Steve Hersey / is on Nostr

Tech wizard. Once a rocket scientist, always a rocket scientist.

Last Notes

2024-07-05 16:40:09

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Architects should be required to live in their creations for a month as a condition for professional accreditation.
"Oh wow, it's a counter that you ALSO walk on. Remind me to decline all dinner invitations from the folks living there."

2024-07-01 19:05:07

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I think Teri Kanefield said something to the effect that breaking the rule of law, even in an effort to save it, destroys the democratic system.

2024-06-21 18:28:51

So, something I heard recently on my local NPR station on borrowing ebooks vs. hardcover from your local library:
Apparently, the library pays ~$15 for a hardcover book, but ~$150 for the ebook - and the ebook is a LIMITED LICENSE for, say, 52 loans of that book. After which they have to pay ANOTHER $150 for the book, AGAIN.
The takeaway here: If you can get the hardcopy from the library instead of borrowing an ebook, please do so. The impact on their budget will be SIGNIFICANT.
Here's a related, but older, reference:
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118289764/the-surprising-economics-of-digital-lending

2024-06-18 15:58:19

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It enrages me when policymakers accept the fallacy that public transit has to run at a cash profit.
Your point that roads aren't "profitable" is right on the nose. Like transit, they're a public good.
The benefits of public transit are diffuse, widespread, and not easy to quantify.
However, they are also blazingly obvious when looked at carefully.

2024-06-03 14:23:54

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I long for that day.
And yes, Y2K was a catastrophe averted by lots of effort that went largely unnoticed precisely because it WORKED.