The Windows "date modified" attribute is really important for sorting, but somehow.. just really badly implemented Often the date modified gets updated even when there was no file change Basically have to do the old-school thing of putting dates in filenames if you want to be able to keep track

Nice aurora borralis map right now, if you're up and far-enough north!

Aaand the load-bearing feed is down

I have long thought the hyper focus on the Nobel prize by many “bigshot” scientists is bad for science… I had never considered that the hyper focus of a US president on the Nobel peace prize could be bad for peace

It’s been a year and I use them but I have absolutely no idea what a passkey is. Half the time login fails with them and I have to do something else that works (like a password). I refuse to understand more. I’m tired of computers and don’t care. This is what it’s like for every non-nerd, isn’t it?

Probably time to write to write to our congressional representatives.. maybe they can be convinced to shut down this greenland nonsense

Every time I teach electrodynamics, intro optics/photonics, or my grad nanophotonics class, I get pangs of wanting to write a textbook with unified notation, such that all of the topics build on each other ... But I've never had enough time to within even an order of magnitude to do it well

From what I can tell, none of the LLM-based models understand geometry very well (as measured by the ability to draw and evaluate simple diagrams in svg, for example) Interesting that they can do as well as they do on math competition problems

Honestly, there are so many cool things to work on + explore Instead, a lot of reaching out to program managers, writing pointlessly detailed budget justifications, etc. And if things go well, a bunch of reporting where every agency has their own format and requirements Need something better..

I assume the right way to make a bluesky feed is to listen to posts from the firehose ... but couldn't you also just have it search for whatever you need and build the feed that way? Is the downside that it's just slow?

Starting my 12th year in Madison

Three quick thoughts: 1. It's kind of fun to click through random NSF grants 2. Totally wild that I can make this in like 45 mins, while taking a break ..

The Paul tweet has a stunning degree of financial illiteracy, never mind the lack of fact checking and the underlying lack of curiosity Very annoying.

Would be cool to have an open-source competitor to reddit, but a closed-source one? I don't know, reddit is basically the best of the bunch..

I... what?

I am bad at guitar, so it takes me a ton of time to learn to play anything, by which point I am bored and tired of the bit I am trying to learn Is there a name for the crossover point where the time it takes to learn a piece is exactly equal to the amount of time at which boredom sets in?

A well-functioning electoral system would result in one blob on this chart, not two discontinuous ones

Bluesky on Android has had a bug for >1 year, where some fraction of the time when I go to my profile, there are no posts displayed The bug survived updates, a re-install, and a change of phones, so I am pretty sure it is real I tried reporting it a few times and no luck Anyone else see this bug?

Two funding rejections today. Starting to circle the drain a bit! Let's hope for a better rest of 2026

I definitely experience some version of this, where I put off a task I'm dreading (especially if there are multiple unread emails about it in an unread thread) www.nature.com/articles/d41... The main ways out seem to be (1) procrastinating on something even less pleasant or (2) absolute deadline

Is it just me or is Jan 2026 even crazier than any time in 2025?

Given that a custom feed run by one person is kinda load-bearing for Bluesky, what's going to happen if/when there is an influx of new users?

Claude "compacting conversation" is a nice feature but it would be much better if it gave the user the option to select portions to keep/discard

as of today putin's three-day military operation has lasted as long as the Great Patriotic War. congrats to irony for its total victory over russia

The protestors in Iran are brave Hope the Iranian people can have a better future

Skin impression of an edmontosaurus, a large duck-billed dinosaur, showing small scales From the Hell Creek formation, ~66 mya

Did some analysis of my publishing, looking at papers as independent PI vs as PhD student or postdoc The 2025 spike is artificially high because some 2025 preprints will eventually become 2026 journal papers and will be counted in 2026

"Be polite"

Made a github account and connected it to claude Am I a software engineer now?

I would join a 1-2 tutorial/hackathon on building stuff using coding agents Really want one targeted at people who can code very little things but don't know how modern apps/websites/etc are structured, infrastructure, tools, etc. I think that describes most scientists, including me

Reposting three optics tools/applets recently posted on my group website: katsgroup.ece.wisc.edu/tools (best viewed in desktop): 🧪💡 1. Unit converter for wavelength, etc., that names the wavelength range + shows color 2. Blackbody radiation calculator 3. Spectral distribution range comparator

Imagining how much nice research I could've gotten done all last year if I didn't have to devote so many mental cycles to funding uncertainty for my group 🤔

All I'm going to say about the MN thing is that it's very important that police (of all types) have legitimacy in the eyes of the people I can hardly think of a worse thing for building legitimacy than police wearing balaclavas to hide their faces How do you even know they're police?

Per the reconciled versions of the appropriations bills out of congress, science funding will almost remain flat from the previous year (very slight decrease, plus the inflation penalty) Not great, but still a big relief given what could have happened 🧪 cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

Learned that even more people have the flu Biiig wave

Test EDITED post (edited)

First edited post on bluesky?

I generally find it strange how little people seem to value... things they read being true and correct For people active online, there's a record of their takes/statements/predictions sometimes going back many years. Seems to be no correlation at all between a strong record + their reach

I regret to inform you all that the most-effective social network for academic scientists is LinkedIn, and has been for a while

1/ Second preprint of 2026: "Silicon-on-sapphire metasurfaces generate arrays of dark and bright traps for neutral atoms" arxiv.org/abs/2601.01038 💡🧪 We designed and fabricated metasurface from silicon-on-sapphire wafers, that convert a Gaussian beam into arrays of complex optical traps for atoms

Rewatched the beginning of Stranger Things and it's just a lot better than what it became by the end Gritty and earnest and nostalgic

The number of people I know with the flu is 😬 Makes me want to stay out of the office for a week

Reposting three optics tools/applets recently posted on my group website: katsgroup.ece.wisc.edu/tools (best viewed in desktop): 🧪💡 1. Unit converter for wavelength, etc., that names the wavelength range + shows color 2. Blackbody radiation calculator 3. Spectral distribution range comparator

We had one paper posted on arXiv today, and another one coming tomorrow. If we extrapolate this trend to the end of the year, I can retire

1/ New preprint: "Anti-reflection coatings for highly anisotropic materials in the mid infrared" arxiv.org/abs/2601.00558 💡🧪 We have been developing materials with some of the largest optical birefringence -- in some cases with Δn > 2 in the mid infrared. With a Δn, making AR coatings is nontrivial

My encyclopedias circa age 5-9, which I was sufficiently attached to that we lugged them across the Atlantic

Some thoughts about what types of feeds are missing on Bluesky

Found my dog on google streetview (on a walk), and google blurred out the tip of his nose like it does human faces

2026 is off to a rocky start, but on the flip side I did submit two preprints to arXiv

Already soiling the sterling reputation of the FIFA peace prize