I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland. And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

Wow my @commodoreofficial.bsky.social 64 is here and it’s just perfect www.tiktok.com/t/ZThxTMs9G/

Got Rayhunter running, fun start to the weekend. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

So many developers have sent me that Anthropic skills/mastery case study that I realized I should ungate what I *already wrote* about this: beginning principles to design workflows that work *with* your mind, not against it, & protect your problem-solving www.fightforthehuman.com/cognitive-he...

This has been my biggest fear in WA re: anti-ICE prep... liberal organizers losing the thread on effective tactics and policing(!) the response as a result. Both myself and my oldest teenage daughter have over-reactive nervous systems. We have coping mechanisms and fully support the whistles.

Unsurprisingly, @jpaulreed.com asks some very thoughtful questions for those tasked with supporting US based organizations and teams running critical systems in today's world. jpaulreed.com/thoughts/ada...

Every paycheck I hit a different section. Find what works for you... Seattle is over here anticipating a spicy summer.

Ok, let me just find the key to my TARDIS...

i love a free country, where the president's secret police can shoot out the windows of random citizens with impunity

The unspoken rules for protest in the US have been, for decades, that if you have a big tame sign-holding march, it's safe to bring your kids. If you're not perceived as threatening their power, they'll leave you alone. Which means they perceive their unpopularity as a threat to their power

what impressed me most today was that a huge crowd of people who mostly had never been tear gassed managed to retreat without running or trampling each other. under a cloud of gas that was not moving (zero wind), people held onto each other and walked blind down a street packed tight as sardines

would love to hear from journalists on this! unfortunately i know very few so don’t have the info…

Local cops have put out a statement saying they will expressly disobey the Mayor‘s order to protect Seattlites from ICE violence. In case anyone was wondering

We haven’t found evidence of Stingrays being used at protests in the US yet, but if you’re going to a protest, why not bring Rayhunter to be sure? Don’t forget to charge and update it, then let us know what you find! efforg.github.io/rayhunter/s...

I wrote about my time in Minneapolis last week, about what is involved in creating bottom-up, decentralized networks of care. margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/our-neighb...

My Beacon Hill neighbors are going door to door signing the community up on a group Signal and sharing resources for dealing with ICE. www.greatforallcid.com/neighborhood...

I've started printing portable water bottle based eye wash stations too (www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/...) in addition to whistles. I'll be bringing 10 to Strike ICE on Friday the 23rd for those who need.

Want to help support people in Minnesota right now? Check out standwithminnesota.com

Given everything happening right now, I updated this article with options for weather apps, web forms, and translation services — along with some tweaks to existing categories. I hope it helps your transition off US tech!

I think there's kind of a bathtub curve around this concept in the industry where people at the start of the curve don't have ideological purity to contaminate their decisions, people in the middle hold onto it fiercely, and very senior folks have had the realization that value can be worth the mess

I’m reliably informed that three days before Christmas is the ideal time to post exciting professional news on social media, so: I’m hosting a podcast! About media! For @columjournreview.bsky.social! It’s gonna be fun; subscribe here: www.cjr.org/the-kicker

Friends! I have one more story about heat pumps to share with you in 2025. It's a biggie! About some real biggies! Behold: the biggest heat pumps in the world www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Information from NWS Seattle: In coordination with King County, we have issued a FLASH FLOOD WARNING for a levee breach in Tukwila WA near Todd, Blvd. Water is likely moving north towards I-405. In addition, an evacuation notice is now in effect from King County.

Hmm...my 7th grade daughter, who has a dystopian fiction unit in ELA, commenting about getting to experience a dystopian world sooner than we expect...may not be far off.

Friendly reminder you can opt out of getting your pic taken going through TSA, even if the airport doesn't post signs saying you can and the TSA agent tries to come up with a reason you can't. 90% of the time they have been chill about it. #dontbealemming

Fellow #StarTrek fans: the writers told us what to look for. We are seeing it now.

Although... obviously starting with Sneakers.

Will also be watching Spy Game tonight. "Technology gets better everyday. That's fine. But most of the time all you need is a stick of gum, a pocket knife and a smile."

