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Adrian Parsons

@adrianparsons.com
261 followers 357 following 95 posts

Software Engineer searching for next thing. Previously at Capsule8→Sophos, Etsy, and Meetup Mapping vacant lots at empty.nyc

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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Computer Rage Marinette, WI
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 11/09/2026
I'm excited we're finally getting the new sunscreen ingredient in the U.S. Article says it cost DSM-Firmenich $18M to get the ingredient approved. Honestly surprised it's so little, like, we could have just crowdfunded that? www.npr.org/2026/06/13/n...
npr.org
4 things to know about the new sunscreen ingredient the FDA approved
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new sunscreen ingredient in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years. It's been used for decades in Europe and Asia.
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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Andy Mackenzie @andymack.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
There used to be a twenty four hour potato vending machine in the Kings Road. And they say we're more advanced these days
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 08/09/2026
YES
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 29/08/2026
Someone finally did something with the adrian.com domain. Now redirects to adriansteel.com (out of Adrian, Michigan)
adrian.com
Home - Adrian
Equip your work van with Adrian Steel’s durable storage solutions. Optimize space, improve efficiency, and keep your tools secure.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 19/08/2026
This is really fun. A tech company has vending machines that dispense IT supplies and peripherals for its employees.
A vending machine with computer dongles, power supplies, keyboards and mice
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 19/08/2026
I recently spotted this cool sticker vending machine at Win Son bakery. It was surprisingly popular!
Mechanical vending machine on a stand next to a counter in a cafe.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 19/08/2026
I'm not done! Sunshine Laundromat with a reliably strange selection.
Vending machine with regular snacks as well as pregnancy tests, paternity tests, lots of items erroneously labeled "bacon" with a sticker.
Closeup of vending machine with pregnancy tests, paternity tests, lots of items erroneously labeled "bacon" with a sticker.
Closeup of vending machine with astroglide, one dollar bill for $2.00. several items erroneously labeled "bacon" with a sticker.Vending machine with regular snacks as well as pregnancy tests, paternity tests, lots of items erroneously labeled "bacon" with a sticker.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 11/08/2026
Oh man, this caused me to dig a little. I double-checked streetview and didn't see it. Apparently it was run by a company that has since shut down. www.bkmag.com/2015/08/07/j...
bkmag.com
Just What Every Brooklyn Bicyclist Needs: Bikestock, the 24/7-Vending Machine for Bike Parts - BKMAG
“When I moved here I had no plan,” Joseph Huba remembers. It was 2011, he’d left his hometown of Cheverly, Maryland and moved to Brooklyn with just enough money saved up to last him for two weeks. He ...
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 11/08/2026
right!? I took that photo in 2016 and never noticed. When I saw it this week I laughed out loud
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/08/2026
The NYPL's Stavros branch had this Short Story Dispenser on the 5th floor.
Photo of a small podium in a library labeled "short story dispenser" with two buttons and a slot below.Photo of a short story printed on receipt-style paper.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/08/2026
Dutch Kills in Long Island City has this little take-a-number machine. Complete with custom-designed tickets. It makes a very startling *ding!* sound when you hit the lever.
A vintage take-a-number machine sitting on a wooden surface. Ticket from take-a-number machine with Dutch Kills branding.Front of ticket from take-a-number machine with Dutch Kills branding
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/08/2026
The Brooklyn Public Library in Greenpoint has a machine that dispenses free tampons and pads
A white wall-mounted mechanical vending machine with small diagrams for tampons and pads, "free" printed where the price would be, and a button for dispensing.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/08/2026
Here's a closeup -- the Alf trading cards are killing me
Close-up of items in the vending machine. Tire tubes, assorted bike things, and Alf trading cards.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/08/2026
Ok, moving on to NYC: This machine on the street in Bushwick primarily services bicyclists with tubes and parts (and Red Bull).
Photo of a vending machine on a street selling bicycle parts.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
I'm sort of obsessed and I have a lot more of these.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
This machine at a church in Rome would play an audio recording over the two attached handsets. (IIRC a prayer or blessing)
Photo of a coin-operated machine in front of a stone column with two attached handsets.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
At a parking garage in Pisa, Italy I picked up one of these little city maps. Widespread use of $1+ coins in the U.S. would be great for things like this.
A tall skinny vending machine that dispenses maps.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
At the Jewish Museum in Berlin, kosher gummy bears
A wall-mounted vending machine with two columns small compartments with drop-down doors.Close-up of gummy bear packages in vending machine drawers.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
In the Berlin Staatsbibliotek (state library), everything you need for a research session: clear bags (library policy), locks (for lockers), highlighters, notebooks, Stabilo pens, and more.
Close up of vending machine with pens, highlighters, notebooks, and clear tote bags for sale.Vending machine with pens, highlighters, notebooks, and clear tote bags for sale.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
In the Berlin subway: books available as well as snacks to pass the time. "Bored on the train? Dive in!" the machine beckons
Vending machine on a subway platform half-filled with books and half with snacks.Closeup of books in a vending machine.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
Also at Sam's Town: A vending machine that only sells those ink dabbers for bingo
A photo of a vending machine with various colored dabbers for marking bingo cards.A closeup photo various colored dabbers for marking bingo cards in a vending machine
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/08/2026
🧵 of weird vending machines I've run into. Starting with: The sock vending machine at the Sam's Town bowling cener in Las Vegas.
Photo of a vending machine with socks instead of snacks. The words "Socks & Stuff" printed at the bottom.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 03/08/2026
That's *Mister* (null), to you!
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 03/08/2026
Yeahhhh it's definitely just missing data. The Department of Finance site shows sales and tax history. I might work through @beta.nyc to get more background.
Screenshot of propertyinformationportal.nyc.gov for 164A Lefferts Place with sales history.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 03/08/2026
An interesting/puzzling find: 671 parcels in NYC that according to public data... do not have owners!? Dan Lu (holistudio.github.io) came across this recently. The "Owner" field on NYC Planning's site is also missing.
Screenshot of a SQL database query and result.Screenshot of a SQL database query and results for missing "ownername" valueScreenshot of zola.planning.nyc.gov page for 164A Lefferts Place, which lists no owner.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 01/08/2026
I did not know the @mta.info displays ran Ubuntu!
Subway interior. Screen with error message displayed where advertising normally appears. Subway interior. Screen with error message displayed where advertising normally appears.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 20/07/2026
This view of the East Village is really cool
Aerial image of the East Village of NYC with Stuyvesant Town apartment buildings, ball field, and ConEd plant
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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Jon Keegan @jonkeegan.com · 20/07/2026
NEW POST! 🏙️ The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation updates a dataset of building footprint shapes weekly. I can’t believe this is the first NYC dataset I have written about. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-footprin...
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 16/07/2026
Oh dear
Screenshot of Akuvox web site advertising "AkClaw", "Your First Agentic Panel: Optimized for native OpenClaw execution"
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 03/07/2026
I also want a shirt with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant logo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_I...
Round geometric logo with an industrial-looking building on it.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 03/07/2026
Dope mission patches joidesresolution.org/expeditions/
4 round mission patches with volcanic and oceanic imagery
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 23/06/2026
By far the best placard I've seen in NYC. Potentially the only acceptable one. paging @placardabuse.bsky.social
A parked car with a handwritten sign in the window that says "Peanuts Lady"
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 13/06/2026
ROUGH Anthropeum.com · Jun 13 2026 🟦🟩🟦🟨🟨🟥🟨🟥🟥🟥 45,947 · top 89% of players today!
anthropeum.com
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Logan Williams @obtusatum.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Who do you think pays more in property tax, the owner of this recently sold five-story Bed-Stuy brownstone (top)? Or this tiny one-bedroom Bed-Stuy condo (bottom)?
a beautiful living room with huge bay windows at one endfloor plans for a five story brownstone a small but modern kitchenfloor plans for a 1 bedroom efficiency unit with two small windows
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 11/06/2026
You can always tell a Linux Man — neither seen nor heard (in the Zoom meeting)
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/06/2026
Woah. I did not realize that we had autonomous drone ships that CAN CARRY PEOPLE www.reuters.com/world/middle...
reuters.com
What is the sea drone that rescued US helicopter crew?
The Saronic Corsair is part of the Pentagon's push to ​expand unmanned vehicles.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 03/06/2026
Agreed, it was super cool. Here's @ecalifornica.bsky.social talking about ATProto and @outerweb.org
Photo of a speaker with a microphone and a partially-visible projected slide.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 02/06/2026
checked in at @atproto.nyc - June 2026 [dw0xxpuk] #atprotonyc
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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Chris Goldammer @floorarearatio.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
In NYC, the median number of floors, in all boroughs except Manhattan: 2 The median zoning Floor-Area-Ratio in the city: 1.0 But buildings close to transit can be tall, right? No! 452K lots out of 890K are within 0.5 miles of mass transit. Median FAR for these lots: 2.1
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 20/05/2026
Both of these banks across the street from each other in Fort Greene have a handful of parking spaces. It's a surprising use of space. I don't know how to find parking spaces like this in existing NYC data sets, but I'd like to map out this kind of surface parking. (430 Myrtle & 164 Clinton Ave)
Street view image of an intersection in Brooklyn, NY. Two banks are on the ground floor of two buildings on opposing sides of the street. Both have about 4 parking spaces.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 20/05/2026
Yeahhhh!
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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Chris Goldammer @floorarearatio.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
empty.nyc The perfect complement to Potential.NYC @adrianparsons.com is the creator!
empty.nyc
🗽 NYC Empty Lots
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 08/05/2026
right!? It's the kind of thing that never came up in the daily course of work, but was still a lingering question mark in my head.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 08/05/2026
thx! I think cjohn asked me "how would you encode a PNG?" during my Etsy interviews. I had no idea, but the question stuck in my head all these years later
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 08/05/2026
I built a "minimum viable PNG" generator during my batch @recurse.com. Just pushed up my work: github.com/adrianparson... `pngcheck` says my little 1x1px image is valid (it's not, but close).
github.com
GitHub - adrianparsons/minimumviablepng
Contribute to adrianparsons/minimumviablepng development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 24/04/2026
Spent a few hours at the Manhattan Criminal Court observing an attempted murder trial and some arraignments. It was incredibly fascinating and surprisingly dramatic. The courtrooms were basically empty. I'm surprised more people don't sit in on trials given the popularity of True Crime documentaries
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Reposted by Adrian Parsons
Chappell Ellison @chappelltracker.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Christo and Jeanne-Claude (2026)
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 10/04/2026
Watching this adorable video of a sleeper bus trip through Japan I did not expect the creator to apologize for their "fat feet". www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1sx...
Screenshot of a woman with feet up on a footrest in a bus with the subtitle "Raises footrests"Screenshot of a woman with feet up on a footrest in a bus with the subtitle "Sorry for my fat feet"
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Adrian Parsons @adrianparsons.com · 07/04/2026
TIL about Vexillological symbols en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillo...
en.wikipedia.org
Vexillological symbol - Wikipedia
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