Space Journey

Space Journey

Animation of a trip through a random collection of stars with a bit of a hyperspace effect in the middle. I didn't mean to write this code but it's what ended up happening anyway. It would make a good mid-90s screensaver. I'll post what I was actually trying to do next.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Space Journey #etc #video #space #stars #animation 4k animation of a journey through a random collection of stars including some hyperspace effects and music. )

California November 2022 Propositions

CA 2022

Only 7 statewide propositions this year! And most of them are easy. I feel like the teacher forgot to assign homework. I still need to fill out the ballot though so here is my traditional voter guide:

PROP 1: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM. LEGISLATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

Yes. This only really makes a statement, but it's worth making given the fundamental corruption of a Supreme Court which is now just an emblem of the failure of the American political system to represent the people who live here.

PROP 26: ALLOWS IN-PERSON ROULETTE, DICE GAMES, SPORTS WAGERING ON TRIBAL LANDS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE.

No. I think Californians should be allowed to gamble more freely. I'd love to see something from the legislature though, not from gaming tribes or companies. I don't understand why we use sin based indulgences to fund tribes. Gambling should be legal across the board (which I'd favor) or not at all. So getting deeper into this immoral deal is a non starter for me.

PROP 27: ALLOWS ONLINE AND MOBILE SPORTS WAGERING OUTSIDE TRIBAL LANDS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE.

No. I'd be more inclined to back 27, but it makes the process of qualifying so expensive and complex that only existing giant companies would benefit. So it stinks of regulatory capture. Also, positioning this as a mechanism to solve homelessness is repulsive. Homelessness is a problem that we need to make more progress on. It probably makes sense to allow more gambling in the state. But that gambling is probably going to lead to more homelessness and the funds that might be provided to address it are a small drop in a very large bucket.

PROP 28: PROVIDES ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR ARTS AND MUSIC EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

No. We don't need more voter mandated spending levels that constrain our ability to manage the budget in the future.

PROP 29: REQUIRES ON-SITE LICENSED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL AT KIDNEY DIALYSIS CLINICS AND ESTABLISHES OTHER STATE REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

No. Same answer and rationale as 2020. Stop asking.

PROP 30: PROVIDES FUNDING FOR PROGRAMS TO REDUCE AIR POLLUTION AND PREVENT WILDFIRES BY INCREASING TAX ON PERSONAL INCOME OVER $2 MILLION. INITIATIVE STATUTE.

No. This will probably pass, and if so it will be the second time in two years that Lyft has been able to just buy favorable legislation. Last time it was less regulation so that it didn't have to provide benefits to its 'independent contractors' and now somehow it's more regulation so we can lower their costs.

PROP 31: REFERENDUM ON 2020 LAW THAT WOULD PROHIBIT THE RETAIL SALE OF CERTAIN FLAVORED TOBACCO PRODUCTS.

No. You can't vape mango nicotine to give up smoking at the same time as another fun addictive plant is seen as the future? I continue to believe that all drugs should be legal, taxed and regulated.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: California November 2022 Propositions #politics #california #propositions #election Official ITHCWY voter guide to the statewide propositions for California in 2022. )

San Francisco November 2022 Ballot Measures

SF 2022

My guide to all fourteen ballot measures for San Francisco in November 2022. Hot on the heels of 8 in June. My overriding principle here is to prevent the need for future ballot measures although I can't help myself from indulging in the occasional good idea.

A: Retiree Supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment; Retirement Board Contract with Executive Director

Yes. This is cheap and makes retirement benefits for city workers more fair and predictable.

B: Public Works Department and Commission, Sanitation and Streets Department and Commission

No. We just voted to create a department of sanitation and streets in 2020.

C: Homelessness Oversight Commission

Yes. More oversight for spending on homeless services.

D: Affordable Housing – Initiative Petition

Yes. Makes it easier to build new housing in San Francisco. Seems to cut a lot of unnecessary red tape to get projects moving faster.

E: Affordable Housing – Board of Supervisors

No. This competes with D to try and avoid losing too much control.

F: Library Preservation Fund

No. I'm not anti-library, but I am opposed to ballot measures that carve out specific funding and then will need another ballot measure if anything needs to change.

G: Student Success Fund – Grants to the San Francisco Unified School District

No. Another set aside that can't be undone without a future ballot measure.

H: City Elections in Even-Numbered Years

Yes. Increased voter turnout should lead to more representative local officials. I thought I voted for this already in 2012? Unfortunately this measure also has an adjustment to keep the number of signatures required for a new ballot measure constant. I'd love to see it get harder.

I: Vehicles on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway

No. Let's keep some car free space.

J: Recreational Use of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park

Yes. As above.

L: Sales Tax for Transportation Projects

Yes. Extends an existing sales tax for transportation.

M: Tax on Keeping Residential Units Vacant

No. Could discourage new housing from being built and as written does not apply equally to all housing.

