Nostr notes by Karl Auerbach

It has been decades since I was in contact with the insides of ...

2026-10-31T07:21:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…gdjc
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It has been decades since I was in contact with the insides of Cisco's IOS and other stuff. Back then even things like the meaning of the "no" prefix in the command line varied from device to device. And there were hundreds upon hundreds of versions and variations.

There is a lot of asynchronous stuff going on in router code. And in big routers there are a lot of specialized assistance hardware. And a lot of things that are based on experience and seem contrary to good software practice.

(For instance, I once used knowledge of packet arrival patterns to cause me to apologize to D. Knuth because I was going against his advice. But I really made things much faster by doing so.)

When I was a student at UCLA (late 1960's) we used a bulletin ...

2026-10-31T00:49:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…0m6w
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When I was a student at UCLA (late 1960's) we used a bulletin board in Royce Hall as the center of a soul buying and selling business. (We never found anybody willing to sell, so we had a very weak inventory.)

I still think that when this golf course thing is finished, the ...

2026-10-31T00:46:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…uy0s
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I still think that when this golf course thing is finished, the next president should carve off a small, but ugly, part and turn it into the "donald j trump putt-putt-course" (all in lower case), complete with windmill and other kitsch.

When I was working with the 7094 (and it's 1401 support ...

2026-10-29T19:04:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…nvgd
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When I was working with the 7094 (and it's 1401 support machine) in the room next door, we could clearly hear the squeal coming from an AM radio that they had perched on top of the IMP or the Sigma 7. There was so much RF in that room that the AM radio couldn't get stations; it just picked up the RF from all of those computer circuits.

That IMP was "ruggedized". It looked like an armored refrigerator with lifting loops on top. That begged the question "Is it really ruggedized? Can it take a drop from the roof of Boelter Hall [9 stories]?" Those were questions we wanted, needed to answer. Fortunately we never actually did the experiment.

That LA times "read this article and you are bound to our ...

2026-10-27T05:06:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…tlfd
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That LA times "read this article and you are bound to our terms of service" thing violates an informal, but important aspect:

This is *not* a clearly accepted-by-you license. This is kind of a half-way station on the way between the LA times not saying anything (but asserting you are bound to the license) and a full click through license (which is a much stronger argument that you actually mentally understood and agreed.)

A click-through license has the "accept" trigger next to the actual license text - that's why a lot of 'em put the button at the end and you have to scroll through the whole thing.

Eric Goldman at Univ Santa Clara has articulated this stuff far better than I could.

Eric Goldman (npub1cta…6kt3)

You are thinking of The Montana Plan, not Wyoming. (Wyoming, ...

2026-10-26T21:23:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…43mp
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You are thinking of The Montana Plan, not Wyoming.

(Wyoming, along with some other states are trying hard to become the Cayman Islands of the US in terms of corporate secrecy.)

BTW, the Montana Plan and Hawaii plan have ideas similar to something I proposed (twice) in 2011, not long after Citizens United...

"Redressing Excess Corporate Power"

https://www.cavebear.com/cavebear-blog/redressing_corp_power/

Did Space-X's Starlink just commit slow-suicide? By ...

2026-10-16T15:56:58Z

Did Space-X's Starlink just commit slow-suicide?

By demonstrating that its service is in the hands of self-absorbed, knee-jerk, children, such as Musk and trump, how can any potential customer of Starlink have trust that the service will work when they need it to work?

Alternatives to Starlink are slowly coming online - and I suspect that many who might have considered Starlink will chose to use those new services, instead.

How does one humiliate people who inflict mar-the-lago face upon ...

2026-10-13T17:12:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…4xsw
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How does one humiliate people who inflict mar-the-lago face upon themselves?

You are (as usual) right. However, I've been through ...

2026-10-07T07:48:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…taj8
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You are (as usual) right. However, I've been through Victorville several times over the last couple of years and have been amazed at the housing expansion - more like an explosion - out there.

LA/Long Beach will still bear the bulk of the container/ship traffic - which is massive. I'm thinking only of that part, large but smaller than the container traffic at least in terms of weight, that comes in via air. The approach flight path into LAX already goes far to the east, so going to the old George AFB in Adalanto doesn't add much, if any, in terms of flight time or distance.

Not that it is directly relevant, but the Brightline fast-rail to Las Vegas has its initial south terminus in Victorville. (Construction is already visible at the Las Vegas end. And like all such things they could financially crash before finishing.) That speaks to the potential growth of the Victorville/Hesperia area.

BNSF might need to expand its Williams-Phoenix rail line.

I would have thought that much of that freight traffic would have ...

2026-10-06T20:26:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…5zwn
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I would have thought that much of that freight traffic would have moved over to the giantic Adalando airport (former SAC base), or the remains of Castle AFB near Merced.

Both are outside of urban areas, and Adalanto has excellent rail and highway connections to the further east (and to Southern California.)

Perhaps I am a fluke - I've never read "Catcher in the ...

2026-10-03T18:53:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…l7qc
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Perhaps I am a fluke - I've never read "Catcher in the Rye" (even though Salinger was my neighbor in New Hampshire.) But then again, I've never been inside a WalMart store, either.

I want to mention that there is a lot of really good non-English literature that most of us miss.

(I am planning a re-read of the longest - and perhaps the best - novel I've encountered: the Chinese work "Dream of the Red Mansions" - also known as "The Story of the Stone" or "Dream of the Red Chamber".)

I would remind these future Congressional committees that ...

2026-09-26T19:38:05Z

I would remind these future Congressional committees that impeachment is not a criminal procedure; it is a political one. And consequently, the 5th Amendments double jeopardy protection does not attach.

In other words, Congress can impeach trump again over January 6.

https://apnews.com/article/house-democrats-trump-impeachment-investigations-corruption-jeffries-84bfad2502c42c7e43629f989601f356

Oh boy! That will make the explosive demolition of "the ...

2026-09-20T18:17:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…ln2m
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Oh boy! That will make the explosive demolition of "the arch" all the more exciting come a bit after noon on January 20, 2029.

For "insolvent" I am using the definition that usually is ...

2026-09-14T14:29:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…wulw
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For "insolvent" I am using the definition that usually is used for people and corporations: current liabilities > (liquid assets + current revenue)

Yes, countries operate under different economics, including the ability to expand money supplies and to change (voluntarily or involuntarily) the value of their money.

But no matter the difference, income less that outflow of money generally leads, over time, to bad news.

And if anything, trump is a master of outflow and a moron on inflow.

I think it is reasonable to begin to wonder, is the USA under Trump retracing the path of the Wiemar Republic of Germany in the 1920s, both economically and politically?

Kennedy Center bankrupt today, the United States bankrupt (or at ...

2026-09-14T14:08:02Z

Kennedy Center bankrupt today, the United States bankrupt (or at least, insolvent) next.

And the R-party band simply plays on, doing nothing, as it lets DJT sink the United States under $40,000,000,000,000 (forty *trillion* dollars) in debt (increasingly daily.)

At least the Kennedy Center will be in the hands of a bankruptcy court - a rather safer place to be than in the hands of trump's destruction-minded wrecking crew of a board of directors.

"Kennedy Center reportedly on brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as Tuesday"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/14/kennedy-center-bankruptcy-trump

That is quite a shot!!

2026-09-13T06:28:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…ltkj
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That is quite a shot!!

"ACR" -?? - I am acronym-challenged.

2026-09-12T23:04:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…fu24
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"ACR" -?? - I am acronym-challenged.

If the TV buggering is like that for which Vizeo got tagged and ...

2026-09-12T21:38:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…yv73
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If the TV buggering is like that for which Vizeo got tagged and fined, the TV is reporting something rather different than location - it is frequently reporting a tag that can be used to link-back to know what is being displayed on the screen,

So the TV can report what you are watching even if you are watching a DVD or an over-the-air broadcast.

Some years back Chris and I were at the FBI HQ in DC - in the ...

2026-09-12T21:30:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…xsrp
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Some years back Chris and I were at the FBI HQ in DC - in the holy-of-holies command center (on the 7th floor?) They were so proud of their setup - screens rising out of the tables etc - and they were bothered when I said I'd seen much better in Silly Valley rooms.

So they took me to their monitoring center - people madly reading webpages and such. I asked 'em whether they were scanning RSS feeds. They gave me a blank look - they didn't know that they could get a lot of content streamed rather than having people manually fetch it.

(One thing that caught my attention when at the FBI HQ was that they had a gift shop - behind umpteen levels of guards and gates - and that the items had anti-theft tags.)

At SDC Billy Brackenridge and I shared use of the soundproof room ...

2026-09-12T06:58:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…sgka
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At SDC Billy Brackenridge and I shared use of the soundproof room that was built for the continuous speech recognition project.

(That room was used in a rather dumb Peter Graves movie about hunting for the Yeti.)

Anyway, that continuous speech recognition project was funded by a three letter agency in Maryland who - as we figured out by reading between the lines - needed a better way to know when humans should start listening to a wiretap. This was in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Don't forget this poster (I have a copy)... ...

2026-09-11T23:15:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…u3eq
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Don't forget this poster (I have a copy)...

I am in awe of people in the control booth - whether TV, radio, ...

2026-09-08T01:45:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…v0vr
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I am in awe of people in the control booth - whether TV, radio, or theatrical - who can stitch together a collapsing show.

Not only is there a lot of talent there in the booth (and among the crew), but there is a kind of fearlessness that is amazing.

I remember one stage manager in a complex musical (Into The Woods) who had to re-sequence multiple scenes in real time because an actor took an critical prop offstage on the wrong side.

We once did a staged reading about a collapsing show from the crew's point of view - it had things like the sheriff showing up to Hamlet, thinking a murder had been committed. And the union guy was madly skimming the rules to see whether it was ok to kill the reviewer by dropping a light on him. It was fun - and afterwards the script got lost!!

You ought to see what happens backstage during a theatrical show. ...

2026-09-08T01:24:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…0ht0
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You ought to see what happens backstage during a theatrical show.

I really enjoyed holding 20 actors, 15 crew, 200 props, 400 lights with 1000 light cues, and 300 sound cues together against the onslaught of Murphy's Law - and doing it eight times a week.

We had the luxury of being able to hold the house for a few minutes at the start, but once we heard "Cue one - Go!" there was no turning back.

(The closest I ever got to stopping a performance was when it appeared that we had a fire on stage. I was in full "get ready inform the audience, and put them into evacuate" mode when the ASM said that it was just a smoke machine that had gone nutz.)

The QR code that is put onto the printed ballot by some BMDs ...

2026-09-04T22:19:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…g0x6
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The QR code that is put onto the printed ballot by some BMDs (I’m lookin’ at you Dominion) scares more than a few voters.

@npub1fdr…lvhs - I just came across your piece, "The ...

2026-09-03T18:43:00Z

Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) - I just came across your piece, "The Nuremberg Caucus"

I've been working on a similar idea.

(I also included a link in my references section pointing to your piece, with which I agree.)

"The American Tribunal - Justice After The End of MAGA"

https://tribunal.cavebear.com/

The Ig Novel award ceremony is leaving the US for Europe because ...

2026-09-03T18:12:34Z

The Ig Novel award ceremony is leaving the US for Europe because awardees are afraid to travel to the US.

This is merely a harbinger of the US sinking to second- or third-tier status among nations of the world.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/meet-the-2026-ig-nobel-prize-winners/

The article did not mention San Antonio, Texas. There, they did ...

2026-09-01T03:32:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…qxf0
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The article did not mention San Antonio, Texas. There, they did not "daylight" a buried stream, but they did make the river and river diversion a major part of downtown life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_River_Walk

Any details?

2026-08-29T05:00:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…724p
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Any details?

Please forgive me for asking something you've almost ...

2026-08-24T07:12:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…mnwm
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Please forgive me for asking something you've almost certainly heard too many times before. But I am eight time zones away so I've not heard, and I grew up on the edge of the late 1960's hippie universe...

Is Goodge Street sunny?

My website on the topic of doing justice after the end of the ...

2026-08-17T23:41:35Z

My website on the topic of doing justice after the end of the trump/maga era is growing. It isn't finished yet, but it now has some meat on its bones.

"The American Tribunal - Justice After The End of MAGA"

I like the image on the home page.

https://tribunal.cavebear.com/

Do you happen to know the present status of the car-maker's ...

2026-08-14T18:22:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…8mwt
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Do you happen to know the present status of the car-maker's desire to remove AM radios from new cars?

Was she carrying the printer - trump refuses to read from a ...

2026-08-12T19:01:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…j6xt
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Was she carrying the printer - trump refuses to read from a screen so she carries a printer so that trump can read things from paper.

From what I've seen and read, I get the hint of a scent that she may provide other services as well.

We got a great view of the 2017 one from Weiser, Idaho - perfect ...

2026-08-12T18:58:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…4j4v
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We got a great view of the 2017 one from Weiser, Idaho - perfect weather, the town shut off the street lights, we were in a high school playing field along with NASA and MIT.

(I wore those movie-theatre red/blue 3D glasses over my eclipse glasses - I told people that it allowed me to see the back side of the moon.)

We tried for the 2024 one - we were along the now-infamous Guadalupe River near the also now well-known Kerrville/Center Point. It clouded over one minute before totality. Grrrr.

Suppose Larry O' does move Paramount/WB (and presumably CBS) ...

2026-08-11T19:38:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…hpjl
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Suppose Larry O' does move Paramount/WB (and presumably CBS) ... the studio facilities will remain and be snapped up just as CBS took over Republic studios and then another company took over after that.

A lot of studio facilities have become largely rental offices of sound stages, props, and such that are used by other companies.

And the important part - the creative people - they won't move to Jesus-land, women-are-property, racist, book-banning locations.

Who's a socialist, who's a communist.... ...

2026-08-10T23:03:31Z

Who's a socialist, who's a communist....

I also gave up running my own mail servers. But one thing to ...

2026-08-10T19:31:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…9fty
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I also gave up running my own mail servers.

But one thing to remember: under US law e-mail that has been lounging on your email provider's machines for 180 days or more is subject to warrantless retrieval by the Feds.

"Under the law, the government does need a warrant to access the content of electronic communications that are 180 days old or less, but doesn't need one for older emails. "

https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/government-reading-our-email-texts-and-ims-without

That's interesting stuff.. I was never much into graphics or ...

2026-08-09T08:54:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…2ul0
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That's interesting stuff..

I was never much into graphics or video (at least not then).

But when I was a student at UC Berkeley (1970-71) they had an ad-hoc computer science department (as opposed to electrical engineering with same name). An early computer graphics person, John Whitney, was associated with the then, very tiny, department.

And when I moved to Interactive Systems in Santa Monica circa 1980, Ivan Sutherland was, I think, on our board of directors.

I was always and operating system and networking person, so I thought the graphics stuff was way super cool even if I had no clue how to do it.

However, when I was doing network video I was pushing very hard for the addition of a meta-track to define objects and motions in video - for cheap product placement - and also to modify the audio/video in ways like live actors do when something happens in the audience space - I was trying to break the 4th wall.

But Cisco wanted none of it for a very stupid reason.

OK, you are going to think me weird, but I was listening to the ...

2026-08-03T23:31:32Z

OK, you are going to think me weird, but I was listening to the new Madonna album and one tune, "Betrayal", reminded me of this, which is utterly different.... (The Madonna tune is definitely based on a fairly modern, and well-known piano piece, but not the one below.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdLMHdhQ55k

Don't forget that for refrigerators you need to insert the ...

2026-08-03T23:24:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…hda8
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Don't forget that for refrigerators you need to insert the power plug in backwards.

I think that is what went wrong with our macrowave oven - it now heats things rather than cooling them.

Of course, everyone knows that a heater plugged into a 110 volt ...

2026-08-03T22:44:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…96m5
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Of course, everyone knows that a heater plugged into a 110 volt outlet can not heat water above 110 degrees. That's why if one wants a hotter hot tub, the heater has to be plugged into a 220/240 volt outlet.

It's just science.

When I started at UCLA many of my classmates got cast for the ...

2026-08-02T21:06:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…3tp8
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When I started at UCLA many of my classmates got cast for the "rolling around naked in the dust" scene of the movie Zabriskie Point. (I wasn't yet 18, so I was not allowed to participate - but when I saw the film, I certainly saw "a lot more" of my classmates than I had previously seen.) I don't think you will find that scene on YouTube, although by today's standards it is pretty tame.

Is there anyone of our generation who grew up in LA who did not ...

2026-08-02T20:52:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…vsv8
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Is there anyone of our generation who grew up in LA who did not wander into a film by accident or who was used as an extra?

Saw an utterly wonderful production of MacBeth last night at ...

2026-08-02T20:15:39Z

Saw an utterly wonderful production of MacBeth last night at Santa Cruz Shakespeare.

I think they did the full text without major edits. The sets were minimalist - which is important these days when live theatre is struggling.

Yes, it is Elizabethan-era English, but with the good acting and articulation, it's rather easy to understand.

It runs through the end of August. (It's an outdoor venue and can get quite chilly.)

There are several other plays going on in rep this summer - we are particularly looking forward to Private Lives.

They also do "pay what you can" nights and have free staged readings of other plays - I really like the staged readings.

https://santacruzshakespeare.org/performances/macbeth/

During one hearing, a Senator got uppity with me - he was very ...

2026-07-29T20:02:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…x3we
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During one hearing, a Senator got uppity with me - he was very condescending.

I found a good way to shut him down - essentially using the Crocodile Dundee style of topic expansion to reverse condescend - i.e. by using the ""that's not a knife - *this* is a knife" approach. He got really ticked off. But I didn't mind; he was a jerk anyway and I was glad when he washed out on his bid to be President.

My approach to testifying was to do as much work as possible beforehand with congress-critter staff to make sure we are speaking the same language - which is especially important when the topic is technical (or medical). This same approach works well with journalists. Sometimes this preparation can take months or even years.

(I once got my company's DC lobbyist really angry at me because I was getting better access to various Senators than he did.)

As a lawyer I get a lot of strange junk e-mail. Over the last few ...

2026-07-23T18:53:14Z

As a lawyer I get a lot of strange junk e-mail.

Over the last few years I've been receiving spams for courses in "Reptile tactics" in the courtroom.

(Reptile tactics is a phrase that refers to the use of words, expressions, and questions that contain implications that trigger deep fears in jury members.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptile_Theory_Strategy

Here in California our primaries tend to have many different ...

2026-07-21T07:44:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…rvdw
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Here in California our primaries tend to have many different ballots. When a voter checks in we verify the party registration records (and here in California voters can be independent of any party) and hand them the proper paper form ,,, or ... if they chose to use a ballot marking device, that device is configured to present the proper ballot to the voter.

All of this is done with human oversight backed by paper registration records - voters don't get to pick which kind of paper ballot they get and they are not allowed to muck with the machines to chose which ballot they will vote.

California does allow a lot of registration changes to made at the voting locations, but that generally involves a phone call and interaction with people at the central county clerk's office.

I'd also mention that a lot of people who have various physical issues - such as bad eyesight, or my issue with holding a pen or pencil - prefer the ballot marking machines over hand marked paper.

ERG? Yup, we took that on backpacking trips. Awful and slimy - ...

2026-07-21T00:00:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…ra80
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ERG? Yup, we took that on backpacking trips. Awful and slimy - but mixed with grape kool-aid mix it was palatable.

We tend to keep a few doses of modern electrolyte mix around the house for those hot and sweaty days of working in the garden.

RE: https://masto.ai/@GhostOnTheHalfShell/116948023715331966 Back ...

2026-07-19T22:08:45Z

RE: https://masto.ai/@GhostOnTheHalfShell/116948023715331966

Back in olden times - the mid 1980's - there was a company called Palantír - no, not the privacy busting spy company of the present era.

No, the Palantír of that era made networked scanning machines.

And they had a test mode.

That test mode played an amazing Ride of the Valkyries on the stepper motors - it lasted several minutes and rose to a rather amazing crescendo.

I have not been able to fine any trace of those old scanners.

quoting
note16uf…67fa

RE: https://masto.ai/@GhostOnTheHalfShell/116948012787237959

`Da Elf (npub1cqw…xeeq)
Karl Auerbach (npub1rhq…s08d)

This is why the US is falling behind.
note1saw…9aun

I think we can pretty much conclude that it is the policy of the ...

2026-07-18T18:50:03Z

I think we can pretty much conclude that it is the policy of the government of Israel to commit ethnic cleansing.

I make a strong distinction between the people of Israel and the government of Israel. The people of Israel deserve to have their sovereign country, peaceful and secure

My point about ethnic cleansing applies to the government of Israel not to its people (although some clearly support that goal.)

I also believe that the Palestinians deserve their own country, peaceful and secure.

"Israeli ministers announce plans for new illegal settlements in Gaza and West Bank"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/18/israel-plan-new-illegal-settlements-gaza-west-bank-occupied-palestine

My sense (having endured that period of time) was that the ...

2026-07-03T22:27:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…envu
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My sense (having endured that period of time) was that the "Tea Party" was created by Fox News.

