Michael's pondering thoughts

A curious little AI companion sits beside a phone and open notebook, as if waiting to explain why it followed you. One day I noticed a boost of one of my Mastodon posts from an automated bot named Pip. This piqued my interest. Then I got a follow notification from the same bot. Normally, I don't really care who follows me, but with all the scraping bots out there, it was refreshing to see one openly identify itself as a bot and actually follow me. So I went to the website associated with it, tinymind.eu , to investigate what this bot was doing and what its purpose was. I read about Pip, its purpose, and tried to figure out what its angle was. That led me to some interesting questions and thoughts. Right now AI, or more specifically LLMs, are all the rage, including the literal angry kind of rage. Some people don't mind them and even find them interesting. Others want absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with them. I personally think that last group remi...

Back in August, I got a Tempest Weather Station . I had been wanting a weather station for some time. Why? Well, that is hard to put into words. I guess the answer is that I really like technology, I am fascinated with self-hosting as much as possible, and I like collecting data and contributing data to something larger without having to pay a subscription. Anyway, I got this Tempest Weather Station for a great price during Prime Day. I put it up and integrated it into a Python weather program, while also using Tempest's own software. But there was something I didn't know, and probably should have checked. It wouldn't have changed my mind, but there are hundreds of these things around me. Zoom out a little, and there are even more throughout the Tampa Bay area. Then look at the wider area. According to Tempest, this is a map of publicly reporting Tempest weather stations. So those pins represent actual stations whose owners have chosen to share their d...

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS The poster for Blitz features a woman and a boy surrounded by floating flowers, with a lone child standing below. My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½ (3.5/5 stars) Final Verdict Not bad, but a heavy watch. After seeing all the kid went through in this movie, you almost wanted to reach out to him through the TV and say, “Let’s get you home.” If this is a true reflection, it does amaze me how much suffering and damage there is while people try to carry on like nothing is really happening. I am sure there was some truth in it. I would hope the darkest moments, like stealing jewelry off of dead people, didn’t happen. Unfortunately, I am sure that it did, though I haven’t researched it. Overall, the story was good and compelling. It kept me interested, even if it was a heavy watch. Not a bad movie. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .

Government public information should be published on public infrastructure first, then shared through open feeds to websites, social platforms, apps, and newsletters, ensuring open standards, wider access, and a more informed public. Government updates belong in an open feed By Mark Kennedy Founder · via Open RSS Blog Read original post → I saw this blog post from OpenRSS in my RSS reader, and it interested me in more than one way. I agree wholeheartedly with its sentiment. Government offices, officials and agencies used to seem much more focused on making information publicly accessible. Here in Florida, we even have strong public records and open meetings laws, commonly known as the Sunshine Law   [ 1 ] , though lately it sometimes feels like we are going through a cloudy season. Now, however, it seems like a huge amount of government business, alerts and notifications take place primarily on Twitter. I still can't bring myself to call it X. Public information ...

I have been noticing a couple of disturbing trends this year outside of the AI/LLM bubble. Has anyone else noticed them? First, domain registrars seem to be raising domain name prices like never before. Every couple of months, I get an email from Porkbun or Cloudflare saying that the registry controlling a domain's TLD is raising prices on such-and-such a date. I can't remember the last time I saw domain name prices decrease. They only seem to go up. That is why I try to renew domains for more than one or two years whenever I can. If my budget allows, I will pay for all 10 years upfront rather than wait for the next price increase. The other trend may be worse. Personal blogs and websites from people who have been on the web for a long time are going silent or disappearing altogether. A few people give notice that they are taking a break or leaving, but most just disappear without anything but a 404. I am not sure what is causing that. Burnout, social media replacing...

Nobody clicks your share buttons By Derek Hanson Read original post → I saw this blog post on bubbles.town, and the title caught my attention, so I clicked through to read it. It was also timely because just a few days earlier I had added share buttons to my own site. I don't know if I agree with the conclusion of the post. If share buttons are done tastefully, selectively, and with privacy in mind, I think they're perfectly okay. We're seeing a trend toward making websites personal again, a little like they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Social sharing buttons started becoming common as services like Twitter and Facebook (UGHHH!) grew in popularity. Email, of course, has always been around. I think the more ways people have to share something, the better, as long as those options are implemented tastefully and don't track visitors. Especially today, when people may prefer one platform over another, whether that's Mastodon, Bluesky, Twitte...

