Nelson's Weblog
Noom is exploitative
I tried out Noom, the weight loss and cognitive behavioral therapy
program. The app is more like CBT...
a month ago
I tried out Noom, the weight loss and cognitive behavioral therapy
program. The app is more like CBT for upselling customers than CBT for
weight loss. Now I’m hoping they’ll delete my sensitive medical data and
refund the $3 they tricked me out of. (They did, quickly in...
Nelson's Weblog
Passkey authenticators for consumers (May 2023)
After yesterday’s
post about passkeys I got enough answers to learn how to use
passkeys myself as a...
2 weeks ago
After yesterday’s
post about passkeys I got enough answers to learn how to use
passkeys myself as a consumer. Here’s what I learned. If you want to try
it yourself, passkeys.io is a
nice demo server.
Passkeys work a lot like passwords do today. You create a different
passkey for...
Nelson's Weblog
Windy.com is good weather
I’ve found a mobile app for weather I finally like enough to be happy about paying for. Windy, best...
4 months ago
I’ve found a mobile app for weather I finally like enough to be happy about paying for. Windy, best known for its website. The mobile app has extra phone features like notifications and home screen widgets. Also its UI is a little more understandable.
Windy makes a strong first...
Nelson's Weblog
Linkblog feed update
I've got a new
feed for my
linkblog. It's at
https://www.somebits.com/linkblog/index.atom
old feed...
10 months ago
I've got a new
feed for my
linkblog. It's at
https://www.somebits.com/linkblog/index.atom
old feed at Pinboard
will still work but isn't as fancy.
Nelson's Weblog
New linkblog website
I launched a new website for my linkblog; go check it out! I'm proud of how it looks.
My linkblog...
10 months ago
I launched a new website for my linkblog; go check it out! I'm proud of how it looks.
My linkblog is a collection of links I find interesting. I write it for an audience, a few links a day of general interest. I've been doing this for 19 years now and I think it's one of the...
Nelson's Weblog
What are passkeys?
That’s the post. What are passkeys? I don’t have answers, just
questions. I believe passkeys are...
2 weeks ago
That’s the post. What are passkeys? I don’t have answers, just
questions. I believe passkeys are a
great idea but the tech world is doing a terrible job explaining
them. Someone really needs to explain how passkeys work in Internet
products. Existing
descriptions aren’t sinking...
Nelson's Weblog
GAS
I’ve been listening to the same music every night when I go to sleep
10+ years now. Weird...
a week ago
I’ve been listening to the same music every night when I go to sleep
10+ years now. Weird endorsement; I’ve listened to it with more
attention plenty of times too. But it’s particularly good for going to
sleep; calm, interesting, and comfortably familiar.
That music is GAS,...
Nelson's Weblog
Linkblog archives
I've added an
archive calendar to my linkblog, so you can see old posts going all the
way back to...
5 months ago
I've added an
archive calendar to my linkblog, so you can see old posts going all the
way back to 2003. The UI is a little minimal but usable and it will work for
any search indexers, which is what I most care about. Note old posts will
have a grey background because I wasn't...
Nelson's Weblog
My work at early Twitter
I worked at Twitter part-time starting June 2007. I've never talked much about this in public. I'm...
4 months ago
I worked at Twitter part-time starting June 2007. I've never talked much about this in public. I'm revisiting it because of the complete disaster Elon Musk has made of Twitter. His sabotage of the company has felt personal to me. It hurts to watch him destroy something I helped...
Nelson's Weblog
Starlink in Nov 2022
My Starlink Internet service has gotten pretty bad; every evening I'm well under 50Mbps
and some...
6 months ago
My Starlink Internet service has gotten pretty bad; every evening I'm well under 50Mbps
and some hours I only get 2Mbps. (Compare 100Mbps+ last
year.) I've given up trying to stream 1080p video at night; that's a pretty
dismal result for a new Internet service in 2022.
Starlink...
Nelson's Weblog
Austria 2022
Ken and I just got back from a 23 day trip exploring most of Austria. We
had a lovely time although...
7 months ago
Ken and I just got back from a 23 day trip exploring most of Austria. We
had a lovely time although we did get a little worn out and ready for home
after a couple of weeks. Along the way we stayed in Vienna, Graz, the
Wörthersee, Zell am See, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Hallstatt,...
Nelson's Weblog
Back to Goodreads
I’m
back to using Goodreads but I lost my friends list, if you use
Goodreads please add
me as a...
a year ago
I’m
back to using Goodreads but I lost my friends list, if you use
Goodreads please add
me as a friend.
After
Goodreads
lost my account I was furious and of course intended to never use
it again. But to their credit, Goodreads did some extra work and
managed to get me a copy of...
Nelson's Weblog
Class action employment suits
Google has agreed
to settle a gender discrimination suit brought by employees.
Congratulations to...
11 months ago
Google has agreed
to settle a gender discrimination suit brought by employees.
Congratulations to the plaintiffs, suing your employer is a difficult and
stressful thing. But while the $118M
headline looks big it works out to only $7600 per employee, less after the
lawyers'...
Nelson's Weblog
My surprise brother
I learned a few years ago I have a brother. No one knew, my mother gave
birth to him in 1959 and...
a year ago
I learned a few years ago I have a brother. No one knew, my mother gave
birth to him in 1959 and immediately gave him up for adoption. My mother
died two decades ago so details are hard to come by. My brother worked for
years to find us. I'm glad he succeeded! And I feel sad...
Nelson's Weblog
Goodreads lost all of my reviews
Goodreads lost my entire account last week. Nine years as a user,
some 600 books and 250 carefully...
a year ago
Goodreads lost my entire account last week. Nine years as a user,
some 600 books and 250 carefully written reviews all deleted and
unrecoverable. Their support has not been helpful. In 35 years of
being online I've never encountered a company with such callous
disregard for their...
Nelson's Weblog
Liftmaster 87504-267
This is gonna sound silly but one of the nicest home improvements we've done recently is install a...
8 months ago
This is gonna sound silly but one of the nicest home improvements we've done recently is install a new garage door opener, the Liftmaster 87504-267. It works so much better than my old insecure garage door!
Internet access is the surprise best feature; I use it all the time....
Nelson's Weblog
Relaxation Dynamics of a Lattice Spin System
Way back in 1994 I wrote an undergraduate thesis for my math degree at
Reed College. It was a fun...
11 months ago
Way back in 1994 I wrote an undergraduate thesis for my math degree at
Reed College. It was a fun project, studying
a discrete dynamic system that was an extension of the
Ising
model. Sort of cellular automata meets statistical mechanics.
It's the only significant thing I've...
Nelson's Weblog
Seven slaves, a marker
I've written before
about learning that my ancestors Leonard and Melvina Ward owned a slave.
Today I...
a year ago
I've written before
about learning that my ancestors Leonard and Melvina Ward owned a slave.
Today I learned there were more, at least seven.
This marker comes courtesy of Find-a-Grave.
It's on a small family cemetery near
Bagwell, TX. I'm not positive but I think the land is...
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