Favorites from JohnnyGunn
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A personal Dewey Decimal system
Johnny•Decimal
helps organize your (digital) life.
Thousands of emails. Hundreds of files. File structures created on a whim and six layers deep. Duplicated content, lost content. We thought search would save us from this nightmare, but we were wrong. It's simple in practice, but takes some thought to build the right structure for yourself. And that's the beauty of it - the structure is what best suits you and how you naturally group things.
The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas and so many more
Motown Junkies
is a blog where Steve Devereux is reviewing the entire Motown singles discography in sequential order from the beginning. You can also browse tracks by songwriter, label and artist. He’s currently up to 1966, though he’s been on hiatus for a few years. He also used to present Discovering Motown on Radio Cardiff, and the archive is on Mixcloud.
Excel test for job application
What is the best way to update to quickly update meagre Excel skills for a job application test?
noise reducing (not cancelling) earplugs (not headphones or earbuds)
I am looking to hear experiences from those who have used Loop Engage or similar earplugs which aim to soften noise experience, not block noise such as for concerts or power tools.
Amazing list of curmudgeonly websites
There was an askme (I think) not too long ago, about websites that are amazingly specific, usually maintained by a cranky crank. It's where I found the sauce packet database for example... So many amazing links. Maybe even a link to a big website of other links. Somehow I seem to have lost it and I'm sad. Anyone remember and able to point me to the thread?
I had enough "oh wow" moments that I just felt compelled to post
The awkwardly titled Nobody Believes But It REALLY WORKS! 15 Brilliant (+1 FREE) Chef's Secrets Work Like CRAZY Magic! is 11 minutes of things that people might find useful in the kitchen. I hadn't heard of this channel before, but apparently Websppon World has over 1M subscribers, so I'm both late to the game and the YouTube algorithm is a slacker. The different tips are chapter linked in the "more inside" part of the video description.
What Rosa Brought
When my kids were ready to begin learning about the Holocaust, but not to face its full horror, I told them their grandmother's story. My mom was a little girl in Vienna when the Nazis marched in. She was present for the first steps that they took against the Austrian Jews. Miraculously, she and her parents escaped in 1939. It’s not a happy story, but it's a story whose sadness a child can wrap their head around, and I thought it might be helpful for other parents who are ready to begin this conversation. So, I put it in a picture book. It was published last week, and I'm prouder of it than anything else I've written. It got starred reviews in Kirkus and Booklist.
It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed
The Mozilla Foundation has published a study on the data privacy of 25 major car brands. Highlights include Hyundai collecting olfactory data and Nissan collecting and sharing "sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic information."
Egg Man
The Incredible Edible Egg, the symbol of life. There's been a long debate about the health benefits and negative effects of the humble egg, but for many, the scrambled egg is the go to breakfast choice. The real question is which scrambled egg? Milk? Cream? Nothing? Salt? No Salt?
Again, as with all things culinarily inclined, this list is short sighted, full of gaps, holes, glaring errors and misconceptions, etc. Feel free to scramble over any and all bare spots!
Home Web Server: tips and advice...
Kiddo and I are going to take a disused (but still mostly cromulent) old computer and turn it into a web server, to host a few different niche/vanity/starter sites. We're thinking Debian for the server, then CloudPanel on top to help run admin. Does that make sense? What else might we want to know?
She's got spunk!
Eight Characters In Search Of A Sitcom [58m] is a 2003 character-by-character, actor-by-actor profile of the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Cast members, writers, directors all sharing their joy and love for the show.
another seven tons of iron taken out of here since last June
Going through a parent's hoard after their illness or death or can be daunting. For five exhausting years, Thalia and Tara blogged at Tetanus Burger about whittling away at the 78 junk cars and mysterious piles left by their father at their family's residential lot. Reader beware, there are truly horrific stories about their childhood. But there are also cute kittens (scroll to the bottom of the linked post)!
Quantum Physics Falls Apart without Imaginary Numbers
From Scientific American: Imaginary numbers—the square roots of negative numbers—are an inescapable part of quantum theory (includes the history of imaginary numbers).
The part of 60s music that wasn't Laurel Canyon
Greenwich Village: Music that Defined A Generation [1h32m] is a 2012 documentary that looks at the part of the 60s folk and subsequent rock revolution that wasn't based in California. Guthrie, Seeger, Dylan, Baez.. and that's just the beginning. A really great look at a fascinating era of music that shaped what we all listen to now.
eBikes: How do I conceptualize Pedal Assist so I can find what I need?
