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Social Media Sustainability
Since Twitter continues to be a source of drama, and the formerly obscure Fediverse has become prominent enough to be front-page of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, maybe the current shakeup will continue for a while longer. This will inevitably lead to some issues with growing pains, including issues around a “business model” for ( Read more... ) -
Wind Powered Gasoline?
A consortium including Porsche has built an installation that can make gasoline out of water and air. The process used “wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then combined with carbon captured from the air or industrial sources to synthesize methanol, which in turn can then be converted into longer hydrocarbons ( Read more... ) -
Remote Posting
I tried to use the official WordPress app to post, and it claims the XML ROC endpoint throws a 403 error message. Strangely, I can access them XML ROC PHP file just fine, even from the exact same device. Magic. Meh, not worth tracking down the bug.
Then I tried to post via email (a feature that I do remember working once). The post showed up ( Read more... ) -
Veterans Day Stuff
Every year, various companies show their patriotism pander to the masses by giving away free stuff for Veterans Day. Here’s what I’ve seen so far for this Friday’s iteration, specifically places in San Angelo:
- Free Double with Cheese combo meal card from Freddy’s
- Free hot dog from 7-11
- Free meal from a “select menu” at Chili’s
- Free buffet ( Read more... )
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Antisocial Media
Hey, remember blogs? It’s beginning to feel like they might be making a comeback. I’ve been around these here interwebs a long time, and social media has risen and morphed a lot in that time. Meanwhile, actually owning your own domain and putting up your own shit there has never gone away and has remained fully functional. My first iteration of the ( Read more... ) -
Ted Lasso Season 2 Finale
There are going to be some spoilers for parts of the season, but I’m going to avoid specifics of the finale itself. You have been warned.
From the very first episode, the way that Nate has been portrayed in season two is at odds with the way his character was established. He was full of himself and rude to people in episode one, and then he got ( Read more... ) -
Tesla Can't See Cops
Apparently Tesla cars in autodrive mode keep running into emergency vehicles. In the highlighted case, the car drove into two police SUVs at 70 MPH. Apparently the flashing lights make the vision system fail to recognize the cars.
I am curious what the vision algorithm thinks “a whole lot of flashing red and blue lights” means. Even if it doesn’ ( Read more... ) -
You Don't Have a Cell Phone?
People are increasingly amazed and sometimes aghast that I do not carry a cell phone and do not own a smartphone. “Gary, you’re such a massive geek, how do you not have a pocket computer welded to you at all times?” Well, let me tell you a tale of technology and pragmatism when living where I do and working where I do.
I live in a small city which ( Read more... ) -
20 Years of AndySocial
It’s been twenty years since the first post on this blog, the still-topical Rude Online Bastards piece. While I have one of the oldest blogs still extant among my acquaintances (John Scalzi has me beat by a few months), the traffic definitely dropped some years back. The rise of LiveJournal and MySpace didn’t change things much, and in fact helped ( Read more... ) -
What's That Rumbling Sound?
There have been a number of articles written over the years about the relative size of different generations, and their respective power dynamics and interest in change.
The Baby Boom Generation (born 1946-1964) is about 29% of the US population. They were more numerous than the generation before, and once they rose to positions of authority in the ( Read more... )