Flutterby™! From 2017-04-04 to 2017-04-28

Internet of Dongs Project: Rebuttal to Pen Test Partners, or why that "OMG, hackers can see the inside of your vagina!!1!" clickbait about the Siime Eye is hogwash.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Net Culture ]

So if ISPs are no longer common carriers, what does this mean for HIPAA and FAXes that might end up on TCP/IP via t.38?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Everything looks better in Lynx. Especially web designer rant blogs.

Letter from 15 senior government officials to Congress about Edicts of Government. (PDF).

And, yes, as someone who's thought at various times "hey, I've got a wood shop, it'd be kinda cool to build some kids toys for local fundraising auctions, I wonder what the rules on that are...", and maybe I'm fine with skirting some of the lab testing rules, but paying a hundred bucks just to be able to read the guidelines on safe toy design? That sucks.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Politics Bay Area moron Graphic Design Woodworking ]

Something I didn't understand back when I trended more economically conservative: Tolerance is not a moral precept. It is a peace treaty.

[ related topics: Ethics ]

More evidence of the evils of asset forfeiture: The IRS took millions from innocent people because of how they managed their bank accounts, inspector general finds

[ related topics: Politics Current Events ]

Because I need a little reminder of traditional squares: Coronet presents American Square Dance (Copyright 1947 by Coronet Instructional Films) (YouTube video)

[ related topics: Movies Copyright/Trademark Video ]

RT Peter Seibel‏ @peterseibel:

OH: the best minds of my generation building object hierarchies to log a fucking line of text to a file

Third place in the Bodega Bay Wooden Boat Challenge, but we did win the Craftsmanship excellence award. The boat technology has caught up with us, and the paddling has gotten more competitive. So next year we do a sailboat.

[ related topics: California Culture Boats Machinery Whitewater ]

False economies-r-us: $mumble in cherry, 4 hours of labor, to make a $7 Ikea wastebasket look good

[ related topics: Photography ]

John Legend sings Gordon Ramsay insults (Twitter video)

[ related topics: Video ]

Parakeets are a threat vector: Talking bird activates Siri on the iPhone by saying "Hey Siri" (YouTube)

[ related topics: Movies Graphics Mathematics Birds iPhone ]

End of road for trucking startup Palleter

An interesting little bit of introspection on why a startup designed to better fill empty space in trucks failed, reasons which I think have implications for other shared transport modes.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Machinery ]

U.S. military drops 22,000-pound bomb on Islamic State forces in Afghanistan.

It wasn't a $314M bomb, Boeing charged $314M to develop and deliver 20 of them.

And the CIA built the bombed compounds for the Mujahideen.

[ related topics: Aviation Current Events ]

As we argue back and forth about United beating passengers, and measuring success in other organizations and circumstances, a passage from Amazon's 2016 letter to shareholders:

As companies get larger and more complex, there’s a tendency to manage to proxies. This comes in many shapes and sizes, and it’s dangerous, subtle, and very Day 2.

A common example is process as proxy. Good process serves you so you can serve customers. But if you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing. This can happen very easily in large organizations. The process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You stop looking at outcomes and just make sure you’re doing the process right. Gulp. It’s not that rare to hear a junior leader defend a bad outcome with something like, “Well, we followed the process.” A more experienced leader will use it as an opportunity to investigate and improve the process. The process is not the thing. It’s always worth asking, do we own the process or does the process own us? In a Day 2 company, you might find it’s the second.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books ]

Using the electric car charger at a VW dealership. The t-shirt selection is pretty dark and metal...

[ related topics: Photography Automobiles Clothing ]

Santa Cruz boardwalk

[ related topics: Photography ]

Seems like a generally applicable caution: "there could be stems in the olallieberry"

[ related topics: Photography ]

Where have all the good men gone And where are all the gods?

[ related topics: Photography hubris ]

Access to Most Effective Birth Control Could Save $12 Billion a Year: Study

In recent decades the U.S. has seen a drop in the rate of unintended pregnancies, thanks in part to women using more effective and long-acting birth control methods, like the IUD or the implant. Still, about half of pregnancies are unintended, and a new report from the nonprofit Child Trends suggests there's a way that could drop even further: if all women in the U.S. had access to the most effective contraceptives. The cost savings from that drop? About $12 billion in public health care costs each year, according to the new analysis.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health Invention and Design ]

Whores of Yore: A history of 'cunt':

But, here is what we do know; it is the oldest word for female genitals in the English language (possibly the oldest in Europe). Its only rival for oldest term for the boy in the boat (1930) would be Yoni (meaning vulva, source or womb). The English language borrowed yoni from ancient Sanskrit around 1800 and today it has been appropriated by various neo-spiritual groups who hope that by calling their duff (1880) a yoni they can avoid the horror of cunt and tap into some ancient veneration of the flapdoodle (1653). Of course, the irony is cunt and yoni may even have sprung from the same Proto-Indo-European root. ...

