@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

wollman

@wollman@mastodon.social

I fix networks and other stuff with computers inside for MIT CSAIL. Bi cyclist, cis male. More frequency = better mobility. Also @garrett_wollman on Twitter, trying to cut back.

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

wollman, to random
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

Long story:

Back in 2019, I went out to a bunch of stations (although seemingly not all) on the Providence Line to take pictures of their condition and get some idea of what the barriers were to building high platforms. I wasn't originally going to publish them, so I just used my phone and not my DSLR. I noticed that South Attleboro looked like it was about to fall down. (1/n)

wollman, to random
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

Never really got the idea of "toil" until I decided to reorganize my photo galleries to be more manageable and had to create dozens of new galleries in the SmugMug web interface by lots and lots of clicking. It took me more than a year to get to the point of having an idea of how to do it, when it would be much easier for me to write a query in the database to do it. Unfortunately this reorganization means breaking links and losing all my stats.

shoq, (edited ) to random
@shoq@mastodon.social avatar

Please be honest. No one is watching or judging, so there’s no need to puff-up the numbers in this anonymous poll.

How many news outlets, newsletters, or podcasts do you actually pay for?

wollman,
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

@shoq Answering this question assuming you don't count all of the TV and cable networks I pay for (and don't watch) through my cable bundle which I haven't canceled yet.

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

I wonder: if you showed IBM executives what happens with the PC, would they still greenlight it?

Because they lost control of it pretty quick (the IBM PS/2 was a failed attempt to get control back, and that was only 6 years on) and then from then on they were only one fish in an increasingly bigger pond. And then PC-likes took over the workstation/server markets too, so their minicomputers and mainframes lost a lot too

wollman,
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

@foone I think an interesting counterfactual to consider is if Motorola had delivered the 68008 soon enough for IBM to have considered it instead of the 8088. Intel might still be a memory manufacturer today, and Motorola might still exist.

Migueldeicaza, to random
@Migueldeicaza@mastodon.social avatar

The issue is that these developers wanted one thing (lower fees), but lobbied for “freedom of stores” and “external payment systems”

They got what they asked for, which is not what they wanted.

wollman,
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

@Migueldeicaza @Sweepi What they want (well, what their management and shareholders want; corporations do not have desires) and what they are morally entitled to are entirely different propositions.

Alon, to random
@Alon@mastodon.social avatar
  1. There's a viral article by John Burn-Murdoch right now with charts purporting to show a large gender gap among young voters. But in Germany, the chart below is totally wrong. In truth, young German men voted for conservative, anti-feminist parties in 2021 at below-average rates (if slightly higher than those of young women). The chart lumps in FDP with the conservatives, which is wrong in this case.

https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998?shareType=nongift

wollman,
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

@Alon I can't read the article but my impression from the original thread was that this was attitudinal survey research, and thus has nothing to do with what party people voted for.

wollman, to random
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

How many people who aren't chemists know about the role Ukraine plays in the fine-chemicals industry?

jerry, to random

This was a very dense forest a few weeks ago.

wollman,
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

@jerry @gangrif "infrastructure impact" is code for "kids in schools".

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Fascinating - iMessage phishing now includes specific instructions to get around iOS Lockdown Mode restrictions.

wollman,
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

@adamshostack @mattblaze Not to worry, even if they do, they'll still send you emails with some weird-ass third-party click-tracking URLs that have no obvious connection to anything, although you might recognize that your HR department uses the same spamcannon service.

wollman, to random
@wollman@mastodon.social avatar

This presentation from Friday morning's board finance committee meeting does a pretty good job of setting out why we are where we are: the legislature assumed that the sales tax revenue would grow about 6% faster (CAGR) than it actually did, but refused to do anything about it when it became obvious that their assumptions were wrong (even when Deval Patrick was governor), insisting on draconian austerity rather than raising additional revenue. https://cdn.mbta.com/sites/default/files/2024-01/A%20History%20of%20Funding%20MBTA%20Jan%202024%20TP%20VF%201.18.24VF.pdf

RM_Transit, to random
@RM_Transit@mstdn.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @RM_Transit Way too many places do, it seems like there's a race to the bottom, or at least jurisdictions figure that if they don't allow it, people will find ways to bet elsewhere, unregulated and untaxed.

    mattblaze, to photography
    @mattblaze@federate.social avatar

    Rotary Converter, IRT Substation , NYC, 2017.

