Life In the Operating System

06:31 Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 67.1°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 941

Got to use the Maverick for "truck things" on Saturday and again yesterday. Mitzi does the yard work as part of a deal we made before we sold the condo. ("Dave doesn't do yard work.") She wanted to get some sod to fill in some dead patches as we prepare to list the house.

Before, she would have taken the RAV4, genuinely her car, and just loaded sod into the back. I needed to go to Home Depot too, so I told her I'd go with her and we'd take the truck! Get my suburban man-card validated! Pulled into the sod line behind another pickup, a Ford Ranger, which was behind another pickup that appeared to be just parked there in the line. As we were loading sod, another pickup appeared behind us.

America...

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is another meditation on life mediated by software, which is ubiquitous, permeating every corner of our existence. We already live in The Matrix, we just don't know it. Which was kind of the point, come to think of it.

I like to shop at Home Depot because they offer a 10% discount to veterans. They also have an app, which you can use to order stuff for delivery, but also offers directions to items you're looking for in the store. Very handy when it's busy and you can't find an associate.

I've done a lot of shopping at the store in recent months, and at checkout I normally called up a QR code on the app that verified my veteran discount.

Well, Home Depot recently, within the last two weeks, changed the whole checkout process, and the app, though I didn't realize it immediately. Checkout is now like Walmart, where there's a single queue leading into a corral of checkout kiosks. A flight director vectors each shopper to the next open kiosk, and there's an associate at each kiosk.

I was somewhat surprised by the change, but I "got it" immediately, because it was just like Walmart. So I went to the app, which I'd been using to find pipe insulation (really valuable as packing material) and totes, to call up my veteran ID QR code.

No code. I'm thinking I'm pressing the wrong buttons or something. As I'm fumbling around, Mitzi says, "Just enter your phone number." (That's what she does to get the discount, and has since we got her into the program.) So I entered my phone number and the kiosk asked for the work order number. That was a puzzler. The helpful associate said, "Just enter zero," so I did.

Scan, scan, scan. Tap. Receipt.

Looked to see if I got the discount.

I did not.

When I entered my phone number, Home Depot associated it with a "Pro" account. No veteran discount.

A couple of years ago, I went to check out at Home Depot, and the lines were very long. There was no line at the "Pro" checkout area. I asked the guy if I could check out there. He said, "Sure, just enter your phone number."

Little did I know, Home Depot now thought I was a "pro"! They still scanned my QR code and gave me a discount, but I failed to realize that my phone number was now associated with a new dimension of my Home Depot "identity."

I discussed the discrepancy with the flight director vectoring shoppers to kiosks and she said I'd have to go over to customer service. She seemed a bit testy, which may have influenced her choice of representative. I got the oldest, most deaf customer service representative on duty. I watched people come and go on both sides of me as I endured this gent try to refund the original transaction, then re-enter all the SKUs and just give me a 10% discount.

It was painful.

Which I guess was the point.

Well, now I've got to go into my Home Depot account and figure out how to disassociate my phone number from "Pro" status.

Elon Musk's script kiddies are supposedly going to use AI to rewrite the entire Social Security code base into a new programming language. (I wonder what that'll be.) What could go wrong?

I think they should try it on something less likely to affect millions of people first. Something simple, like the International Space Station. If that stays in orbit, and it doesn't vent the station's atmosphere to space or something, well then maybe we could think about trying it with Social Security.

UPDATE: Figured that I might as well go ahead and try to delete this "Pro" account designation. Went to the Home Depot web site and looked at my profile. It basically wants me to "upgrade" to Pro Xtra, but I can't find anyplace to "delete" a "pro" designation.

I went back to the app on my phone to see if there might be a clue there. Tapped on the little silhouette that is my "account" and decided to just check on the Military Discount Program section.

Surprise! There's the QR code. Pretty much right where it's always been.

So now I'm wondering if I was just cognitively impaired on Saturday, because I could not find that QR code, despite having used it time and time again in that very store. It's this kind of thing that makes you doubt your sanity.

Just as well, I have no idea how to disassociate that "pro" status from my account, and I don't welcome the idea of calling customer service. As long as the QR code is there, I'm good to go.

✍️ Reply by email

Further to the Foregoing...

10:19 Sunday, 30 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 72.21°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 239

Probably out of sequence, as this is further to the Tools post. I digress.

Check out this post at The Marginalian.

"The unexamined life isn't worth living."

Introspection is a powerful tool. To use it well requires practice.

You won't carry every practice with you throughout your life. Some will offer you rewards that will serve you for the rest of your life; but you'll move on to other practices, hopefully, and the rewards they offer.

But introspection is something that can serve you all of your life, if you do it well. "Rumination," is not necessarily the same as introspection. The "inner voice" is an unreliable narrator. It's a combination of seeing what you think, and listening to a "still, small voice," that is only accessible in silence.

I practiced martial arts and learned many things. Then I became a long distance runner and learned some of the same things, and some new things as well. Now I'm a weight-lifter. Kind of. And learning new things. I expect I'll remain a weight lifter for the rest of my life.

Each of these, however, was a practice. A practice, at a certain point, becomes a kind of meditation. It offers a way of knowing previously inaccessible in its absence.

Weight lifting and introspection.

Could be worse habits.

As always, I'm an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking.

See what you think.

✍️ Reply by email

Twenty Lessons

09:46 Sunday, 30 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 71.24°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 4

Read by John Lithgow.

✍️ Reply by email

Our Tools Shape Us

06:34 Sunday, 30 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 66.83°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 2559

We had an interesting discussion during the Tinderbox meetup yesterday afternoon, and it gave me some things to think about, and some ideas that I've had before, but haven't fully explored.

In this civilization, the experience of our lives is mediated by technology. It touches every facet of our existence, and indeed, our existence, to an extraordinary degree, depends on it. We have a relationship with technology, the artifacts, of technology, and like all relationships, it's different for each of us.

Some people have an affinity with technology. Something makes it attractive in itself. And this spans multiple dimensions and magnitudes. I think most people, most of the time, merely use technology. Much of it is invisible and holds no intrinsic interest or emotional connection. Some people regard technology, more specifically, individual artifacts of tech, as a kind of adornment. A means of signifying in the world. An expensive watch. A fancy car. An antique.

Software is just another form of technology, but it's the one that is even more intimately embedded in our lives, and perhaps mediates the experience of our existence in ways we are only beginning to barely understand.

I hope this kind of sets the stage for what follows.

I'm among a group of people for whom electronic, and later, digital technology holds a special attraction. Perhaps it was because of watching too much TV as a kid. Later watching my grandfather and my uncles talking on CB and amateur radios. I wasn't one of those teens who was drawn to cars and engines. Maybe because of all the noise and the smell and the grime. Speed held no great appeal for me. I had the experience of riding in the back of a station wagon with five of my siblings (my youngest brother didn't come along until after the era of family road trips), from Michigan to New York by way of Canada, back when Canada was a friendly neighbor we hadn't betrayed and bullied.

So rolling down smooth, straight multi-lane highways at speed was nothing to be marveled at. To the extent that I liked cars, it was their appearance. I recall being in the back of the '65 Ford Country Sedan wagon with my siblings and watching the cars go by on a trip and saying that I was going to have a Corvette one day, because Corvettes were cool.

Technology as adornment. Signifier.

Anyway, for me it was electronics. I learned Morse code and got my Novice Class amateur radio license. I didn't enjoy the theory part of the test, and the code portion was terrifying. It was being able to put a signal out into the ether and hearing something respond that held the thrill for me.

Around the same time Grampa and Uncle Bob were introducing me to radio, Mrs. Lupica at the Peteboro Street Elementary School library introduced me to reading for pleasure. Something I'd never done before. I did like books. I recall being at Weber Elementary school in Warren Michigan, and convincing my mom to buy these little paper-bound books they sold in class, with stickers you could tear out and paste in. (You had to lick them, there was no "peel and stick" in those days. At least, not cheap enough for those little books.) And they were all about the space program.

There wasn't much text, but there were a lot of pictures, and the pictures were cool.

But reading a book that wasn't mostly pictures? A story book? Well, I'd never done that before. I remember Henry 3 was the first piece of fiction I ever read. I seem to recall it was something about a kind of lonely kid in New York City and maybe a hurricane.

But the second book Mrs. Lupica put in my hands was Have Space Suit -- Will Travel, by Robert A. Heinlein, and it was off to the races. I read every sf book in those stacks and then got a public library card.

We lived five miles outside of town, in Gramma and Grampa's farm house while our place was being built on two acres we bought from my grandparents. Television reception was poor, it was 15" of black and white, with three snowy channels.

That is to say, television was not a powerful distraction. That came later.

So I read a lot of science fiction, which perhaps cemented my attraction to "advanced" technology.

After Dad retired from the navy, he worked for GM for about a year in Warren, just before we moved to New York. I guess he was "making good money," with his salary and pension, because that's when we got a 25" color TV. I'd have to ask Mom, but I think most of our stuff was in storage while the house was being built, but that TV eventually made its way to Gramma and Grampa's.

Color TV was a miracle. There was still nothing on, but I do recall that color TV was like something from the future.

When I went to the Naval Academy in 1975, seven years after we'd moved to New York, I was placed in a relatively new course called Calculus With Computers. I'd never seen a computer before, and though I scored in something like the 95th percentile in math on the SAT, I'd never heard of calculus. Putting those two together, at least under the guidance of Professor Molloy, was an academic catastrophe for me. Two five credit-hour Ds, in back to back semesters.

Kind of made me hate computers. They were something you interacted with on a teletype. Very slow, hot (we were in little soundproof booths beneath the library), loud, inscrutable. It was different in some of the engineering labs, where they had Tektronix displays to other computers, and were much more interactive. My introduction to those was as a (very junior) member of the Naval Academy radio station. My job was to enter the play lists into a database that we provided to the record companies in return for the free albums they sent us, which I got to take back to my room and listen to and record to cassette. (There were some perks. I also made promo announcements for concerts. It was fun.)

After I was commissioned, not long after the Apple II came along, I learned you could put text and color graphics on a TV screen! That was an irresistible thrill. The future, in your own home! Well, bedroom in an apartment I shared with two other guys. I went into a lot of debt for those early machines. The ][+ was $2500 back in 1981 ($8700 today, according to one inflation calculator I checked.) It was followed quickly by a //e and a //c.

It was probably mostly technology as signifier. I was one of those guys who owned a "personal computer." That made me a member of a growing tribe. I got pretty good with the Apple II. I never became a programmer, and programming remained somewhat elusive to me. Perhaps because of early trauma at USNA. But I took a course in Pascal at Old Dominion University, and much of the mystery was removed.

I "got it."

But writing programs still didn't hold any great appeal. Using programs was the thrill. Seeing what other people had made these machines do, and thus gave you the power to do, that was the attraction.

Not that using programs back then was easy. They were pretty easy for me. Spreadsheets kind of baffled me for a while, mostly because, well, accounting. Who cares? Data bases were cool.

But I loved word processors and graphics programs. Words and pictures. Wonder where that came from.

So I was always trying new software, learning it, maybe mastering it to some degree. I was one of the people in the user group who offered tech support to new users. I had a bizarre encounter with an employee of a computer store in Virginia Beach that specialized in selling Apple computers. A woman was in the store and she had a question about using Apple Writer, and the sales guy wasn't especially helpful.

After she spoke to him, I talked to her and gave her a better, more complete answer to her question.

Later, I left the store and some guy in a tie followed me out and asked me to hold up a second. I briefly thought he was going to offer me a job. Instead, he started chewing my ass because they charged for tech support, and how dare I go into their store and give away their product for free! I wasn't as salty back then as I am today or I'd have told him to fuck off. I don't recall what I said, but I do recall regretting that it didn't seem to meet the moment.

Suffice to say I never shopped at The Memory Bank again.

Around that time, Dave Winer had come out with ThinkTank, an outliner, a new genre of software. I loved ThinkTank. It used the UCSD Pascal operating system, which pretty much demanded that you had two disk drives. I loved it so much that I bought an Apple //c computer with two disk drives and an ImageWriter printer to take to work to use it. (Didn't do the math, but that's probably over $5K in today's dollars.)

So I was a guy with two personal computers. A //e at home, and a //c at work. And perennially in debt.

I was working for the XO at Fleet Training Center Dam Neck, which was the host command of a number of other commands and activities, so a fair amount of scheduling and coordination was always going on. Managed that in ThinkTank. I had to have a printer because I needed to hand off the output to the gals in the word processing center, who would turn my input into official correspondence on command letterhead.

Out of mercy, we'll fast forward to this era, after software ate the world.

I'm less enamored of technology today, far less enamored of computers. "Be careful what you wish for," and so on. But I have a long and enduring friendship with the application that I'm writing this post in, Tinderbox.

There is a periodic recurring complaint in the forum by new users, or frustrated users, that Tinderbox is "too complex." It's not, really. Generally, it's a lot of misguided preconceptions that usually get in the way of using Tinderbox to good advantage. It's even simple to use for simple things.

But it's also incredibly powerful, and people see some of that power wielded by more experienced users, and they want to exhibit it too.

Some of those folks are the people who relate to software as signifiers. This is not intended to disparage them, indeed, I was one for much of my adult life. It has its rewards. But if one of them is to be among the cognoscenti in the "tools for thought" space, well, you're going to have to put in the work and for many people it doesn't seem to be worth the trouble. So they criticize the app as being "too complex," or "unintuitive."

As we were discussing this yesterday, a kind of analogy occurred to me. A lot of people regard these apps like Obsidian, Roam and so on as kind of like Lightroom or Photos. They collect and manage things. "Notes" in the case of the PKM crowd, photos for Lightroom and Photos.

And there are the same kinds of differences of opinions regarding which app is superior to the other. You can edit photos in Lightroom and you can edit them in Photos. You can edit notes in DevonThink and you can edit notes in Tinderbox. I don't know much about Obsidian or Roam. I assume you can edit notes (Plain text files! The One True Path!)

That's when it occurred to me, where the fundamental disconnect is. Photos are created by cameras.

Tinderbox isn't the asset management software, it's the camera.

If you use it, and stick with it, it helps you to see what you think.

Now, we can have a whole parallel conversation about mobile phone camera, digital point and shoots, crop sensors, full frame, medium frame, etc., etc. ad infinitum. Apple Notes is the camera built into your phone. Pretty good. Can do a lot. If your photographic vision only extends to what those cameras afford, then you'll probably be quite happy.

If you want to achieve something more, then prepare to invest some money and, more importantly, time and effort learning how to use a more sophisticated camera. Though most of them offer a fully automatic mode (or "P for Professional," ha-ha.) for those signifiers who want to carry a camera as an adornment and still take some pictures with it.

Likewise with notes apps, or "PKM" (Personal Knowledge Management).

Anyway, Tinderbox is embedded in my life now. More than two decades ago, my naval career ended at the same time that my marriage did, and a lot of the wrestling I did with those events took place in Tinderbox and my early blog, Groundhog Day. That's how long I've been using Tinderbox. Not always to its greatest advantage, but still using it to my advantage.

Yes, "Writing is thinking," and you can write in notebooks, on old receipts, the back of the envelope, in bespoke, leather bound journals, if signifying is important to your journaling practice, or if you just feel as though you do your best work on fine paper, professionally bound, probably using a fountain pen, sipping a cold-pressed coffee.

It's the writing where the creative act occurs, the thinking. It's in the environment, with your eye to the lens as you frame your image. Everything else is, well, something else.

Analog or digital. Mobile phone camera, or DSLR. Simple text files ("The One True Path," among a certain group.), managed in Obsidian, or in things like DevonThink.

Or Tinderbox.

If you want to get the most from your practice, first, have a practice.

Then, stick with one tool. Find one that that appeals to you, doesn't get in your way, and use it. People buy new cameras for the same reason that they buy new software. Partly FOMO, partly to participate in the current zeitgeist, ("Forgive me, I must go tend my zettelkasten. Weed my digital garden."), partly out of boredom.

If you want something that's yours, that's meaningful to you, then build a relationship with a tool that serves you, and remain faithful to it. If you outgrow it someday, you'll know. And you'll know what to do.

But understand the difference. If you just want to collect stuff, or produce pretty diagrams ("the graph"), go nuts. Plenty of choices out there. Many "simple" ones. "Intuitive."

But "PKM"? I don't know whether to laugh or vomit. I'm not impressed.

Again, this is not to disparage people who use sophisticated applications like Tinderbox or Roam or Obsidian for professional productivity. Maybe PKM should stand for "Professional Knowledge Management," or "Productivity Knowledge Management."

But personal knowledge management?

If you can't "see what you think," then what can you know?

Kind of a rant. Kind of a love letter. A bit of memoire.

A blog post.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Every Accusation a Confession

08:30 Saturday, 29 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 64.89°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 35

Social Security is a Ponzi scheme?

This is a Ponzi scheme.

I wonder if they actually deleted my data when I deleted my account?

If you're still on Xitter, you probably deserve whatever comes next.

✍️ Reply by email

Truckin'

05:54 Friday, 28 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 56.7°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 766

With the looming 25% tariff, I figured I'd better buy whatever accessories I wanted for the Maverick sooner than later. The XL is the base model, so it lacks some of the nice-to-have features at the higher trim levels, one of which is a plastic cubby that is inserted in the void adjacent to the rear quarter panels in the bed, behind the fender.

Before I knew that we were supposed to be boycotting Amazon, I priced them there and they were going for $85.00. Didn't pull the trigger though, and since then I've been doing pretty well avoiding Amazon retail (still watching Prime), and I priced the OEM version on eBay for less than $60.00! So sticking it to Bezos can be a savings!

Well, I'd only ordered one, though the bed can take two, one on each side. I didn't know what I wanted to do with the access panel on the driver's side, most people seem to be putting 12vdc or 110ac outlets in there. After reading yet another story about the 25% tariffs, I decided I should just go ahead and get another cubby. I can always remove it later if I decide to do something electrical in there, and I can use the storage for the time being. So I ordered another one last night. I'll be curious to see what happens to the price come the 2nd of April.

The XL also lacks a couple of tie-down cleats. There are two at the top of the bed near the bulkhead, and two down near the floor at the tailgate. There are unthreaded holes for two above the ones at the tailgate, so I ordered a couple of those from eBay as well.

I've been dithering endlessly on whether and what kind of tonneau cover I should get. Tyranny of choice and all that. I had about $160 of Ford reward points left, so I bought one from Ford. It's a soft, roll-up, supposedly made (in the USA) by Truxedo. Watched a few YouTube videos and figured installation didn't look too hard. Ha!

Spent over an hour on what was supposed to be a 20 minute job yesterday morning, in a cloud of gnats, getting it installed. It's on there, but it's not "perfect." The front of the cover is off by about ⅛", (which means the gap is ¼" on one side). It looks straight from behind though. You wouldn't notice it unless you knew to look for it, which I do. Latches down firmly and the vinyl is taut as a drum, so all seems well overall.

My arms were covered with dozens of little red dots from the little fuckers flying around me. It didn't help that a particularly loud and rowdy landscaping crew was working the yard next door and across the street from me. The gnats usually aren't that active at that time of the morning, but I think they were stirred up by all the machinery racket, exhaust and yelling.

I will so not miss that when we get out of here. Lawns are another crime against nature.

While looking at what others have done to their beds over at the Maverick Truck Club (because of course), I noticed this recent thread, about certain Plano bins being perfectly sized to fill a Maverick bed. We don't have a Plano outlet store nearby, so I checked Amazon. As per the thread, they're pretty pricy there, so I figured I'd check Home Depot. They did have those particular size bins, and for less than Amazon! (Eat the rich.)

These will come in handy for moving all my retro-computing crap, and later on for storing any number of other things up in Winterfell.

I'm pretty happy with the truck so far. Yeah, it's got a buzz in the dash that comes and goes, but the gas mileage is amazing. I've stored a ton of crap beneath and behind the rear seat. The windshield shade fits behind the seat, and I bought one of those foam pads you kneel on for gardening in case I have to change a tire and kneel on the ground. It fits back there as well, though there is a slight indentation in it from the seat frame. If you had kids and a car seat back there, none of that storage would be especially convenient because of the car seat. That's not a problem for me these days.

Well, that's probably enough about all that. Trucks are just another way to "go broke savin' money."

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Letter to My Congressman

05:46 Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 54.91°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 0mph
Words: 359

You can't just email your representative. Or, if you can, I don't know how. They do offer a form on their web site where you can enter your contact information and your thoughts, but then you're composing in a text box.

I'd rather do it here, and then copy and paste the result. You get a limited amount of text, so I skip the salutation. Here goes...

History is unfolding and revealing the character of men. Yours too.

You claim to be a man of faith, and God has given you an opportunity that few ever receive.

The opportunity to make a difference. To be an example. To meet the moment, offer service and make meaning, not only for yourself, but your constituents, your country, and for your children and grandchildren.

You rejected it.

You're a retired law enforcement officer, whose career was spent upholding the law, silent as a criminal administration breaks the law, flouts it and defies the courts.

You've sworn an oath before God to uphold the Constitution. You dishonor that oath as you refuse to assert your duty and role in a co-equal branch of government to demand accountability, even as laws are broken and the institutions of government are deliberately vandalized and destroyed.

You have an opportunity that few people ever receive as a citizen, a patriot, a father and grandfather, to honor your oath, and by doing so, to bring honor to yourself and your family.

And yet, you're silent. Missing in action. Idle in the face of catastrophe.

Why? Your family is not so wealthy or so privileged that it won't be affected by the destruction being wrought. What about this job means so much to you? The illusion of power? The trappings of office?

I have little regard for you, but pity and contempt.

You've revealed yourself to be a hollow man, of little integrity of character; and you're bringing shame on your family.

Not pride. Shame.

It's not too late. But, before long, it will be. And the stain attached to your name will remain an indelible blemish for all time.

David M. Rogers

CDR, USN(Ret)

Ponte Vedra

✍️ Reply by email

Pointing and Laughing

06:39 Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.08°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 0mph
Words: 49

While there was objectively little to laugh about in the Signal debacle, as a matter of utterly predictable gross incompetence, it was funny.

To kind of brighten your day, watch Stephen Colbert's take on the whole affair.

"Merit-based hires." Chef's kiss. No notes.

Kimmel was pretty great too.

✍️ Reply by email

Further to the Foregoing

06:18 Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.08°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 0mph
Words: 28

By "not fatal," I mean, of course, "not accountable." It's meaningless to "take responsibility," when there are no consequences.

There was a bit of good news this morning.

✍️ Reply by email

Not Fatal

06:14 Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.08°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 0mph
Words: 73

It looks like we'll still have Waltz to kick around. But now it seems like these guys invoke Musk like some kind of shaman or magic spell:

"I can tell you for 100% I don't know this guy," Waltz said, adding that he had spoken to Elon Musk for help in finding out what happened.

World's richest man doing tech support for secure communications for the National Security Advisor.

What can go wrong?

✍️ Reply by email

Looks Like Waltz Will Fall On His Sword

08:28 Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.61°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 0mph
Words: 86

"Chatter" on the inter webs suggests Mike Waltz will take the fall for the Signal debacle. But that would only mask the larger issue of the criminality of conducting official, classified, government business on a non-secure channel, and one specifically intended to circumvent records retention laws.

I'm happy to see Waltz leave in disgrace. He's an ambitious man who leveraged his election to Florida CD-6 into endless appearances on Fox, exactly duplicating Ron DeSantis' playbook, getting his face and name before the MAGA faithful.

✍️ Reply by email

Wierdness

08:22 Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.61°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 0mph
Words: 127

Just heard and felt a series of very low frequency intermittent rumbles. Not like thunder. Staccato. Like a couple of booms, a pause of a couple of seconds, and a few more. Maybe three episodes? Enough to make me get up from the desk and step outside. Nothing to be seen, and nothing else heard.

Neighbor had stepped outside as well, I'm not sure if it was because of the sound or to collect her recycling bin. I asked if she heard it and she said she had. She wondered if it might have been the train. We can hear the train, but it's unmistakably the train, and I've never felt the train before. About 0819 EDT.

Just noting it because it was out of the ordinary.

✍️ Reply by email

E-Mail to Rick Scott and Ashley Moody

06:21 Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 62.71°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 106

Riffing off the foregoing, here's what I sent to my two senators:

It comes as no surprise to anyone with a room-temperature IQ that our national security apparatus is being run by a cabal of morons, confirmed by a Senate of cowardly, lickspittle sycophants. (That would be you and your colleagues.)

Calling it "amateur hour" is an insult to amateurs everywhere.

It's incompetence, criminal conduct, and an utterly grotesque display of immature, unserious, juvenile irresponsibility.

There will be no accountability because your party holds the majority. But know that everyone, everywhere is pointing at you and laughing.

David M. Rogers

CDR, USN(Ret)

Ponte Vedra

✍️ Reply by email

No Surprise

06:00 Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 62.46°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 4mph
Words: 175

It should come as no surprise to anyone with a room-temperature IQ that our national security apparatus is being run by a cabal of morons. (F-47? By Boeing, of course. They need all the help they can get. So too will the pilots who have the misfortune of being assigned to that aircraft.)

Anyway, the snark is a little over the top, but here's a compilation of remarks by the idiots on that Signal group chat, complaining about Hillary's private email server and mishandling classified information.

Of course, it won't land with the people it needs to hit. For this crowd, hypocrisy is a flex. "I know what you are, but what am I?"

Category 6 shit-storm.

Calling it "amateur hour" is an insult to amateurs everywhere.

It's incompetence, criminal conduct, and just an utterly grotesque display of immature, unserious, juvenile irresponsibility.

There will be no accountability. Because we have a supine legislature of cowardly lickspittle sycophants.

Where's the prayer-hands emoji? America needs it.🙏

“We are currently clean on OPSEC.”

✍️ Reply by email

Gulf of Incompetence

15:55 Monday, 24 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 76.75°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 48% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 60

If you haven't read the Jeffrey Goldberg account of how he was accidentally added to a Signal group chat as America was planning to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen, do so.

I debated using "Gulf of Incompetents," as they're all incompetent!

This is what happens when you staff your cabinet as if you were casting a cheap reality TV show.

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-24-25

06:56 Monday, 24 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 56.86°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 248

I usually don't try to shoot the crescent moon in handheld high-res mode, because I usually have the MC14 1.4x teleconverter mounted and the E-M1X struggles to align the images with a relatively small subject and little else to align on.

But, in suburbia's weekly performative ritual, I took the recyclables to the curb this morning and there was the crescent moon, relatively low in the southeast. The Maverick is in the driveway, and it's such a small truck that I can rest my arms on the bed rail as a support. I figured I'd give it a shot with the MC20 mounted (2x teleconverter).

Perhaps because of the greater relative size of the moon, or the additional stability using the truck, I was able to get three out of three attempts.

After I wrote this, I went out and tried with the OM-1 with the 100-400mm and MC20 mounted. Ordinarily, this is too hard to hold stable without using something for a prop. The first shot I tried didn't "compile" (for lack of a better term), but I was able to get three in a row afterwards. I'll upload one to Flickr.

The OM-1 has an 80MP sensor, each group of 4 pixels has a colored micro lens yielding an effective resolution of 20MP, and then the handheld high-res routine kind of muddles that all together. In any event, the OM-1 shot seems to exhibit fewer artifacts and less noise.

✍️ Reply by email

Thinking Out Loud

06:44 Sunday, 23 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 53.08°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 0mph
Words: 441

Just to close yesterday's loop, Generac seems to have a solution similar to what I described yesterday. I haven't studied it closely, but it looked as though its PWRCell 2 system, minus the PV array, may be what we're looking for at Winterfell. More to follow.

This is about Captain's Log.

My tag list is growing long. It's not unwieldy yet, but it will be soon. I'm thinking about establishing a two-tiered tag system, with tier one being an overall category-type tag and tier-two being more specific. An agent for each tier-one tag would gather entries and sort them by tier-two tags.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what EagleFiler did with tags. It doesn't appear too sophisticated. I think the app relies on it Spotlight extension to index everything.

But that brought to mind the Johnny Decimal System. I was intrigued by it some time ago when Jack Baty mentioned it. So before I go too far in trying to establish a two-tiered tag system (the alliteration appeal notwithstanding), I should probably spend some time looking into JDS, as it may have some value in my application.

Of course, this raises questions about the value and scope the entire effort. I don't think I'm trying to create a "life-streams" solution a la Gelernter, though the resemblance is there. (Wow. Didn't know what right-wing nutjob he is.)

I'm also not trying to do anything as grandiose as TheBrain.

I'm not trying to manufacture "insight" here. I just want to be able to find stuff. And by "stuff," I mean things that I encounter that seem like they might be worth recalling someday.

Of course, this is problematic as well. As a retiree with too much time on his hands, perhaps too many things seem "worth recalling," which I will inevitably never revisit again. I have a cabinet in my garage full of little electronics kits that will probably have to assemble themselves someday.

I'm optimistic that the project at Winterfell will keep me somewhat focused, but will nevertheless involve a host of details and minutiae where the log may be useful. At least until we've built whatever it is we think we'll need.

A certain amount of yak-shaving is probably inevitable, but it feels like this tag effort might become that. Perhaps the solution isn't tags, or something as sophisticated as JDS, but good descriptive entry titles, and notes in the text with sufficient keywords to surface in an ordinary search. A little more time and effort at the moment of capture, and then during review.

That seems to feel right.

✍️ Reply by email

Hybrid Home

07:11 Saturday, 22 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.78°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 641

I've been thinking about how we could go about improving our home energy resilience in Winterfell. Much of the grid infrastructure is above ground, vulnerable to tree damage from either high winds or heavy snowfall.

Generators are one solution, but I was wondering if there might not be a somewhat more efficient solution involving a battery or batteries and a generator. The current house on the property is a small place, 960 square feet, and I expect that once we get settled in there, its electrical load will be relatively low.

We have radiant heating though, and that's a huge power demand when it's on. So you'd have to size a generator large enough to meet that power demand, or go without heat for a while. I'll need to get more data, but just judging from the data I have from my home weather station, which has two interior temperature sensors, the system came on twice a day to maintain 58°F in temperatures down in the 20s.

The implication seems to be that it's not like a heat pump or other forced-air type heating, where it comes on and goes off several times a day. It comes on and warms up the thermal mass of the slab, which then radiates heat into the house for some number of hours before it comes on again.

When the heating system isn't on, the high loads would be things like the hot water heater, clothes dryer, or the oven, and I'll probably get a hybrid hot water heater.

So, perhaps something like a one kilowatt generator could run basic lighting and IT loads, but its main purpose would be to recharge the battery. In the event of an outage, we switch to battery power. When the battery is depleted to 80%, perhaps, the generator comes on, picks up the light loads and any excess power is sent to the battery for charging.

It'd be like the house here when the sun is shining. If we're making more power than the house is using, we're getting all our power from the array and the excess is going to recharge the battery. If a load comes on that exceeds what the array is delivering, the battery discharges to make up the difference. When that load goes off, it goes back to charging. Likewise with a smaller generator. I don't need a generator sized to run all the household loads, I just need it big enough to keep the battery charged up. The only difference is that we'd never have "excess" power feeding back into the grid, like we do here when the batteries are at 100% and we're making more power than the house is using.

I'm not an expert, but I believe all ICE generators are most efficient when running at full load. So a generator sized to meet the highest demand in the house is going to spend most of its run time well below full load, where it's less efficient.

The idea for the small house isn't to be "off grid," or carbon-neutral. We'll try for that with the larger home we hope to build on the property. The idea is that the battery is for whole-home backup in the event of an outage, to meet high power demand services. The generator is intended to keep the battery charged enough to meet the high power loads. Small generator, running fully loaded, meeting "normal" household loads and recharging the battery. Battery discharging to meet high demand loads.

This is probably going to require some math, sizing the battery and the generator. Batteries are expensive. Generators are expensive. Fuel is expensive. There must be a way to "triangulate" an optimum configuration that uses the least amount of resources to meet the need.

Somebody has probably already figured this out for me.

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-22-25

05:58 Saturday, 22 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 47.32°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 69% Wind: 0mph
Words: 4

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Mysteries

07:26 Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 45.77°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 429

I have a couple of Mail Applescripts that create links to email. One just places the URL (URI?) on the clipboard, the other is more elaborate and creates an entire entry in Captain's Log.

Yesterday, I was doing some clean-up on Captain's Log with a lot of old entries that just used a URL attribute for all links, which isn't necessarily helpful. I now have a MailURL attribute for links to emails. The cleanup is to copy the link from the URL attribute and paste it into the MailURL attribute, then go back and delete the link in the URL attribute.

See the extra step there?

I was working in an Agent that gathered all the entries with a value in the URL attribute. Ultimately, they should all be bookmarks, but many of them are emails.

Being the clever sort of fellow that I am, I decided I didn't need to copy the URL, I could just cut it and then paste it into the MailURL attribute.

Well, depending on how vigorous Tinderbox feels, the agent may update right after that cut and then the target entry disappears! Trying to find it again among hundreds of other entries is somewhat problematic, so I just pressed on.

Later, I went back to look for that entry and found it. I found the relevant email and ran a little script that I've had in the Script menu for years to copy the email link to the clipboard, thinking I would then paste it into the MailURL.

Well, the script didn't work!

I hate it when something that works for years just stops working.

I looked at the script and didn't see anything that was immediately obvious. ChatGPT was no help, ultimately concluding that what I wanted to do was impossible, though it's been working for years. Similar, though not identical code runs in the script that creates an email log entry in Captain's Log.

At some point, I concluded that it must have been an older version of the script and that the version I was running on the iMac was more current. So I dug out the the SSD that I dumped all my iMac stuff on and found that script.

Same script.

So I ran it on a different email.

It worked.

GAH! WTH?

I took the problematic email and ran the mail to log script and that worked.

But, for whatever reason, I cannot get that script to create a link to that particular email.

I've wasted enough time on this. Some things can just remain mysteries.

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-21-25

06:58 Friday, 21 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 44.96°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 61% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 49

Breezy out there this morning in my shorts. There isn't room in the garage for two cars, so the Mav is in the driveway. It's tremendously useful to help stabilize the E-M1X with the 100-400mm zoom and 2x teleconverter mounted.

(Originally had a "3-31-25" title.)

✍️ Reply by email

Plot Holes

06:15 Friday, 21 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.62°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 247

I was watching Reacher last night. I'm less happy with the show as it goes on. Apart from the utterly predictable (for several episodes) murder of the junior, inexperienced and physically unimposing DEA agent, there's the matter of a guy with a house full of guns being unable to shoot the guy who's torturing him and his son.

People enjoy this?

I was enjoying The Old Man (FX) on Hulu, but again, huge plot hole. No spoiler but if Harper spots Chase in a body cam image after a traffic stop, and uses that data to send an assassin to kill him, (Ok, maybe one or two spoilers.) why couldn't Harper assume that Chase would be on alert and preparing to leave? Chase's whole thing is to be unobserved, but he'd just had an encounter with law enforcement, after a foolish night out.

From this the assassin (Who miraculously survives. Yay, body armor; boo, dogs that don't go for the throat.) concludes that Harper must have a mole in his organization and tells Harper so. Weak.

Anyway, now there's a woman missing and they haven't plastered Chase's face all over the news as a potential kidnapper, also wanted in connection with several deaths?

I'll still watch the show. It's moderately entertaining. Old guys as killing machines has a certain boomer appeal. But there's some really sloppy or lazy plotting going on, which is annoying.

Perry Mason (TOS), is formulaic and often predictable, but it's at least entertaining.

✍️ Reply by email

More Real

11:43 Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 74.5°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 16.11mph
Words: 415

I spoke with Mitzi this morning. She's up in Winterfell taking care of some renovations and improvements. I asked her to take advantage of the opportunity to have the well water tested so we could figure out what sort of treatment it might require.

The guy from the county who came by to test the water is named Josh, and he grew up just down the road from Winterfell. Indeed, he went to school with the builder and previous owner, Brad. Mitzi enjoyed chatting with him, and we're look forward to getting the results.

But that's not what this post is about. It's about Mitzi's reaction to meeting Josh and talking to him. It's been a consistent reaction since we bought the place. "He was just so nice."

We talked a bit about why we thought that was the case. To me, it's because it's a rural setting. While that part of New York isn't especially racially diverse, it's very diverse economically. We live in a bubble here in St. Johns County. While there is poverty here, it's out of sight and out of mind. Most of the people we encounter are our economic peers, or near-peers. To the extent that there are people different from us, it's that they're wealthier.

Everyone has a professional or corporate background. College educated. It's just a homogenous mass of upper middle class, corporate drones. We all live in similar houses, identical but for the appearance and number of of square feet. Identical in the sense that they all contain the same sort of crap. The same large screen TVs, the same stainless steel refrigerators. The same paver patios. The same grass, the same shrubs, the same flowers.

In many ways, it's an enforced sort of conformity, either explicitly in the terms of the HOA docs, or in terms of the shared illusion of suburban idyll. It drives me nuts and I feel as though I'm trapped. The lack of any sort of visual horizon doesn't help.

Well, just after we spoke, I went back to checking my feeds and happened upon a link to this piece from Kottke. Read it in reader view, because The Guardian's web design is just horrific.

There is greater diversity in the Finger Lakes, in economics, in opinions, in education and employment, than there is here. I don't know if that makes people nicer, or maybe they just don't all feel trapped.

I can't wait to get the hell out of here.

✍️ Reply by email

Yearning for Dictatorship

11:33 Thursday, 20 March 2025

❝

Gutfeld’s outburst shows just how far today’s right wing has slid toward autocracy. It is a grim marker for our democracy, when a commentator with a wide audience openly calls for the replacement of the rule of law with a dictator.

Source
✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-20-25

06:02 Thursday, 20 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 54.57°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 1.01mph
Words: 3

It's still there.

✍️ Reply by email

Lucky

16:38 Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 78.04°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 36% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 417

Spent part of this afternoon crawling around the Maverick. I put the mud flaps on it. Pretty simple job, but, like many things I do, it could have ended in disaster.

One flap requires a small hole to be drilled in the plastic trim of the rear bumper. No biggie. I get the drill, crawl under the car, make the hole, bolt up the support and it's done! Onto the other side of the car...

Hmmm... I parked too close to the grass/flower bed. Better move the car over.

When I moved over to the other side of the car, I took the other two mud flaps, the screws and fasteners, the tools and the instructions. But I didn't need the drill, so I didn't bring it with me. When I decided to move the car, I picked all that up and put it on the back of the golf cart in the garage. Keep it out of the way, so I didn't accidentally run over it.

Got in the car, backed straight up, turned the wheel a bit to the left and pulled forward.

THUMP!

THUMP!

What the hell? Did I stop after the first thump? No, I did not. I know I took both of the other mud flaps over to the back of the golf cart when I went to move the car. What could it be?

Well, it was the drill!

Oy!

Pulled the trigger and it spun. Sounded fine. Big black mark on the battery and some scuffing on the handle. Looked at the bit spinning in the chuck and it didn't seem to wobble more than they usually do. Tip didn't seem damaged.

Yay! Makita builds tough tools for idiots like me!

More importantly, I didn't puncture a tire with the drill bit!

Once I was finished putting the mud flaps on, I inspected the battery more closely. No cracks in the case. Put it on the charger to see if it would error out, but it charged just fine.

When I was on active duty, there were procedures written out for every type of maintenance on equipment. Some of the steps included things like inventorying all your tools before you move onto the next step.

In my case, the first step should have been to make sure the truck was parked where I could work on both sides.

Anyway, all's well that ends well, but I feel pretty foolish and lucky at the same time.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Further to the Foregoing

07:34 Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.33°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 70

I'm happy to be wrong, of course.

But I don't think I am.

This just gets worse.

There are multiple crisis moments to come. Court cases. Mass protests. The mid-terms. All potential checks on our ruling monarch's royal authority, which he will jealously guard and defend with violence if he has to.

As I mentioned, I'm happy to be wrong, but I can read the writing on the wall.

✍️ Reply by email

Weak Sauce

07:27 Wednesday, 19 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.33°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 89

Anyone thinking that Roberts' chiding of the Orange One's call for impeaching a federal judge represents an indication of a roused SCOTUS planning to check the power of the executive is engaging in wishful thinking.

Roberts may want the Orange King to stay in his lane, vis-a-vis judges, but his statement can also be interpreted as reassuring a temperamental diva that there was no reason to act out. SCOTUS will overturn any decisions that may go against a royal decree.

Roberts is no "man for all seasons."

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-19-25

07:25 Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 46.33°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 8

I had the shot, so I took it.

✍️ Reply by email

Wildfire

07:31 Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 47.46°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 217

What's taking place in the Trump administration is a kind of political wildfire. Fuel has been building up on the forest floor for decades. Winds from rightwing (social) media blowhards have been growing as well. All it took was a spark.

I think it's a fair analogy or metaphor. We try to "contain" wildfires, because once they grow to a certain size, all you can do is let them burn themselves out. But this one is uncontained and out of control. Any thoughts of the judiciary being a fire break are wishful thinking.

Who knows how bad the destruction will be? We'll have to wait until this burns itself out to assess. And it will burn itself out, eventually. We just don't know what'll be left of America under the Constitution when it does.

Until then, we'll have to try to look after one another as best we can.

It's a tragedy.

Was it inevitable? Seems like it. Sooner or later, all social systems bump up against the weaknesses of human nature. Even as we tried to avoid creating a king, we still accommodated our weaknesses, codifying them in things like two senators for each state.

And, as a result of that, we got a judiciary that created a king.

Seems like we could have anticipated that.

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-18-24

07:15 Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 48.34°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 3

Because I can.

✍️ Reply by email

Further to the Foregoing

06:24 Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 50.05°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 71

I think Loren Webster would appreciate the preceding post.

I enjoyed it. These kinds of thoughts still rattle around in my brain from time to time. Especially as I try to orient myself in this chaotic existence with illusions of order.

It's also useful to bear in mind that, as Nagarjuna found, everything is contingent.

Even solitude.

The beat goes on..

(The beat that can be counted is not the beat.)

✍️ Reply by email

On Solitude

06:22 Tuesday, 18 March 2025

❝

It is a vocation to become fully awake, even more than the common somnolence permits one to be, with its arbitrary selection of approved dreams, mixed with a few really valid and fruitful conceptions.

Source
✍️ Reply by email

Further to the Foregoing

10:22 Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 56.75°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 45% Wind: 20.71mph
Words: 82

If you watched the video in the preceding post, you may have noticed some PII (personally identifiable information) appeared in a portion of the video. Michael Becker was kind enough to blur that data and re-upload the video, necessitating a new link. It's been updated in the post, though the RSS items may already be downloaded into various readers.

So if you get a broken video link, just visit the blog post on the marmot itself and all should be well.

✍️ Reply by email

The Everything Bucket

07:17 Monday, 17 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.94°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 593

Made a couple of improvements to Captain's Log over the weekend. Tinderbox has a Tags attribute ($Tags), but it seems it was at least first intended to receive tag data from other applications when their data was imported to a Tinderbox file. There is no expressly designed tag management feature within the application itself.

Having been to enough Tinderbox meetups, I was confident there should be a way to manage a list of tags within the text of a Tinderbox note itself. So I raised the question at the most recent meetup and had a working solution within minutes. You can view that interaction here. (Link should begin 46 minutes into the meetup, when I raised the question.)

I mention this here for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the level support you can get from the community if you're struggling with something in Tinderbox.

The other improvement was just a bit of polish. Logs are broken down by months, and a month contains a list of days, each day's log page titled like this, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Happy St. Patrick's Day, btw.) If you have the outline focused on a particular month, then you just see a long list of day and date notes with little in the way of contextual cues to orient you within the list.

Not to suggest that it's hard by any means, but I thought it would be easy to just color weekend days differently to break up the monotony. That turned out to be a little harder than I expected, but a quick visit to the forum got me squared away.

The value, or utility of an "everything bucket," is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend working with it. The automations I've created are intended to make entries as effortless as possible, remaining within whatever application or effort you were engaged in at the moment when it occurred to you to record it. So, in that context, the log is largely invisible. It remains in the background and AppleScript handles getting the data from whatever you were doing into the log.

Where the real effort comes is the time spent reviewing entries, ideally not more than a day after I made them so I might rely on my fallible memory to fill in any blanks when I created the entry. And that's where tagging becomes an important investment. Once data is in the log, you have to have some means of finding it again.

Mitzi is up in Winterfell, and she's going to arrange to have our well water tested. But I did most of the homework about how to request that. Now I need to search my email for the conversation I had with the Watershed Protection Agency and forward that to Mitzi.

Well, I just did that. But I also made a log entry for it, so eventually it'll be in the container that gathers all the entries about Winterfell.

I used to have a (digital) copy of a paper written by Don Norman at Apple's Advanced Technology Group about a kind of experiment he made using a Hypercard stack as a kind of PIM (Personal Information Manager, the antecedent to the much more sophisticated "Personal Knowledge Management" of today.). He wanted someplace to store information "too trivial to remember, but too important to forget." I tried finding that paper on the web just now, but no luck.

Anyway, Tinderbox is Hypercard, in spirit if not in UI, and Captain's Log is Don Norman's little experiment.

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-17-24

07:08 Monday, 17 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 58.62°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 8.01mph
Words: 111

Broken clouds this morning, moving fast. Clear around the moon.

I'd say I don't know why I keep taking these, but I'd be repeating myself.

Watched Electric State on Netflix the other night. It wasn't horrible. Felt like someone said, "Let's do Ready Player One, but with robots!" With a garnish of The Matrix.

It was just the kind of diversion one would expect from the fascist corporate state in late capitalism. Irony being the fifth fundamental force of the universe, the audience stares at its screen as the characters are liberated from the screens mounted on their heads, oblivious to anything resembling meaning, message or moral.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Keep Screaming Bloody Murder

09:14 Saturday, 15 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 67.82°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 78

Don't let them gaslight you with "mistakes." This is willful, wanton destruction. Vandalism by an out of control, irresponsible billionaire and his crew of tech-bro script kiddies.

These aren't "mistakes." They are deliberate actions by enemies of the federal government, who oppose the rule of law and the regulatory state. They want a Darwinian "libertarian" society where it's every person for themselves and pity for the ones who can't look out for themselves.

Keep screaming bloody murder.

✍️ Reply by email

Good on Gas

07:55 Saturday, 15 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 64.45°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 357

I promise I won't do this all the time, but this was pretty amazing.

The guy who delivered the truck said it was indicating 60mpg from the dealership to my place. Well, I went to the dealership to pick up the accessories I ordered yesterday, and this is what it reported on the trip back: 59.9mpg!

Again, I suspect that part of this was because there was a wreck on I-95 north and it was stop and go for several minutes. Not as long as the I-295 delay earlier in the day, but still, a lot of puttering along at 5-10mph. But this was also with the air conditioning on. (Sun's out now, and even though it's only in the 70s, the passenger compartment is a greenhouse.)

I was also driving like I was trying to save gas. So I wasn't accelerating hard, or going much above 60mph on US-1 before I got onto 95, and the whole stretch down World Golf Village Parkway was below the 45mph speed limit because I was behind a car that was behind a cement truck. (For which I was grateful, and kind of happy because the guy ran the left-turn red at the last second and kind of cut me off from making my right. As soon as he crossed over the railroad tracks the cement truck turned left in front of him! Karma's a bitch.)

The appeal of the Maverick is that it isn't as enormous as an F-150, doesn't cost as much as an F-150, and it gets twice the gas mileage of an F-150. The only real disadvantage is the shorter bed, but most pickups are purchased as lifestyle/personality signifiers more so than utility vehicles. (Don't tell my brothers I said that.)

Rumor has it there'll be an all-electric Maverick in model year 2027. It'll probably cost twice as much, and weigh twice as much as this one. Not sure about the weight, but the EV battery pack does add a lot of weight. It'll be interesting to see, but I'm impressed with the hybrid so far.

✍️ Reply by email

The Prius of Pickups

11:26 Friday, 14 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 71.4°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 217

Took Mitzi to the airport this morning in the Maverick. Shut off the engine when I dropped her off, so this is the report from the trip home. MPG likely higher because there was a backup on I-295, so a lot of stop-and-go nonsense, normally doesn't take an hour to get there or back.

But when I dropped her off it was reporting around 49mpg for that leg, which is still very impressive. That's a lot of "highway" miles, but we left early and I was taking my time, not accelerating hard and keeping in the right lane between 60 and 70 mph. Didn't use the AC either.

I'm digging the truck so far, but there's this buzz in the dash when I'm driving around here at 40-45 mph. Something about the surface of these roads, because it goes away once I get out of Nocatee.

On the way home, an old pickup truck passed me, hauling ass because I guess I was going too slow for him. He kicked up a rock and I saw it coming at me from where it took off, way ahead of me and in the other lane! Watched it arc over and hit the windshield with a loud BANG!

No chip, no crack though! Got lucky.

✍️ Reply by email

Scream Bloody Murder

08:23 Thursday, 13 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 52.66°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 0mph
Words: 4

John Larson gets it.

✍️ Reply by email

This Morning's Moon 3-13-24

07:00 Thursday, 13 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 52.9°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 26

Stuck my head out the door this morning and it was approaching the western horizon, shining bright and clear. Had the shot, so I took it.

✍️ Reply by email

Maverick

06:43 Thursday, 13 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 53.13°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 377

Well, God help me, I'm a truck owner now. It's a 2024 Ford Maverick hybrid. The Maverick is often mocked as not being a "real truck." Its unibody construction makes it more like an SUV than a "real" body-on-frame pickup. But it'll haul 1500 pounds, so that's pretty much the test for me.

It's nearly as base as it can be, the only option on it is the one that I wanted, Ford Co-Pilot 360, which gives me the rear crossing warning and blind spot warning for changing lanes. That option also included power mirrors on the 2024, I gather that's not the case with the 2025 models.

Check out the steel wheels!

I've got to get a few accessories, mud flaps, rubber floor mats, a bug guard for the hood. I'm undecided on a bedliner or a tonneau cover. Two of my brothers are truck owners and they both recommend a spray-in bedliner. It protects the paint (which you never see again anyway), and thus guards against corrosion. It also adds some texture to the bed so stuff doesn't slide around as much. You're supposed to "secure your load" anyway, but what do I know? I may get a rubber mat for the floor of the bed. Keep from scratching it up. I can always get a spray-in bedliner later if I need to.

My brothers both have tonneau covers. Eric is in Alabama and John is in New York. John made some good points about snow in winter. It's easier to clear snow off the cover than out of the bed, and don't be the guy who doesn't clear out the bed and creates a white-out for the people behind him. So, maybe I'll get a tonneau cover. We'll see.

This is the first time Mitzi and I have each had a car in about eight years. It's a hell of a lot cheaper to be a one-car family. It's relatively easy to do that here, too. While it's not "walkable," many things are within reach of a golf cart or bicycle, so Mitzi being away with the car has never been too much of an inconvenience. A bit different in a rural setting.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Gallows Humor

16:19 Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 77.85°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 38% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 34

While I can't find it in me to laugh at late-night talk show monologues these days, Trae Crowder can still make me laugh out loud.

If you need a smile, check it out.

✍️ Reply by email

Big Eichmann Energy

13:07 Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 75.25°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 37% Wind: 5.99mph
Words: 169

“I work for the president. I need to do what the president tells me to do,” Dudek said, according to the recording. “I’ve had to make some tough choices, choices I didn’t agree with, but the president wanted it and I did it,” he added later. (He didn’t name specific actions that Trump did or did not direct.)

Yeah. Just following orders.

Some may think it extreme or unfair to compare a Social Security Commissioner to a member of the Nazi SS who handled the logistics of moving millions of people to extermination camps, but it's a difference in degree not in kind.

Dudek seems pretty clear that his first duty is to Donald Trump (der Fuhrer), not to the millions of people who are dependent to one degree or another on the institution he manages.

That's willful blindness. The people who resign their positions, rather than do the faithless bidding of a corrupt president are the people who understand where their responsibilities lie.

Scream bloody murder.

Every day.

✍️ Reply by email

Reduce Local Entropy

08:22 Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 52.27°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 0mph
Words: 571

I've been making some progress at making reviewing Captain's Log every morning into a habit. I haven't quite figured out where it should fit yet, but I'm getting there.

On a typical morning, I start out going through my RSS feeds, checking out other blogs and the news. Then I'll check the mail, and finally I'll see what YouTube's algorithm thinks I'll be interested in. Normally I watch the previous night's late-night show monologues for the laughs. But I haven't been doing that lately because nothing seems funny.

If something has my attention, I may make a blog post. My first post this morning was before all of the above, because that was what was on my mind as I lay awake in bed, deciding whether to get up or not. After I posted that, I thought I'd share it with my representatives. The useful idiots doing Trump's and Musk's bidding.

Then I checked the feeds, the mail and YouTube.

Then I reviewed the log.

Yesterday I was reviewing a large number of unreviewed log entries. The idea behind Captain's Log is to make it easy to capture thoughts and ideas as they occur, where they can be reviewed later, so as not to interrupt whatever I was doing when the thought or idea occurred.

But if I never review them, I might as well not even capture them.

As I was doing yesterday's big review, I hadn't quite worked out the process. Many of the entries were created before I'd set up specific attributes for particular kinds of entries; bookmarks, emails, files, etc. So there were a lot of entries with data in the URL attribute that happened to be files, or emails, or bookmarks. I'd check the "Reviewed" check-box, and then notice that the link wasn't in the appropriate attribute and I'd start to change it and the Agent would update and the note would disappear.

If I couldn't recall the date of the entry, I wouldn't know where to find it again. So I figured I'd make an agent to collect all the "recently edited" entries. That was an interesting intellectual exercise that I enjoyed; but in thep process I discovered a bit of a bug with the way the $Modified attribute works in the current version of Tinderbox.

I brought the issue to the forum, and I'm confident a fix will be forthcoming soon. But, "pro-tip," don't check "Reviewed" until you're done with the entry.

Today's review showed some areas for improvement. I had an attribute called "Don't Forget" which was intended to create persistent entries, that could be gathered by an agent. Presumably, these are entries that require some action at a future date, or have some utility at a future date. Sometimes that date is unambiguous. Well, "Don't Forget" was becoming a long list, and many of them could be assigned specific dates.

So I've added the $DueDate attribute, and I'm assigning that during review and I'll create another agent to gather notes on their due date, and hopefully complete whatever action is necessary at that time. Replacing batteries in devices I don't use that often is one example.

Well, the Ford dealer is blowing up my phone, and it looks like I'll get my truck today. So I'm going to wrap this up and take care of some details for that, then I've got a workout session.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Another Day

06:17 Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 52.05°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 5.64mph
Words: 278

Another chance to contact your elected representatives to object to what is happening in Washington!

Here's what I wrote to my senators this morning. It's not great rhetoric, I'm not seeking to persuade. Mostly I'm trying to avoid cursing like a sailor:

==========

It has become clear that this administration will betray every American senior and every American veteran.

The single defining characteristic of this administration, apart from staggering incompetence, is its complete and utter faithlessness. Infidelity.

Your thundering silence is a full-throated endorsement of what is taking place before our very eyes. Musk says Social Security must be eliminated, and so it shall be. You say nothing. You're conspicuous by your invisibility.

It's being justified by another "big lie." Just as "stop the steal" was a lie, so is the idea of widespread fraud and abuse within Social Security and Medicare.

DOGE is a "big lie." It's a cover for dismantling the federal government that serves the American people in order to give free rein to billionaires.

And you are a part of this as you sit on your hands in Washington.

You swore an oath to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Musk is both.

I object to what is happening in Washington. It is wrong. I do not consent. It is not my will for my fellow citizens, my fellow veterans, my fellow seniors and I will not be silent.

David M. Rogers

CDR, USN(Ret)

Ponte Vedra

===========

It's almost certainly little more than a "stupid and futile gesture," but that's not a reason not to.

My message to Representative Rutherford was a little more colorful because of my contempt for him.

✍️ Reply by email

Betrayal

05:35 Wednesday, 12 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 52.57°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 0mph
Words: 288

The single greatest defining characteristic of Trump and his administration, apart from staggering incompetence, is completely and utter faithlessness.

Infidelity.

What a shock, right?

"When they show you who they are, believe them."

What we saw in the Oval Office with Zelensky is also being undertaken against America's seniors and America veterans. Against Canada and Mexico and against the western alliance.

There is a coalition of interests aligned right now, the billionaires led by Musk, the white Christian nationalists, and a large array of misguided, misled "conservative" fools who mistrust government in general, public health, public schools and public spending of any kind. They've been fed a steady diet of shit for decades, and reality has become a hall of mirrors, from "chem-trails" overhead, to pedophilic pizzeria basements.

Trump isn't the brains behind this, apart from the fact that he's been able to array this coalition behind him. They aren't all on the same page, but they believe with enough chaos, each can achieve their own particular aims.

They're gangsters. They don't believe in the rule of law, they believe that they rate what they can get away with.

They are betraying us all.

How do we stop them?

Mass civil disobedience, which Trump has seen before with the George Floyd protests and now believes he knows how to check, by using our military against our own citizens, using his "loyal generals."

"Hitler's generals."

We're not good at mass civil disobedience, but we're going to have to get good at it. General strikes. Marches. Sit-ins.

They are dismantling this country so that they can impose their own racist, Darwinian rule wherever they can.

It will be civil war.

The sooner we figure this out, the better.

✍️ Reply by email

The Big Lie

17:51 Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 75.06°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 38% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 151

What's going on with Musk and DOGE with regard to entitlements is the same playbook as "stop the steal."

It's the "big lie." They are just going to flat-out lie about egregious levels of fraud and waste in these programs, and every elected Republican will repeat the lies, night after night on Fox and NewsMax and right-wing talk radio.

They're lying because they have to. They're lying because they know it works. They've cowed the mainstream media, and they know right-wing media will repeat the message on an endless loop.

It's a lie. It's all lies.

There is not mainstream media counterweight to this. If this is to be stopped, it's going to have to be person to person. Call out the lies. If someone repeats the lie, tell them it's a lie. Tell them they're being played for fools. Don't just ignore it to "keep the peace."

✍️ Reply by email

Action Taken

17:31 Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 75.45°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 37% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 216

I'm putting the OM-3 on hold until I get to New York, or later. I shouldn't watch the news, but I do. So I just sent another $100 to VoteVets, and $100 to Senator Mark Kelly. I expect I'll be sending more in the weeks and months to come.

It's clear that they're going to dismantle Social Security. They're laying the rhetorical groundwork through lies and propaganda. They have until the midterms to get it done, so they're going to press hard. Musk just full-on bullshitting us as if we're stupid.

Maybe public opinion will be enough to stop them, but it feels like they're just going to ignore it and keep going. It may be their last best shot for undoing the New Deal and the Great Society programs, Social Security and Medicare.

When they tell you they are not going to cut Social Security and Medicare, don't believe them. They're going to do it.

And they're perfectly capable of betraying every veteran, just as they have Ukraine and the western alliance. And they will when they cut 80,000 VA employees. They'll make it harder for veterans to access benefits they've earned and deserve.

When I said this was going to be a category six shitstorm, I didn't know that half of it.

✍️ Reply by email

Things To Do

07:59 Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 47.48°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 229

So the fix for the backup camera recall on the 2024 Ford Maverick has been released. I'll touch base with the dealer later today and see about when they expect the vehicle to be ready.

Doc says no problem getting a measles vaccination, at least health-wise. Now to figure out where I can get one, I think they mostly come as an MMR cocktail.

When I spoke to Mom on Sunday, she couldn't recall whether I'd had the measles or not. But I recall some of my siblings having them. She said she thought I did get the vaccination. I could probably go dig out my navy medical record, which I think reaches back at least to commissioning, which should have my vaccinations entered. I haven't sealed that box yet, but I think it's probably better safe than sick and just get the shot.

I've got to sort out the USB cable and charger issue before I decide to pull the trigger on the OM-3. I have a charger for the E-PL10. I think the E-P7 came with an Olympus USB-charger, and I think the OM-5 only came with a cable, but I need to check. I packed most of the USB stuff up, but it's in a Ridgid tool box, so it should be easy to find.

Anyway, the beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Kevin Drum

12:05 Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.59°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 20

Kevin Drum passed away on Friday, March 7th.

He was interesting, informative, reasonable and rational.

His voice will be missed.

✍️ Reply by email

Not Much

11:09 Monday, 10 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 68.97°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 169

I wrote to all of my elected representatives this morning. The topic was about DOGE and the needless and cruel stress and anxiety it was causing hardworking Americans in households all across our country. I specifically addressed the case of my brother, a disabled Gulf War veteran and civil servant.

I closed with this:

I don't expect any action from you. I just wish to use my voice to tell you, in no uncertain terms, that this is wrong and I strenuously object to it. This is being done without my consent as a voter, over my objections as a citizen, and with my utter contempt as a retired naval officer and veteran.

I don't have any illusions that anything I could write would persuade them to do something. I just wanted it on record that it was wrong, that I did not consent, I objected and I found it contemptible.

I think I'm going to keep repeating that message every day.

It's not much, but it's not silence.

✍️ Reply by email

Actions

16:39 Sunday, 9 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 62.82°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 261

A couple of posts I came across this morning with some thoughts and perspectives about actions we can take. It does feel as though one of the most powerful levers we have is an economic one. Those of you who observe Lent may appreciate this guest post at Empty Wheel.

Chris ODonnell pointed to this one. I guess I'm pleased that I'm engaged to one degree or another in four of the five (2 through 4). My political activity for the moment is limited to making donations and writing my representatives. I have run for something (twice!), but I won't be doing that again. I'm going to be considering the consumer activity. If I pull the trigger on the OM-3, I don't necessarily see that as antithetical to the mission. I'd buy it from OM Systems directly, or a camera retailer, not Amazon.

We have a rotating dinner party, but it's the same circle of friends, so I'm not sure that's 100% aligned with the spaghetti dinner thing. We will be doing more of that in New York, partly as an effort to mitigate polarization, but also to build up our "social capital," so we're not isolated in our old age.

It's clear we can't just go along for the ride and hope that thing's will get better by themselves. We're all going to have to get out and push this old clunker of a democracy ("Democratic republic, libtard!") if we want to get it back on the road again. We've driven it into the ditch, and AAA ain't comin'.

✍️ Reply by email

Weekend Update

18:27 Saturday, 8 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 69.78°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 792

No Buckaroo Banzai gifs (yet). Got distracted.

Packed a couple of boxes of books today. Amazing how heavy paper is! Glad I've been doing some strength training.

Speaking of which, I was late to yesterday's session. I'm still pretty old-school USN when it comes to making appointments. If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. Germaine texted me about 13 minutes after noon yesterday and asked if I'd forgotten about the session. I had already dressed out because I had it in my calendar for 12:30.

Replied I had not and I'd be right there. Mitzi had the car, so I jumped on the bike. Golf cart might have been marginally faster, but this way I got my warm-up in on the way over. He had a 1300 client, but since I'd already warmed up, we skipped the cardio breaks on the bike or elliptical and just did strength training. I don't think I missed anything.

I'm making progress, but I still have a long way to go. Feels great though.

The achilles tendonitis in my left foot is improving now, since I've stopped doing the wrong things to recover! I have insertional tendonitis and the kinds of "normal" achilles stretching and heel-drops were making it worse, not better. I got some heel-lifts for my New Balance shoes, and I'm doing some conditioning by just rising up on my toes. It feels a lot better, but I don't think I can really get out there and walk a couple of miles on it yet.

But riding the bike doesn't seem to bother it, so I've been doing that instead. It's been windy here, so having the motor has made it possible to ride, enjoyable even, if a little chilly sometimes.

Mitzi's been out networking and socializing the past few nights, she was on a panel discussion Thursday night, so I've been watching some movies she probably wouldn't enjoy.

Thursday night I saw Atlas, a Jennifer Lopez sf flick about an AI-enhanced powered suit. The first act was pretty unbearable, but it was entertaining for the second and third. The robots are going to kill us, or save us, or something. If you can get past flying to the Andromeda galaxy and communicating by radio from there, it's a mildly entertaining diversion.

It kind of reminded me of Kurt Russell's Soldier. Fading stars on the downslope of their careers playing lead roles in a B-movie "major release" sf kind of thing. Entertaining, but a bit sad too.

I didn't have high expectations for Fast Charlie on Hulu last night, but it did have the virtue of at least being concise, coming in at brisk 90 minutes. Pierce Brosnan is still, I think, a pretty sturdy leading man, even in his 70s. Definitely on the downslope though. You kinda have to ignore his "southern" American accent, but the tone was right. It was better than I expected it to be, and probably better than it had any right to be. I haven't checked, but it may have been James Caan's last movie.

Anyway, if you're looking for a couple of flicks to while away a few hours, you could do worse. Well, a little, anyway.

Has anyone been keeping up on Reacher's body-count? I make it seven as of the most recent episode in this season. I think it was Mack Bolan who observed, "The only thing wrong with killing sons-a-bitches who deserve it is it's so hard to know when to stop."

I asked for a quote for some cameras from keh.com and I think I'm going to be getting rid of three bodies and a compact to buy one. The one being the OM-3. I'm offering the OM-5, the E-P7 and an E-PL10, along with one of my two Stylus 1s compact cameras. The OM-3 brings the JPEG profiles of the E-P7 (which were part of the PEN-F), along with the evf of the OM-5, and the more advanced image processing and computational features of the OM-1 Mk2. Plus, it looks cool. It's slightly bigger than any of those bodies, wider mostly, but still pretty easy to carry on the wrist with a small prime.

I debated offering my OM-1 as well, but I think I'll hang onto that and sell my E-M1 Mk3 when I get up to New York, and look for a used OM-1 Mk2 at that point.

Haven't fully committed to the idea, but I'm leaning that way.

Even in the midst of the crisis, there's the day to day. "Chop wood, carry water," and so on.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

Mental Health Break

15:06 Saturday, 8 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.99°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 4

Your moment of zen.

✍️ Reply by email

Reply by Email Added

14:32 Saturday, 8 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 71.08°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 14.97mph
Words: 26

Noticed that was missing. Simple matter to copy and paste.

Next project is to figure out how to be able to insert some Buckaroo Banzai gifs.

✍️ Reply by email

Wind the Clock

14:22 Saturday, 8 March 2025

❝

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.E.B. White (1973)

Source
✍️ Reply by email

Talking to Myself

13:58 Saturday, 8 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.12°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 292

I decided to try something new and I created a "quote"-type post.

I created a prototype p_Quote note so that I could assign a specific template, t_Quote, to it.

In an ordinary post, if you "tab" any text, Tinderbox will render that in html with the block quote tags. That makes it easy to call out a large quotation in a post.

But I wanted to create a kind of post which is just a quotation of something I saw somewhere, and I wanted to do that as "hands-off" as possible. I created an AppleScript that will essentially allow me to do that.

The process is to copy the quotation to the clipboard from the web page I'm on. Then invoke the AppleScript. It asks for a title, which is some little reaction to the quote. The script then creates the note in Tinderbox, assigns the p_Quote prototype to it, which has the t_Quote template assigned as the export template. The script will also copy the URL of the page and use that to create the "Source" link at the bottom of the quotation.

I had some hiccups with the text color and got some help from ChatGPT. I had to add paragraph styling to the block quote selector so I'd get consistent results. In an ordinary quote, pasted into a normal blog post, I didn't get the p tags within the blockquote tags, so the color set in the block quote selector worked fine.

With p tags, the color of the main body text was being selected, and it looked green.

So I've been horsing around with BBEdit, Whisk, MacGPT, Tinderbox and Safari and now I can make quotation posts.

Mad skilz, I tell ya...

✍️ Reply by email

What Happens Now?

13:45 Saturday, 8 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 68.27°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 16

Let's see if the block quote text appears normal (white), if it's not the first post.

✍️ Reply by email

Baty Quote Test

12:53 Saturday, 8 March 2025

❝

This whole thing started because I wanted to make my scratch buffer persistent. Instead, I’ve ended up with a whole new capture setup for quick notes.

Source
✍️ Reply by email

Last Night's Moon 3-7-24

06:05 Saturday, 8 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 52.07°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 1.01mph
Words: 22

I put the MC20 2x teleconverter on the 100-400mm zoom last night. Handheld hi-res at 800mm (1600mm effective focal length).

✍️ Reply by email

Division of Labor

11:44 Friday, 7 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 63.66°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 48% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 81

Empty Wheel gets this right, I think:

As a result, there’s a demand that the national Democratic Party (appear to) take the lead on everything, a demand that invites those complaining to outsource their own agency completely, as if they simply hire people to do their politics for them every two or four years.

We can't look to the politicians, this has to be grass-roots opposition. We all have a role to play, even if it's just screaming bloody murder.

✍️ Reply by email

Self Care

10:56 Friday, 7 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 63.3°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 49% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 292

So, yes, this crisis is affecting me in many ways. And this isn't going to be a short-term problem. So it's important to try to find things to kind of balance the chaos and insanity taking place. Not dwelling on it excessively is one thing. I can't imagine how I'd be feeling if I was on social media now. Mitzi and I will be sitting on the couch watching TV and she has her phone open to Facebook and is passing it over to me every few minutes, "Take a look at this."

Have to stop that.

Anyway, working out is another important part of my self-care. I feel better afterward, and I'm sure it's helping to reduce my stress level in many ways. I also regard it as an act of resistance, a personal commitment to get stronger, physically, so I can be stronger emotionally and mentally.

I've got another session today, which will be my third this week. From now until we leave Florida, I'll be training with Germaine three times a week. That's another expense, but I look at it as an investment in myself and my ability to be useful somehow.

Not everyone can afford a personal trainer. There are plenty of resources online that can help guide you and meet you where you are with regard to level of fitness, available equipment and a sensible program of exercise. The key thing you can't find online is that accountability element. If you can find someone to train with, a friend or a neighbor, a part of your personal "resistance network," that will help maintain your commitment.

Consider forming a "resistance network," for "resistance training."

I'm sure this would be interesting to someone in a keyword search.

✍️ Reply by email

The Banality of Evil

10:20 Friday, 7 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.27°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 52% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 322

There are "new to me" voices that I'm listening to more these days. Andrew Weissman is one of them. Claire Berlinski of the previous post is another.

In this video, Weissman is cautioning against feeling too hopeful, or relieved about minor victories. That there is a risk that the enormity of the criminality that is taking place simply overwhelms us and forces a new set point for what is considered "normal," perhaps approaching "acceptable," in the context of, "Well, what can you do about it?"

It seems the answer is to keep screaming. This is wrong, it's unacceptable and we're going to fight it every way we can, even if it's only to keep screaming.

So this is the marmot screaming. It's not much, but it's what I can do.

I've also given some money here and there. I donated $200 to Pizza for Ukraine. I did that last Saturday because I was so angry about Trump's betrayal of Ukraine in particular and the western alliance overall. I donated $100 to the warfighting fund at United24. You can donate to non-violent services as well. Hopefully that site isn't being spoofed, but I think it's the real deal, as best I can tell.

I've donated money to Vote.vets, a couple of local candidates and, last night, to Sen. Mark Kelly.

I've written to my congressional representatives, and I need to keep doing more of that. (Keep screaming.)

I've got a new folder of RSS feeds labeled "Crisis." I have Talking Points Memo, Empty Wheel, Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, Just Security and Citation Needed in there. Those are all feed links.

"Scream bloody murder." Not exactly what I wanted to do, but I think Weissman is right, and all the other people who have said the same thing.

We can't wait for the midterms. We can't rely on the courts. We don't have the luxury of "being civil."

Scream bloody murder.

✍️ Reply by email

Fortress Europe?

09:57 Friday, 7 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 60.39°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 59

Interesting video from The Bulwark.

If the "coalition of the willing" can get its act together quickly enough, there may be a chance to contain Russia. That is an enormous if.

What that also means is that Putin has a relatively short timeline to achieve his goals.

The next two to three years are going to be very dangerous.

✍️ Reply by email

Departure Date

06:29 Friday, 7 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.76°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 0mph
Words: 499

I met my daughter for breakfast yesterday, before she had to fly back to LA. Heard all about her adventures in Japan. A bit stressful at first, until she figured out the subway system. She didn't care for Tokyo, "Like New York City, only clean." She said the Japanese were unfailingly polite, but not exactly warm. She loved the vending machine that cuts and squeezes fresh oranges and gives you a cup of orange juice. Ten days with her sister and brother-in-law became somewhat wearing.

We talked about the move to New York. She's not exactly thrilled, because it'll make it more difficult for her to see me, me not flying to California so much (as in, "ever"). When I mentioned I'd planned to leave about mid-May, when Mitzi left for a trip to New Mexico, she told me she was hoping to be putting on an event of some kind here, which would open the first week in June. She'd planned to be here that week because her sister and I share a birthday around then.

Then she told me about this event space/craft brewery that opened locally. She has an idea for a theme for an art show and she's discussing it with the owners. Nothing firm yet, and I think the timeline is pretty short for putting something like that together, but she's optimistic they can pull it off.

All of which is to say that I may be sticking around here a couple of more weeks.

Which may be less inconvenient than I initially thought. Mitzi spoke with our realtor and there are a lot of places up for sale in our development. We're not necessarily in a rush to sell, as we don't have any sort of contingency with regard to where we're moving. We can wait a few weeks to list the place, although our nextdoor neighbors would be listing their's about the same time.

I wondered if the general idea that Florida may not be the ideal place to retire to is spreading faster than I thought? I don't know, but mitigating that somewhat is the brutal winter experienced in the northeast this year. And I'm still confident and hopeful about internal migration within Florida, as hurricane victims seek "safer" parts of the state to continue to enjoy no state income tax and mild winters.

Our brilliant legislature is somewhat seriously considering outlawing property taxes. They haven't exactly figured out how they'd fill the hole they'd blow in every locality's budget, but they're talking about it.

Imagine that, no state income tax and no property tax? No problem selling the house then! At least in the early days, before all public services went away and "the poors" who would be sales-taxed into oblivion were forced to migrate to another state where they might have some hope of survival. Maybe AGI robots will do all the landscaping, construction, waste-management, healthcare and so on.

This state is insane.

✍️ Reply by email

Meta: marmot

06:06 Friday, 7 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 47.64°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 4.72mph
Words: 236

Moving to the MBP without an external monitor and living in a small screen has forced me to take a closer look at the marmot. That's a good thing, I think.

When I work on the marmot, sometimes I create attributes for notes that are ultimately unused, but possibly among the Displayed Attributes that appear with each note onscreen. Similarly, there may be attributes that are used, but among the Displayed Attributes strictly as a troubleshooting aid.

I've mentioned this recently with respect to being able to have some room to edit the text of a post, but last night's moon was the first photo-type post I've made since the switch. In general, I don't need a lot of room for text in a photo post, because they're usually little more than a caption or a brief account of when it was taken.

But the amount of space taken up by Displayed Attributes stood out to me, so I spent some time just now going through and figuring out which ones I actually needed. Got it down to 5, from some larger number. I wasn't actually using several of them as they'd been created long before I'd finally sorted out how I wanted to do a photo-type post. A couple of them I didn't even recall what I'd intended for them.

Perhaps not an example of how constraints may help creativity, but certainly clarity.

✍️ Reply by email

Last Night's Moon 3-6-24

05:51 Friday, 7 March 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 46.33°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 0mph
Words: 24

From the front porch last night with the E-M1X and the 100-400mm zoom with the MC14 teleconverter, effective focal length 1120 mm.

✍️ Reply by email

Measles

14:44 Thursday, 6 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 65.84°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 34% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 82

Another reason to flee Florida. Just sent a note to my primary care, though I expect I already know the answer. I had the measles as a kid, I don't think I've ever been vaccinated. I'm wondering if I should get it now, given that it's now here in Florida, and Florida has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

I expect she's going to say yes.

"Free Florida, baby!"

Governed by "Florida man."

Don't let me die in Florida.

✍️ Reply by email

Only Murders In the Cave

17:43 Wednesday, 5 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 75.27°F Pressure: 1004hPa Humidity: 42% Wind: 25.32mph
Words: 209

I guess that was a bit of a spoiler if you haven't seen Paradise yet. The season wrapped this week and I'm just a little disappointed with how it ended.

It ended as it was conceived, probably, as a returning serial drama rather than a "limited series." The finale has several hooks for the next season.

Episodes 1 and 7 were the best. I thought 7 was very intense and well done. Episode 1 was just mind-blowing with the reveal. I cared about most of the characters, some were better developed than others. I'm a little unhappy with how the Jane plot line wrapped up. And I have questions about airplanes sitting, apparently fully fueled, for some number of months or years and then being ready to take off. But what do I know?

Still enjoying Only Murders In the Building, usually one episode a night. We're on season 3 now, and it seems to have lost a step. I'm not a Paul Rudd fan, and it feels like it has lost its sense of intimacy, or claustrophobia, when the suspects are cast members and not residents of the Arconia, although half the cast seem to be residents. Martin and Short are more frantic, or overplayed, too. Disappointing.

✍️ Reply by email

Insufferable

11:38 Wednesday, 5 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 75.42°F Pressure: 1007hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 20.71mph
Words: 213

I don't read Ezra Klein much. I've read some things he's written, but he's not the kind of author that I look forward to reading. If someone links to something he's written and recommends it, I'll give it a look. But it's not like I'd click on anything of his just because of his name.

He's never resonated much with me, I guess.

But watching him on this "podcast," just makes me want to hate him.

I don't know if it's his camera setup, the set, his tone of voice, his head tilt or what, but he just comes off as condescending and, I mean, just literally looking down his nose at his guest.

I watched the whole damn thing because the topic is important, but the guest was far more informative and easier to listen to than the host. And in that respect, I'd say it's worth your time too.

I'm not fan of Joe Rogen either, but it seems like Klein is kind of the polar opposite of Rogen in presentation, but equally as insufferable.

(Just before I uploaded this, it dawned on me that he reminds me of William F. Buckley, and that's not a good thing. Do you think that's kind of the vibe he was looking for here?)

✍️ Reply by email

Late is the same as never

05:48 Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 56.66°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 1.01mph
Words: 240

This report would have been useful about twenty five years ago.

You might think that the people who assess risk for a living would have been more interested in climate change from the beginning. But irony is the fifth fundamental force of the universe, and human nature is such that by the time the risk is obvious, it's too late to do anything about it.

Not that they would have had any better luck against the giant petrochemical corporations.

What's intriguing to me is that the climate catastrophe is arriving at the same time as the political foundations of this civilization are crumbling. They don't seem directly connected.

Perhaps they are in the context that the extreme wealth inequality that fuels political destabilization was built on the unchecked rapaciousness of capitalism, so environmental degradation inevitably accompanies extreme wealth inequality.

Maybe the next civilization can take that into account. They'll have the tremendous advantage of time. Because all of the easily accessible fossil fuel resources have been exhausted. They won't be able to manufacture solar panels and giant windmills at scale, and the renewable energy infrastructure we're building today will inevitably fail along with all the other physical infrastructure of this civilization as conflict and catastrophes disrupt trade and logistic chains.

I read somewhere recently something to the effect of, "Uncertainty is the place where hope resides."

Well, it's where risk lives too.

When the risk is clear, hope is gone.

✍️ Reply by email

Everything Bucket

07:53 Monday, 3 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 53.65°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 638

I downloaded Elgato's Stream Deck iOS app, and the demo seems to work very well. Takes a little time to connect, and seems to keep the iPhone from sleeping while it is running, but neither of those appear to be showstoppers.

It's $49.99 for a "lifetime" license (i.e. you're not paying a subscription), and I'm inclined to buy one. I saw a blog post somewhere recently that talked about using a feature of MacOS accessibility to create buttons on the screen to launch apps, and you can transfer that control to an iOS device. Essentially, you can create buttons on the iOS device to launch apps or perform actions on the Mac.

I played with it a little bit and it appeared as though I'd have to spend more time figuring it out than I cared to, at least compared to the immediate gratification of $49.99. Haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I probably will before the day is over.

I've also recently spent some working on the AppleScripts for Captain's Log, and cleaning up my Scripts folder. I want to revisit the screenshot automation. Perhaps I'll get lucky on the MBP and not run into the bizarre Privacy and Security hiccups I had on the iMac. I created a new script that creates a "quotation" entry in the log. I may repurpose this for the marmot too.

Capture some text in a web page, copy it to the clipboard, launch the quotation automation either from a Stream Deck button or from the FastScripts menu. Give it a title (some thought about why it was worth recalling), and it'll create a note in the log with the quote in the text of the note, and the URL as an attribute, and it'll give it a little speech bubble as a badge.

You can create any number of attributes of type "URL" in Tinderbox, but it has a built-in one called "SourceURL," which is notionally intended to be used with DevonThink. I have DevonThink but I've never really embraced it. I also have EagleFiler, which is also an "everything bucket," less sophisticated than DevonThink. I've tried both of them, and have stuff in each, but neither has really "clicked" for me the way Tinderbox has. The existence of SourceURL prompted the idea of a quotation entry.

Unfortunately, until now anyway, I've been hit-or-miss on using Captain's Log to its full potential. Perhaps some anxiety about switching between the iMac and the MBP and the dance I had to do to shut Tinderbox down on one before launching it on the other was inhibiting me. For the moment, I have some enthusiasm for working in the Log and turning it to my advantage. Having something like the Stream Deck controls available on my phone seems like another advantage. It's easier to hit a button on the iPhone than to mouse up to the menu bar, or try to recall a keyboard shortcut.

I've got to do some work on tagging items, so that I can have an agent gather all entries that are receipts, or orders and things of that nature. Maybe "Tips" would be a tag for a quotation entry, where I copy some text from a camera forum post about taking better advantage of some feature.

The other aspect of the Log that I've neglected, and have to make a habit, is the morning review. Check the entry to see if it makes sense, or will it make sense to my "future self," tag it as appropriate, then mark it as "reviewed." I created my first Stamp in Tinderbox so I could select dozens of Midwatch entries and mark them all as reviewed in one go.

Agents gather "Don't Forget" reminders, the unreviewed entries, bookmarks, quotes, etc.

It's a welcome distraction from the news.

✍️ Reply by email

Fools

06:28 Monday, 3 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.37°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 454

Fool. noun a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person

verb trick or deceive (someone); dupe

Stupid. adjective having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense

Folly. noun lack of good sense; foolishness; a foolish act, idea, or practice

So, a "fool" is not necessarily a "stupid" person, but a "stupid" person is sometimes a "fool," and may be easier "to fool."

If we are to deal adequately with folly, we must try to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is a moral rather than an intellectual defect. There are people who are mentally agile but foolish, and people who are mentally slow but very far from foolish - a discovery that we make to our surprise as a result of particular situations. We thus get the impression that folly is likely to be, not a congenital defect, but one that is acquired in certain circumstances where people make fools of themselves or allow others to make fools of them. We notice further that this defect is less common in the unsociable and solitary than in individuals or groups that are inclined or condemned to sociability. It seems, then, that folly is a sociological rather than a psychological problem, and. that it is a special form of the operation of historical circumstances on people, a psychological by-product of definite external factors. If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power, whether political or religious, produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of the others.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years

I've seen references to Bonhoeffer that used the word "stupidity" in place of "folly." I think that in its modern usage, people would find "fool" or "folly" to be less pejorative than "stupid" or "stupidity."

This has all been on my mind because of recent events. Our failure to address climate change by aggressively reducing CO2 emissions. Elections of demagogues and fools to high office. Doubling down on vaccine skepticism in the face of illness and death.

I have long believed, if not known, that human beings are not the kinds of creatures that we flatter ourselves to be. To the extent that we have mastered any skill at "reason," most often it is employed, when it is employed, to rationalize our feelings to ourselves and others.

Civilization is merely an abstraction, it exists only in our minds. It's hard to generate any feelings about an abstraction.

When enough of us lose our minds, well, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

✍️ Reply by email

New "Desk"

07:02 Sunday, 2 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 54.05°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 364

I ordered this 52" 2-drawer, adjustable height workbench from Home Depot. It arrived yesterday and it took me about an hour to put it together,

Very well-constructed and pretty easy to assemble. But it is heavy. The package weighed 140 pounds. I'm guessing that may be about what the old wooden office desk weighed that I just got out of here. The advantage of the workbench is that it's on wheels. I was able to move it from the garage to my office with just a little assist from Mitzi getting it over the step from the garage to the hall. I could have done it by myself, but I'd have had to walk from the hall, back through the house, out the front door and back into the garage to lift the other end of the desk over the step. I couldn't slip between the workbench and the other crap in the hall to get to the other end of the desk.

In hindsight, I should have ordered the 1-drawer version. The desk height is adjustable, as is the height of my office chair, but to find a combination that puts my arms at a comfortable angle for writing, my legs bump up against the bottom drawer. I suppose it'd be a simple matter to just remove the bottom drawer, but I kind of like the storage.

I'm still in the process of organizing this space, but one advantage of the shallow depth and the absence of file drawer piers is that I can put my Epson FastFoto scanner within arm's reach. It'll do document scanning as well as photos, and it's wireless so I don't have to screw around with more cables.

Speaking of cables, I'd written "Logitech Stream Deck Neo" in the preceding post. It's an Elgato product. Fixed. Anyway, went looking to see if they had a Bluetooth solution and learned that they have an iOS app that turns a phone or a tablet into a Stream Deck!

That would get rid of a device and a cable from my desktop. I'll try out the free version and see if it will do what I want. Interesting.

✍️ Reply by email

Paradigm Shift

06:08 Sunday, 2 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 54.61°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 784

This is a trivial concern, but it's a worthwhile distraction from writing about the stuff that kept me up last night.

Switching to the 14" MBP from the 27" iMac has been something of a challenge. I could tolerate certain inconveniences or annoyances on the MBP because I didn't do most of my "work" on it. I'm finding they're far less tolerable now that it's my only platform.

Differences in display size and internal storage capacity call for different accommodations. The iMac had a 1TB SSD, and with my enormous Photos library, free space was becoming something of a scarce commodity. There were a couple of solutions, but I wanted to be assured of having full-size originals available at all times, so I had the System library on an external SSD.

The MBP has a 2TB internal SSD, so storage isn't an issue (for now), but my new "desk" arrived yesterday and I attempted to replicate the iMac setup with the external SSD. Previously, I'd had the MBP setup with "Optimize Storage" for the Photos library, where only thumbnails are kept in local stores and the originals are kept in iCloud. An accommodation I was willing to live with because I didn't do most of my image management on the MBP, and when I was on the road, I felt I could be reasonably assured of iCloud access if only through the wifi hotspot of my iPhone.

Switching to the external drive as the System library involved a couple of force-quits of Photos, and reports to Apple before it finally switched over. This morning I was greeted by an alert from Photos that it had to quit because the library was corrupt or missing. What had happened was the SSD it resides on was no longer mounted on the MBP. This is a problem with a CalDigit Thunderbolt hub that I'd had connected to the iMac. It was problematic then, but I suspected it may have been a cable geometry issue with pressure on the connections causing intermittent problems.

Well, it's not. This dock is crap. I had the little Elgato Stream Deck Neo plugged into the front-facing USB-C port, and it kept flickering any time I touched a key or jostled the cable. So I'm dumping this POS.

When I had everything hooked up and kind of working, it bothered me that this "mobile" computer was now tethered to a bunch devices, and it wouldn't be a simple matter for me to just pick it up and slide over to the recliner for a little relaxed doom-scrolling.

So I've decided to go ahead and make the internal SSD the System Library for Photos, and download all the originals. iCloud is currently mirroring nearly all of my files and I still have over 700GB remaining of 2TB of storage. I think, with some thoughtful management, I can make the internal SSD work until such time as we're in larger accommodations that will allow a desktop Mac of some kind.

Now I'm in the process of trying to switch back to the internal Photos Library as the System Library and so far have been dealing with the Spinning Pinwheel of Infinite Futility™ and one force-quit. Likely another one coming up soon.

Another issue is screen management. Here in the marmot, a blog post is a note in Tinderbox that has a number of Displayed Attributes included above the text of the note. These are all setup in the prototype of a blog post note, and appear every time I create a new entry. Most of them were selected over time to help me troubleshoot glitches.

On the MBP, the Displayed Attributes portion of the note was larger than the text display where I actually compose the note. So that compelled me this morning to reconsider what was essential for including in Displayed Attributes. I've reduced it to six, which gives me a fair amount of room to write in. (Probably four more than necessary.)

I was just about to wrap this up and decided to check Photos. System Library is now the internal library, and I've turned on iCloud Photos and set It to download all the originals. I'll order a new hub for the SSDs (there are only two USB-C ports on this MBP), and figure something out.

One practice on the iMac that I eventually abandoned was importing images from SD cards to a folder on an external drive and doing my initial review from there, and only importing the "keepers" to Photos on the MBP. That should help keep library growth under control.

Still more to come, I'm sure. But the beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

What's There to Worry About?

11:35 Saturday, 1 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 55.76°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 265

What transpired yesterday in Washington was worse than Munich in 1938. It's Munich with nuclear weapons.

The Secretary of Defense has instructed CYBERCOM to cease planning cyber ops against Russia.

Trump has essentially handed Putin carte blanche to carry out his plans for domination of the European continent.

What about NATO?

NATO is dead.

While Russia is militarily weakened, and in my opinion, no match for the combined armies of free European nations, Russia has nuclear weapons.

The center of gravity for a military response to Russian aggression in Europe beyond Ukraine is Germany, and Germany lacks a nuclear deterrent.

Putin may calculate that he can win a "limited" nuclear war by launching nuclear strikes against military targets in Germany, convinced that France and Britain will not risk retaliation against their cities by striking Russia.

If I were the European Union, I'd arm Germany with nuclear weapons yesterday. Give them a credible deterrent to make Putin think twice. It doesn't eliminate the risk, but I think it may reduce it significantly. Of course, there's the German political situation with an ascendant far right that may roll over for Putin if it achieves power, and will likely oppose any effort to arm Germany with nuclear weapons, which may give it enough political allies to achieve power.

So it's not a no-brainer.

But make no mistake. Trump has surrendered to Putin. In the analogy of WW II, Putin is Hitler, Xi is Tojo and Trump is Mussolini.

We are now living in a world dominated by authoritarian regimes backed with nuclear weapons.

Everything is different now.

✍️ Reply by email

Meanwhile

08:39 Saturday, 1 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 53.53°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 218

We can't all be on high alert all the time, life does go on. I think we should all take some time to think about how the world has just changed, and what that may mean for us.

But you still have to "chop wood, carry water."

I sold the iMac yesterday. Got $850 for it, which wasn't bad. I looked at eBay and most of the ones like mine were selling north of $1K, around the $1200 range. I gather eBay takes an 18% cut, I'm not certain, so I listed it for $950 on FB Marketplace. Well, Mitzi listed it for me.

It basically sold within a couple of hours, though we didn't conclude the transaction until yesterday. New Mac user too. 3.6Ghz 8 core I9 with 128GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, should still be useful. I'd have kept it except for the size, which makes it impractical at Winterfell.

So now I'm fully dependent on this 14" M3 MBP with 24GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. I'm finding little things that I'd set up on the iMac weren't mirrored to the MBP and so I'm having to reinvent a few wheels. This has taught me that it's probably wiser, and more affordable, to rely on just one computer.

The beat goes on...

✍️ Reply by email

What Now?

07:57 Saturday, 1 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.96°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 71% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 538

My interest in shortwave radio has waned somewhat. Partly because I'm looking forward to being able to experiment with different antennas when we get to New York, and I don't have an HOA telling me what I can't do in my backyard.

"In these uncertain times," I think you'd be wise to have a decent shortwave radio, and one with single sideband (SSB) capability. Nearly every radio sold today is a system on a chip device. They nearly all have excellent sensitivity and selectivity. Where they differ in design may be in poor choices regarding display shielding, where the LCD introduces noise into the circuit.

Good brands include C.Crane, Tecsun, and Sangean. There are some excellent brands out of China as well. (Most of them are manufactured in China, so buy now before the tariffs take effect.) The C.Crane Skywave SSB is a tiny device, but it will take an external antenna and is mostly intended for use with earbuds.

Why should you want a shortwave radio with SSB capability? Because normal means of communications may be disrupted. Much of the internet runs across the oceans on underwater cables, and Russia has been developing some capability with cutting those, and being pretty brazen about it as well. China likewise.

Many of the commercial broadcasts you can listen to on AM (amplitude modulation) shortwave from overseas may be propaganda from China. But if normal communications are disrupted, I expect we will see new stations emerging.

Single sideband gives you the ability to listen in on amateur radio operators. What you hear there may or may not be any more reliable than propaganda, but they are a different perspective.

The key thing with a shortwave radio is some kind of antenna, and it doesn't have to be something exotic or sophisticated. A long wire alligator clipped to the whip antenna of a radio without an external antenna connector will improve its reception.

You may want to look for one that takes AA batteries. Many, if not most these days, have some sort of lithium battery installed and charge over USB. But something like the Skywave will take ordinary alkaline AAs, or NiMH rechargeables (you will have to tell the radio which kind you have installed). Don't try to recharge lithium AAs in a radio that isn't designed to take them. Just pay attention to the battery warnings in the documentation.

It doesn't take a lot of power to communicate over vast distances. It's propagation that matters, not so much power. Propagation varies with time of day, solar activity and weather, so shortwave communications, or, more accurately "high frequency" (HF) communications aren't as reliable as tuning in your local AM or FM broadcast station. But long range and modest power requirements mean that HF communications are possible with modest amateur equipment.

While I'm thinking of it, I think any home in America today would be wise to have a hardcopy world atlas on hand.

We're all very dependent on the internet for basic information. The internet famously "routes around damage," but I wouldn't count on that anymore. Cables can be cut. Cyberattacks can take sites down. Musk owns Starlink.

"When I was your age, the internet was called books."

✍️ Reply by email

Warning Order

06:33 Saturday, 1 March 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 50.94°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 250

Yesterday's catastrophe in the Oval Office feels, to me, to be an event of similar consequence as 9/11. To be sure, thousands of Americans haven't died, but who knows how many thousands of Europeans will?

The Iraq War was wrong, I don't agree with David Brooks that it was done out of "good intentions." In the worst ways, it may have helped shape and inform Donald Trump's adolescent, gangster view of the presidency.

But this is a new debasement of American values, America's reputation. We have aligned ourselves with the most malign entity on the world stage, Russia. In doing so, have encouraged and emboldened China.

We have made the world less safe everywhere.

And I feel powerless in this moment. I knew on 9/11 that the people who were responsible and those who harbored them would be held to some sort of account. It was far in excess of what was called for, and we're still dealing with the consequences. But we did respond.

In this moment, I feel helpless. I'm not confident that any meaningful opposition will appear within this country immediately, nor am I confident that the mid-terms will change the balance of power in Washington. There are too many "Americans" who are cheering this president on.

War is chaos.

Chaos can precede war.

We are in a chaotic moment. The evidence is clear by the lack of any meaningful response or opposition within this country. Everyone's just looking at their shoes.

Prepare accordingly.

✍️ Reply by email