Automattic confirms Mullenweg has returned as CEO after attempted ouster by board By Sarah Perez Read original post → I have been holding off on writing about Matt Mullenweg and everything happening around WordPress because I wanted to make sure I wasn't just reacting to the latest round of drama. I don't know Mullenweg personally, just like I don't know Elon Musk. But the more I watch his public actions and statements, the more I see a similar pattern. That pattern is what bothers me. It is the attitude of: "I built this, I know what is best, and if you don't like the way I run it, there's the door." With Musk and Twitter, at least the situation is fairly clear. Musk bought the company, took it private, and Twitter is a closed commercial platform. I may not like what he does with it, but there isn't much ambiguity about whose platform it is. So I left. WordPress is different, but increasingly it feels like it is being treated the sam...

Read on thecooldown.com · View original Mastodon post I thought this was interesting when I saw it pop up in my social media feed. In this study, beaver dams outlasted 130 engineered flood barriers. Maybe computers and human engineers should learn a thing or two from them. Nature does seem to do some things better than we do, and we can learn from it and use that knowledge to make better versions of things ourselves. After all, God did give man dominion over the animals and much of nature. Just a thought. It was an interesting read.

Okay, let me tell you about my day. I took today and tomorrow off because I am almost maxed out on my vacation time. That is a separate story and not really important to this one. I went to Costco to get a new pair of glasses. Once I get them, I will finally be finished with everything related to my cataract surgery. I already have a pair of frames from Costco, so I just need new lenses. When I got to the optical department, I had to sign in using the app. There were plenty of workers there, and it wasn't busy. But I still had to sign in on the app. Remember the old ticket-number system? Take a number, then watch the "Now Serving" display. Well, this is basically the electronic version of it. I can understand something like this if you have to have an appointment or there are a lot of people waiting for service. But there were literally maybe four people there, and one of them was just looking. Then I went to CVS. At the prescription counter, there was ano...

Bloggers, can we make better titles for our posts? michaelharley.net By Michael Harley Read original post → I came across this blog post by Michael Harley. I started following him after I came across some of his blog posts on bubbles.town (I want to call it button.town every time I type it, and I don't know why 😀). But he does have a point, and I am guilty of making bad titles too. In fact, if it were up to me, I probably wouldn't have any titles. But I think most things in writing do deserve titles and subjects. Even emails, although I don't like filling out the subject line most of the time. He argues: Use descriptive titles # Please for the love of god, give me some idea what your blog post is about. I'm interested in a wide range of topics. So even if your post is about something obscure, give me something other than Recent Thoughts... or So Far, So Good. Recent thoughts on what?! What is good so far??? Especially on Bubbles, but maybe even on other b...

I found another independent blogging service in the same general vein as Micro.blog, Scribbles.page, Pika.page and Pagecord.com. It is called Inkwell.social . Inkwell is inspired by the old LiveJournal. I never used LiveJournal myself, but I certainly heard of it. After looking around Inkwell, it feels very much in the spirit of the IndieWeb to me. It is open source, supports ActivityPub, lets you use your own domain, and gives you ways to export your writing. It also has a Founding Member special offering Inkwell Plus for $99 for as long as the service continues to operate. I love being able to support independent web projects when possible, and I especially love lifetime deals. Of course, "lifetime" means the lifetime of the service, but I think this one is worth supporting. Stanton, Inkwell's owner and creator, is also very open about his use of AI and LLM tools. He uses Claude to help write code, documentation and debug the service, while saying he persona...

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS In "Silo" (2023), a gripping psychological thriller, a woman unravels deep secrets within a mysterious government facility, spiraling into a maze of power and truth. My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5/5 stars)** Episodes: 10 | Aired: 07-02-2026 The whole season was fantastic. I was worried about the series after Season 2. Season 2 was necessary, but it was a little slow. Again, Season 3 was fantastic. There are full spoilers below, so if you don't want to know more, please stop reading. You were forewarned. I don't understand why they keep killing people who leave the Silo, unless there is a purpose we don't know about yet. That will likely be revealed later on. I can tell Julia and Troy are related, and Troy will realize it. That will change the whole dynamic.I am glad Troy's wife, Helen, is dead, as she would not approve. Julia is always questioning, just like Helen. Troy didn't recognize his sister and I want...

