Quick Thoughts
Day one of vacation. Hanging out at the pool.
My daughter (ACL repair) and my dad (back surgery) were in physical therapy at the same time this morning. They were both so excited to see each other. It was so sweet.
Two long days to start this week. Productive days, but exhausting.
Working this afternoon from the Ph.D. student suite at the School of Journalism at the University of South Carolina. I don’t work from this office often, but I could get used to this view.
Was the first person in the office this morning. It’s so quiet, but I’ve gotten a lot done.
I was going through my sketchbooks today and realized that I haven’t been sketching lately. Need to get back in the habit.
Trying to add some academic journal RSS feeds to Feedbin. Most of them have feeds, but some of them try to push you to subscribe to an email update.
Went down a rabbit hole and discovered that iron-air batteries are a thing…
Each iron-air battery is about the size of a washer/dryer set and holds 50 iron-air cells, which are then surrounded by an electrolyte (similar to the Duracell in your TV remote). Using a principle called “reverse rusting,” the cells “breathe” in air, which transforms the iron into iron oxide (aka rust) and produces energy. To charge it back up, a current reverses the oxidation and turns the cells back into iron.
“Reverse rusting?” Weird. Interesting implications for power grid management, though.
My daughter is getting playing around with her new MacBook Air. She’s used to her iPhone, and various Chromebooks that she has been given by her school since 6th grade. I’m noticing just how differently we use computers.
Seth Godin with the reminder that you can’t always have the good without the bad.
After watching this week’s Strange New Worlds, I went back and watched Amok Time. They’ve really done a nice job of building a Spock/T’Pring/Chapel backstory that adds depth to The Original Series episode. 🖖
Signed my oldest up for her college move-in time. Now headed to the Apple Store to get her a computer. It’s getting real.
Vampire cat.
I’ve had this small task hovering over my head for about a week. Finally sat down this morning and knocked it out in about 30 minutes. Someday, I’ll learn to just make some time each day to knock out the small stuff.
Insomnia is kicking my ass tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.
According to Facebook Memories, 12 years ago, people were asking me for Google+ invites. Just a reminder that initial hype doesn’t translate into long term success.
Threads arrival shows social media is fragmenting like traditional media did - The Washington Post
Social media has now splintered in the same way the traditional media did, with unclear long-term effects.
Billboard companies always give me PSD (Photoshop) templates and I don’t understand that at all. Who builds billboards in Photoshop?
Predictably, the mass media narrative about Instagram Threads is 100% Twitter vs. Threads and Elon vs. Zuckerberg. Mastodon, Bluesky, ActivityPub and Fediverse only rarely appear in news articles.
Just plotted out a walking loop inside our new office building. It’s too hot right now to walk outside at lunch.
So there are lots of rough edges on Threads, and it’s owned by Meta, which is problematic. But their killer feature is audience. I’ve been in for about 12 hours and I see lots of people I know. Will they stay? No idea. But it’s off to a solid start.
So I got access to Bluesky about 5 minutes after I started a Threads account. Lots to like about both, and I think they could both turn into solid Twitter alternatives. But I’m still happiest here on Micro.Blog.
I don’t know much about how wine is made, but after reading Maggie Harrison’s War on Wine, I’m fascinated with the whole process…
This article on the The Verge about the changing social media environment resonated with me.
You could argue, I suppose, that this is just the natural end of a specific part of the internet. We spent the last two decades answering a question — what would happen if you put everyone on the planet into a room and let them all talk to each other? — and now we’re moving onto the next one. It might be better this way. But the way it has all changed, and the speed with which it has happened, has left an everybody-sized hole in the internet.
My son lost his AirPods a few weeks ago. (These were my first generation AirPods that I replaced when I got AirPods Pro.) Today he found them in their case in a neighbor’s yard. These AirPods have been sitting exposed to extreme heat and rain for 2+ weeks, and guess what? Somehow, they still work.