Back in the day I built a lot of software, then I designed a lot of software, then I designed a lot of software design tools. Now I'm retired on a ranch in Petaluma California and I build stuff in my workshop, mostly out of atoms instead of bits.
Public Key
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2026-08-17T19:09:33Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Double-Ended Pockets npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Several vehicles on the Ranch drink diesel. I don't use them a whole lot, but this morning I filled up three jerry cans with diesel for the Ranch. Fifteen gallons came to $117! THANKS OBAMA! npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Looking at the resurgence of interest in vinyl records after a mere 40 years of utter obsolescence (not to mention a similar renewed interest in much younger audio CDs) makes it crystal clear what a terrible, unforgivable crime the AI companies have committed by their wholesale destruction of printed books. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Hey AI. How much do I hate AI? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper A tenant moved out a few months ago and left behind a massive bunch of books. They are all beautiful, color, coffee table picture books bound in hard covers. There's more than 60 of them and I want to get rid of the whole lot. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/051/081/429/267/744/original/c7aedbf52b38189f.png npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Means testing is slower, more expensive, more demeaning, and less effective than just giving stuff to everybody who asks for it. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Well, that explains a lot. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Long Term Parking. French sculpture. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I think it's totally appropriate to accept non-liquid financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, and title deeds when we levy our wealth tax. It doesn't have to be in cash. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I love me a good bumper sticker. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I think the first really definitive conclusion one can draw from living through the twenty-first century is that giving racists, fundamentalists, and technocrats billions of dollars is a Really Bad Thing that Destroys Civilization. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…wdzu npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…wdzu npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper My friends laughed as I built my collection of DVDs and Blu Rays. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…4xpq Huh? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper To all those Americans who say "This isn't who we are" all I can say is holy shit read some fucking history. This is exactly who we are. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Is that Jeff Epstein he's raising from the dead? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper When the trump era is finally over, we need to re-write the US Constitution. We can and we will because we can't let this shit happen again. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…l70y Beutler has been on fire over this latest trump fuckup. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…x8t7 Aha! Pix or it didn't happen! npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…x8t7 npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…x8t7 npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper It fuckin breaks my heart to see this. We got our hands on the URL "cooper.com" about a million years ago. I was so proud. My email address was [email protected] . How cool is that? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper The Epstein Class believes that providing citizens with enough money to live a decent life while not requiring them to work will spoil them and turn them into useless marshmallows with toxic ideas, anti-social behaviors, and will actively tear at the social fabric. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper An aircraft carrier of the USS Ford class costs about 13 Billion USD to build and another billion for annual maintenance. The Ford carries 75 jets costing about 15 million USD EACH. Each jet consumes about 6,000 USD worth of Jet-A fuel per flight HOUR. The cost of bombs and rockets and missiles is...I dunno, a helluva lot. The carrier has a crew of >5,000 men and women. Each Ford Class carrier is supported by a task group consisting of a cruiser, 2 or 3 destroyers, several supply ships, and usually one or more submarines. These additional vessels total more than 2,000 additional personnel. Experts estimate that it costs about 7 million USD EVERY DAY to deploy a Carrier Task Group. The USA currently has ELEVEN carrier task groups and TWO of them are currently deployed against IRAN. Just so you understand how many schools and hospitals it's costing us to soothe the egos of small men. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Hey Fediverse! Any recommendations for a good book about the Federal Reserve? What it is? Who founded it? How it works? and Why? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I was really struck by Bad Bunny's Superbowl halftime performance. So I wrote down my thoughts and you can find them here: https://mralancooper.medium.com/the-bad-bunny-halftime-show-deecb37b1a4f npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper So, evidently Bill Gates thinks he should get a bye because he didn't actually rape girls at Jeffrey's house but merely asked the convicted pedophile to get him some antibiotics that he could sneak into Melinda's food so he wouldn't have to confess that he gave her the clap that he got from some Russian hookers. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Cory Doctorow's (@nprofile…ugpy) excellent book Enshittification lays out clearly how and why things are bad and how to fix them. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper TIL that of course it was a woman who first figured out how management is supposed to work: Mary Parker Follett. Summa cum laude from Radcliffe (Harvard) in 1898, she did groundbreaking research and wrote in the early years of the 20th century (while of course caring for her invalid mother). Her work only gained influence of course after a man (an advisor to FDR) took credit for it. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper In a capitalist world you build a company to ship a desirable product; the more desirable, the more money you make. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper “Because it’s illegal to modify your printer, the four printer companies have raised the price of ink to the point where it is the most expensive fluid you can buy today without a license as a civilian. At $10,000 a gallon it would be cheaper to print your grocery list with the semen of a Kentucky Derby-winning stallion.”