Cabel Sasser’s Talk at XOXO Festival
🔗 youtu.be • October 14, 2024
I've always been a huge fan of the folks at Panic. Talks like this demonstrate why.
Camera Roll: Supercharger
October 13, 2024
Straight out-of-camera from the Fuji X100VI (because editing photos takes too long). Years into the advent of EVs, and the supercharging experience is still unparalleled.
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Issues With Apple Photos and Fuji X100VI HEIF Images
September 20, 2024
After placing an order in February, and waiting many agonizing months, I got my hands on the Fujifilm X100VI – perhaps the most coveted modern camera (and my first non-Nikon purchase).
One of the enticements of this camera (albeit minor), is its ability to shoot HEIF images out-of-camera, as opposed to standard JPEGs. HEIF is a modern image format (created in 2015), that provides better image compression. JPEG was created before I was born.
I’m a modern man, and a modern man demands modern image formats.
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Iterative Building and Decision Making
🔗 blog.jim-nielsen.com • August 31, 2024
If everyone can see the whole, they won’t ask why it was built a certain way. They’ll see all the ways you built then backtracked, all the ways that didn’t work. And the same obviousness in your decision making that’s clear to you, will be clear and obvious to everyone else.
Self Driving Is All or Nothing
April 6, 2024
The graveyard of self-driving car projects is full, and for good reason. I think the technology must reach near-100% perfection before it can become a part of our day-to-day reality.
Consider Amazon’s recently cancelled "Just Walk Out" technology. Pull back the magic AI curtain, and you’ll find 1,000 workers in India manually verifying shopper’s transactions.
I think their AI technology was stellar. It was probably 99.99% perfect. Yet they had to rely on human labor, because incorrectly billing 0.01% of shoppers is unacceptable. And relying on human labor, well uh... defeats the whole purpose of the technology.
My guess? I think Amazon cancelled the project because 100% was not attainable, at least in the near-term.
I believe the same could be true for self-driving: it’s an all-or-nothing problem. If a company’s self-driving system is 99.99% perfect, it’s halfway there. The last 0.01% is what makes it an extraordinarily challenging problem.
This is my (somewhat uninformed) opinion of course. I still believe it to be a worthwhile problem. I also believe near-100% is attainable, in time. In my time, though? I’m not sure.
Spatial Memories
February 11, 2024
Friday (the 2nd) was launch day for Apple Vision Pro. Two days later, I found myself on a newly-installed L-shaped bench in the Apple Store, sitting next to Nick.
While Nick explained how the demo would work, a different employee silently placed a Vision Pro on wooden platter between us.
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Camera Roll: Christmas
January 8, 2024
Where Cassidy and I spent Christmas. Also, where Cassidy grew up. Taken with my Nikon Z f, on December 28th, 2023.
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Canyon Lake, Texas
November 28, 2023
After a few rolls processed with this new film camera – I’m learning things!
1. People love the look of film!
For me, this photo (of my wife) from our recent trip to Canyon Lake evokes a strong emotional response. I immediately feels like I’m looking at a fond yet distant past, in spite of this occurring just days ago.
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Lyft Conversations: Drunk Whisperer
November 3, 2023
A conversation with my Lyft driver, around 3:45am this morning, paraphrased:
Me: “You out early or late?”
Driver: “Oh I’m out late. I get all the partygoers. Some people don’t like driving the partygoers, but I’m fine with it. I’m the drunk whisperer. 11,000 rides and only two times they’ve puked in my car.
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Derping Around With a Toy Camera
October 31, 2023
My recent YouTube bender, Nick Carver, has sent me on a minor film-photography bout. Watching him scout, compose, and execute a single frame with surgical precision was kindling for me to start derping around with film. (Seriously – this guy will take days, if not weeks going after a single photo!)
As with any addiction, I need to start small. So I bought a Kodak Ektar H35N. This is the first roll of film (Kodak Ultramax 400) I've ever developed on my own! (Excluding a few disposable cameras I had as a child – but I didn't even know they used film.)
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Camera Roll: Balcony
September 22, 2023
Taken on September 14th, 2023.
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The Mystery of the Bloomfield Bridge
🔗 tylervigen.com • September 12, 2023
Almost everything around us is overflowing with history and story, including something as pedestrian as... a pedestrian bridge. I absolutely found myself enthralled in this piece by Tyler Vigen investigating how this oddly-placed piece of infrastructure came into existence!
Here's a PDF of the article for archival purposes.
New Little Guy
September 10, 2023
About one month ago, on August 7th, we appended a new little guy to our life: a dachshund named Picasso! (His larger-than-life name makes us laugh.) This is the first time we (Cassidy and I) have been responsible for any living being on our own.
It's been fun to see our dynamic change as we gradually move from “couple” to “family”. He’s not a child, of course – but when a couple adds a dog to their life, is it appropriate to begin calling them a family? I don't know.
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like a fool i have always forgiven the dc metro system
🔗 visenyaism.tumblr.com • August 19, 2023
I loved riding the DC metro when I lived there – especially its spurious waterfalls.
Ben Thompson's Take on Apple Vision
June 6, 2023
Ben Thompson – a fellow Wisconsinite and among my favorite tech writers – has what I think is a bullish, yet balanced view on Apple Vision.
I agree with Thompson that productivity could be the most compelling use case for the device. A keyboard, mouse, and Apple Vision Pro could make a killer (and much more portable) workstation.
As Apple hones in on the device’s purpose, I wouldn't be surprised to see a “workstation” version of Apple Vision in the future – with external compute for more power (similar to how the battery pack is external on the Vision Pro). I’m not concerned about the optics of wearing a goofy-looking machine on my face (at least in the office), primarily because it’s already absurd that we stare at magic light rectangles all day.
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Camera Roll: Sunlight
March 21, 2023
Just a few photos from the last week – filtered to look more dramatic, of course. While filters may not do a good job of representing reality, they can do a good job representing how the moment felt.
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Gasoline Car Review
🔗 geoff.greer.fm • March 18, 2023
After taking delivery of the car, my first hurdle was getting it to do anything. I opened the door (the handles are very prominent), sat in the driver’s seat, and… nothing happened. No screen showed any messages. The climate control didn’t turn on. The car seemed dead.
20 Things I’ve Learned in my 20 Years as a Software Engineer
🔗 simplethread.com • January 21, 2023
A fantastic list that I keep returning to, over and over.
Austin FC Mural
November 7, 2022
A new mural appeared on the east side of the city – celebrating Austin FC's kickass 2022 season. (I did a double-take when I saw giant Driussi while driving on I-35!)
I captured a few (decent) photos. This is the best I could do without literally removing street signs. Full-res download links are under each image. Feel free to share/post them anywhere!
If anyone is aware of the original artist(s), or the story of how this came to be, I would love to know.
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Lyft Conversations: Chewable Aspirin
November 5, 2022
My Lyft driver, this morning, paraphrased:
“One time I was suspended from Lyft for taking drugs while driving. Can you believe that? It was aspirin! I was taking chewable aspirin gummies. I had the bottle right here in my cupholder.
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