John DeTreville ✅

Retired systems researcher and practitioner and regular old computer guy since 1966. Worked at MIT, Bell Labs, DEC SRC, Microsoft Research, VMware, Apple, Google, and excessive others. Got my PhD at one of those too. Very smart ⋀ very good-looking!

Last Notes

2025-10-21 23:33:42 UTC

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The tricky part is finding an existing app that allows easy, effective side-channel communication of geographically targeted real-time information. Leaving anti-ICE Yelp reviews won’t cut it, for example.

2025-10-21 02:15:37 UTC

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Corporate America isn’t making it easy, though. The White House told Apple to remove several ICE-tracking apps from its App Store because they make ICE agents feel unsafe, and Apple said yes. Time for workarounds! https://www.wired.com/story/apple-took-down-ice-tracking-apps-their-developers-arent-giving-up/

2025-10-20 16:25:41 UTC

Google Maps lets drivers mark “Unplowed Roads.” These warnings are now popping up in Southern California to warn of ICE agents on the loose… because of the “icy” conditions. I love users!

2025-09-27 02:25:32 UTC

My Windows XP Crocs were just delivered, covered with geeky desktop-icon charms! When they were announced a couple of months ago, all the news stories explained they’re currently available only to Microsoft employees… and me too, I guess!
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/115/273/887/303/336/884/original/66927ac8d9a3c271.jpeg

2024-09-27 22:20:42 UTC

I once had a loud co-worker who loved his big new SUV, always telling everyone how much safer his family would be in a collision. This seemed borderline immoral to me, if reducing fatalities in his own SUV risked the lives of the people in the other vehicles instead (plus pedestrians, etc.). How much can you reasonably endanger others in order to protect yourself? It’s an interesting question, a little like the runaway trolley problem.
Now there’s data, shown below: driving SUVs significantly increases the total fatalities in collisions. The Economist writes: “For every life the heaviest one percent of SUVs or [personal] trucks saves… more than a dozen lives are lost in smaller vehicles.”
The people in my co-worker’s big SUV were a little more likely to survive, but those other people were much more likely to be killed. Is this moral? Is this right? My co-worker clearly valued the lives of his family well above the lives of others, so his own decision might have been rational, but it suggests a massive market failure.
Discuss.
https://fd.discuss.systems/media_attachments/files/113/211/843/598/281/468/original/cf1ccfc5f29a9a3d.jpeg