This is scary ... no matter whether I look this as a networking, ...

2026-06-29T01:24:28Z

This is scary ... no matter whether I look this as a networking, web person, or a privacy/computer security person this is scary.

The damage to citizens and companies from this kind of exposure is beyond measure.

Trust in government is hard to establish. This will erase it. This turns maga fantasies about dark government into real concerns.

"‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/28/government-website-visitor-tracking-surveillance-fears

Infinite loops can be "fun" - especially on machines with ...

2026-06-25T01:18:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…pjya
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Infinite loops can be "fun" - especially on machines with vector processors and compilers that try to vectorize the infinite loop.

One of our friends runs, or did run, the Grace Hopper Institute. ...

2026-06-24T03:31:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…zd3f
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One of our friends runs, or did run, the Grace Hopper Institute.

As for asking questions - yes!!!! Our human communications, even in best of circumstances, are filled with ambiguities or flat out mis-understandings.

When I was in law school - and when I'm on a board of directors - I ask questions until I am satisfied. (Some people get upset when I do this.) It often turns out that a dispute is not a dispute at all but merely a mis-comphrension of meaning.

I once rode an elevator with Grace Hopper.

2026-06-24T03:20:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…rxxc
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I once rode an elevator with Grace Hopper.

Don't forget the joys of core memory. The memory in the CDC ...

2026-06-24T00:20:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…xpr8
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Don't forget the joys of core memory. The memory in the CDC machines at UC Berkeley could turn red hot (and even melt) if there was a tight jump-to-self loop. (Core memory is erased by the act of reading, so it has to be re-written after every read - and that used a lot of current and caused a lot of heat.)

On our 7094 the core memory was immersed in cooling oil - and that oil bath sprung a leak. It was a true and honest memory leak.

You have not used punched paper cards? And I would guess that you ...

2026-06-23T22:57:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…qhmw
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You have not used punched paper cards? And I would guess that you haven't had the joy of hand pulling punched paper tape past a reader head.

You have missed out on one of the consummate joys of pre-timeshare computing.

No self respecting person with a deck of punched cards would not ...

2026-06-22T05:22:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…8akk
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No self respecting person with a deck of punched cards would not have a diagonal line drawn across the top.

(Why does one do that - so that it is easy to see if the cards got out of order.)

One wonders how much we - you and I - paid for this ...

2026-06-20T06:57:42Z

One wonders how much we - you and I - paid for this "gift".

We can be pretty certain that this "gift" is not up to the specifications that Boeing is working to meet for the real pair of AF-1 aircraft.

Of course, trump is going to try to steel this airplane and call it his private property - but it isn't, it belongs to the United States.

"VC-25B Bridge aircraft arrives at Joint Base Andrews, begins commissioning flights"

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4522274/vc-25b-bridge-aircraft-arrives-at-joint-base-andrews-begins-commissioning-fligh/

Looking at that image reminds me of way back in the late 1950s ...

2026-06-11T02:40:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…mz63
_________________________

Looking at that image reminds me of way back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when the "red" paint was an extremely intense day-glow pink that could probably be seen from the Moon.

Even el trump has a grandfather from Canada. Imagine what would ...

2026-06-05T23:41:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…vh5s
_________________________

Even el trump has a grandfather from Canada.

Imagine what would be said to one another by the Canadian bureaucrats should they receive a citizenship application from trump?

Good suggestion - it is one I took up several years ago - and for ...

2026-06-05T22:12:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xj9d
_________________________

Good suggestion - it is one I took up several years ago - and for which I now have dual US and Canadian citizenship.

I found out that I could do this from this rather fun 2009 video from the Canadian gov't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZnhZscw90

By-the-way, that photo on my Mastodon profile is of my ...

2026-06-05T19:36:46Z

By-the-way, that photo on my Mastodon profile is of my grandfather on a horse, probably somewhere in Quebec, most likely on a farm near the New York border.

I reflect that it is similar to photos of Putin on a horse - but grandfather looks better shirtless and the horse is larger than Putin's.

Time to read or watch Persepolis again... "Marjane Satrapi, ...

2026-06-04T20:53:42Z

Time to read or watch Persepolis again...

"Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French author whose graphic novel series “Persepolis” introduced millions of readers to the struggles of ordinary Iranians during the turbulent years around the Islamic Revolution, has died at 56."

(The film is visible on various streaming - such as Amazon and Apple for a couple of $$ - well worth it.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/world/middleeast/marjane-satrapi-dead.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY

I think I agree with you. I would note a slightly relevant recent ...

2026-06-04T02:10:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…f52q
_________________________

I think I agree with you.

I would note a slightly relevant recent event, that of a court in Delaware giving corporate entities (non-human entities that are often endowed with human-like rights and privileges) the right to vote.

I am a California licensed attorney. I write a lot about policy and comment on laws. The border between that kind of commentary and actual legal advice is somewhat fuzzy.

Consequently whenever I get close to that fuzzy line I have to utter disclaimers that I am not giving legal advice and that we are not forming an attorney client relationship.

Following your idea - an AI that pretends to be human might have to utter similar disclaimers about what it is and the nature, quality, and credibility of its emissions.

One might anticipate that the defense will dig deeply into the ...

2026-05-28T00:18:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…8j9x
_________________________

One might anticipate that the defense will dig deeply into the DoJ operations and communications.

