Les Orchard

he / him; semi-hermit in PDX, USA; tinkerer; old adhd cat dad; serial enthusiast; editor-at-large for http://lmorchard.com; astra mortemque superare gradatim; tootfinder

Public Key

npub18jyrann2h5gm6epq2myua55vfzpc7cwuarsfp8vkhr5p5ctqwxhs00lv2g

NIP-05 Address

lmorchard_at_hackers.town@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrezp7ee4t6ydavss9djww62xy3qu0v8ww3cysnktt36q6v9s8rtcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q3yelcy

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub18jyrann2h5gm6epq2myua55vfzpc7cwuarsfp8vkhr5p5ctqwxhs00lv2g

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-06-14 00:24:22

You know, I, too, could lead your company into driving its stock down by 30-50% for the mere sum of $1 billion per year.
It would be a challenge, but I could do it. I'm not even looking for double-digits here. Or even multiple years of employment.

2024-06-13 23:29:14

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8 I do think perhaps you have a different attitude toward ants than many other folks

2024-06-07 20:50:00

scifi idea: when the AI bubble bursts, the sidewalks of san francisco fill up with small fusion reactors once used to support GPUs, kind of like aeron chairs in the 2000s once used to support dotcom butts. everyone runs off with cheap energy in the lull until the next stupid craze

2024-06-07 17:06:58

Really wish there was a feature in Zoom where I could “peek” in a room to see who’s there or at least see a head count before joining

2024-06-03 19:55:20

There are dozens of us! (gaming on linux on AMD CPU + GPU)
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Steam-2024-Above-2

2024-05-31 20:18:32

The year is 2030, all graphical user interfaces are illegal. Everything talks. The punks on the street are twiddling knobs and pushing buttons

2024-05-30 21:23:48

You know, there's a part of me who WISHES the Biden administration was shady & cunning enough to actually have rigged a trial against Trump.
But, like, which is it? Biden & Co are too feeble & dumb to wipe own their asses? or Biden & Co are evil geniuses pulling all the strings?
Neither, Trump's just a crook and the system may or may not actually make it stick and Biden doesn't really have much to do with it

2024-05-30 16:12:25

helpmeiaminhell
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/530/916/107/678/523/original/10be2690e758db5b.png

2024-05-29 01:00:50

- reply

@npub1sfl…gczt You could also make a Oxacan Old Fashioned if you have a little tequila along with that mezcal! https://www.thespruceeats.com/oaxaca-old-fashioned-recipe-5210400

2024-05-26 16:56:01

- reply

@npub1mxu…3edu "at a loss" could be a good name 🤔

2024-05-21 18:35:09

Time vertigo moment: I plucked a book from my shelf. It is the 1999 "20th-anniversary Edition" of Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.
Inside is a faded receipt that I used as a bookmark from the last time I was reading the book. It's dated 2004.
The bookmark has itself seen its 20th anniversary.
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/480/525/680/964/681/original/805ed9e4cb6341fc.jpeg
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/480/526/284/397/569/original/fe37485e391c831b.jpeg

2024-05-20 20:14:41

Hahahahahahahahha
“We have seen instances where people have commented that an advert was AI-generated rubbish when it was not,” he says, adding that it could become a problem for the social media industry if consumers “start to feel they are being served rubbish all the time”.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/19/spam-junk-slop-the-latest-wave-of-ai-behind-the-zombie-internet

2024-05-19 16:24:09

Yeah emulating games with Delta on an iPhone is great, but have you ever had a handheld game console with built-in buttons? /s

2024-05-14 05:50:20

There's a guy named "Pete Grabiel" running for state representative here in Oregon.
Every time I see his commercial, I think I'm having a slight stroke and wonder why Peter Gabriel is running for office here

2024-05-13 19:39:18

- reply

Update: he’s still in there
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/435/472/430/211/592/original/9873681d14a465af.jpeg

2024-05-13 16:42:34

Just heard a rustling and realized Catsby found his new box #cats
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/434/776/189/431/351/original/064fc0fb26acf22f.jpeg
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/434/780/784/126/587/original/d9ed819a4443c582.jpeg

2024-05-11 20:39:21

Alright, Armenia is fun & boppy as heck #eurovision

2024-05-11 20:31:08

WINDOWS95MAN: simultaneously SO MUCH DENIM yet so little pants #eurovision

2024-05-08 19:00:46

- reply

@npub19st…u9g9 Been kind of thinking in recent years that spinning HDs are the new tapes

2024-05-07 20:09:46

Well WINDOWS95MAN from #Finland look like nice boys.
#eurovision #denim
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/401/614/525/962/486/original/b7ba68a915ea5df4.png

2024-05-07 19:28:31

Apologies in advance, I may toot with annoying frequency about #eurovision this week.
Like, Bambie Thug is pretty rad
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/401/456/021/370/069/original/55b1f23117f1d400.png

2024-05-06 22:29:44

I kinda wish Mastodon described "content warnings" more as "subject headers" to make them maybe sound like a mutual-utility thing than a "censorship aaaaa i thought this was america aaaaa stop bullying me" mess.
It's really handy to have toots labelled with a subject, whether that subject's something folks do or do not want to hear about.

