I have waited a long time to read this book. I’ve also waited about a month since I finished reading it before writing this post. This book is a lot. It is considered the seminal work of the steampunk genre. In it, Gibson and Sterling present a world where Babbage found wide success with his… Continue reading The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Category: Blog
Internship: Demographic meta-analysis of the Sierra College student body and disparately impacted success of its populations.
Executive Summary During the fall 2019 semester, I completed a sociology internship at Sierra College. At some point in the last year, I had asked several professors which populations are the most impacted at Sierra College (Which group has the lowest success). I was surprised to learn that no one knew the answer. Further research… Continue reading Internship: Demographic meta-analysis of the Sierra College student body and disparately impacted success of its populations.
Data: Are Shiftpods Actually Cooler?
Key Findings; Shiftpods are not significantly better than cheap alternatives. No tent performs well in direct sun. No matter what kind of tent you have, putting it under a shade structure is the most important thing for keeping it cool inside during the day. Evaporative “swamp” coolers are not as helpful as simple ventilation. Thermal… Continue reading Data: Are Shiftpods Actually Cooler?
The Fight For $15
“The Fight For 15” is a flawed attempt to solve the problem of the decoupling of inflation from wages. Minimum wage is always stagnant, with occasional jumps, typically closer to a living wage. A living wage is a wage that is high enough for people to meet their basic needs and survive. This is not… Continue reading The Fight For $15
DIY High-Precision Multi-Zone Temperature Logger
I was in need of high-precision multi-zone temperature logging gear for a chemistry honors project, and I found nothing online that would work well for my purpose, so I decided to put my CSCI46 skills to use and build my own. The Hardware I started with a NodeMCU which is basically a fancier but somehow also cheaper… Continue reading DIY High-Precision Multi-Zone Temperature Logger
“Criminal Justice System”
The modern American “criminal justice system” has for centuries been an institution of deliberate systemic oppression. This purpose was greatly expanded in recent decades through the drug wars and through the ignorant actions of armchair broken windows theorists like Joe Biden. This system is designed based on profit incentives. These incentives lead to no consideration… Continue reading “Criminal Justice System”
SQLLVM
There should be intermediate compilers for structured queries. Lots of database product companies do something like this and none of them do it well. People should be able to write a bad, messy query and then there should be a compiler that cleans it up and makes it faster and cleaner.
Open Source NetCam Software
Something open source to run on cheap obsolete network cameras and give them modern functionality. Also unlock the potential of cheap smart cameras with subscription models. use something like https://imagemagick.org/script/compare.php to check for motion and trigger alterts, etc.
SCP Tale: Adapting
write an SCP tale about adapting the limitations of what is an anomaly as society’s understanding of the laws of physics changes over time
Vouchsafe
A tool for verifying a new community member is a real person and tracing in-person contacts to verify who vouches for them. This would make it much harder to have fake profiles or infiltration by hostile groups.