Some local reaction to DeSantis's effort to line the pockets of hoteliers, vendors, developers and all the other members of the donor class.
Florida. Owned and operated by the Republican Party for more than a generation.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:41 Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Florida.
Once again, if you're considering moving to Florida, think twice.
Better yet, just don't.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:37 Wednesday, 28 August 2024
I regret ever being on Facebook.
So I guess that makes us even.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:32 Wednesday, 28 August 2024
Rented and watched Greedy People last night. It felt like a mash-up the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino. Also felt like it was trying too hard. Pretty dark, mildly funny, no characters you'll get emotionally invested in.
An absurd morality tale with a few laughs.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:30 Tuesday, 27 August 2024
Kudos to the NSA, the NARA and Michael Ravnitzky for making RADM Grace Hopper's 1982 lecture at the NSA publicly available.
I watched both parts this morning and found them fascinating. If you're interested in computing history, the ability to foresee the effects of technology, the blind spots of human nature, and the particular genius of Grace Hopper, it's well worth your time.
In the latter part of the second video, Hopper talks about very bright young people coming out of rural schools all over the country. Places where she said there were still "good schools." I didn't know what to make of the comment, but it felt problematic. Especially since one of her FBI security anecdotes involved city kids.
But it did call to mind something I'd read from Kevin Drum the other day. Kevin Drum was one of the first people, if not the first, to point out the correlation between the presence of lead in gasoline and crime rates. In 1982, the transition from leaded gasoline to unleaded was not yet complete. I don't know if anyone has looked at standardized test scores of urban students to see if the follow the same curve with respect to the introduction and eventual withdrawal of lead in gasoline.
It's a rabbit hole I'm disinclined to go down, simply because there are too many holes competing for my attention. But Hopper's remark did call Drum's post to mind.
Speaking of retro, I managed to get the //c to boot into a 32MB HD partition on the micro-SD card. I had to switch the Floppy Emu back to being an external drive; in the internal configuration, which allows booting 5.25" floppy disk images, the Smartport can't boot an external HD image.
The HD partition contained a large number of arcade games that had been cracked and turned into applications that could be launched from ProDOS. Not all of them work as advertised, though it's not clear to me why. But enough did work to provide some amusement. I played several rounds of Night Crawler, a Centipede clone that I enjoyed back in the day. You can try it here if you like. (Read the menu carefully. Press "R" for "Run," and "E" for Night Crawler. It's hard.)
I've got a version of President Elect 1988 that boots, I found the manual at the Internet Archive. I plan to give that a try. I never played it back in the day. I was married then, with a family and my then wife didn't share my enthusiasm for computer games.
The ROMxc arrived, but I'm going to wait to install it until I have a hardcopy of the Apple //c hardware reference manual, which should be here next week sometime.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:29 Tuesday, 27 August 2024
Overslept this morning, so I didn't walk. I did go outside and do some yard work for Mitzi. "Yard work," isn't normally in my job description. Part of our agreement when we sold the condo and bought this place was that I wouldn't be responsible for "yard work." But this gave me an opportunity to try the new Makita reciprocating saw I bought.
Took down a bunch of shoots and limbs that were overhanging the backyard from the preserve. They were also beginning to host vines and obscuring our view back into the swamp. ("Preserve" sounds so much more upscale, don't you think?) Today is the day the county picks up yard waste, so it was a good time to get it done. Saw worked great, but I don't have much experience with reciprocating saws so I can't compare it with anything.
Since I was outside and already sweaty, and since I'd started this particular task yesterday, I spent the other part of the morning pulling up these tiny nuisance weeds that grow in between the pavers on the back patio. They'd really gotten out of control after we'd been gone for a month. It was relatively pleasant yesterday afternoon, so I sat outside and started pulling them. A smarter person would use some kind of herbicide, or vinegar or something. The tips of my thumbs and forefingers and pretty raw now, but the patio looks nice.
Our trailer of stuff is now in Georgia, and the AirTag concurs with the shipper's reported location. It's amazing to me how those AirTags work. It's in a plastic toolbox, surrounded by, you know, tools, inside a semi-trailer, parked at a warehouse. How the hell does enough rf get out of there to allow itself to be tracked? Pure frickin' magic.
Been watching Bad Monkey on Apple TV+ and it's pretty entertaining. South Florida is very different from northeast Florida. We're more like southeast Georgia than Miami or even Orlando. Vince Vaughn is good in this. I can usually take him or leave him, sometimes I find him annoying though he has played some memorable roles. He's looking older now, and that just makes me feel older too. The clock keeps ticking.
It looks like Ron DeSantis's star is in decline. A lot of his endorsed candidates lost in the August primaries. Primaries are important in Florida because we believe in sort of a bastardized version of democracy. In a gerrymandered district, only one party will win in the general, so the primary is where the actual winner is decided. We don't have open primaries here. If no candidate files for the general election outside the Republican Party, then it's theoretically an "open" primary. But they always find a tool to file as a "write-in" candidate, which doesn't cost the candidate any money or require them to file any paperwork, but it has the effect of closing the primary to non-party members, because we can vote for the write-in candidate in the general!
Right now, school board seats are non-partisan elections, and those elections are held as part of the primary. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the two highest vote-getters will move on to the general election, where the winner will be decided. Florida Republicans want to make school board elections partisan elections, so they can be decided by Republicans in the primaries, disenfranchising all non-Republicans.
Fuckers.
This is a horrible state. It really is. An absolutely horrible state.
DeSantis's Department of Environmental Protection announced this plan to build hotels, golf courses, pickle-ball courts and frisbee golf courses in some state parks, including our local Anastasia Island state park. The idea has been condemned and ridiculed and it looks like it's going to crawl back under the rock where it came from. Apparently they can't read the room.
Apparently, we've got money to do that, but we can't afford to expand Medicaid.
It's a horrible state. It's cruel and mismanaged and corrupt.
But hey, we're the third largest state in the country! So we got that goin' for us.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:48 Monday, 26 August 2024
Yesterday, I installed the internal/external drive switch for the Floppy Emu in the Apple //c. The video RCA cable arrived. The connectors are loose, but they work. I'm displeased, but dealing with it, as one does. When I move the //c around on my lap, I can lose the connection to the TV, but a touch brings it back.
All is not well just yet. I have no 5.25" floppies on hand. I've rectified that, but they won't be here for a while. I can switch the Floppy Emu to be the internal drive and boot from that, and I've played Frogger with it and enjoyed it. Choplifter requires a joystick. I've also rectified that, but it won't be here for a while.
But what I wanted to do was install my ABIDE system onto the micro-SD card in the Floppy Emu. Alas, I configured ABIDE (Apple/Beagle Integrated Development Environment) for my Virtual //e, which is much more robust in its hardware configuration than my stock //c. So I'll spend some time this morning in Virtual II setting up a single drive configuration.
ABIDE includes ProDOS BASIC.SYSTEM, so I can talk to the OS from BASIC, Program Writer from Alan Bird for editing Applesoft programs, Beagle Compiler for compiling those programs, and a bunch of utilities for debugging. That all fits on two drives with room for some programming projects, and I would typically move much of it to the RAM drive in the Virtual //e. To be perfectly frank, I configured the Virtual //e with a hard drive that I boot from, so I don't really need the floppies at all; but I'd set up the floppy configuration back when I had an actual Apple //e and needed to make some actual disks. I figured I'd use that with the //c, but with no physical media, I'm still effectively a 1-drive system. So I need to split the thing up across a couple of disks with the editor and debugging utilities on one disk, and the compiler on another.
Write and debug using one disk, then swap to the compiler disk when I want to play with speeding things up. That's not essential, but it was fun to see what kind of speed improvements might be realized.
This will all get much easier once I get some 5.25" disks, then I'll have a 2-drive system. More importantly, I'll be able to boot into ProDOS using the internal floppy, then be able to configure the Floppy Emu into a 32MB SmartPort hard drive.
As it stands right now, it doesn't appear that I can use the 32MB SmartPort HD as a boot drive, or the HD .IMG files on the micro-SD that shipped with the Floppy Emu aren't bootable. It's possible I'm misunderstanding something, but I tried booting into an HD image yesterday with no joy. I think I should be able to mount them from ProDOS, once I get the OS into memory, which, again, requires a floppy.
I'll get ABIDE set up, then do some more digging around to see if I can boot a HD image from the SmartPort. That would be the ideal solution. I've got the ROMxc inbound as well, and that will also afford some non-volatile storage, and it at least seems like, at this moment, that I'll be able to boot into ProDOS from ROM. That should give me access to virtual hard disk in the Floppy Emu and then just run everything from that, no floppies required.
At some point, I'd like to get a //c RAM expansion card, but there doesn't seem to be one actively on the market at the moment. So I'll have to keep an eye out. That'd give me a large RAM disk to use as the working directory, though I think the ROMxc should give me some of those advantages, minus the ability to write.
Anyway, it's fun playing around with this stuff. Chris Aldrich collects typewriters and sometimes posts images of typed cards as blog posts. Maybe I'll take a picture of my TV screen and post that!
The beat goes on...
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:19 Sunday, 25 August 2024
I plugged in the //c and tried the keyboard again. The right arrow key worked for a few dozen characters, then stopped again. So it seemed likely that there was just some gunk in there that still needed to be cleaned out.
Took it back out to the garage and gave it a couple of more squirts, then worked the switch quite a bit. Let it set for a while, as I looked for an RCA cable.
No joy on the cable, but I took the //c back in and hooked it up to the TV. Right arrow key works fine.
Gotta savor the little victories.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:40 Friday, 23 August 2024
I'm sore. No walk this morning. Yesterday was mostly spent getting the stuff going to New York into the trailer. We hired a couple of guys for the big stuff and they were great. They do this all the time, and they were able to get everything packed in "high and tight," since we pay for the amount of space we're using by the foot.
I don't know that everything will survive, but I'm too tired to care. I think it'll be okay, the guys really seemed to know what they were doing.
I stuck an AirTag in my toolbox, even though the company gives you a link to track the trailer. "Trust but verify?"
Of course, this morning Mitzi noticed on the "fine print" that they only deliver on paved roads. I told her that I didn't think that was a problem, the roads are all paved to the house, though the driveway is gravel. It's also pretty long and starts between a lot of vegetation on either side. Hopefully the driver will be able to back into the driveway! Too late to worry about it now.
The Apple //c arrived yesterday. It's in better shape than I anticipated. Some plastic yellowing, but not as much as it seemed in the photos. The right arrow key does not work, as described. I put some DeOxit into the switch, but it didn't seem to fix it. I've ordered a couple of replacements, but I'll play with it again today and see if letting it sit overnight made any difference with the DeOxit.
I opened it up and it was very clean inside, no crumps, dead bugs, etc. And judging by the amount of torque it took to remove the screws, I don't think it's ever been opened before. I could check, but I think the seller was an estate sale vendor, albeit one who knows their way around checking the condition of old computers! I can easily believe this was someone's //c that sat unused in a box for 30 years or more. For the most part, I've been remarkably lucky with Apple II hardware I've purchased on ebay. I only had one really bad IIgs, where the battery had leaked and did a great deal of damage.
I was excited to plug it in and play with it, but discovered my composite video cable is only four feet long! (It's the one currently plugged into the TV, that connects to the HPIL video interface.) I was able to connect it to the computer and check out the video and run the self-test (all good), but there was no way to comfortably situate myself to actually play with it.
And, as these things go, I used to have dozens of those simple RCA cables of varying lengths. Could I find one last night? Do you have to ask?
I had to get a new filter for the BlueAir purifier, so I ordered one and added a 10 foot RCA cable to the order. It'll get here tomorrow.
The Floppy Emu arrived the other day and I put all that together. I've got a ROM modification coming that allows to you upload various ROM files and selecting one to boot into, along with a utility that allows you turn an application into a ROM file, no disk required. Looking forward to playing with that. The USB-C power connector/adapter is here and I'll test that today and see how long I can run the //c from a power bank, no outlet required!
Got up late this morning, but early enough to get a picture of the waning gibbous moon. I don't know about any of my readers, but it never gets old for me. Hope it's so for you too.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:45 Friday, 23 August 2024
It was cool enough this morning (76°F) to have the dew point below the temperature in the house. Very close (74.6°F), but below 75°F. And since I apparently didn't make a "maximum effort" with the sticks this morning, I had the energy and presence of mind to grab the camera and shoot the moon.
We watched First Man the other day, and it was outstanding. I'd never seen it before, though it's been out for a long time now. Among all the chaos of modernity, "the agony and the ecstasy," Apollo 11 remains, to me anyway, a transcendent achievement.
I heard an Eastern Screech-Owl this morning. To my recollection, it's the first time I've ever heard one. It was very close by, and it was very unnerving. I wasn't sure it was a screech-owl, but it was the only thing I could think of that it might be. So I searched for those and listened to the calls. Apparently it's the sound they make defending a nest. Hopefully everything is all right.
Did the sticks, after two days of decent efforts without them. Not as good as last Friday. 16'51" pace, vs. 16'19" on Friday. Average HR was 135bpm vs. 142bpm. No time in Zone 5. I felt like I was pushing, but maybe not. I was also thinking a lot, and the sticks seem to require some focus or concentration.
Still, a better workout than without them.
Anyway, good seeing in this humid air. Jupiter and Mars are going their separate ways. Only saw one other person and two cars. Only one mosquito bite too.
I'll take it.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:12 Wednesday, 21 August 2024
Got a late start this morning. Shot this with my iPhone, because I thought it looked cool and "the best camera is the one you have with you."
The house is a bit of a mess as we gather stuff to take to New York. The moving truck (It's a trailer, actually.) is supposed to be dropped off tomorrow and picked up Friday. I'm planning to pack a few cameras and lenses and my DJI mini 2 drone. I'm also packing a few radios. One modern one and a few vintage shortwave radios, and a GE Superadio.
