Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Technology

We Didn’t Start the Fire

This will be one of my more random posts. On Twitter I have started following Tom Lum because I follow Hank Green who retweeted him. I don’t know a lot about Tom Lum, so hopefully he doesn’t have some sordid background I’m not aware of. He hits my sweet spot of tweeting infrequently and tweeting strange and amusing things. He has the best candle explainer post I’ve seen (that’s what Hank retweeted because he’s been trying to explain candles for a while)

But this one both cracks me up and appeals to my geekness:

https://twitter.com/TomLumPerson/status/1390753737422028801

He learned D3 just to produce this visualization. I also learned D3 to produce a specific visualization. His is way more fun. I like looking at this visualization and singing the song in my head as I scroll down…

Oh fine, here’s Bread Bowl Oil Lamp:

.@hankgreen I am attempting the impossible, let’s hope my wax wings don’t melt 🕯 pic.twitter.com/x1sjB1myGi
— Tom Lum (@TomLumPerson) April 26, 2021

May 11, 2021
Read the Manual

This totally hit home…

Via SMBC, as usual…

April 1, 2021
NFTs

This is as good as explanation as any…

Courtesy SMBC as usual.

March 26, 2021
Fully Vaccinated Day 2

No real side effects. My shoulder was sore overnight but today I feel totally normal. A beautiful 60 degree day doesn’t hurt…

March 23, 2021
Fully Vaccinated

That’s it. That’s the post.

March 22, 2021
Emoji Scissors

This is why the internet is great…

Ah, scissors. They’re important enough that we have an emoji for them. On your device, it appears as ✂️. Unlike the real world tool it represents, the emoji’s job is to convey the idea, especially at small sizes. It doesn’t need to be able to swing or cut things. Nevertheless, let’s judge them on that irrelevant criterion.

Apple

These scissors look very heavy duty. But you can’t cut very far at all.

January 17, 2020
Origami Risk on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 List

Ho hum, another award for Origami Risk. This is Deloitte’s list of the 500 fastest growing technology companies.

November 7, 2019
Millennial Lifestyle Sponsorship

This article argues that “Venture capitalists and start-up founders alike have re-embraced an old mantra: Profits matter”. We’ll see, but it’s an interesting read.

If you wake up on a Casper mattress, work out with a Peloton before breakfast, Uber to your desk at a WeWork, order DoorDash for lunch, take a Lyft home, and get dinner through Postmates, you’ve interacted with seven companies that will collectively lose nearly $14 billion this year.

…

You might call it the Millennial Lifestyle Sponsorship, in which consumer tech companies, along with their venture-capital backers, help fund the daily habits of their disproportionately young and urban user base. With each Uber ride, WeWork membership, and hand-delivered dinner, the typical consumer has been getting a sweetheart deal.

https://twitter.com/kevinroose/status/1179155318439153664

October 15, 2019
Statistics Snark

One of the better mathematically/grammatically correct/obnoxious twitter responses I’ve seen…

Probably going to get a dog if it gives me a 24% chance of being immortal. https://t.co/KgBngDZyHp

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 9, 2019

October 8, 2019
MLB.com is Terrible

How can the league have such a horrible UI? Given this screen shot of tonight’s game, how long does it take you to figure out the score? Maybe an important stat?

Just horrible…

October 8, 2019