[{"content":"Fascinating article that links to another interesting series of articles (including one about the Manhattan\n“Classic Six” and Vienna)\nSome 90% of Londoners of all classes rented before World War I. Clearly, the adage that “an Englishman’s home is his castle” is little more than a fantastical projection of a privileged class’s habits.\nVia Bloomberg: Design:The Iconic Home Designs That Define Our Global Cities\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/11/26/historical-home-designslayouts-making-a-comeback/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFascinating article that links to another interesting series of articles (including \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-classic-six-a-floorplan-favored-for-its-flexibility-1441898109\"\u003eone about the Manhattan\u003cbr\u003e\n“Classic Six”\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-11-08/the-design-history-of-vienna-s-world-famous-social-housing\"\u003eVienna\u003c/a\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome 90% of Londoners of all classes rented before World War I. Clearly, the adage that “an Englishman’s home is his castle” is little more than a fantastical projection of a privileged class’s habits.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia Bloomberg: \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-11-20/the-design-history-of-london-s-mansion-block-apartment-buildings\"\u003eDesign:The Iconic Home Designs That Define Our Global Cities\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Historical home designs/layouts making a comeback"},{"content":" Documents made public by Heijdenrijk appear to show how a specialty firm helped Nawfal’s team attempt to boost his Twitter presence and gain traction on its audio Spaces with the use of “inorganic engagement.”\nIn June, Heijdenrijk posted part of a pitch deck that detailed a plan to increase Nawfal’s Twitter engagement…\nScreenshots of a group WhatsApp chat posted by Heijdenrijk, along with additional documents and text messages viewed by NBC News, appear to show a discussion with representatives from a company called Winn.solutions. The messages include the company offering “growth hacking” services that guaranteed engagement from a “personal network of ‘super-fan’ accounts” for Nawfal’s accounts, using a mix of “inorganic” and “organic” engagement.\nThe screenshots show that the company activated its services multiple times on Nawfal’s account, and that two representatives of IBC asked the company if they could do similar boosting with Nawfal’s Twitter Spaces.\nVia NBC, A rising Twitter star boosted by Elon Musk has a past littered with broken promises, say ex-colleagues\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/09/26/a-rising-twitter-star-boosted-by-elon-musk-has-a-past-littered-with-broken-promises-say-ex-colleagues/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDocuments made public by Heijdenrijk appear to show how a specialty firm helped Nawfal’s team attempt to boost his Twitter presence and gain traction on its audio Spaces with the use of “inorganic engagement.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn June, Heijdenrijk posted part of a pitch deck that detailed a plan to increase Nawfal’s Twitter engagement…\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScreenshots of a group WhatsApp chat posted by Heijdenrijk, along with additional documents and text messages viewed by NBC News, appear to show a discussion with representatives from a company called Winn.solutions. The messages include the company offering “growth hacking” services that guaranteed engagement from a “personal network of ‘super-fan’ accounts” for Nawfal’s accounts, using a mix of “inorganic” and “organic” engagement.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A rising Twitter star boosted by Elon Musk has a past littered with broken promises, say ex-colleagues\\"},{"content":"How is this legal? Insane.\nThe $1 billion loan temporarily shifted a significant chunk of capital for SpaceX, which is intertwined with many of the most important space missions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, to its top leader.\n\u0026hellip;\nBut I think I may have missed the main issue. The main issue is that Musk runs a web of companies, some of which need cash and some of which have cash, and he is also in the business of starting or buying other companies, creating more cash needs. If all of the companies are private, he can sort of use their cash interchangeably: Sure, each company has different outside investors and its own board of directors, but they are all part of the Elon Musk family, and it’s not too hard to work something out. Musk goes to the SpaceX board, he says “I need to borrow $1 billion to buy Twitter and save humanity,” they are like “your mission to save humanity is why we love you and why we are on the board, here you go,” and it’s fine. Probably he pays the loan back promptly with interest and everything is fine, but even if for some reason he couldn’t do that, probably SpaceX’s board and investors would understand. They love Musk and trust him completely.\nVia Matt Levine @ Bloomberg\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/09/26/spacex-loaned-elon-musk-some-money/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHow is this legal? Insane.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe $1 billion loan temporarily shifted a significant chunk of capital for SpaceX, which is intertwined with many of the most important space missions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, to its top leader.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut I think I may have missed the main issue. The main issue is that Musk runs a web of companies, some of which need cash and some of which have cash, and he is also in the business of starting or buying other companies, creating more cash needs. If all of the companies are private, he can sort of use their cash interchangeably: Sure, each company has different outside investors and its own board of directors, but they are all part of the Elon Musk family, and it’s not too hard to work something out. Musk goes to the SpaceX board, he says “I need to borrow $1 billion to buy Twitter and save humanity,” they are like “your mission to save humanity is why we love you and why we are on the board, here you go,” and it’s fine. Probably he pays the loan back promptly with interest and everything is fine, but even if for some reason he couldn’t do that, probably SpaceX’s board and investors would understand. They love Musk and trust him completely.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SpaceX Loaned Elon Musk Some Money"},{"content":" “If he were to return,” Brent S. Isaacson, the campus police chief at the time, said in a July court filing, “the public’s disgust would extend to this campus, and we would again be viewed by many members of the public as sympathetic to Kershnar’s views and therefore at risk of violence.”\n\u0026hellip;\nThe case reflects continuing tensions over how universities should handle online conflagrations, freewheeling academic discourse and campus safety. Can public universities, which are bound by the First Amendment, restrict professors from campus because of comments they made on a podcast? Should they do so when threats are involved? And what is the marker of an actual threat, anyway?\nWasn’t familiar with the howlers vs hunters concept, interesting.\nVia A Professor’s Remarks on Sexual Consent Stir Controversy. Now He’s Banned From Campus.\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/09/13/a-professors-remarks-on-sexual-consent-stir-controversy-now-hes-banned-from-campus/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“If he were to return,” Brent S. Isaacson, the campus police chief at the time, said in a July court filing, “the public’s disgust would extend to this campus, and we would again be viewed by many members of the public as sympathetic to Kershnar’s views and therefore at risk of violence.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe case reflects continuing tensions over how universities should handle online conflagrations, freewheeling academic discourse and campus safety. Can public universities, which are bound by the First Amendment, restrict professors from campus because of comments they made on a podcast? Should they do so when threats are involved? And what is the marker of an actual threat, anyway?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Professor’s Remarks on Sexual Consent Stir Controversy. Now He’s Banned From Campus."},{"content":" In sum, Khan’s maximalist charge — that the entire no-confidence vote was orchestrated by Washington as part of a plot to shunt him from power — is, at least by the evidence released so far, an overstatement. But the US State Department did clearly make use of the existing no-confidence vote, which was born in the first place from Khan’s domestic failings and Pakistan’s internal political machinations, to lean on its government by making a mob boss–like threat, to ensure the vote went the way it wanted.\nOn top of that, it did so precisely because of Khan’s visit to Moscow and his neutral position on the Ukraine war, a position which Washington at the time was, largely unsuccessfully, trying to dissuade much of the world from taking.\n…\nThis isn’t surprising. The United States is the world’s most powerful country, its biggest economy, leads a powerful military alliance that is itself one of the world’s biggest and one of its most well-funded military forces, and funds even just the CIA with an amount equivalent to or more than some countries’ GDP. It gives billions of dollars of aid to Pakistan and has a close relationship with its military and security services.\nVia Jacobin\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/08/22/imran-khans-ouster-is-a-story-of-us-power-and-propaganda/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn sum, Khan’s maximalist charge — that the entire no-confidence vote was orchestrated by Washington as part of a plot to shunt him from power — is, at least by the evidence released so far, an overstatement. But the US State Department did clearly make use of the existing no-confidence vote, which was born in the first place from Khan’s domestic failings and Pakistan’s internal political machinations, to lean on its government by making a mob boss–like threat, to ensure the vote went the way it wanted.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Imran Khan’s Ouster Is a Story of US Power and Propaganda"},{"content":"Lets hope this doesn’t take off :)\nHere is how it works:\nLinkedIn is using AI to generate questions about professional topics that will rank in the search engines. They are likely taking keywords that get traffic and then using all the other content on their platform to train a model that generates questions related to this keyword. They then use AI to generate the structure and headlines of the article. Additionally, they use AI to generate a paragraph of “starter content” under each headline. Now here comes the “magic.” They then put that article in the LinkedIn feed and prompt people to comment on each of the sections. This adds UGC content to the AI generated article. These articles then generate both acquisition and re-engagement. The articles start to rank in the search engines driving user acquisition and bringing back existing users to the platform. Via BrianBalfour.com/essays/a-breakdown-of-linkedins-ai-assisted-growth-loop\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/08/17/a-breakdown-of-linkedins-ai-assisted-growth-loop/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLets hope this doesn’t take off :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is how it works:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLinkedIn is using AI to generate questions about professional topics that will rank in the search engines. They are likely taking keywords that get traffic and then using all the other content on their platform to train a model that generates questions related to this keyword.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThey then use AI to generate the structure and headlines of the article.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdditionally, they use AI to generate a paragraph of “starter content” under each headline.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNow here comes the “magic.” They then put that article in the LinkedIn feed and prompt people to comment on each of the sections. This adds UGC content to the AI generated article.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThese articles then generate both acquisition and re-engagement. The articles start to rank in the search engines driving user acquisition and bringing back existing users to the platform.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia \u003ca href=\"https://brianbalfour.com/essays/a-breakdown-of-linkedins-ai-assisted-growth-loop\"\u003eBrianBalfour.com/essays/a-breakdown-of-linkedins-ai-assisted-growth-loop\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Breakdown of LinkedIn’s AI Assisted Growth Loop"},{"content":"Fascinating, I didn’t notice this angle to content authors’ concerns before.\nUnlike authors who appear most concerned about retaining the option to remove their books from OpenAI\u0026rsquo;s training models, the Times has other concerns about AI tools like ChatGPT. NPR reported that a \u0026ldquo;top concern\u0026rdquo; is that ChatGPT could use The Times\u0026rsquo; content to become a \u0026ldquo;competitor\u0026rdquo; by \u0026ldquo;creating text that answers questions based on the original reporting and writing of the paper\u0026rsquo;s staff.\u0026rdquo;\nAs of this month, the Times\u0026rsquo; TOS prohibits any use of its content for \u0026ldquo;the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.\u0026rdquo;\nNow it seems clear that this update provides the Times with an extra layer of protection as NPR reports that the media outlet is seemingly reconsidering a licensing deal with OpenAI. That licensing deal would have ensured that OpenAI paid for NYT content used to train its models. According to NPR, meetings between OpenAI and the Times have become \u0026ldquo;contentious,\u0026rdquo; making the deal appear increasingly unlikely as the Times seemingly weighs whether any licensing deal would be worth participating in, as the resulting product could become its fiercest competitor.\nVia Ars Technica\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/08/17/report-potential-nyt-lawsuit-could-force-openai-to-wipe-chatgpt-and-start-over/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFascinating, I didn’t notice this angle to content authors’ concerns before.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike authors who appear most concerned about retaining the option to remove their books from OpenAI\u0026rsquo;s training models, the Times has other concerns about AI tools like ChatGPT. NPR reported that a \u0026ldquo;top concern\u0026rdquo; is that ChatGPT could use The Times\u0026rsquo; content to become a \u0026ldquo;competitor\u0026rdquo; by \u0026ldquo;creating text that answers questions based on the original reporting and writing of the paper\u0026rsquo;s staff.