Bill Karwin
billkarwin.geek.org
Bill Karwin
@billkarwin.geek.org
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My position on the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) hasn't changed since it was enacted in 2010:

The ACA should be repealed and replaced.

Instead, the US should have single-payer universal health care.
November 10, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Even if they're sued for zero damages, merely requiring them to remove the IP from the OpenAI models will cost them billions. It'd be like asking a metalworker to remove one metal from an alloy. They'd just have to scrap the piece and start over.
November 4, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Setting aside for a moment how ridiculously poor that password choice was. It also makes me SMH that the password — even if it had been a strong one — was documented in plain text *anywhere*.
the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre"

www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...
November 3, 2025 at 10:17 PM
I'm still amused our 2002 Halloween costumes were copied by celebrities Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner. Even the wood paneling in the background!
October 31, 2025 at 5:30 PM
FYI, if you're on a Mac and you find your mouse refuses to highlight text in Microsoft Word or other apps —

Reboot. That's what fixed it for me.
October 28, 2025 at 1:01 AM
I don't know why no one has thought of this before.
October 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The logo graphic for the Governors' Public Health Alliance reminds me of the movie logo for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. This suggests the Public Health Alliance sees themselves as the rebellion, which I think is apt.
October 26, 2025 at 7:05 PM
One year for Halloween I dressed as Aquaman and went to a costume party.

A drunk guy asked, "hey where's your sidekick?"

I said Aqualad is not speaking to me, because I kept calling him "chum."
October 23, 2025 at 2:47 AM
I saw "The Addams Family" musical at the Mountain Community Theater in Ben Lomond, California. A treat!

I saw it elsewhere a few years ago and I thought it was kind of meh, but this performance was way more charming. They nailed the musical numbers, and IMO the cast had better chemistry. Worth it!
Current Show - Mountain Community Theater
May 17 – June 9RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURNBy Gina GionfriddoDirected by Peter Gelblum This biting comedy about feminism, choices, and love was a Pulitzer Prize finalist that the New York Times called "inte...
mctshows.org
October 7, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Bill Karwin
Got my performance review.
September 27, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Rudimentary Microsoft Word to Markdown converter. Developed by me in about an hour using no LLM.
September 27, 2025 at 4:39 PM
subtly downgrade a band

9,800 Maniacs
subtly downgrade a band

u1
subtly downgrade a band

The Velveteen Underground
September 24, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Sunset at Ragged Point, California, 2025-09-18.
September 19, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Pragmatic Bookshelf publishes great books on technology, and this week (Sept 18-20) they're having a 48-hour flash sale.

My book SQL Antipatterns, Volume 1 is among those on sale. Both print and digital edition.

Use promo code "flashsale" for the 40% discount.
SQL Antipatterns, Volume 1
SQL Antipatterns is a short-cut to wisdom, showing you how to avoid easy solutions that don't work, and be a better database developer in any language.
pragprog.com
September 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Robert Redford, 24 years old, guest stars in a Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Treacherous Toupee" (1960).
September 16, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Thinking on 9/11 about the twin towers of the WTC, where the Emerald City scene in "The Wiz" (1978) was filmed.

This musical number is about trends and fashions that change rapidly, and people would rather be seen than have their own values.

This is fitting for social media.
The Wiz 1978 The Color is
YouTube video by Karma X
www.youtube.com
September 12, 2025 at 12:27 AM
People are surprised that Disney tends to ruin things to make money.

Disney was driving lemmings off a cliff to make "White Wilderness" in 1958.
August 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
AI technology will be used to allow evil-doers to escape accountability.

"The computer told us to do it" will be the new version of "I was just following orders."
However evil you think this is, it’s worse:

“The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections.”
Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures
www.nytimes.com
August 29, 2025 at 2:53 AM
I tried to ask a woodworking forum to give me some drilling tips, and they said, "first of all, they're called bits."
August 21, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Theory: During the summer, the marketing for OpenAI and other AI corps slowed down as people went on holiday.

Posts about LLM failures got more attention b/c they weren't drowned out by relentless guerilla marketing.

I expect the news to make ChatGPT 5 sound a lot more successful in September.
August 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Thinking about what is the proper past tense of "slay" in this context.

Past tense of slay as in kill should be "slew," but for slay as in succeed it's "slayed."

If one succeeds by killing performance overhead, which is it?
Just slayed the API endpoint performance for flipper cloud. Added memcached around the adapter used to deliver gate data.

Should save me $2-3k/month.
July 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
TIL the genus for poison oak is "toxicodendron."

That's what I'm going to call that plant from now on.
June 30, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Bill Karwin
It’s good to see me, isn’t it? 💜✨

Yes, yes, the rumors are true — we are OFFICIALLY launching here on Bluesky!

In case you forgot, we’re a place to buy books online where every purchase supports local bookstores, not billionaires.

Thanks for being here 🙌🏽
June 2, 2025 at 5:12 PM
The thing I liked about coding from childhood is that once you had a computer, you could write as much code as you want. There were no ongoing costs for materials, or tickets, or memberships.

With imagination and a bit of time, you could create a world.

Well, those days are apparently over.
An interesting problem of AI coding: "You have run out of tokens for this month. Upgrade your account to access more tokens."

I ran out of coins to feed the machine while it was in the middle of a task; it left me with unfinished work and an inoperable side-project.
June 2, 2025 at 2:08 PM
What's up with the popularity of baby named derived from "Oak"? Why not other trees?

Ash, Willow, Myrtle, or Cherry have been used as names.

I can understand why one wouldn't name a baby Walnut, Dogwood, Hemlock, Locust, or Birch. 😬

How about Cedar? Hickory? Elm? Hawthorn?
Oaklee, Oakley, Oakleigh: Parents branch out to oak-based names, especially in red states
Olivia and Liam are the most popular baby names now, but Social Security Administration data shows oak-based names are gaining popularity, particularly in conservative parts of the country.
www.npr.org
May 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM