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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2026

Logged in to Twitter to retrieve these worthy images from a poster session long ago:

A youngish man standing in front of a poster "Would You Rather Teleport or Spend Some Time Commuting? Investigating Individuals Teleportation Preferences"

The research was done by Prasanna Humagain (prasanna.hmg@usu.edu) and Patrick Singleton (patrick.singleton@usu.edu).

usu.edu is Utah State, Patrick Singleton (the youngish man) is the associate professor there.

A detail; from the poster showing the distribution of "I would rather teleport" versus "I would rather spend some time commuting".

More car passengers (76%) and car drivers (73%) would rather teleport than any other group.

Only walkers (72%) and bicycle users (65%) have more than half that would prefer to spend some time commuting.

A detail from the poster, showing why people prefer teleporting or not-teleporting.

"I would rather teleport":

I have other things to do (68%)
My commute is a waste of time (41%)
I like trying new technology (32%)
I dislike most aspects of my commute (29%)
I am always in a rush (25%)
Other (24%)

"I would rather spend some time commuting":

I enjoy certain aspects of my commute (76%)
I like to use my commute time productively (24%)
Teleportation is and always be impossible (17%)
I would be uneasy or afraid to teleport (9%)
Other (33%)

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/06/2026

"This looks the sort of post that is reported for violating guidelines. Do you want to rephrase it?"

text (from a NextDoor post):

One thing that was lovely about biking in Amsterdam and Copenhagen was that if I wanted to go somewhere, there was a safe way to get there, didn't matter where it was, just point the bike and go. I never had the sort of "oh crap, now what do I do" experiences that I get biking in unfamiliar places here, and that is the sort of thing that puts people off of biking in the US in general.

There needs to be a safe, comfortable, network. Not disconnected piecemeal bits. There are better uses for through ways than storing cars there in the zero-occupancy zero-mph parking lane.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/06/2026

Moved a child out of her Boston/Brookline border apt yesterday-today, biked some stuff home last night after work, then drove over to pick up all the stuff that would not benefit from being rattled around on our lovely roads, then returned on bike to get all the […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A trailer attached to a longtail bicycle with an after-market e-assist. The trailer contains:

One ikea two-pedestal+drawers desk,
two mesh-drawer pedestal things,
a folding dolly,
a folding short step ladder,
a wooden chair,
a rolling chair,
a muddy shoe tray,
and a bicycle.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026

Little (e-)bike plus trailer might make sense if you have no storage space, the little bike is easier to store, you don't use the trailer every day, it is still capable. I've used the trailer to tow a guy on a lashed-down chair playing a tuba, so it works for […] [Original post on ohai.social]

An Orbea Katu 50 mini-velo attached to a Bikes-at-Work 64-inch "wide" trailer, said trailer loaded with a snow blower.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026

I helped out at the Family Bike Ride this morning in Cambridge/Boston. Turns out probably the most helpful think I did, was to load all the cones onto the trailer on my bike, and haul them to the organizer's home -- for him, it is two trips, for me, just one […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A big dummy bicycle with trailer attached, next to five stacks of Awareness Cones, to be loaded onto the trailer.

The bike is pointed wrong-way in the bike lane on the Washington Street Bridge over the Charles River in Boston. It got moved before loading, but the bike lane is also not busy.

A Big Dummy with trailer attached, and the trailer is loaded with Awareness Cones (and they are heavy). The cones are slightly lashed in place.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026

Here are pictures from the sources. There is of course other factors, details, etc, but the basic number is NOT LARGE.

(text)

* An estimated average of 223,594 million gallons per
day (Mgal/d; 26,179 million cubic meters per month
[Mm3/mo]) were withdrawn from freshwater sources
for human use for crop irrigation, public supply,
and thermoelectric power across the conterminous
United States (CONUS) during water years 2010–20.
Including saline water, withdrawals were
244,817 Mgal/d (28,677 Mm3/mo).

* Average withdrawals and consumptive use (1) for
CONUS crop irrigation during water years 2010–20
were 105,497 and 75,698 Mgal/d, respectively;
(2) for public supply were 35,440 and 4,219 Mgal/d,
respectively; and (3) for thermoelectric power from
fresh water were 82,656 Mgal/d and 2,904 Mgal/d,
respectively.

Two part graph showing "Total site water Usage" in billions of liters per year for "Direct water consumption by data center type" (Figure 5.9)

The left side shows history, broken down by a variety od data centers, with the only ones that really matter being "Colocation - Large Scale" (dark blue) and "Hyperscale" (light blue). This rises to about 60 (billion liters per year) in 2023.

The right hand chart shows low and high projections for 2024 and 2028. It's almost all blue.
2024 low = 60, 2024 high = 90
2028 low = 140, 2028 high = 275
(all quantities are billion liters per year)

In the 2028 hi estimate, half the consumption is hyperscale.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/04/2026

From a recent vacation, a battery-powered trolley recharging at stations. It does not spend much time doing this, and yes, these things exist.

Looking up at a short bit of charging rail extending out from the roof-edge of a trolley station (in Newcastle). A trolley is stopped underneath it and has its pantograph extended. There's an incidental tree above all of it, filling half the sky.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/03/2026

#SmallWinButItsAllIGot I opened this packaging with my bare hands, clearly I am ready to take on a grizzly bear. (I bent it in half across the top, then flexed it back and forth as fast as I could, thinking that if I could put enough heat into the bend it would […] [Original post on ohai.social]

Empty plastic product packaging, the kind that is welded shut. It is torn open from the top all the way down to the product bulge.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2026

I need to pick up a repaired snowblower tomorrow, and drop some stuff (gifts, taxes) off at the post office. By bike, as one does. Pick up the snowblower first, so I can park the bike+loaded trailer outside the post office, people need to see that it's possible […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A longtail cargo bike attached to a trailer with a red snowblower loaded onto it, parked on an asphalt path in front of a somewhat snow park with some trees in it.

Bike is a Big Dummy, trailer is a Bikes-at-work 64AW.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/03/2026

and used my little bottle of 91% isopropyl to rinse every places where dirt and slime was visible, no change. Then I looked at this one thing where one wire entered, and 4 emerged, including the three I had stubbed off. For grins, I sprayed alcohol onto there […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A picture of an e-bike controller, and the wires leading to it, including the 1-enters-4-leaves thing that might be the cause of the problem (solution was correlated with fiddling with it) and the three unused ends well-capped with silicone. The wires are in my hand, the "thing" is a little skinnier than my pinky and a little shorter than two joints.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/02/2026

@b0rk In many cases I think the thing being described is unnecessarily complex, and because (reasons) man pages strive to list all the options, those are also unnecessarily complex. And we can't trash the useless corner-case options, because reasons.

First page of output from 'man diff' on a Mac laptop. The "synopsis" fills most of the page, listing 7 different ways of invoking diff, with as many of 9 lines of options on a single way of invoking diff.

I.e., it's a wall of textual WTF.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/01/2026

I made an experimental flan, where instead of using sugar in the custard mix, I converted that sugar to caramel (in addition to the caramel coating the bowl) and then dissolved that caramel into the cooling scalded milk. The experiment was a success, if you like […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A pyrex bowl containing a mostly-eaten flan, with some caramel syrup still in the bottom, and the flan itself somewhat caramel-colored. A sticky spoon rests in the bowl.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/11/2025

FYI, you can make flan with lactose-free milk.

A ceramic dish containing a flan with a serving removed from its lower left, showing the yummy brown caramel juice. An ornate sterling silver serving spoon is in the dish with its bowl resting in the caramel juice and its handle extending out of the lower right corner of the dish.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2025

After 20 years, bottom brackets can get a little stiff. M8x1mm holds the tool on.

Tools for removing a cartridge bottom bracket, and the bottom bracket. PB Blaster, blow torch, igniter, Park bottom bracket tool, 65mm M8x1 bolt and 13mm nut to attach tool to bottom bracket axle, 1-1/4 (32mm) deep hex socket and breaker bar to apply all the torque.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2025

People in the US have just had their brains fried by suburban myths. We walked from a Copenhagen subway station to visit friends living in some of that housing, then we walked with them and their kids to the nearby pasture-N-stuff. They don't even own a bicycle […] [Original post on ohai.social]

The edge of Copenhagen, showing high-density housing and sky in the background, and low density sheep and pasture in the foreground.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2025

From this weekend, a cargo bike demo

Memorial Drive in Cambridge, MA, facing east with no cars on it because it is Sunday afternoon. There's a long line of cargo bikes parked in one lane, with people standing in and around them. JFK park is on the right, with a bunch of kids playing with stuff provided for their amusement (a giant tetris yty, some bubbles).

