A Visit to Simone Giertz's Tiny (630 sqft) Los Angeles Home

Simone Giertz is one of my favorite people and has been since long before she got big around 2016.

Her early videos in the 2010s featured robots she designed to intentionally fail at everyday tasks.

Boring phone call + iPad: TikTok FTW!

Sometimes you’ve got no choice: you're obligated to talk to someone, usually a family member, on the phone.

Up to now I've muted my phone so the oblivious relative can yap to her heart's content about the same old same old while I clean the house and do other things I've been putting off.

I stumbled on a better solution this morning: TikTok on my iPad with the sound turned off.

Now I can get my TikTok fix in without having it distract me from stuff I want to do.

I give TikTok huge UPs for building an irresistible, alluring algorithm.

Full disclosure: I've never made a TikTok (though I have an account): it's all I can do to keep my YouTube channel subscribers happy.

No Stress Tuna Press

Finally.

This stainless steel colander is tricked out with grip wings so you can squeeze every last drop of liquid out of the can.

Set of 3: $11.55 (tuna not included).

Do a couple of your friends a solid [see what I did there?] and give away the two extras.

What's in a Name?

Type in a last name and it will show you where in Great Britain that name has been found.

From the website:

..........................

Our research, carried out at the ESRC Consumer Data Research Centre (GeoDS), is exploring the generational and inter-generational residential movements of family groups across Great Britain, using historic censuses and recent consumer registers. 

The GeoDS holds a number of novel consumer datasets that chart recent movements and changes, including the links between geographical and social mobilty.

..........................

Read "All The Names" here — free, the way we like it.

[via Charles Arthur's nonpareil Overspill]

 

BeyondTheMedspeak: My History of Aspirin & Tylenol Use

Above, all my aspirin and Tylenol purchases from Amazon since September 2021.

Know that my painkiller meds and regimen of choice are and have always been 3 regular aspirin tablets + 2 Tylenol, every 4-6 hours.

No Motrin, no Advil, or any of the newer analgesics.

Reading the fine print I concluded none are as effective and safe as my combo.

The tens of millions of dollars spent by Big Pharma saying the opposite is true will never convince me.

You've read it here before but one more time never hurts: Old ways are the best ways.

Replika

News travels slowly to Podunkville: how else to explain the fact that I.HAD.NO.CLUE that Replika is so popular?

How popular, joe?

According to Wikipedia it became available to the public in November 2017; by January 2018 it had 2 million users; in January 2023 it had 10 million users; in August 2024 the total number of users was 30 million; in 2025 Replika's user base exceeded 40 million people!

Talk about flying under the radar....

25% of its users pay an annual subscription fee; the other 75% get a less full-featured version free.

Considering that latest user number, it's likely that more than a couple peeps reading this are "Replikites."

Can A Knife Be Too Sharp?

Up to last week I'd have said "Of course not." 

What a silly question!

After my Kyocera ceramic paring knife (top) arrived and I used it to slice some cheese — in the process slicing into my thumb not once but twice yet not realizing it for a couple seconds because the blade was so sharp I didn't feel it breaking my skin — I retired it to my knife rack.

Like the packaging (below) says:

                      UNRELENTING SHARPNESS

You can too!

$19.98.

When Albert Einstein Met Jean Piaget

From the March 1957 issue of Scientific American:

Children and Physics

Does a child's first conception of velocity include comprehension of it as a function of distance and time, or is his notion more primitive and intuitive? 

Albert Einstein himself posed this question to me in 1928 when I was demonstrating some experiments on causality to him one day. 

I have since performed a very simple experiment which shows that a child does not think of velocity in terms of the distance-time relation. 

We place before the child two tunnels, one of which is obviously much longer than the other, and then we push a doll through each tunnel with a metal rod in such a way that the dolls arrive at the other end of both tunnels simultaneously. 

We ask the child:




"Is one tunnel longer than the other?"



"Yes, that one."



"Did both dolls go through the tunnels at the same speed, or did one go faster than the other?"



"The same speed."



"Why?"



"Because they arrived at the same time."

Nirvana on the Cusp

Above, a video of Nirvana playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in a small club in New Haven, Connecticut on September 26,1991, just two days after "Nevermind" came out.

Below, 40+ minutes from the same show, featuring "Drain You," "Polly," and "Breed."

[via Kottke]

Usenet-Rewind

Search Usenet newsgroup archives: text posts from 1981-present across hundreds of thousands of newsgroups.