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Report: Potential NYT lawsuit could force OpenAI to wipe ChatGPT and start over"},{"content":"Great series of articles, love the forensic analysis but also the insight into the types of tests/validation that researchers should apply to their data to check it’s ‘sanity’\na four-part series detailing evidence of fraud in four academic papers co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino\nData Falsificada (Part 1)\nData Falsificada (Part 2)\nData Falsificada (Part 3)\nData Falsificada (Part 4)\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/07/24/data-falsificada-data-colada/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eGreat series of articles, love the forensic analysis but also the insight into the types of tests/validation that researchers should apply to their data to check it’s ‘sanity’\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ea four-part series detailing evidence of fraud in four academic papers co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://datacolada.org/109\"\u003eData Falsificada (Part 1)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://datacolada.org/110\"\u003eData Falsificada (Part 2)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://datacolada.org/111\"\u003eData Falsificada (Part 3)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://datacolada.org/112\"\u003eData Falsificada (Part 4)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Data Falsificada - Data Colada"},{"content":"I remember taking tests on these type of networks in college but had never seen one in practice.\nAfter going reading through what it took, I think I was lucky :)\nVia Matt\u0026rsquo;s Tech Pages\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/07/16/building-a-10base5-thick-ethernet-network-matts-tech-pages/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI remember taking tests on these type of networks in college but had never seen one in practice.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter going reading through what it took, I think I was lucky :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/draggedimage.tiff\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia \u003ca href=\"https://www.mattmillman.com/projects/10base5/\"\u003eMatt\u0026rsquo;s Tech Pages\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Building a 10BASE5 “Thick Ethernet” network - Matt's Tech Pages"},{"content":" \u0026hellip;some in the industry fear the attitudes that created the conditions for the rapid growth and dramatic collapse of Celsius and FTX are still prevalent and that the industry remains vulnerable to influential individuals who are able to portray themselves as revolutionaries and pioneers.\n\u0026hellip;\nThe crypto industry “has an enormous attack vector for intelligent sociopaths,” says Travis Kling, cofounder of hedge fund Ikigai Asset Management.\n\u0026hellip;\nOthers have been left with an uncomfortable sense that crypto has not yet managed to clear its decks of bad actors and that, should another hype cycle arrive, the conditions that bred the likes of Celsius and FTX could recur. In short, that lessons have not necessarily been learned.\nVia Wired\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/07/14/celsius-founder-alex-mashinskys-arrest-wont-fix-crypto-wired-2/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;some in the industry fear the attitudes that created the conditions for the rapid growth and dramatic collapse of Celsius and FTX are still prevalent and that the industry remains vulnerable to influential individuals who are able to portray themselves as revolutionaries and pioneers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe crypto industry “has an enormous attack vector for intelligent sociopaths,” says Travis Kling, cofounder of hedge fund Ikigai Asset Management.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOthers have been left with an uncomfortable sense that crypto has not yet managed to clear its decks of bad actors and that, should another hype cycle arrive, the conditions that bred the likes of Celsius and FTX could recur. In short, that lessons have not necessarily been learned.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Celsius Founder Alex Mashinsky’s Arrest Won’t Fix Crypto — Wired"},{"content":" They parlay their audience’s understandable distaste for “wokeness” and censoriousness into support for a fundamentally reactionary ideology—one that frames existing social inequalities not as a result of contingent historical developments that could be undone at a later stage of history, but as part of an unchanging natural order.\nVia The Daily Beast\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2023/03/13/214/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey parlay their audience’s understandable distaste for “wokeness” and censoriousness into support for a fundamentally reactionary ideology—one that frames existing social inequalities not as a result of contingent historical developments that could be undone at a later stage of history, but as part of an unchanging natural order.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-didnt-change-hes-always-been-a-cringe-centrist\"\u003eThe Daily Beast\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Bill Maher Didn’t Change. He’s Always Been a Cringe Centrist. — The Daily Beast"},{"content":"Really interesting post. I really appreciate the work that Dennis put into pulling these things apart and doing the investigation to find the original OEMs.\nHe confirmed what I\u0026rsquo;ve suspected for a while \u0026ndash; that all the USB C hubs are utter crap. I learned that the hard way after multiple crapped out on me in various ways.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s a shame to read that Anker is also just white labeling their products. I\u0026rsquo;ve had good luck with them and it sounds like \u0026ldquo;luck\u0026rdquo; was probably the only factor :)\nRandom thoughts, articles and projects by Dennis Schubert. — Read on overengineer.dev/blog/2021/04/25/usb-c-hub-madness.html\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2022/04/07/usb-c-hubs-and-my-slow-descent-into-madness-dennis-schubert/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eReally interesting post. I really appreciate the work that Dennis put into pulling these things apart and doing the investigation to find the original OEMs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe confirmed what I\u0026rsquo;ve suspected for a while \u0026ndash; that all the USB C hubs are utter crap. I learned that the hard way after multiple crapped out on me in various ways.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s a shame to read that Anker is also just white labeling their products. I\u0026rsquo;ve had good luck with them and it sounds like \u0026ldquo;luck\u0026rdquo; was probably the only factor :)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness - Dennis Schubert"},{"content":" Without greater vaccination, living with COVID could mean enduring a yearly death toll that is an order of magnitude higher than the one from flu. And yet this, too, might come to feel like its own sort of ending. Endemic tobacco use causes hundreds of thousands of casualties, year after year after year, while fierce public-health efforts to reduce its toll continue in the background. Yet tobacco doesn’t really feel like a catastrophe for the average person. Noymer, of UC Irvine, said that the effects of endemic COVID, even in the context of persistent gaps in vaccination, would hardly be noticeable. Losing a year or two from average life expectancy only bumps us back to where we were in … 2000.\nFrom COVID Is More Like Smoking Than the Flu - The Atlantic\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2022/02/26/covid-is-more-like-smoking-than-the-flu-the-atlantic/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWithout greater vaccination, living with COVID could mean enduring a yearly death toll that is an order of magnitude higher than the one from flu. And yet this, too, might come to feel like its own sort of ending. Endemic tobacco use causes hundreds of thousands of casualties, year after year after year, while fierce public-health efforts to reduce its toll continue in the background. Yet tobacco doesn’t really \u003cem\u003efeel\u003c/em\u003e like a catastrophe for the average person. Noymer, of UC Irvine, said that the effects of endemic COVID, even in the context of persistent gaps in vaccination, would hardly be noticeable. Losing a year or two from average life expectancy only bumps us back to where we were in … 2000.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"COVID Is More Like Smoking Than the Flu - The Atlantic"},{"content":" For generations, Boeing represented the pinnacle of American engineering. It helped win World War II, land men on the moon, build Air Force One and make commercial air travel ubiquitous, even glamorous. But the newly released messages portray a company that appears to have lost its way.\nOnce relentlessly focused on safety and engineering, Boeing employees are shown obsessing over the bottom line. Though Boeing is one of the American government’s biggest contractors, the F.A.A. was viewed as a roadblock to commercial goals that would “impede progress” when it tried to “get in the way.”\nAt times, Boeing employees expressed reservations about the safety of their planes.\n“Would you put your family on a Max simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t,” one said to a colleague in 2018, before the first crash.\nFull PDF dump of Boeing emails/IMs: (117 pages, 23.73 MB) https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6653-internal-boeing-communications/606e3fda752a935bc0df/optimized/full.pd\nvia ‘I Honestly Don’t Trust Many People at Boeing’: A Broken Culture Exposed - The New York Times\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2020/01/11/i-honestly-dont-trust-many-people-at-boeing-a-broken-culture-exposed-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor generations, Boeing represented the pinnacle of American engineering. It helped win World War II, land men on the moon, build Air Force One and make commercial air travel ubiquitous, even glamorous. But the newly released messages portray a company that appears to have lost its way.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce relentlessly focused on safety and engineering, Boeing employees are shown obsessing over the bottom line. Though Boeing is one of the American government’s biggest contractors, the F.A.A. was viewed as a roadblock to commercial goals that would “impede progress” when it tried to “get in the way.”\u003c/p\u003e","title":"‘I Honestly Don’t Trust Many People at Boeing’: A Broken Culture Exposed - The New York Times"},{"content":" One young woman made a very big impact on me. She approached me after class one day and said, “I am really glad I can be here at Yale and be in class with you. My grandfather came to Yale and when WWII started, he left for the Navy and flew planes in the Pacific theater. After he came home, he came back to Yale, but he couldn’t finish. He locked himself in his room and drank and eventually had to leave, so I feel like I am helping him finish here at Yale and I’m doing it with a veteran, you.” \u0026hellip;. According to the Urban Dictionary, a “snowflake” is a “term for someone that thinks they are unique and special, but really are not. It gained popularity after the movie Fight Club \u0026hellip;. Let me assure you, I have not met one kid who fits that description. None of the kids I’ve met seem to think that they are “special” any more than any other 18–22-year-old. These kids work their assess off.\nvia My Semester With the Snowflakes - GEN\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2020/01/02/my-semester-with-the-snowflakes-gen/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne young woman made a very big impact on me. She approached me after class one day and said, “I am really glad I can be here at Yale and be in class with you. My grandfather came to Yale and when WWII started, he left for the Navy and flew planes in the Pacific theater. After he came home, he came back to Yale, but he couldn’t finish. He locked himself in his room and drank and eventually had to leave, so I feel like I am helping him finish here at Yale and I’m doing it with a veteran, you.”\n\u0026hellip;.\nAccording to the Urban Dictionary, a “snowflake” is a “term for someone that thinks they are unique and special, but really are not. It gained popularity after the movie Fight Club\n\u0026hellip;.\nLet me assure you, I have not met one kid who fits that description. None of the kids I’ve met seem to think that they are “special” any more than any other 18–22-year-old. These kids work their assess off.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Semester With the Snowflakes - GEN"},{"content":" Special Operator Miller said that when the platoon commander, Lt. Jacob Portier, told the SEALs to gather over the corpse for photos, he did not feel he could refuse. The photos, included in the evidence obtained by The Times, show Chief Gallagher, surrounded by other SEALs, clutching the dead captive’s hair; in one photo, he holds a custom-made hunting knife.\nvia Anguish and Anger From the Navy SEALs Who Turned In Edward Gallagher - The New York Times\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/12/28/anguish-and-anger-from-the-navy-seals-who-turned-in-edward-gallagher-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpecial Operator Miller said that when the platoon commander, Lt. Jacob Portier, told the SEALs to gather over the corpse for photos, he did not feel he could refuse. The photos, included in the evidence obtained by The Times, show Chief Gallagher, surrounded by other SEALs, clutching the dead captive’s hair; in one photo, he holds a custom-made hunting knife.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/us/navy-seals-edward-gallagher-video.html\"\u003eAnguish and Anger From the Navy SEALs Who Turned In Edward Gallagher - The New York Times\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Anguish and Anger From the Navy SEALs Who Turned In Edward Gallagher - The New York Times"},{"content":" Every minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The Times Privacy Project obtained one such file, by far the largest and most sensitive ever to be reviewed by journalists. It holds more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans as they moved through several major cities, including Washington, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.\nEach piece of information in this file represents the precise location of a single smartphone over a period of several months in 2016 and 2017. The data was provided to Times Opinion by sources who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to share it and could face severe penalties for doing so. The sources of the information said they had grown alarmed about how it might be abused and urgently wanted to inform the public and lawmakers.\nvia Opinion | Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy - The New York Times\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/12/26/opinion-twelve-million-phones-one-dataset-zero-privacy-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery minute of every day, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized — are logging the movements of tens of millions of people with mobile phones and storing the information in gigantic data files. The Times Privacy Project obtained one such file, by far the largest and most sensitive ever to be reviewed by journalists. It holds more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans as they moved through several major cities, including Washington, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Opinion | Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy - The New York Times"},{"content":" Squirrels are what Keith Tarvin, a biologist at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio who led the study, calls “public information exploiters,” meaning they often take cues from other prey animals nearby. They’re not the only ones that do this. Early animal behavior studies have shown that birds, mammals, and even fish and lizards can recognize the alarm signals of other species that share similar geographic locations and predators. Within the bird family, a nuthatch may tune into the high-pitched call of a chick-a-dee, which might also be paying attention to the panicked tweet of a tufted titmice.\nvia https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/09/squirrels-chipmunks-listen-to-bird-chatter-urban-city-noise/597214/\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/09/24/squirrels-speak-bird/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSquirrels are what Keith Tarvin, a biologist at Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio who led the study, calls “public information exploiters,” meaning they often take cues from other prey animals nearby. They’re not the only ones that do this. Early animal behavior studies have shown that birds, mammals, and even fish and lizards can recognize the alarm signals of other species that share similar geographic locations and predators. Within the bird family, a nuthatch may tune into the high-pitched call of a chick-a-dee, which might also be paying attention to the panicked tweet of a tufted titmice.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Squirrels Speak Bird"},{"content":" WeWork’s business, essentially, aims to capture the spread between long-term and short-term rental costs. Landlords want stability and guaranteed cash flows, so they’re willing to lease office space at lower rates if a tenant is willing to make a long-term commitment, as WeWork does. Companies, on the other hand, want the flexibility of short-term leases that allow them to quickly grow, shrink, or move their office space in response to personnel needs. As a result, they’re willing to pay higher rents for this flexibility.\n\u0026hellip;\nAll of these factors – the dual-class shares, conflicts of interest, and unusual relationship with underwriters – suggest that this IPO is about Neumann and other insiders cashing in on the bubble-like valuation of WeWork’s shares and dumping the risk on public investors.\nvia https://seekingalpha.com/article/4289610-wework-one-worst-ipos-2019\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/09/10/wework-could-be-one-of-the-worst-ipos-in-2019/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeWork’s business, essentially, aims to capture the spread between long-term and short-term rental costs. Landlords want stability and guaranteed cash flows, so they’re willing to lease office space at lower rates if a tenant is willing to make a long-term commitment, as WeWork does. Companies, on the other hand, want the flexibility of short-term leases that allow them to quickly grow, shrink, or move their office space in response to personnel needs. As a result, they’re willing to pay higher rents for this flexibility.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WeWork could be one of the worst IPOs in 2019"},{"content":" In 1994, Cesare Marchetti, an Italian physicist, described an idea that has come to be known as the Marchetti Constant. In general, he declared, people have always been willing to commute for about a half-hour, one way, from their homes each day.\nThis principle has profound implications for urban life. The value of land is governed by its accessibility—which is to say, by the reasonable speed of transport to reach it.\nvia https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/commute-time-city-size-transportation-urban-planning-history/597055/\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/09/10/from-ancient-rome-to-modern-atlanta-the-shape-of-cities-has-been-defined-by-the-technologies-that-allow-commuters-to-get-to-work-in-about-30-minutes/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1994, Cesare Marchetti, an Italian physicist, described an idea that has come to be known as the Marchetti Constant. In general, he declared, people have always been willing to commute for about a half-hour, one way, from their homes each day.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis principle has profound implications for urban life. The value of land is governed by its accessibility—which is to say, by the reasonable speed of transport to reach it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From ancient Rome to modern Atlanta, the shape of cities has been defined by the technologies that allow commuters to get to work in about 30 minutes."},{"content":" The email was clearly meant to reassure riders, some of whom might be absorbing negative press about Uber and wondering if it cares about them at all. But not everyone follows Uber as closely as industry watchers in Silicon Valley, and either way, what the email mostly accomplishes is to remind customers that riding in an Uber involves life-and-death risk.\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/08/25/uber-tries-to-reassure-customers-that-it-takes-safety-seriously-following-nytimes-book-excerpt/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe email was clearly meant to reassure riders, some of whom might be absorbing negative press about Uber and wondering if it cares about them at all. But not everyone follows Uber as closely as industry watchers in Silicon Valley, and either way, what the email mostly accomplishes is to \u003cstrong\u003eremind customers that riding in an Uber involves life-and-death risk\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"Uber tries to reassure customers that it takes safety seriously, following NYTimes book excerpt"},{"content":"\u0026lt;\np style=\u0026ldquo;max-width:100%;color:rgb(27,27,27);font-family:-apple-system-font;font-size:19px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:auto;text-align:start;text-indent:0;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:auto;word-spacing:0;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;text-decoration:none;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\nSavage points in particular to a vulnerability Santamarta highlighted in a version of the embedded operating system VxWorks, in this case customized for Boeing by Honeywell. Santamarta found that when an application asks to write to the underlying computer\u0026rsquo;s memory, the tailored operating system doesn\u0026rsquo;t properly check that it\u0026rsquo;s not instead over­writing the kernel, the most sensitive core of the operating system. Combined with several application-level bugs Santamarta found, that so-called parameter-check privilege escalation vulnerability represents a serious flaw, Savage argues, made more serious by the notion that VxWorks likely runs in many other components on the plane that might have the same bug.\n\u0026lt;\np style=\u0026ldquo;max-width:100%;color:rgb(27,27,27);font-family:-apple-system-font;font-size:19px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:auto;text-align:start;text-indent:0;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:auto;word-spacing:0;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;text-decoration:none;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n\u0026ldquo;Every piece of software has bugs. But this is not where I’d like to find the bugs. Checking user parameters is security 101,\u0026rdquo; Savage says. \u0026ldquo;They shouldn\u0026rsquo;t have these kinds of straightforward vulnerabilities, especially in the kernel. In this day and age, it would be inconceivable for a consumer operating system to not check user pointer parameters, so I\u0026rsquo;d expect the same of an airplane.\u0026rdquo;\n— Read on arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/a-boeing-code-leak-exposes-security-flaws-deep-in-a-787s-guts/\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/08/12/a-boeing-code-leak-exposes-security-flaws-deep-in-a-787s-guts-ars-technica/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u0026lt;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ep style=\u0026ldquo;max-width:100%;color:rgb(27,27,27);font-family:-apple-system-font;font-size:19px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:auto;text-align:start;text-indent:0;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:auto;word-spacing:0;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;text-decoration:none;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSavage points in particular to a vulnerability Santamarta highlighted in a version of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/vxworks-vulnerabilities-urgent11\"\u003eembedded operating system VxWorks\u003c/a\u003e, in this case customized for Boeing by Honeywell. Santamarta found that when an application asks to write to the underlying computer\u0026rsquo;s memory, the tailored operating system doesn\u0026rsquo;t properly check that it\u0026rsquo;s not instead over­writing the kernel, the most sensitive core of the operating system. Combined with several application-level bugs Santamarta found, that so-called parameter-check privilege escalation vulnerability represents a serious flaw, Savage argues, made more serious by the notion that VxWorks likely runs in many other components on the plane that might have the same bug.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Boeing code leak exposes security flaws deep in a 787’s guts | Ars Technica"},{"content":" “Early on, we designed some glassware, but then we were having trouble seeing what the glass looked like because everything is so transparent,” Pascual says. “We needed [to] up the poly count on it to even be able to see the type of material, or the type of rendering or shading we had.”\n“Yeah,” Krankel says, “it’s one of those things where we started and you spend all this time having, like, a fluid simulation in a goblet that’s flying around, and you’re like, ‘This looks so badass’ totally out of context. And then you look at it in the game, you’re like, ‘A, I don’t see any of this, B, our performance is taking a giant hit. What’s a better, more effective way to do it?’”\nRead on www.polygon.com/features/2019/8/7/20755231/the-18-month-fence-hop-the-six-day-chair-remedy-control-and-why-video-games-are-so-hard-to-make\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/08/12/the-18-month-fence-hop-the-six-day-chair-and-why-video-games-are-so-hard-to-make-polygon/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Early on, we designed some glassware, but then we were having trouble seeing what the glass looked like because everything is so transparent,” Pascual says. “We needed [to] up the poly count on it to even be able to see the type of material, or the type of rendering or shading we had.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Yeah,” Krankel says, “it’s one of those things where we started and you spend all this time having, like, a fluid simulation in a goblet that’s flying around, and you’re like, ‘This looks so badass’ totally out of context. And then you look at it in the game, you’re like, ‘A, I don’t see any of this, B, our performance is taking a giant hit. What’s a better, more effective way to do it?’”\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The 18-month fence hop, the six-day chair, and why video games are so hard to make - Polygon"},{"content":"Lame title but interesting article.\nIn sociological storytelling, the characters have personal stories and agency, of course, but those are also greatly shaped by institutions and events around them. The incentives for characters’ behavior come noticeably from these external forces, too, and even strongly influence their inner life.\nPeople then fit their internal narrative to align with their incentives, justifying and rationalizing their behavior along the way. (Thus the famous Upton Sinclair quip: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”)\nThe overly personal mode of storytelling or analysis leaves us bereft of deeper comprehension of events and history. Understanding Hitler’s personality alone will not tell us much about rise of fascism, for example. Not that it didn’t matter, but a different demagogue would probably have appeared to take his place in Germany in between the two bloody world wars in the 20th century. Hence, the answer to “would you kill baby Hitler?,” sometimes presented as an ethical time-travel challenge, should be “no,” because it would very likely not matter much. It is not a true dilemma.\nFrom: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-real-reason-fans-hate-the-last-season-of-game-of-thrones\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/05/24/182/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLame title but interesting article.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn sociological storytelling, the characters have personal stories and agency, of course, but those are also greatly shaped by institutions and events around them. The incentives for characters’ behavior come noticeably from these external forces, too, and even strongly influence their inner life.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeople then fit their internal narrative to align with their incentives, justifying and rationalizing their behavior along the way. (Thus the famous Upton Sinclair quip: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”)\u003c/p\u003e","title":""},{"content":" Security researchers have found a new class of vulnerabilities in Intel chips which, if exploited, can be used to steal sensitive information directly from the processor., The bugs are reminiscent of Meltdown and Spectre , which exploited a weakness in speculative execution, an important part of how modern processors work.\nSo, their \u0026ldquo;old\u0026rdquo; processors get slower and slower due to patches for massive security bugs?\nWhy would you buy an Intel processor again?\nSource: New secret-spilling flaw affects almost every Intel chip since 2011\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/05/16/new-secret-spilling-flaw-affects-almost-every-intel-chip-since-2011/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSecurity researchers have found a new class of vulnerabilities in Intel chips which, if exploited, can be used to steal sensitive information directly from the processor., The bugs are reminiscent of Meltdown and Spectre , which exploited a weakness in speculative execution, an important part of how modern processors work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo, their \u0026ldquo;old\u0026rdquo; processors get slower and slower due to patches for massive security bugs?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy would you buy an Intel processor again?