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nprofile1qqsfg05v36kklmhv683l7y43h2mz3exxp2ujl79e9z526wuz0lr78rgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dswc6lgw

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Last Notes

2026-09-10 02:26:25 CEST

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I didn't see anyone with Novavax on the list here.

2026-09-10 02:25:33 CEST

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If previous years are any indication, these tend to make me fairly useless about 12 hours after the injection, for about 12 hours, so I just lean into it and treat the couple of days after as dead time. No operating heavy machinery for me this weekend! (Or most weekends, actually).

2026-09-10 02:20:48 CEST

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I said it's encouraging if it means there's high demand. Obviously other factors may be involved. I don't know, which is why I used the word "if". But I've heard reports that demand is, indeed, fairly high here.

2026-09-10 01:48:35 CEST

Made my appointment for my updated Covid (and also flu) jabs today. Some local pharmacies had very limited avability and slots, which is actually encouraging if it means there's high demand.

2026-09-10 01:34:43 CEST

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I'm all in if it has a rotary dial.

2026-09-10 01:26:30 CEST

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I tend to want either black or aggressively high-viz. The find-my feature has reduced my desire for high-viz.

2026-09-10 01:18:19 CEST

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Yeah, more questions than answers there.

2026-09-10 01:17:23 CEST

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Is the Burning Man medical facility an homage to "Emergency!"?

2026-09-10 01:14:42 CEST

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And wires need not be involved!

2026-09-10 01:08:58 CEST

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Indeed. And almost all the definitions here are counterintuitive. (Aural vs. Oral communication, etc).

2026-09-10 00:58:33 CEST

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The Apple watch has long had audio recording capabilities. In 2018, Jamal Khashoggi (the journalist assassinated at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul) may or may not have used his smartwatch to transmit live audio of his abduction (though the facts are in dispute).

2026-09-10 00:49:17 CEST

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A decade later and it's even more complicated now.

2026-09-10 00:43:58 CEST

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We touch a bit on related (and largely open) questions in It's Too Complicated: https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/assets/articlePDFs/v30/30HarvJLTech1.pdf

2026-09-10 00:39:04 CEST

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I'm trying understand how it works before deciding what the problems are.

2026-09-10 00:21:19 CEST

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Everyone at the airport was like "I've never seen THAT before".

2026-09-10 00:20:08 CEST

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A while back I was on a widebody (767, probably) that failed to properly disarm the side on the arrival door. It was very loud, and had sufficient force to rock the plane and push the jetbridge back. I think the jetbridge operator needed an ambulance.
We eventually were able to disembark (quite a while later) via stairs pulled up to the opposite side of the plane. It was quite the adventure.

2026-09-09 23:19:08 CEST

RE: https://mastodon.social/@zackwhittaker/117242363654801025
I'm curious about what's required to activate this feature. Does it have to be switched on for each recording (in which case, it's not terribly different from the audio record feature already on most phones) or is it always on by default?
In any case, users of these devices should probably acquaint themselves with 18 USC § 2511 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2511), which could make it unlawful to leave your new iPhone unattended, as well as state laws that sometimes require all-party consent.

2026-09-09 22:58:25 CEST

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First requirement is that it fit comfortably in my hand and pocket.

2026-09-09 22:40:08 CEST

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I suppose I have to wait for the iPhone Trio, with three narrower panels (if they can make such a thing thin enough).

2026-09-09 22:36:59 CEST

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It's notable that this happened in Frederick, which is home to a large military installation. Not exactly the stereotypical demographics for this sort of community reaction.

2026-09-09 22:32:09 CEST

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I think if I were someone who likes the Pro Max form factor for phones, I'd be more tempted by the Duo.

2026-09-09 22:19:27 CEST

RE: https://dmv.community/@jcrabapple/117242903039893706
It's worth noting that while Musk is perhaps the last person you should share your data with, most privately operated voter registration sites are equal opportunity data harvesters, across the political spectrum.
You can just directly to your state's voter registration site. Vote.gov is an authoritative way to find it (and doesn't currently capture your info).

2026-09-09 22:11:46 CEST

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Basically, this would trade a phone and a tablet that are each the right size for a combo device that's a slightly too big phone and a slightly too small tablet.

2026-09-09 22:05:20 CEST

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Between the camera downgrade and the not-quite-right form factor, this looks less and less compelling for me the closer I look.

2026-09-09 21:57:18 CEST

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Also, they don't seem to list the actual size of the thing anywhere. It looks like it's wider (closed) than my 17 pro, which is about as big as comfortably fits in my hand. But the dimensions don't seem to be listed anywhere.