From the website: "Usenet-Rewind is a research archive for the newsgroup conversations that predate the modern web — early tech support and software debates, scientific and academic discussion, hobbyist and fan communities, entertainment and news commentary, and firsthand accounts of internet history as it happened on Usenet."

Fair warning: there goes the rest of your life.

bookofjoe's Favorite [New] Thing: Linsoul Wired Headphones

After many years of listenting to music while running using only Apple AirPods and then each successive iteration of AirPods Pro (we're currently on #3 with #4 scheduled to be released any minute), Bluetooth annoyances notwithstanding, a couple weeks ago I decided to take a flutter on a pair of wired headphones.

How that happened: I was reading reviews of the best Bluetooth headphones and a brand name — Linsoul — appeared that I'd never heard of.

I noodled around and found that same company makes wired headphones — the type that require a headphone jack — that cost $24.99, a tenth of the price of AirPods Pro, which will set you back $249  a pair and make you crazy when you lose one in tall grass and can't find it even with the aid of Apple's Find My feature.

I ordered a pair, along with a headphone jack-to-USB-C dongle as the iPhone uses USB-C connectors.

The new earphones are super comfortable and stable, staying exactly where I place them with the aid of an over-the-ear bend of the connecting wires (photo up top).

That's as opposed to AirPods Pro, which always fall out at least once during a run, annoying the heck out of me, even though I've tried each of the five available differently sized rubber in-ear inserts.

But here's the big news, buried: the Linsoul sound is utterly fantastic, WAY better than AirPods: for the first time I'm hearing all the separate instruments clearly — it's so great!

But wait — there's more!

Because the wired headphones are one way traffic only, they don't suffer from a super-annoying feature of AirPods Pro, namely automatically muting the music whenever there's a loud noise or I yell out of fatigue or exhaustion.

I hate that!

It takes 15-20 seconds for the music to resume after one of those shouts.

I mean, I'm shouting because I'm miserable, so not having the music to distract me makes me even more so.

Helpful Hints from joeeze: How to decide whether or not to hire someone BEFORE their interview

Long tip short: watch them park.

If they head into an empty double car slot (spaces for two cars end to end) and park in the more distal spot, they're hired.

If instead they back into a parking spot when they could have headed in as noted above, that spells "loser" — don't waste your time interviewing them.

Not only is it easier to park if you head in, it's much easier — and safer — to exit going forward.

The erstwhile employee from Loserville instead has to back out blindly and risk being hit from the side.

Summing it up: Head in so you don't have to back out.

Walking Men

Artist Maya Barkai assembled a collection of pedestrian traffic signals from around the world: it's called "Walking Men Worldwide."

Look both ways.

More?

Your wish is my demand.

email 4 TechnoDolts©®™

Since forever the email inboxes on my phones and laptops have differed: some emails arrive in one, others in the other, and still others show up in both.

For decades I've read about this problem about in my local Mac Users Group forum.

As a rule, knowledgeable people answer by providing step-by-step instructions to get things straightened out. 

I often laugh, especially when they write stuff like "You'll need to rebuild your mailboxes for each email address."

If I tried to do that I would destroy my perfectly functional (though funky) email reception and never get it back.

These tips and suggestions sometimes advise users to "Open the Terminal."

WHAT!?

All I remember from back in the day is that no TechnoDolt©®™ has any business messing around with the Terminal.

As we always said in the OR (and I guarantee it's still being said there): "Perfect is the enemy of good."

4-Color Pen Throwdown: BIC v ZEBRA

Watching the terrific series "The Shards" on Disney+, I noticed that uberbabe Susan Reynolds, superbly played by Kaia Gerber, was partial to a classic old-timey BIC four-color pen.

The series is set in LA in the early 80s and captures it perfectly: I saw so so many places I knew from my time there during those years.

But I digress.

Out of nostalgia for that BIC pen, which first appeared in 1970, I bought some (3 for $6.64).

In the video up top it's the pen with a blue barrel.

When it arrived I noticed a small hole at the top of the pen above the colored clickers: it's so you can put it around your neck to free your hands when you're not using it. 

I don't recall that feature from back in the day — I wonder whose idea it was and when it appeared.

Even with the assistance of Perplexity Pro I was unable to pin down a date for the change, though the AI did note that when the pen debuted there was a solid plastic ball atop the clickers.

Just for lulz I bought a Japanese iteration made by ZEBRA (grey barrel; $6.61 apiece).

