iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 18/09/2026

He gave a metric shit-ton of it to the Gates Foundation, and my understanding is that the plan was to keep doing the same and leave it all to charity when he goes, so... "Yes"?

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 29/08/2026

Because pork. A separate academy is a shit-ton of jobs, prestige, etc., to some lucky purple-district Congress-critter.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 23/08/2026

I wonder how this jibes with the fact they are sometimes used as assistive devices for those who are legally blind (my dad had a pair that the Lions Club got for him). He uses them to read menus and documents, “see” what’s happening around him, etc.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/08/2026

3/The only way that works is if everyone else -- especially a press corp champing at the bit for a scoop -- is kept completely in the dark that it's happening. Yes, that meant the press were, effectively, decoys. But they were just as much at risk as they were when they boarded in the first place.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/08/2026

2/If the security detail communicates to anyone that the principal has been removed from the aircraft and secreted somewhere else, the entire point of the removal is lost. The adversaries begin looking immediately for where the principal NOW is, to attack them there instead.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/08/2026

Unpopular opinion, from someone who is not a Trump supporter. The Secret Service and AF did absolutely nothing in wrong in secretly removing Trump from SAM (28000,29000, whichever aircraft it was), and leaving everyone else on-board. 1/

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 14/07/2026

Fun fact: Trump has zero authority in this space, as per usual with his ranting and droolings.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 14/07/2026

I just started re-reading the Jack Ryan books in chronological order (ie Patriot Games comes first… ignoring Without Remorse in the timeline). Finished PG last night and started HFRO this morning :-)

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 05/07/2026

It’s technically a cover, so they don’t need to. The government will just need to pay the various compulsory licensing fees (for the performance, for the broadcast, for any time it streams, etc etc)

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/06/2026

That is legitimately crazy. Agreed. I wonder if it’s a function of cordless versus non-cordless vacuums or something. Because the cordless units don’t suffer this insanity at all.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/06/2026

Strawman. One does not need to be a fool to make a mistake. Brilliant people make mistakes all the time. What model shark is it?

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/06/2026

I’ve just owned a bunch of Shark vacuums and never on any of them had to do what you did there. It confounds me.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/06/2026

I've routinely pulled the roller out of my shark vacuum cleaner, with the only tool I've needed being - at worst - a coin to use to turn the locking mechanisms (although I usually use the tip of a butter-knife). I don't know what model Shark that is in the pic, but I feel like you did it all wrong.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/06/2026

Don't threaten me with a good time.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 10/06/2026

You list that you can "outgrow" myth crests as part of the trade-in discussion... but .... trade them in for what? Do you ever truly outgrown myth crests?

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 10/06/2026

Well, maybe it was. LOL. I feel like I was using more force than I should have. 😀

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 09/06/2026

Ah. No idea what the manufacturer used. I just used a hand tool (Allen wrench) …. But boy was that “snap” sound terrifying loud.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 09/06/2026

It wasn’t visible afterwards if that’s what you mean. So there clearly wasn’t a lot. But just enough to keep the factory sight assembly firmly in place so it required effort to replace it. 😀

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 09/06/2026

The sound of Loctite coming loose - combined with the amount of force it takes to make that happen - is positively scary. I was 100% convinced I’d broken something until the screw just started happily unwinding. 😀

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 27/05/2026

Finally got to listen to the 1975 Pink Floyd "Live From the LA Sports Arena" bootleg today and just ... wow. I know that this bootleg got a major remastering makeover, but still... Mike the Mic's source material was amazing. Blown away!

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 23/05/2026

Given how racist Louisiana police are, maybe it can be funded in EXACTLY that fashion? Like, if it MUST happen, maybe we fire all the LA police as well… as a perk. Make them start wearing sheets again instead of badges.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 22/05/2026

Unless he’s actually ordered NYPD (via the PC) to enforce this, and then they DO SO, it’s just talk.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 20/05/2026

I honestly can't remember the last time my DoorDash or Instacart delivery person actually matched the photo/name on the app. I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 19/05/2026

Claude gets it.... What the fuck is wrong with Amazon? Why is the finale of "The Boys" delayed?

