Unanticipated consequences
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Sometimes it speaks the truth
“…a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is.” –the orange baby Continue reading
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Think about this
The orange baby’s administration is zeroing out the ability of the US government to compete with the rest of the world — including actual enemies — in cybersecurity. To the extent this is explained at all, it’s attributed to commercial vendors wanting no oversight, and “MAGA loyalists don’t care because they aren’t interested in leadership… Continue reading
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Speaking of facts…
There is a style of mental activity (I hesitate to call it “thought”) that seems obviously to be in the ascendance lately. It features espousing a position, opinion, or belief that’s easily demonstrated to be false — that is, in opposition to what anyone can perceive — and yet “doubling down” on that nonsense even… Continue reading
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Navigation versus implementation
Years ago I designed mobile phone software. At the time, phones were just beginning to be able to connect to the internet, so we had a web browser. Since the platform was a phone, it made sense to us to provide a way to automatically dial a phone number you found on a web page.… Continue reading
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Tattoos?
I need to first establish that I do not have any tattoos, and I do not anticipate ever wanting to get one. I entirely lack whatever it is that motivates people to get tattoos. Nevertheless I respect it quite a lot. It strikes me as a very human thing, and in a way a sort… Continue reading
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They lie for a living
Years ago I had to go through a metal detector to enter a courthouse. I was reporting for jury duty (I was never empaneled, which was a bit disappointing). I emptied my pockets and the guards confiscated one of those little nail clippers I had in my pocket. I asked why and they claimed that… Continue reading
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The vulnerability of enormity
I cancelled my Disney + subscription. Partly because of the company’s capitulation to the fascist occupying regime, but also partly because it just wasn’t being used very much. Cancelled NetFlix at the same time. In that case, only because it wasn’t being used very much. It made me think about the changes to Disney, the… Continue reading
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Irony
This should be listed as the definition of “irony” in some dictionary. Stephen Miller…Stephen Miller! The “un-American political extremist.” He wrote this: “There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved. It is an… Continue reading
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Imaginary walls
People create and use technology to do something they think they want to do. Typewriters, then word processing machines, then word processing programs on personal computers have all been technology for writing a lot of words quickly and easily, and being able to go back and revise and change. This used to be a lot… Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer (among other things) located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. No surprise, she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity. You can also find some of my minor software projects at GitHub. Nothing very impressive. I mostly write tiny utilities in Python.
I find myself suddenly de-corporatized (their choice, not mine). To help keep the lights on, buy me a coffee!