N: Golden Gate Park Underground Parking Facility; Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority

Yes. I need to make decisions about a single parking garage? This would allow the city more control, and as I want to keep JFK car free it makes sense to optimize this parking resource for people who will have more difficulty getting to the museums as a result.

O: Additional Parcel Tax for City College

Yes. This is an important resource and we need to get it back on track.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: San Francisco November 2022 Ballot Measures #politics #sanfrancisco #propositions #election The official ITHCWY voter guide to San Francisco's 2022 ballot measures. )

Links for October 2022

Catfood Earth 4.30

Updated on Sunday, October 23, 2022

Catfood Earth Satellite Composite Image of Earth including Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Catfood Earth 4.30 is available to download.

This update fixes a couple of problems with the screensaver. It now has improved support for multiple monitors (the image will repeat rather than stretch). There was a problem with the screensaver not starting in some cases. This should now be fixed. After upgrading to 4.30 please find and run the 'Catfood Earth Screensaver Settings' shortcut to configure the screensaver.

4.30 also includes version 2022d of the time zone database.

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Autumnal Equinox 2022

Catfood Earth render of the exact moment of the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox 2022.

Autumn (or Fall) starts now (23 September 2022, 01:04 UTC) in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring if you happen to be south of the Equator. Rendered in Catfood Earth.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Autumnal Equinox 2022 #code #catfood #earth #equinox #autumnal Render of 23 September 2022, 01:04 UTC, the exact moment of the Autumnal Equinox 2022 in Catfood Earth. )

Stable Diffusion Watches a Security Camera - a short horror movie

Updated on Friday, September 16, 2022

Stable Diffusion Watches a Security Camera - a short horror movie

A horror movie made by forcing img2img to watch a Japanese security camera over 24 hours.

The office was empty, so the main influences are sunrise and sunset and then just subtle shifts in lighting. In terms of settings, strength was 0.75 with scale of 6.6 so the animation doesn't look anything like the actual office in question. The prompt was "photo of something unspeakable lurks in the shadows of the office, high quality, cinematic lighting, subtle horror, horrifying, japanese, found footage, sharp focus, 8k, no text". I upscaled with Gigapixel AI and then added some music.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Stable Diffusion Watches a Security Camera - a short horror movie #etc #video #stablediffusion #ml #4k #animation A horror movie created by forcing Stable Diffusion to watch a random Japanese security camera for 24 hours. )

Better Rotating Outages

Power Cut Contest

I have an idea for PG&E. We're facing the possibility of rotating power cuts this evening in California due to record heat. The California ISO has a thing called a flex alert where they ask you nicely to reduce power consumption, and I got a text and email earlier today. If the ISO calls for outages PG&E starts flipping off the switch for some blocks, and you can even look up your address to see if you're at risk.

This could be so much better.

Just keep tabs on average power consumption for each block during hot weather. And then instead of a flex alert we need a leaderboard - the blocks which save the most power are safe, and the blocks that do the worst are the first to get shut off.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Better Rotating Outages #etc #pge #power Make a leaderboard game out of flex alerts and punish blocks that do the worst instead of random power cuts. )

A black lab chases a Roomba and then things start to get weird...

A black lab chases a Roomba and then things start to get weird...

Another experiment with Stable Diffusion (see my San Francisco skyline video from earlier today). This one uses img2img instead of txt2img. I started with a video of my dog following the Roomba around the house. I dumped all the frames out and then used Stable Diffusion with the strength parameter ramping up from 0.0 (source image preserved) to 1.0 (source image ignored) and a scale of 11.5. The prompt was "illustration of a black labrador being chased by a giant scary roomba trending on deviant art". The frame at the top maybe best captures this concept. I used Gigapixel AI to scale the output back up to 4K resolution and then added the original soundtrack.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: A black lab chases a Roomba and then things start to get weird... #etc #video #animation #stablediffusion #4k #ml Stable Diffusion img2img generated from a video of a dog chasing a Roomba. )

Stable Diffusion Animation of Scale Parameter

Updated on Thursday, September 22, 2022

San Francisco shrouded by fog, Stable Diffusion, scale 0

Here is a video created by animating the scale parameter in Stable Diffusion:

This uses the prompt "a photo of San Francisco shrouded by fog 8k landscape trending on artstation", seed 56345, dimensions 896x448 and frames that range from scale 0.0 to 21.9. The higher the scale the more literally your prompt should be interpreted.

Interesting at scale 0 Stable Diffusion seems to think San Francisco is a diverse crowd of people protesting something (and it's not wrong):

San Francisco shrouded by fog, Stable Diffusion, scale 21.9

From there is settles on a foreground quickly, experiments with various numbers of Transamerica Pyramids and then starts throwing in various permutations of the Golden Gate Bridge. It eventually decides that the Transamerica Pyramid belongs in Marin and that the bridge is so iconic that the city is probably filled with red aircraft warnings lights.

I think the versions a third of the way in are the best.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Stable Diffusion Animation of Scale Parameter #etc #video #ml #stablediffusion Animation of San Francisco in fog created by Stable Diffusion and increasing the scale parameter. )