[ related topics: Religion Boats Machinery ]

We are a household with a Norwalk juicer. This has a grinder, you place a cotton cloth or bag below the grinder portion, then fold it up and put that packet in the hydraulic press portion. So I know from expensive hydraulic press juicers.

This is glorious failure: Bloomberg: Silicon Valley’s $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze.

Google's VC arm funded them for $120M(!). They sell the juicer for somewhere between $1,200 and $400, and then sell pre-packaged bags of chopped veggies with bar codes on them for DRM (and "freshness") purposes for $5-$8 a pop.

Except they won't sell the bags to you unless you've purchased a juicer. And it turns out that you can squeeze out almost as much of the juice from the bags by hand as you can with the juicer. So somehow they managed to get funded doing the exact opposite of the razor blade model.

What really gets me, though, is this idiocy from the founder:

“There are 400 custom parts in here,” Evans told Recode. “There’s a scanner; there’s a microprocessor; there’s a wireless chip, wireless antenna.”

Two things here: First, if the microprocessor, bar code scanner and the internet connectivity are the expensive bits, $400 is way too much. The mechanical parts of this are where it's pricey.

Second: What investor looked at this business model and didn't immediately see that building a whole new fresh vegetable distribution system was the difficult part of this business? Holy crap!

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Wireless Invention and Design Current Events Net Culture ]

Kimchi Cuddles: Good people are still able to do oppressive... (comic)

I think there are two things in here that are worth unpacking.

Listening to Tristan Taormino's Sex Out Loud interview with Kitty Stryker, and, paraphrasing badly, Kitty mentioned wanting to destigmatize sexual assault, that is: Make it easier to admit that we've all crossed consent boundaries, in order to better talk about where those boundaries are. I think we need similar discussions around racism.

Similarly, I was listening to Life on the Swingset #281: Finding and being community role models, and the participants of color were ranting about inclusive spaces and how hard it was to find them. I was thinking about this in the context of starting a square dancing group in Petaluma, and how to make it inclusive, and thinking "okay, so y'all are venting, give me some actionable advice", and then it hit me: It's not about advertising to me and trying to make it non-objectionable enough that everyone feels comfortable there, it's about deliberately calling out the marginalized groups, and saying "You, yes, you, are invited here."

Because when we do bland advertising, we're talking to our own culture, and no others.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Sociology Consumerism and advertising California Culture Pop Culture Community Race ]

This space intentionally made blank

[ related topics: Photography ]

On The Turing Completeness of PowerPoint (SIGBOVIK) (YouTube video)

... It requires asymptotically fewer autoshapes than when implemented in alternative slideshow editors...

Giggle

[ related topics: Humor Movies Video ]

Last night Charlene and I went to the Petaluma Arts Center Idea Lounge with Scott Lowrie and Laura Sunday. Laura is the driving force behind Taste of Petaluma and the Great Petaluma Chili Cook-Off, and attributes her abilities to run those events to discovering roller dancing, 20 years ago, when she was 50.

One of the things she talked about was being the grand dame of roller dancing in Golden Gate Park now, only one regular dancer older than her (85 to her 70), how the activity was being filled by younger dancers. Given that in Modern Western Square Dancing she'd be about mid-range in age, I went up afterwards and asked what she thought was dragging in the kids, and a few notions stuck:

Her first association with square dancing (and most people's) was "well, these are urban kids, they don't go for that kind of music". Good point, we need to work on more modern and relevant music. This is complicated by the issue that MWSD really needs lyric-less music, because we're all about the choreography.

She also commented that in Sundays at Golden Gate Park there are huge swing dancing groups, so it's not like modern music is everything. Though Postmodern Jukebox, The Basement Jaxx, and similar have helped keep the swing music revival going.

She made a comment about breaking traditions, and new paths. As much as I love what CALLERLAB has made square dancing, having standardized calls means that innovation only happens with new calls (choreography has largely been "done", especially as we look at how much of what used to be called back in the '60s and '70s as "bad flow" or worse). So the institutional rigidity has pretty much stopped innovation and adoption from other dance styles.

She also commented, as most people do, "Oh yeah, I did that back in grade school". Which, of course, brought to mind Pappy Shaw's admonition (from the nineteen teens or twenties: "Please do not teach these dances to little children. Grade-school pupils may enjoy them but it will mark the dances forever in your community with the stigma of "kid stuff.""). And is something I need to think about as my club talks about bringing in home school students.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Music Invention and Design Food Bay Area Work, productivity and environment Community ]

Your Brain On Drug Policy | Rachael Leigh Cook (2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKXN6Vdr3g0

[ related topics: Health Movies Food ]

NSA leak includes binaries, thousands of 5kr1pt k1dd13s run them on their machines. #raisedeyebrow https://www.theregister.co.uk/...shadow_brokers/?mt=1492820661008

[ related topics: Microsoft Gambling ]

Artisanal phat beatz

[ related topics: Photography ]

RT Siobhan Thompson‏ @vornietom:

The numbers for the Science March seem high but we won't know until we compare it to the numbers at the placebo march that's also happening

RT Siobhan Thompson‏ @vornietom:

I honestly feel bad for the people on the Placebo March who thought they were at the Science March but double blind testing is important

RT Jeremy Cape‏ @jeremydcape:

There's hardly anyone at the homoeopathy march but they say that's how it works.

