Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 13hOn a recent trip to Boston, I snapped this picture of a bust of Arthur Fiedler apparently wearing a monocle in his right eye. Except that it isn't! That "monocle" is a piece of exercise equipment behind the trees and across the path. It's an accidental "forced perspective" illusion. 030
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 18hCindy and I got the spam email for this repulsive (and likely illegal) stunt yesterday. Today we'll take the promised $180 and donate it to organizations that support the candidates he's targeting with this taxpayer-funded bribe: 🗳️ swingleft.org 🗳️ votesaveamerica.com 🗳️ movement.vote Please join us! 072
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 20hI think it's quite possible he'll attempt to launch a nuke before his term ends. I wouldn't be shocked if the target were in the continental US, but more likely it will be elsewhere and he'll use it as a pretext for attempting to postpone the 2028 presidential election. 021
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026And my alma mater, Columbia, were the first to come to heel. They had a unique opportunity to lead the resistance against a tyrant who despises everything they stand for, and they blew it. I was, and am, deeply saddened. I've been a lifelong supporter, but they will never see another dime out of me. 010
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Hacker since the mid '70s here (NY through '81, Pittsburgh through '95, and Silicon Valley thereafter). You got this exactly right. Weinberger's view is, to put it charitably, revisionist. 020
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Uh, I should've finished it by now, but I haven't started it. You know how it goes. But don't give up hope. I will write it. 111
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/09/2026For cheapskates, throwing an extra 2.5gbps card into your desktop machine and and running two cables from your NAS is a fine first step, and costs < $100 including the 8-port 2.5gbps switch. 010
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 22/09/2026But kicking the healthy people out of a risk pool will destroy it, and they know it. It's essentially the same playbook they used against the Kennedy center: make it insolvent, then kill it. 110
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 21/09/2026No. Much of what Trump does is illegal, but he controls the Republican party and the party controls all three branches of our government. The checks and balances that kept the US a democratic republic for over two centuries have ceased to function. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 12/09/2026I wish I'd saved the original post. Roughly speaking, it said that students who learned to code when educators said that everyone should had wasted their time, because coding is obsolete in the era of AI. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Do physicists refer to truly bad wine as "max plonk"? (Asking for a friend.) 011
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 05/09/2026While I agree that Fetterman is a shitsquib, it's worth noting that neurologists agree that the stroke was in his left temporal-frontal network, and the NIH says that possible effects of this stroke include loss of empathy (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...).pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govLoss of empathy in strokeLoss of empathy (LoE) is common among stroke survivors, yet often undiagnosed and thus untreated. LoE is related to the loss of a caring marital relationship, higher care burden and poorer quality of ... 190
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I call bullshit. Even if you never code professionally, it's an extremely valuable skill like, say, writing. It encourages creativity and precisions of thought. It is empowering. Everyone should 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 learn to code. (CS professor, software architect, and best-selling author here.) 120
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026You have to remember that, in addition to being evil, he is simply not that smart, or well-informed. 030
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Yes, I've often thought that the Senate Grammarian should be a thing. 020
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 26/08/2026R.I.P. Tim Curry variety.com/2026/film/ob...variety.comTim Curry, ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Star, Dies at 80Tim Curry, who soared to fame in the ‘70s as the flamboyant star of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 80. 050
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Same (though I walked away from sixty thousand followers rather than half a million). I have zero regrets. 000
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 17/08/2026It is one thing to invest in a company and another to understand what it does. Businesspeople think he's a great scientist/engineer, and scientist/engineers think he's a great businessman. 010
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Yeah, I've noticed that businesspeople think he's a brilliant scientist/engineer, and scientist/engineers think he's a brilliant businessman. This is no accident. 010
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Damn straight. Now why didn't Columbia tell the Trump administration to fuck off (in court) when they were (pretextually) accused of antisemitism? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/u...nytimes.comJudge Dismisses Trump Administration’s Antisemitism Case Against HarvardThe government argued the university had not done enough to combat antisemitism during campus protests. A judge called the incidents “isolated and episodic.” 140