2026-09-09 21:26:39 CEST

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I feel like next year's version will be the one that does what this year's version promises.

2026-09-09 21:24:14 CEST

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It's really only optically 4x on the 17 pro. But the fold is 2x, which isn't great.

2026-09-09 21:13:12 CEST

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Maybe not a dealbreaker for me, but I'm not loving that the iFold's camera optics are inferior to those on the iPhone 17 pro. That would be a significant downgrade for me.

2026-09-09 21:03:28 CEST

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I remember the collective WTF in NYC when the rest of the country started co-opting the attacks to rattle their sabers, before we even knew what the body count was.

2026-09-09 20:55:11 CEST

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The USG stopped using it for presidential stays in NYC (moving to the Palace a block west).

2026-09-09 20:46:34 CEST

As someone who still feels the scars from that awful day almost 25 years ago, Friday will be a little bit tough even under the best of conditions. But each year, it feels like the anniversary (which has always operated under a political shadow) becomes less a remembrance of what was lost and more a celebration of xenophobia and hate.

2026-09-09 20:29:12 CEST

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I may pull the trigger after a few months of hearing good reports. But I also would be unsurprised if the hinge is fragile or the displays don't reliably line up or whatever.

2026-09-09 20:21:20 CEST

I will admit the new foldy iphone looks tempting, and could potentially replace my aging ipad and not-so-aging phone. But my instinct here is to wait for the second generation to fix the bugs and kinks.

2026-09-09 20:04:34 CEST

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The Waldorf-Astoria is perhaps New York's most prominent monument to jazz age luxury and glamor. It's been the traditional residence for US presidents and foreign heads of state when in town (the "presidential suite" was meant rather literally there).
Built over the below-grade railyard of Grand Central Terminal, the hotel was equipped with a private rail siding and platform where guests could park their personal railcars(!). (Andy Warhol once threw a party on the platform.)

2026-09-09 20:04:09 CEST

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This was captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shifting lens, from a balcony of another building.
It's mostly an exercise in angles and symmetry. The vaguely wedge-shaped dark cloud that appeared overhead, following the lines of the buildings, created a fortuitous moment.
The Waldorf was closed for an extensive renovation shortly after this was made. It only recently re-opened. Many of the previous hotel rooms have been converted into condo apartments.

2026-09-09 20:03:21 CEST

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (and Neighbors), NYC, 2017
All the pixels, extra charge for room service, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/32609074081
#photography
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/242/392/225/115/363/original/3b59bda0be9f83cb.jpg

2026-09-09 02:46:31 CEST

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The ideal here, so rarely achieved, would be things like Pythagorean theorem, where the importance of the problem is obvious, the statement of the problem is simple, and the proof is easily understood and gives us insight.
Almost every modern result in mathematics these days is missing at least one of those three elements.

2026-09-09 02:26:19 CEST

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Also, how many people need to understand a proof for it to be considered a mathematical contribution. I'm not sure I understand, say Wiles' proof of Fermat any better than I understand Appel's (and his computer's) 4 color proof.

2026-09-09 02:16:34 CEST

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I'm not sure the 4 color analogy holds very well; LLM-generated proofs seem categorically different. Appel, after all, had an argument that enumerating all those cases constituted a proof. While no human could do the work of checking all the cases, we can spot check them and at least understand the argument. LLM-generate proofs lack human intuition about the argument itself.

2026-09-08 18:45:28 CEST

DC is patrolled by a large number of specialized police departments.
One that I was not aware of until today is the National Zoo Police. You can imagine my severe disappointment when I saw that the patrol car was not being driven by a uniformed rabbit.

2026-09-08 18:20:45 CEST

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To get a sense of how much variety there is in how elections are done across different US states, NC has already printed and sent out ballots for the November general election, while NH is just holding its primaries today.
[@heidilifeldman](https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman )

2026-09-08 18:13:43 CEST

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Update: it looks like NC ballots are starting to be delivered, which is good news all around.
https://fwoof.space/@BorrisInABox/117236292965060238
[@heidilifeldman](https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman )

2026-09-08 18:11:53 CEST

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thanks!

2026-09-08 18:06:29 CEST

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The first batches of mail-in ballots from North Carolina were apparently accepted by the USPS on Friday (sent only to voters who had requested them), despite Trump's contested executive order and new USPS regulations.
Is anyone here a mail-in voter from NC? Have you received your ballot yet? They should start arriving this week.
[@heidilifeldman](https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman )

2026-09-08 17:48:19 CEST

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Signal bridges are like this are found every few miles along the former Pennsylvania railroad's Northeast Corridor, but these particular signals are unusual. They're used to warn oncoming trains of a temporary interruption in voltage between two track sections fed by different power substations, called a "phase break". There are only a handful of them in the system.
Infrastructure is heroic.

2026-09-08 17:46:13 CEST

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Captured with a DSLR camera and an 85mm shifting lens (with a small amount of vertical shift).
This "Signal Bridge" is a fairly iconic example of industrial design from the electrification of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the early 20th century (and largely still standing today). It supports the electrical catenary wires over the tracks as well as signals that control train movements.

2026-09-08 17:45:32 CEST

Railroad Signal Bridge with Phase Break Indicators, Pennsylvania Railroad, Perryville, MD, 2010
All the pixels, but none of the voltage, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4509479059
#photography
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/236/188/823/017/168/original/85a8227518908193.jpg

2026-09-08 06:51:54 CEST

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yep, verbatim. Template gone badly wrong.

2026-09-08 06:02:35 CEST

Mass emailing professors is not how you apply to our PhD program, but if you do, do NOT start with:
“Dear Professor,
I recently read your paper “NAME OF PROFESSOR PAPER” and was captivated. It inspired me to pursue a graduate studies in AREA1, AREA2 or AREA3. I would be honored to work under your supervision at UNIVERSITY.”
Unfortunately, I am no longer working in AREA1, and UNIVERSITY has other faculty you should consider applying to if you want to work on AREA2 or AREA3.

2026-09-07 20:44:23 CEST

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I got the P1 system less than a year later, and the first thing I wanted to do was re-shoot this. But by then it was too late; no longer accessible.
So, this is yet another example where the camera and lens one has being the best tool for the job, by definition.

2026-09-07 20:44:03 CEST

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If I were going to re-shoot this today, I'd use the Rodenstock 32mm to make two vertically shifted captures and stitch them. This can yield roughly the angle of view of a 16mm lens in 35mm format terms, with excellent edge sharpness and very low geometric distortion.
But this place is no longer safely accessible. It was reached via a side door in the now-shuttered Hyatt, and then carefully crossing the roadway; today you'd have to walk two blocks in traffic behind a blind curve to get there.

2026-09-07 20:42:49 CEST

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Captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shift lens (vertically shifted about 5mm).
Had to dodge some traffic to set up here, but found a protected traffic barrier to be behind with the tripod.
These are two of my favorite buildings in NYC.
This shifted the 19mm Nikkor lens to its limits. Unfortunately this was before I got the Phase One system, which would have allowed a more formally structured and geometrically accurate composition.

2026-09-07 20:42:22 CEST

Grand Central Terminal (with Chrysler Building Photobombing), NYC, 2017.
All the pixels, but without an Apple Store, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/31933507513
#photography
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/231/216/195/702/120/original/68f7444f310064b3.jpg

2026-09-06 23:23:29 CEST

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Sorry, my memory is terrible. I mean Jeff Anderson (Randal).

2026-09-06 23:10:17 CEST

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It did so much with so little. Basically guerrilla filmmaking.

2026-09-06 23:08:11 CEST

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I've not. But as impressive as the maze of tracks at Penn Station is, it doesn't hold a candle to the underground rail yard and interlocking complex at Grand Central.

2026-09-06 22:54:03 CEST

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I saw him in the hall the next week and sheepishly asked if he was in a movie and he seemed surprised that anyone had seen it. He left his day job a few months later, I think.

2026-09-06 22:44:29 CEST

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Jason Mewes (“Jay”, of Jay and Silent Bob) used to deliver my mail at Bell Labs.
When I saw Clerks, I was like, wait, I think I know that guy…

2026-09-06 19:29:58 CEST

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Basically, people who have voted by mail (either because it's the only option or because they did it in some recent election) like voting that way, independent of their other political views/

2026-09-06 19:26:44 CEST

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That's mostly true in states that offer both local precinct voting and no-excuse VBM, but there are both red and blue states where VBM is the primary (or overwhelmingly favored) voting method, and it's very popular in those places across demographics.

2026-09-06 18:25:22 CEST

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Yeah, sorry. The other side of that is that because of the optics of shifting, you can get by with a smaller number of these lenses than you'd expect. One wide, one normal, one moderately long, is a very powerful set.

2026-09-06 18:18:34 CEST

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Captured with the Rodenstock 70mm/5.6 HR-Digiron-W (@ f/6.3) lens. Phase One IQ4-150 back (@ ISO 50), Cambo WRS-5005 Camera (shifted vertically -22mm, pushing the limits of the lens). 16x9 crop.
This fire escape stairwell, recently retrofitted onto the back of Georgetown's Healy Hall, reminded me a bit of a Piet Mondrian painting. Hard afternoon shadows added to the abstract view.