RT Allyx Davison‏ @MyNameIsAllyx:

I heard the placebo marchers feel like they're making a difference even after they're told they're at the placebo march

[ related topics: Handicaps & Disabilities ]

Looking all of those pistons! Life- sized Lego car that runs on compressed air (YouTube video)

[ related topics: Movies Lego Mindstorms Automobiles Video ]

Looking all of those pistons! Life- sized Lego car that runs on compressed air (YouTube video)

[ related topics: Movies Lego Mindstorms Automobiles Video ]

Victorian era ivory "lady's companion" (dildo) up for auction

Via

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Art & Culture ]

The random quarter that landed Life magazine in court.

And a good reminder that the forces of "decency", the anti-pornography crusaders and the like, are just anti-feminists in drag.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Currency ]

Introducing the Kitty Hawk Flyer (YouTube)

http://www.kittyhawk.aero

Looks like the first commercially available n-copter I've seen. This one's a recreational fly over water in the ground effect toy, but that looks like up to 20' AGL.

[ related topics: Movies Birds ]

Bowler Ben Ketola sets world record with fastest 300 game (YouTube)

[ related topics: Games Movies ]

How far we've come: "top" is listing the resident RAM usage of my process in fractions of a terabyte.

Ouch. Shadow forwarded along a cycling safety video that was abruptly stunning...

Not sure I totally agree with its statistics, but the end point is the same whether the cyclist fucked up or the driver did.

[ related topics: Mathematics Sports Pedal Power Video Bicycling ]

Given the number of programmers building yet another job search website, there can't be that much of a software developer shortage.

[ related topics: Software Engineering Heinlein ]

Bwahahaha! Driver reveals ONE SIMPLE TRICK to avoid all speeding fines and penalty points:

She said: ‘It’s all down to one simple trick really. I don’t break the fucking speed limit.’

‘If I am on a particular stretch of road, a combination of my knowledge of the Highway Code and local signage will usually tell me the maximum speed at which I can take my vehicle in a forward direction without setting off any speed cameras.’

‘By applying this one life hack to my everyday driving habits, I also manage to not kill anyone or run off whinging to the local press when a pothole ruins my wheel tracking.’

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Current Events ]

Gender and verbs across 100,000 stories: a tidy analysis

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Space & Astronomy Sociology Work, productivity and environment California Culture Pop Culture Community Clothing Race Economics ]

Towards an Understanding of Whether Straight Fanfiction Exists: A Study

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Space & Astronomy Sociology Work, productivity and environment California Culture Pop Culture Community Clothing Race Economics ]

Charlene and I have been mulling around the idea of starting a square dancing group in Petaluma. And, of course, I'm working with the Vallejo Pioneers to try to re-vitalize their club, make it grow again. One of the challenges in square dancing is that it's got this image of old stuffy white people with big floofy skirts or embroidered western shirts, very staid and traditional. It is, or can be, but it can also be so much more.

So I've been thinking a lot about how to market it so we get the vibrant growing bits of comunity.

A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast, I think it was Life on the Swingset #281: Finding and Being Community Role Models, and the non-white cis male contingent went off on a rant about how they were constantly going into spaces and feeling not included. How grateful they were to find other people of color, and how the micro-aggressions of the space meant there was a lot of clustering. And as I was listening to it I kept thinking "okay, I hear your frustration, but tell me what I can do..."

And then the fog cleared and I realized that not making special effort is making a special effort. It's just making a special effort to make the default feel welcome. That if we were going to seek out alternate communities and draw them into square dancing we had to individually market directly to them. It isn't enough to say "this is an inclusive space", we have to be pointing at individuals and say "you, yes, you, and your peers: we want you here."

Another example of that message.

The Status Quo Does Not Need World Building:

It is implied in every detail that is left out as “understood by everyone,” in every action or reaction considered unimportant for whatever reason, in every activity or description ignored because it is seen as not worthy of the doughty thews of real literature.

There are many ways to discuss elaborated world building. This post will focus on material culture and social space.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Space & Astronomy Sociology Work, productivity and environment California Culture Pop Culture Community Clothing Race Economics ]

Math typesetting has gotten sexy!

[ related topics: Photography Mathematics Typography ]

How multi-lane, one-way street design shapes neighbourhood life: collisions, crime and community (PDF)

Our results show that neighbourhoods with one-way multilane streets experience greater abandonment, lower housing values and slower increases in property values. This research supports expanded thinking about one- to two-way street conversion as a method to improve safety, connectivity, community and sustainability.

[ related topics: Graphic Design Community Real Estate ]

NSA Statement: NSA Stops Certain Section 702 "Upstream" Activities.

NY Times: N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets.

NSA is deleting captured email because they realized a serious court smackdown was coming.

[ related topics: Politics Privacy Current Events ]