Celebrating 60 years of Star Trek with a nostalgic view of the USS Enterprise model, an open book, and a themed drink, blending classic sci-fi adventure with modern fandom. Star Trek aired three years before I was born, yet it has had a significant influence on my life. The only thing more profound and more influential has been my faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. To me, Star Trek has long served as an earthly role model. It is more than a story or a television show. It is an aspiration for how a fallen world might come together and work for the common good. The ethos of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets represents an ideal that a world or species might pursue on its own, if there were no grand Savior. By that ethos, I mean the hopeful idea that people from many worlds, cultures, and backgrounds can serve together for something greater than themselves. It is built on exploration, peace, sacrifice, reason, mercy, discovery, and cooperation....

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS In a galaxy far, far away, The Mandalorian and Grogu embark on a thrilling new adventure filled with danger, loyalty, and the enduring bond of the Force. My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5/5 stars)** Overall, I liked it a lot. I think Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau do the Star Wars Universe justice. My favorite moments were probably the little guys and Grogu. I love their good baby, bad baby thing. I also liked seeing Sigourney Weaver in it. My only negative is that it felt a little too long. I think some things would have had more room to develop if this had been a TV series. It could have fit nicely into an eight-episode run. Pedro Pascal, as usual, did a good job. I thought they might end it here, but the way they left it means it could go either way. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .

TiVo Plans to End Free Automatic Commercial Skipping in November, Tests Paid Premium Replacement Service By Luke Bouma · via Cord Cutters News Read original post → TiVo, there is a name I haven't heard or thought about in a while. I used to love the hardware and platform. I thought I was the coolest tech-savvy person, and that TiVo was the way to watch TV. The tech was just so cool. At one point, I had three of them. Most were the OTA version, though I had the cable version once with a CableCARD. That was an adventure to get working. Over-the-air (OTA) TV has come a long way and now has so many channels. Yes, they are mainly old shows, but they are still worth watching, and it is all free. There are commercials, but I look at those as snack and bathroom breaks. In reality, I do not watch nearly as much TV now as I used to. Most of what I do watch is through OTA, Plex, or streaming. OTA is mainly for news and the little, if any, live sports I watch. Most of the time, th...

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS In "Slingshot" (2024), two determined men face a cosmic divide, caught between duty and destiny in a high-stakes space thriller. My Rating: ½ (0.5/5 stars) Don't waste your time. It looked interesting and had some big-name actors and actresses, but it wasn't worth it. The movie was too long for the ending it had, and the plot was weak. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .

This has been some week for hardware and appliance problems in my household. Thursday, I had a silent hard drive crash. It could have happened before then, but I didn't notice it until Thursday. The drive was there last week, but Windows 11 would not recognize it. I tried it in two different computers to rule out bad cables or a motherboard issue. I didn't realize the drive was 10 years and 3 months old until I removed it and looked at it. It is kind of like a washer, you don't think about how old it is until something happens. I had a stale backup, so I probably lost 5 to 10 percent of the stuff that was not backed up. Then, to add salt to the wound, I got a message from someone on social media. It didn't really bother me, but it kind of did. It seemed like a gentle, polite, maybe funny attempt to sympathize and lighten the situation. At the same time, it was basically saying this is what you get with a 10-year-old drive and that I had it coming. due to its ag...

Read on ign.com · View original Mastodon post Here is another example of what I was talking about in a recent blog post TV Isn't What It Used to Be . According to IGN, the first season came out 3.5 years ago. That is a long time to wait for a second season. I will watch it because the first season was good. But if I miss it, I won't really care. By this point, I would have to rewatch Season 1 just to remember what happened before starting Season 2. You're telling me it took them 3.5 years to make a second season, and it will probably only have 10 episodes? Even though they already knew the first season had done so well? If this is the new trend, television execs need to be fired. Hire unknown actors and make series faster. If the series does well, the actors will become known. This line in the article stood out to me: Disney has scaled back its live-action Star Wars show production over the past couple of years, following a splurge on limited series suc...

⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: FULL SPOILERS My Rating: ⭐ (1/5 stars) Not worth watching there were several times I wondered why I was watching this. Plot was kind of a mix of Giver, Enders Game, The Allegiant and Hunger Games all in one but not done very well. But I was tired and lazy so let it go on. Please don't buy this free is how this one should be. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb .