iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

There's also the huge difference between Flock-style "scan/log absolutely everything" systems and the "opt in" ALPR systems used since the 1970s. Benn Jordan make a compelling argument that these new devices need a term other than ALPR to differentiate from less-invasive legacy systems.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 12h

I'm getting great mileage out of this awesome 3D printed knocker @mandicreally.com shared a few years ago. A bit of neon filament and a blacklight really make my porch stand out during #SpookySeason.

A 3D-printed door knocker shaped like a grotesque (I'd say "gargoyle" but those technically only refer to water spouts), with an oak backing, affixed to my dark red-brown door. The stone-like filament of the head and knocker are purple under a blacklight, and the creature's eyes, teeth, and horns fluoresce in neon yellow-green.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 14h

I say this as a man: what the fuck is wrong with men?! I mean, I know that there is a certain version of this kink among gay men, but one assumes this guy is at least straight-leaning if he showed up in your feed.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yup. I went to figure out why my doorbell wasn't getting power and discovered the transformer was a burnt-out husk. Sadly, it was caused by a short somewhere deep in the walls, so I still need a battery-powered button, but at least I've removed the fire risk.

Two halves of a doorbell transformer, opened up to show the insides are have basically been turned to charcoal because of a wire short.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I actually remembered #Caturday while it's still the correct day! Anyway, glad to see my woodworking projects get appreciated by more family members when the wool cat nest/cave in the background is usually the favorite spot.

A mostly-white harlequin tabby cat luxuriating in a sunbeam on a bench made of a live edge slab of padauk, which is a deep red-brown wood with a stripe of lighter oak-colored "sapwood" on the right side.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It's aggravating that I would have to uglify my house with an "Amazon put packages here ⬇️ and do not approach my front door" sign, knowing based on how often my "no soliciting" sign is ignored that they'd still not see it half the time. Add to it that USPS is also testing out cameras…

404media.co

USPS To Put Cameras in Trucks That Scan Roads for ‘Community Safety’

USPS says the cameras, put on USPS truck dashboards, will scan roads, signs, and more.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yeah, mostly bemoaning the fact that it's basically impossible to make a living wage creating cool things at a small scale, and still difficult live higher than poverty level if you're able to do so at a larger scale.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yeah, we've cut down significantly on what we order from them. Unfortunately, they're a lot harder to completely cut out like we did with Target. My house is set up where I could do what you suggest, but a lot of people won't be so lucky/privileged. We'll need politicians to get get involved.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Pervert glasses are nothing compared to being forced to piss in a bottle.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I’m certain their lawyers will just bury it in some ToS they coerce people to auto-agree to when placing an order. Will be interesting to see how they manage that for gifts ordered by other people.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Some of those reactions are unexpected, too. I traveled a lot as a kid in the '80s so seeing mine or family's blood getting taken was pretty normal. Then in my 20s, I almost passed out from a vaso vagal response when I glanced toward my wife having a small amount taken for a life insurance policy.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"When asked if customers will be able to opt-out of this, [Amazon] told Bloomberg, “We haven’t thought about that.”" Hey @murray.senate.gov why should Amazon get to violate WA's 2-party consent recording laws and go all Peeping Tom to even record the inside of my house through my front window?

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

That's a big problem trying to sell to people who are often makers themselves. Either it's something people can make themselves, or in order to charge a reasonable amount for time/effort would put the price out of reach of the 99%. I mostly trade these days e.g. I don't nalbind but my friend does:

Cropped photo of someone in a viking-esque tunic doing nalbinding with reddish yarn. The person's face is cropped out of the photo, but you can see they are holding up the large a white bone needle used in the craft.

The nalbinding is being sewn (knotted?) onto wooden frames that will become the top/opening portions of a pouch based on an archeological find from Hedeby, which is now in modern-day Germany.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

To quote @encurtis.bsky.social (one of my favorite youtube woodworkers): Go make a thing!

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ugh, and here I was just wishing they'd just add a way to filter out all of the "Virtual Voice" narrators so I don't accidentally purchase a book that read by some piece of software that stole an actor's job.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Wildermyth can be a lot of fun if you enjoy telling/reading the story out loud. IIRC both players control all characters so we just picked "ours" and role played them. It's not multiplayer but my wife and I also really enjoyed playing Blue Prince together (streamed to the AppleTV via Moonlight)

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Yeah, don't even get me started on insulin in healthcare. Some hospitals still use proven-harmful "sliding scale" dosing schedules from the 1970s based on the relatively ancient insulins they had back then.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"Back in the day" some diabetics would inject intravenously if they didn't want to wait hours for it to kick in. Even some modern slow/long acting analogues like Lantus will work almost instantly if they go directly into the blood, instead of the 20h or so delayed absorption.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

How so? Needle goes deep, capillaries at the surface occasionally break. Intramuscular shots like vaccines go several times deeper than my subcutaneous insulin shots and the insulin still works even when I more blood leaks out when I remove the needle than insulin got injected.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Nope. I wasn't confused by a thread full of sarcastic jokes, either… 😉

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They can't execute code, either. Code is not alive so you cannot kill it. On that note … the `kill` command is surely a lie! And now I'm going to go debug my computer (not the code … I need to remove a dead moth that crawled inside).

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Has anyone ever followed up with why he stills spells 'Dumocrats' without the b? I don't think I've seen any news orgs bother to point it out despite being the kind of low-hanging "they're so weird" thing that has a good chance to grate annoy him. (ok, I know that's exactly why they haven't)

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's a meme: Milkshake Duck was conceived on June 12, 2016 in a tweet from Australian cartoonist Ben Ward. He wrote: “The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist”

dictionary.com

Milkshake Duck | Slang | Dictionary.com

A Milkshake Duck is a person (or thing) who becomes extremely popular on the internet for some positive reason, but as their popularity takes off and people dig into their past, they quickly become an...

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There are too many milkshake ducks in this world. ☹️

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

All I can find there is mixup with a "sheratesdogs" account, but there was the whole racism thing from earlier where they were changing dog names to more white-person-coded because they decided that brown-person-coded names didn't perform as well (and a real "sorry not sorry" kind of justification).

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I don't miss the racist whitewashing of brown-people-coded dog names and the "sorry not sorry" explanation.

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Might be time to revive some older tech. I remember seeing demos on evening news shows when this stuff was first getting trialed. Most problems with this stuff being used on humans aren't there with robots, and it could simultaneously stop motion and block cameras/sensors.

cabinetmagazine.org

Weapons of Mass Reduction | Gage McWeeny

Viscous bubbles, sponge grenades, and the future of non-lethal arms

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Chris @exnerd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I wish I could believe that enough women actually _are_ ready to burn it all down. There are far too many loud/visible female conservative influencers out there, and even the bulk of Democratic women on the ballot seem to be running on "we're not Republicans!" vs actually fixing everything Rs broke.