Notices by Stephen Shankland (stshank@mstdn.social)

"In 2027, we'll push a button, we'll power it up, and we'll create a star inside a machine.... With fusion energy, we're not just solving the energy challenges of today. We're making energy unlimited.... It's the last energy source that we will ever need." – my boss Bob Mumgaard.

#FusionEnergy #Climate #EnergyTransition
https://youtu.be/40Mqwo8zQHU?t=2123

"In particular, Apple’s rules appear to be holding back a category of apps known as ‘progressive web apps’ (PWAs) that are lower cost and easier for developers to build since they can run on any operating system." https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673f2d334ebce30ac7baf035/Summary_of_provisional_decision.pdf

USB tethering just saved my bacon (again). Airport Wi-Fi working on my phone, not my laptop. So I tethered my Mac with a cable to my phone (@madebygoogle Pixel 8 Pro), and now the network is fine. #TechSupport

Batteries are growing on the grid to handle evening power use surges when solar peters out. California just hit 7GW out of 10GW capacity. Our house is battery powered from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will be part of a virtual power plant soon.

Today batteries help with daily peak shaving; longer gaps in solar/wind production are harder. #FusionEnergy could help with that but is only one part of the overall solution. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/07/climate/battery-electricity-solar-california-texas.html

#Fusion #RenewableEnergy #EnergyTransition #Battery

Sunset alpenglow on Santa Fe Baldy northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Not a Pi Day thing since I cheated with Photoshop, but... I estimate Fremen standard in 1st photo = 3m tall. That's 37px in 2nd photo (red rectangle is the 1st photo scaled down and overlaid). So diameter of sandworm at 1272px = about 100m (looks like its maw flares a bit wider). #PiDay #Dune #Sandworm

@gabrielesvelto @stshank The camera adds 10 pounds

Today in "huh." A map of where in your mouth you pronounce all those phonemes. (Original website is gone but also here: https://kottke.org/19/03/a-phonetic-map-of-the-human-mouth)

I just went through 2 weeks at 11°F to 41°F, most of it below freezing, in a house heated by one heat pump. It worked very well. New options work in even lower temperatures: https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/most-heat-pumps-slow-down-in-frigid-cold-new-models-shown-at-ces-could-change-that/
#CES #HeatPump #Energy #EnergyEfficiency

Saw my first Tesla Cybertruck in the wild a few days ago. Longer than I expected, but the hood height was lower than I expected — much lower than on big new SUVs & pickups. But worse pedestrian/cyclist visibility than smaller cars, and sure wouldn't want one to hit me.

Related: a look at SUV bloat: https://slate.com/business/2023/12/cars-trucks-suv-sales-electric-safety-risk.html

#Tesla #Cybertruck

Yesterday's full moon rising over the snowy Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Very telephoto this time (700mm and then cropped). The mountains are ~60km away, the moon farther, and distortions through that much air blurred the moon a lot.

#moon #moonrise #LandscapePhotography #NewMexico

A good day (and into the night) mountain biking at "Skeggs," aka El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve. Enormous banana slug! Noodle knees today after the grueling climb back up from the creek.
#MountainBiking #BayArea #Forest #Redwoods #Photography #slug

I was skeptical of this piece's grand claim, that Google adds brand names to search queries to artificially generate advertising revenue. Turns out my skepticism was warranted. Wired retracted the story. (Not that Google search enshittification isn't a real concern.) https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/
#Google #search #enshittification

It's likely the iPhone 15 Pro will get a periscope (aka folded) camera, which would dramatically improve its telephoto reach and catch Apple back up to rival flagship Android phones. Here's my breakdown of what's going on in this critical area of smartphone photography. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/the-iphone-15-pro-could-soon-show-why-periscope-cameras-are-great/
#photography #iPhone #iPhone15 #iPhone15Pro #camera

@evan @mnot Does an independent prosecutor have political rivals? Is the judicial system functional or a corrupt kangaroo court? I didn't vote because there were too many assumptions I didn't want to make.

The Google Chrome team rejected JPEG XL image support, but the next Safari adds it. Along with, somewhat surprisingly given patent constraints, HEIC. Perhaps easier for Apple since they build support into the OS so no extra licensing hurdles.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes/safari-17-release-notes

#JPEG #JPEGXL #Safari #Apple #browser #WWDC

(edited to fix a missing word)

OK team fungus, what's is it that exploded overnight in our front yard? Brilliant yellow. Started fading midmorning. Now in afternoon it's pale, dirty orange blob. Location: underneath our bird feeder in a part of our yard that gets a lot of sun. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

#fungus #nature #Photography #yellow