Sean Murphy (not that one)

Apple is continuing to try to cram AI down our throats - latest IOS has removed the single-switch option to turn AI off, now you have to hunt down each individual app or system that uses it. Guess I won't be updating my iPad any more.

❗❗❗Mark Zuckerberg's meta just suspended the No Kings Instagram account. I just rushed back from my local No Kings to jump on this. Bottom line, would be helpful for all pro-No Kings folks to elevate the issue and help us get the word out about No Kings today. The Nerd Reich strikes again.

Trump’s billionaire allies will now own CNN, Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ and NY Post — plus 185+ local tv stations and news in 100 markets. They also control X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, TikTok, Truth and Twitch. This is all by design to manipulate and surveil us. Pay attention.

I found this magnificent example of AI crapslop while researching trebuchets. Just look at it! Marvel at all they ways it is fantastically wrong!

Hey @jamestalarico.bsky.social I'm right there with my friend. If you are willing to throw vulnerable minorities under the wheels for some kind of political calculus, you do not have my vote - or that of my friends and family.

#Genius.com has the weirdest catch-22 problem; you have to have a bunch of "points" to be able to post a request for help, but you can only earn points by posting edits that they won't look at - so you can't get points to ask for help.

Finally finished the Mass Effect series for the first time - I gather there are strong feelings about the ending out there; while I enjoyed the games well enough, I can't say I was invested so much that I cared too much one way or another.

A new student in one of my classes asked if I've ever heard of Dungeons and Dragons. Bless his heart.

Strange New Worlds Muppet episode was silly but I still liked it better than the "crew turns into Vulcans" ep.

I'm frankly amazed he didn't order the name changed to Lake Trump.

Guilty confession: I have become addicted to reaction videos. I find that they're the closest thing to the desire to experience something for the first time again - like showing a friend a movie or tv show you love and hoping they take the same joy in it you did when you first discovered it.

Google is getting rid of Google Assistant and forcing users to adopt Gemini so I guess I am going to have to start turning my lights on and off by hand like some kind of peon.

Delighted to live in a town where drivers apparently don't know that red means stop AND ALSO apparently don't know that green means go.

VOMIT

I'm not the first to make this observations, but seriously: why do the tech-douchebros continue to name their shitty unwanted crap after Tolkien things? Earendil-1? Seriously? www.engadget.com/2212600/fcc-...

Finally getting around to playing the Mass Effect games (I know... ) and am enjoying them pretty well - the signs of age are kind of interesting. But I find whenever I am on the Normandy I REALLY want the interior to be about a third its scale, like a submarine. I get why it isn't, but still.

Screw Epic. www.engadget.com/2196807/epic...

Current favorite breakfast: savory oatmeal, made in the instant pot. 1/3 cup steel-cut oats & 1 cup broth per person; set instant pot to 7 minutes and let decompress for 10 when done. Toast some chopped walnuts and almonds for topping. Salt as needed, some black pepper, and a pat of butter.

Netflix is now Network TV. www.engadget.com/2172449/netf...

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

Ah, the 4th of May - when the Jazz nerds and the Star Wars nerds come out to rumble.

Slightly diminish a book. To Bother a Mockingbird

I won't vote for anyone who will promise anything less than complete demolition of anything Trump has done - pull down every building, overturn every law, oust every appointment, invalidate any passport with his greasy taint-face on it, declare any currency with his mug on it worthless. Hard reset.

Chatted with two friends in construction up here in Northern Va. recently; they said ALL their work is in throwing up data centers as fast as humanly possible - safety be damned. They said anyone who raises safety concerns is tracked and if they bring it up too many times, they're fired.

Hey, if you’re one of those people who said there was no difference between Trump and Kamala? Go fuck off, all the way off. Once there, fuck off further. Once you’ve gotten there, dig way down deep and fuck off even more - I know you can do it. There’s no limit to how far you can fuck off.

JD Vance - from shitty books turned into shitty movies, to failed diplomatic endeavors: is there anything he can't fail at?

Why am I 100% convinced that Sony's response to this will be to shut the whole chain down instead of trying to fix what they broke? www.indiewire.com/features/com...

How long before Trump claims that the Fake News doesn’t give him enough credit for piloting Artemis?

I think the most terrifying concept put forth by this administration, and followed by its white nationalist supporters, is the idea of the "inherent greatness" of the United States. I feel like a great deal of evil results from this notion.

I love how United Airlines asks you if you want to check a bag - which you have to pay for - BEFORE informing you that the flight is full and you can check your bag for free. Tricky, tricky.

Age verification? I remember the milkman delivering milk and butter to the door (to be fair, it was my grandparents' door...)

"TikTok’s Terms of Service now explicitly include tracking of location and citizenship status (among other identity markers, such as sex)." newrepublic.com/article/2059...

For the SUPER Lord of the Rings nerds: I came across this interesting deep-dive about the Siege of Gondor from the LotR movies, with comparisons and contrasts to the book, written by a military historian. acoup.blog/category/col...

Just got word that ICE is raiding clubs and bars in downtown Austin.

Well this never happens!

Been working on this thing on and off for over a year - finally finished.

A few years ago I was walking around Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire with some family members and passed a fellow with an interesting haircut walking the other way, talking on his phone about old photographs. Realized quickly that it was Ken Burns.

Oh Google, why you gotta make your texting system so much shittier than it already was? Why you gotta make me wish for Google Voice that we had ten years ago...

I'm sure this will raise some hackles, but I feel like the generational bickering thing is basically like a currently-acceptable form of racism: attributing negative characteristics to an entire class of people and treating them as a single monolithic entity that all share the same aspects.

The wife and I caught "Wake Up Dead Man" last night and really enjoyed it. I'm very surprised that I haven't heard more bleating from the MAGA crowd about it - Rian Johnson made his feelings on the subject pretty clear.

My latest obsession: perfecting my French omelet game. Working on getting that perfect banana- or football-shaped yumminess with a custardy interior. My wife is my happy and willing guinea pig.

No…I am your father, Charlie Brown.

So apparently listening to Carpenters albums will still make me cry.