The CEO of my favorite tech company kissing the dictator’s ass. Not a good look, Mr. Cook. x.com/tim_cook/…

It’s a good day for a crushingly cold swim.

Democracy died in dark news.

I’m rich enough, white enough, and straight enough to check out of this whole struggle. I could carry on living my life pretty well under any administration, no matter how sinister. On a devastating night like tonight, I am ashamed to say that I’m tempted to give up. But standing up for what’s right is both a privilege and an obligation. If you have a heart, you have to look out for others. That’s not America, that’s humanity.

The only thing about tonight that is better than 2016 is that the NYT needle never pointed to 90% for Harris even once. I’m still hoping for a miracle but damn, this is hard to take.

~It occurs to me that the United States Presidential election system is like the PC of election systems … if you like convoluted, arcane, difficult to debug situations … then the United States election system is perfect for you~ overcast.fm/+KxFEqL0I…

~We’re on the precipice of something major, either way it goes. I feel like it’s the calm before the storm and we’re sitting here, it’s eerily quiet, and soon things are going to be crazy for a while no matter what happens~

overcast.fm/+AAKxFEqL…

Core Intuition Episode 619: “Every Four Years” coreint.org/2024/11/e…

An election-day diversion to help you pass the time!

The NYT Tech Guild went on strike yesterday, but I didn’t hear until after I’d solved the day’s Wordle and Crossword. A staggering 95% of the union’s membership voted to strike, and they ask us to “break our streaks.” Today I wave goodbye to my 197 day Wordle streak in solidarity.

Now we can swim any day in November. 53F water, Mystic Lake, Medford, MA.

One of my favorite pastimes as a lifelong cheapskate who is slowly coming to terms with having money: never questioning the cost of public transit.

Harrison Ford provides the perfect antidote to that creepy Clint Eastwood “empty chair” video from years ago. www.youtube.com/watch

Much of the challenge in web search in the past has been figuring out WHAT to search for. LLMs can be extremely helpful in figuring out the right terms.

LLMs are amazing at synthesizing the vast field of general knowledge into a general purpose answer machine. Today, as I’ve been researching DIY home stuff, I’ve enjoyed asking it things like “what do you call the screw-on attachment to a junction box that secures a cable passing through it?”

Everybody’s been calling everybody a fascist for so long, when we finally get one, nobody believes it. Wolf! Wolf!

How do ya do fellow kids?

“Y’all know I hate politics. But I hate people being taken advantage of even more.”

Damn, Michelle Obama is so good. I understand her not running, but she could have won. What a mensch. www.youtube.com/watch

I used to feel pretty strongly that I should only vote in person, at the ballot, on election day. I love democracy (or the illusion of it!) so much, that I don’t want to miss a bit of the pomp and circumstance. But in recent years I’ve decided to vote early, by mail. As well-intentioned as I am, there’s a CHANCE I would forget to vote on voting day. And … who knows what might happen between now and election day 😱

Fascism never went away, but our commitment to suppressing it has wavered. Defeat Trump, and tell him and the rest of the fascists where they can stuff it.

Billy Bragg’s “The Few”, 1991:

“Then they go out seeking different colored faces And anyone else that they can scare And they salute the foes their fathers fought By waving their right hands in the air”

www.youtube.com/watch

Water temperature down to 56F for my swim today. I overheard some people on the shore talking about me as I traipsed in. It’s a good thing I don’t mind being the weirdo. Again, I never would have expected to be able to withstand this, but my body adapted. It’s wild.

Episode 618: “That’s What People Want” coreint.org/2024/10/e…

Thanks to @revenuecat@mastodon.social for sponsoring this week’s show!

I regret that I had but one Washington Post cancellation to give for my country, and I gave it a few months ago.

Just released FastScripts 3.3.4 with fixes for some menu glitches, and improvements to the “invoke” scripting command: redsweater.com/blog/4153…