I got lucky and not too many faces are visible, I think the ones that are, were associated with the event. I took the photo standing on the deck of my cargo bike, as one does.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2025

I walk to the cafeteria with all my bags, eat a quick lunch, down, walk to Red line, ride to south station, and as the elevator is leveling out at the top I see the line for my train in the departures board shift from TBD to "gate 9". Grab a double espresso at […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A Big Dummy longtail cargo bike locked to a vertical rack (not really hanging, it is sitting on its tail), and I am in such a hurry that I haven't even turned off the e-assist, which is still illuminated. The rack is taped (by me, years ago, well before Covid) to prevent the paint from getting dinged. The bike, with its assist, is quite a lift.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2025

@enobacon Patience, patience. Had to figure out that it needed the wheel sensor (else it shut off every 5 minutes), then thought I really ought to set the assist speed limit AND TEST IT so I could be a legal beagle, and then decided that I needed to try it on a […] [Original post on ohai.social]

The middle triangle, crank area, and below of a Surly Big Dummy V1 (longtail cargo bike). The crank has been replaced with a Tongsheng TSDZ8, the battery is mounted along the inside of the triangle opposite the crank vertex. All the wire (there is plenty) is secured with orange zip ties.

Additionally: the Big Dummy is resting on a Rolling Jackass center stand, purchased with powder coat to match the dull olive green of the Dummy. There's little bits of rust/corrosion showing in various places where metal is exposed; this bike is 16 years old, has perhaps 30,000 miles on it, and has commuted through 15 Boston winters.

Also my left foot appears in the lower left corner of the photo, the bike is parked on a slate patio surface, and there's grass behind.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2025

after breaking to Shimano Alfine 11 hubs, I decided that I ride my bike enough and like my bike enough, and upgraded to a Rohloff with disk rotor and external mech. I thought I was going to need to make a custom torque arm, but in the end, the stock arm *just* […] [Original post on ohai.social]

The lower left side of the rear wheel of an EdgeRunner, mounted in the bike, where the hub is a Rohloff and the rim is a Velocity Cliffhanger.

The torque arm, rather than being attached to the stay in the normal way, instead angles up within the frame (which widens towards the front, unlike a normal bike) and has a bolt attach to the end which acts like a peg, stuck into a mounting tab in a light/rack mount that is clamped to the stay, with the tab sticking up a few centimeters.

The removable cable box (that attaches to the external mech) is to the rear of the hub (at about 4 o'clock, just barely clearing the rear stay, remember this is a longtail cargo bike so the stays keep going past the end of the wheel). The shift cables enter from below, at about 7 o'clock. The picture makes it look like they are almost dragging on the ground, but they're not (but this picture makes me so nervous I think I will go have a look tomorrow and be sure that they don't hit the ground if the bike tilts hard). The "1" cable is marked with some pink gaffer's tape, which was a big help in getting this all put together.

Everything is relatively shiny and clean, except for some tubes on the bike that got rubbed on in the past and have extra paint and/or tape applied to protect them.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2025

Using (cargo) bikes to get shit done. Had to pick up the car after getting new tires installed, so on the way home from work swapped cargo bike for car at the gas station, drove home, rode the 3-speed back to the garage, and towed it home behind the cargo bike […] [Original post on ohai.social]

View from the rear of a black Raleigh ALL STEEL 3-speed with its front wheel lashed into the sling of a Big Dummy, both parked in front of the gas station.

Side view of the black Raleigh ALL STEEL 3-speed with its rear wheel lashed into the rear sling of the Big Dummy.

Close up of the wheel in the sling, showing how it is strapped into place. The built-in sling straps fasten through the spokes to hold the wheel tight, and a pair of red extensions straps (one extending the other) hold the bottom of the wheel tight to the inside of the sling, and a single red extension strap around the snap deck holds the front, top of the wheel tight to the snap deck. A crumpled blue Ikea bag between wheel axle and sling provides padding and protection.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2025

Almost 40 years ago. Was cleaning up a messy desk, found an old photo album. Pretty glad I took and saved these photos. I was still floundering in gradual school, not yet engaged, and in the evening I would ride my bike uphill (Quimby Road, 9% average grade for […] [Original post on ohai.social]

A stitched panorama of the 1985 Lexington Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains, looking west-south-west, taken from an elevation of about 2000 feet in the foothills on the opposite of the Santa Clara Valley in southeast San Jose, off Quimby Road, taken in the late afternoon.

The lower half of the photos shows the Santa Clara Valley and the Santa Cruz mountains, the upper half shows smoke from the fire on the left (south end) of the photos, blowing "up and to the right" in the wind. The left foreground shows "golden" brown foothills.

The sun's off to the right of the photo, so the sky there's brightly lit and the valley is pretty dim except for the reflection off a lake

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-09-mn-8116-story.html

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/05/2025

Yummy well water. The difference between the two glasses is the one on the right has been exposed to the air for longer

Two glasses of water on a paper plate. The one on the right looks kinda brown.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/04/2025

Does Australia use metric rhinos or imperial rhinos as a unit of mass?

A warning sign with the silhouette of a rhino and the words:

BEWARE
GIVE TRAMS SPACE
A TRAM WEIGHS AS MUCH AS 30 RHINOS

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/03/2025

My thousand-some miles-per-year winter cargo bike has had the same rear wheel since about 2011 (?), and it turns out spokes can wear where they cross. Friday night I had about 100 extra pounds on the rear wheel, and I could hear the spokes making little spokey […] [Original post on ohai.social]

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/12/2024

The phone camera's having a bit of an AI moment with the zoom and the dim light (I am wearing a headlamp), but those two bright spots are not bad pixels in the sensors, those are spiders' reflective eyes.

A dim, blurred by low-light exposure/aperture, photo of grass with some dead leaves in it, and two bright yellow-green-white spots.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/12/2024

By-the-way, to bisect-debug this code, I had to add an if and a return in the right place (last chance to do new or old behavior), at line 969 and line 970 here (go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/6…) […] [Original post on ohai.social]

An entire run of the bisect command, edited slightly to fit. It begins with a command line

"bisect -count=1 go test -gcflags=all=-d=gossahash=PATTERN -run=none -bench='B' github.com/.../bench"

first confirms that disabled the change everywhere results in success, and enabling it everywhere results in failure. It then constructs binary hash suffixes of increasing length, always keeping the suffix that fails, until there is only one change location enabled that also causes failure.

And THAT is the location of the failure, fingered as if it were a compiler diagnostic at a source line (because the debugging hook in the compiler works that way).

It then checks for more failures elsewhere by running the test with the change enabled everywhere except the previously discovered failure.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/12/2024

Turns out a 380MB html file fill of debugging logs is too darn large for Chrome, even on a 96GB laptop. Safari's not given up yet, but hasn't succeeded, but Firefox actually did it. And the answer is, "R3", duh, in code THAT I WROTE in an earlier CL in the […] [Original post on ohai.social]

Go source code, showing in particular line 814 highlighted in a minty green:

ce.stack[index] = ce.popValue()

A fragment of SSA just after register allocation, showing the compilation of line 814 (minty green line numbers) and color coded value flow through registers. In order:

load into R3/v30779/light-blue
load into R4/v802/gray
copy into R0/v15501/ no color
call of popValue passing v805 / no color
select into R0/v805/R0
select into "mem"/v806/no color
subtract R1/v31528/light-green = R3 - R4

and some other stuff that is not relevant; what this does show is that R3 and R4 were expected live across the call (this is testing a modification to the calling convention -- one of them is clobbered, don't know which).

A assembly language for the method '(*callEngine).popValue' that was called in the prior step. There seems to be no mention of R3 or R4 here, as expected, which suggests that I must have overlooked something in the stack checking prologue.

It's a grant total of 20 "instructions" including the ones that aren't really instructions.

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dr2chase @dr2chase.ohai.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/12/2024

@cross Pretty sure you could sneak up on this guy.

A deer, sitting with his eyes closed, next to the marshy edge of an overfilled pond. To this non-hunter, each antler has 3 points (total 6).

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