I rented two eBikes this week. The first one was the Giant Roam E+, and the second was the GEN3 Stride. They both had pedal assist, but the experiences were completely different from each other. I want to understand how best to think and talk about what I felt while riding each, so that I can buy an eBike that feels right to my style of riding.
Breaking things down so you don't.
goblin.tools
is a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult.
The Dankiest Sticky-Icky
Cannabis scientist Dr. Amber Wise answers Twitter's questions about cannabis in a seasonally-relevant video for WIRED.
"The Road Runner's response is insane and also involves a wig."
Almost all of the Road Runner cartoons are available via the @BoomerangToons app.Actor/Comedian Connor Ratliff (Search Party, Orange is the New Black) is attempting to watch and tweet about every Warner Bros. Road Runner/Coyote cartoon ever made. [Twitter thread]
I subscribed for $5 & decided I'm gonna watch & tweet about 'em all in chronological order, even the later, terrible ones, for which I have an irrational affection.
Here we go.
Slow TV, but for woodworking
I'm curious about all the little nuances that a craftsman does, sometimes without even thinking about it. Does anyone know of a video resource showing woodworkers doing projects from start to finish, with only minimal editing?
I want you to post an article about AI in Metafilter, and do it good.
How to Use AI to do Practical Stuff.
"We live in an era of practical AI, but many people haven’t yet experienced it, or, if they have, they might have wondered what the big deal is. Thus, this guide. It is a modified version of one I put out for my students earlier in the year, but a lot has changed. It is an overview of ways to get AI to do practical things."
Also: How to Use AI to teach the hardest skills.
And Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok: How to Learn and Teach Economics with Large Language Models, Including GPT (PDF)
Adams Ruins Patagonia. And Billionaires.
Adam Conover, famous for ruining everything [previously], takes to youtube for his first (presumably there will be more) longform rant about everyone's new favorite billionaire Yvon Chouinard (recently on the blue) and explaining Why There's No Such Thing as a Good Billionaire
All models are wrong, but some models are useful.
Do you think machines are neat? Ever regretted not getting that mechanical engineering degree? Enjoy playing with legos? Can you appreciate things that will teach you stuff without having much other use? Here's something that might tickle your fancy.
Twenty years of Languagehat
A slightly belated congratulations to MeFi's own Languagehat, AKA Stephen Dodson, on the twentieth anniversary (July 31) of his blog Languagehat.com. Languagehat explores linguistics, with excursions into literature (especially Russian literature), grammar, etymology, languages and more. I venture to guess that exceedingly few blogs launched in 2002 are still active, and perhaps none active to the degree that Languagehat has been, with posts on a daily basis virtually all of those twenty years.
Where should I go to find out about new gadgets and geegaws?
There used to be a variety of sites that were good at reporting on the latest gadgets, gizmos, neat Kickstarter projects, fun apps, etc. Now they all seem to have declined in quality (Gizmodo) or become full of boring spam (Product Hunt). Where do geeks go to find new consumer-facing products that are cool or interesting?
How to ensure a happy old age
Older Mefites enjoying a happy, healthy older age, please share your secrets with me.
It looks like a great big Lego Tylenol
Enjoy a short interview with LEGO builder Jack Carleson as he shows off his Minifigure-scale Airbus A380. This completely freestanding model weighs nearly 100 lbs and has moving flaps, working lights and retractable landing gear.
Needles, Noodles, Doodles, and the Length of a Potato
In 1777, the Comte de Buffon studied the odds of landing a round coin on a single square of a tile floor. (Those early probabilists, always thinking about gambling!) Buffon then proposed a famed variation with needles. Though there are no overt circles in this version of the problem, π still shows up in the answer. For a beautiful explanation, trade needles for noodles (YT, 9m 59s; text alternative). You can simulate tossing noodles to empirically calculate π, or count grid crossings to estimate the length of a mountain trail. But that's not the end of the story…
It's worse than you think
... when you grasp the sense in which your situation is completely hopeless, instead of just very challenging, you can unclench. You get to exhale. You no longer have to go through life adopting the brace position, because you see that the plane has already crashed. You're already stranded on the desert island, making what you can of life with your fellow survivors, and with nothing but airplane food to subsist on. And you come to appreciate how much of your distress arose not from the situation itself, but from your efforts to hold yourself back from it, to keep alive the hope that it might not be as it really was. From Oliver Burkeman's newsletter, The Imperfectionist.
Can I Sing Bug With U?
During a solo acoustic show in Grand Rapids Monday night, Trey Anastasio noticed 7 year-old Jovi holding a sign asking if she could sing a song with him. He invited her up for the encore and the resulting performance is the feel-good thing you didn't know you needed tonight. (slyt)
You Gotta Know when to Fool 'em
10 Levels of Sleight of Hand - Cheating at Poker. (YT)
"Level 1: this demonstration is based on a routine by Jim Swain, explained on his Miracles DVD set.