2024-05-04 23:36:55

Attempting a refresh of some silica gel dessicant pellets for my #3dprinting filament boxen. 2 hours at 225F in the oven. Looks like it worked, insofar as they went from dark colored to bright colored again?
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/385/440/374/971/859/original/3bd9292c1ae4bacb.jpeg
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/385/440/393/584/599/original/7bf79b249569b141.jpeg
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/385/440/409/122/630/original/6ad2b1a4607d529e.jpeg

2024-04-25 04:09:04

Current #cats on couch status
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/329/890/959/461/264/original/95c4a74f53bcd3ca.jpeg

2024-04-19 23:10:22

https://blog.geocities.institute/archives/7358
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/300/404/388/426/309/original/35a47c4dd6dbf66f.png

2024-04-18 03:08:37

Apple products are magic! (1)
(1) animated by capricious and baffling thought-forms through which I have occasionally and inadvertently summoned a Nemesis that will hunt me to my end of days

2024-04-09 17:58:08

Just watched an ADHD coach on youtube say the best mindfulness meditation trick to work for her in years was to stand on one leg for 5 minutes (2:30, each side) - and you know what? I'm in

2024-04-02 20:54:10

meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting
snack food snack food
meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting
SLACK DM SLACK DM OH IT'S A SLACK

2024-03-19 03:27:05

An evening of couch computing with Cheddars and Catsby #cats
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/120/220/973/396/751/original/4760428a5fef1b1e.jpeg
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/120/220/976/366/905/original/d9fecaf3f016b7ca.jpeg

2024-03-15 16:26:51

We're still trying to make Didthis happen on my team at Mozilla!
It's not AI, and it's not (exactly) social media. It's just a baby step into trying to build a cozy web flavored tool for sharing hobby enthusiasms.
I built a mobile app for it at the end of last year, then a Discord bot at the start of this year. We're kind of letting it simmer for now, feature-wise, to see if we can drum up interest and decide to keep building.
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/introducing-didthis-a-new-app-for-hobbyists/

2024-03-14 19:18:10

I've been a TikTok user for about 5 years. I've seen things change a lot on there. But, also, I know what I've seen is related to how their algorithm's model of my interests has changed. Their algorithm isn't a magic oracle, but I do think they've managed to implement something interesting.
Your mileage will vary. But, when I see folks dismiss the service as "that place where the kids do their little dances", those folks are telling me they have no idea what's going on with TikTok. (That, or maybe they're just faving every dancing kid they see?)
I haven't seen a teen dance on there in probably 3-4 years. I see cats & crows & critters, queer jokes, drag acts, nerd fandom stuff, political commentary, general life-in-america commentary, current news, ADHD & autism content - all stuff I'm interested in care about and it's all served up more reliably than on any other communications channel.
The main thing TikTok themselves seem to inject are incessant attempts to make me directly buy something - which, I mean, seems more honest than weird advertising.
I do have to work hard to keep the tinfoil hat from settling on my head, though. Maybe I'm soaking in "Chinese propaganda" so thick I don't perceive it? But it seems really suspect that my government's been able to turn on a dime so fast with this thing of all things.
My real tinfoil-hat notion brewing is that all "China" (or insert random adversary here) has to do to destabilize America is just let us talk about how fucked up shit is - they don't really have to nudge us at all.

2024-03-14 17:24:28

- reply

@npub1t8u…c7sk @npub1wvr…ur2y @npub1uyh…d3wt Glitch is one of my very favorite things on the internet! Happy Birthday, Glitch! 👏👏👏

2024-03-12 18:15:43

- reply

@npub1cat…9z7c :oof: dang, that's a good one!

2024-03-12 18:00:43

Have seen a few headlines now where apparently Trump is trying to make "Honest Don" happen as his own nickname?
Is that like calling a big dude "Tiny"? Or a bald dude "Curly"? Or calling me "Champ"?

2024-03-05 21:29:52

Catsby got a box #cats
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/112/045/204/636/248/258/original/88f82543df4f9b57.mp4

2024-02-28 19:34:33

Now introducing generative smell models! Experience the luxurious musk of rich Corinthian leather - with just a slight waft of something disturbing. Maybe it's benzene? Or is that raccoon shit? (Why do you know what raccoon shit smells like?)

2024-02-28 01:09:55

TIL: you can render HTML, CSS, and SVG in many browsers' javascript console?!
https://frontendmasters.com/blog/console-delight/

2024-02-23 19:58:14

oh, so you're a #startrek fan? name one of their directives

2024-02-22 00:18:19

- reply

@npub1fra…l53q will this run on my iphone?
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/111/972/260/108/517/841/original/09c6f45e973b3423.jpg

2024-02-21 17:10:08

- reply

This is the latest example, a page for the new Orox bike from Tern.
I like their cargo e-bikes. I'd like to flick through this page to get a sense for the new one. Instead I get this janky jerky twee slide show where I can't figure out how to stop on any particular bit of info without getting stuck halfway through a transition.
https://www.ternbicycles.com/en/bikes/471/orox

2024-02-21 17:06:19

I beg of you, web site designers, just let me scroll through a page and stop trying to make my scroll-wheel the hand-crank of your obnoxious hurdy-gurdy of a marketing presentation

2024-02-20 19:51:25

I just left my desk to get a snack, came back to my desk and set the snack down. Then, I left my desk and got a snack. It was the same kind of snack that was already lying on my desk.

2024-02-14 16:05:35

Idea while waiting for a meeting to start: an EDM club night that’s all just generic “upbeat music” from corporate training and webinars

2024-02-06 20:10:22

- reply

Again, as a computer scientist, I believe computers should be in fewer things

2024-02-06 20:09:19

I love chippin' into cyberspace, where programmable light bulbs and toothbrushes can be converted into zombie armies
https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/three-million-malware-infected-smart-toothbrushes-used-in-swiss-ddos-attacks-botnet-causes-millions-of-euros-in-damages

2024-02-05 18:45:53

Speaking of Raspberry Pi, I will say this little HDMI USB video capture widget is pretty handy.
Not awesome frame rate or quality for game streaming, but good enough to hook up a Pi and use a PC camera app on a laptop as a quick & dirty monitor. Only about $15 on amazon
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/111/880/343/886/416/179/original/d2b8520bf93946c5.jpeg

2024-02-02 22:44:49

Oh holy crap: The Didthis app that I started working on before the holidays just went fully live in the App Store!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mozilla-didthis/id6468680088

2024-02-02 19:28:00

Ugh, I forgot how hard it is to just, like, send an email from a web app these days.

2023-12-23 07:23:31

Happy early #caturday from Cheddars & Catsby
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/111/628/528/585/282/055/original/60cc199360b88cd4.jpeg
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/111/628/528/591/729/296/original/26b94ae5609d7bcb.jpeg

2023-12-20 19:05:40

- reply

@npub1xjz…6ncl "why do we do it this way?" "because we do it this way" :blobangry:

2023-12-19 17:31:21

Type of ADHD human who pursues immortality just to have time for all these rotating Special Interests and hobbies

2023-12-18 20:39:18

- reply

@npub1f6a…pnql Ohh, I've seen iZombie, Lucifer, and Person of Interest - but I haven't gotten around to watching Deception or Prodigal Son yet... I should get on those

2023-12-18 20:26:40

- reply

Like, maybe have a half-dozen episodes that don't push the overall season arc forward, just do a day-in-the-life-of story or do a weird musical thing or tell a story from the perspective of an inanimate object. Sprawl out, get weird

2023-12-18 20:24:18

You know what I kinda want? An end to "prestige TV" in scifi & fantasy and a return to lower-budget, lower-stakes, 26 episode seasons - complete with all the old tropes of filler episodes, bottle episodes, and the occasional 2 or 3 part arc.

2023-12-18 18:30:40

Still occasionally imagining an alternate timeline where Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary" was his major pivot into a post-punk new wave career where he formed a supergroup with Gary Numan, Brian Eno, and David Byrne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi6pu_thrMs

2023-07-14 17:40:21

- reply

There's also the thing where I imagine someone on the receiving end of a scheduled communication from me going :flan_eyeroll: "there's the fortnightly ping from lmorchard again"

2023-07-14 17:35:22

How do people, like, actually keep in touch? With my ADHD, I think I've come to accept that I basically have a lack of social object permanence. Out of sight, out of mind.
Over the past literal decades, I've sometimes tried setting up a list of contacts and a scheduling system - but ADHD also means I get bored / annoyed with that and either never get it working or stop using it after awhile.