I've got two old iPod Hifi speakers, so one of those will be going up, along with an AirPort Express 2 for AirPlay. I bought an Apple TV 4K from the veterans' store, there were no refurbs in stock. I considered getting a pair of white HomePods (black wasn't in stock as refurbs), but they're still pricey even as refurbs from the veterans' store. Next summer when we're up there for a few months or more may be a better time for that.
I bought three Rigid toolboxes from Home Depot, again with the veteran's discount. They stack together and have a wheeled dolly to move them around. I packed most of my cordless tools, along with the usual assortment of hand tools, nearly all of which are duplicates already. I had a couple of Craftsman dog-bone socket wrenches. I don't know how good they are, but they'll do for now, since I didn't have two socket sets.
I think it's likely that I'll actually get more use from the power tools up there, where I have an unfinished garage (though the interior is finished in unpainted OSB) where I can play around with making a workbench and such.
There's a sales tax holiday in Florida for tools the first week in September, so I'll at least replace the drill and driver, which are the two tools I use most often.
Anyway, by the time we're done up there next month, we should be able to just fall in on the place without packing a lot of stuff. And Mitzi's daughter and son-in-law in DC will be able to go up and use the place and be comfortable, if they want to.
In other news, I saw this piece in the Post this morning, and now I've pre-ordered a Swytch e-bike kit for my 2021 Priority Classic Plus. To kind of ensure compatibility, they invite you to take a photo of your bike and upload it for review. The response indicated that it was compatible, and they have had successful conversions with the Priority Classic Plus (2021).
There are two reasons why I don't like riding my bike, wind and heat. Since Florida is flat, I figure the modest pedal-assist from the 250W hub motor will make it much more pleasant to ride into the wind, or when it's stupid hot out. Evaporative cooling is much more effective with a relative wind and you're not exerting yourself so much.
I didn't opt for the throttle switch, but I've just put a deposit down. They'll notify me when I have to pay the balance, sometime in October, and I'll be able to make any changes at that point. I did opt for the little display, which allows you to vary the amount of assistance, and the middle-capacity battery for some decent range, in case I get ambitious. Not super-inexpensive, but less expensive than a new e-bike.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:25 Tuesday, 20 August 2024
This morning's history lesson from Heather Cox Richardson.
Left to right: Laura Cornelius Kellogg, Harriet Tubman, Martha Coffin Wright and Sojourner Truth, in Seneca Falls, NY.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:46 Monday, 19 August 2024
Coming back from some errands this afternoon, we saw the St Johns County Fire and Rescue ambulance leaving our street. Mitzi wondered who it came for. It prompted this bit of inspiration...
"Therefore, send not to know for whom the bus rolls. It rolls for thee."
G'night moon.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 21:48 Sunday, 18 August 2024
I have a Work focus setting on my iPhone, even though I'm retired. I suppose I could name it anything, haven't looked into it enough. But it only allows calls from my family and people I know or expect to call for some reason.
My phone usually shows a few missed calls every day, many of which are marked "Scam Likely." Seldom do any of them have an accompanying voicemail.
Yesterday, I happened to notice one as it came in from an 800 number, and I saw the word "Citibank" on the caller ID. I'd recently read about a massive data breach, so maybe that's what prompted me to pick up.
I got a pitch from someone claiming to be from Citibank Retail Services, asking if I was making a >$2K purchase at Home Depot and opening a new Home Depot credit account. Primed by the data breach report, I immediately bought into the narrative that someone was trying to use my personal information to open a Home Depot account and buy something online.
At one point, it felt sketchy and I said that to the guy on the phone. He said "I'm not going to ask you for any personal information." He said, "Please stay with me while I cancel this transaction."
That should have been my clue.
He'd placed me on hold while he was supposedly "waiting for my system to update," and then the call disconnected.
I was still kind of believing him, so when he called back, I picked up.
What finally tripped them up was a pin he said he was going to text me. That definitely set off red flags, but I was still kind of on the hook. We had some patter about a credit freeze and that I could go to creditkarma.com to do that, which I'd never heard of. But he was being very friendly the whole time, repeatedly thanking me for being so patient with him.
So when the "pin" (It's a verification code.) arrived, it was from Citibank and it said "We'll NEVER call or text for this code."
At one point earlier in the conversation, to address my skepticism, he said I could speak to his supervisor. When I read the text, I was certain it was a scam, but I wanted to see how good it was. I asked to speak to his "supervisor." Another guy comes on the line with a pretty good line, "So-and-so, Citibank Retail Services, floor supervisor, how may I help you?"
Unfortunately for him, that was all he was good at. He fumbled around when I asked him about the "We'll NEVER call or text for this code." I wasn't going to give them the verification code anyway, but I wanted to see how sophisticated they were. Pretty thin by that point.
