Profile avatar
randomascii.bsky.social
Retired tech-nerd. Unicyclist, kiteboarder, juggler, hiker, plays tennis and pickleball, advocates for pedestrian/cyclist safety. Windows ETW expert. LGBTQ supporter. Vancouver, BC he/him https://randomascii.wordpress.com/
946 posts 1,496 followers 136 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 24 Comments 26

I have a new Chromebook for travel purposes (Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714) and I'm disappointed with how often it crashes. It has "blue screened" once a day since I started using it a few days ago. It restarts quickly but I've gotten used to the reliability of Windows.

submitted 2 hours ago • 1 comment

If a seven-year-old can’t walk to the store the fault lies not with the parents but with the community.

submitted 1 day ago • 124 comments

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

submitted 2 days ago • 643 comments

Apparently the Acronis True Image slowdown that I documented would also be triggered by bringing up UAC dialogs, making it more likely to be affecting real users trying to get things done. I learned this from a comment on my blog post: randomascii.wordpress.com/2025/05/26/a...

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

Thanks HP. I just want to scan but your app won't load right now. I don't understand how this can happen. Did it crash? Is there a driver missing? Luckily I have a second computer that I can launch it on, but it's a bit ridiculous that previously working software could fail with no diagnostics.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

The GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” would be the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in U.S. history. On average, someone in the top 0.1% would gain around $390,000 next year. But someone in the bottom 20% would lose $820, and nearly twice as much—$1,545—in 2033.

submitted 10 days ago • 53 comments

With help from @dneto.dev I have successfully moved the UIforETW repo from Google's github to github.com/randomascii/.... v1.60 is hosted there and if you run a previous version of UIforETW it should tell you that there is a new version.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Two years ago I upgraded the SSD in my laptop. To migrate the data I installed Acronis True Image for Crucial. I left it installed, because what possible harm could that cause? The answer to this rhetorical question is a significant performance slowdown: randomascii.wordpress.com/2025/05/26/a...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

While updating UIforETW in its new location I found that uploading to my symbol server was using obsolete technology. Such are the joys of being an infrequent software developer. I updated my symbol-server blog post to reference Google's gcloud CLI: randomascii.wordpress.com/2020/03/14/c...

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

I have written many healthcare stories, but never before have I written about my own health. I decided to do so after learning one of my drugs costs nearly $1,000 a pill and just 25 cents to make. What I found was an incredible story of discovery and exploitation. www.propublica.org/article/revl...

submitted 31 days ago • 81 comments

It occurred to me that compersion is the opposite of schadenfreude. I feel both emotions, sometimes quite strongly. It mostly depends on how much I like/respect the person who the good/bad thing is happening to. Thoughts?

submitted 16 days ago • 3 comments

Now that connections tracks how often purple is solved first I have made that my goal. Very often - like today - I have no what the fourth category is so I assume that it is purple and I select it first. It is very satisfying, if a bit nerve wracking. I have 35 purple first out of 326 puzzles so far

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

I was walking near downtown Vancouver this morning and I saw a coyote sprinting by. In hot pursuit was a large Canada Goose, also running. A second glance confirmed the reason - a baby goose in the jaws of the running coyote. Nature, red in tooth and claw. Amazing.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

At the public hearing for the MEGATOWERS last night, I figured I would have some fun. Council wants a song and dance where we have to beg for more housing, despite a crushing housing shortage...so why not give them a song? Enjoy the Happy Megatowers Polka!

submitted 22 days ago • 2 comments

Hey @signal.org - I just installed Signal on a new Chrome Book, but it's the phone version and it _replaces_ Signal on my phone. I want signal on the Chrome Book _as well as_ on the phone, like I can do with my Windows laptop and phone. Any chance of this? I like my full keyboard

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling Friday said the Trump administration violated the due process rights of Venezuelan migrants in its rushed effort to remove them from the U.S. last month using the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), a 1798 wartime law. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

submitted 22 days ago • 425 comments

one of the things i discuss in my book, is how TOD (for lack of a better term) in europe doesn't tend to be focused at the *intersection* of arterials and highways - as we tend to do in the US. this is the annedal district outside of stockholm. planned for roughly 2000 homes for ~5000 people.

submitted 23 days ago • 11 comments

I'm here at City Hall for the MEGATOWERS MEGAHEARING! I'll only be lightly liveskeeting this one since I'm here to give my comments in person. But with over 100 registered speakers this will likely go for a Day 2 next week. I've got something a bit different planned for my comments, I'm #15 😜

submitted 23 days ago • 5 comments

THREAD: We recently heard that the Trump administration was leaning on the government of Gambia to help Elon Musk. For weeks, our team made phone calls, wrote letters and knocked on folks’ doors to try to confirm it. But we were stuck. So our reporters got on a plane to Banjul. 1/

submitted 23 days ago • 116 comments

speech writin’ time

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

People trying to justify Trump accepting the plane from Qatar, are comparing it to the United States accepting the statue of Liberty from France? The. Statue. Of. Liberty. Was. Not. A. Gift. From. France! US people get so worked up about "their history," but they don't even know their history.

submitted 26 days ago • 3 comments

NYC’s congestion pricing is a policy miracle: Less traffic, less noise, faster transit, more business sales, more transit revenue. And it hasn’t produced the negative effects outside the cordon zone we were afraid of. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

submitted 27 days ago • 66 comments

This is great! I see a lot of amateur crime stats folk in Greg's mentions, wondering about the cause. 🤔 Is it that people are less bored, and have less time for delinquency? 🤔Is it that library patrons as nosey lookey-loos, reporting all crime? I don't think these are bad faith questions but...

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

One of the most frustrating things about US car culture is that there’s no “opt-out.” Even if you choose to live car-free in a dense city, not only will you have other people’s noisy vehicles polluting your streets, but drivers will also demand access to *every last space.* A 🧵 on CT car culture/

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments