iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 10h

The iconic photo of Hamilton and the software printout was the springboard for a distinctive tribute to her work: she was part of the “Women of NASA” Lego set. www.lego.com/en-ca/produc...

lego.com

Women of NASA 21312 | Ideas | Buy online at the Official LEGO® Shop CA

Build, play and learn from inspiring women of NASA!

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I’m a big believer in “hobby” being “something I do for the sheer enjoyment.” There could be other reasons, but if this one isn’t it the top three, you don’t have a hobby — you have a PROJECT.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I got a 27" monitor to replace my failing 24" monitor. It doesn't *seem* much bigger (height and width) but apparently it's got 25% more real estate, which is what I wanted. I just didn't realize how much window-tinkering I'd do, though this is not a complaint.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Until someone suggested to him that the benevolent dictator is named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez…

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I don’t care what the alleged cause is—if 1.5 seconds after I post, you quote-post me, I’ll figure you’ve got an agenda totally divorced from whatever I was talking about, and I’ll block without a qualm.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Lots of people enjoying Joan Baez singing today for things she believes in. Here she is a while back (57 years or so) singing “Joe Hill.” youtu.be/wccLnQxUlE0 Just a reminder that billionaire oligarch are none too pleased about the idea of workers organizing.

youtu.be

Joe Hill - Joan Baez | The Midnight Special

YouTube video by The Midnight Special

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

That works out to one 22-gallon tank of gas at the U.S. average price today, according to AAA.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Standard Medicare Part B: $ 202.90/mo, so $2,430/year. Annual deductible: $282 before coverage. So that $100 = 3.8% of your Part B premiums plus the deductible.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

All you have to do is require McConnell to actually speak on the floor of the Senate, instead of waving whatever hand his minders tell him to.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The U.S. Marshals Service is a federal agency under the Department of Justice. The Department of Trump Defence isn't going to send anybody to detail anyone the Dear Leader doesn't want detained. This is the Republican Party. This is the GOP Senate. This is the GOP House. This is Project 2025.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

How much more does he need? Wrong question. How much more does he WANT? He wants it all, plus 35% more than all.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Alito, Barrett, and Kavanaugh are Catholic (as are Roberts and Thomas). Gorsuch, raised Catholic, attends an Episcopalian church.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

And here I thought it was Ken Paxton with more feathers.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thirty years of GOP control of Texas, but “the Democrats do it too!”

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My career was in corporate training and development. It was breathtaking to see "shipped code" become the final goal (and the black hole to fill with money for consultants and coaches) when the actual enterprise administered pensions or provided B2B core systems that mortals had to use.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There's an XKCD cartoon that relates: xkcd.com/1205/

xkcd.com

Is It Worth the Time?

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

An entire generation of people who keep the lights on as organizations, crushed between code hubris, Agile posturing, and a priesthood of story points and Post-Its.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I used to use IFTTT for a few ordinary tasks, like "put my phone on silent at 10 pm and back to normal at 6 am." But the developers kept trying to make your Kanban app talk to your IoT coffeemaker while posting a Klout checkin to LinkedIn.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I'm at the point where any politician or candidate who says "Stay tuned" more than one every two years should be ineligible for office. Also, the Democrats might boost turnout by 10% if they pledged never to field a candidate who'd by 75 by the end of the term in question.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I'm no expert on Wisconsin law, but I've been an election worker in Maryland four times, including twice as a chief judge (one of two people overseeing a polling place). There are procedures. This is not a place for MAGA to run around like they're being supervised by Kash Patel.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Observes are permitted to observe at 7 am or whenever machines are zeroed out (at the start of election day), and to remain to observe canvassing after polls close. Not a specific word in the legislation about "discrepancies with voting machines."