Level 2: I use a shuffle sequence created by Rod the Hop in this phase and throughout the video. It is explained in Steve Forte's books, Gambling Sleight of Hand Vols. 1 and 2.
Levels 3 & 4: these demonstrations are based off of Harry Lorayne's routine Numero Uno, released on Vol. 1 of his "Best Ever" DVD set.
Level 5: while different in method, this level is based off of ideas found throughout Jim Swain's act on the first DVD of his Miracles DVD set.
Levels 6, 7, & 8: these levels are comprised of a slight variation of Darwin Ortiz's routine Positively Fifth Street, found in his book Lessons in Card Mastery.
Levels 9 & 10: this demonstration is a (very) slight variation of the Dai Vernon Poker Demonstration, published in the Dai Vernon Book of Magic."
Does anyone remember this workout? Manual labor?
I remember reading a Reddit thread or blog where a man described, I think with pictures, how he was doing his own workout- in his bedroom- that he designed himself using basic items made to be like an axe… for example… that was based on manual labor. Things like chopping wood. I don’t think it was just chopping wood though. It wasn’t a body building website or formal article, it was a regular guy. It was so funny and I would love to read it again. Any chance anyone remembers it? I might have even come across it on here!
Some of you have new names now
I've installed a language learning extension in my browser called Toucan which changes an assortment of words on whatever page you're looking at into your target learning language -- in my case French -- with the idea that you will learn that vocabulary in the context of your primary language. But what's currently cracking me up is that when I open a page on Metafilter: communauté weblog, it often chooses to translate bits and pieces of peoples usernames.
Modern music for coastal slackers
My summer playlist is stuck in 2012. Give me your favorite twangy and jizjazzy guitar-centric surf-adjacent jams that are up-to-date, maybe west/best coast but maybe not.
Please Help Me Sleep
I have never been a good sleeper, and typically am both sleep resistant and wake throughout the night. I recently took hydroxizine for a couple months and it gave me real actual sleep for the first time in my life (including childhood). Unfortunately, it also gave me such bad gastroparesis that I had to stop taking it. Now I’m back to having a headache all the time and panicking about sleep. Please help me with what’s helped for your similar bad sleep? I am completely open to medications.
Best digital/non-digital ways of saving files for beneficaries?
With the recent passing of a family member, I'm looking at preparing my own affairs. What I've been doing is various paperwork and scanning it in, so that there's digital and physical copies.
What's the best way to store these files, both digitally and non-digitally, so that beneficiaries will have easy access to these files when the time comes? I'm most curious about digital ways of storing files. Do I do Dropbox or some other third party service? PDFs?
I am based in the USA and so are the beneficiaries and that is unlikely to change.
You’re muted — or are you?
Kassem Fawaz’s brother was on a videoconference with the microphone muted when he noticed that the microphone light was still on — indicating, inexplicably, that his microphone was being accessed. Alarmed, he asked Fawaz, an expert in online privacy and an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to look into the issue. Fawaz and graduate student Yucheng Yang investigated whether this “mic-off-light-on” phenomenon was more widespread. They tried out many different videoconferencing applications on major operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows and Mac, checking to see if the apps still accessed the microphone when it was muted.
The 1%er next door
Just how dangerous are the Hell's Angels these days? That is, how dangerous to live next to?
A Long Weekend in Saugerties, NY - Suggestions for Things To Do
My partner, my dog, and I will be staying in Saugerties, NY, for a long weekend. What would you suggest for things to do?
Watch it!
What's the best mid-range 65" TV on the market?
In Excel, How do I turn Table A into Table B?
In Excel, how do I turn Table A into Table B?
I'm pretty sure it's something to do with PIvot tables but I can't figure it out (google sheet)
The moral costs of dieting
"But if dieting is a practice that causes a great deal of harm — in the form of pain, suffering, anxiety and sheer hunger — and rarely works to deliver the health or happiness it has long advertised, then it is a morally bad practice. " [SL NYTimes, Archive link] [CW for discussion of dieting methods]
Something still aloft
Do the Apollo flags remain where they were planted or have they fallen or have they disintegrated after four decades of intense UV and heat? James Fincannon investigates flags left behind from Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 missions.
how do really busy and successful people manage it all and stay sane?
I've taken on a lot of work recently and I feel like I am at capacity, yet it seems like other more successful people manage to do so much more, and with greater efficiency.
How do these people manage to use their time so well?