2026-09-06 18:18:14 CEST

Fire Escape, Healy Hall, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2025
All the pixels, each complying with local fire codes, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54481107849
#photography
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/224/991/585/041/148/original/3dad790c3192a58b.jpg

2026-09-06 16:29:33 CEST

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yes. Disappointing that it doesn’t involve Spatula City. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4BUDwj_mXKE

2026-09-06 02:44:14 CEST

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That seems dishonorable for some reason.

2026-09-06 02:33:17 CEST

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I'm getting tool old for the hostage taking business anyway.

2026-09-06 02:22:20 CEST

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This is why I only use letters cut out from newspapers and magazines for my ransom notes.

2026-09-06 02:12:20 CEST

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Oh, I get that there are lots of reasons to like them and want to use them. But I'm wondering if there's a modern business case for them (since that's what drove their manufacture - expand the initials of IBM for details...)

2026-09-06 01:51:51 CEST

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Personally, the nearest ballot drop box is nearer to by house than the nearest mailbox, so it's an easy choice for me.

2026-09-06 01:41:11 CEST

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But if I were a professional forger of old documents, I'd want a garage full of every model I could get my hands on.

2026-09-06 01:38:33 CEST

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A typewriter SEEMS like the sort of thing that would be occasionally useful, but I guess in normal business these days it actually just isn't.

2026-09-06 01:37:13 CEST

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What's the use case for a typewriter these days? For the longest time, well after the word processing era had taken hold, you'd see them in offices for occasional use on envelopes and pre-printed forms. But that seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of address labels and pdf versions of forms.

2026-09-06 00:52:33 CEST

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One thing about the USPS's apparent acceptance of NC's first batch of ballots: this creates a new fact in the case that's probably going to be helpful to the plaintiffs (for this election). The USPS has now accepted "non compliant" ballot mailings for some voters. (And compliance is effectively impossible at this point).
If the USPS later starts refusing ballots, SOME voters will have been allowed to receive mail ballots, while other's will have been denied them.
[@heidilifeldman](https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman )

2026-09-05 23:58:20 CEST

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That's not quite right. The Supreme Court ruled that a previous injunction wasn't ripe because the USPS rule wan't yet final when it was issued. The current injunction is with regard to the actual final rule.
I realize it's fun to pretend you can predict the future, but nothing is "undoubtably" going to happen. We simply don't know how any of this will play out. Fatalism is neither warranted nor helpful.

2026-09-05 22:14:55 CEST

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Adding the Moynihan Hall was a welcome improvement to Penn Station, but didn't address the main problem, which is insufficient capacity for the number of trains that run through it. There aren't enough tracks, the platforms are too narrow, and the tunnels entering and leaving the station have too limited capacity. These more fundamental constraints will be much harder to solve, because the underground area around the station is already heavily crowded.

2026-09-05 22:14:18 CEST

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Moynihan Hall occupies part of what had been New York's main post office building, a block west of the original Penn Station. It was situated over the tracks, with access to platforms, to facilitate Railway Post Office mail delivery, which was common into the 1970's. After the post office moved its sorting operations elsewhere, it was relatively straightforward to repurpose it as an extension of the adjacent railroad station, which is why it only took the better part of 50 years to do.

2026-09-05 22:13:42 CEST

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Many of the design elements of the new hall pay deliberate homage to the lost original, befittingly grand, Penn Station, including especially the prominently exposed steel beams.
There are no seats in the main hall, though there are smaller ticketed waiting areas to the side, as well as a substantial food court. The lack of a "big board" is deliberate, to discourage crowding in any particular area (there is instead a collection of smaller train status monitors spread throughout the hall).

2026-09-05 22:13:04 CEST

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Composite image made Rodenstock 32mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/6.3) lens, Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50, 1/4 sec), Cambo WRS-5005 camera (Shifted vertically +/- 15mm, horizontally +/- 23mm). Stitched composite of 4 images, cropped to 16:9 and 240MP.
Captured here four years after opening, Moynihan Train Hall is a new annex (repurposed from the Post Office) to the otherwise dungeon-like remnants of the old Penn Station, which has been buried under Madison Square Garden since 1963.

2026-09-05 22:12:50 CEST

Moynihan Train Hall, Pennsylvania Station, NYC, 2025
All the pixels, now boarding at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54499376593
#photography
https://cdn.masto.host/federatesocial/media_attachments/files/117/220/253/488/953/049/original/d9c1c560ce40e1f8.jpg

2026-09-05 22:05:32 CEST

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Anyway, I'm just trying to report on what's currently happening, in a single thread. I have no ability to predict the future.