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New secret-spilling flaw affects almost every Intel chip since 2011"},{"content":"Wine for 68k Mac binaries :)\nUnlike DOS, early versions of Windows, and most *nixes, the classic Mac operating system is weird. Contained in the ROM are subroutines to draw windows, pop up dialog boxes, and other various tasks purely related to the UI. On other systems, this would be separate from the BIOS, but in your Mac from the 80s, everything is baked into the ROM and hidden deep in the operating system.\nSource: Macintosh API Comes To Linux, Android\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2019/01/28/macintosh-api-comes-to-linux-android/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWine for 68k Mac binaries :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike DOS, early versions of Windows, and most *nixes, the classic Mac operating system is weird. Contained in the ROM are subroutines to draw windows, pop up dialog boxes, and other various tasks purely related to the UI. On other systems, this would be separate from the BIOS, but in your Mac from the 80s, everything is baked into the ROM and hidden deep in the operating system.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Macintosh API Comes To Linux, Android"},{"content":"“Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages. \u0026hellip; But the documents, as well as interviews with about 50 former employees of Facebook and its corporate partners, reveal that Facebook allowed certain companies access to data despite those protections\u0026hellip;In all, the deals described in the documents benefited more than 150 companies — most of them tech businesses\u0026hellip;The deals, the oldest of which date to 2010, were all active in 2017. Some were still in effect this year.” www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/12/20/176/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent, the records show, and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users’ private messages.\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\u0026hellip;\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eBut the documents, as well as interviews with about 50 former employees of Facebook and its corporate partners, reveal that Facebook allowed certain companies access to data despite those protections\u0026hellip;In all, the deals described in the documents benefited more than 150 companies — most of them tech businesses\u0026hellip;The deals, the oldest of which date to 2010, were all active in 2017. Some were still in effect this year.”\u003c/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html\"\u003ewww.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":""},{"content":"via Having The Security Rug Pulled Out From Under You - Akamai Security Intelligence and Threat Research Blog\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/10/20/having-the-security-rug-pulled-out-from-under-you-akamai-security-intelligence-and-threat-research-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://blogs.akamai.com/sitr/2018/10/having-the-security-rug-pulled-out-from-under-you.html\"\u003eHaving The Security Rug Pulled Out From Under You - Akamai Security Intelligence and Threat Research Blog\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Having The Security Rug Pulled Out From Under You - Akamai Security Intelligence and Threat Research Blog"},{"content":"Strain: \u0026ldquo;Cancer\u0026rsquo;s nightmare\u0026rdquo;\n~4 weeks after starting 12/12 light.\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/10/03/first-time-growing/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eStrain: \u0026ldquo;Cancer\u0026rsquo;s nightmare\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e~4 weeks after starting 12/12 light.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"IMG_0709\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/img_0709.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"First time growing... :)"},{"content":"BAKERSFIELD, CA—In the hours following a violent rampage in California in which a lone attacker killed six individuals, including himself, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Thursday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.… Read more\u0026hellip;\nSource: ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/09/15/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-regularly-happens/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBAKERSFIELD, CA—In the hours following a violent rampage in California in which a lone attacker killed six individuals, including himself, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Thursday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.… Read more\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1829032821\"\u003e‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens"},{"content":"Holy crap - green lasers emitting half (or less) of their power on the invisible IR spectrum.\nLike a purpose built blinding device. (emphasis mine)\nHe explains that the paradox of an ostensibly monochromatic source emitting two distinct wavelengths comes from the IR laser at the heart of the diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) laser inside the pointer. The process is only about 48% efficient, meaning that IR leaks out along with the green light. The better quality DPSS laser pointers include a quality IR filter to remove it; cheaper ones often fail to include this essential safety feature.\n\\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR1Ku5dnbH8\\\n\u0026hellip;and part two:\n\\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3V5PzTDP7E\\\nvia Science Shows Green Lasers Might Be More Than You Bargained For | Hackaday\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/09/05/science-shows-green-lasers-might-be-more-than-you-bargained-for-hackaday/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHoly crap - green lasers emitting half (or less) of their power on the invisible IR spectrum.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike a purpose built blinding device. (emphasis mine)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe explains that the paradox of an ostensibly monochromatic source emitting \u003cstrong\u003etwo distinct wavelengths comes from the IR laser\u003c/strong\u003e at the heart of the diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) laser inside the pointer. The process is only about \u003cstrong\u003e48% efficient, meaning that IR leaks out along with the green light\u003c/strong\u003e. The better quality DPSS laser pointers include a quality IR filter to remove it; \u003cstrong\u003echeaper ones often fail to include this essential safety feature\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Science Shows Green Lasers Might Be More Than You Bargained For | Hackaday"},{"content":"RIP Terry Davis\nThe words pour out on TempleOS.org, a torrent of verified random numbers, news links, YouTube videos, and scriptural exegesis. It\u0026rsquo;s the dense work of a single, restless mind writing ceaselessly without an audience.\nAfter two months of emails and phone conversations, I know more than when I began; specifically, I\u0026rsquo;ve accumulated more raw data, more facts about his life and experience. But I suspect I\u0026rsquo;ve only sketched a shadow. The full reality remains unreachable, an irreducible mystery.\nvia God\u0026rsquo;s Lonely Programmer - Motherboard\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/09/04/gods-lonely-programmer-motherboard/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eRIP Terry Davis\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe words pour out on TempleOS.org, a torrent of verified random numbers, news links, YouTube videos, and scriptural exegesis. It\u0026rsquo;s the dense work of a single, restless mind writing ceaselessly without an audience.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter two months of emails and phone conversations, I know more than when I began; specifically, I\u0026rsquo;ve accumulated more raw data, more facts about his life and experience. But I suspect I\u0026rsquo;ve only sketched a shadow. The full reality remains unreachable, an irreducible mystery.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"God's Lonely Programmer - Motherboard"},{"content":" Oliver later testified that he fired at the car because he saw it creeping toward his partner, Officer Tyler Gross, and he believed Gross\u0026rsquo;s life was in danger. Gross, however, testified that he didn’t fear for his life.\nAnd body cam footage contradicted Oliver’s account. When he opened fire, the vehicle was driving away from him.\nnews.vice.com/en_us/article/ne5p9g/former-texas-cop-who-shot-and-killed-a-black-teen-leaving-a-party-found-guilty-of-murder\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/08/29/165/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOliver later testified that he fired at the car because he saw it creeping toward his partner, Officer Tyler Gross, and he believed Gross\u0026rsquo;s life was in danger. Gross, however, testified that he didn’t fear for his life.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd body cam footage contradicted Oliver’s account. When he opened fire, the vehicle was driving away from him.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/ne5p9g/former-texas-cop-who-shot-and-killed-a-black-teen-leaving-a-party-found-guilty-of-murder\"\u003enews.vice.com/en_us/article/ne5p9g/former-texas-cop-who-shot-and-killed-a-black-teen-leaving-a-party-found-guilty-of-murder\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":""},{"content":" At that point, the hacker said, they requested the user credentials by sending the ID to the company servers with a web request that returned usernames and passwords in plaintext. With a script to automate that process, L.M. said he harvested all the customers’ credentials.\nmotherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mb4y5x/thetruthspy-spyware-domestic-abusers-hacked-data-breach\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/08/29/164/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt that point, the hacker said, they requested the user credentials by sending the ID to the company servers with a web request that returned usernames and passwords in plaintext. With a script to automate that process, L.M. said he harvested all the customers’ credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mb4y5x/thetruthspy-spyware-domestic-abusers-hacked-data-breach\"\u003emotherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mb4y5x/thetruthspy-spyware-domestic-abusers-hacked-data-breach\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":""},{"content":" “Sole or substantial ownership of a business that receives hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year in revenue from one of its hotel properties where foreign and domestic governments are known to stay (often with the express purpose of cultivating the president’s good graces) most definitely raises the potential for undue influence, and would be well within the contemplation of the clauses,”\nvia In Ruling Against Trump, Judge Defines Anticorruption Clauses in Constitution for First Time - The New York Times\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/07/26/in-ruling-against-trump-judge-defines-anticorruption-clauses-in-constitution-for-first-time-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Sole or substantial ownership of a business that receives hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year in revenue from one of its hotel properties where foreign and domestic governments are known to stay (often with the express purpose of cultivating the president’s good graces) most definitely raises the potential for undue influence, and would be well within the contemplation of the clauses,”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/us/politics/trump-emoluments-lawsuit.html?hp\u0026amp;action=click\u0026amp;pgtype=Homepage\u0026amp;clickSource=story-heading\u0026amp;module=first-column-region\u0026amp;region=top-news\u0026amp;WT.nav=top-news\"\u003eIn Ruling Against Trump, Judge Defines Anticorruption Clauses in Constitution for First Time - The New York Times\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"In Ruling Against Trump, Judge Defines Anticorruption Clauses in Constitution for First Time - The New York Times"},{"content":" In neural machine translation, the system is trained with large numbers of texts in one language and corresponding translations in another, to create a model for moving between the two. But when it’s fed nonsense inputs, Rush said, the system can “hallucinate” bizarre outputs—not unlike the way Google’s DeepDream identifies and accentuates patterns in images.\n“The models are black-boxes, that are learned from as many training instances that you can find,” Rush said. “The vast majority of these will look like human language, and when you give it a new one it is trained to produce something, at all costs, that also looks like human language. However if you give it something very different, the best translation will be something still fluent, but not at all connected to the input.”\nSean Colbath, a senior scientist at BBN Technologies who works on machine translation, agreed that strange outputs are probably due to Google Translate’s algorithm looking for order in chaos. He also pointed out that the languages that generate the strangest results—Somali, Hawaiian and Maori—have smaller bodies of translated text than more widely spoken languages like English or Chinese. As a result, he said, it’s possible that Google used religious texts like the Bible, which has been translated into many languages, to train its model in those languages, resulting in the religious content.\nvia Why Is Google Translate Spitting Out Sinister Religious Prophecies? - Motherboard\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/07/23/why-is-google-translate-spitting-out-sinister-religious-prophecies-motherboard/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn neural machine translation, the system is trained with large numbers of texts in one language and corresponding translations in another, to create a model for moving between the two. But when it’s fed nonsense inputs, Rush said, the system can “hallucinate” bizarre outputs—not unlike the way Google’s DeepDream identifies and accentuates patterns in images.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The models are black-boxes, that are learned from as many training instances that you can find,” Rush said. “The vast majority of these will look like human language, and when you give it a new one it is trained to produce something, at all costs, that also looks like human language. However if you give it something very different, the best translation will be something still fluent, but not at all connected to the input.”\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Why Is Google Translate Spitting Out Sinister Religious Prophecies? - Motherboard"},{"content":"\\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBPn9arfVo\\\nvia The Mark-Super-7 Quantum E-Meter (PWJ104) - YouTube\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/07/23/e-meter-teardown-the-mark-super-7-quantum-e-meter-pwj104-youtube/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBPn9arfVo\\\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBPn9arfVo\"\u003eThe Mark-Super-7 Quantum E-Meter (PWJ104) - YouTube\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"[E-Meter Teardown] The Mark-Super-7 Quantum E-Meter (PWJ104) - YouTube"},{"content":" Intelligence officials are growing concerned that Mr. Trump cherry-picks their findings to reinforce decisions he has already made, several administration officials said in interviews.