I am retired in Southern California after working on the computational side of chemistry, medical electronics, environmental monitoring, motion pictures, and even some web commerce.
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Published at
2026-07-04T17:00:22Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I researched it a little. I'm not sure if we talked about it. Apparently that was the radar installation, but the missiles were down in silos and what is now the sepulveda dam recreation area. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks in many respects it looks great, but why do they need to do these funny steering wheels? Or not wheels. Steering squares? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks As a convertible driver I think it's a great shame but there are none. Currently there are no electric convertible cars for sale in America. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Mercedes does not actually make an electric convertible does it? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks ha! It was a big pedal. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I have been driving a Volkswagen Sirocco with a stick shift when I switched to my dad's 1982 Delta 88 for some errand. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Cracker Barrel is fine and all, but I don't think you want to admit, James Woods, that it was the only place you'd ever go to. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I can't remember which one now, but a nice rust language improvement over a standard utility dropped off my list because the package went unsupported. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks packaging might make the difference. If my operating system supports it in supported packages I really don't care. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I'm unable to go today either, but N suggested I just take a picture of myself walking around the back yard with a sign. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks #tags are what stitch together the fediverse. I think we got to remember to use at least one. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I used to stay with someone who lived around the corner from there. Very strange territory for a Californian. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks so what is that, roughly 2,000 year gap since somebody been impaled at the Colosseum? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Don't worry, Tim is Donnie's friend now, and this is well within the range of things Trump has pardoned, or told his Justice Department not to pursue. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I hear people saying that the MAGAs are enthusiastic about the tariffs, but I think that's actually pretty thin on the ground. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I can't actually see the whole article myself, but what an image. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks remove 2 bolts, get up to three bikes. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks with a 90 watt power input! npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "Elon Musk’s private security detail gets deputized by US Marshals Service" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Helping out my mom who had a low tire pressure light on her car. I was able to return all the tires to normal pressure with my trusty tire (bicycle) pump. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I've heard the Thunderbolt is plenty fast too, so you don't really need to max out internal storage npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I am not a Mac guy, but if I was a Mac guy I think I would go for the base model m4 mini in heartbeat. It's the best $500 computer on the planet. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks When I was cleaning up and reducing I found some really monstrous Arduino project directories. Monstrous even when each project contained only 100 lines of my own code. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks What are our best practices? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I know I'm late to the thumb drive game. They've been growing in size and have become part of more people's workflow for many years. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks when I first started hiking in the Mandeville Canyon area, I'm like, oh I know this place. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks here was the last photo I snapped on the way out. Kind of apocalyptic, but it isn't really near houses yet. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks we are evacuated now. I think I'll go to sleep soon and hope for good news in the morning. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks @npub1n5c…mpqj are there any signs of disengagement? To tip my hand a bit I might actually think it was a positive sign if fewer people were on social media. That probably hasn't happened though. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks shouldn't that be the Lenovo Pro Max? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Okay Mastodon Friends, process this one. N has gotten two packages from Amazon that we haven't ordered, that are part of the brushing scam, we guess. The second package contained seeds and a bonsai kit. Son M said that he would take it, but what he really wanted was a juniper bonsai that someone had started. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I get emails from my new Kia, giving me health reports every month, which is kind of nice. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I think a lot of the world's problems, ranging from the price of houses to squabbles over who controls rather small pieces of land, come down to a global overpopulation we don't really talk about. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks My theory is that one cut from edge to spindle is good enough. Especially since my kitchen shears have teeth on them, leaving a little bit of a jagged edge. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks My oldest archives, burned on CDs, are still readable, and are encrypted, but with an algorithm now considered insecure. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Is everybody seeing this, or is it just California? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I would think the actual cloud companies are trying to keep their excess capacity down in order to control costs, but yeah. I do rebel against the idea that a small Unix/Linux box needs containers to do just a few things. Unix is good at doing a few things. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks ah, I see. Security is the main thing for me. I'd love to see those stretched longer npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks this seems odd. I really remember 5 years as the deal when I bought my pixel 6. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Sometimes it feels that way, but I think it's actually something else. I think it's the death of expertise. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks “In just eight years after fluoridation ended in 2011, the need for intravenous antibiotic therapy by children to avoid death by infection rose 700 per cent at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.” npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks but the sad truth in my area is that 90 plus percent of the e-bikes I see are mountain bikes, and brought to the trailhead on the back of cars. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks is it a crotchety old man opinion that no car should be running rims bigger than track optimal? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks it will be interesting to see how different it can really be. Google News currently shows me things related to my interests, because of course they know my interests. It's conceivable that the Apple device could know one's interests, separate from the Apple cloud, but I'm not sure how it could ask for related news without communicating those interests? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I made a joke earlier that also applies here: npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks to each his own, but just to remind everyone of my own feelings, I don't think advertising intelligence qualifies as spying at all. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks getting my hands on a cyberster might be more attainable than that, or not. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I think Leno is the model for unlimited money. You want to grow a garage with lots of interesting cars and a mechanic who can tell you which one is ready to go. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks these things are great, but tbh I feel for the people who don't know they only need a $150 N100 mini PC. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks did you see that when Consumer Reports picked up their CT, it was delivered *with* error warnings? That is different in kind: npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I'm old enough to remember when Volvo meant you could drive your 240D a quarter million miles with few worries. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Here's a trick question that comes out of that: npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "inflation" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "You may not 'knead' the DataToaster 3000, but this custom NAS is the 'toast of the town'" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks When a state legalizes online sports gambling, household bankruptcies go up 25-30%. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks it's funny you mention that. I, the chemist, think that air inside the tire is fine because air is outside the tire. Others in my household think that Costco has the good stuff ;-) npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I love that places like this exist in California. I made very uncreative choices. I have three cans of curry paste, three cans of coconut milk, and a bottle of fish sauce. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks we used to catch trout in an unassuming little place like that on Trabuco Creek. Sadly it was also the site of the recent Airport Fire. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I have opened a Threads account to play with. At first I liked it, though less than Mastodon and my Mastodon friends. Now even less so. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I have no idea if there is an affair, or what the heck is going on, other than that the guy's lack of judgment has been dialed up to 11. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks That might explain why many Republicans do draw that line now. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks One of my earliest, and I still think correct, opinions about Donald Trump is that he is just one of those crazy old dudes watching Fox News. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I love the ambiguity of me, an old person, just liking your post. ;-) npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks It is "check all that apply" but it looks like people divide themselves pretty neatly on "describes me well" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I was very struck by this chart, how people self-identify. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks People are literally telling us that they would rather have a felon than a progressive. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "Nate silver had her at 70% and Trump at 30% everyone on twitter was criticizing him but when trump actually won they critisiszed him for not giving trump a bigger chance." npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks if Nixon did not have a sense of honor, at least he had a sense of shame. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I actually bought these at new as Chromeboxes for family members, but at end of life I've upgraded RAM and SSD. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I like these Chromebox devices. They are just big enough and heavy enough that their cables don't turn them over. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I joined the CO2/pm2.5 club, with a HOTKREM Indoor 5-in-1 Air Quality Monitor. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Funny. The search engines (or AIs?) can't even agree where it all began. Are those even real names? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Dumb and Dumber, or Mad and Madder? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Two, that I see so far, of our dragonfruit flowered today. Blossoms are about a foot across. They only bloom for 24 hours and then wilt. The wilted flower provides the tail to the dragon of the fruit. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I for one have made a pass through my phone to delete all the apps I don't think I *really* need. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "Android Police: A new Android malware is emptying bank accounts and wiping devices" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks That's solar setup sounds awesome. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Here is a better article, where someone did the work. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "Car and Driver: Are Hybrids Better for the Environment?" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks "For July 2024, the statistics website is showing Linux at 4.45%, climbing almost a half a percentage point from June's 4.05% high." npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks is that the book that says "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew?" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks you can carry an orange emergency blanket or poncho for a couple ounces, and have that even if you want to look cool in non-emergencies. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks that second picture, with the humans clustered on the boardwalk where they think it is safe, reminds me a lot of penguins at the edge of the ice. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Ouch. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Elon's not going to take my advice, but I say: npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks That seems slightly surprising. I would assume the cans were chilled before opening and: npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I hang out with people who were once refugees from Southeast Asia. I have literally had some ask me "what's with all these refugees at the southern border?" npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I think Costco had those before, and long enough ago that I got one for Christmas and kept it until expiration. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks if you have other active brews you could do it the old fashioned way, and siphon off a bit of dregs. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks With cans of extract you can open them and then warm in a double boiler. Not to boiling of course. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I appreciate everybody putting out content here on the 'don, but I think it is slowing down. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks so just to be clear, if President Biden were to lose the election, one of his last official acts while still in office could be to arrest Clarence Thomas? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks excessive window tint is always a bad sign if you come from a bicycling background. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks There is some interesting data here: npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I can see that, but I also think about the vastnesses of time that a modern CPU will be doing nothing. That's certainly true for an unstressed CPU with lots of free memory (paging is not allowed). npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I started doing real-time work in the 1980s with 8-bit processors. Somehow I came out of it with a grayscale image of what is real-time, rather than black and white. It all depends on latency requirements and how much is offloaded to driver chips. npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks if you use zero w's you can connect them all by Wi-Fi npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks I enjoyed that video, but I did think about whether its advantages over the raspberry pi zero were conceptual more than real? npub1p0mmwvqddz9pekjspatuf598ryt0r5g2acxsa44tlqv4ldkft4uspuex6h John Socks Crushing things seems like a different energy, from say ..
