I was voter number 27 at 9:54 AM in Ann Arbor precinct 5-47. There were about eight workers operating the election. I voted yes on funding for career and technical education. If voters continue to favor early and absentee voting, maybe we can further consolidate polling places, move them out of […]

O_O Um…I'm not sure I'm gonna waste time blogging about Atlas. This is literally the first thing I did with it. I even hinted it had prompt injection. Don't use it. Don't use any "AI" powered browser. Ever.

I clicked on a catchy headline from NPR. Then I noticed the image description sounded AI generated. Then I looked again at the image and realized it was *definitely* AI generated. WTF NPR #slop

I'm running another small AI experiment at work, trying out LLMs for text classification. Both I and the author model (Claude Sonnet 4.5) have improved since I tried a few months ago. A breakthrough: giving the design spec that I want the results outputted into an Excel file with nice […]

The City of Ann Arbor's new Open Data Portal is live! https://data.a2gov.org/ I've been working on this for months. My favorite part: it showcases our dashboards and maps! We have raw data available too, but I think 99% of people would rather interact with the […] [Original post on a2mi.social]

A super-militarized ICE is getting more and more violent. After assaulting a musician playing the theme from “Ghostbusters”, ICE took her out of Oregon, to Washington state, where she remains in jail […]

LEZBEAN #a2vanityplatespotting

Sometimes I don't really wanna go ride my bike, but I do it anyways because I need the exercise. By the time I'm a few minutes in, I forget that I didn't want to go.

My dog's not bothered by 4th of July fireworks, but she sure is scared by the animatronic zombie raccoon Halloween decoration my neighbor has! It's right by the sidewalk and lunges out of a garbage can on a motion sensor.

I can’t keep up. This shit is wild. So far, I count: • 3 frogs +1 skeleton frog • 3 fabulous unicorns • 1 polar bear • 1 panda bear • 3 sharks • 1 albino raccoon • 1 tuxedo cat • 1 Bag of Holding that keeps dispensing inflatable costumes. #protest #portland #Portland #fuckice #USpol

A skeleton frog has joined Operation: Inflation at the #protest in #portland in front of the ICE field office! #Portland #fuckice #USpol

I had not seen that Framework computers (@frameworkcomputer) has a 12" convertible laptop/tablet and a really cute desktop computer. I do not need these things now, the laptop I bought from them last year is meeting my needs. But they are really neat products. A fully-repairable tablet! […]

I hit my annual cycling goal biking me, a kid, a bench, 8 soccer balls, and other gear to a game across town. Feels fitting.

Street artist David Zinn has 3 million TikTok followers and yet he also runs a Fediverse account with 3k followers? I love it. https://pixelfed.social/p/DavidZinn/879345195876330014

I'm #3dprinting with tree supports for the first time. The green "trees" hold up the parts that might otherwise sag. Then you tear them out when you're done. The slicing software generates them automatically! I'm printing this […] [Original post on a2mi.social]

Twice now I have had the back tire pressure on my #cargobike get so low - <15 psi - and put 120 lbs of kids on the back that the tire squishes down and my derailleur scrapes the pavement 😱 not a noise I like! I have inflated the tires. Check on yours, maybe.

The approach to the University of Michigan' Yost Ice Arena is frequently overflowing with mopeds. They must be a big hit with hockey players! There are hockey helmets hanging from some of them.

I dislike these JewBelong billboards that have been deployed in Ann Arbor. The #1 thing making life less safe for American Jews like me is Israel committing genocide with American weapons. Weaponizing the specter of antisemitism to shield Israel from criticism is abhorrent […]

I read half of this, then scrolled up to check the URL because it read as satire. Microsoft is going with the term "vibe working"?? And bragging about 57% accuracy?? https://www.theverge.com/news/787076/microsoft-office-agent-mode-office-agent-anthropic-models I use AI coding tools heavily but […]

I'm at the grand opening of Courageous Books, the new bookstore in Dexter, MI! Sooooo many books I want to read.

Where do people find #3dprinting designs these days? I used to use Thingiverse but it seems like maybe it got enshittified and there's more traction around Printables?

if this works, i will be paying $20/month to prevent bots from reading my site while paying less than $5/month to let human read the site.

