No pressure.
No pressure.
I’ve included the chair for scale. My dog would choke on the size of these bugs!
I am shocked, SHOCKED, to learn there is gambling going on in this establishment!
It is oppressively hot outside today.
I don’t even like reading the news these days. All of it is tech companies (or tech-adjacent companies) spending more money than many countries will ever know on AI, what (else) is Trump fucking up as we speak, or natural disasters that kill people who had no real chance because of a lack of infrastructure from the start.
Very uplifting.
Has anyone ever just thought, when it comes to technology and how it’s negatively affecting people’s lives, and how people just don’t seem to give a shit, that we’re just…so fucked?
My source for the hopelessness this morning: META ORDERED TO PAY $942 MILLION IN NEW MEXICO CHILD-SAFETY LAWSUIT
Because I already know how this movie goes:
When all of that could be avoided if the fucking company implemented a simple set of requests that could make things better for their users. Especially their younger users. You know, because we (as adults) have responsibilities. But they won’t do them. Because…reasons.
(end rant)
I wanted to make sure I got this written down before it leaves my short-term memory (I’m 46, what can I say?)…
Jayme, Caroline, and I were flying back to the United States after having spent about 8 days in Prague and Budapest (visiting Brian) in early July. We normally fly Delta, but this particular flight was KLM (partnering with Delta). It didn’t have the Delta touches that were used to. (Yes, we’re privileged assholes. I understand that.) Wi-Fi was difficult to get because we didn’t have an account via whatever provider KLM had. Technically, the Wi-Fi was iffy at best anyway. And most egregious, there were no air flow vents above each seat. Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria.
And despite that, we persisted.
What made that flight time interesting was that Argentina was playing their World Cup round-of-16 game against Egypt. Ironically, it was being played in Atlanta (yep, you can’t make this stuff up). Without that Wi-Fi, however, we weren’t able to see it. So, we followed the score by random spurts of connectivity from Caroline’s phone. We found out it was 0-2 to Egypt about halfway through the second half. Not looking good for Argentina! Would this be how Messi bows out at the World Cup?
A little bit after the check-in from Caroline, we noticed across the aisle that a gentleman had a larger iPad and was watching the game. Not having any shame, Caroline and I started to watch the game with (and unbeknownst to) him. Because, you know, it was the game and it was on somewhere. Even from a weird angle. About 5 minutes passed and the gentleman happened to turn his head and noticed we were watching. He smiled and did one of the nicest things he could have done. He actually turned the iPad to allow us to watch it from a nicer angle. We thanked him profusely and ended up watching the rest of the game.
And what a game it was to watch to the end! Arengtina ended up scoring two goals in the 79th and 83rd minutes to tie it up. From what Jayme and Caroline tell me, I “screamed” when Messi scored the second. I don’t know that I believe them, but they swear there were multiple passengers around me that whipped their heads around to see what I was screaming about. (I’m still convinced.)
Anyway, Argentina completed the comeback in the 93rd minute, winning 3-2. By the end, everyone was (quietly) cheering them on and there was a collective sigh of relief when the final whistle blew. Even if it was quiet (I promise you, I was quiet), it was a heart-pounding 25 minutes. And such a unique experience to have on a trans-Atlantic flight.
I’ve been to several sports comeback outings. The most famous, probably, Jayme and I were not at (technically). We happened to be at an Auburn bar for the Kick 6 Auburn win over Alabama when Chris Davis ran it back 109 yards during the Iron Bowl. That was loud. And exuberant. Yet, this felt just as exuberant. But much quieter. A truly awesome experience.
P.S. A funny thing happened when we landed. We looked over to the (black) gentleman who shared his iPad with us and was going to verbally thank him again for his generosity. But, he was not sitting there. Instead, there was an older Indian gentleman sitting in his place. All three of us looked at each other in bewilderment. Did we imagine him?
Douche bag of the day:
How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran
I swear I didn’t know about this when I wrote the post from a few minutes ago.
Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam.
How was that possible?
Image generation went live in Google Earth on the web this afternoon, powered by Nano Banana 2, worldwide, for everyone, with no waitlist and no application.
You zoom to any coordinates on the planet, click create image, and type what you want to see. The model takes Google’s satellite, aerial and 3D imagery of that exact spot as its starting point and hands back a photorealistic picture. If it isn’t quite right, you refine it.
Talk about violating question #3.
WTF are we even doing?
As I was falling asleep last night, as I’m oft to do, my brain went a little nuts. It turned to AI and my ongoing struggle with accepting it. Don’t get me wrong, I have embraced it with software development. It really shines with code generation. I haven’t fully embraced it in pretty much anything else.
But it got me thinking about why. Why have I not embraced it? As a programmer, and even more so as an architect, I always ask myself these questions:
I cannot in good conscience answer “yes” to any of these questions when it comes to the generic use of AI in things other than textual review and code generation.
Maybe there’s something to that.
Those Hogwarts’ layoffs are hittin’ hard, man.
To open John Gruber’s 7/23 “The Talk Show” episode, he and guest Quinn Nelson talk about Quinn’s video explanation/review of the Trump T1 (phone). During the talk, Quinn describes that he believes the phone itself was just a way to stand up and support the cell plans needed to use the phone. They call it “The 47 Plan”, for obvious narcissistic reasons.
But my favorite part of it stems from the fact that they didn’t want to make it cheaper for their customers. They could have made the plan $45.47 to match every other piece of paraphernalia. Here are just a few examples:
But they didn’t do that. Nope, they wanted to squeeze just a little more out of their dumbass customers. So they charged $47.45. Because of course they did.
There is nothing more Trump than that.
Stay humble.
I swear I spend about 10 min per day just turning off lights around my house. And yes, it is worse when the kids are home.
This is breaking my brain:
Average length of a basketball court: 28 meters
Average width of a penalty box: 44 meters
And this is the zoomed-out view:
Wow!
Why does seeing people experience pure, unapologetic joy over a comic book movie make some internet critics so furiously angry? Because rage is often just a mask for loneliness, grief, and boredom. When someone else’s happiness feels like an insult, the problem is you.
Well said. And something that can be applied to things far beyond comic book movies.
Full article: Hating Marvel Movies Is Not a Personality
Patch Tuesday didn’t go so well.
I was “checking in” for my physical later this week and one of the questions was: “What kind of contraception do you practice with your sexual partners?”
One of the options was Coitus Interruption. I’m assuming that’s the medical term for pulling out? 🤣😂
We used to be able to buy things in this country
Many decades ago, humans developed a process by which they could go into a store, pick an item off the shelf, and pay for it at the checkout counter. A few years ago, we lost it. Now you ring a buzzer, wait for an overworked employee to unlock an item that costs $5.99, and navigate the emotional complications of feeling like both a suspected criminal and an entitled ass.
Usually, i would try to come up with a kitschy comeback to the quoted passage. On this one, I got nothing. Because this is real.
The enshittification of science…we have embraced ignorance to the highest degree…and we (collectively) will suffer for it.
Robbed doesn’t even begin to describe it.
My son got home last night from his summer internship in Europe (Budapest, specifically). Along the way, he kept track of his travels through an app called Polarsteps. Here’s a summary image:
18 separate cities….quite impressive! So happy he was able to make these travels happen. It’s invaluable to see more of the world than just your own backyard.
40 + 6…
A little rainy today, but I got my free Starbucks mocha for my birthday. It’s kind of fitting that I picked out a soccer jersey this morning. It’s been a good soccer summer!
The hardest part about the World Cup being over is going back to all of the newsletters and headlines surrounding American-only-based sports. Basketball. (American) football. (Not necessarily American) golf and hockey. Having a really hard time caring about any of it.
I still love baseball. And maybe I get back into that. Its everyday nature helps in that.
Update: Perfect example
Sigh.
It’s amazing how one goal can change so much. If Argentina scores one goal, and wins the World Cup, the entire post-match, following day commenarty is vastly different. As it stands, so much digital ink is being spilled on how shit Argentina was in the game and how they didn’t have a single shot for the first 105 minutes or so. And that’s all true. But NO ONE would be talking about that if they had scored one goal. Or even gotten it to penalties and won. That stat (admittedly horrible) would have been tossed in the garbage can to feed the Messi-as-legend narrative.