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 11/05/2026

Oh, Instacart... you truly do believe that, don't you? You sweet summer child...

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 11/05/2026

This seems like a road marking problem. That area has lines on it exactly like a parking space, when it should have diagonal hashes on it to mark it as a no-go zone.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 07/05/2026

I mean … yes, but the same can be said for the copious number of bicyclists who routinely ignore the portions of the traffic code that apply to them. Assholes aren’t unique to a particular mode of locomotion 😀

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 05/05/2026

So, uh, ideas on how to direct that energy? Asking for a friend.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 02/05/2026

Fun fact: if you’re searching for a job right now and have a long unemployment gap on your resume, there’s nobody at Spirit Airlines who can say that you didn’t work there during that period. What role did you have? That’s up to you.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 28/04/2026

They’ll fire her soon enough. Don’t get too excited.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 28/04/2026

In any fight, the bus can take the bike. It’s not even close.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/04/2026

What’s to talk about? Unless you can legally possess the gun in both your start and end point, it’s already illegal (and he couldn’t possess them in DC, so this was already against the law)

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/04/2026

Also Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion has entered the chat. Can’t forget him.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 26/04/2026

The Sons of Liberty have entered the chat. Samuel Adams has entered the chat. Paul Revere has entered the chat. Ethan Allen has entered the chat.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 25/04/2026

I don't know what you're on about, but US iPhones have had USB-C for a long time.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 19/04/2026

The maintenance of roads is accounted for in the taxes paid on gasoline. So the more you drive, the more gas you need, the more you pay in proportion to that use.

media.tenor.com

a shooting star with the words " the more you know " behind it

Alt: a shooting star with the words " the more you know " behind it

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 18/04/2026

You say it’s not controversial but (shockingly) I know alleged-Catholics who are boycotting their churches on the weeks that priests who echo the Pope’s messages are giving their homilies. My mom is quite proud to declare that “she won’t go there the weeks that guy is there!” (Ugh….)

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 13/04/2026

Again, tell me you don’t understand polling and statistics witho it actually saying you don’t.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 13/04/2026

I think you’re showing the BlueSky bias against Musk, which is legit, but most people just care about “rockets going to the moon from the US” not whether it has NASA or SpaceX’s logo on the side of it.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

Nobody should be able to institute a draft. If you don’t have enough popular support to staff your military, you should rethink your decisions. I won’t ever fault someone for avoiding legalized slavery.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

It’s certainly possible to create push-polls, etc., but those are marketing stunts, designed to give you something you can point to in order to rally someone to do what you want. It’s why politicians have “internal” and “external” polling. Internal are as accurate as possible because they need that.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

That’s why it IS in fact a science. To get valid, representative results, you normalize your polling group against the population they represent. And you compensate for that in your math. Anyone who says “it’s not science” hasn’t spent several semesters studying the science of polling. 🙂

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

That was never part of any proposed bet, and the fact that would try to pretend it was speaks volumes about YOU. Peace out.

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

My wager terms have remained the same. Can Pete or Kamala win in the upcoming general election? I say no. You claim yes. Are you trying to pretend 2020 would be part of that wager? Who’s the asshole now? Who would realistically think “the past” would be part of a bet like that?

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

The proposed wager isn’t who you’d vote for. It’s whether they’d win a general election. I say they can’t, you’ve said they would. You in on this wager or just going to keep talking around it?

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Derek Balling @derekballing.com · 12/04/2026

Which is why I asked and you doubled down on it, to my amazement. And yes, I’m aware of 2020. And saying “she won in 2020” as a VP candidate belies the fact that nobody votes for the bottom of the ticket. She cannot win from the top of the ticket. Nor can Pete. Now, are you in on this bet or no?

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