@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.

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

Checking the Hertz used car site it looks like they have 160 used Bolts for sale in Los Angeles. I might go check one out.

ai6yr, to meta

WaPo: "Meta recently began testing cash bonuses for users who post engaging content on Threads, Business Insider reported Wednesday." https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/04/twitter-blue-check-restored-x/

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr A spiff!

An old and ignoble tradition.

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

Dylan, to random
@Dylan@weird.autos avatar

A pretty tree came down in our yard. Bummer since it just bloomed, though I am lucky the wind blew it away from my car.

image/jpeg

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@Dylan what kind of tree was it?

It should give you a new saying, like "I really dodge the crape myrtle on that one"

ai6yr, to random

Hmm, I'm beginning to see the issue here with one way Federation from Threads.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr I think it's fine, and maybe even I could argue that it is ideal. Let's say the President of the United States posts something on Threads. Subscribed, we see it. But say we want to respond and start a conversation about it.

Isn't our conversation blessedly free of trolls and masses?

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@mcc @ai6yr okay, so I'm not sure about this but I believe if it is a response to somebody on Threads they can see it in a two-click process.

But I think their followers on Threads cannot?

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr @mohab baby steps? It's interesting that joining Threads was reported so broadly as joining the fediverse. That will make it easier, at some point in the future, for someone else to join the fediverse in a more direct way.

Basmitharts, to random
@Basmitharts@weird.autos avatar

You could hear the blower on this thing from 4 blocks away.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@Dylan @Basmitharts in LA we have BMWs that sound like they're going all out on a racetrack, as they accelerate from 38 to 42 mph. Not even quickly.

I saw an M6 doing that and then I registered that he was only just keeping pace with all the moms in their crossover SUVs.

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

I periodically share my rss/atom feeds. I use these with "Feeder" on Android.

https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
https://m-cacm.acm.org/news.rss
https://spectrum.ieee.org/feeds/feed.rss
https://www.science.org/rss/news_current.xml
http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdotMain
http://techcrunch.com/feed/
https://www.technologyreview.com/feed/
http://rss.sciam.com/ScientificAmerican-Global
https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
https://www.ft.com/alphaville?format=rss
https://knowablemagazine.org/rss
https://www.pewresearch.org/publications/feed/
https://crookedtimber.org/feed/
https://news.nononsenseapps.com/index.atom
https://www.techdirt.com/feed/
https://feeds.feedburner.com/shorpy?q=rss.xml

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

Do you have any other suggestions? I guess I'm looking for topical long reads with a science or technology tilt.

I do also follow stratechery but my feed url has a signature .. maybe something about the sign up process, I don't remember.

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

@W6KME @ai6yr @ascentale @sam Ones I've seen are kind of a bottle type plastic (jug-like), but yes with more color.

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

"The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers."

The MIT Technology Review take.

"While the method used to determine official emissions values estimated that drivers use electricity to power vehicles 70% to 85% of the time, the real-world driving data suggested that vehicle owners actually used electric mode for 45% to 49% of their driving. And if vehicles were company-provided cars, the average was only 11% to 15%."

Ouch on that last part especially.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/27/1090172/the-problem-with-plug-in-hybrids-their-drivers/

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

I have seen some people jump to the aging infrastructure meme on this bridge collapse, but it strikes me that it's more a question of design criteria.

I think the bridge designer was simply not told that he had to make piers withstand an impact of this size.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/francis-scott-key-bridge-collapse-engineering/

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

I have a Dell 3630 that I bought new, at "a good price, for $600." I think this here below is an amazing deal. The 3630 supports one NVMe drive and three hard drives or SSDs in a very strong industrial chassis. It's far beyond consumer quality. So I recommend it, if one NVMe and three SSDs fits your bill.

https://pcserverandparts.com/build-your-own-custom-dell-precision-3630-workstation/

ai6yr, to AirBNB

$70 a night for somebody's old tent out in the middle of the Utah desert, anyone? LOL. #airbnb

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr it absolutely beats this $2,499.95 "bestseller"

CmdrTaco, to random
@CmdrTaco@federated.press avatar

Google never “won” the war against SEO & Bot Spam… it just barely stayed ahead, and only because search quality was a top priority for the company. That isn’t remotely true any more, and the avalanche of AI generated mediocrity has made that obvious… assuming you scrolled past all the ads to find that garbage results.

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@CmdrTaco @jgordon I would not mind at all if Google was called before the Senate and asked to explain how exactly they were working in the public interest.

