from 8 GB to 12 GB is apt.

Later in his post Om also ponders whether the Neo is a better value than the Air given it includes a keyboard. I do wonder whether Neo will affect iPad sales.

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:12:42 -0400

I think the whole idea of the MacBook Neo comes down to one question, is $599 a low price?

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 13:10:00 -0400

It occurs to me, that the MacBook Neo is essentially the often desired iPad that runs MacOS.

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:04:43 -0400

To me most of the AI coming from the BigCos is fluff and eye candy. Google is really guilty of this, adding AI flourishes to their Pixel phones that I don’t see as useful. I tried their AI Wallpaper generation that I don’t think produces anything interesting and I have to wonder whether their new custom icons will be any different.

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 13:13:37 -0400

The U.S. Men’s hockey team won the Olympic gold medal beating Canada in overtime, 2-1. The last time I saw the U.S. men’s hockey win gold I was 14 years old.

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:51:27 -0400

I got to admit that I am going to miss the Olympics after it concludes tomorrow. I’ve been in the habit of turning on the TV in the morning with the events going in the background as I do my morning routine.

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:55:14 -0400

An observation. Learned about this directory of independent journalists, and notice that newsletter - Substack is the top platform, Instagram is second. Website is fifth with 87. Can’t help but notice that what appears to me to be newer sites usually do not have RSS feeds. Most sites do have a Subscribe button that is for an email newsletter.

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:22:49 -0400

I really hate how streamers create horrible user experience for the sake of commercials. I am watching the Olympics on Peacock and using the “Top Events” multi-view mode to watch a hockey game, when the period ends I want to check in on the other events but cannot switch because Peacock disables navigation during commercials. How do they think people use multi-view?

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:56:50 -0400

A benefit of retirement is that I am able to watch the 2026 Winter Olympic events live during the afternoon and because of that I am seeing much more of the Olympics than ever before. In addition to having the time to watch, technology, particularly Peacock, is helping by putting all of the U.S. coverage in one spot. To be honest, I am not constantly watching but I have it on in the background as I sit here at my desk.

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 12:03:19 -0400

Sadly, the 250th “birthday” of the United States feels less a celebration and more like a wake. I don’t know how anyone associated with Trump, particularly his enablers, can profess the ideas that are part of our founding when they are actively working against them. Perhaps we have always truly been the land of the not yet free and brave for all. I would like to see someone start leading by making strong contrast between what is happening right now and how it started. The real issue is not the individual acts, it’s the sum total of them all in context to what the United States is supposed to be about.

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 13:25:17 -0400

In an essay that I wrote in 2010 titled The iPhone Way, I ended with the following. Although then I was talking about Apple, what I describe has expanded to multiple companies in an apparent “soft” conglomerate headed by the Executive.

I find myself living in a time when people are willing to give up control (see education in the U.S.) and freedom (see airport security) because it makes their lives easier and safer. However, by allowing other people to make decisions for you, which giving control to others is really about, is giving up freedom. When one company controls the means of how you get information, will they allow access to any information that company does not want you to see?

People who are captivated by the Apple ecosystem ought to be concerned about how cozy Tim Cook has been with the Trump regime.

Accountability

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 14:06:21 -0400

Turns out that when you arm a group of men who has no accountability, and the people who do the arming have no accountability, you get anarchy. The first rule of supremacy is there is no accountability of the ruling class, just appeasement. The Supreme Court institutionalized our current state in declaring Presidents have “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.” In other words, the President is above the law.

I am sure SCOTUS would say that Presidents are accountable to Congress who can impeach them and ultimately to the citizens who cannot vote for them. These are a form of accountability, but I ask, is an act that can only occur three years in to the future truly accountability? Seems to me that for true accountability it must occur in time of closer proximity to the event at which they are to be held accountable, which I would think is the purpose of criminal courts!

To really fix what is wrong in the United States there needs to be an overturn of several Supreme Court rulings through additional amendments to the Constitution.

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 13:30:36 -0400

I follow Amanda Nelson on Instagram and she said something recently that I have not been able to get out of my head, which is that the United States has been in a “cold” civil war for many years. I think it obvious that what we are experiencing today has been simmering for a long time, perhaps since the end of the Civil War. I also think this “cold” civil war became more organized when Republicans and Newt Gingrich took over the House because Gingrich initiated the switch of the purpose of Congress from governing to “us versus them” in which compromise is not allowed. Since 1995 the battle lines between factions of the powerful have been clearly drawn, with American citizens as pawns.

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 12:54:55 -0400

I just took a walk outside. According to Accuweather, it’s 5 degrees but the RealFeel is 17 degrees thanks to the sunshine and lack of wind. With the proper clothes on it’s actually pretty nice given the sunshine.

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:22:38 -0400

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

For years people have been ignoring the full text to the second amendment as if there is no consequence to ignoring its purpose. In my opinion overlooking the beginning of the amendment exposes originalists for who they are, hypocrites. I think we are seeing the consequences of neglecting the idea of “well regulated” in Minneapolis right now.

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:55:22 -0400

We watched Star Fleet Academy last night, which started slow in the first episode and got better in the second. Most likely because they have to build so much backstory. What I find amusing is that the show is set in San Francisco thousands of years in the future and the Golden Gate Bridge still stands in all its glory, and incredible feat of engineering if you ask me.

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 12:43:56 -0400

I wonder, is all the posturing about Greenland really about data centers for AI? What is the benefit of such a conquest to the wealthy class and how does Trump profit from it?

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 12:14:23 -0400

It is another bitterly cold day here, so much so that I really don’t want to go outside, which impedes my walking plan. I walk several times a day, primarily after eating, as a key tool for managing glucose. On days like today I take those walks on the treadmill, but that does not come with the benefits of being outdoors.

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:01:22 -0400

This morning I watched this interview of James Talarico by Ezra Klein, and it was interesting enough to me that I did not fast forward through it. I think the most valuable information came toward the end when James talked about working with a Republican colleague on legislation because it had two valuable lessons.

First, form relationships with people you disagree with, particularly such people with whom you have to work with. Relationships take time to find common bonds and love to the point at which even though you have disagreements the bond, the love, is more important.

Second is humility, which is a willingness to admit that you might be wrong and be willing to change your mind. I find this second point so important because it is literally foundational to the teaching of Jesus.

It is so easy to hate the other that you do not know and with whom you are not in relationship, and progress is not possible without being willing to be vulnerable to admit you are wrong and publicly learn that lesson.

I agree with James that the path from where we are today in the United States to something better is the path of Jesus, which is counter to the norm of civilization as it existed in the time of Jesus and prevails today. What the world tells us is normal is the idol of power and that the only path to peace is through power. Power, like all idols, is made equivalent to God.

The path of Jesus leads to the cross. It is the exact opposite of power, and instead of an idol his path of self-emptying takes us to what is real and that is love.

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:27:56 -0400

“Heritage Americans: ‘You’re less American than I am because my ancestors built this country.’ Also Heritage Americans: ‘Don’t blame me for slavery or segregation. I’m not responsible for what my ancestors did,’” – Avik Roy.

Source: https://intellectualoid.com/2026/01/16/friday-1-16-26/

I was taught to not be a hypocrite, the implication being such a person cannot be trusted because you don’t know their true values. My childhood friend once told me what he dislikes the most is hypocrisy. I think we all at one time or another are a hypocrite, but the real problem is not recognizing it as a problem enough to be embarrassed by. In fact, it seems as though most people today have so little self-awareness that they can’t be embarrassed.

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:19:10 -0400

In his essay today Om Malik shared this quote from psychologist Rollo May, observing 1950s America:

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.

Malik says May diagnosed this when McCarthyism was literally hunting down anyone who thought differently. The subject of Malik’s post was technology platforms, but I think in reality the quote is most applicable to where we are in the United States today. Supremacy does not seek peaceful co-existence, which is the alleged premise of the founding of the U.S., but rather conformity and compliance to a hierachial world view of winners and losers.

Who Can Be Accountable?

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 13:39:27 -0400

I think most people trying to interpret Trumps actions in Venezuela are making a mistake of doing so through a lens of what is thought to be normal, or how or why things were done in the past.

The same formula seems to be repeated: “Trump claims the reason why he did this is because X but here is an instance of Y that is completely opposite of X.” The implication is, Trump’s claim cannot be true because it’s inconsistent. I think the real problem is paying any attention to any claim made by Trump.

Everything that Trump does appears to be in the moment, his actions are mostly emotional and whoever has access to him last greatly influences what he does. In my opinion the real root problem is that Trump believes he can do whatever he wants and doesn’t need to convince anyone, neither Congress, the Supreme Court, nor citizens, that what he is doing is good or right or just. Sure, he very much wants us all to like him, but in the end nothing matters, the only thing that matters to Trump is what is in his head at any given moment.

I think we need to spend much less time on Trump and much more time on his enablers. Why is all this happening? It’s happening because the Supreme Court ruled Trump is above the law and made him king and the majority in Congress is only there for the LOLs and not there do their job, and a wealthy class of people willing to pay and participate in tearing it all down for the sake of keeping what they imagine to be their wonderful life.

The response to every action Trump takes should be a push to remove any enabler and make them accountable. All this has to start with us not reacting to anything Trump does from what we think to be normal. Making claims that what he did is illegal does not matter because there is no accountability of him. Pointing out Trump’s hypocrisy does not matter. Nothing you can do or say about Trump matters. What does matter is how we view and consider those people who enable him now and work to replace them.

It's Not AI That I Fear

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:30:07 -0400

It’s people. I think there are similarities in how people make claims about guns in the United States and the claims about AI.

More often than not whenever you encounter a person who opposes any form of restrictions on access to or use of guns they tend to make the claim that “guns don’t kill people,” which is obviously true. Guns are inanimate objects, they don’t just on their own fire and kill. The real problem are the people who have access to guns and what they do with them. In reality, all gun regulation laws apply to people, what they can access, how qualified to use them, etc.

Most promoters of AI go to great lengths to try and persuade us that there is nothing to fear about AI. My response when I hear this is that I don’t fear AI, I fear the people behind AI and I fear the people who will use AI. My fear is driven by the reality that greed drives everything in the United States, if not the world.

Giving greedy people access to AI is equivalent to giving a person who has nothing but contempt for others or does not have hope or can’t control their emotions and wants to go out in a blaze of glory access to guns.

The lengths to which I see people in power in the United States are going to try and convince me there is nothing to fear about AI does nothing more than increase my skepticism and fear. You have not earned my trust and you cannot earn my trust until you demonstrate the maturity of self restraint.

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 10:07:10 -0400

On November 27, 1989 I boarded an airplane for the final destination of Plano Texas on the first day of my employment with Electronic Data Systems (EDS). Over those 36 years that I worked what was a subsidiary of General Motors became again a standalone company in 1996 only to be acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2008. In 2017, after a brief stint as part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, I and what was left of EDS was merged with Computer Sciences Corporation to form DXC Technology. On December 1, 2025, on the 37 year mark of the first Friday of my employment with EDS I submitted my resignation for the purpose of retirement. I didn’t plan it this way but I am struck by the timing of this moment.

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 12:27:11 -0400

Talk about the current state of affairs needs to place the reason behind them on Republicans and not Trump. Our problems are really not because of one man but because of an entire party that allows if not embraces what is being done. Whenever there is a federal election the debate needs to be framed in the context of a clear difference of what is America between the parties. A person’s affiliation with the parties means that person stands for those things because they choose to run as a member of the party.

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 10:55:18 -0400

Every time I see a new “productivity app” announced I think to myself why? Humans are not robots. I want more art and less productivity. In mean time I just need to be able to record stuff and retrieve stuff from anywhere.

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 11:08:58 -0400

If you spend any time reading the Gospels and paying attention to Jesus you know that he spoke and taught about an alternative to how society functioned at that time. Jesus called that alternative the kingdom of God and his is a way to live as God dreams for us to live and not as we are lead to believe is the norm of civilization. The fact that Christianity is no different than what we see of civilization today ought to be scandalous. Jesus is not the founder of the Christianity you know, that was founded by a Roman Emperor.

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 12:31:43 -0400

I get that social networks force this type of publishing, but I don’t get why anyone really wants to do it. If you write more than a paragraph publish it on a web page then share a link.

BTW, I wrote this post using Drafts on my iPad Mini, which I still think is the best tool for sharing links on micro.blog. To create a link like the one above I first copy it to the clip board, select the text of it in my post and press the Link button above the keyboard. The correct markdown syntax and the URL are correctly placed.

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 13:06:11 -0400

I am reading “How the Ivy League Broke America” by David Brooks, published in The Atlantic (gifted link), and agreeing almost entirely with the points that Brooks is making.

Looking back, I know that my grandmother’s (who raised me) strongest desire for me was a college degree that lead to achieving “the American Dream.” Her desire was influenced by the meritocracy Brooks describes, even if the arc of her life started before the meritocracy view of the world was instituted.

So, I fit in the college educated category, except that my grandmother was not wealthy and my education was paid for mostly by Pell Grants and student loans. The grants sufficiently covered my credits, so I only needed a relatively small amount of loans for things like books.

I feel as though if I were born just ten years later I probably would not have the life I have today, because I probably would not have afforded that college degree or I would have been hugely in debt.

Like most of her generation, my grandmother wanted me to partake in the American Dream and she believed that would only happen if I had a college degree. She wasn’t wrong, but the problem is that if you can boil down the achievement of a better life to one thing it becomes very easy to put a dollar value on that thing and when that happens a barrier is created.

What Brooks describes in this article is a cultural problem that government itself cannot fix. Yet, government made up of people who see the problem can make government an enabler of a fix rather than a barrier. Does eliminating the Department of Education help or hinder? Honestly, I am not entirely sure.

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 13:49:32 -0400

I guess Nixon was right. Is what Trump did on January 6 an official act as POTUS? What is the definition of an official act? Anyone celebrating this decision ought to stop and realize the ruling applies to all presidents regardless of party. It applies equally to Obama and Trump. Still happy?

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 12:26:08 -0400

I wish that my RSS feed reader could filter out items behind a pay wall, or at least flag them in some way. It would also be nice if bloggers either didn’t link to stuff behind pay walls or at least indicate that a subscription is required. I think it is ironic how Dave frequently argues against the burden of pay walls and also frequently shares links to stories that are behind pay walls.

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 12:49:41 -0400

Currently reading: Naming the Powers by Walter Wink 📚

I think this is a good book (series of books actually) for those who desire to follow Jesus to read at this time. The quote below is just one example:

The Weather Underground correctly criticized the U.S. government for its barbaric violence in Vietnam and then mirrored the very barbarism it condemned by adopting violence as its means. Whenever we let the terms of struggle be dictated by the Power that we oppose, we are certain to become as evil. Nothing about this insight is new. It is written for anyone to read in Rev. 17:15-18. There the Beast on whom the Harlot (Roma) sits turns against her and shifts his allegiance to the ten enemy kings. These will hate the harlot and burn her up with fire. The Beast can shift loyalties precisely because he knows that the means employed to overthrow the Harlot will make the kings every bit as much the children of hell as she. (Emphasis added)

I assume that in the above Wink is referring to the Weather Underground as known as The Weathermen. The Weathermen emerged from the campus-based opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War and from the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Wikipedia

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 17:24:10 -0400

What we are seeing played out between Israel and Iran and between Israel and Hammas is retribution. Violence begetting more violence. Empire convinces us this is the norm of civilization and there is no hope for change. Empire is also an idol.

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:33:47 -0400

Today I start lap 59 around the sun. Unlike the last two years, there is no snow. Morning sunshine gave way to clouds in the afternoon. My bride and I had a late lunch at Ford Garage.

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:00:22 -0400

I agree with everything that Om Malik wrote in this post about how AI IS Changing Writing, in particular the following:

My approach to AI has been to embrace and extend my capabilities. I use quite a few tools with AI inside. Many of them have boosted my productivity. I am on the lookout for more to add to my arsenal, so I can become more effective when it comes to my creative output. I don’t need it to write for me. I need AI to make sure I don’t make spelling mistakes, point out some overused phrases, repetitive usage of phrases, and what my editors used to call “Om” things.

I don’t understand why an individual will want AI to write for them because I own (and want to own) my words because they reflect me. My writing is never about producing content and I don’t make a dime from any of my web sites. I may be biased, but I think what makes it blogging is whether or not one is making money.