2023-07-13 18:29:46

Shower thought: what if a politician’s spouse needed to be elected too? Like sorry sweetie I want to be president but you lost the runoff so i am obliged to shack up with a winner

2023-07-10 02:18:29

- reply

@npub1fh4…44wz I'm just vaguely rooting for them to mutually annihilate like matter & anti-matter and be out of the blast range

2023-07-03 01:03:39

- reply

@npub1dm5…5sqe About half the houses I grew up in and relative's houses had basement pencil sharpeners!

2023-07-01 18:28:01

Maybe elon musk should have tried running a mastodon instance first before buying twitter

2023-07-01 17:50:52

A thing that maybe folks don't realize about ActivityPub & the fediverse:
ActivityPub is for publishing your activities. It's mainly designed to disseminate and spread things around. It's not really designed to keep things secret or compartmentalized.
There are copies of your stuff in lots of places. Your server purposefully sends your stuff to other servers. Even "direct messages" are just sort of a friendly agreement between servers and admins, not a private channel.
If you don't want what you say to end up in front of many eyes, don't use this network to say it.

2023-06-09 17:53:18

Oh boy, you sure know your AMA is going splendidly with comments like this
https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/comment/jnk2omp/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/110/515/530/117/651/064/original/b2c63b3783a17bba.png

2023-06-05 18:15:55

Okay, well that new 3D elevation compass on the Apple Watch reminds me of Elite from back in the day, so I'm interested #wwdc
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/110/492/970/023/504/231/original/b7f5792436021156.png
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/110/492/972/068/275/504/original/d72a6fd1edf023f0.png

2023-06-05 18:01:12

Some say this AirPods Pro guy is still walking circuits around the Apple HQ to this day, hounded by a marching band for eternity #wwdc

2023-05-28 18:45:19

- reply

@npub1g8e…qdqf FWIW, it seems rather feasible to play with personal feed algorithms against the streaming API of a Mastodon instance.
That'll repeatedly bash into the "don't index what I toot" sentiment, though.

2023-05-10 16:38:51

- reply

@npub1ate…wkt8 Have you considered sharing less interesting thoughts? 😅

2023-04-28 02:51:19

- reply

#[0] #[1] #[2] I kinda don't keep up? But also I suspect a lot of accounts I follow are dormant. Been meaning to write something to audit that a little

2023-04-27 20:55:55

- reply

#[0] Ohh, I kinda wondered why there was a serialization of activitystream stuff to Atom when it seemed redundant with JSON

2023-04-24 20:43:29

I just read "Notes to Self on Mastodon" from #[0] and see the common wish for "moving" content between Mastodon instances.
That's one of the trade-offs of this particular protocol. You can copy the address book, but you can't (easily) change history.
You said what you said, when & where you said it. When you said it, it was replicated to thousands of servers. It might live at a particular URL on your local instance, but it also lives in many remote databases.
To properly "move" would require updating every instance to which you've ever sent a message. Otherwise, no one knows where your stuff went. References and reply threads would all be broken.
We sort of get this for edits and deletes on individual fediverse messages. But, doing this for the entire history of an actor would be fraught & onerous.
It would be like expecting that if you moved from Yahoo Mail to GMail, all the messages you've ever sent get an updated "From:" header in all the remote inboxes and mailing lists to which you've ever sent a message.
Instances could maybe accept imports of content, if only as archived history. But, this would likely be unsatisfying for most other purposes.

2023-04-13 22:51:13

- reply

#[0] #[1] Yeah, I went looking for a real account of his. But from what I've heard on the Vergecast, he doesn't really hang here much. 😞
Sounds like that bot's at least not objected-to by Verge folks but it's not official. (sigh)

2023-04-13 20:31:14

- reply

Like, it's not censorship to simply decline to build & hand out megaphones to absolute dipshits

2023-04-13 20:27:56

- reply

Like, you know, it is within the realm of human possibility to just not actively build a half-abandoned combination shopping mall / conference center that lets anyone wander in and use it as a venue for complete fuckery

2023-04-13 20:24:37

Holy crap, Nilay Patel just ruthlessly corners Substack’s CEO Chris Best on moderating racist content and I love it
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR35o66A/
https://hackers.town/system/media_attachments/files/110/193/368/336/334/407/original/1dcb145ffdaab553.mp4