Jack William Bell @jackwilliambell@rustedneuron.com

I'm sorry. I'm being too serious today. Here's a black cat riding a unicorn and a cute bunny…

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/what-do-trumps-values-voters-truly-value/

NOTE: the man is wearing a t-shirt reading 'John 8:32' – "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Continuing the thread with *another* dig at dependencies. https://xkcd.com/2347/

One of these things is not like the others. (#Anime screenshot, subtitle #funny.)

Social Media Platforms Need to Flatten the Curve of Dangerous Misinformation. https://slate.com/technology/2020/08/facebook-twitter-youtube-misinformation-virality-speed-bump.html?via=recirc_recent

The basic idea here is to add 'circuit breakers' similar to what stock markets have added to reduce wild swings in stock prices.

It might even work. But, IMHO, the real problems are:

1. The massive size of the big social media players

2. The profit motive and the resulting artificial and toxic incentives baked into the big social media platforms

3. "My God, it's full of assholes!"

Thought I'd round off this thread on single-file solutions with a dig at languages and package management systems encouraging deep dependencies…

Today's hot take: (see pic)

The CoNZealand World SF convention is now over. It had it's ups and downs, but so far as I can tell from the comments the VR Exhibits Hall my team created was an unqualified success. (The closest thing to negative comments I found was people complaining about VR sickness.)

I even gave a virtual tour of the VR Hall to a small group last night. We used audio chat and the mutli-user functionality of the hall.

Took a couple of group pictures at the end.

Almost forgot to mention it, but there is a hidden 'Easter Egg' in the hall, with the team list.

Also? It's multi-user. To reduce poly count I designed a user avatar that looks like a con badge with googly eyes.

So, basically, you aren't wandering around in there on your lonesome.

Of course there's a whole lot more in the hall. We've managed to pack in an enormous amount of content and are adding more as the convention progresses. If you are a member of the convention, check it out!

If you aren't? Well, sorry dude. Member's only.

The Artist Guest of Honor for ConZealand is Greg Broadmore; a Weta guy who writes, creates graphic novels, does classic and genre art, and does 3D modelling. The robot statue near the entrance is his.

So the Science Fiction Worldcon (technically in New Zealand, but 'virtual' this year due to pandemic) is in full swing. https://virtual.conzealand.nz/

As I mentioned before, I was lead developer on a VR Exhibits Hall for the convention. We call it 'Squid Hall'.

Here is a thread of screenshots.

Context is EVERYTHING!

Today's hot take: In the modern world a deep grounding in science and mathematics are *required* to understand even the most basic mechanisms of technology and society.

Yet more than two thirds of the populace are functionally innumerate, including most of our leaders and our media.

Thus: https://xkcd.com/882/

This screenshot is why I don't do multiplayer games, audio/video conferencing, or anything else requiring sub-second ping times.

So, note, the AVERAGE DELAY TO THE SATELLITE AND BACK was nearly three seconds. Max was pushing seven. Min was 700 Msec.

Go ahead and complain about your slow Internet. I dare you…

Hearing thunder off in the distance. I check Accuweather and, sure enough, there's a severe weather warning on. The radar plot looks pretty scary, but it also looks like it's all going by south of me.

However, #Seattle plus much of King county and south Snohomish county are getting hammered.

(I'm now seeing lighting flashes to the south.)

WTF? Why did the birdsite show me this ad? I mean (a) I'm not in Texas, (b) I'm retired, (c) I never worked in airplane manufacturing, and (d) I thought Boeing was laying off thousands of people?

#COVID19 #HumanCondition https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/social

It's even a double!