bolson
@bolson.org
computer wizard. acrobat. better democracy through computer science.
Tower with scenic observation level and telescope dome
if you could have one absolutely ridiculous thing in your house, money is no issue, what would you add?
January 3, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Tower with scenic observation level and telescope dome
The last egg nog of 2025 into the first coffee of 2026
January 2, 2026 at 4:43 PM
The last egg nog of 2025 into the first coffee of 2026
Is this Sanders passing the torch? It could be. I think I hope it is. I hope Mamdani takes it and runs like hell. We'll know in 6-12 months?
“I Will Govern as a Democratic Socialist”: Watch Zohran Mamdani & Bernie Sanders at NYC Inauguration
“I Will Govern as a Democratic Socialist”: Watch Zohran Mamdani & Bernie Sanders at NYC Inauguration
Zohran Mamdani hailed “a new era” for New York on Thursday, promising in his inaugural address to deliver on the ambitious agenda that electrified progressives in the city and saw him defeat the polit...
www.democracynow.org
January 2, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Is this Sanders passing the torch? It could be. I think I hope it is. I hope Mamdani takes it and runs like hell. We'll know in 6-12 months?
Non-traditional sacred text you'd swear in on:
The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
OR
The B5 book with the first page of all the human sacred texts they could find
The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
OR
The B5 book with the first page of all the human sacred texts they could find
Ok, everyone, what book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?
Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.
January 2, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Non-traditional sacred text you'd swear in on:
The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
OR
The B5 book with the first page of all the human sacred texts they could find
The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
OR
The B5 book with the first page of all the human sacred texts they could find
I see outage farming, "famous horrible person said something horrible!"
I've never heard of them. Maybe everyone else should try harder to have also never heard of them
I've never heard of them. Maybe everyone else should try harder to have also never heard of them
January 1, 2026 at 4:10 PM
I see outage farming, "famous horrible person said something horrible!"
I've never heard of them. Maybe everyone else should try harder to have also never heard of them
I've never heard of them. Maybe everyone else should try harder to have also never heard of them
Happy New Year UTC to sysadmins everywhere and people actually in that time zone
January 1, 2026 at 12:11 AM
Happy New Year UTC to sysadmins everywhere and people actually in that time zone
public science and public data is good!
this is three National Weather Service stations near where I am that I scrape to give myself a sense of what the last two weeks of weather has been. I can do this because the data is free
this is three National Weather Service stations near where I am that I scrape to give myself a sense of what the last two weeks of weather has been. I can do this because the data is free
December 31, 2025 at 8:28 PM
public science and public data is good!
this is three National Weather Service stations near where I am that I scrape to give myself a sense of what the last two weeks of weather has been. I can do this because the data is free
this is three National Weather Service stations near where I am that I scrape to give myself a sense of what the last two weeks of weather has been. I can do this because the data is free
weird economies of scale?
1000ft 2-conductor 4-AWG buriable power cable: $1.04/ft
same but 4-conductor, twice as much wire: $1.23/ft
1000ft 2-conductor 4-AWG buriable power cable: $1.04/ft
same but 4-conductor, twice as much wire: $1.23/ft
December 31, 2025 at 8:25 PM
weird economies of scale?
1000ft 2-conductor 4-AWG buriable power cable: $1.04/ft
same but 4-conductor, twice as much wire: $1.23/ft
1000ft 2-conductor 4-AWG buriable power cable: $1.04/ft
same but 4-conductor, twice as much wire: $1.23/ft
we should file a PEP to make the Python standard library `json` do a reasonable encoding of `datetime.datetime` (like Go standard library json does for its standard Time object)
December 31, 2025 at 4:35 PM
we should file a PEP to make the Python standard library `json` do a reasonable encoding of `datetime.datetime` (like Go standard library json does for its standard Time object)
I want to explosively launch some papal documents,
a "canon cannon", as it were
a "canon cannon", as it were
December 30, 2025 at 7:18 PM
I want to explosively launch some papal documents,
a "canon cannon", as it were
a "canon cannon", as it were
I'd rather learn SQL once than learn 10 ORMs
Today I look at the awkward syntax for a query in gorm and think, "I already know how to do this in SQL, this is not better"
ORMs are platform lock-in for your mind
SQL is not good, but somehow ORMs are consistently worse
Today I look at the awkward syntax for a query in gorm and think, "I already know how to do this in SQL, this is not better"
ORMs are platform lock-in for your mind
SQL is not good, but somehow ORMs are consistently worse
December 30, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I'd rather learn SQL once than learn 10 ORMs
Today I look at the awkward syntax for a query in gorm and think, "I already know how to do this in SQL, this is not better"
ORMs are platform lock-in for your mind
SQL is not good, but somehow ORMs are consistently worse
Today I look at the awkward syntax for a query in gorm and think, "I already know how to do this in SQL, this is not better"
ORMs are platform lock-in for your mind
SQL is not good, but somehow ORMs are consistently worse
Wake Up Dead Meme
Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.
December 29, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Wake Up Dead Meme
I have seen this in community theatre. They're not expecting Broadway or Cirque du Soleil, they see something good intimately right there in front of them and it lands as _great_, or at least really good fun
This will forever be my favorite way to explain why I don’t get competitive as an artist.
December 28, 2025 at 11:50 PM
I have seen this in community theatre. They're not expecting Broadway or Cirque du Soleil, they see something good intimately right there in front of them and it lands as _great_, or at least really good fun
keep watching blacksky, the future of bluesky is what's happening over there
December 27, 2025 at 4:25 PM
keep watching blacksky, the future of bluesky is what's happening over there
Space Lasers! Science I missed from September. NASA's space-laser communication system.
A video notes "hundreds of megabits at Mars close range" while the furthest tested signal was further than the furthest Earth-Mars distance.
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-d...
A video notes "hundreds of megabits at Mars close range" while the furthest tested signal was further than the furthest Earth-Mars distance.
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-d...
December 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Space Lasers! Science I missed from September. NASA's space-laser communication system.
A video notes "hundreds of megabits at Mars close range" while the furthest tested signal was further than the furthest Earth-Mars distance.
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-d...
A video notes "hundreds of megabits at Mars close range" while the furthest tested signal was further than the furthest Earth-Mars distance.
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-d...
LLM-bot 4/1 opportunity
Human: hey robot, write this report for me
bot: Sure thing boss, real sexy, just like you asked
Human: what?
Human: hey robot, write this report for me
bot: Sure thing boss, real sexy, just like you asked
Human: what?
December 23, 2025 at 4:37 PM
LLM-bot 4/1 opportunity
Human: hey robot, write this report for me
bot: Sure thing boss, real sexy, just like you asked
Human: what?
Human: hey robot, write this report for me
bot: Sure thing boss, real sexy, just like you asked
Human: what?
stupid managers are measuring AI-adoption-compliance and are not measuring outcomes (does work get done better/faster/cheaper/etc)
December 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
stupid managers are measuring AI-adoption-compliance and are not measuring outcomes (does work get done better/faster/cheaper/etc)
Swayze mashup: Ghost + Dirty Dancing
She runs up for The Lift at the end ... and faceplants on the floor falling right through the ghost.
On second thought let's not go there
She runs up for The Lift at the end ... and faceplants on the floor falling right through the ghost.
On second thought let's not go there
December 22, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Swayze mashup: Ghost + Dirty Dancing
She runs up for The Lift at the end ... and faceplants on the floor falling right through the ghost.
On second thought let's not go there
She runs up for The Lift at the end ... and faceplants on the floor falling right through the ghost.
On second thought let's not go there
Solstice for nerds happened at 2025-12-21 15:03 UTC (10:03 US/Eastern) at the moment in the Earth's orbit where the axis was most nearly aligned with the sun (north pole most away from the sun, south pole most towards it)
aa.usno.navy.mil/calculated/s...
aa.usno.navy.mil/calculated/s...
aa.usno.navy.mil
December 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Solstice for nerds happened at 2025-12-21 15:03 UTC (10:03 US/Eastern) at the moment in the Earth's orbit where the axis was most nearly aligned with the sun (north pole most away from the sun, south pole most towards it)
aa.usno.navy.mil/calculated/s...
aa.usno.navy.mil/calculated/s...
"Too Like The Lightning" has one family business controlling 80% of the global robotaxi market. I thought this was unrealistic, but here's a bunch of Waymo doing stuff they probably won't get properly regulated for, so, sure, whatever. Watch out for the 8th generation of the Waymo family.
At least five FUBARed Waymo robots:
Market & Guerrero, SF
One is a problem, two a mistake, five a major ops screw up. Waymo has never fixed their cascading failure problem. Maybe they don't know how.
Fundamentally unfit for service at scale until they do, IMO.
OP: tiktok.brahmsstan
Market & Guerrero, SF
One is a problem, two a mistake, five a major ops screw up. Waymo has never fixed their cascading failure problem. Maybe they don't know how.
Fundamentally unfit for service at scale until they do, IMO.
OP: tiktok.brahmsstan
December 21, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"Too Like The Lightning" has one family business controlling 80% of the global robotaxi market. I thought this was unrealistic, but here's a bunch of Waymo doing stuff they probably won't get properly regulated for, so, sure, whatever. Watch out for the 8th generation of the Waymo family.
"tournament nexus" came to me from bad auto complete, but maybe someone who does SPORTS could do something with it
December 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
"tournament nexus" came to me from bad auto complete, but maybe someone who does SPORTS could do something with it
Up late thoughts about the sci-fi with the nice utopian setting and the hidden tournament nexus: thanks to Big Data we get great results from relatively few extra-judicial killings!
December 21, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Up late thoughts about the sci-fi with the nice utopian setting and the hidden tournament nexus: thanks to Big Data we get great results from relatively few extra-judicial killings!
favorite spice girl (wrong answers only)
a little girl with blue eyes is wearing a black hood
Alt: Alia from 1980s "Dune" movie
media.tenor.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:57 PM
favorite spice girl (wrong answers only)
half the startups I hear about: how can we do something with AI?
the other half: what can we sell to people doing something with AI?
2% of startups: let's solve a problem relevant to people outside of tech
the other half: what can we sell to people doing something with AI?
2% of startups: let's solve a problem relevant to people outside of tech
December 19, 2025 at 3:50 PM
half the startups I hear about: how can we do something with AI?
the other half: what can we sell to people doing something with AI?
2% of startups: let's solve a problem relevant to people outside of tech
the other half: what can we sell to people doing something with AI?
2% of startups: let's solve a problem relevant to people outside of tech
now if only we had non-public content on bsky I could quit facebook
Facebook is testing a monthly $14.99 subscription, and telling users they need to subscribe if they want to post more than 2 links a month.
techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/f...
techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/f...
Facebook is testing a link-posting limit for professional accounts and pages | TechCrunch
Meta said that the test impacts professional accounts and pages on Facebook.
techcrunch.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:39 PM
now if only we had non-public content on bsky I could quit facebook