Rycaut

Rycaut, 4 months ago to random

I like @anildash (we've know each other for eh a lot of years) and while I too agree that the return of the weird Internet is likely (and largely a good thing)

I also really want a return to the boring Internet. An internet with reliable trusted information, searches that don't try to think for me, and sites that really are from the local businesses I'm looking for (or are actual humans with real knowledge about a topic or area talking about it)

the internet of the 1990's was this as well

Rycaut, 3 months ago to random

for reasons (current car needs more work than it is likely wise to invest in it) I'm now researching our next vehicle. It can't be an EV (no easy way to charge at home) though it perhaps could be a plugin hybrid (if it can recharge from a regular outlet though it isn't easy for me due to outlet locations)

But answering "Which companies have hybrid/plug-in hybrids from recent years w/power memory driver seats and good visibility for drivers of very different sizes" is eh not easy to research

Rycaut, 1 month ago to Seattle

visiting Seattle next week for my son's spring break, we'll be staying downtown, not going to have a car (but the whole family loves walking/taking trains places), we might do a boat tour one day, will definitely take the monorail (yes know it barely goes anywhere), probably the requisite Space Needle, and Pacific Science Center (has a reciprocal arrangement with our local Tech Interactive) what other kid friendly things should we do? (geeky kid/parent friendly things) #seattle #parenting

Rycaut, 7 months ago to random

Serious question - across your digital libraries (videos, books and music) how many works have you used more than once?

For that matter of your physical books/cds/albums/Blu-ray’s etc how many get multiple uses?

For me - primarily tabletop rpg related works that I refer to many times or for fewer works business or technical related books or resources that I refer to. Also chess related books and some references like dictionaries (but less often though I bought a new French/English this week

Rycaut, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

If I organized an unconference in the Bay Area for non-AI focused technologists, investors and companies hiring for non-AI positions would you be interested in attending? Sponsoring (with $ or contributions like space)? Volunteering? Non-AI because there is a surplus of AI focused events and while my first startup did machine learning I’m more interested in solving real problems for real people than the latest fad and hype cycle. Unconference but will have some structure.

Rycaut, 1 month ago to random

So in Seattle for my son’s spring break and it is hard to decide which cafe to try first. Suggestions for which to try near Pioneer Square? (Seems like it may be hard to go wrong)

Rycaut, 6 months ago to random

bracing myself for the madness of the evening ahead. I'll try to take some photos but imagine 1000 kids (plus 1-2 parents each) on a single city block.... (my block is "one of those blocks" where kids come from all over to see the lights and trick or treat - I have a lot but doubt I have enough for the likely crowds... see you on the flipside.

Rycaut, 15 days ago to random

One (of many) issues in the US. The county I live in here in California (Santa Clara - where San Jose is) has more than 1.8M people.

That’s more than the population of 13 states (its just a bit more than the population of Idaho)

North and South Dakota get four senators representing them. Combined they don’t have as many people as my county.

Santa Clara is just one of many counties in. California

Rycaut, 10 months ago to random

Random late night business idea (please make this happen - if I can be involved I’d love it but want this to exist) - the Yellow Pages rebuilt for the modern web aware era with a dash of the old Green Book as well.

• list up to date URLs & accounts for a business (owners & employees when public as well)

• note physical locations, hours, contact methods, shipping policy, services, accessibility (of space and website)

• where possible make inventory available

• show calendar/events etc

Rycaut, 4 months ago to random

I’m looking for my next project / role. Finding that LinkedIn etc has gotten worse as a method for looking - instead of seeing roles from my network or close contacts most jobs seem to be only those that are promoted (ie paid) and seeing a lot posted by recruiting firms that are obfuscating who their client is (and many roles posted without salary bands)

In fact one friend reported a free job listing he posted was marked as closed unless he paid by LinkedIn because too many people applied

Rycaut, 3 months ago to random

a bad design pattern I'm seeing more and more sites/apps use - overly aggressive notifications and emails to "remind" you about a deal or something you were browsing for on their site - no matter the specifics.

So, for example, last night I looked up hotel options for a friend's wedding in JUNE to see which hotels one chain I have status with has in the city. Since the details of the wedding reception etc aren't yet sent out, not ready to book. But today I've gotten an email and a notification

Rycaut, 1 month ago to random

Prompted by an unarmed post

The entire population of the US is less than 5% and closer to 4% of the people alive globally today (roughly 8B people globally, 330m in the US)

Even the most popular of books (or films) in any language have rarely crossed 1% (80M) readers/viewers

For individual books Wikipedia excluding books like religious texts or political texts lists only 9 books with individual sales of that scale. More series and frequently updated works however

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

Rycaut, 2 months ago to random

My favorite film of all time is Until the End of the World by Wim Wenders. It’s an insane film (the director’s cut adds so much to it that it is about 5 1/2 hours and has only been screened in theaters a handful of times. Criterion released it finally a few years ago.

What I love about the film are a few things - one that it has a soundtrack that the characters in the film hear. That is the music is all what the characters are hearing and interacting with.

