updated SawSafely.org with coverage of angle grinders: http://sawsafely.org/#angle-grinders

"the tool that injures the most people every year goes largely unnoticed by the majority of workers employing it"

hopefully it helps more people realize that this is possible, even when used well: https://youtu.be/IIQu1e8DGUw?t=277

#woodworking

visiting the wood shop for a few hours, then I'll begin what has become my New Year's Day tradition: updating https://simpleoptout.com with changes to 100+ privacy policies.

if anyone wants to help visit a zillion privacy policies, find in the page for "third-party" and "opt-out" (with hyphens, spaces, or no separator…), and update https://github.com/troy/simpleoptout, DM me or send a pull request 😀

#privacy

from @sfchronicle: "Alameda County admits tallying error in ranked-choice voting, flips one result and raises big questions"

the incorrect "winner" has already been certified as the winner. nobody knows what happens now.

more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Alameda-County-admits-tallying-error-in-17682520.php , https://oaklandside.org/2022/12/28/alameda-county-registrar-miscounted-ballots-oakland-election-2022/

#electionreform

my quick Hacker News answer to "Why don't more services offer a 'pay as you go' pricing model? What are the downsides of this from the business perspective?"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34191450#34191787

#saas

here's what a network of fake Google Maps business locations looks like.

I stumbled across roughly 50 places in WA and NC, all with a generic SEO'd product name as the business name. no reviews, just a Web site.

and… my Maps Contributions pane after removing ~50 places.

#infosec

@rchase a Sign Up page that doesn't depend on Mastodon-specific knowledge: https://mas.to/@troyd/109535776527431757

any of my fellow armchair economists looking to change careers? GiveWell is hiring a senior researcher: https://www.givewell.org/about/jobs/senior-researcher (remote, US timezones).

as a professional over-thinker, I'd gladly work here:

if Apple had acquired the iPad app Concepts and released it as Freeform, users would still be talking about it.

I started using Concepts to sketch wood products, then clay. it's got the best of vector tools, like infinite zoom, infinite canvas, and stroke-level edits. it's no harder to use than any bitmap drawing tool.

https://concepts.app/en/ , https://youtu.be/LqhyWSPukM4?t=160

Half of every Mastodon intro is spent on choosing a server.

Can we make it easier, so more visitors become users? Imagine:

1. On JoinMastodon.org, a Sign Up page asks for the user's preferred username.

2. The page lists instant-signup servers. Servers with this username available are first, highlighted.

Each server row shows high-level ToS & 1-line summary.

Bonus: Geocode client & highlight in-country servers.

3. User clicks through to a server's signup page.

Thoughts?

/cc @Gargron #ux

bored this afternoon? X-Plane 12 moved from beta to release today.

the free demo allows 15 minutes per flight, which is enough to take off, do a low-altitude pass between buildings, and crash (er, land…): https://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/

the in-app intro covers taking off pretty well: increase throttle (F2) then slowly pull the yoke (mouse). no need to adjust trim.

when you tire of crashing, here's landing in a nutshell: https://www.x-plane.com/manuals/desktop/#landing

hi! if you're reading this #introduction, then I should try to make myself useful 🙂

so, here's some topics that people have asked me about:

• choosing a mattress

• turning a kitchen island into a 1m² ceramic studio (#handbuilding)

• making fitness fun. 👍 VR boxing

• privacy (https://simpleoptout.com/)

• designing products (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252404401)

• Seattle's best sandwiches

• "bootstrapped" businesses (https://troy.yort.com/papertrail-joins-solarwinds-and-accelerates-growth/)

• safe woodworking (http://sawsafely.org/)

DMs welcome