It feels a little weird how precisely this describes me. But I'll take it. https://a2mi.social/@[email protected]/115188657111267406

My boys configured an "educational" web game so that all the answers are nonsense and all correct

Just donated blood with the Red Cross and there is a new machine that measures your hemoglobin through the outside of your finger! No more finger poke. They also switched to forehead thermometer instead of under the tongue and a blood pressure machine instead of the phlebotomist taking it by […]

@alex did you author the snap for ruff? I just installed it and it said the author's name and I thought, I think I know that name and handle!

I went to Common Cycle bike co-op seeking advice on what was wrong with the back wheel of a kid's bike I'm ready to sell. The line was really long so I started trying to help the people around me. I fixed up a couple people, then it was my turn and immediately the volunteer mechanic pointed out […]

Grilling tofu for lunches for the week

This is a special podcast episode: a young researcher in the 1980s taped oral history interviews with Alabama radicals who had been born in the 1900s and 1910s. Now himself 40 years older, Robin DG Kelly relistens to some of those tapes. The way those three time periods weave together […]

Pauline Boulevard in #AnnArbor is about to reopen with new buffered bike lanes in both directions from South Seventh Street to Main Street. There's also this bike box at the intersection of Pauline and Seventh. New lighting and safer crosswalks as well. This […] [Original post on a2mi.social]

Last time I played organized sports was in 2010, with the Ann Arbor Soccer Association. Then I quit when my first kid was born. Fifteen years later, I'm back! I have my first adult hockey game on Friday, in the "never-ever" played before league.

The big street nearby me has been getting repaved this summer. I keep seeing workers without any respiratory protection doing jobs like sawing concrete (!). Today it was grinding off the asphalt surface and spraying down the lane line paint. I didn't feel great about even walking near it. It […]

I hadn't been to a Michigan game in some years. The bad: Alcohol sales and louder sound / more videos The good: cell phone light shows, singing Mr. Brightside

Perhaps it's time to tap the chart again. Left-handed people were once seen as sinister (the word sinister, from Latin, originally meant "left" or "on the left side") so kids were forced to be right-handed. However, with advances in science it became clear […] [Original post on mastodon.world]

@ceejbot you may want to file this away: https://doineedkubernetes.com/

@futurebird an excellent idea. In case anyone with kids comes here wondering what's near this space already, I think Journey/Abzû and the child-friendly free MMO Sky are one branch. There are also a *few* free open-source games that are kid-friendly; I'd put Battle for Wesnoth high on that […]

Carpooling: the gateway form of mutual aid for upper-middle class people. When you have the money to sign your kids up for activities and time has become the limiting resource.

My most-mended pants are ready for another fall #mending #sashiko

Steve's larval chicken is tasty as hell

Some friends got together for a night of card gaming. They accidentally summoned a demon and it ate them all. It was tragic, the gathering.

Some friends got together for a night of card gaming. They inadvertently summoned a demon and it ate them all. It was tragic, the gathering.

My decentralized version of a sharing library is getting close to ready. Work-in-progress screenshot attached. This article is inspirational - and I think we can share even more if we lend directly to each other! https://social.afront.org/@MLE_online/115066955300787508

Trying to decide if should read Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death". Opinions? #bookstodon

Rolled over a big round number on my cargo e-bike odometer

Until recently eBay included the USPS tracking number of the package in its update emails. Now I see it wants me to sign in to my account to see the tracking number. Is this #enshittification driven by someone's bonus depending on user engagement? Where if this drives some fraction of people to […]

Like in the pub you might overhear 🐴 You thought of a better name for your handyman business yet 🦊 Well, you didn't like Mister Fingers so, 🐴 Aye I didn't 🦊 It suggested DEXTEROUS and NIMBLE 🐴 No it didn't 🦊 Alright so I had a think, thought "Age, continuity, experience, competence, comfort" 🐴 […]

🐹 it stands for "hhgxyxynszzyr ain't painus"

🐧 Finally, my new search software is finished 🐧 Twice as fast and user friendly as the corpo shit, but free and empowering and only contains useful information 🐧 This is going to change the world 🐧 I call it Andrew's New Userfriendly Search