I hung up.
So, they were able to put "Citibankonline" in the Caller ID somehow. The main guy was pretty smooth. I was "primed" by the news report of the massive data breach, and I almost bought it. The only thing that really saved me was the warning on the verification code. When he told me he was going to text me a code, I asked him why I had to receive a code to cancel a transaction that I never initiated. Couldn't he just cancel the whole thing at his end as a fraudulent application? He had a response that wasn't convincing, and the red flag was waving like crazy. I can't say for certain what I might have done, had that warning not been in the text.
So, I guess the lesson is, pay attention to the red flags, or your "gut" telling you something is wrong. And be sure to read the content of the text before you do anything.
I should have never picked up. That "Citibankonline" took me in, as stupid as that looks now.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:14 Sunday, 18 August 2024
After waxing rhapsodic about the Apple //c, I went looking on the auction site, just to see what they were going for these days.
For those just tuning in, for a few years, about 2014 to 2019, I was into Apple II retro-computing. I spent a small fortune buying hardware and software, enough ultimately to entirely fill a Ford Explorer, leaving only room for the driver. We were moving into this place, and I didn't have any space for all the stuff I had. So I gave it all away to the first guy on Facebook who could show up to collect it. (I got a little grief from one guy because I hadn't thought of "the community" and given more people a chance.)
I kept a lot of the books, because I planned to keep playing with an emulator.
Later, I got into collecting calculators, because they're smaller. So I'm surrounded by calculators now. Mostly HP, mostly vintage, but some new ones and re-creations. A few TI models and Casios. But I also enjoy messing around with Applesoft in an emulator (Virtual II).
There are some reasonable prices if you just want the computer and power supply. The A2S4000 is the original model, I was looking for a later one, the A2S4100 with the Alps keyboard and a memory expansion port. I found one.
I don't want to get back into the 5.25" floppy business anymore, so I needed some sort of mass storage. Big Mess O'Wires' Floppy Emu is the solution. This will be my second. (Gave away the first one.)
I also got a USB-C adapter for the power port and I can run the thing off a USB power adapter and not have to screw with the brick.
The //c is a good choice because it's small enough to sit on my little lap desk when I'm in the recliner. I have a composite video port on my 32" TCL TV. Right now it's hooked to the HP 82163A HP-IL Video Interface. (Basically a little bit of RAM and a video generator that'll display 24 rows of 32 characters. Don't quote me on that, I could be off a bit.) That's hooked to an HP-75C computer that I dusted off yesterday. Batteries were still good!
Something about fools and their money...
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:01 Saturday, 17 August 2024
Skipped the walk this morning and took the kayak down to the river. Coming off high tide, so we had plenty of water. The Tolomato is pretty much a tidal river, current depends on the tide. Temperature and humidity were much improved over yesterday.
Beautiful morning. I took the little Olympus Tough TG-6 with me, because I didn't know how much water would get in the kayak. Turns out it's not a lot, but I'll probably still have to do something to keep a bigger camera dry.
We paddled north a little bit, and into some grasses. Didn't want to go too far into them, because I was afraid they'd turn into a maze and we'd have trouble finding our way back out. Boat handled pretty well. I don't have a lot of experience to compare it with, but it felt no different than any other kayak I'd been in. Mitzi liked it.
We decided to head back after about 20 minutes paddling around. We weren't necessarily planning on getting out, but we wanted to be nearer to where we put in. We were pretty close to the shore and the grass, and I'd just pointed out some foam on the bank near the launch point when I heard a loud splash to my right and turned in time to see a large hump of water heading for the kayak.
It moved incredibly fast and went right under the kayak and lifted us as it did so. My first thought was a gator, but it didn't turn around. It surprised the hell out of us, and we decided that was just about enough excitement for our first time.
After we'd landed, we met an older gent named Tom who was unfolding an Oru kayak, getting ready to get on the water. I described what had happened and he said we'd startled a manatee, which made a lot of sense. The sound I heard was the slap of the tail. I didn't know they could move that fast, and Tom assured me they could.
Learned a little bit about inflating the boat. I think I'll get one of those gardener's knee pads and throw that in the bag. Bending at the waste to use the electric pump was hard on my back. The electric pump won't put out enough pressure to get the two cells of the hull to the proper inflation, so I finished using the foot pump.
I realized I'd read the little transparent ruler inflation gauge incorrectly when I test inflated it in the garage; and rather than over-inflating it, I'd under-inflated it. Today it was correctly inflated, and it's pretty rigid.
The seats are very comfortable, though I think I may have put the forward seat too far back. My legs were pretty tight. If I go by myself, it'll be fine.
We'll keep an eye on the tide next week and try it again. Weekends are too busy on the river, too much traffic going too fast. So far, I think it's a winner. I'm thinking about buying another one and leaving it up in New York so we can go out on a lake. We'll see.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:52 Friday, 16 August 2024
Kansasfest is a gathering of Apple II fans that's been going on for decades. I attended the one in 2017, which was a bucket-list item for me. It was everything I'd expected/hoped it would be. I haven't been since then, but I follow the virtual ones and watch the videos as they're made available.
This year's event wasn't in Kansas anymore, but that's another story. The keynote speaker was Rob Gemmell, the initial designer of the Apple //c. If you're into retro-computing, the Apple II, Steve Jobs or industrial design, it's worth seeing his presentation.
The years 1983-1987 were perhaps the peak years for my computer enthusiasm. I think the Apple //c, in many ways, represents the pinnacle achievement for the Apple II. And I did own a IIgs and that was our primary "family" computer until 1995, when we got our first Mac, the Performa 6200CD.
That was probably the second "peak" in terms of my interest/enthusiasm for computing, inasmuch as it was my introduction to photo-realistic, high resolution graphics. I couldn't/didn't do much more with the Mac than I did with the II series, but it looked a lot cooler. The on-screen, and printed output that is.
In terms of software, AppleWorks and ThinkTank (outliner) were the applications that really made me excited about computing. Fontrix, which used the 5.25" floppy drive as a form of virtual graphics memory so you could create full-page graphics with an Apple II was also a piece of software I truly loved. PublishIt! 3.0 brought desktop publishing to the Apple II, but I only used that when I was doing the newsletter for our user group, the Tidewater Apple Worms (groan).
When we got onto the Mac, there was a version of AppleWorks for the Mac and we were very productive with that. It wasn't exciting, but I could get stuff done. The piece of software that I recall that most excited me on the Mac was originally released as Arrange by Common Knowledge. It was kind of an object-oriented database with an outliner interface. I couldn't afford it when it first came on the market, I think it sold for $495 on release. But it didn't gain a lot of attraction and was later sold to another company who released it as WebArranger, as kind of a bookmark manager, PIM, note-taking app. That's when I got it.
But it failed to make the transition to OS X. Tinderbox then became the application that sort of defined what "personal computing," meant to me. But for many years, it remained kind of opaque. It's only been in the last few years, since I've been attending the Zoom meetups that I've developed any real facility with the application.
But in terms of having fond memories, or being able to recall genuine feelings of excitement and enthusiasm, it was the Apple //e and //c that were really the machines that I was genuinely passionate about. Nothing has exceeded the experience of those early years.
Today, I'm much more cynical and disappointed with information technology. Far from empowering individuals, it's become a tool for corporations and authoritarian states. Corporations for profits, and authoritarian states for control and chaos.
Apple used to be somewhat admirable as a company. Now it's just another corporate shareholder enrichment factory.
Anyway, I enjoyed listening to Rob Gemmell's recollection of the origins of the //c. There's an entertaining Steve Jobs story in there you probably haven't heard before.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:34 Thursday, 15 August 2024
Used the sticks this morning. On the road at 0507, usual 5K route. Best walking (trekking) pace to date, 16'19"/mi, negative splits until the final quarter mile. Average heart rate was 142bpm, 502 calories expended.
Looking at the heart rate zones, the Fitness app reports I spent 19'46" in Zone 5 (152+bpm). Technically, I think "Zone 5" is supposed to be a level of effort you can only sustain for a very short period, not minutes. I think my maximum heart rate is above whatever iOS thinks it is. They seem to be using 220 minus my age (67). Ten or fifteen years ago I could hit 180-190bpm. My max is probably somewhere closer to 170 these days. 78°F, 94% humidity, shirt was soaked when I got home.
I didn't feel uncomfortable in terms of effort. My left calf and right arm itched because I think I got bit a couple of times on the walk. I knew I was pushing, but I wasn't at the very top end.
Part of it is getting better with the poles. I think I need to split these poles out into a left one and right one, and adjust the boot of the left pole. When they land squarely, there is no mechanical vibration or metallic rattle. With the pole in my left hand, I'll often hear and feel the vibration. I can move my hand a bit to get it to strike squarely, but in its natural position, I get more vibration. The boots are configured identically on both poles.
Only encountered one person and no cars. Clear sky, many stars, Jupiter and Mars still near conjunction.
So I guess I'll mix it up and use the sticks one day, the daypack and weight another day, just walking on other days. I haven't combined the daypack and the sticks yet. Variety, spice of life, something like that.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:27 Thursday, 15 August 2024
Walked sans sticks this a.m. No pack. Out before 0500, encountered one walker, one bicyclist and two or three cars. Not bad.