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 11/08/2026I agree. I heard that interview and the ignorance was astonishing. This is absolutely not what we need. 0150
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 10/08/2026No guarantees, but reboot your router. I had a similar problem, and rebooting my router (an Asus RT-AX86U) solved it. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Damn straight. I won't even be buying a vehicle with telematics. My newest vehicle is from 2010, which is fine by me. 000
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 29/07/2026To be fair, hydroxychloroquine *might* be effective against Covid if combined with a bleach chaser and a flashlight enema. We just don't know. 051
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Same, and I suspect we played exactly the same sequence of words, but I won't put 'em here to avoid spoiling the fun for others. IM me if you're curious. 000
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/07/2026What likely comes out ahead of EVs is keeping your reasonably fuel-efficient internal combustion vehicle on the road (and well maintained!) for 30 years or more, so you don't incur the carbon emissions associated with manufacturing a new car ;) I'm not against EVs (except that they all spy on you). 010
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Also, I see you held on to your 533MC after getting the 2600MC. Was that to run two rigs in parallel? If not, why'd you keep it (since I'm in the same boat). 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Got any ideas for a filter to put in the fifth slot? 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Actually not going monochromatic: ASI2600MC. I'm only using 4 of the 5 slots for now: two dual narrowband filters (so I can play around w/ SHO), a UV/IR filter (not really necessary for this camera as it was for the 533MC but allows me to swap filters w/o refocusing), and opaque, for dark frames. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026No, much more prosaic, I fear. I got a new camera and ordered the components of the new image train around Christmas. (The mounting of the higher end ZWO camera forced the new image train on me.) It took forever for me to get the last piece of the image train, an ordinary ZWO 2" 5-filter EFW. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Here is our snack. Every bit of produce came from the garden except for the (spectacular) nectarines, which came from Andy Mariani's orchard. It was delicious. 060
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 22/07/2026That's really nice! I haven't been doing any astrophotography lately, but I finally got the gear that I was waiting on (don't ask), so I'll be starting again very soon. 120
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 20/07/2026I represent a consortium that is prepared to offer the sculptor $86.47 for the work. 040
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I am in awe of that Hubble image of the crab nebula. Heck, I was in awe of this image, which I took from my San Jose backyard with an 8" cat. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I can't predict these things. I was shocked when so much elite opinion turned pro-Trump shortly before the 2024 election. My best guess is it was purely transactional. If so, it will evaporate when it ceases to be lucrative. But it's inexcusable. Integrity is more important that lucre. 010
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 23/06/2026If there is any justice, Musk will be held to account by the ICJ for crimes against humanity, for what DOGE did to USAID (over 600,000 preventable deaths so far, with ~14 million predicted in the longer term). I am not holding my breath. 100
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 22/06/2026True. We call it "stupidity" coupled with "ignorance" and "hubris." We further note that it demonstrates the "Dunning-Kruger effect." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...theatlantic.comScience Has a Name for What’s Plaguing the Reflecting PoolTesting reveals that efforts to suppress one algal bloom seem to be fueling another. 040
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Going to war against science is a losing proposition in the long run. But hey, we really owned the libs, amirite? 070
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 18/06/2026He is more Versailles-tile than you thought. (Sorry, I'll show myself out now.) 031
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 16/06/2026So it bombed with no help from terrorists ;) www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comFBI thwarted plot targeting White House UFC event, Patel saysIn newly unsealed court documents, the government alleges that the plan would have used drones. The FBI boss says multiple suspects are in custody. 110
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Facts are not the strong suit of this administration. 110
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Innumeracy is a terrible thing, but the Dunning-Kruger effect is worse. 030
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 12/06/2026This is not what democracy looks like. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/u...nytimes.comPostal Service Seeks to Block Mail Ballots in States Resisting Trump Demands 022
Reposted by Joshua BlochAkiyoshi Kitaoka @akiyoshikitaoka.bsky.social · 09/06/2026The squares may appear to shift vertically or horizontally, but they are actually stationary and perfectly aligned in either vertical or horizontal positions. References Flynn, O. F. & Shapiro, A. G. (2018). i-Perception, 9(6), 1–6. 06020
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 07/06/2026SEC regulations, like taxes, are for the little people now. 010