    600 volts of rather loud pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/32992380451

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @mattblaze And these generally originally ran on 25 Hz power, like many other industrial loads of the time, which is why 25 Hz was an obvious choice for the New Haven and later Reading and PRR electrification schemes.

    jbigham, to random
    @jbigham@hci.social avatar

    some of the #chi2024 papers i was a coauthor on were accepted, and some were rejected. i can honestly say i would not have predicted which ones fell into which categories correctly, which is probably a problem.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @jbigham Did you preregister your predictions?

    woody, to random

    RIP Dave Mills. Because of his work, we know what time it is, more or less. A great contributor to the Internet.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @SteveBellovin @paul_ipv6 @woody @adamshostack And he had a rather unique way of speaking, his own jargon that didn't sound like the usual techspeak, with the falsetickers and truechimers and all the rest. But fundamentally grounded in control theory, not marketing psychology.

    humantransit, to random
    @humantransit@mastodon.online avatar

    The frigid Iowa caucuses (attended by 110k ppl in a state of 3m) remind us of an important thing about all physical public meetings: No matter how packed the room is, you’re listening to a small number of highly motivated people. You will never hear from an ordinary person who is too busy to attend.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @bluGill Depends on the state. In Massachusetts, the presidential primary ballot is also the election for ward/city and town party committees. Those are the people who go to the state convention in the summer and decide who gets on the September primary ballot for state offices.

    wollman, to random
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    I was wondering if the would remove any speed restrictions during the three-day-weekend break in the Green Line shutdown, and apparently they have cleared four. (@mbtaslowzonebot doesn't report on the Green Line because of the lack of real-time data, but the MBTA's speed restriction dashboard shows the change. Restrictions were cleared on the E between Copley and Prudential, and on the trunk around Boylston. Two more weeks to clear most of the 34 remaining slow zones -- can it be done?

    kissane, to random
    @kissane@mas.to avatar

    Whoa. Tipping point’s feeling real tippy.

    https://www.platformer.news/p/why-platformer-is-leaving-substack

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @danhon It does? I always thought it was basically yet another blog platform. I never interacted with it in any other way.

    verge, to random
    @verge@mastodon.social avatar

    FTC bans major data broker from selling invasive location tracking details https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/10/24032966/ftc-bans-outlogic-location-data-sales-tracking-settlement?utm_content=buffer92d43&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bufferapp.com&utm_campaign=buffer

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @verge Now how about banning them from acquiring them.

    crschmidt, to random
    @crschmidt@better.boston avatar

    I think a lot of people think "tax write-offs" explain a lot more than they actually do.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @crschmidt Well, you have to consider that most people's knowledge of them these days is as the explanation for why a studio produced 13 episodes of a new series and then locked it in a vault never to be released.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @Alon @crschmidt I have a suspicion that a lot of the "production costs" are actually contingent: people not getting paid (or getting paid much less) until after the release. Certainly that's true of residuals and royalties.

    wollman, to random
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    Still can't get my father to understand the difference between a tart and a torte.

    wollman, to random
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    The archetypal context collapse is this:

    For some people (small in number but overrepresented in both reach and activity), social media is work.

    For the vast majority of users, however, social media is entertainment.

    histoftech, to random
    @histoftech@mastodon.social avatar

    I’m old enough to remember when smoking (and smoke) was everywhere, and the idea that smokers might ever be asked or made to stop was seen as absurd. Many kids (including me) got horrible bronchitis every single year and had other sorts of breathing problems all the time. Many parents (and other adults) died early.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @groxx @Andres4NY Helmet laws discourage cycling. That is reason in itself not to have them: the benefit from avoiding one specific kind of injury is more than outweighed by the harm from discouraging marginal cycle trips.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @groxx @Andres4NY If that were true, it would be a good thing!

    mcnees, to random
    @mcnees@mastodon.social avatar

    This is probably the best thing I ever posted on Twitter. The memory is pretty dear to me; I'm sharing it here so it still exists somewhere if that place collapses.

    wollman,
    @wollman@mastodon.social avatar

    @mcnees You're not crying I'm crying &c

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