as a Seattle resident, obviously I'm rooting for the Sonics

I built my own mattress in 2019, before #DIY mattresses became a thing. These days, here's where I'd start:

1. Watch name-brand mattresses get cut open: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp2450zejDD0KF4l_P2TMdGS8YDI548Yg

Mostly bad polyfoam above low-end coils or bad polyfoam. The $3000+ ones? Not much better.

There's a reason why store-bought mattress cases don't have zippers: if we knew what was inside, we'd keep looking.

2. Coils: https://pocketspringstore.com/products/quad-with-firm-sides, https://www.mattresses.net/diylamaco.html

3. To sanity-check yours: r/mattress & r/mattressmod

do I know anyone who works at #Cloudflare? the same spammers keep hijacking or hacking CF-proxied domains (thousands of them over 1+ years).

Cloudflare's trust & safety team is a black hole that does nothing, responds to nothing, and doesn't seem to act on patterns (even when they're pointed out with ticket numbers). T&S is a shitshow, which I sort of expect… but usually someone in management notices; at CF, that hasn't happened.

everyone I provide "friends & family" tech support for is asking how to disable the new Gmail AI crap.

here's how: https://proton.me/blog/turn-off-gemini-gmail

if time permits, there's a better way to disable it: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/360058752414-Migrate-to-Fastmail-from-Gmail

#gmail

want to experiment with ergonomic seated guitar positions - higher neck angles - without special hardware (Strandberg, Guitarlift, Woodside)? here's a 10 minute, $5 prototype.

buy 1' of 2x1" wood. cut 2 pieces, each 5.5" long. drill holes every 0.75" or so. insert a bolt & wingnut (I used 1/4").

cover w/foam or felt. place it between the lower bout and your left leg. adjust its angle & height until you're happy.

I have a Strandberg and Guitarlift and this is still useful…

#guitar #ergonomics

"The Data on Self-Driving Cars Is Clear. We Have to Change Course": https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/opinion/self-driving-cars.html (https://archive.ph/UonDb)

(specifically about Waymo, not all implementations - and explicitly excluding "driver assistance" where a person is able to, or expected to, do something. IOW, if it has a steering wheel, then this analysis doesn't apply.)

#selfdriving

Things that don't exist anymore: general ophthalmologists in physician-owned private practices.

Every Seattle oph works for a hospital or insurer network like Swedish, Optum/Polyclinic, or Kaiser, or works for a practice owned by a private equity roll-up.

Two large local practices, Eye Associates Northwest (EANW.net) and Evergreen Eye Center (evergreeneye.com), were acquired by the same PE roll-up "Comprehensive EyeCare Partners": https://comp-eyecare.com/partners/

#seattle #healthcare #ophthalmology

using Tahoe (26.1 or earlier) and encountering intermittent window focus bugs, like clicking doesn't make a window take focus and Command-Backtick (tilde) does nothing? this is what you're encountering: https://www.google.com/search?tbs=li:1&q=firefox+tahoe+ghost+window

More: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1989837 , https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1972888

it's not specific to Firefox, Firefox just has a relatively active userbase.

#macos #macos26

Mike Lull Guitars set my guitar up and put it through a Plek fret-leveling machine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXgeuJgh-jw, https://www.mikelull.com/plek). it made a bigger difference than I expected. also the Lull family and staff are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

#pugetsound

I won a 5 boxes of mac & cheese as a bingo prize (https://www.cafe-aurora.com/events/bingo-night-e364y).

now fully prepared to host a horizontal mac&cheese tasting.

(best name and box design goes to "Goodles Smokey Dokey" gouda: https://www.goodles.com/products/smokey-dokey/)

#OrcasIsland

hi from Eastsound on Orcas Island. highlights so far: Zumba at Oddfellows Hall (https://lifeonorcasisland.com/i-love-zumba-with-alyson-stephens/), pinball with Tony at Tiltshift (https://tiltshiftorcas.com/pinball/), and field research for my forthcoming monograph "Breakfast Burritos of the San Juan Archipelago."

#OrcasIsland

learning to harmonize a song in A Aeolian, with a little help from Claude

I'm a completely satisfied #FastMail customer. the company culture that led to this policy and blog post is a good example why: https://www.fastmail.com/blog/not-written-with-ai/

Ask me about submitting FTC complaints back in 2016-2018 when I tweeted these screenshots of Amazon darkpatterns: https://x.com/troyd/status/765560428663443456, https://x.com/troyd/status/902673505157648384

did complaints that long ago make any difference? I have no idea. in 2023, the FTC sued Amazon, and today they settled: "Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion to Settle Claims It Tricked Prime Customers" https://archive.ph/Y5fPd

#darkpatterns #ux