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:28:27 -0400

Today I am enjoying my first vacation day, or what I like to call retirement practice, of the year. My company provides the Presidents Day holiday on Monday, so thus I have a four day weekend. Now that the Super Bowl is in February, I wonder why the NFL hasn’t decided to make Super Bowl Sunday be the day before Presidents Day every year, enabling many to have a day off on the Monday after the Super Bowl.

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 17:27:17 -0400

If you think you are not religious then you don’t know what is religion. I think Americans are more religious today than ever before, but don’t recognize it because we equate religion with a specific association to specific organizations or specific beliefs in deities.

Religion is much more fundamental to who we are as humans. For example, if you identify yourself with an NFL team, like I say I am a Packers fan, you are religious. The religion, which is that to which you connect or bind yourself (re-ligio) is professional U.S. football. Republicans? Democrat? Conservative? Liberal? Progressive? All religions. Yes, even atheism is a religion. Religion is an aspect of our ego.

The problem in all of this is we have no understanding of our true selves, and the decisions we make are to maintain all these false selves that don’t really add value to who we are and what we truly need. It is the stranglehold of our religions that is driving decisions that we make against our own best interests.

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 11:37:59 -0400

I use Readwise Reader to read articles that I select from my RSS subscriptions, and I think it has information that would like to extract. For example, from which domains do I most frequently read from? This is the type of question that if Readwise provided an API I might dabble with some programming.

With AI, Focus On The People

Wed, 31 May 2023 09:01:33 -0400

When I read something about the dangers of AI I can’t help but fear the writers are missing an important point. Saying that AI is bad is like saying the Internet is bad or guns are bad. In truth none of these items are bad. What is bad, and what we need to focus on, is that there are bad people who can and will use these items to amplify what they can do and thus inflict harm on others.

Back before the Internet was known by most of the world those who supported it advocated for all of the good it can do, but we failed to take in to account how it can be used for harm. What is common among AI, the Internet, and guns, particularly automatic guns, is the scale and speed at which harm can be done.

So, my advice is, focus a bit less on the technology and more on the ways in which people want and might use that technology for harm and then craft policies aimed at constraining the the people who may do that harm. It might be making a nuanced argument, but I think it is an important one when encountering those who see themselves as needing to defend/protect the items.

Sat, 13 May 2023 11:54:30 -0400

If I were in charge of marketing a foldable phone, I think I would call it a mobile 2-in-1 rather than foldable because that puts emphasis on the functionality. From using the original Surface Duo learned that you have to think of these devices as a small tablet first and a smartphone second.

I could be a target consumer for these devices because I am a heavy tablet user and a lite phone user, and I use both devices every day. The problem is, no foldable is ever going to be as thin as a standard smartphone and feel comfortable in front pants pockets.

Price is a real constraint right now. When the price drops to a comparable to smartphone + tablet then it will be more compelling. So I wonder, how long will it take for a new foldable to cost $800 or less?

Fri, 05 May 2023 11:28:31 -0400

Rule one of being a United States citizen, and really a citizen of any country, ought to be, ignore all political advertising. It’s shocking to that this fundamental advice is not taken seriously by enough people. Frankly, I would prefer all political advertising, to which the vast majority of campaign funds is spent, were outlawed so that our tools to evaluate candidates were primarily their record and debates.

The advent of Large Language Models appearing as artificial intelligence makes this advice more important then ever. We will see video clips of people who appear to be saying things they did not say. Money is not a constraint (thanks SCOTUS) and technology is no constraint (thanks capitalism).

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:03:22 -0400

The U.S. Constitution puts in place a structure of “checks and balances” between the three branches of government to prevent tyranny, and it is that concept that limits the degree of oversight of SCOTUS by Congress. However, this structure also enables tyranny when the same wealthy parties buy SCOTUS justices and members of Congress.

If members of Congress, no matter party, are unwilling to actually impeach those who support their ideology to maintain freedom for all citizens and not just a select few, you have in place opportunity for corruption and defacto dictatorship.

The founders imagined that the threat of impeachment would be sufficient to keep people in line, but we now know that is not true. Impeachment itself is useless without conviction. If Senators are unwilling to convict a sitting President for inciting an insurrection, then for what will it ever convict a President for?

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 11:36:39 -0400

I think the reason why some are concerned about chatGPT is that they know the tendencies of most towards laziness. For most, if they read something that is not obviously wrong they will accept it as fact. Laziness might not be the right word, I know that I don’t want to live in a world in which I have to question everything. Constant skepticism is not healthy, we need to be able to trust some people. Such skepticism taken to the extreme leads to a person fearful of everything and everyone, and that leads to them to shooting a kid who unexpectedly rings their doorbell.

Straight Jacket Voting

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 14:51:22 -0400

We frequently fall in to the trap of thinking that how things work today is how they have always worked. Take for example voting in the United States. The whole concept of an “independent voter” is driven by the fact that today one can vote for people of different parties rather than all representatives from a single party. For example, you might vote for a Democrat for President and a Republican as your Senator.

What I learned while reading The Age of Acrimony is that in the 19th century there was only straight party ballots. The ballots may have been nothing more than a card of one of two different colors. Voting was not in private, one put their colored ballot in the ballot box while everyone else was watching. Elections could and often did become violent affairs. The invention of the ballot booth, with it’s privacy curtain and the ability vote for people running for different offices rather than a party’s representatives cooled the temperature of politics. It also created the idea of the “independent” voter.

You might have noticed that the temperature of politics has definitely risen to higher temperatures over the years, highlighted by the insurrection on January 6, 2021. My theory is that the idea of voting for one’s party, no matter who is running, has become more in vogue ever since Ronald Reagan, when I think the Republican party learned during Reagan’s second term that what letter was next to the name of the candidate was more important than the actual person. The thinking is that what is most important is the party elected to office and not the person because the party’s ideology is what is most important for leading toward the desired outcome. It doesn’t matter whether the President has dementia if the decisions are really made by his handlers.

I think we will see this played out most vividly during the 2024 election. Neither Biden nor Trump are popular among Democrats or Republicans, but they will vote for either the Democrat or Republican candidate. The question will be how the so-called “independents” will vote, and that becomes more difficult when the campaigns become nothing more than don’t vote for the other crazy old person.

Politics is broken because the system is gamed towards the status quo for the benefit of those people who gain from the status quo. Today this is not only the military industrial complex, but nearly every corporation in the United States. How else can you explain why all the candidate we can seem to elect are always of the same generation? Both parties rig it so that the anointed ones are the only options, hence incumbents never are challenged from within, and the non-incumbent pool of candidates are tightly controlled.

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 11:41:09 -0400

With all the banning of books and now social media, it really feels as though we are living in 1984.

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 11:56:59 -0400

This YouTube video of A History of Rock in Guitar Riffs from 1965 to now is really cool.

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 13:25:23 -0400

I think Dave misunderstands what manton is doing in regards to the character limit. The character limit does not apply to blog posts, the character limit applies to what appears in the micro.blog timeline. As has always been, posts that are longer than X character are linked to the associated blog post that contains all of the content. From my perspective, how micro.blog handles long posts in it’s timeline is the same as how Feedland handles long posts in the feeds list.

Manton could change how the timeline works to expand/collapse long posts like Dave does in the Feedland “news” display, but that is his prerogative as the hosting/platform provider. As a writer, I am willing to work within the constraints that he is providing. I don’t see the constraint as limiting me as a writer in any way because the full content is provided on my blog, which frankly is where I prefer people to actual go and read what I write.

Look In The Mirror, There Is a Gun In Your Hands

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 12:04:00 -0400

If one is a child, a teenager, a college student in the United States, aware of the realities of the society that they currently live in, how can you possibily conclude anything other than the fact that the generations older, now Millenials through Baby Boomers, don’t care about them at all? It’s seems we have all forgotten the desire for providing our children a better life than our own. Better should be safer. Instead we do absolutely nothing.

I am Gen-X, and to my recollection the last time enough people in power were shocked enough by a shooting was in 1993 when the Brady Bill was passed. Looking back from today, it seems that only the attempted murder of an old white man who happens to be President lead to action. Not murders of elementary, high school, and college students.

I see people of my generation ripping on younger generations as “entitled” and “lazy” and don’t seem to really care why. Might it be that in the United States the probability of a kindergartener experiencing an in-school shooting before graduating high school is greater than zero? I don’t know this is a fact, but I know it’s true, but the fact is that truth does not piss off enough people to take action.

