@John@socks.masto.host
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

John

@John@socks.masto.host

I am retired in Southern California after working on the computational side of chemistry, medical electronics, environmental monitoring, motion pictures, and even some web commerce.

I am interested in hiking and the outdoors, exercise physiology (especially for someone in my age group), gardening, and old man projects in general.

Posts auto-delete after two months.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ai6yr, to random

Hmm, finding a vegetarian Indian dish to make for dinner from scratch (which doesn't require a lot of ingredients I don't have and time) is an interesting challenge 🤔

Thus, why Indian restaurants and grocery stores here with takeout counters are appealing, LOL.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr finding a grocery store with a lunch counter was my favorite when working. If you're really lucky they have cricket on the TV.

John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

"The name was adopted in 1911 when Chevron built its second refinery, El Segundo, which is Spanish for 'the Second'."

Things that are easy to look up on the internet, and make you feel like you should have done years ago.

Imagine. The town is named for the refinery.

John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

Alito's flag is getting more play and attention than I expected. That's good.

ai6yr, to random

LA Times: SoCal parks agency fines visitors who roll through stop signs $100. It has made millions https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-17/park-visitors-beware-critics-say-a-local-agency-has-turned-traffic-tickets-into-a-money-machine

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I said "more of this please."

https://socks.masto.host/@John/112445423492503612

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I was actually at a stop sign just now, in my car, when a Tesla blasted through his stop sign and pulled a left in front of me .. because I was stopped?

I don't know what these people are thinking.

Is there some kind of self-driving aggressive mode that just does that?

5 minutes earlier I saw a Tesla make an extra right turn lane where there wasn't one, and just trust that the people making legal right turns would stay tight.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I know some nice people with Teslas but sometimes it seems like it's a car designed by sociopaths for sociopaths:

"A software update on certain Tesla vehicles in the US has added a new “Assertive” mode that tailgates other vehicles, zig-zags through traffic, and will roll through stop signs rather than come to a halt."

https://www.drive.com.au/news/safety-experts-slam-tesla-assertive-mode-that-automates-dangerous-driving/

They're definitely not going here for the hippie green market there.

ai6yr, to random

Remarkable how out-of-the-mainstream utilitarian cycling seems to be in my neighborhood. Strong car-centric culture in Southern California, for sure. (yes, I was, until recently, part of that). 🤔

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr we are a species where people will drive to the gym, push a button and wait for the rear hatch to open, take out a gym bag, go work out, come back push a button and wait for the rear hatch to open, put the gym bag in, and drive away.

I think if you understand that you understand everything.

John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

It really is amazing that Elon Musk is firing all these people from Tesla at exactly the same time he is asking shareholders to approve the $46 billion payout to himself.

Amazing on several levels.

ai6yr, to climate

Scripps News pushing this nationally... I'm wondering if the plastics and bottled water industries are pushing this.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I worked with a guy who only refilled his water bottle, and one day I'm like wait a minute what is that .. he had a nice colony of green moss on the bottom. He sat close to the window. That must have helped.

I feel like best practices would be to use stainless steel and then only ever put water in it. Certainly never anything sweetened or with fats.

It is kind of a minefield though. Stainless bottles may have plastic sip tubes and then what about those..

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr as a basic rule of thumb:

If your water bottle has a taste, it's time to replace.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr maybe it's all unavoidable at this point, but abrasion of plastic will produce microplastics

Especially true if the plastics have been exposed to UV

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I guess my ancient preference for loose leaf tea is confirmed there.

Seriously there are a set of things we could do to reduce our "last mile" exposure to microplastics. We could prefer to buy anything in glass that is available in glass as opposed to plastic. We could drink from glass, and when that's impractical metal.

We might have to hand wash.

But it comes down to how much have we done to ourselves as a species, and can we even recover at this point?

https://www.foodtimes.eu/food-system-en/dishwashers-and-release-of-microplastics-the-study

ai6yr, to gardening

With a dozen new grapevines in the ground here, now trying to figure out how to prune/train them somehow (ps. I have a billion additional grapes rooted for anyone in Ventura County who'd like one!) #gardening #grapes https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/grape-trellising-training-basics

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr In my experience they love a chain link fence, and all you have to do is prune them back to the fence. Remembering of course the year old cane rule. (Grapes only bear fruit on branches that are 1-year-old so you have to keep sufficient numbers of those.)

John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

Ben Thompson ties the Apple "crush" ad back to "bicycles of the mind:"

"The apology comes across as heartfelt — accentuated by the fact that an Apple executive put his name to it — but I disagree with Myhren: the reason why people reacted so strongly to the ad is that it couldn’t have hit the mark more squarely."

https://stratechery.com/2024/the-great-flattening/

John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

"I used ChromeOS Flex on an 18-year-old MacBook — and it worked"

A computer restomod.

It might be fun to try with something otherwise headed for recycling.

https://www.xda-developers.com/i-used-chromeos-flex-18-year-old-macbook/

rodhilton, to random
@rodhilton@mastodon.social avatar

When Jack first started talking about Bluesky, in the very early phases it involved the blockchain. I remember suggesting that I thought the reason he liked the idea was that he could theoretically build a version of Twitter where no tweets could ever be deleted, and therefore there'd be no pressure on him to moderate or ban anyone. He wanted to not have the power.