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Wisconsin EL 4.03 states that an observation area (for observers) must be not less than 3 feet nor more that 8 feet from: - each table at which voters announce ther names - each table at which voters may register to vote - each table where election inspectors remake ballots

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

- No observer may initiate a conversation with a voter.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

- Obserers cannot engage in electioneering; cannot display likeness or text related to a candidate, party, or referendum item. Cannot display text stating or implying that observer is an election official. - Observers cannot engage in any conversation about a candidate, party, or ballot question.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

- Observers can speak to the designated election official, or their designee. - Observers cannot engage in loud, boisterous, or disruptive behavion. - Observers cannot create or transmit photos, videos, or audio of any observable location [some exceptions in 4.04]

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

- No observed can handle any original version of any election document - ... nor observe any confidential information - Observer who violates any provision will be warned once, then asked to depart. If observer refused, election offical can summon law enforcement.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There are a lot of restrictions here (a good reason to volunteer to be an election worker). - Observers must have stickers/badges to identify them and distinguish them from election officials. - Number of observers can be limited by space or by requirement for orderly admin of elections.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Wisconsin election law re observers (EL 4.03. 4.04) docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_c...

docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Wisconsin Legislature: EL 4.04(4)

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh, the WORDLE New York Times, not the comic-strip NYT or the obscure-sports-obsessed NYT.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've noticed half a dozen of these arm-pat / back-pat gestures from Trump, which I am sure are as welcome to Xi as a gold-plated putter from the pro shop at Mar-a-Lago. Xi knows he doesn't have to rename the Pacific as the Greater East China Sea.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I’m constantly reminded of that great philosopher, my driver’s ed instructor, who said: You never HAVE the right of way. You can only YIELD the right of way. He made me a (usually) much calmer driver.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The British Columbia highway code says that crosswalks include the unmarked extensions of sidewalks through an intersection (Motor Vehicle Act 119). Motorists must yield the way to pedestrians in crosswalks (179). Not that many drivers know this…

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“I didn’t think you had it in you, so well done. And you know I was loyal to your (adoptive) father Julius Caesar, so I can be loyal to you, too.” Chutzpah. And it worked!

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

That said, there’s a lot of history I know as stories (and thus, as metaphors), and I’m always ready to talk about the time Herod the Great, who’d backed the other side, met with the victorious Octavian.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I majored in English, but mostly because I liked to read. A friend, a few years older, told me her master’s thesis would be on uses of the infinitive in Beowulf, which is the moment I knew I wouldn’t go to grad school in English…

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Could you use a variation on my brother’s technique? Bro, seeing person: Hey! Great to see you! I’m a little embarrassed but I can’t recall your name. Person: It’s Lynn. Bro: Oh, I know you’re Lyn! I was trying to remember your LAST name. [Used when he has no clue about either name.]

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

We have 1x2 foot porcelain tile for the walk-in shower that replaced our 50-year-old tub. It was a great decision. I had no idea there was such a thing as porcelain countertops. (My wife likely does.) No need to re-sealing that granite needs? Yet another feature that IS a benefit.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Now that I think of it (it was a while back), the water was in one of those indestructible Yeti tumblers, with the lid firmly on and the magnetic gizmo slid over the sippy-style opening. (Had the tumbler fallen, it'd have sounded like I'd been apprenticed to Quasimodo, but it didn't fall.)

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I didn't even have coffee at my last, long-distance job interview. I had a glass of room-temp water, and I kept it at least three feet away from my keyboard and even further from the monitor and camera, for fear that I'd knock it over and short myself out of contention.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Tucker would insist on a lifeyacht.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A shame Tucker didn’t secretly record that, since there’s no one to back up the claim except Carlson, a career fabulist whose sole “serious” expression makes him look like someone just struck the back of the head with a toy skillet made of plastic.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Is there a specific date from which Englishness originates? Is it like the flip side of July 6, 1189, as the end of "time immemorial?"

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

If you could tell my dad that someone paid to have a program play pinochle FOR him, I think he'd say, "Why the Christ would I do that?" It'd be like having the AI "make a trip" for him back home to Cape Breton Island.

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Dave Ferguson @daveferguson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think of this writer outsourcing two aspects of a fantasy team that would have the most appeal: making your own choices, and seeing how those work out against choices made by people (or programs) more or less at your skill level.

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