The ZEBRA's all tricked out: in addition to the four colors there's a pencil that's activated by moving the pocket clip — and an eraser!

But wait — there's more!

The ZEBRA has an ergonomically shaped barrel with a soft rubber area where you put your fingers.

Both pens write nicely and have a satisfying feel when you click to a different color.

Bottom line: I prefer the more minimal look of the BIC as well as its lighter weight (10 grams v 15) and lighter price.

There Are Two Types Of People In The World — And I Know How To Tell Them Apart

One type, when dealing with a three-bulb, difficult-to-access ceiling light fixture containing two burned-out bulbs, replaces the two dead ones.

The second type replaces all three — not just the two dead ones but also the one that's working just fine.

Which type am I?

Which type are you?

Which type would you like to be?

I wonder if I should trademark the bookofjoe [Dim] Bulb Personality Test™ or just let anyone who wants it take it and claim they thought it up.

You know the answer to that one.

That's why I like you — you're so smart.

'The Day The Earth Stood Still'

This fantastic 1951 film blew me away when I watched it as a boy.

Fantastic cast starring Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie.

You can't imagine how excited I was when I stumbled across a 2008 remake starring Keanu Reaves and Jennifer Connolly.

I was so chuffed I got out my pretty much dormant Vision Pro so as to give it the best possible platform.

Alas, all the Apple king's pixels coudn't rescue it: it was dreadful.

Of course I watched the whole thing — I'm such an optimist I thought maybe somehow it would do a 180°, but no such luck.

On the brighter side, I'm preventing you from similarly wasting 90 minutes of your life.

Once Upon A Time On The Internet

Above, my download/upload speeds on Wednesday, March 7, 2007 —nearly 20 years ago — on my PowerBook G4 17" running OSX 10.3.9 on Comcast high-speed internet.

Back then I spent at least an hour a day waiting for sites to download and uploads to happen in the course of publishing boj, which in those halcyon days featured eight (8!) posts daily seven (7!) days/week.

Pips and Nubs

"The gang from Craighill explains the origins and uses of three seemingly small design details that show up everywhere: pips, nubs, and the very useful union of pips and nubs."

"You’ve seen pips on dice and dominos; nubs are used for Braille text; and the pips/nubs combo is used for locks or stops that can be released under pressure."

[via Kottke]

My All-Time Top 10 Posts

This list tallies posts that have appeared since boj's reincarnation here on Blogger on October 1, 2025 after Typepad went belly-up.

I don't see any pattern: 2 of the 10 are personal essays, the rest are a potpourri.

Photosynthesis

This new iPhone camera app combines two lenses at once to produce one hi-res photo, giving real optical detail with no generative AI.

Don't take my word for it: visit the website and try it yourself using the cool slider.

At the App Store.

'I Was Certain, But I Was Wrong' — Jennifer Thompson

Her powerful New York Times Op-Ed page essay of June 18, 2000 has become a classic.

Since then Thompson has written an acclaimed book about her shattering experience.

I've featured her Times piece every two or three years since boj's 2004 inception.

It's time.

I Was Certain, but I Was Wrong

In 1984 I was a 22-year-old college student with a grade point average of 4.0, and I really wanted to do something with my life. One night someone broke into my apartment, put a knife to my throat and raped me.

During my ordeal, some of my determination took an urgent new direction. I studied every single detail on the rapist's face. I looked at his hairline; I looked for scars, for tattoos, for anything that would help me identify him. When and if I survived the attack, I was going to make sure that he was put in prison and he was going to rot.

When I went to the police department later that day, I worked on a composite sketch to the very best of my ability. I looked through hundreds of noses and eyes and eyebrows and hairlines and nostrils and lips. Several days later, looking at a series of police photos, I identified my attacker. I knew this was the man. I was completely confident. I was sure.

I picked the same man in a lineup. Again, I was sure. I knew it. I had picked the right guy, and he was going to go to jail. If there was the possibility of a death sentence, I wanted him to die. I wanted to flip the switch.

When the case went to trial in 1986, I stood up on the stand, put my hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth. Based on my testimony, Ronald Junior Cotton was sentenced to prison for life. It was the happiest day of my life because I could begin to put it all behind me.

In 1987, the case was retried because an appellate court had overturned Ronald Cotton's conviction. During a pretrial hearing, I learned that another man had supposedly claimed to be my attacker and was bragging about it in the same prison wing where Ronald Cotton was being held. This man, Bobby Poole, was brought into court, and I was asked, ''Ms. Thompson, have you ever seen this man?''

I answered: ''I have never seen him in my life. I have no idea who he is.''

Ronald Cotton was sentenced again to two life sentences. Ronald Cotton was never going to see light; he was never going to get out; he was never going to hurt another woman; he was never going to rape another woman.

In 1995, 11 years after I had first identified Ronald Cotton, I was asked to provide a blood sample so that DNA tests could be run on evidence from the rape. I agreed because I knew that Ronald Cotton had raped me and DNA was only going to confirm that. The test would allow me to move on once and for all.

I will never forget the day I learned about the DNA results. I was standing in my kitchen when the detective and the district attorney visited. They were good and decent people who were trying to do their jobs — as I had done mine, as anyone would try to do the right thing. They told me: ''Ronald Cotton didn't rape you. It was Bobby Poole.''

The man I was so sure I had never seen in my life was the man who was inches from my throat, who raped me, who hurt me, who took my spirit away, who robbed me of my soul. And the man I had identified so emphatically on so many occasions was absolutely innocent.

Ronald Cotton was released from prison after serving 11 years. Bobby Poole pleaded guilty to raping me.

Ronald Cotton and I are the same age, so I knew what he had missed during those 11 years. My life had gone on. I had gotten married. I had graduated from college. I worked. I was a parent. Ronald Cotton hadn't gotten to do any of that.

Mr. Cotton and I have now crossed the boundaries of both the terrible way we came together and our racial difference (he is black and I am white) and have become friends. Although he is now moving on with his own life, I live with constant anguish that my profound mistake cost him so dearly. I cannot begin to imagine what would have happened had my mistaken identification occurred in a capital case.

Today there is a man in Texas named Gary Graham who is about to be executed because one witness is confident that Mr. Graham is the killer she saw from 30 to 40 feet away. This woman saw the murderer for only a fraction of the time that I saw the man who raped me. Several other witnesses contradict her, but the jury that convicted Mr. Graham never heard any of the conflicting testimony.

If anything good can come out of what Ronald Cotton suffered because of my limitations as a human being, let it be an awareness of the fact that eyewitnesses can and do make mistakes. I have now had occasion to study this subject a bit, and I have come to realize that eyewitness error has been recognized as the leading cause of wrongful convictions. One witness is not enough, especially when her story is contradicted by other good people.

Last week, I traveled to Houston to beg Gov. George W. Bush and his parole board not to execute Gary Graham based on this kind of evidence. I have never before spoken out on behalf of any inmate. I stood with a group of 11 men and women who had been convicted based on mistaken eyewitness testimony, only to be exonerated later by DNA or other evidence.

With them, I urged the Texas officials to grant Gary Graham a new trial, so that the eyewitnesses who are so sure that he is innocent can at long last be heard.

I know that there is an eyewitness who is absolutely positive she saw Gary Graham commit murder. But she cannot possibly be any more positive than I was about Ronald Cotton. What if she is dead wrong?

Just say 'bookofjoe'

Easy peasy.

Fast.

What's not to like?

You can too!

'What makes it possible for weeds to grow through a two-inch-thick asphalt sidewalk?'

Hercules in the Garden

Q. What makes it possible for weeds to grow through a two-inch-thick asphalt sidewalk? 

A. The amazing strength of plants, from the mighty oak to the slenderest shoot or root, involves their inexorable growth and expansion by cell division. But it also depends on access to a water supply and on two interacting processes for handling water: osmosis and imbibition.

Water enters a plant's roots and moves through its cells by way of osmosis, diffusing through cell membranes from regions of weak concentrations of dissolved materials to regions of higher concentrations.

Imbibition is the swelling of plant tissues to several times their original volume. It comes about as the electrical charges on materials in suspension within the cells of the tissue make these substances interact with the polarized water molecules, which perform like tiny magnets. The suspended materials include minerals, cellulose, and starches.

Imbibition is responsible for the germination of seeds in the first place, and can continue within a plant's growth cells, leading to a tremendous internal pressure. Over short periods and long — sometimes over many year, in the case of tree growth — the result can be enough power to break sidewalks or even boulders.

[via C. Claiborne Ray writing in the New York Times]

Normal Tools for Normal Tasks

"Open a tool, do the thing, leave. No account, no download, nothing between you and the answer. Private by default: most tools stay in your browser and nothing you enter is saved."

"Currently showing 193 of 193 tools."

Free, the way we like it.