People always thought I misunderstood Jack's motivations but it turns out I was right about him all along.

https://www.engadget.com/jack-dorsey-claims-bluesky-is-repeating-all-the-mistakes-he-made-at-twitter-234326121.html

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@rodhilton for sure, Jack was always very upfront about that. If people were pushing back to you it's probably because they weren't reading the original sources.

My read is that he has some weird, combination Buddhist and libertarian, idea about free speech.

The idea that everybody publishes and everybody else just filters seems to satisfy him.

It might of course be a lot of work for the filterers.

clive, to random
@clive@saturation.social avatar

As I behold "Crush!", the new Apple ad for their Ipad Pro ...

... I fluctuate, with heisenbergian indeterminacy, between "they are clearly trolling us" and "they are totally earnest and have no idea how completely sociopathic they appear"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@clive

Crushing things seems like a different energy, from say ..

"For years, he [Steve Jobs] arranged for a Buddhist monk by the name of Kobun Chino Otogawa to meet with him once a week at his office to counsel him on how to balance his spiritual sense with his business goals."

https://www.lionsroar.com/how-steve-jobs-found-buddhism/

docpop, to bluesky
@docpop@mastodon.social avatar

Jack Dorsey referred to Twitter, the privately owned company that blocked links to competing social media platforms like Mastodon, as "freedom technology". What a clown.

He also deleted his account on Bluesky announced he's no longer on Bluesky's board of directors. Jack's involvement was one of the reasons I was never excited about #Bluesky, TBH.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/05/jack-dorsey-says-hes-no-longer-on-the-bluesky-board/?guccounter=butts #JackDorsey

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@docpop it's possible he's referring to Twitter as a corporation with "you're on one," and freedom technology is an oblique reference to Nostr, his new thing.

I don't mind that Nostr exists, but it doesn't seem likely to become my thing.

https://coingape.com/jack-dorsey-pledges-21-million-for-bitcoin-development/

ai6yr, to Electronics

ABC: E-waste is overflowing landfills. At one sprawling Vietnam market, workers recycle some of it https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/waste-overflowing-landfills-sprawling-vietnam-market-workers-recycle-109892591

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I have seen some YouTubes by some guys who seem to have a fun and useful business. They run those weekend recycling drop-offs, probably with a little cash flow from the government and the organizer, and then they sort it all. The best goes to eBay, the intermediate goes to materials handlers, but probably the worst is sent in bulk overseas.

eBay as environmental hero

ai6yr, to gardening

I appear to have a volunteer monkeyflower (mimulus) growing out of a crack in the patio.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I think their algorithm has changed somewhat, so that it searches first through a list of proper names, and capitalizes everything it finds.

It doesn't seem to waste time looking at context.

Jonathanglick, to random
@Jonathanglick@mstdn.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    John,
    @John@socks.masto.host avatar

    @Jonathanglick That has been my question for a couple years now.

    John,
    @John@socks.masto.host avatar

    @Jonathanglick chances are they are just holding two incompatible thoughts in their minds. Most likely.

    Perhaps the darker view would be that AI's aren't customers?

    With real AI (AGI), what some people have called "robot socialism" becomes possible. Everyone sleeps in and robots just do all the jobs.

    But that's socialism and not compatible with the billionaire tech bro world view.

    John,
    @John@socks.masto.host avatar

    @Jonathanglick at some level they might realize that with human level AI they are redundant.

    There is less reason to concentrate wealth with one individual.

    ai6yr, to random

    Dang, the church in "The Rock" (Sean Connery/Nicholas Cage) burnt down in August of 2005. It was in Saticoy, Ventura County, California. https://m.santapaulatimes.com/news/archivestory.php/aid/9510/Historic_Darling_Road_church_destroyed_by_fire_.html

    Church with green fields around it
    Same church, closeup, Nicholas Cage's butt

    John,
    @John@socks.masto.host avatar

    @ai6yr Saticoy is one of those streets in the Valley that kind of aspirationally heads in the right direction, but never gets to the town of the same name.

    I didn't realize it was a Chumash word. Sheltered from the wind.

    exador23, to random
    @exador23@m.ai6yr.org avatar

    Reuters: Elon Musk's abrupt decision to lay off employees who ran Tesla's electric vehicle charging business blindsided automakers gearing up to equip new EVs for customers to use the Tesla Supercharger network

    That's what you get for buying into a proprietary standard (owned by an idiot with the emotional stability of a toddler) instead of an open standard.

    John,
    @John@socks.masto.host avatar

    @exador23 @ai6yr

    "The North American Charging Standard (NACS), being standardized as SAE J3400, is an electric vehicle (EV) charging connector system developed by Tesla, Inc."

    I guess this leaves the word "being" before standardized somewhat hanging.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Charging_Standard

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • osvaldo12
  • ngwrru68w68
  • GTA5RPClips
  • provamag3
  • InstantRegret
  • everett
  • Durango
  • cisconetworking
  • khanakhh
  • ethstaker
  • tester
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • normalnudes
  • modclub
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •