Started using macOS dictation almost constantly due to a minor wrist injury (brace for ~three weeks). It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good and much faster than typing one-handed.

(dictated. I added less-common punctuation, then discovered that I can speak "tilde" and get ~)

Seattle folks, Swanson's Nursery in Blue Ridge has a jawdropping Ukigumo Japanese maple in its spring (white leaf) state.

it's spectacular, at least for the next few weeks. if you find yourself near 95th and 15th NW, stop by.

(if only I had a place to plant it…)

(background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66twvsI7pSU)

#seattle #pnwgardener

cooked freekeh[1] for the first time.

best part? the bottomless well of puns. I even let ChatGPT join in.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freekeh

I've never seen a 4-blade tenon cutter in the US, but once or twice a year I'll spot one in a Japanese or Korean video: https://youtu.be/Kp4wg9qWtmk?t=302

"A large machine can cut a small tenon, but a small machine can't cut a large tenon."

(Table saw-style tenon cutters are also unique to Asia and a lot more common: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPitkFuB7MY. I'd opt for one of these before the 4-blade contraption…)

#woodworking

do Spanish classes still watch "Destinos"? our class watched it 25+ years ago and it seems almost as popular now: https://www.learner.org/series/destinos-an-introduction-to-spanish/

if decades of Spanish students watched Destinos, the impact per dollar is incredible. apparently The Annenberg Foundation spent $4.8 million in 1992 dollars: https://web.archive.org/web/20220324105616/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-04-ca-6548-story.html

(the closest successor I know of is "Extra": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra_(franchise) )

Between content generation and audio deepfakes, we're not far from prompts like this:

"Generate a 10-episode podcast series about relationships. Each episode should have a host and a unique guest who is sharing their own personal experiences. Guests should share things that they would only tell close friends. Make each episode about 15 minutes long. Here are the titles and summaries of the first 5 episodes:"

… and the output is 10 MP3s.

#LLM

Somewhere in the intelligence community, a new project just received unlimited funding: join as many Discord servers (and Slack instances, and…) as possible, idle, and log everything.

Whether that requires 1,000 quietly idling accounts or 100,000 of them, there’s now enough motivation to pull it off.

more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35581579#35582116

/cc #SOCMINT

anyone know of companies working on this problem? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35410162

I don't know of any software ("MDM for seniors"), consulting ("MSP for seniors"), or membership/mailing list (a quarterly "AARP Tech Recommendations" with the changes in these comments - "Hand this flyer to your kids or grandkids").

arguably #AARP would be the ideal distributor, and maybe the only way to get the CAC and price low enough.

#startups #aginginplace

to simulate real conversations in another language, I've been really impressed with this "questioner.txt" prompt:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbrukh/gpt4-spanish/main/questioner.txt

it's part of this repo, which is not Spanish-specific: https://github.com/jbrukh/gpt4-spanish

the repo has other prompts/chats as well, but I haven't tried them. (source: https://twitter.com/jbrukh/status/1636452100807729164)

#languagelearning

fellow Seattle residents: Freya Bakery in Pike Place Market has the best whole rye bread I've found[1] in Seattle: https://www.freyabakery.com/online-ordering/dish/0773d63c-4a52-49f1-9df2-b04391e287ef

I'm referring to Freya dark rye with seeds.

[1]: among ~10 different loaves of mostly or entirely whole rye, including Tall Grass (2022: https://twitter.com/troyd/status/1489256240161046528), Sea Wolf, Kaffeeklatsch, and Water Tank.

#seattle

discovered "past exonerative tense": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/past_exonerative (via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35142245#35142782)

I recently received fantastic support from Touch-Base, a small company that makes a macOS driver for touchscreen displays. it's called UPDD: https://www.touch-base.com/

I've been a customer for years. the driver is rock solid on many macOS versions. UPDD's multitouch and iOS/Magic Trackpad gestures is so good that it's hard not to smile when using it.

if anyone says "Steve Jobs says macOS shouldn't have touch," they need to experience the magic of three-finger-swiping a 24" macOS touchscreen.

here's my $12 "V60 calibration kit" for coffee grinders:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/251198345904

for V60, get 3 wire mesh screens: 20# (1.0mm holes), 30# (0.6mm), 40# (0.4mm).

the theory: find the grind setting where almost everything passes through the 1.0mm and almost nothing passes through the 0.4mm.

the reality: confirm that your widely-recommended, regularly-maintained burr grinder is incapable of *consistent* medium-fine pourover. with calibration, it can suck less, but it can't not suck.

#pourover

I don't think I've ever seen a cut dragon fruit in person. maybe at a fruit stand in Thailand?

anyway, I bought a dragon fruit at the grocery store today. it's flawless.

here's a few companies that I recently received outstanding customer service from. thank you for caring!

Piano Marvel: https://pianomarvel.com/

Sage Physical Therapy (Seattle): https://sageptseattle.com/kathleen-caples/

Tomorrow Biostasis: https://www.tomorrow.bio/usa

Acetaia di Giorgio balsamic vinegar: https://www.acetaiadigiorgio.it/en/

(past toot-worthy customer service: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Atroyd%20%22customer%20service%22&src=typed_query&f=live)