\nNO WAI\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/07/22/157/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntelligence officials are growing concerned that Mr. Trump cherry-picks their findings to reinforce decisions he has already made, several administration officials said in interviews.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNO WAI\u003c/p\u003e","title":""},{"content":"Interesting read :)\nLet\u0026rsquo;s talk about the Intel Overdrive chips.\nSpecifically, the 486 ones (there were pentium ones later)So back in the 90s, computers were really expensive. you didn\u0026rsquo;t want to upgrade to a whole new computer to be able to use new processors, right? thus: the Intel Overdrive!\nvia Lets Talk About Intel CPUs -\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/07/12/lets-talk-about-386-486-586-intel-cpus/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eInteresting read :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet\u0026rsquo;s talk about the Intel Overdrive chips.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpecifically, the 486 ones (there were pentium ones later)So back in the 90s, computers were really expensive. you didn\u0026rsquo;t want to upgrade to a whole new computer to be able to use new processors, right?\nthus: the Intel Overdrive!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"http://mawazo.byethost7.com/viewtopic.php?f=20\u0026amp;t=336\u0026amp;i=1\"\u003eLets Talk About Intel CPUs -\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"Lets Talk About [386/486/586] Intel CPUs"},{"content":"Interesting read\nIndeed, some who know the history assert that the Intel 8088 was the worst among several possible 16-bit microprocessors of the day.\nIt was not. There was a serious alternative that was worse. I know because I was in charge of the organization within Texas Instruments that developed it: the TMS9900. Although this dog of a chip went on to be used in the world’s first 16-bit home computer, you’ve probably never heard of it. As they say, history is written by the winners.\nvia The Inside Story of Texas Instruments’ Biggest Blunder: The TMS9900 Microprocessor - IEEE Spectrum\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/06/28/the-inside-story-of-texas-instruments-biggest-blunder-the-tms9900-microprocessor-ieee-spectrum/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eInteresting read\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, some who know the history assert that the Intel 8088 was the worst among several possible 16-bit microprocessors of the day.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was not. There was a serious alternative that was worse. I know because I was in charge of the organization within Texas Instruments that developed it: the TMS9900. Although this dog of a chip went on to be used in the world’s first 16-bit home computer, you’ve probably never heard of it. As they say, history is written by the winners.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Inside Story of Texas Instruments’ Biggest Blunder: The TMS9900 Microprocessor - IEEE Spectrum"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s beautiful!!!\n\\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miqN2gR1Zns\u0026amp;w=854\u0026amp;h=480\\\nvia Techmoan - Techmoan - Cronixie - The eye-catching edge-lit clock kit\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/30/techmoan-techmoan-cronixie-the-eye-catching-edge-lit-clock-kit/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s beautiful!!!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miqN2gR1Zns\u0026amp;w=854\u0026amp;h=480\\\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2018/4/27/cronixie-the-eye-catching-edge-lit-clock-kit.html\"\u003eTechmoan - Techmoan - Cronixie - The eye-catching edge-lit clock kit\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Techmoan - Techmoan - Cronixie - The eye-catching edge-lit clock kit"},{"content":" As a U.S. manufacturing manager pointed out, “U.S. managers analyze, rationalize, and agonize until their office walls are covered with paper before committing to a piece of equipment requiring an investment of $500,000—and therefore an annual depreciation charge of $50,000. Yet the process of evaluating and making recommendations regarding the training, compensation, and career path of a $50,000 a year (including benefits) engineer typically requires one-half of a piece of paper, reluctantly prepared in one-half hour once a year!” This difference in priorities is puzzling, particularly when one recognizes that a machine is simply the embodiment of an engineer’s skill.\n(emphasis mine)\nvia Why Japanese Factories Work\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/27/1980s-hbr-why-japanese-factories-work/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a U.S. manufacturing manager pointed out, “U.S. managers analyze, rationalize, and agonize until their office walls are covered with paper before committing to a piece of equipment requiring an investment of $500,000—and therefore an annual depreciation charge of $50,000. Yet the process of evaluating and making recommendations regarding the training, compensation, and career path of a $50,000 a year (including benefits) engineer typically requires one-half of a piece of paper, reluctantly prepared in one-half hour once a year!” This difference in priorities is puzzling, \u003cstrong\u003eparticularly when one recognizes that a machine is simply the embodiment of an engineer’s skill.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"1980s HBR: Why Japanese Factories Work"},{"content":" Affiliates once had to guess what kind of person might fall for their unsophisticated cons, targeting ads by age, geography, or interests. Now Facebook does that work for them. The social network tracks who clicks on the ad and who buys the pills, then starts targeting others whom its algorithm thinks are likely to buy. Affiliates describe watching their ad campaigns lose money for a few days as Facebook gathers data through trial and error, then seeing the sales take off exponentially. “They go out and find the morons for me,” I was told by an affiliate who sells deceptively priced skin-care creams with fake endorsements\u0026hellip;\nvia Ad Scammers Need Suckers, and Facebook Helps Find Them - Bloomberg\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/24/ad-scammers-need-suckers-and-facebook-helps-find-them-bloomberg/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAffiliates once had to guess what kind of person might fall for their unsophisticated cons, targeting ads by age, geography, or interests. Now Facebook does that work for them. The social network tracks who clicks on the ad and who buys the pills, then starts targeting others whom its algorithm thinks are likely to buy. Affiliates describe watching their ad campaigns lose money for a few days as Facebook gathers data through trial and error, then seeing the sales take off exponentially. “They go out and find the morons for me,” I was told by an affiliate who sells deceptively priced skin-care creams with fake endorsements\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ad Scammers Need Suckers, and Facebook Helps Find Them - Bloomberg"},{"content":"via Why Does \u0026ldquo;=\u0026rdquo; Mean Assignment? • Hillel Wayne\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/24/why-does-mean-assignment-%E2%80%A2-hillel-wayne/","summary":"\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/equals-as-assignment/\"\u003eWhy Does \u0026ldquo;=\u0026rdquo; Mean Assignment? • Hillel Wayne\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Why Does \"=\" Mean Assignment? • Hillel Wayne"},{"content":"Alcoholics Anonymous: Much More Than You Wanted To Know | Slate Star Codex\nI love this blog. :) Extra points for introducing me to the Dodo Bird Verdict:\nEverybody has won, and all must have prizes\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/16/alcoholics-anonymous-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know-slate-star-codex/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/10/26/alcoholics-anonymous-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/\"\u003eAlcoholics Anonymous: Much More Than You Wanted To Know | Slate Star Codex\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI love this blog. :) Extra points for introducing me to the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo_bird_verdict\"\u003eDodo Bird Verdict:\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEverybody has won, and all must have prizes\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"Alcoholics Anonymous: Much More Than You Wanted To Know | Slate Star Codex"},{"content":" That didn\u0026rsquo;t happen. And if it did, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t that bad. And if it was, that\u0026rsquo;s not a big deal. And if it is, that\u0026rsquo;s not my fault. And if it was, I didn\u0026rsquo;t mean it. And if I did\u0026hellip;\nYou deserved it.\nhow true this is\u0026hellip;\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/16/a-narcissists-prayer/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat didn\u0026rsquo;t happen.\nAnd if it did, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t that bad.\nAnd if it was, that\u0026rsquo;s not a big deal.\nAnd if it is, that\u0026rsquo;s not my fault.\nAnd if it was, I didn\u0026rsquo;t mean it.\nAnd if I did\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou deserved it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ehow true this is\u0026hellip;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Narcissist's Prayer"},{"content":" \u0026hellip;QAnon was born last October, when someone claiming to have “Q” level security clearance started a cryptic thread on 4chan, the online message board and troll playground. It was titled, “The Calm Before the Storm,” a phrase Trump had recently used. Q posted hints, some in the form of questions, ostensibly meant to help clued-in Trump supporters understand what was really going on in Washington beneath the facade of chaos and incompetence. (“What is military intelligence? Why go around the 3 letter agencies?”)\nFrom these clues, a sprawling community on message boards, YouTube videos and Twitter accounts has elaborated an enormous, ever-mutating fantasy narrative about the Trump presidency. In the QAnon reality, Trump only pretended to collude with Russia in order to create a pretext for the hiring of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, who is actually working with Trump to take down an inconceivably evil and powerful network of coup-plotters and child sex traffickers that includes Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros. “QAnon points out that this is the beginning of the end for the Clintons,” said Jerome Corsi — a prominent proponent of the lie that Obama was born in Kenya — on a YouTube broadcast in January. He warned that the world would be forced to contend with “films of innocent children pleading for their lives while people are butchering them.” Once that happens, presumably, Trump will be revealed as a master of 12-dimensional chess who successfully distracted smirking elites with his buffoonery while he was quietly saving the world.\nvia Opinion | The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius - The New York Times\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/07/opinion-the-conspiracy-theory-that-says-trump-is-a-genius-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;QAnon was born last October, when someone claiming to have “Q” level security clearance started a cryptic thread on 4chan, the online message board and troll playground. It was titled, “The Calm Before the Storm,” a phrase Trump had recently used. Q posted hints, some in the form of questions, ostensibly meant to help clued-in Trump supporters understand what was really going on in Washington beneath the facade of chaos and incompetence. (“What is military intelligence? Why go around the 3 letter agencies?”)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Opinion | The Conspiracy Theory That Says Trump Is a Genius - The New York Times"},{"content":"Ood! Though I have to say the Krebs tweets at the end are gold :)\ntl;dr: In August 2017, I reported a vulnerability to Panera Bread that allowed the full name, home address, email address, food/dietary preferences, username, phone number, birthday and last four… — Read on medium.com/@djhoulihan/no-panera-bread-doesnt-take-security-seriously-bf078027f815\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/04/no-panera-bread-doesnt-take-security-seriously-pb-medium/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOod! Though I have to say the Krebs tweets at the end are gold :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003etl;dr: In August 2017, I reported a vulnerability to Panera Bread that allowed the full name, home address, email address, food/dietary preferences, username, phone number, birthday and last four…\n— Read on \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@djhoulihan/no-panera-bread-doesnt-take-security-seriously-bf078027f815\"\u003emedium.com/@djhoulihan/no-panera-bread-doesnt-take-security-seriously-bf078027f815\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"No, Panera Bread Doesn’t Take Security Seriously – PB – Medium"},{"content":" \u0026hellip;a knockoff is clearly trying to confuse the market into thinking it’s something more popular, often using off-the-shelf parts, while cutting corners on the design of the product. Basically, it’s a product that succeeds because an unobservant parent or loved one doesn’t know the difference.\n(emphasis mine)\nLove this blog!\nvia Game Boy Knock-Offs: A History of Portable Copycats\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/04/02/game-boy-knock-offs-a-history-of-portable-copycats/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;a knockoff is clearly trying to confuse the market into thinking it’s something more popular, often using off-the-shelf parts, while cutting corners on the design of the product. Basically, \u003cstrong\u003eit’s a product that succeeds because an unobservant parent or loved one doesn’t know the difference.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(emphasis mine)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLove this blog!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://tedium.co/2017/09/14/game-boy-knockoff-consoles/\"\u003eGame Boy Knock-Offs: A History of Portable Copycats\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Game Boy Knock-Offs: A History of Portable Copycats"},{"content":" \u0026hellip;[It] was the success of his own vision that demonstrated the limits of that vision.\nvia Now would be a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign | TechCrunch\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/03/24/now-would-be-a-good-time-for-mark-zuckerberg-to-resign-techcrunch/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026hellip;[It] was the success of his own vision that demonstrated the limits of that vision.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/21/now-would-be-a-good-time-for-mark-zuckerberg-to-resign/\"\u003eNow would be a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign | TechCrunch\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Now would be a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign | TechCrunch"},{"content":" this well meaning documentary meant to alert you to the dangers of stimulant medications used to treat ADHD misses the mark. It doesn’t include any perspective on what medications can do when they’re prescribed and used properly.\nFirst off, I haven\u0026rsquo;t watched this particular documentary.\nBut it\u0026rsquo;s not surprising -___-\nvia Dr. Hallowell on ‘Take Your Pills’ Netflix Documentary « Dr Hallowell ADHD and mental and cognitive health\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/03/24/dr-hallowell-on-take-your-pills-netflix-documentary-dr-hallowell-adhd-and-mental-and-cognitive-health/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ethis well meaning documentary meant to alert you to the dangers of stimulant medications used to treat ADHD misses the mark. \u003cstrong\u003eIt doesn’t include any perspective on what medications can do when they’re prescribed and used properly.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst off, I haven\u0026rsquo;t watched this particular documentary.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut it\u0026rsquo;s not surprising -___-\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"http://www.drhallowell.com/dr-hallowell-on-take-your-pills-netflix-documentary/\"\u003eDr. Hallowell on ‘Take Your Pills’ Netflix Documentary « Dr Hallowell ADHD and mental and cognitive health\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Dr. Hallowell on ‘Take Your Pills’ Netflix Documentary « Dr Hallowell ADHD and mental and cognitive health"},{"content":" Instead, according to the complaint, she constructed an elaborate fiction that she would spend the rest of her tenure trying to keep alive, and that would lead her down the path to this week’s charges. In other words, Holmes’s mistake was that she refused to do what so many other entrepreneurs do every day, and come to terms with failure.\nAlso, the actual complaint from the SEC is a great read. What a train wreck :/\nvia Kevin’s Week in Tech: Theranos, Fraud and the Failure to Fail - The New York Times\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/03/21/kevins-week-in-tech-theranos-fraud-and-the-failure-to-fail-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInstead, according to the complaint, she constructed an elaborate fiction that she would spend the rest of her tenure trying to keep alive, and that would lead her down the path to this week’s charges. In other words, Holmes’s mistake was that she refused to do what so many other entrepreneurs do every day, and come to terms with failure.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-pr2018-41-theranos-holmes.pdf\"\u003ethe actual complaint from the SEC\u003c/a\u003e is a great read. What a train wreck :/\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Kevin’s Week in Tech: Theranos, Fraud and the Failure to Fail - The New York Times"},{"content":" So the most interesting and distinguishing feature of Luna, at least to start with, might not be the tokens, or the incentives, or the machine learning. It might be that it’s a place you can go to meet the sort of people who want to date on the blockchain. I could make a lot of cheap jokes here, but whatever weird hyperplanes through categoryspace further the difficult and desperate project of human-seeking-human are good and worthwhile in my book. I hope that lots of libertarian women find lots of security-conscious men and make lots of beautiful, high-price-volatility babies.\nvia Practically-A-Book Review: Luna Whitepaper | Slate Star Codex\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/01/26/practically-a-book-review-luna-whitepaper-slate-star-codex/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo the most interesting and distinguishing feature of Luna, at least to start with, might not be the tokens, or the incentives, or the machine learning. It might be that it’s a place you can go to meet the sort of people who want to date on the blockchain. I could make a lot of cheap jokes here, but whatever weird hyperplanes through categoryspace further the difficult and desperate project of human-seeking-human are good and worthwhile in my book. I hope that lots of libertarian women find lots of security-conscious men and make lots of beautiful, high-price-volatility babies.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Practically-A-Book Review: Luna Whitepaper | Slate Star Codex"},{"content":" And when you’ve made your choice, be specific in your project documentation. There’s no need to make somebody else (possibly your future self) go through the process of guessing which connector type you used.\nThis is even more important for component vendors. Even though internet specifications are generally poor, that’s no excuse to be lazy. Customers need to know the specific connector to interface with your product.\nvia JST Is Not A Connector | Hackaday\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/01/25/jst-is-not-a-connector-hackaday/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd when you’ve made your choice, be specific in your project documentation. There’s no need to make somebody else (possibly your future self) go through the process of guessing which connector type you used.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is even more important for component vendors. Even though internet specifications are generally poor, that’s no excuse to be lazy. Customers need to know the specific connector to interface with your product.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://hackaday.com/2017/12/27/jst-is-not-a-connector/\"\u003eJST Is Not A Connector | Hackaday\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"JST Is Not A Connector | Hackaday"},{"content":"The world is a blizzard place.\nDespite its popularity, Tide is not a big moneymaker for stores. P\u0026amp;G’s proprietary surfactants and enzymes are relatively expensive to produce, notes Bill Schmitz, a Deutsche Bank analyst, so Tide’s wholesale cost is steep. Only so much of that can be passed on to customers. “It’s so tight,” says Schmitz of the profit margin. In general, a retailer clears just a few percentage points on a Tide purchase. A store that charges $19.99 for a 150-ounce bottle might claim $2 in profit. But if it buys stolen bottles for $5, that jumps to $15.\nvia How Tide Detergent Became a Drug Currency \u0026ndash; New York Magazine\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/01/20/how-tide-detergent-became-a-drug-currency-new-york-magazine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe world is a blizzard place.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite its popularity, Tide is not a big moneymaker for stores. P\u0026amp;G’s proprietary surfactants and enzymes are relatively expensive to produce, notes Bill Schmitz, a Deutsche Bank analyst, so Tide’s wholesale cost is steep. Only so much of that can be passed on to customers. “It’s so tight,” says Schmitz of the profit margin. In general, a retailer clears just a few percentage points on a Tide purchase. A store that charges $19.99 for a 150-ounce bottle might claim $2 in profit. But if it buys stolen bottles for $5, that jumps to $15.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How Tide Detergent Became a Drug Currency -- New York Magazine"},{"content":" Why on earth might a reborn LM3909 be of interest to him, you ask? Well, he wasn’t able to make a 555 flash the LED from a coin cell, and a friend mentioned this chip which piqued his interest. The internal schematic is in the data sheet (found in the files section of his project), so he was able to implement it relatively easily using common parts. It still requires an external capacitor just like the original, but there is space on-board should you wish to put it there.\nAmazing!\nhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/TYnx2c-3YMM?version=3\u0026amp;rel=1\u0026amp;fs=1\u0026amp;autohide=2\u0026amp;showsearch=0\u0026amp;showinfo=1\u0026amp;iv_load_policy=1\u0026amp;wmode=transparent\nToday you can buy flashing LEDs; a simple two-lead component that requires only a power supply to produce even flashes of light. They look for all the world like any other LED, though embedded in the plastic dome is an integrated circuit to do all that flashing work. There was a time though when a…\nvia There Once Was an IC Dedicated to Blinking an LED — Hackaday\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/01/07/there-once-was-an-ic-dedicated-to-blinking-an-led-hackaday/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy on earth might a reborn LM3909 be of interest to him, you ask? Well, he wasn’t able to make a 555 flash the LED from a coin cell, and a friend mentioned this chip which piqued his interest. The internal schematic is in the data sheet (\u003ca href=\"https://hackaday.io/project/29179-disintegrated-lm3909-15v-led-flasher\"\u003efound in the files section\u003c/a\u003e of his project), so he was able to implement it relatively easily using common parts. It still requires an external capacitor just like the original, but there is space on-board should you wish to put it there.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"There Once Was an IC Dedicated to Blinking an LED — Hackaday"},{"content":"Interesting post \u0026ndash; and I have a new thing to add to my list, Pmod modules.\nThe BlackIce board has female sockets that support Digilent Pmod modules, so adding VGA display and PS/2 keyboard sockets was as easy as buying a couple of cheap modules and plugging in.\nvia Ghost in the machine: a BBC Micro on an FPGA – Machina Speculatrix\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2018/01/05/ghost-in-the-machine-a-bbc-micro-on-an-fpga-machina-speculatrix/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eInteresting post \u0026ndash; and I have a new thing to add to my list, Pmod modules.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe BlackIce board has female sockets that support \u003ca href=\"http://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-modules/\"\u003eDigilent Pmod modules\u003c/a\u003e, so adding VGA display and PS/2 keyboard sockets was as easy as buying a couple of cheap modules and plugging in.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003evia \u003ca href=\"https://mansfield-devine.com/speculatrix/2017/12/ghost-in-the-machine-a-bbc-micro-on-an-fpga/\"\u003eGhost in the machine: a BBC Micro on an FPGA – Machina Speculatrix\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ghost in the machine: a BBC Micro on an FPGA – Machina Speculatrix"},{"content":" In my field they all mean something. I find people who dislike this sort of \u0026lsquo;corporate\u0026rsquo; language generally don\u0026rsquo;t have experience in trying to parse technical subjects to the business side of the office, or parsing business back to the IT crowd.\nI have to say that after working a corporate job for a little over a year now I would have to agree. The buzzwords make my eyes roll every time, and it\u0026rsquo;s fun to joke about with the developers, but sometimes they are the only tool to get the job done. (that is if you have other things to do besides describe the complete architecture of your app)\nvia agentpanda comments on What buzzword do people need to stop using?\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/12/20/agentpanda-comments-on-what-buzzword-do-people-need-to-stop-using/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn my field they \u003cem\u003eall\u003c/em\u003e mean something. I find people who dislike this sort of \u0026lsquo;corporate\u0026rsquo; language generally don\u0026rsquo;t have experience in trying to parse technical subjects to the business side of the office, or parsing business back to the IT crowd.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have to say that after working a corporate job for a little over a year now I would have to agree. The buzzwords make my eyes roll every time, and it\u0026rsquo;s fun to joke about with the developers, but sometimes they are the only tool to get the job done. (that is if you have other things to do besides describe the complete architecture of your app)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"agentpanda comments on What buzzword do people need to stop using?"},{"content":"Forgot about Maddox! I used to love this stuff back when I was like ~16, read it again and still great!\nThe flexible straw, for example, was invented by a guy who saw his daughter struggling to drink a milkshake at the counter of a restaurant.1 Instead of, say, asking his The innovation nobody needs or wants. daughter to pick up the drink, he went home and made a shitty invention instead. These straws were invented for a child who was too lazy to pick up her drink, by an adult who didn\u0026rsquo;t have the foresight to ask for a smaller cup for the child. And now I\u0026rsquo;m relegated to using these drippy pieces of shit forever.\nvia Shitty inventions that everybody loves.\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/12/20/maddox-shitty-inventions-that-everybody-loves/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eForgot about Maddox! I used to love this stuff back when I was like ~16, read it again and still great!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe flexible straw, for example, was invented by a guy who saw his daughter struggling to drink a milkshake at the counter of a restaurant.1 Instead of, say, asking his The innovation nobody needs or wants. daughter to pick up the drink, he went home and made a shitty invention instead. These straws were invented for a child who was too lazy to pick up her drink, by an adult who didn\u0026rsquo;t have the foresight to ask for a smaller cup for the child. And now I\u0026rsquo;m relegated to using these drippy pieces of shit forever.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Maddox - Shitty inventions that everybody loves."},{"content":"“Strzalkowski has a lot to say about the way the game was marketed in the United States: how the bizarre scratch and sniff cards included with the strategy guide may have turned off consumers, but little to say in the way of gameplay mechanics or particular characters from the game that spoke to him in a way that might help explain his obsession, with one exception.”\nVia: http://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/huge-earthbound-fan-excited-play-first-time/\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/12/20/lol/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e“Strzalkowski has a lot to say about the way the game was marketed in the United States: how the bizarre scratch and sniff cards included with the strategy guide may have turned off consumers, but little to say in the way of gameplay mechanics or particular characters from the game that spoke to him in a way that might help explain his obsession, with one exception.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVia: \u003ca href=\"http://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/huge-earthbound-fan-excited-play-first-time/\"\u003ehttp://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/huge-earthbound-fan-excited-play-first-time/\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"LOL"},{"content":"[gallery ]\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/12/18/113/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e[gallery ]\u003c/p\u003e","title":""},{"content":" If one link in that chain had broken, through 13th-century legend, to 16th-century insult book, to 19th-century writer, to 20th-century phone book flip, if one of those small events hadn’t happened, Batman would live somewhere else.\nSource: Tom Scott, Batman\u0026rsquo;s Village of Fools: Gotham, England\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/12/12/the-13th-century-ties-that-explain-why-batman-lives-in-gotham-city/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf one link in that chain had broken, through 13th-century legend, to 16th-century insult book, to 19th-century writer, to 20th-century phone book flip, if one of those small events hadn’t happened, Batman would live somewhere else.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF6xzqOfCD8\"\u003eTom Scott, Batman\u0026rsquo;s Village of Fools: Gotham, England\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The 13th century ties that explain why Batman lives in Gotham City"},{"content":"Man - I\u0026rsquo;m such a sucker for these long, detailed reverse engineering/security posts.\nThis one does not disappoint!\nThe video is full of not-so-subtle hints that HP’s printers are secure and buying a non-HP printer is bordering on criminally negligent. For example, the opening sequence, white text on black background states “There are hundreds of millions of business printers in the world. Less than 2% of them are secure”. From here, the “Wolf” executes a series of unlikely attacks that leverage the insecure printers to own the companies network and sensitive data, with the obvious implication being that HP printers would not be vulnerable to these attacks.\nWhile the “Printer Hacking Wiki” and associated PRET toolkit are great resources, it appears that no one has taken a deep dive into the security of modern HP business printers to validate these claims.\nSo, we went out and bought a couple of printers, the MFP-586 and the M553. As HP’s Wolf says, “time to eat”.\nvia A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing – Finding RCE in HP’s Printer Fleet\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/11/21/hp-printer-remote-code-execution/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMan - I\u0026rsquo;m such a sucker for these long, detailed reverse engineering/security posts.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis one does not disappoint!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe video is full of not-so-subtle hints that HP’s printers are secure and buying a non-HP printer is bordering on criminally negligent. For example, the opening sequence, white text on black background states “There are hundreds of millions of business printers in the world. Less than 2% of them are secure”. From here, the “Wolf” executes a series of unlikely attacks that leverage the insecure printers to own the companies network and sensitive data, with the obvious implication being that HP printers would not be vulnerable to these attacks.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"HP Printer Remote Code Execution"},{"content":"I have to admit I knew very little about Marxism going into this comment thread \u0026ndash; this person\u0026rsquo;s comment blew my mind a little bit.\nWhen you consider this as a background for what ‘class’ means, the whole idea of class based on income amount risks scrambling and obfuscating everybody’s relationship to the means of production in society. Marx would think that even when people make pretty different amounts of money, the pressures and stresses from society they experience are a lot more similar within each class section. For example when Donald Trump went bankrupt he had negative money, negative income, but that didn’t make him suddenly a lumpen, or a prole, there was still something categorically different about his life which income figures wouldn’t catch. I remember his daughter once saying to her that during that time he pointed to a homeless man and said ‘that man has billions of dollars more than I do’, and while that technically might be true, it’s also importantly not.\nvia Comment on: Did the Soviet Union have a \u0026ldquo;middle class\u0026rdquo; like the West? If yes, then how well did they live and did they support Socialism? : AskHistorians\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/11/15/did-the-soviet-union-have-a-middle-class-like-the-west-if-yes-then-how-well-did-they-live-and-did-they-support-socialism-askhistorians/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have to admit I knew very little about Marxism going into this comment thread \u0026ndash; this person\u0026rsquo;s comment blew my mind a little bit.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you consider this as a background for what ‘class’ means, the whole idea of class based on income amount risks scrambling and obfuscating everybody’s relationship to the means of production in society. Marx would think that even when people make pretty different amounts of money, the pressures and stresses from society they experience are a lot more similar within each class section. For example when Donald Trump went bankrupt he had negative money, negative income, but that didn’t make him suddenly a lumpen, or a prole, there was still something categorically different about his life which income figures wouldn’t catch. I remember his daughter once saying to her that during that time he pointed to a homeless man and said ‘that man has billions of dollars more than I do’, and while that technically might be true, it’s also importantly not.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Did the Soviet Union have a \"middle class\" like the West? If yes, then how well did they live and did they support Socialism? : AskHistorians"},{"content":"Man, I love this blog - always seems to make me see a problem I\u0026rsquo;m facing from a different angle.\nThe sole incentive they are biased towards is their own self-preservation, which is equivalent to the preservation of the entire group. They cannot stereotype any particular group as they could be members of it. They lack commitment to their prior selves as they do not know who they are.\u0026quot;\nWhen considering whether we should endorse a proposed law or policy, we can ask: if I did not know if this would affect me or not, would I still support it\nvia The Fairness Principle: How the Veil of Ignorance Helps Test Fairness\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/11/14/the-fairness-principle-how-the-veil-of-ignorance-helps-test-fairness/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMan, I love this blog - always seems to make me see a problem I\u0026rsquo;m facing from a different angle.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sole incentive they are biased towards is their own self-preservation, which is equivalent to the preservation of the entire group. They cannot stereotype any particular group as they could be members of it. They lack commitment to their prior selves as they do not know who they are.\u0026quot;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen considering whether we should endorse a proposed law or policy, we can ask: if I did not know if this would affect me or not, would I still support it\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Fairness Principle: How the Veil of Ignorance Helps Test Fairness"},{"content":"I always find these looks ing mental illness issues interesting. something that especially stuck with me was the psychologist talking about \u0026ndash; I forgot how he phrashed it \u0026ndash; like mindsets - basically, if you go around the world with the basic assumption that \u0026ldquo;there are peoplea actively spying on me and I have to be careful\u0026rdquo; then every little blip will confirm that.\nthat on it\u0026rsquo;s own wasn\u0026rsquo;t particularly grounbreaking, but it just struck me beceause lately I feel like I\u0026rsquo;ve been stuck in a mindest where everyone is out to get me or\u0026hellip;I dont know, pin me down. Based on past experiences, my body and brain seem to just go down the same path, with similar confirmation bias.\nvia The Nightmare World of Gang Stalking - YouTube\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/11/12/gang-stalking/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI always find these looks ing mental illness issues interesting. something that especially stuck with me was the psychologist talking about \u0026ndash; I forgot how he phrashed it \u0026ndash; like mindsets - basically, if you go around the world with the basic assumption that \u0026ldquo;there are peoplea actively spying on me and I have to be careful\u0026rdquo; then every little blip will confirm that.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ethat on it\u0026rsquo;s own wasn\u0026rsquo;t particularly grounbreaking, but it just struck me beceause lately I feel like I\u0026rsquo;ve been stuck in a mindest where everyone is out to get me or\u0026hellip;I dont know, pin me down. Based on past experiences, my body and brain seem to just go down the same path, with similar confirmation bias.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gang Stalking"},{"content":" How could it be any other way? The odds that a pure meritocracy chose you and you alone to inhabit your spot on the ladder is worthy of Dunning-Kruger status. You\u0026rsquo;ve been getting lucky breaks for a long time. We all have.\nSource: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/10/imposter-syndrome.html\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/11/04/seth-godin-imposter-syndrome/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow could it be any other way? The odds that a pure meritocracy chose you and you alone to inhabit your spot on the ladder is worthy of \u003ca href=\"http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/sethsblog/~https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect\"\u003eDunning-Kruger\u003c/a\u003e status. You\u0026rsquo;ve been getting lucky breaks for a long time. We all have.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths\"\u003ehttp://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths\u003c/a\u003e_blog/2017/10/imposter-syndrome.html\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Seth Godin: Imposter Syndrome"},{"content":"This is cool!\nPVC pipe is a valuable material to the backyard hacker. It’s cheap, readily available, and comes in a range of different sizes. However, what do you do if you need to bend it? The typical approach would be to grab a heat gun or blowtorch, warm it up, and go from there.\nSource: How To Bend PVC The Nice Way\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/28/how-to-bend-pvc-the-nice-way/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is cool!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePVC pipe is a valuable material to the backyard hacker. It’s cheap, readily available, and comes in a range of different sizes. However, what do you do if you need to bend it? The typical approach would be to grab a heat gun or blowtorch, warm it up, and go from there.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"https://hackaday.com/2017/10/27/how-to-bend-pvc-the-nice-way/\"\u003eHow To Bend PVC The Nice Way\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How To Bend PVC The Nice Way"},{"content":"I have to say before reading this article I was one \u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;tech enthusiasts suffering from low information, that sees MakerBot as the Kleenex and Asprin of 3D printing.\u0026rdquo;\nThough, honestly that didn\u0026rsquo;t mean much because I\u0026rsquo;ve had such a poor experience of 3D printers in general. Still, an interesting read, and sad to see a company backtrack so far from the open commitments they started with.\nThey deserve their reputation.\nMakerBot is not dead, but it is connected to life support waiting for a merciful soul to pull the plug. This week, MakerBot announced it would lay off its entire manufacturing force, outsourcing the manufacturing of all MakerBot printers to China. A few weeks ago, Stratasys, MakerBot’s parent company, released their 2015 financial reports, noting MakerBot sales revenues have fallen precipitously. The MakerBot brand is now worth far less than the $400 Million Stratasys spent to acquire it. MakerBot is a dead company walking, and it is very doubtful MakerBot will ever be held in the same regard as the …read more\nvia The MakerBot Obituary — Hackaday\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/23/decline-of-makerbot/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have to say before reading this article I was one \u0026ldquo;\u0026hellip;tech enthusiasts suffering from low information, that sees MakerBot as the Kleenex and Asprin of 3D printing.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough, honestly that didn\u0026rsquo;t mean much because I\u0026rsquo;ve had such a poor experience of 3D printers \u003cem\u003ein general\u003c/em\u003e. Still, an interesting read, and sad to see a company backtrack so far from the open commitments they started with.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey deserve their reputation.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Decline of Makerbot"},{"content":"This is a beautiful lodge - definitely worth the visit.\nMy fiancé and I spent some time just wandering around the inside. We were in a bit of a rush so we couldn\u0026rsquo;t grab drinks/food. Definitely a nice place to sit and have a drink.\nThanks to the lovely blogger below for reminding me :)\nI enjoy taking tour groups to Timberline Lodge situated at nearly 6000′ elevation on the south flank of Mt. Hood. About 60 miles east of Portland, this National Historic Monument is within the Mt. Hood National Forest in Clackamas County, Oregon. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished […]\nvia Timberline Lodge: An Oregon Treasure — Meet You In The Morning\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/23/timberline-lodge/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a \u003cstrong\u003ebeautiful\u003c/strong\u003e lodge - definitely worth the visit.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy fiancé and I spent some time just wandering around the inside. We were in a bit of a rush so we couldn\u0026rsquo;t grab drinks/food. Definitely a nice place to sit and have a drink.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to the lovely blogger below for reminding me :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://meetyouinthemorning.com/2017/10/22/timberline-lodge-an-oregon-treasure/\"\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://meetyouinthemorning.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/img_0234-1.jpg?quality=80\u0026strip=info\u0026w=1600\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI enjoy taking tour groups to Timberline Lodge situated at nearly 6000′ elevation on the south flank of Mt. Hood. About 60 miles east of Portland, this National Historic Monument is within the Mt. Hood National Forest in Clackamas County, Oregon. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished […]\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Timberline Lodge"},{"content":"I’ve spent the past two weeks dealing with a full on pain flare up.\nI’m talking 5/10 pain constant for about two weeks.\nI actually think I have fibromyalgia. I have an appointment with a rheumatologist in a couple of weeks. I hope I can get at least some answer. This is brutal and I don’t want to have to rely on marijuana (CBD and otherwise) just to make it through the day. Partly cause it’s expensive, but it’s also against my company’s policy and I don’t want to worry about getting in trouble for dosing at work so I’ve been going without.\nAnyway, a quote that stuck with me: “If you are a friend or relative of a Fibromyalgia sufferer, please consider this: In moderate to severe cases, FMS will cause fatigue from sleep deprivation and sympathetic stimulation on a level totally unknown to the average person. A famous radio host once said, \u0026ldquo;All men are wimps if they don\u0026rsquo;t get the proper rest\u0026rdquo;. Fibromyalgia sufferers go way beyond this.”\nSource: https://drmattlanum.com/fibromyalgia.html\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/18/pain-flare-up/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI’ve spent the past two weeks dealing with a full on pain flare up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI’m talking 5/10 pain constant for about two weeks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI actually think I have fibromyalgia. I have an appointment with a rheumatologist in a couple of weeks. I hope I can get at least some answer. This is brutal and I don’t want to have to rely on marijuana (CBD and otherwise) just to make it through the day. Partly cause it’s expensive, but it’s also against my company’s policy and I don’t want to worry about getting in trouble for dosing at work so I’ve been going without.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pain Flare Up"},{"content":"Amazing video that explains plainly a very (at least what seems like to me) complicated space of work.\nSource: Toy model of the AI control problem: animated version\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/11/toy-model-of-the-ai-control-problem-animated-version/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAmazing video that explains plainly a very (at least what seems like to me) complicated space of work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;\"\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ciframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen\" loading=\"eager\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/sx8JkdbNgdU?autoplay=0\u0026amp;controls=1\u0026amp;end=0\u0026amp;loop=0\u0026amp;mute=0\u0026amp;start=0\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;\" title=\"YouTube video\"\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e\n\t\t\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"https://www.lesserwrong.com/posts/EdEhGPEJi6dueQXv2/toy-model-of-the-ai-control-problem-animated-version\"\u003eToy model of the AI control problem: animated version\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Toy model of the AI control problem: animated version"},{"content":"Dear god this is the most detailed resource I\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen on this.\nLove the diagrams:\nSource: http://messybeast.com/cat_talk2.htm\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/06/cat-communication/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDear god this is the most detailed resource I\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen on this.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLove the diagrams:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://messybeast.com/images/cat-chat3.png\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: http://messybeast.com/cat_talk2.htm\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cat Communication"},{"content":"\u0026ldquo;The recent CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it initially appeared, according to newly unearthed evidence. That evidence shows that the CCleaner malware infected at least 20 computers from a carefully selected list of high-profile technology companies with a mysterious payload. (credit: Talos ) Previously, researchers found no evidence that any of the computers infected by the booby-trapped version of the widely used CCleaner utility had received a second-stage payload the backdoor was capable of delivering.\u0026rdquo;\nSource: CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared\nYikes!\nSource papers for people who actually want to read about it:\nhttp://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/09/avast-distributes-malware.html http://blog.talosintelligence.com/2017/09/ccleaner-c2-concern.html ","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/04/ccleaner-malware-outbreak-is-much-worse-than-it-first-appeared/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;The recent CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it initially appeared, according to newly unearthed evidence. That evidence shows that the CCleaner malware infected at least 20 computers from a carefully selected list of high-profile technology companies with a mysterious payload. (credit: Talos ) Previously, researchers found no evidence that any of the computers infected by the booby-trapped version of the widely used CCleaner utility had received a second-stage payload the backdoor was capable of delivering.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared"},{"content":"Really interesting video on the history of the LED, and the blue LED.\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/04/the-story-of-blue-leds/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eReally interesting video on the history of the LED, and the blue LED.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden;\"\u003e\n\t\t\t\u003ciframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen\" loading=\"eager\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/yoTALRhAqWc?autoplay=0\u0026amp;controls=1\u0026amp;end=0\u0026amp;loop=0\u0026amp;mute=0\u0026amp;start=0\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border:0;\" title=\"YouTube video\"\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e\n\t\t\u003c/div\u003e","title":"The Story of Blue LEDs"},{"content":"\u0026ldquo;The implication is that people with depression (or likely to have depression) generally have a \u0026ldquo;greater empathic concern for others,\u0026rdquo; in the words of Megan Speer and Mauricio Delgado, psychology researchers from Rutgers University, who penned a related commentary accompanying the study. People with depression just feel bad when others get a shit deal.\u0026rdquo;\nWhile the outcome seems convenient for me to say \u0026ldquo;oh wow I just care _so_ much\u0026rdquo; and that\u0026rsquo;s why I struggle with depression/anxiety - still interesting thoughts.\nSource: Unselfish People Are More Likely to Wind Up With Depression\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/03/unselfish-people-are-more-likely-to-wind-up-with-depression/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;The implication is that people with depression (or likely to have depression) generally have a \u0026ldquo;greater empathic concern for others,\u0026rdquo; in the words of Megan Speer and Mauricio Delgado, psychology researchers from Rutgers University, who penned a related commentary accompanying the study. People with depression just feel bad when others get a shit deal.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile the outcome seems convenient for me to say \u0026ldquo;oh wow I just care _so_ much\u0026rdquo; and that\u0026rsquo;s why I struggle with depression/anxiety - still interesting thoughts.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Unselfish People Are More Likely to Wind Up With Depression"},{"content":"“Coming off this monumental victory, we are proud to announce our next project is a Shadow the Hedgehog trilogy that features open world gameplay alongside third person shooter elements,” said project lead Takashi Lizuka to a smattering of confused applause. “It will feature a zombie mode and will be entirely motion-controlled.”\nLOVE IT! Yet another company that can\u0026rsquo;t seem to get out of it\u0026rsquo;s own way LOL\nSource: SEGA Announces It Learned Absolutely Nothing From Sonic Mania Success\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/10/03/satire-sega-announces-it-learned-absolutely-nothing-from-sonic-mania-success/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e“Coming off this monumental victory, we are proud to announce our next project is a Shadow the Hedgehog trilogy that features open world gameplay alongside third person shooter elements,” said project lead Takashi Lizuka to a smattering of confused applause. “It will feature a zombie mode and will be entirely motion-controlled.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLOVE IT! Yet another company that can\u0026rsquo;t seem to get out of it\u0026rsquo;s own way LOL\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: \u003ca href=\"http://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/sega-announces-learned-absolutely-nothing-sonic-mania-success/\"\u003eSEGA Announces It Learned Absolutely Nothing From Sonic Mania Success\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"[SATIRE] SEGA Announces It Learned Absolutely Nothing From Sonic Mania Success"},{"content":" In the 1850\u0026rsquo;s, the naturalist Henry Walter Bates found a certain set of butterflies who were clearly not of the same species but whose wings looked almost the same to the naked eye. After thinking it over, Bates eventually figured out what was going on: While the butterflies which were toxic to potential predators (the “models”) were able to operate freely and relatively unmolested, there had also developed a “mimic” population of butterflies which wasn\u0026rsquo;t toxic at all, yet still went untouched!\nSource: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2016/12/batesian-mimicry/\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/09/20/36/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1850\u0026rsquo;s, the naturalist \u003cstrong\u003eHenry Walter Bates\u003c/strong\u003e found a certain set of butterflies who were clearly \u003cem\u003enot\u003c/em\u003e of the same species but whose wings looked almost the same to the naked eye. After thinking it over, Bates eventually figured out what was going on: While the butterflies which were toxic to potential predators (the “models”) were able to operate freely and relatively unmolested, there had also developed a “mimic” population of butterflies which wasn\u0026rsquo;t toxic at all, yet still went untouched!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Batesian Mimicry - Nature is awesome"},{"content":"Resonated with me - very cute :)\nSource: https://www.behance.net/gallery/56438245/Parenting-Guide-for-the-Washington-Post\nFrom: http://abduzeedo.com/node/84074\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/09/19/interesting-artwork-families/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eResonated with me - very cute :)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/a34f7d56438245.59aecc95b0ad4.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/a3cdd256438245.59aecc95b1469.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSource: https://www.behance.net/gallery/56438245/Parenting-Guide-for-the-Washington-Post\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom: http://abduzeedo.com/node/84074\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Interesting Artwork - Families"},{"content":"Lots of interesting talk about the fundamentals of a secure system and it\u0026rsquo;s applications to computers.\nQuote I liked (empahasis mine):\nThe most basic security antipattern is to \u0026ldquo;do nothing\u0026rdquo;. That means accepting any and all risk, though. Another is to \u0026ldquo;do it yourself\u0026rdquo;; that leads to thinking the system is secure because of custom elements, such as non-peer-reviewed cryptography algorithms or implementations and security through obscurity. \u0026ldquo;Hand-rolled\u0026rdquo; security systems have not fared well over the years—developers have learned that implementing stream ciphers, for example, should not be tackled in-house. But there is still a fair amount of security by obscurity, such as \u0026ldquo;super unguessable URLs\u0026rdquo;. If a product becomes successful, which is what you want, the unguessable will become all-too-guessable.\nSource: [$] Antipatterns in IoT security\n","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/09/19/antipatterns-in-iot-security/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLots of interesting talk about the fundamentals of a secure system and it\u0026rsquo;s applications to computers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eQuote I liked (empahasis mine):\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe most basic security antipattern is to \u0026ldquo;do nothing\u0026rdquo;. That means accepting any and all risk, though. Another is to \u0026ldquo;do it yourself\u0026rdquo;; that leads to thinking the system is secure because of custom elements, such as non-peer-reviewed cryptography algorithms or implementations and security through obscurity. \u0026ldquo;Hand-rolled\u0026rdquo; security systems have not fared well over the years—developers have learned that implementing stream ciphers, for example, should not be tackled in-house. But there is still a fair amount of security by obscurity, such as \u0026ldquo;super unguessable URLs\u0026rdquo;. \u003cstrong\u003eIf a product becomes successful, which is what you want, the unguessable will become all-too-guessable.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"[$] Antipatterns in IoT security"},{"content":"This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.\nGoing with the prompt \u0026ndash; the reason I started this site (which is among the many I\u0026rsquo;ve had in the past) is to:\nI do a lot of reading of blogs and other link collectors from a lot of sources and I don\u0026rsquo;t want to spam the hell out of my friends sharing interesting information Have a place to show off and talk about my latest electronics projects Have a place to vent ","permalink":"https://crazypigeon.net/2017/09/18/first-blog-post/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or \u003ca href=\"https://wordpress.com/post\"\u003estart a new post\u003c/a\u003e. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoing with the prompt \u0026ndash; the reason I started this site (which is among the many I\u0026rsquo;ve had in the past) is to:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eI do a lot of reading of blogs and other link collectors from a lot of sources and I don\u0026rsquo;t want to spam the hell out of my friends sharing interesting information\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHave a place to show off and talk about my latest electronics projects\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHave a place to vent\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e","title":"First blog post"}]