Parents and grandparents need to stop convincing themselves their child will never face a shooting. It’s time to stop numbing ourselves hoping that it will never happen. It’s time to face the reality that it will happen, to your child, someone you love, maybe tomorrow.

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:44:19 -0400

The sooner everyone lets go of Twitter, the better. Musk is not a benevolent dictator and you can see that Twitter is going to end up with a Private Equity firm that will be less benevolent.

United States Empire

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 11:30:55 -0400

Dave is pointing out the relationship between the United States paying its bills, the value of the U.S. dollar as the the world’s reserve currency, and how that all translates to life as we know it in the United States. What Dave does not point out is that the the U.S. dollar being the world’s reserve currency is a fundamental part of the United States Empire. It’s how we can punish other nations like Russia and Iran with “economic” sanctions or why cutting Russia off from SWIFT (which is the network that all banks, including national banks use to move money around) is in fact punishing.

While (like the Roman empire) we have built U.S. Armed forces bases all around the world, U.S. citizens, let alone the world, will not accept frequent military intervention, so the bases are mostly for show of power and rapid deployment capability. Consequently, the economic tools, like the reserve currency, are the tools of choice that we use to flex U.S. might.

I think most nations know exactly how the U.S. uses the reserve currency status to imposes its will upon them and that is why some of them are considering using something other than the dollar. The U.S. missing payment on its bills will provide good reason for the nations to pull the trigger and that could start the fall of the U.S. empire. If this happens we will find out quickly just how much our way of life has grown to depend on empire.

P.S. The United States is the only country in the world to have dropped nuclear weapons on another country. The fact that we were willing then to do such a thing and the fact that we use our economic muscle to enforce our empire makes us the bad guys for most of the world. The good life we enjoy keeps us from seeing our shadow self.

It's All By Design

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:18:15 -0400

Much that is wrong in the United States can be traced back to Milton Friedman, because he created and taught the doctrine in place in corporate America that everything, absolutely everything, is about making the wealthy class wealthier. Corporations exist to make wealth, and labor is simply the disposable batteries needed to fuel their wealth.

And, of course, the wealthy class fears the labor class, which is why they own those bunkers and houses on islands as far away from civilization as possible. For some, Mars or the moon may not be far enough. (And definitely do not allow labor to organize against us!)

The United States was founded upon and institutionalized class structure. White men ruled and controled Europe in the seventeenth century, how could anyone think that was not how America was structured? Madison, Jefferson, Washington, and Hamilton knew no different, it was and has been the “norm of society.” (By the way, this structure goes back well before the time of Jesus and he was killed by the state and the religious ruling class for preaching an alternative to the structure. Consequently, the U.S. might be called a christian nation by the defintion of institutionalzied christianity, but would not be called so by Jesus.)

Ours in the United States has been a more than 200 year struggle over the question of liberty for whom? Explicity at the founding liberty was only for white male property owners. Over the years laws and Constitutional ammendments have been passed to try and expand liberty to more people, but really, the class structure remains. The people at the top benefit so much from the way things are there is no real incentive to change. How else can the right hand of the U.S. institution, the Supreme Court, think that structural racism is no longer an issue, thus voting rights are not longer needed, or that anti-abortion laws are not a infringment on the liberty of nearly half the country, or that corporations (which is THE insitution of the wealthy class) have the same rights as citizens and should thus be allowed so spend as much money to buy politicians as they wish?

Mass layoffs are the dopamine of the wealthy class. No CEO is ever going to be fired for announcing such a layoff because it is exactly what the wealthy class demands. Any CEO and board of a U.S. corporation knows that the quickest way to boost their stock price is by announcing a round of layoffs or buy announcing stock buy backs. Few CEOs know how to build anything, they only know the financial engineering they were taught in business school and what they see done all around them.

P.S. If you are invested in a 401k, you are being told that your interests align with the wealthy class. Assimilation is a very powerful tool of those in power.

Building Versus Buying

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 12:31:52 -0400

I’ve finished reading a fantastic three part series about the history of ARM written by Jeremy Reimer for Ars Technica. Here is a quote from the end of the series:

But the key to Saxby’s management approach was simple yet uncommon in the business world: ARM grew because it helped others grow. It treated its employees more like people and less like human resources, giving them chances to learn and succeed along with the company. “I’m a great believer that in any team,” he told me, “any member is better at something than somebody else, so to get the team to perform you want everyone to perform on their best axis. Teams that work well together work better.” He emphasized the importance of being honest with employees and not overpromising what the company had to offer.

The above resonates with me because the company I hired in to out of college, Electronic Data Systems, had the same business model, treat employees in a similar manner, and had success. Unlike ARM, EDS went through several different owners (GM, HP, HPE, CSC/DXC) and CEOs and each change moved further from the founding vision to the point at which it no-longer really exists.

The story also calls to mind The Infinite Game by Steve Sinek. Using Reimer’s comparison of ARM and Commodore, ARM was playing the infinite game, Commodore the finite game. In the book Sinek describes the reletively few businesses playing the “infinite game” versus the vast majority playing the “finite” game. He writes:

Infinite games have infinite time horizons. And because there is no finish line, no practical end to the game, there is no such thing as “winning” an infinite game. In an infinite game, the primary objective is to keep playing, to perpetuate the game.

Having been hired by EDS and surviving through the multitude of transitions that has occurred, I have seen first hand the differences a building a company, which usually has a founder, and buying a company, which usually has a manager. In most cases bought companies are separated from their founding, has no leadership and thus no culture.

It amazes me that given all the evidence of how to achieve long term success, such as ARM’s, that so few U.S. companies are interested in the infinite game. The finite game rules business, thus it rules capitalism, and given relationship of capitalism to the United States, the finite game rules the U.S. I don’t think prospects will change in the United States until we find leaders who are builders, right now our political, economic, and religions cultures appear to all be playing the finite game.

Profits Above All

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 11:31:07 -0400

Nobody should be surprised that big oil has long known the impact of carbon on the the climate, just as big tobacco long knew about the relationship of nicotine on cancer. Likewise, I am certain Facebook, Twitter, and Google all know the impact of social networks on mental health.

In my opinion the root cause to this behavior is the acceptance in the United States that it’s ok for one to profit from the misery of another. Any means toward the ends of more and more profits to the oligarchs is accepted by everyone, even for whom are the most affected.

If you truly read the history of the United States you will learn that from the discovery of the content through to present time the United States has existed to make one class of people rich at the expense of anyone and anything that would be in the way of that class becoming more rich. This fact has made the United States, and many other countries in the Western Hempisphere very different from other countries in the world.

The history of the United States is very much a fight, back and forth, between the oligarchs and everyone else. Everyone else won over the oligarchs in the U.S. Civil War, but the oligarchs clawed their way back up until FDR and the New Deal. Ever since the end of WW II the oligarchs have been fighting back and gained great ground during the Reagan years, and their accendancy has continued ever since no matter which poliitcal party has been in power.

Today it appears that everything is in place for the oligarchs to completely assume control over nearly everything in the United States. Trump pretty much sealed the deal by placing the oligarch’s choice of justices to the Supreme Court, under the disguise of overturning Roe v. Wade. More consequential rulings are coming to remove the New Deal, Civil Rights, and election laws that were put in place as guardrails against the oligarchs.

On the eve of the Civl War everyone else rose up against the oligarchs by forming a new political party (Republicans), and electing Abraham Lincoln, which lead to the Civl War and the oligarch’s defeat. Unfortunately, the oligarchs appear to have closed that risk to them by changing election laws and the amont of money it takes to be elected President to insure no party that they don’t control can possibly be a threat. At the moment it seems to me the only real possible equally dramatic act would be for enough states to open a Constitutional Convention that would fundamentally re-form the United States for good or ill.

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 13:07:26 -0400

It seems to happen every time there is a migration of people from one application to another. When the new people start using the new application they seem to expect that the features and functions of the previous application to exist in the new one. When they can’t find the function, they ask where it is, and if they are told that it doesn’t exist it seems they then start to complain or at least doubt the reasons for why the function doesn’t exist with the alternate application.

In my opinion, the idea that every application should work exactly the same is problematic. Micro.blog was created specifically to not be Twitter and Mastodon was created specifically to not be Twitter, and the value of these applications are that they are not Twitter!

And you know what, it’s ok! Life can exist without a “like” button and it can exist without a quote “tweet.” We don’t need to change the minds of those who disagree, we just need to figure out how to co-exist.

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:53:25 -0400

I must be the only person who doesn’t care about ChatGPT. Ok, there may be a few others, but too few.

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:17:16 -0400

I remember in 1992 when Ross Perot warned of the “giant sucking sound” of jobs leaving the United States if NAFTA were signed. Sadly, I think that phrase is apt in describing democracy in the United States due in part to Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United.

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:09:23 -0400

The U.S. Supreme Court is the most authoritarian branch of U.S. government. Nearly every low moment of U.S. History is tied to Supreme Court decisions, some which later were overturned. A case will go in front of the Supreme Court in December that could decide the fate of demoracy in the United States. It could give state legislatures power to decide any federal election, overturning the will of the people. Given the current make up of the court, I am not optimistic that demoracy will survive.

Stop With the Opinion Polls

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 11:25:24 -0400

Dear world, or at least anyone who cares, particularly the media. In the United States based on how the Constitution is structured, and how the political parties take advantage of its deficiencies through gerrymandering, lobbying, and campaign financing, majority opinions do not matter.

The United States is effectively under authoritarian Republican rule overseen by six Supreme Court justices, and it is obviouse the Republicans don’t care about any polls that report anything about majority opinion. It only matters what those in power in the Republican party want because they only need Republican votes to stay in power.

Right now what you need to pay attention to is, how are state legislatures structured and are voting districts gerrymandered to favor on particular party over another. If gerrymandering exists, what is being done about it, either through the courts or the existing legistlatures? Citizens need to know their state constitutions and what power they have for referendums, etc.. to overcome the games being played by the parties, particularly Republicans.

In short everyone, in particular the media, need to pay attention to and put bright light on what is going on within the state legistlatures and courts. Every since the last Presidential election Republicans have gamed the systems to gain even more power to basically nullify the will of the people. In many cases, gerrymandering means it won’t matter how much this pisses off Democrats and Independents.

Where we are heading toward, as will likely be supported by the current Supeme Court, are state legistlatures having near absolute power to override the citizens of the state to select Presidents. We will need an equivalent to the 17th amendment to prevent this from happening because this Supreme Court is going to say it is powerless to do anything about it.

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 09:56:03 -0400

I believe this will be a growing sentiment about Christianity, and it will be deserved. We are doing things very wrong. Jesus never imposed his teaching on anyone, and he taught his followers to not be like those of the world who lord over others. Words and laws do not transform anything, only a better alternative way is truly transformative, and that is what the kin-dom of God is all about! Anything else is not truly good news.

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 13:37:25 -0400

If Republicans were rational, smart, and intune with the majority of the nation that includes the minorities they court, they would reach out to Democrats to craft a bi-partisan bill that wrote the right for all Amercians to chose what happens to and within their bodies, including women’s right th chose an abortion up to X number of weeks, in to law. It would undercut a building backlash, make them look like doing something Democrats cannot do, and and showing they can govern.

Of course, this won’t happen because Republicans are not rational amd not intune with the nation.

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 09:56:00 -0400

I don’t personally use Twitter as much as other social media platforms, so I really don’t have a personal investment in what happens to it, but I am deeply suspicious of Elon Musk buying Twitter. I suspect he wants to buy Twitter to have a personal megaphone with no constraints. I am expecting Twitter to get worse under Musk.

I understand lots of journalism and media types use Twitter, but if it becomes a private social platform under the control of an oligarch, is that the right place to be doing journalism? Once private Twitter should cease to be a source for any news.

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 12:03:59 -0400

If Musk wanted to impress me he would get rid of Twitter’s algorithm completely and revert Twitter to a reverse chronological feed, citing how the algorithm is nothing more than feeding an addiction. We don’t need to see the algorithm, we need to get rid of it.

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 13:34:11 -0400

Today has been windy, with sustained windows at 20 mph and gusts up to 45 mph. Fortunately, the temperature has been from the mid 40s to the low 50s, so not terribly cold, and yet I have been feeling cold all day. I think that my subconsious hearing the howling wind is making me feel cold, even if it isn’t particularly cold. Is that a thing?

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 13:32:08 -0400

The problem with our politics today is that it is obsessed with the past. Conservatives want to go back to the “glory days” of the past (surely this what is meant by “Make America Great Again”) and Liberals want go back and fix the past. (surely cancel culture drives this). Both poles have an unhealthy view of history, it is neither to return to nor fix but to learn from. The majority of us are busy dealing with the present and see the obsession with the past as less than helpful.

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 13:20:37 -0400

Something is fundamentally wrong in a democracy that has all the energy around laws to restrict voting rather than expand voting. We should be embarrassed that so few people actually vote, but as has been the case since the beginning the system is built to be run by an elite few. It is said the United States is a republic or a representative democracy, but who is really represented and who is not represented is the metastasis destroying the country from the inside out.

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 10:05:00 -0400

You might have heard the phrase “sound track of your life.” One of the earliest songs on my sound track is Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad, which for some reason my mind associates with the first dance I went to in middle school. Not that I danced at all, but that was one of the songs played. The memory comes back today due to learning that Meat Loaf has passed away.

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:19:33 -0400

A Simple Plan to Solve All of America’s Problems suggests America’s problems are due to manufactured scarcity. I agree, but unfortunately scarcity is what makes some Americans very rich, and America is all about making a scarce group of people very rich.

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 11:31:56 -0400

I write many of my blog posts on this site using the Drafts app on my iPad, and I can do that because micro.blog supports an open API that provides the ability to integrate any editor to it. In this manner micro.blog is the most open platform that I have used. In fact that means I can even use Drummer to write and publish a post to this site. The irony is, I cannot do the reverse as there is no way for me to write a post in Drafts to be published to my Daynotes. The cause in my opinion is that Dave is focused on a file format rather than an API.

Sat, 06 Nov 2021 11:17:36 -0400

This summary about Matter makes the app sound appealing, but I am pretty happy with my current reading flow that uses River5, Radio3, IFFT, Pocket, Kindle Readwise, Roam and Evernote. The flow enables me to review and consume a high amount of information across every computer operating system that I may use.

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 17:47:20 -0400

Microsoft now has a Notion clone, while I don’t really get Notion. Every time I have checked Notion out I just think it has too much.

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 22:33:00 -0400

I read these stories of Manchin in the middle of all the current politics and I can’t help but think about how much of an ego trip that must be. Right now he has all the attention and power, Trump must be envious.

Sir Sinclair and I

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 11:19:00 -0400

British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair died yesterday, September 16. I, of course, never met this man who had an impact on the direction of my life.

My chosen field of study in college, computer science, led to the career that caused me to move to metropolitan Detroit, ultimately meet and marry my wife, and have the life I now live. How I came to chose to study computer science was influenced by three events during my high school years: the arrival of the Apple II in my high school, taking an after school BASIC programming class, and being gifted the Timex Sinclair 1000. Sir Sinclair invented the ZX80, the predecessor to the ZX8, in Britian, and that same computer was later sold as the Timex Sinclair 1000 in the United States.

I was raised by my grandmother and we lived off social security along with some savings. The personal computers sold at the time cost well beyond our means, but the Timex Sinclair only cost $100, though you needed the nearly $40 additional cost of the 16 KB storage for it to be useful. The nearly $150 total cost made it the most expensive gift my grandmother ever bought me, and I don’t doubt she made sacrifices to buy it, but she felt it important for my future. Turns out my grandmother was right.

Even by the standards of the time, the Timex Sinclair was a bit of a joke for a computer. Frogger was one of the games available for the Timex Sinclair that my friend called “woodtick” because of how the large block pixel graphics of the frog took over the entire TV screen when it got run over by a car.

Back then the common display for personal computers were TV screens. Programs were stored on cassete tapes. As I said, the Timex Sinclair only had 16 kilobytes of RAM. It had a membrane keyboard rather than a real keyboard that had most of the BASIC functions assigned. When writing a program you “typed” PRINT by pressing a combination of a function key and they key that had the command printed on it. I don’t recall whether I ever connected the Timex Sinclair to a printer or did anything like word processing.

Despite the limits Sinclair’s invention made a brand new world of personal computing accessible to me in the comfort of my bedroom floor. Hours of typing in pre-printed programs from magazines and hours of experimenting with little BASIC programs sparked the interest that as I said led to the life I now have.

Reading tributes and stories of Sinclair, I know that I am just one of hundreds of thousands of people around the world that share the same story. What a wonderful legacy. Thank you Sir Sinclair, rest in peace.

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 11:05:03 -0400

To the half of the U.S. population who actually cares about things like what our government does in our name, while we must do everything to rescue refugees that WE created, we must also works towards breaking the chain of violence that has existed since the end of World War II. What should we do? This…

“We should start by finally listening to Barbara Lee. First, we should pass her bill to repeal the two post-9/11 AUMFs that launched our 20-year fiasco in Afghanistan and other wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Then we should pass her bill to redirect $350 billionper year from the U.S. military budget (roughly a 50% cut) to ‘increase our diplomatic capacity and for domestic programs that will keep our Nation and our people safer.'” source

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 10:43:37 -0400

I’ve lived in Michigan all of my life, the last 30+ years in southeast Michigan, and I can’t remember a summer with so many thunderstorms. It seems like since July we have had storms several days each week, many with high winds and lots of rain to blow down trees, take out power lines, and cause flooding. Last night there were near constant storms from midnight to 7 AM.

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 14:17:30 -0400

The most important civics lesson, most important history lesson, and the most important sociology lesson about the United States is that the United States is only 245 years old. In comparison to the World, we are two years old. In comparison to the Universe, we have just been conceived. Not acknowledging our youth, thinking we know it all, that we are “great” is our downfall. It is our undoing, and nothing is permanent.

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 17:10:00 -0400

My reaction to the Google Pixel 6 news today is simple, I can’t imagine spending nearly or north of $1,000 for a smartphone. I’ve not had a single performance issue with the $349 Pixel 4a that I am currently using.

The big question Google is facing is, does the smartphone market have room for a third luxury, high priced, smartphone? Seems to me that people who buy for status buy iPhones or Samsung and I am not convinced they are going to choose Pixel 6 over either.

IoT Is An Oxymoron

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 11:38:33 -0400

What made local area and wireless networks happen are industry standards that enable different vendor products to work with each other. The Internet Of Things is nearly the exact opposite, in my home is a case in point. I have Hue lights that require a Hue hub for management and I have a number of sensors and smart switches that use Zigbee that I manage with Samsung’s SmartThings hub.

The SmartThings hub can control the Hue lights, but the Hue hub only knows Hue products. I started first with the Hue lights and the hub, but if I had could have seen in the future I might have just bought the SmartThings hub. On the other hand, one big thing I get with the Hue hub is the use of a catalog of scenes that combine different colors to make for some pretty nice lighting in our basement.

I recently bought two cheaper Sylvania color smartlights when recent heavy rains suggested it might be nice to have a color smartlight in our living room, right now we have a non-color Hue light in the living room. We have a moisture sensor in the sump pump pit that works with the SmartThings hub and an automation in SmartThings that turns on all of the lights when moisture is detected. The automation sets the color lights to purple (homage to Prince) but obviously cannot do that with non-color lights. It happened the automation was recently triggered during the evening when the living room light might normally come on so I realize it just turning on might not be enough notification. Thus the idea to buy a color light, thus the purpose of the Sylvania light because the Hue light costs $50.

Before putting the new Sylvania light in the living room I decided to test it in the basement, where I have the color Hue lights, and here exposes the problem. The Hue lights are controlled by the Hue hub that knows nothing about the Sylvania light, this the Sylvania light cannot be part of the any of the Hue scenes. Perhaps I can find a “third party” app that works with SmartThings to replace Hue scenes, but I have not yet done the research.

Better, yet, would be an industry standard for controlling these color lights that would enable me to fully control them, with scenes, from one hub or “smart device.” Of course, this is a known problem and industy leaders appear to be working together to address it by developing a protocol called Matter. Hopefully, there will be a day when all I need is one controlling device, technically right now I have three: Hue hub, SmartThings hub, Amazon Echo, and Google Home.

P.S. I really hope the Matter protocol addresses how smartlights handle resumption of power after a power outage. Hue added the ability to enforce the last known state, if a light was off when the power went off then it is supposed to stay off when power is restored. However, I’ve found that doesn’t work well with multiple successive short power loses. Worse, is the fact that the Sylvania light appears to not have such a setting. When power is restored the light turns on, regardless of its prior state.

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 11:03:00 -0400

I am disappointed with the final episode of Loki. For me, because episode five was so good it felt as though the final episode closed the first season too abruptly. It felt like you are reading a six chapter book, get to chapter six and find it is only three pages that basically says, “buy the next book.” What we know is that there will be a second season of Loki (thanks to the end credit scene) and it appears that we got introduced to Kang the Conqueror and the set up for the Multiverse of Madness. But now what?

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:38:00 -0400

I wish someone would point out to Dave Winer that because micro.blog uses Micropub, one can use a number of different editors, perhaps even one of their choice like the the Ulysses that his correspondent is using, to publish their writing to their blog. I personally use Drafts on my iPad and Omnibear whereever I use Chrome to write my blog posts.

Someday I want to work with writing some Javascript to post to my blog and see if I could get that to work with Roam to publish a block of text via Micropub.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:21:01 -0400

What’s ironic is that every person arrested for the insurrection on the U.S. Capital on January 6, 2021 will expect, and demand, that everyone provide, the presumption of innocence, which requires the accuser to prove by providing evidence in court that the accused commited a crime. Yet, these people wanted state legislatures, the Supreme Court, or Congress to nullify the election results based on their accusuation of voter fraud.

The point being, the people storming the Capital really weren’t defending the Constitution nor do they really want to live in the world they think they are fighting for. Presumption of innocence means they have the possibility of not being put in jail by a force greater than themselves and that same presumption of innocence might be the only thing that saved the Republic, this time.

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:26:08 -0400

Tommy Lasorda, legendary Los Angeles Dodgers manager, has died - CNN

Among my oldest memories are from the seventies watching the World Series, which seemed to always be the New York Yankees versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, with my grandfather and grandmother. Even though my grandfather had strokes that left him speechless he was my father figure and so these are fond memories. My grandfather grew up in Milwaukee and so a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers but the Yankees were the villain and the Dodgers the hero for us during these games. Of course Lasorda was the manager of the Dodgers during those games, so news of his passing brought back these memories today.

We Found Where Is The Republican Line

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 10:42:02 -0400

It’s amusing and sad to finally see so many Republicans jump off the sinking ship after it hit the iceberg. All through the last four years my question to Republicans has been, what is your line that Trump could not cross? We found the line was literaly no less than an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. And these are people who call themselves patriots? If they really want to do the right thing they should resign.

The thing is, it doesn’t really matter now. What’s going to matter is when in four years and the Republican Presidential primaries start does the party push back against Trump and any who follow his playbook, or do they do all the same things again? It already started when Congress finally reviewed and accpeted the Electoral College results.

At this point I think the lust for supremacy is what Republicans are all about. They could not take a principaled stand until literally forced to by an attempted coup. I for one right now cannot imagine how I can ever trust anyone who is Republican and desires the power of federal office. We cannot let Republicans re-frame the story in a way that does not make them culpable in what happened on January 6, 2021, for they built the platform upon which Trump and his followers spoke and acted, starting with birtherism.

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 13:36:00 -0400

What ought to be clear to Congress, the DOJ, to the Armed Forces, and anyone in power that is not associated with Trump is that IF Trump is NOT removed from office now then at a minimum they must prepare to act swiftly to respond to the actions of this rogue President. Anything less is at best negligence. Trump is a hostile and the threat he poses needs to be taken seriously. No more “what harm can he do” attitude from anyone in power. Up to this point not enough people have accepted nor acted on the threat Trump presents.

And for the world’s sake, find some way to get the football away from him!

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 13:21:06 -0400

I believe that those willing to step out of the forest are seeing the thrashing of the withdrawal symptoms of a society deeply addicted to itself.

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 14:42:34 -0400

I do not take comfort in SCOTUS deciding to not take up Texas' lawsuit against the four swing states. First, SCOTUS simply hid behind procedure and thus were not the adults in the room standing against tyranny. What is even more troubling to me is that I am sure President Trump fully expected “his” SCOTUS justices to keep him in office, I am sure in his mind that is what they owed him for seating them. The fact that any person considers any judges to be “his,” particularly Justices is frightening.

What we must learn from this episode of U.S. history is that it matters how anyone who would be President views the powers and responsibilities of the office. The U.S. Constitution is not intended to give anyone extreme powers, its intention is exactly the opposite. The fact that people think elections are all about power shows how much we have strayed from the founding principles of the United States.