And that soundtrack is fantastic.

Rycaut, 9 months ago to random

Many years ago I ran a series of walking conferences - some as standalone events and others as an add-on event for another conference. I called these MeshWalks (after MeshForum which was a conference on the study of networks I ran in 2005 & 2006) - the format was a long walk returning to where we started with LOTS of stops so people could catch up & form new groups to walk with. Sometimes stops were at businesses and many included drinks and food. Always via accessible paths w/o stairs or hills

Rycaut, 9 months ago to random

What could a group of technically savvy people contribute to their community in a few hours while walking (together) outside?

I'm planning on running some events this fall - one idea - is that we gather together and explore how we might improve our local community while walking thru it. For example checking that every local business is accurately entered in Google/Apple Maps with correct phone #'s, URLs, Hours, Name, Descriptions, Category(s) of business etc.

Any other ideas?

Rycaut, 4 months ago to random

once again Google's obsession with showing results instead of just simply showing that there are no results ends up with really crappy experiences.

I have been (slowly) chipping away at my inbox. This evening I did a simple thing - a search of my inbox for messages with a subject that included "receipt"

(which found 100's of emails I could easily label & archive)

When I reached the last message Google decided to show "related" messages with recipes in the subject without first showing 0

Rycaut, 4 months ago to random

For the GMs in the house what is your minimal set to pack with you for a trip when you might run some games? (5e in this case). I’m leaving tomorrow for a father and son vacation (to Portland OR) and my 10 year old has asked me to run some games for him while we are on vacation. So I need to bring enough to engage a 10 year old (which means actual minis/maps not pure theater of the mind)

Currently thinking some flexible maps, bag of dice, box with a few minis an laptop and his tablet

#ttrpg

Rycaut, 10 months ago to random

anyone else finding the sheer volume of spam/scam messages and connections on LinkedIn are getting out of hand? I'm getting a lot of "are you interested in this person whom I work for's personal training" or "can I tell you about franchise" or "do you want out lead gen services?" (the later using the same language as a dozen other differently named people & firms?

Rycaut, 6 months ago to random

just boosted a post about a survey that concludes that about 60% of Americans have less than 100 books. Which I find startling as I tend to buy at least that many books most years (often far more than 100 books if you include books for my son, other books as gifts, humble bundles and other bulk purchases, ttrpg books, comic books, audiobooks, physical books and other ebooks. It is almost certainly more than 100, probably more than 200 most years (and has been for eh 3+ decades. )

Rycaut, 5 months ago to random

UX idea for the Fediverse. This would not be trivial or easy but could an app (including the web interface) indicate that a given post (especially in a thread of posts) has more responses than are visible in the current view (a number would be nice but even just a “has responses” indicator would help when viewing a post to click in to see the full thread (as much as possible from your client/instance)

This wouldn’t solve the challenge of replies only the OP sees. But might help slow reply guys?

Rycaut, 7 months ago to random

This is probably going to become a blog post (might be a good excuse to dust off, update, and link to the Fediverse my Wordpress blog) but here goes my initial think - non-profits often struggle to raise capital/get loans for long term investments; businesses that aren't hyper growth struggle to raise capital to get started/support long term investments; cooperatives and ESOP businesses struggle to raise capital

All of these seem to point to a need for new pools of investment capital

Rycaut, 2 months ago to random

The fun of being an adult. So far this morning I’ve run to Home Depot for new hardware for a gate and then have a meeting later at a school we are considering for my son for next year.

Then my afternoon: multiple insurance companies (small changes not big issues), starting my taxes, calling appliance repair companies, a few government agencies (to see if one has talked to the other yet), shopping for a new car/to sell or repair an old car, renewing.transfering some domains, planning two events

Rycaut, 9 months ago to random

I’m reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. Not really liking it (for many many reasons - it’s simplistic, it’s not very well written or presented, and it is written from a very specific perspective that seems glaringly oblivious to many other ways of viewing the world and others)

But all that aside I’m finding it really surreal his obsession in a BOOK with people trying to make a habit out of reading (if they aren’t readers already kinda wondering how he thinks they will see his arguments)

Rycaut, 9 months ago to random

An idea I had decades abo I still think has legs. A social network built around shared calendars and sense of time.

Ie if mid-Aug = DEFCON or Burning Man time likely separates (geeks) into different camps (GenCon camp is another one). All very different from the “time to prepare for Fantasy football” and that’s different from the folks preparing for non-American Premiere league’s opening.

And stuff overlaps - ie Aug = back-to-school includes geek parents, students and teachers

Rycaut, 1 year ago to random

So update to Bluesky - still really not liking it or seeing much of the appeal for others. I find the UI frustratingly horrible (try to click on your own profile. It doesn’t open your profile even if you click on the word profile it opens your home page)

I lost followers (guessing bots that since I didn’t follow them back stopped following me) but still have more than 50% utter strangers/bots following me

Got a notification about a like on my post.

Problem - I haven’t made any posts so ?