Tweets
RT @Hacksterio: A project for days to come: @josecastillo’s Hiking Log has him “branching out” from eReaders! https://bit.ly/39VVlHe https…
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RT @M_uh_lee: “I’m a Black man living in this world. I want to stay alive, but I also want to stay alive.” — Aaron Thomas on wearing a face…
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Quarantine, day 28: we made camp by twilight, all sticky heat under hazy sky, an early moonrise casting feeble rays of light over the peaks of the…roofs. (we are camping in the backyard)
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Another thing the 2011 film Contagion nailed: the guy pushing unproven cures stands to make a fortune while people die.
It’ll be a complete parallel when he faces absolutely no consequences for his actions in the end. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-reportedly-has-financial-interest-in-hydroxychloroquine-manufacturer
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assembling the BPM Bike Light. I mostly recorded this so I could grab stills for the guide all at once, but it worked kind of well when sped up. (blinkenlights at the end)
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Love the new @oshpark sticker! Also, tonight’s project. Road to the Book #5: the BPM Bike Light. (I know I still haven’t gotten #4 out; still working on a 3D printing section. But soon!)
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Tired: the robot gunslinger shoots back.
Wired: the robot gunslinger taints your world with madness.
Next week: the robot gunslinger tortures a simulated version of your consciousness for all eternity. (Google Roko’s Basilisk)
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RT @Yamiche: Mr. President, @realDonaldTrump, I’ve asked you fair & relevant questions on your evolving approach & rhetoric regarding coron…
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Replying to @proppy
Oh huh! I wasn’t able to find them earlier, but now I’m seeing some on eBay for cheap. That might be the ideal solution.
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Replying to @genuinebyte
That’s the plan! this concept uses a SAMD11 to run six digits; 14 pins source current, six drive a darlington array for the cathodes and I’ll have another gadget talk to it over I²C. Can’t run it too bright, but on the upside it’s a $1 microcontroller instead of a $14 LED driver.
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more 14-segment work. i want to drive an army of these. (but i don’t want to spend a lot of money)
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Replying to @siddacious
More broadly, if we ever want a return to normalcy in this nation, we’ll need 50 healthy states, or Idahoans are going to risk illness every time they visit New York or cross the border to Washington. It’s not zero sum. But I understand why some people prefer we see it that way.
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Replying to @siddacious
I think if this attitude prevails, we’re no longer one nation. And maybe that’s the point. The federal government did not prepare for this, and I sense it’s easier to convince folks in Idaho that they’re harmed when New York gets help, than to confront that uncomfortable fact.
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Replying to @siddacious
In particular I saw it in one of the first responses to Cuomo’s tweet — and it isn’t an uncommon response right now. You’re right, there’s more diversity than just this dichotomy. But it’s not a false one. The zero-sum attitude is real, and it could end us.https://twitter.com/KeithConnelly3/status/1246461627777593344
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Two ideologies are at play in America. One: the Trumpist, zero-sum, us-vs-them mentality that sees anything your neighbor has as something you’ve lost. The other: #joinordie; the idea that we’re stronger together, that we always help when we can. I’m rooting for our better angels https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1246458148283731969
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It’s like the Sharpie map except people are going to die over this. https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1246109260104294406
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Replying to @tarahaelle
Trump sees it as his to dole out to whomever he chooses. One of the most terrifying lines I heard watching the briefings is when Trump said, of aid, “I’ve been very generous.” Not ‘the resources of the federal government were deployed.’ Trump was generous. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-15/
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RT @tarahaelle: Genuine question: *Who* does “our” refer to if the stockpile isn’t to be used in any states? Surely DC doesn’t need the ent…
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Replying to @brentrubell
That’s a really good idea! Maybe someday soon it will count the number of people vaccinated.
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Welp. One million cases. I regret building this depressing sad news box. Or maybe the news is just sad either way.
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Replying to @scynthero
Unfortunately I don’t know; stuff got put on hold when the world turned upside down. No one is able to travel, and many of the folks involved are now (rightly) focused on pandemic work like medical tech and PPE. I may put some bare PCBs on Tindie, but no word on assembled boards.
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The Trump administration, folks. “Thousands [of ventilators] are unavailable after the contract to maintain the government’s stockpile lapsed late last summer, and a contracting dispute meant that a new firm did not begin its work until late January.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/us/politics/coronavirus-ventilators.html
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Replying to @scynthero
Short answer, no; the basic proof-of-concept sketch I wrote works for reading short stories, but I was hoping to get more devices in folks’ hands, attract people interested in helping with real reader software. Hoping to get there, but external events have impacted that timeline.
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RT @gregggonsalves: @jmartNYT @maggieNYT @nytimes @peterbakernyt @realDonaldTrump @statnews @propublica This is an emergency, act like it.…
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Replying to @josecastillo
Hoping to finish this latest entry by Thursday, but if you wanna follow along at home, the journey so far:
Hiking Log: http://oddlyspecific.org/2020/02/20/road-to-book-1-the-hiking-log/
Countdown Clock I: http://oddlyspecific.org/2020/02/27/road-to-book-2-the-countdown-clock/
Countdown Clock II: http://oddlyspecific.org/2020/03/05/road-to-book-3-prototyping-a-feather/(original)
Well that worked! Final permutation of the countdown clock. Week 1: big mess o’ wires + an off-the-shelf Feather. Week 2: a DIY microcontroller board prototype — more wires! Week 3: proto → Feather from scratch, on custom PCB. Some writing still to do but I think it makes sense!
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turns out I get easily distracted. Putting aside my pile of prototypes to get back to what I was working on 3 weeks ago: the Road to the Book series. Writing and soldering today; hoping to return to the one-guide-a-week pace I was maintaining before the world turned upside down.
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Replying to @josecastillo
Anyway. That’s a bit of a brain dump. Prototyping tonight; if it works, I think it’ll replace lesson 7 in the “Road to the Book” series I’m writing — which, dang, the virus really wrecked my once-a-week publishing schedule 😕 (6/5, how do twitter threads work again?)
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Replying to @josecastillo
SD and a Flash chip round out storage options. A Neopixel does status. Several options for RTC, $ to $$$. Plus two buttons for pressing. Leaving 4 pins to figure out connectivity. Currently have a pin header with a UART for an ESP-01 module. Unsure if it’s the final answer. (5/5)
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Replying to @josecastillo
Totally cribbed the 9-pin connector idea from the @Adafruit Monster M4sk btw. It’s a really clever design: SPI out+control pins, I²C and a spare GPIO in a half an inch? It’s a brilliant connector for a small daughterboard with a TFT and some sensors. (4/5) https://www.adafruit.com/product/4343
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Replying to @josecastillo
But, hypothetically, one could make a fancier board with I²C sensors, temperature or accelerometer, with interrupts or even a speaker; the fifth analog pin on the connector is the M0’s DAC. Could even use the four pins as an SPI interface; they align with a free SERCOM. (3/5)
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Replying to @josecastillo
Leaning toward a SAMD21E now. And instead of just measuring body temp, I stuffed five analog pins + I²C onto a 9-pin connector. Idea being, if there’s something else to measure, there are enough pins to make a board or a flex PCB that does it. This one’s just a thermistor… 2/
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OK! Thermometer Hat, take 2. Recap; the goal: monitor wearer’s temperature, alert them when it’s high, log timestamped data for later review. I kinda went back to the drawing board, simplifying and choosing hardware I can get to work easily with Arduino/CircuitPython. Thread; 1/?
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75 days ago the novel coronavirus caused its first death. As of today it’s on track to kill more people this year than the measles, a disease for which we actually HAVE a vaccine. There is no vaccine for COVID-19. Social distancing right now is our best hope for saving lives.
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WHAT FRESH HELL? “Dick Kovacevich, [former Wells Fargo CEO], wants to see healthy workers below about 55 or so to return to work… ‘We’ll gradually bring those people back and see what happens. Some of them will get sick, some may even die, I don’t know.’” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/billionaires-want-people-back-to-work-workers-aren-t-so-sure
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so here’s a gadget that’s never gonna make it past the protoboard: had the idea for a SAM L21 based Feather for my body-temperature-logging baseball cap. Killer feature would be coin cell backup for the built-in RTC. Going another direction, but brain dumping my notes on it here.
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Replying to @josecastillo
like, I can read data; grasp the tragedy already underway; understand the coming recession; know that until there’s a vaccine, any of us could die or see a friend fall ill. But the reality of it, accepting that we’re about to live through this? Only now getting to these emotions.
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at a friend’s birthday party on zoom, video chat spread over five states since we can’t be there in person; one friend played “have you ever seen the rain” on acoustic guitar and I don’t know why but this is the moment that all of this actually, finally, truly hit me.
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Watching our leaders consider the biggest public health mistake in history, all I can think is “Don’t get sick.” Whatever it takes. This virus is serious. It CAN kill you. And even if it doesn’t, you could endanger family, friends, doctors, nurses — everyone. Stay in. Stay well.
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I’ve been following the case of David Lat, founder of @atlblog. 44, marathon runner; walked 25 miles a week. He’s on a ventilator at NYU Langone with COVID-19. Without it he wouldn’t be alive. And New York is 30,000 ventilators short in the next two weeks. https://www.law.com/2020/03/23/david-lat-undergoing-experimental-drug-therapy-his-husband-says/
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Boston, emergency physician: “This feels for the very first time there is actually a threat to me as a physician,” Dr. Mitchell said. “The nurses feel the same way.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/us/coronavirus-doctor-poetry-boston.html
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This is a respiratory therapist in NOLA: “People who look relatively healthy with a minimal health history are completely wiped out, like they’ve been hit by a truck.” “I’ve never seen…an infectious process cause such acute damage to the lungs so rapidly.”https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/lung-fluids-coronavirus/
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This is an incredible thread chronicling both the heroism of our medical workers and the dire situation in our hospitals. But for anyone STILL not taking this seriously, I want to call out one line in his last tweet: “I survived Ebola. I fear #COVIDー19.” https://mobile.twitter.com/Craig_A_Spencer/status/1242302400762908685
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Replying to @tarahaelle and @DanPatrick
Some of you must die today, so the economy can live tomorrow. Also, some of you must die tomorrow, so the economy can live today.
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RT @tarahaelle: After hearing Trump promote #chloroquine for #coronavirus during his televised press conference, a woman and her husband to…
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Interesting: “2,000 San Francisco emergency medical workers will begin wearing rings this week that track their body temperature and other vital signs in a first-of-its-kind study to try to identify the early onset of COVID-19 and help curb its spread.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Predicting-coronavirus-SF-emergency-workers-wear-15149729.php
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RT @tarahaelle: A run on hydroxychloroquine after Trump’s irresponsible tweet promoting it—evidence of its safety & effectiveness in treati…
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I hope this does not come to pass; my heart breaks to know that it could. “The doctors are talking about making living wills and what will happen when we are faced with this,” [a doctor in San Jose] said. “All of us are wondering which one of us will die.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/system-doomed-doctors-nurses-sound-nbc-news-coronavirus-survey-n1164841
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Replying to @josecastillo
For the record, this might work, it might not, or it might hurt you; studies must be done. But right now these are real medicines that people with serious conditions need to live their lives; if there’s a shortage because Internet people say ‘it’s the cure,’ people will get hurt.
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Rewatched Contagion last night. It got so many things right it’s uncanny. R₀ and fomites. A run on Purell. Social distancing. Shelter in place. And ofc Internet fools touting unproven cures, putting folks at risk & inciting runs on pharmacies. (they had a blogger; we have POTUS) https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241367239900778501
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