If we don’t learn from this year and make meaningful changes then all we have done is prevent the end of the U.S. for the time being and increased the likelihood that it will not see its tricentennial. It takes more to preserve freedom than waving a flag and standing for the national anthem.

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 14:25:20 -0400

Tim Wu makes a good case that the vaunted “checks and balances” of the U.S. constitution has not really shown to be reality. The only thing that has prevented democracy in the U.S. from being overthrown has been the integrity of a frighteningly small number of people.

In my opinion we must not allow Republicans to paint a picture that this threat has only been because of Donald Trump. None of what we have endured is due to just Trump, in fact a case can be made that none of it is on Trump, instead it has all been on the Republican Party. Never forget, Trump won the Republican Party nomination for President, and if he had not then we would have not had four years of a Trump presidency and who knows how many fewer lives would have been saved from the pandemic.

We can’t be patting ourselves on the back thinking democracy prevailed. All that we really have is possibly a victory of one battle, but Republicans have been waging war on the United States since the 1940s and will continue fighting that war in to the future. As long as there is no consequence on Republicans they will remain to be a clear and present danger.

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 12:06:29 -0400

I am still bumming since learning on Friday that Len Kasper is leaving the Chicago Cubs to be the lead radio announcer for the White Sox. What I like about Len is that he is a genuine baseball guy, he isn’t a broadcaster who also does baseball, so moving from TV to radio makes sense. Of all sports baseball is best for radio.

My life experience with the Chicago Cubs has always been narrated by TV play-by-play guys: Jack Brickhouse, Harry Caray, Chip Caray, and Len Kasper. There have been a few others who have been briefly behind the mike, but these are the voices that replay in my head.

The first words are Jack’s calling another Dave Kingman home run. Most of the words are spoken by Harry, who was with me from teenager to adult. Chip is sentimental following his grandfathers death, where Len will always be part of the Cubs finally making it to and winning the World Series in 2016.

White Sox fans are getting a great baseball guy to tell them the White Sox story when baseball starts in 2021. I might try to listen to a few games, particularly when the White Sox come to Detroit and Len sits closer to Ernie Harwell’s seat. In the meantime I’ll watch for who will be next at broadcasting for the Cubs.

What To Do With Ideas

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 13:24:13 -0400

I’ve responded to this question about “what does one do with ideas” with my wish for how products like Roam could be even better for me. In summary, I want an app like Roam that recognizes a string of text as the same as the title of an already existing page and automactically converts it to a link to that page without my having to specify it as such with square brackets.

I think the challenge is putting the “new idea” in a place that is connected/related in a way that easily re-surfaces. A common practice is to put all ideas in to one bucket/tickler file and then continually reviewing that bucket/tickler file, which itself requires discipline.

Roam has a nice feature that enables me to easily associate text to a future date so when that date arrives the app automatically displays that item. Roam isn’t unique in this feature and associating to dates is probably an easy problem to solve, but what I would like would be an automated way associate an idea to a topic that can re-surface whenever I search for or write about the topic.

The closest example I can think of is glossary function in Fargo or wiki links in Roam but even those require remembering special functions, quotes for glossary, square brackets for wiki links. What I would love is to be able to tell software, whenever I write this string of text automatically convert the text to a hyperlink to this page of more information about it. For software to just do it for me it would have to constantly monitor my writing, like MS Word’s spell/grammar check.

If memory serves, the closest experience I had to this was VoodooPad and WikiWikiWeb were you wrote in wikiwords like WhereIPutIdeas, that the software automatically converted to links, but that is flawed by the fact that one has to write in an unnatural way.

I guess what I want is some form of natural language processing of all text I write that queries against a collection of previously written pages and automatically links to matches. Even the backlinking in Roam requires some thinking/recollection on my part, unless there is something in Roam I have not yet discovered.

Outlines, Wikis, and Wisdom

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 10:45:00 -0400

I have a great deal of respect for the people who layed the foundation of the computer technology I use today, people like Steve Wozniak, Dan Bricklin, Ward Cunningham, and Dave Winer. I follow Ward and Dave the closest because they actively write and because I use their work every day.

I am struck by the similarities and differences between Ward and Dave’s work. Ward created wiki, which is a tool he created to write and share pattern languages. Wiki’s emphasis is on easy writing and hyperlinking, which I think was the intended purpose of the Web. Dave also created writing tools, the outliner and blogs, that simplify publishing of writing on the Internet and he also created RSS to make it easier for one to keep up with the writing on the Internet. Dave’s original work is the conceptual basis for my stream while Ward’s original work provides the tools for my garden.

I like outlines and find that I really like Federated Wiki and today I realized that the similarity between them is that both provide context to writing but in different ways. Outlines are hiearchical while Federated Wiki has a lineup that shows context between source and destination links in a horizontal and linear fashion. I think this ability to easily see context and connections is also why I like Roam and use it for my private notes.

I am not sure that this matters much to others, but I think there is a relationship between context and history. History is the context of our lives and I think a great deal of our problems come from a failure to see meaning or to see what is really happening because we fail to know the context. Part of the problem may be that it’s too difficult to find the context of history, that’s where tools like oultliners might help, and because it is so difficult few people really take the time to seek out and understand context.

Context is needed for true understanding, knowledge, and thus wisdom and today there is a huge deficiency of wisdom.

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 17:14:00 -0400

Kevin Tofel’s review of the Microsoft Duo is worth reading because it might be the most optimistic, if not down to earth, of the reviews I’ve read. A reason might be that not once did he refer to the price and thus didn’t get in to the “for this price one should not have these problems” trope. IMHO any gadget priced north of $1K is too expensive even if it works perfectly!

So, if price is an issue, save the time and the pixels and just write, “it’s too expensive” and move on. Because Kevin is not on a mission to drive home the point that the device is too expensive, he focuses more on the actual problems and frankly, what he writes about seem to be something that Microsoft could address in software updates.

The most important point that Kevin makes, though, is about the biases toward what the Duo is, even though Microsoft has emphasized it is not a phone or a tablet.

I think people are calling the Duo a phone because that’s the closest device comparison they can make. And I get that. But the Duo truly is something different and, along with other folding or swivel screen devices, early in the trend of a new device class.

And I like this thought…

And although Microsoft dubbed it the Duo over a year ago, I think the company should have said that “Duo” is just an internal product code name. A better, more descriptive name would have been Surface Booklet because that’s really what it is: A connected book-like tablet.

To be fair, I noted before that Brad Sams also took effort to emphasize the Duo being a class on its own, although he used device classification of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Computing Is Art

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 10:20:24 -0400

I’ve read two articles this week that make the case for treating Computer Science as something other than Computer Science. The one, titled, Why Computing Belongs With The Social Sciences, argues that we will not gain more ethical computing from college curricula that have “Computing Ethics” classes but only by moving Computing in to the Social Sciences. The author points to the increasing relationship between algorithms and power.

Recommendation algorithms, automated sanctioning systems, reactive violation detection and prediction systems, and nudge architectures are replacing the human agency built into our legal and political systems with an architecture of unknowable black boxes allowing the one-way surveil and control of people without any corresponding contestation

In an essay titled Hackers and Painters, Paul Graham notes that while he graduated with a Computer Science degree, he self identifies as a hacker, which is the likely image most people have of one who holds a CompSci degree. Graham says that hackers are like painters and writers because they make things. The following is for me the most important quote in the essay.

Empathy is probably the single most important difference between a good hacker and a great one. Some hackers are quite smart, but when it comes to empathy are practically solipsists. It’s hard for such people to design great software [5], because they can’t see things from the user’s point of view

Both articles resonate strongly with me. I graduated in 1989 with a Computer Science degree and have been working in the Information Technology industry for more than thirty years and I can say that I have never used any of the specifics of my computer science classes save for one, one Software Engineering. I also got a minor in secondary education and what gained from that part of my college learning I applied frequently throughout my career.

In my experience computing is more art than a science and more about humans than machines and yet neither of these realities were part of my formal computer science education. Granted, much time has passed since I graced the college classrooms so I know curricula has changed, but yet given the “market” pressures on colleges I suspect the most focus on producing employable graduates, with life long skills a secondary benefit rather than primary focus.

Definitely a Random Mind

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 09:55:00 -0400

I find it amusing how my mind recalls bits of things in certain circumstances. For example, during my morning walk I saw that the lawn care company was planting a shrubbery and I immediately said to myself, “I want a shrubbery, and a nice one too.”

Sat, 04 Jul 2020 11:07:00 -0400

If you want to hang on to the past you must also take responsibility for the past.

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 13:16:00 -0400

The primary lesson of incarnation, which is what Christianity celebrates tonight, is that Yahweh is not like other gods! Merry Christmas!

Dictatorship It Is

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 11:50:26 -0400

Today electing a president is not about issues, nor is it about changing minds, nor is it about who looks better and sounds better of TV. The election is not about a personal popularity contest. Electing a president is now simply about opposition. In short, there is no middle ground just as the middle class has grown increasingly small.

If you identify Republican you are likely going to only vote for Republicans because you think all Democrats are crazy and will destroy the country. Likewise, if you identify Democrat you will only vote Democrat. If you really don’t like your candidate you will not vote, or write in Mickey Mouse rather than cast a vote for the opposing party.

The consequence is that the candidates only say what their “base” wants to hear, and it doesn’t even matter of what is said is true. Candidates don’t really try to change people’s minds. In this environment, do we really need debates? Worse, there is little for few remaing, truly “independent” voters to hear, and frankly doing a bunch of research is too much work for the average voter. Increasing numbers of these disenfranchised voters will simply sit out.

Unfortunately, I think Democrats think the lesson learned from 2016 is to focus on their base and ignore the middle because they think there are more liberal/progressives voters than conservative, Republicans, or independents. An extreme shift left is viewed by their opposition as further evidence of crazy Democrats.

The authors of the U.S. Constitution foresaw this type of fanaticism that democracy enables and thus created a structure to prevent it. Unfortunately, over time political idealogies have trumped preservation of the Republic concentrating more power within the Presidency. A party aligned, rubber stamping Congress and Supreme Court is a defacto dictatorship and this is effectly today’s U.S. government.

American Idol

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 13:08:00 -0400

President Trump simply believes that he as president cannot commit a crime. He believes that a president is above the law. Trump’s belief is the logical conclusion of decades of expansion of presidential powers that started with Vietnam.

How far have we fallen? At the beginning of my life President Nixon resigned before he was impeached because he broke the law. Nixon knew he would be impeached because he knew and accepted that Americans did not believe a President was above the law. We now have President Trump who believes that more Americans now accept that a President is above the law and believes that Americans today find loyalty to him and loyalty to party more important than loyalty to the Republic.

All presidents in my life time have desired more power. The real problem has been Congress' abdication of it’s prime constitutional responsibility to be a check on the presidency. At root of this abdication is the transformation of Congress as representative of all U.S. citizens to only representative of the majority party. Rather than upholding and defending the U.S. Constitution, Congress has become all about enabling and implementing a Republican or Democrat ideology.

What I find ironic is that I think the core belief of conservatism is that “abosolute power corrupts absolutely” and yet Republican conservatives have been the prime architects of the expansion of powers to the president. Conservatives should be truly republican but do not act like it, but rather tend to act more as anarchists.

Worst of all is that too many U.S. citizens do not care that this is happening! Too many people do not know the Constitution nor appreciate the fundamental reasons for why the U.S. form of republican democracy was designed and adopted. These people pledge allegiance to a flag as if the flag is the thing rather than a symbol of the real thing, our way of life enabled by the Constitution.

What has been taking place over the course of my life time is the ascendency of a U.S. monarchy or dictatorship under the veneer of the Presidency. If you are truly a U.S. patriot your loyalty should be to the “Republic for which it stands”, which means the Constitution that defines the republic.

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 23:12:00 -0400

Another trip and another reminder of the stupid hoops I have to go through to get a picture I take on my Pixel 2 posted on this blog. It’s been years!

The Lovable Losers Of My Youth

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 09:14:40 -0400

The common denominator for all my favorite professional sports teams is that they were losers during my childhood. The Green Bay Packers were the siberia of the NFL during the 70s and 80s until Reggie White started playing for them in 1993 and three years later won the Super Bowl. Ever since 1993 the Packers have been at or near the top of the NFL.

The Chicago Cubs were the epitome of “lovable losers” for a century. Even though the Cubs flirted with chances to make it to the World Series in 1984, 1989, and 2003 but it hasn’t been until the last five years that they have consistently been at or near the top of the league, and you know they won it all in 2016.

Like the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Red Wings were also once the dominant team in the NHL but during the 70s and 80s they were known as the “dead Wings.” The owners had to give away cars to get people to come to their games. In 1997 the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup, and of my favorite teams they have won more championships in my life time, winning again in 1998, 2002, and 2008. Since the calendar turned to the 2010s the Wings have been in a rebuilding phase.

Finally, the Detroit Pistons where also perenial losers during my childhood but where the first of my faves that I witnessed winning a championship in 1989, and again in 1990 and 2004. Frankly, the championship they won in 2004 is one of the most gratifying because nobody really expected it and they upset the perenial champion Los Angeles Lakers. Like the Red Wings, the Pistons are rebuilding but apppear to be nearing returning to the tops of their league sooner than the Wings.

Over my life time I’ve seen the long road it takes to get from basement to top floor of a professional sports league. I’ve seen how it takes for a team to learn how to be a champion, particularly from the Red Wings who had huge playoff failures after being the best team in their league the entire season.

Of all my favorite teams, the Cubs have the most talent and I expect will have chances to win championships again in the foreseeable future. The MLB’s farm system enables a franchise to have more control over its future if they have the right leadership. The NHL is similar, which is why theirs and the MLB front offices have such a huge influence on their long term success, much more than in the NFL and NBA that seems to depend much more on health and luck.

I am dissappointed that the Chicago Cubs will not make the playoffs this year. I will always love the Cubbies, win or lose, but I much better like where they are now, a very good team that can disappoint than a bad team that surprises.

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:58:00 -0400

I watched the Apple iPhone event this afternoon and found all the emphasis on the cameras to be over the top. I know that Google has received praise for the cameras in the Pixels so I get that Apple wanted to proclaim loudly they have the best camera. I am not a camera nerd, all I want is the camera on my phone to take decent pictures, which it does. I don’t care about all the whizzywigs, and I wouldn’t buy a smartphone because it has the best camera. It feels like Apple is still playing the features game to convince people to throw down $1k on their phones, case in point, the portion of the event that got into the details of the A13 processor.

When I look at this comparison of phones, I am drawn to the Pixel 3A XL because it has enough features for the lowest price.

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:44:00 -0400

I wonder if I am the only person who thinks Apple should do the same thing they did with the iPod and make the Apple Watch work standalone or with Windows? The tie to iPhone constrains sales, in my opinion. The iPod didn’t really take off until it started working with Windows, and if Apple really wants to sell watches, they need treat it like a standalone product.

Journalism Yes, Media No

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 12:53:28 -0400

I have been reading Dave Winer’s writing for a long time, and a common theme of his writing is journalism. My translation of what he has been saying is that news has become a platform, and as such anyone can do it, and those who are employed as journalists need to shift from being gatekeepers to being participants. True platforms route around gatekeepers.

The reason why this message is not well received by journalists is obvious, it’s because what they hear is that you no longer have a job. Staying employed is important to these people and you cannot blame them because it is how they support their families.

When the constitution was written people like Benjamin Franklin viewed journalism as a vocation because frankly the idea of a “job” didn’t really exist. When vocations became professions, a shift in priorities took place, with maintaining employment moving to the top. When journalism transformed to media thanks to corporate consolidation, the move to journalism being about money became complete.

The honest question that has been avoided ever since is, is what we have, journalism as media to make profits, consistent with the “fourth estate” established by the First Amendment? If the prime objective of the Consitution, of which the First Amendment is a part, is to be the United in the United States of America, then today’s media is not that which the first amendment refers to because there is more profits generated from disunity than unity.

Citizens instinctively know that the profits that corporate ownership demands is corupting, and therefore they do not trust media because they know there is a bias towards making money over telling truth.

Of course Fox News is giving their viewers what they want to hear, that is how they make money! Of course MSNBC is giving their viewers what they want to hear, that is how they make money! Of course the New York Times is giving their readers what they want to red, that is how they make money!

On and on it goes. It is another example of how hyper capitalism is destroying republican democracy and thus destroying our country.