2026-09-05 22:01:26 CEST

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Of course they might do anything. But the biggest concern I had right now is that the administration has often taken the position that court orders from anything less that the Supreme Court don't apply to it. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

2026-09-05 21:54:54 CEST

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The specific politics of NC are important here, but this is also important as a litmus test for whether the administration (via the USPS) is abiding by the court's orders here.

2026-09-05 21:53:39 CEST

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NC votes chiefly in person at local precincts; mail ballots are sent only to the fairly small fraction of NC voters who specifically request them. Friday's batches were for voters who had already asked for them, though the final deadline for doing so isn't until next month.
[@heidilifeldman](https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman )

2026-09-05 21:46:02 CEST

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North Carolina apparently sent out its first batch of ballots yesterday, despite not being fully compliant with Trump's EO and the new postal regulations.. So far I've heard no reports of the USPS refusing to accept them (but it's possible that news hasn't reached here yet).
Assuming they accepted them, that's a significant development. It suggests that the postal service is following the prelim injunction.
Hopefully voters get their ballots delivered uneventfully.
[@heidilifeldman](https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman )

2026-09-05 04:30:12 CEST

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Ouch

2026-09-05 02:49:43 CEST

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That's at least the second Tesla coil on a wagon I've seen. The first being this, via Jim Jarmusch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL9bq3YmHJo

2026-09-05 02:23:54 CEST

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I didn't know skunks sprayed to mark territory (rather than just as a defense). Useful to know.
Also, how much does a tarp cost vs a sufficient quantity of tomato juice and H2O2?

2026-09-05 02:13:24 CEST

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I interpreted this as: Dog moved security camera to spy on the cat's perch. Cat moved camera back to protect their privacy.

2026-09-05 02:06:56 CEST

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Not a practical approach in my own case. I envy those who can.

2026-09-05 02:06:10 CEST

Been riding that razor's edge between trying to be understanding of a stranger who's obviously struggling with some mental health issues and protecting myself from a potentially dangerous stalker.

2026-09-05 01:51:30 CEST

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So they tell me.

2026-09-05 00:23:05 CEST

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the funny thing is, as scary as it may be, the use of a QR code isn’t itself the problem (assuming post election audits use the printed text). The problem is, QR code or not, BMDs assume something (that the voter checks) that simply isn’t true sufficiently often.

2026-09-05 00:07:09 CEST

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ugh. Hope they managed to self extricate.

2026-09-05 00:00:47 CEST

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I should also note that BMDs are an important voting accessibility technology; they allow assistive interfaces for marking ballots such as audio, multiple languages, and mobility aids like sip-and-puff. The issue arises in systems that require their use by all voters, with no provision for directly hand marking the paper for voters who can do so.

2026-09-04 23:47:15 CEST

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The problem with BMDs is that they require the voters to diligently confirm that the printed selections are correct before casting the ballot, and every study done so far suggests that voters don’t actually do this very well.
So a malfunctioning or malicious BMD could affect an election outcome.

2026-09-04 23:43:45 CEST

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Different models behave differently. Virtually all print the ballot selections in human readable form, but some encode the selections in a barcode for scanning and tabulation. The human readable printout would be used in an audit or recount, however.

2026-09-04 23:30:47 CEST

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Fortunately, and ironically given the low trust in elections today, there has been terrific progress over the last decade in making US elections more secure. Inherently insecure touchscreen DRE voting machines are rapidly disappearing. Post-election risk-limiting audits are being adopted in more jurisdictions every year.
But there’s still work to be done, including (even if it makes some uncomfortable) some of the things recommended by the administration.

2026-09-04 23:16:01 CEST

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So once again, there’s no simple, clean partisan narrative here. There’s still work to do to improve the security and robustness of US elections, and understanding the path forward here requires rolling up one’s sleeves and digging in to the details.

2026-09-04 23:12:16 CEST

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This is an example of what a mixed bag the election “reforms” coming out of the administration are. Some of it (the attacks on ERIC, the baseless claims of widespread fraud, etc) is plain, easily refuted, nonsense.
But others are fully consistent with findings and recommendations of experts. Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) *are* problematic security risks. While there is no evidence thus far of elections being rigged by hacking, we should eliminate vulnerable technologies like BMDs and DREs.

2026-09-04 22:12:47 CEST

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The "would I call security if this person were in my office" test is a useful one for blocking.