I am of the opinion that GenAI is being shoved into far too many places. However...I do not miss the pre-Claude days of troubleshooting arcane SELinux issues. #ai #selinux #linux

BLACK SKIES OVER PROJECT (Apartment) 2025 PUBLIC ENEMY drop surprise new album,!! We hear you and we here to still Fight the Power with ya as The Hits Keep On Comin You can’t stream it but you can pay what you want for the next 72 hours at bandcamp. publicenemy.bandcamp.com/album/black-...

Prep for the prod launch of the first component of a major rewrite of our loan servicing app is hitting high gear. An appropriate time to sport one of my (many) favorite @charity.wtf lines.

Noisy alerts are automated, unscheduled, agenda-less meetings for one.

My first book is out TODAY. I worked so hard on this thing and now I feel like this. I can’t wait for you to read it. Please pick up a copy wherever you buy books!

Took a Stop the Bleed course because it feels like this summer could be spicy. Find one here: www.stopthebleed.org/training/. I took one offered by Seattle. Only an hour long and at a nearby community center. They run them frequently! There is also an online course available.

On a work trip, a couple of us were fortunate to meet Megan while she was on holiday. Heard a bit about Bad Company and can't wait to read it. We're excited for the Town Hall event...if you are in Seattle, join us!

Great example of the Streisand effect.

I am going to write an opinion paper called "psychologists should stop researching getting girls to code and research changing software cultures"

I get more enjoyment than I should from declining to have TSA take my picture...and the human glancing at my ID is faster than the algorithms, so win all around.

Not lost on me that it's nonprofit tech, app.watchduty.org, showing up & actually working in the midst of the LA fires (donate to them!) Meanwhile platforms fail to surface key news, vital info is paywalled... As I've been saying, we need a new tech paradigm, yesterday!

Got the car out on the Pacific Raceways road course over the weekend. I love the rainy weather...you can learn so much on a wet track. A first was the occasional thick fog and getting the car sideways unintentionally at 55mph out of turn 2 in an adrenaline-infused learning experience 😅.

Well, this is...something: www.npr.org/2024/12/29/n... "In Skamania County, harming Bigfoot is punishable by a $1,000 fine and can include jail time, a law meant to protect the mysterious creature and to prevent hunters with large beards from accidentally getting shot." #themoreyouknow #sasquatch

In other news, I did feed my inner sysadmin last week. Booted up the mid-2010 Mac mini running Fedora. Installed/configred Apache, PostgreSQL, and FreshRSS. All via Ansible. It brought me a lot of joy to both tinker and no longer be an RSS aggregator product 😊. #opensource #selfhost

Sigh... Still catching myself using problematic terms I have yet to question. Today's entry: whitelist/blacklist. It's Allow/Deny list now. Fortunately, caught this before the writeup went out...but cringing for all the years I have said these without a thought.

#Seattle had a bomb cyclone come through last night. Can you tell when the wind started? ⚡⚡ Seattle City Light had well over 100k without power last night, and over 50k still without this morning. We were fortunate!

Mom mentioned she'd been upset the last week or two because Tom Hanks died suddenly. "He's alive and fine...where did you hear this?!?" YouTube. And turns out this isn't the first false celebrity death YouTube's FYP got her on in the past month. Algorithms, man. 🤦‍♂️

I may have developed an unhealthy obsession with e-ink devices over the years. Today I learned about daylightcomputer.com and now I have something new at the top of the wish list. And they are a PBC (Public Benefit Corporation)!

Hi friends! In an effort to distract myself today, helping a mid-sized, heavily regulated company (finance) get started on AWS correctly. They have no existing cloud presence and have just started learning cloud and DevOps concepts. Any reason not to just start with AWS Control Tower these days?

Love the King County Elections (Seattle area) team...they have a ballot tracker that lets you get notified every step in the process. Dropped mine at a nearby drop box yesterday, 6 hours later had a text "We received your ballot!" ♥️ King County friends: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...

Joined Bluesky this week, love the familiar faces and vibes! And, very cool that you can bring your domain name.