It might just move the needle, a bit.

ai6yr, to climate

U.S. Has Produced More Oil Than Any Country in History for Six Consecutive Years https://www.ecowatch.com/us-oil-production-record-2024.html

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr there was a time when I really didn't want to believe in Jevons' paradox, but I think over my life I've seen a particularly pernicious form of it.

Some small percentage of the population try really hard to reduce their energy footprint, and what they really do is reduce prices for the much larger share of people who don't care.

The headline yesterday was:

"Tide turns: Americans call for action on climate change"

I said don't tell me what you say, show me what you do, normies.

housepanther, to random
@housepanther@goblackcat.social avatar

price gouging

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@housepanther I feel like capitalism might be the double loaves of bread and big jars of peanut butter and jelly at Costco*.

What you've got here is lazy consumerism.

    • they also have the 25 lb bags of flour for people who are even more industrious. Shout out to everybody he was bought those.
John, to random
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

Speaking of Apple, Google, and antitrust, it is a remarkable shame that cars are limited to Apple Carplay and Android Auto.

What you'd really want, if you wanted a chance to unseat the duopoly, would be an open standard for display remoting.

Then anyone could connect to the dashboard and display their content.

Kids could do it with their Raspberry Pi.

mimsical, to random
@mimsical@mastodon.social avatar

I spent the past two weeks using generative AI in every aspect of my life, both personal and professional.

At the end of my total immersion, here's my verdict:

The last time I had an experience this eye-opening and transformative was when I bought my first smartphone.

(gift link)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jobs-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-openai-cea961d5?st=wrosu8uv2tej8c8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

1/🧵

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@Jfrites @mimsical @tchambers Right, and the people who do not carefully judge the results of the AI, but slam it out there, will obviously win on volume. They will be "more productive."

This is not a theoretical risk, it's something that's happening already.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-generated-text-scientific-journals/

MLE_online, to random
@MLE_online@social.afront.org avatar

Why are there so many outlet timers for letting you set something like a lamp to come on a 7 pm every night, but there are almost no outlet timers that let you turn something on and have it automatically turn off after, say, an hour, or 25 minutes, or 77 minutes?

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@MLE_online I see twist timers for the wall, which I suppose could be put in a box and made portable, but so far I only see 30 or 60 minute models.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intermatic-20-Amp-30-Minute-Indoor-In-Wall-Spring-Wound-Timer-White-SW30MWK/205478808

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Intermatic-20-Amp-60-Minute-Indoor-In-Wall-Spring-Wound-Countdown-Timer-White-SW60MWK/205478809

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

Interesting:

"Bezos cited literacy, poverty, and infant mortality rates as examples of humanity's progress. But humanity's progress is to the detriment of planet Earth, he said.

'There's one thing that is moving backwards, and it's the natural world,' Bezos told Fridman. 'We have traded some of that pristine beauty for all of these other gifts that we have as an advanced society. And we can have both, but to do that, we have to go to space.'"

Except for the space optimism he is correct.

ai6yr, to random

I seriously wonder about who is making some of these editorial choices at the New York Times. Big email about the US economy slowing down because of lack of population growth.

NY Times: :"Since its inception, the U.S. has relied on population growth to keep its economy pumping....But a world with a shrinking population is very different from what humans have ever seen. Since the Industrial Revolution, countries have leveraged high population growth to bolster their economies and government programs. Soon, they will no longer be able to do so."

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr My rule is that you can worry about falling population, or you can worry about AI taking our jobs, but you can't worry about both.

That's a little bit of a joke but the information age is certainly changing the nature and distribution of both work and consumption across global society.

See also AI generated ads for Temu.

ai6yr, to random

LOl article on the tennis tournament beekeeper.

LA Times: Meet the beekeeper who calmed tennis star Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-15/indian-wells-carlos-alcaraz-beekeeper

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@ai6yr are there a lot of bees out there? We did hear a story from a friend who had to sell a property after a parent died. It was a place in Palm Desert or Palm Springs that no one had visited in a few years, and apparently it was all bees inside.

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

"Woman attempts to evade officers during chase by driving into ocean at Marina del Rey." She then attempted to swim away, leaving her two small dogs in the car.

I think this woman was trying to live a missing episode from Arrested Development.

That show was not supposed to provide role models.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/woman-arrested-after-driving-into-water-in-marina-del-rey/3365558/

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

"Too Much Trust in AI Poses Unexpected Threats to the Scientific Process"

That's what I was saying ..

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trust-ai-science-risks/

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