—Cory Doctorow npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper When I was a kid probably around 13 years old I kept getting junk mail from a company I once bought something from. Each unwanted mailer had a "Business Reply" return card. One day I securely taped one of the Business Reply cards to a 7 pound red brick and posted it. I never received another junk mailer from them again. I've never told this story to anyone. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper The US military does not follow US law. It has it's own law code and it's own courts, procedures, and police to enforce and administer justice within the various military branches. This military justice is defined and presided over by the Judge Advocate General and his subordinate Judge Advocates. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper If they're rich enough to buy politicians, they're TOO rich! npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I own a pickup truck and a drill press. I have a right to own them, I think. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Way back in 1976 I hired my first programmer at my first software company. He was recommended by an old teacher of mine. When the candidate walked in the office he handed me his business card. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I'm not the first person to suggest that the California flag should have a beaver instead of a bear on it. Beavers largely created the geography of California (and the entire NA continent) while bears just ate and slept. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper The Luddites didn't hate technology, actually they kind of liked it. The Luddites hated the business people who used the new technology to fire skilled artisans and replace them with machines. In the 19th century, firing an artisan was often a death sentence. That's what the followers of General Ludd fought against. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper The thing that really pisses me off is just how little money was required to purchase the United States Government. Just a few billion dollars and you get 50 Senators and 3 or 4 hundred Representatives, 30 or so Governors, a few thousand school districts, and the Presidency. For a centebillionaire, that's chump change. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper My backyard this morning. Three hundred hungry sheep in the valley mist. #petaluma #intensiverotatonalgrazing #sustainable #regenerative npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @nprofile…qtlf Do you mean to say that there is a "Death of Death of Design"? This could go on for a while... npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I suspect that "AI" is becoming the ultimate expression of Gresham's Law: The crap that "AI" outputs is driving decent content to the margins. Artists and crafters don't want to put their work online where "AI" will pirate it. Pretty soon we'll need to meet in dark basements to share face-to-face code, art, music, literature. Hmmm, kinda like the old days. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper So, it turns out that the deep state is actually a very shallow puddle. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Corporate motto of tiny garage startup by two technerd grad students: "Do No Evil" npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I just discovered that Medium no longer lets civilians view my posts without first signing up and giving them your identification. That's fucked up. Is there ANY place where someone can put up blog posts without some oligarch getting in the way? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Verne Ackuler and his sidekick Nick Names. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Racism is America's original sin, and until we finally vanquish it, we will never have justice or peace. 400 years of racist history should make that clear to everybody. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper The voter suppression was worse that I thought. https://mailchi.mp/gregpalast/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won?e=be3ac55aa4 npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper It's been more than a month when every night it drops below freezing in #petaluma in northern california. Freezing nights are not unusual here, but 40 of them in a row is unheard of. #climatechange npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Everybody laughed at my collection of Blu Ray discs, but now that streaming video is fucked with fees AND commercials.... npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper He's not banning tiktok, he's extorting it. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I'm reading Timothy Snyder's newest book "On Freedom." I wish everybody would read this book. It explains so much. While it can be very bleak, it can also be very uplifting. There ARE ways to fix things. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Just to put today's inequality into perspective, a friend pointed out to me that Bill Gates is closer to being homeless and penniless than he is to having as much money as Elon Musk. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper It's funny (not funny) the way that corporations were all OUR COPYRIGHTS ARE PRECIOUS AND SHOULD LAST FOREVER right up until they needed data for their Large Language Models to learn from and decided to inhale every bit of copyrighted material in the infosphere and all of a sudden it was YOUR COPYRIGHTS AREN'T REALLY THAT IMPORTANT ANYWAY. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Not that I didn't enthusiastically vote for Harris, but, truth be told, her politics were a shade to the right of Richard Nixon's. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper If you believe that you shouldn't vote for a woman just because she is a woman, then you clearly believe that you should vote for a man simply because he is a man. That's weird. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper When your corporate motto is "Do no Evil" but your market cap is over TWO TRILLION dollars, guess which one actually drives every decision in your company? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper The only way to stop the rampant unconstrained greed in the USA is to destroy the reward system currently in place for unconstrained greed. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper I'm simply giddy about Vice President Harris' candidacy. I was staunchly against Biden giving up the race because I simply could not see the DNC backing Harris. I am so very happy to have been dead wrong. Go get 'em VP Harris! npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @npub1mmf…eknq Nice. Very nice. I was thinking "ZOOM!" npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper @npub1mmf…eknq What word would she get? npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Being efficient can increase profit, but it also means not being resilient, adaptable, and forgiving. Businesses that are efficient tend also to overwork their employees because the demands on the business are always to be resilient, adaptable, and forgiving. The only entity that demands efficiency is the investor. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Joe Biden is losing the merch wars. npub1eqlkdshsxh3htdhnyr73mm63lm9xexeh6vxr0erc6f9ssnf9lajs3jvj9z MrAlanCooper Trump is a flight risk.