I admit, I wanted the Messi-as-legend narrative. But it’s hilarious (and slightly saddening) to read the complete opposite simply because Spain scored one more goal. (And oh by the way, for as much as Spain “dominated” game and Argentina were “shit”, Spain still took 116 minutes to score one against a 10-man Argentina squad.)
Soccer: a game of ever-shrinking differences.
The Folds
In another (better) timeline, these two have been happily married for years.
Sadly, it didn’t happen.
Credit to Spain, though. Their plan to neutralize Messi was just never give Argentina the ball. And it worked.
Can he do it one more time?
Clouds showing out today
No notes.
Trump Media & Technology Group to launch Truth API to sell to Wall Street
President Trump’s social media platform announced plans Thursday to sell Wall Street firms early access to its “most market-moving” posts.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of Truth Social, said it would launch “Truth API” — a direct data feed that would give investment firms “real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts.”
The naked grifts are just never-ending. We’ve come a long way from Carter having to give up his peanut farm.
Gabriel Perez, a technical assistant to the president who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, is in talks with federal regulators to settle allegations he used his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches to win more than $100,000, the sources said.
In the land of things that do not surprise me at all.
So, let me get this straight. You “lose” NBC and no price lowering. And when you get it back, you raise prices. Not by $3. not by $5. Or even $10. Nope. By $15 per month.
WTF.
Customer service is awesome.
Hegseth wants to test troops for low testosterone | AP News
When asked what conditions Hegseth was looking to address with the new policy, the Pentagon referred to Hegseth’s remarks in the video that mentioned keeping troops “strong, resilient and capable” and that the rigors of the modern battlefield demand “maximum psychological and mental readiness.”
What is this obsession with “manly” troops, whatever “manly” means to these people. It’s getting a little homoerotic, if you ask me.
Sometimes it feels like my job is just to manage thousands or millions of queued background tasks and make sure all the servers are perfectly in balance.
This. So this.
Lindsey knew better. He chose worse.
Lindsey Graham was a pathetic man, a true cynic and a faithless servant of the Constitution.
I think this line says it all.
Mark Downie on Mastodon:
Beef, One Piece, Avatar live-action all had 2+ years between S1 and S2. You can’t ask people to binge a show in a weekend and then wait two years to care again.
Could not agree with this more.
Did I just block off my work calendar for Tuesday’s WC semi-final match between Spain and France?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Watching the Spain / Belgium game in LA. On the broadcast, they’ve mentioned, numerous times, how hot it is. “Baking” is a word they’ve used.
It’s 80 degrees.
I’ve heard many retorts to the (American) English announcing style of World Cup matches since the Cup began several weeks ago. “Nothing compared to the announcers in Spanish!” I’m told.
Having watched several World Cup games from hotel rooms outside the U.S. these past two weeks, I can assure you the level of drama and theater is WAY up there with the U.S. announcers as compared to say the German and Hungarian announcers we listened to. It was like watching a golf broadcast during the Spain / Portugal game last night. Brutal.
Such a good read, regardless. But this passage is perfection:
Then I stopped by the men’s room, which featured a decorative fish tank whose sole occupant had a full-frontal view of the urinals. If reincarnation is real, Henry Kissinger is in that tank.
There is an undeniable irony when the Museum of Communism charges for entry.
I feel very jaunty carrying an umbrella around Prague.
Even in Amsterdam I find someone wearing an Atlanta United jersey!
What always strikes me being in an international airport in another country is just how much it’s like any international airport in the U.S. Same hustle. Same busy-ness. Same overpriced, mediocre food. Our similarities really do outweigh our differences. :)
After a long struggle to stay open (prices going up, staff shortage), my beloved coffee spot will be closing this Friday. I could point out the utter convenience of Spiller Park, I mean, it was within walking distance of the house. But it’s more than that. It was a place where they knew me. I was a “regular”. They knew my order without even having to say it. That doesn’t happen that often anymore.
Man, I’m going to miss this place.
Isn’t it funny that the words resign and re-sign have two very different meanings?
You think it ever occurs to racists to NOT start with “I’m not racist but…”?