Jupiter and Mars were very close together. Left the E-M1 Mk3 outside on the pavers behind a column to warm up while I was walking because the dew point was above the temperature outside. Update: Er, inside I mean. The camera was at 75°F, and the dew point was at 78°F, so fog-city on the glass. (Also, avoid zooming a a zoom lens until it's at ambient temperature. No need to suck saturated air into the lens.)
It was 80°F, 94% humidity. "Feels like" 88°F.
But I swung my arms and sweated. 16'48" pace. Couple of mosquito bites.
Got home and tried to use the camera to snap Jupiter and Mars. Too tired, sweaty and hot to be patient. Mental snapshot will have to do.
The Fluke IR thermometer was still on my desk. Out of curiosity, I went out and checked the road. 90°F surface temperature a little before 0600.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:48 Wednesday, 14 August 2024
We watched Downsizing the night before last. I loved the movie very much. I need to watch it again, because there's a scene I want to recall more clearly, having to do with Ngoc Lan Tran's experience in the TV box, and all the other losses she experienced.
That came to mind listening toward the latter part of this interview.
All personal transformation is a form of loss. It's unsurprising to me now, that loss can prompt it. Initiate it. That hasn't been clear to me before.
"There are no coincidences."
Nick's Red Hand Files, and the letter selected for this interview, also reminded me of the thing Kottke posted almost a month ago.
I have some quibbles, or questions maybe, about the value of hope versus faith. Later, maybe.
Things looked very grim a month ago. From E.B. White's letter:
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly.
Colbert quotes Cohen from Suzanne:
He said all men will be sailors then, until the sea shall free them
"There are no coincidences."
It speaks to us, if we pay attention.
Sometimes, you can feel it.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:40 Wednesday, 14 August 2024
(Not to be confused with 15 Tons.)
"Rucking," is a fitness thing, where people walk or hike with a backpack of some weight. Probably an oversimplification that offends people who actually do it. Anyway, I read a little bit about it and figured I'd try something like it.
One thing I read suggested to start out at 15-20% of your bodyweight. (I gather genuine rucking involves around 40%, something I don't see myself ever attempting.) I went with a bit less than 10% and stuck a 20 pound dumbbell in my little Osprey daypack. Putting it on, I decided, "Oh, hell no!" Switched it out for a 15-pounder and figured I'd give that a try.
I don't know if it was the weight or the density, but I definitely felt it. The daypack has a waist belt, so I had that cinched up tight; and the shoulder straps linked with a "sternum strap," (Are we going for alliteration here? Why isn't it called a "chest strap"? Beats me.) Anyway, the load was secure.
I didn't use the sticks, I figured I'd just try wearing the pack and see how that felt. 78°F and 95% humidity was how it felt. My heart rate wasn't elevated, and my pace was slower, just under 20 minutes a mile. There is no "rucking" workout on the Apple Watch, oddly enough. I didn't think to look for it until after I finished my walk and saw I supposedly burned the same amount of calories I'd have burned without carrying the daypack.
I'd have thought there'd have been one for "rucking," where you enter the weight of your pack at the start of the workout, but no. Doesn't seem that there is.
My usual 5K route has nearly zero elevation gain. There are a couple of spots that go up and down a couple of feet, but it's basically flat. I wore my regular New Balance 608s. ("Dad shoes," Caitie says.) They seemed adequate, though I suspect the insoles will flatten or wear out faster.
Anyway, it was definitely something of a workout. I'll try it with the poles one of these days. I was surprised at how such a small amount of weight seemed to increase the effort, though that was never reflected in my heart rate. I think it might have been of more value doing something like going over and back on the CR 210 bridge, where there's some elevation gain. That would have bumped up the exertion.
I did get a chance to get a good look at Jupiter and Mars, just above Orion, this morning. Mars looked redder than I recall, but maybe that was just because it was so near Jupiter. Cool though.
I don't carry a flashlight or wear a headlamp, but I encounter a few people who do. The things are blinding. I don't know, maybe they're afraid of snakes, or tripping over something, but it always seems to me like there's enough light without one. There are a couple of dark spots between the street lights, but even there you can usually make out the leaves on the sidewalk. I was on the road at 0512 this morning, and still ran into four people!
Checked the tide data for the Tolomato and it's midway on the ebb for the next couple of mornings. It'll still be on the ebb on Friday, but just coming off so there'll be plenty of water. I don't know the area, and I don't want to find myself in some oyster beds with the tide running out. Friday maybe I'll put the kayak in and paddle up the river a little while and let the current help bring me back. Just get the feel of it. We'll see.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:15 Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Say what you will about The Lincoln Project, but I've given them money. I would've left out the "earned" part. You don't "earn" a gift. But otherwise, I love it.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:43 Monday, 12 August 2024
That whole "Let's build a community, but make certain topics off-limits, or behind a content warning" thing is still under my skin.
I thought I dispensed with it when I pointed out the self-aggrandizing delusion that any such thing would be a "community," rather than just a house party where "my house, my rules" was the order of the day.
Because, whether anyone likes it or not, we exist in a community already. And by choosing to not talk about certain topics... POLITICS... we ignore our duty to our community.
Is it comfort or cowardice? Is it fatigue or fear?
Whatever it is, it's only the privileged who can embrace silence.
Anyway, at risk of making someone uncomfortable, Kottke pointed to this piece today, and it's right on point. This whole, "Can't we all just get along?" vibe is an appeal for silence. I struggle with the whole "enemies" idea, because a lot of my neighbors are MAGA Trumpers.
So far, I'm uncertain whether I should be feeling more optimistic because I'm not seeing the usual MAGA indicators, but it may be simply too early. The flags haven't blossomed from the houses. A guy who had his TRUMP/PENCE bumper sticker on the back window of his car until 2023 hasn't replaced it with at TRUMP/VANCE sticker. But the lady who sells MAGA merch at the roundabout on Palm Valley Road was there last weekend, so there's that.
I am encouraged by Kamala Harris' reception, and Tim Walz for just being Tim Walz. And I hope that Trump's age and increasingly incoherent rants are beginning to make some Republicans think twice. They may still vote for him, which is sickening, but maybe they're not so eager to advertise it anymore, given how cruel and unhinged the whole thing is.
Mitzi texted me this video from Bryan Tyler Cohen, interviewing Heather Cox Richardson on Facebook. I was actually able to open it, to dismiss the "login or sign up" barrier, and watch it this morning. It's also right on point.
You can regard the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision as the "Enabling Act" of the Republican Reich. We're this close to becoming an authoritarian state. And I think Richardson is right, that we find ourselves at a place, politically, where most of us don't have the language to talk about it, because it's so far outside the norm of what we're used to. Forget the "Overton window," we just don't know how to talk to fascists because we never expected them to be winning an election in America.
Another reason for the privileged appeal for silence.
Fuck that.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:26 Monday, 12 August 2024
It's the humidity.
AKMA usually offers a daily report on his 2-mile run (Major props!), but what caught my eye today was his comment on the temperature. He called it a "hot morning," at 19°C (which I used Spotlight to tell me was 66°F)!
England's climate and Florida's are vastly different, even in a world that has a new climate everywhere. We all acclimate, to one degree or another (no pun intended), to the prevailing climate where we live. Heat does affect performance, both from the thermodynamic efficiency perspective, and the subjective experience of heat.
I got up this morning at 0515 and checked the temperature, it was 77°F (25°C) but 95% humidity! I was just glad it wasn't 80°F. When you step outside first thing in the morning and it's warmer than it is in the house, it's just depressing. And the humidity just feels like this oppressive blanket weighing on you.
But, I went out with the sticks. I didn't get a good pace going, though I felt like my form was doing better. Mile 3 was my quickest at a 17':33" pace (kicked it up a bit for the last quarter mile to 17':12"). Not my best effort with the sticks, but not my worst either.
I did see a meteor not long after starting out, so that was a bonus.
The sky was looking pretty when I got home, and I often think of putting up the drone to grab a shot; but I'm usually just spent. I take off my shoes, grab a cold drink, plop in my chair in my office, turn on the ceiling fan and read my feed or watch YouTube until I dry out.
I do like using the trekking poles. I can feel it in my arms and my upper body, and I think it helps keep my spine more vertical. It does alter my gait somewhat, and I feel some stiffness in my ankles and the lower parts of my calves I don't normally experience. I still keep a death grip on the handles and I haven't made any progress in trying to relax them.
This is the part of the summer when it's just oppressively hot and humid without relief, even in northeast Florida.
I've got to look at the tides here and figure out a good time to put the new kayak in the water. I'll want to do that early in the morning, because I think that'll be better for seeing birds. I hope to get that accomplished this week.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:36 Monday, 12 August 2024
There are so many wonderful history lessons that Heather Cox Richardson offers in her blog. And she finds the best quotes.
[T]he true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down. It’s based on who you lift up.
Kamala Harris
I love the contrasting parallelism. I did something similar four years ago. "Lock more people up/Lift more people up." They did it with two contrasts "beat/lift," "down/up." I went with only one, but with alliteration!
I think Kamala Harris has a better shot than that Dave Rogers guy did. That is, if the archaic and undemocratic relic, the Electoral College, doesn't bite us in the ass.
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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:45 Monday, 12 August 2024