I seriously doubt that even SCOTUS would be willing to limit defense discovery.

Not a single R deserves our vote. Those R's are supporting ...

2026-05-21T03:25:54Z

Not a single R deserves our vote.

Those R's are supporting the greatest theft in the history of the United States.

"House Judiciary Republicans reject subpoenas for architects of new ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’"

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/05/20/congress/republicans-reject-subpoenas-related-to-doj-fund-00930486

This "addendum" effectively creates an absolute immunity ...

2026-05-20T03:20:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…7hz6
_________________________

This "addendum" effectively creates an absolute immunity so that trump and family never again have to bother either filing Federal tax returns or paying Federal taxes.

Who still believes that trump is not a king?

Did it reach crush depth? No? Too bad.

2026-05-20T00:16:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…s7rt
_________________________

Did it reach crush depth? No? Too bad.

I've got several in bloom right now - and I'm waiting for ...

2026-05-05T23:33:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…k3qd
_________________________

I've got several in bloom right now - and I'm waiting for the deer to do what deer do: eat the flowers.

A couple of years back a red tail hawk tried to scare me off. It ...

2026-05-05T05:00:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…qlee
_________________________

A couple of years back a red tail hawk tried to scare me off. It began close - maybe 15 feet away. Your photo looks a lot like what that hawked looked like (except that the hawk had talons.).

Yes, Van Nuys High school was attended by Vint Cerf, Steve ...

2026-05-04T19:15:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…je7y
_________________________

Yes, Van Nuys High school was attended by Vint Cerf, Steve Crocker, Jon Postel ... me. We all went on to UCLA.

I ended up in a student job learning programming in the room next to IMP #1

I was a bit earlier than you - I was at Hazeltine late ...

2026-05-04T06:31:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…sh7c
_________________________

I was a bit earlier than you - I was at Hazeltine late 1950's/early 1960's (thence on to Fulton.)

I wasn't joking, however, about how many of those of us who went on to work on ARPAnet and thence Internet ideas came from the Van Nuys area.

Van Nuys - as in "Van Nuys, home of the Internet"?! Many ...

2026-05-04T05:38:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…phhp
_________________________

Van Nuys - as in "Van Nuys, home of the Internet"?!

Many of us who were there at the very start of what would become the Internet came from Van Nuys during the late 1960's.

(I went to Hazeltine elementary in Van Nuys.)

Bad things still happen to me in my ballroom - I don't think ...

2026-04-27T03:27:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…t20p
_________________________

Bad things still happen to me in my ballroom - I don't think I have enough fake gold.

Gawd sometimes I hate passkeys. I have to deal with some fairly ...

2026-04-25T22:43:18Z

Gawd sometimes I hate passkeys.

I have to deal with some fairly old people - people who have lost much of their vision and who have never been particularly technically minded.

The modern race-to-lock-everything has moved a lot of services (such as outlook) to move to passkeys.

That's nice - unless one is trying to deal with problems for an old person who is 800 miles away.

It appears that many of these services treat having a passkey as a one-way ratchet. Once someone (me) has set up a passkey (limited to my computer and phone) then the service switches to demand a passkey rather than the password to get in - but the old person's phone/computer does not have the passkey nor knows how to use it even if they did.

Our present Internet - largely programmed by young people with tech knowledge and good eyesight - is becoming increasingly hard to use by older people while things (like medical services) increase security that these people do not know how to use and can't be managed remotely.

Wow, not many people can quote James Joyce, especially on a ...

2026-04-19T15:50:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…c6nl
_________________________

Wow, not many people can quote James Joyce, especially on a Sunday morning in April.

BTW, I know someone, who is a descendant of that writer.

My grandmother's favorite wine: Chateau Nez du Pape (When she ...

2026-04-19T04:39:06Z

My grandmother's favorite wine:

Chateau Nez du Pape

(When she would cook a chicken she would often point out the tail, the part that goes over the fence last, as "The Pope's Nose".)

Miami is going to be really upset with a 50 story tall golden ...

2026-03-31T17:48:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…3rt7
_________________________

Miami is going to be really upset with a 50 story tall golden outhouse in the center of the city. At least it's lower levels will be washed daily as the sea levels continue to rise.

And will it be designed and engineered by the clowns who did the Millennium Tower in San Francisco?

(Thinking of trump and his goldbug disease - I attended a conference in Las Vegas and they put me into a [rather nice] room at the Wynn overlooking the trump monstrosity - the reflected gold light in the morning was overwhelming and made the world look as if overrun by yellow smog.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Tower_(San_Francisco)

California Democrats are proof positive that humans are not an ...

2026-03-24T23:40:47Z

California Democrats are proof positive that humans are not an intelligent species.

Here in Calif we have a unique primary system - a single primary for *all* parties. The top two move onto the general election, the rest are out of the game.

So here we have two R's splitting a smaller part of the electorate and a dozen D's splitting a larger part.

The result is that it is likely that the two R's will get larger vote counts than any of the dozen D's. Thus *only* those two R's will move onto the general election and *ALL* of the D's will be sent to the showers. And California will end up with a conservative R governor despite the state being overwhelmingly D.

The key is that at least ten of the D candidates need to drop out, IMMEDIATELY. But they are squabbling like D's normally do about identity politics and other stupid things.

"California governor poll raises prospect of two Republicans contesting runoff"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/24/california-governor-election-republicans

Thanks for the pointer. I would really like This Land is Our Land ...

2026-03-22T23:31:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…8pf0
_________________________

Thanks for the pointer.

I would really like This Land is Our Land to become the new US National Anthem.

Other tunes have been suggested but this one expresses best the idea that we - you and I and the rest of us - own this country and that we, despite our disagreements, are in charge.

Every now and then I feel I must post this most wonderful ...

2026-03-22T21:03:42Z

Every now and then I feel I must post this most wonderful cover...

Sharon Jones was taken from us far too soon.

"This land is your land"

https://youtu.be/XMbBdNEjaFk?t=38

My view on open source code and voting is that while open source ...

2026-03-19T23:23:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…rhq3
_________________________

My view on open source code and voting is that while open source is useful in many cases it is not necessarily so in voting code.

Why? One of the argument of O-source code is inspection. It is a good argument, if it were done (may AI tools can do good work here - but what is the criteria they would use to tell good from bad?)

In our effort we concluded that while inspection is good, testing is better - and that anyone ought to be able to test (and that vendors ought to supply test gear), *and* that test results be published to all.

There is a side effect - we want to encourage vendors to build good voting systems (software+hardware+procedures). So we ought to leave some incentives, like not requiring publication of the code (or parts of the code) and limit open copying/use - leaving some room for innovation and profit.

We also tend to forget toolchains - which are often a significant overlooked vulnerability.

Well, now that it has happened we can all know, based on actual ...

2026-03-15T21:48:48Z

Well, now that it has happened we can all know, based on actual concrete proof, that not a single person in the US military hierarchy obeys the law that requires the refusal of unlawful/unconstitutional orders.

We have transitioned from a military under Constitutional and statutory limitations to a military that is a Republican Guard, or in older terms, a Praetorian Guard.

If we ever do, if ever, return to a nation of laws then every person in the entire military hierarchy is going to have to be charged and disciplined - because no one, not a one, even questioned, much less refused, the unlawful/unconstitutional orders to go to war with Iran.

A short sci-fi story for the news of these few weeks (aka about ...

2026-03-14T15:44:20Z

A short sci-fi story for the news of these few weeks (aka about the stupid attack on Iran) ...

"Superiority" by A. C. Clark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superiority_(short_story)

https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v002n04_1951-08_AK/page/n3/mode/2up

Don't check your investments today - you will be unhappily ...

2026-03-12T18:14:29Z

Don't check your investments today - you will be unhappily shocked.

I once was driving around in Palo Alto, California with a friend ...

2026-02-21T02:50:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…jt8c
_________________________

I once was driving around in Palo Alto, California with a friend from India. Just after we encountered and crossed a CalTrain grade crossing my friend said:

India may be a second world country, but we do not have railroad grade crossings.

Have you ever seen the 1966 film Blow Up? One of the major ...

2026-02-19T07:31:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…qc85
_________________________

Have you ever seen the 1966 film Blow Up?

One of the major threads of the film is snapshots that may or may not reveal a murder - so the protagonist keeps trying to pull more detail out of the photos.

It's a rather good movie, very much locked into the mid+ 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowup

Long ago - and I mean long ago - mid 1970's in fact - one ...

2026-02-11T18:34:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…8yt8
_________________________

Long ago - and I mean *long* ago - mid 1970's in fact - one group in our research department at SDC in Santa Monica was doing a project called "Continuous Voice Recognition".

The customer was, I believe, one or more of those three letter agencies scattered near DC in Virginia and Maryland.

And the never clearly articulated goal was to facilitate wire tapping by automating the recognition of trigger words and phrases so that a human could then jump in and listen.

They had a cool poster on the wall "Fricative-Plosive Analysis"

I turned the sound proof room they built into my place to hide in order to get work done.

That was 50 years ago. Voice recognition and comprehension has advanced a long way since then.

On the other coast - at UCLA, mid 1970s - I think it was Mark ...

2026-02-05T02:49:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…ay7l
_________________________

On the other coast - at UCLA, mid 1970s - I think it was Mark Kampe, Carl Switzky, and I who submitted a bid to port Unix to UCLA's differential analyzer.

Of course it was impossible, but the administration didn't seem to get the joke.

I am quite unclear what signed or unsigned integers would be on that machine, much less how they would overflow.

One might ask: Why is the US sending ICE agents to Italy and the ...

2026-02-01T19:16:26Z

One might ask: Why is the US sending ICE agents to Italy and the Winter Olympics?

It seems an odd concept for the US to forcefully deport people from Italy.

It seems an even more odd concept to understand why the Italian government, a government of a sovereign nation, would allow another country to openly kidnap people in Italy.

And we US taxpayers are footing the costs for this cruelty.

"Milan protesters call for U.S. ICE agents to leave Italy as Winter Games approach"

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/31/nx-s1-5695197/as-winter-olympics-milan-protesters-call-for-ice-agents-to-leave-italy

There is a bit of a gloss to be added to your note ... There ...

2026-01-20T18:07:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…pxm0
_________________________

There is a bit of a gloss to be added to your note ...

There *were* projects in the 1970's to deal with network identification, authentication, access control, and encryption (including key management).

I know - I worked on some of those projects.

But we were under a heavy hand of rather paranoid security restrictions - we could not talk about what we were doing. So pretty much everything we did was hidden and eventually had to be re-invented. Almost none of our documents have made it into present-day digital collections. In other words our security weakness of today is a self-inflicted wound born from excessive security/paranoia of the 1970s.

I hate to use grokpedia but it does have a vastly better description of my project than does wikipedia...

https://grokipedia.com/page/blacker_security

I look forward to reading your lecture. I've long been ...

2026-01-17T00:45:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…5qja
_________________________

I look forward to reading your lecture.

I've long been thinking that we need to revisit our concept of "corporation". After Milton Friedman's assertion - one with with I have *major* disagreements - that the goal of corporate management is to "increase shareholder value" - corporations have ceased being vehicles for the merger of capital, innovating, and management expertise, all under an state granted incentive of limited liability and the convenience of a unified legal identity.

After Citizens United, corporations have become to become not merely never-dying dynastic accumulations of wealth, but also means through which a few hired managers - not even the board of directors, and much less the shareholders - can leverage the assets and wealth of the corporation into an intense political force.

(I am rather intrigued by the state level "Montana Plan" as well as my constitutional plan - https://www.cavebear.com/cavebear-blog/redressing_corp_power/ )

It is pretty clear that ICE/DHS are intentionally trying to ...

2026-01-13T22:47:26Z

It is pretty clear that ICE/DHS are intentionally trying to elicit a violent, possibly armed, response to these violent acts.

The ICE-gang is desiring this because then el cheato will invoke the insurrection act. That will, in turn, open the gates for the goons to really start breaking heads and for blood to flow in the streets.

My guess is that some ICE goon, somewhere, is going to get shot by a sniper or protester within a month, if not sooner.

I expect February to begin a true rain of maga terror.

(And, of course, we will see Noem posing on an advancing armored troop carrier - wearing a tight t-shirt, bullet-resistant vest, and maga-face - with an M16 or M4.)

"Anti-ICE protester blinded by federal agent during demonstration in Santa Ana, family says"

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-13/socal-protester-permanently-blinded-by-dhs-agent-family-says

I've been beaten by the LAPD. I lived in Berkeley in the late ...

2026-01-11T23:12:46Z

I've been beaten by the LAPD. I lived in Berkeley in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I've been tear gassed and watched police push people backwards off of highway overpasses. I knew and understood many Black Panthers.

I am sick and tired of Kumbaya songs. I am sick and tired of turn-the-other-cheek reactions to current affairs in the US.

But I am also a lawyer, sworn to peaceful methods.

What do I do?

What strikes me is the age old method of ostracism - practiced in ancient Athens, written about in plays like Lysistrata, and rendered into strong force by churches through the practice of excommunication.

We ought to perform civil excommunication on ICE agents - do not sell or rent products to them in stores, do not rent hotel rooms to them, do not fund them, treat them like modern day lepers. Businesses should make it clear that they will never be hired for a job. Do not adopt Jesus' policy of acceptance of them.

Spread their names so that we may cut them off from society.

Interest rates are not necessarily the real issue. Credit card ...

2026-01-10T18:22:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…tx2e
_________________________

Interest rates are not necessarily the real issue. Credit card companies and the "retail" (consumer level) parts of banks make a great deal of their money not from interest rates but from things like late payment fees/penalties and yearly charges just to have a credit card.

I sometimes have trouble with faces - who are these people? Well, ...

2026-01-07T01:09:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…2atx
_________________________

I sometimes have trouble with faces - who are these people? Well, the one on the left I recognize, although I wish I did not. It's the other one who looks familiar but I can't pin a name on him.

Keep up your good work! And remember to keep those pixels dry.

2026-01-01T07:10:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…vlrf
_________________________

Keep up your good work!

And remember to keep those pixels dry.

One of my first memories of San Francisco (when not with my ...

2026-01-01T07:07:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…tupa
_________________________

One of my first memories of San Francisco (when not with my parents) was around that time - maybe 1966. I remember being at Cafe Trieste at something like 3am on a very wet, foggy night, talking to an aging beatnik who had been working 20+ years carving a three color nude, and he was still working on the first color.

I spent many a day and night in The City during the late 1960s and early 1970s - full hippie era. I did not move to The City (Inner Richmond district) until about 1981.

I really miss the cold, misty nights, riding the cable cars late at night (I always stood on the board, hanging on, just to the right of the driver.) The cable cars were more wild - rather rickety and shakey than they are now - before the system was rebuilt in the 1980s.

You said "Over half the time I have given a query to Gemini ...

2025-12-31T20:40:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…6p7l
_________________________

You said "Over half the time I have given a query to Gemini it has returned an incorrect result."

That caused me to wonder: How often would Gemini return a correct result if I were to give it an incorrect query?

BTW, you might find the following paper from 1977 to be illuminating or amusing:

How Artificial Is Intelligence? The great works of literature and art are not merely rare statistical fluctuations, but are they simply the products of correlation matrices?

Author(s): W. R. Bennett Jr.

Source: American Scientist , November-December 1977, Vol. 65, No. 6 (November-December 1977), pp. 694-702

Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27848169

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27848169

#ai

Huh? Santa Monica is on solid historic legal grounds - Waymo cars ...

2025-12-30T21:09:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…afsm
_________________________

Huh? Santa Monica is on solid historic legal grounds - Waymo cars honking is a classic form of nuisance that cities and states have long been able to regulate and harmed people have long had the ability to bring lawsuits to enjoin and collect damages.

What, is Google/Waymo claiming that cars have a first amendment right to honk?