A family built a 50,000-pound full-size replica Stargate in their Ohio backyard. The ring has become a social media sensation — but tourists are not welcome.
How It Went. John Gruber shares a moving story about his mother’s death, father’s wedding ring and the election.
How Trump 2.0 could transform American cloud, AI, broadband and more. President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his “America First” policies will reshape the American and international tech landscapes. My latest on Fierce Network.
I started using a standing desk in late November 2010 and quickly found it more comfortable and stayed with it. I walk or stand for 12-13 hours or more on most days.
The Washington Post ordered its employees to return to the office five days a week. Huh?
Good journalists don’t work in the office. They go out in the community and find and report on news.
“News isn’t happening at your desk,” according to a great journalist (ChatGPT says it was Christopher Hitchens but I’m skeptical).
What a Trump win means for the FCC and telecom policy.Look for a Repubilcan-led FCC, eliminating Section 230 protections, potential revisions to the Universal Service Fund, good news for Elon Musk’s Starlink, and more.
This is an amazing, fast, in-depth analysis by my colleagues Diana Goovaerts and Masha Abarinova on Fierce Network
After using it once, I switched off Live Activity election results on my iPhone. Too much agita.
Apple users can use Live Activity to track election results from their home screens. I switched this on but will switch it off if it generates too much agita.
Britain’s remaining hereditary members of the House of Lords are fighting against a movement to abolish their seats. They say that eliminating the hereditary seats would be undemocratic — and their argument sort of makes sense.
Researchers from Kyoto University launched a satellite with wood paneling into space. This is not an exercise in 70s-inspired retro-futurism — they’re testing whether wood is a reasonable space construction medium.
How has the Electoral College survived, despite being perennially unpopular? A brief history of a disliked institution.
I’m sure it is great for my mental health and productivity to spend a lot of time on news and social media today. I see nothing wrong with this plan.
jk this actually seems like a good time to do minimal amounts of both news and social media.
Instead of dialing for Kamala, I did an hour or so of door-to-door canvassing yesterday for Democrats up and down the ballot
I’ve gone door-to-door several years. Every year, I get awful stagefright — I dread it for months. Which is odd, because I do not get stagefright in real life. I love public speaking.
Once I get out there going door-to-door it’s fine. The unpleasant interactions are not particularly unpleasant and are rare. Far more interactions are pleasant. One or two are great. I need to remember that the next time I’m called.
This is a numbers game. Cover ground. You’ll get no response at 90% of the doors you knock on. They’re either not home or not answering the door.
Last week, a woman in the neighborhood caught me when I was out walking the dog and said she was afraid she’d missed her chance to send in a mail-in or drop-off ballot. I reassured her that she had until Election Day. She recognized me from my going door-to-door. That helps me feel good about the process.
There is a complicated script that we’re suppposed to follow but I believe it may have been written by people who have never gone door-to-door, and certainly not in their own neighborhoods. It makes you sound like a broken robot. I have been advised by a veteran at this sort of thing to wing it. Remember to state my name, state that I’m a neighbor and volunteer for the local Democrats. We have door-hangers — offer one of those. Other than that: Improvise. Get in an actual conversation like a normal person. We only go to houses with Democrats in them, so most of the people are glad to see us.
My own rule: Resist the urge to be persistent. Do not knock on doors with “no soliciting” signs. If someone seems to be rushed, just thank them, offer a door hanger, and be on my way in less than a minute.
Also, one house in my neighborhoood, which I have passed hundreds of times, has a wall around the front yard. When I went through the gate, the house had kind of a Texas Chainsaw Masssacre vibe. I left a hanger and skedaddled.
I think I’m done with the election. I may do some more dialing for Kamala today or tomorrow, but probably not. It’s in the hands of the American people now (God help us).
Today I learned that adults drinking milk are stigmatized
On Reddit: Why do so many people think drinking milk is weird?
Adults Who Still Drink Milk: Are You Okay? — “I’m not saying that everyone who drinks milk is a murderous psychopath – but it is unhinged behaviour.”
Fixing the microphone on my Apple Watch
The microphone on my Apple Watch stopped working weeks or months ago. I know the common wisdom is that Siri is useless, but I use it frequently to set timers and alarms on the Apple Watch and I missed being able to do that. Today I once again tried following the care instructions on apple.com and wiping the microphone with a clean lint-free cloth and then trying to scrub it with a toothbrush and tap water. I have tried that before and neither technique worked. Feeling reckless, I decided to poke at the microphone with the end of a dental proxabrush — and by gosh it worked! The proxabrush pulled out a small waxy, white plug, which I think was dried soap. And now the microphone picks up audio, nice and clear.
This has been a vexation to me for weeks or months and I’m happy to have it resolved.
I did another hour of get-out-the-vote calling for Harris-Walz. This time I called Arizona. One of the men I called signed off, “Live long and prosper.” I blanked on the proper response (it’s “peace and long life.")
Bluesky and enshittification: No one is the enshittifier of their own story
Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr:
I will never again devote my energies to building up an audience on a platform whose management can sever my relationship to that audience at will.
…
Bluesky lacks the one federated feature that is absolutely necessary for me to trust it: the ability to leave Bluesky and go to another host and continue to talk to the people I’ve entered into community with there.