Mike O'Brien

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/t... This guy built a system that developed so many social capabilities that the Internet promptly grabbed as soon as it was built. You want to see true genius, this guy was it.

So Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple precognitive, says a future Apple Watch Ultra will support satellite communications. Say WHAT? Does anybody out there comprehend the smallest detail about satellite signal and power budgets??? Even Sirius XM needs two transponders in tandem to reach cars.

@inscrutablemachine.bsky.social “Exquisite.” You said “exquisite.” That means a lot to me right now.

Today’s “Pearls Before Swine” strip poses an excellent question: “Why do people bother burning books if no one’s reading them?”

I gave a lecture at Univ of Michigan yesterday, in a historic auditorium. I saw this plaque as I was getting ready, and thought how ironic it was that my talk was going to reference anti-vax activists who reject lifesaving interventions. Imagine how this announcement would have been received today.

Comments on comments represent real interaction.

I should start a pool on whether tomorrow’s dual coronal mass ejections will knock out GPS.

@inscrutablemachine.bsky.social Enjoy Francine when it gets there, I suppose. We’re currently enjoying earthquakes and probably early morning volcanoes.

Into the rabbit warren of third-party lenses for Leica M mount cameras. Some of the less expen$ive kind come uncalibrated. Instead they include a tool so you can calibrate the lens to your camera yourself. Participatory lens design! Ugh.

@older.bsky.social Yesterday I went to The RAND Corporation's annual employee reunion. I used to work there, back in the '70s and '80s. I was reminded by a picture of Mert Davies, whom I knew back then, that he was the guy who worked out the physics for your mantle tunnels. 45 mins to anywhere.

Well, I mean, I did release this book recently called Please Don't Tell My Parents I Saved The World Again. www.amazon.com/Please-Paren... There were robot-possessing ghosts and the difficulty of being a moral necromancer.

Unsolicited plug: the Centenal Cycle series by Malka Older (@older.bsky.social), author of the wonderful Pleiti and Mossa series, is stupendous. No first novel/series has any right to be this good!

yes, the buzz is true, I have signed contracts for not one, not two, but THREE MORE MOSSA & PLEITI BOOKS! Starting with THE POTENCY OF UNGOVERNABLE IMPULSES (working title but seems to be sticking) summer next year!

I have spent the early afternoon photographing the Victorian mansions on Carroll Avenue in Los Angeles. I am now eating watermelon on our front porch with my wife. That is all. And it is enough.

I can unreservedly recommend “The Mimicking of Known Successes” and “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles”, by Malka Elder. I couldn’t put them down, and I’ll be rereading them immediately. And I never do that.

Does anybody out there love Erik Satie as much as I do?

Next to my front steps.

#Sony cameras have the ability to transfer photos over an encrypted connection to a server, i.e. the camera supports encryption. You can install a root certificate into the camera, enter an 8-to-20 character auth key and everything. No one, and I mean no one, understands how to actually do this.

Klaufir is just...something else entirely. What a genius artist.

@hugeshark.bsky.social So when does Rob get to take delivery on his truck?

Richard Roberts @inscrutablemachine.bsky.social has just ground out the first draft of his newest novel, set in a completely new universe, and I am here to testify that it is a complete winner!

Richard Roberts @inscrutablemachine.bsky.social and everyone else needs to know that at the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary (which has mammals as well as reptiles), you can interact with a capybara: boingboing.net/2023/11/28/i...

@hugeshark.bsky.social Friend of mine on DaFace said this: "There is a reason an n-space is used between words and an m-space between sentences. That reason involves low-level signal processing by the visual system." What's your take?

Once more into ch11.notes, dear friends!

Hello, world!