Book reviews for January 2020

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, February 9, 2020.
A Small Town: A Novel of Crime by Thomas Perry

A Small Town: A Novel of Crime by Thomas Perry

4/5

 

Full Black (Scot Harvath, #10) by Brad Thor

Full Black (Scot Harvath, #10) by Brad Thor

3/5

 

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ITHCWY Newsletter for January 2020

Alexa Echo Wall Clock

A timelapse portrait of San Francisco on New Year's Eve 2019.

Hike: Mt. Livermore on Angel Island

Catfood Earth 4.00 has been released. The new version includes 4K remastered day, night and cloud images as well as the latest timezone database.

It's a month for updates - you can also grab Catfood WebCamSaver 3.20 which includes an updated list of working webcams around the world. WebCamSaver is a Windows screensaver that shows you a feed of open webcams.

Meeting defragmenter is real!

How to fix the Washington Post democratic candidate quiz.

Previously:

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Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Tuesday, May 4, 2021.

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

Some photos from a visit to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve: Harbor Seals, Sea Stars, a Chiton, a Hermit Crab and a Sea Anemone.

(Previously)

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Fitzgerald Marine Reserve #photo #seals #seastar #chiton #crab #anemone Photos from Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in San Mateo, California including seals, a hermit crab and a chiton. )

Fixing the Washington Post Democratic Candidates Quiz

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The Washington Post has a fun quiz that asks you 19 questions and then tells you which Democratic candidates you agree with the most. I took it last year and it said Warren, which I agreed with, but they have just updated it:

"Since we first published this guide in November, new candidates have joined the race and several others have dropped out. We have included everyone polling at least 1 percent in The Post’s national polling average. This new version adds questions on such topics as gun control and the criminal justice system."

Taking the quiz it now thinks I'm in the Yang Gang, even though I gave a thumbs down to universal basic income (my objection is that as much as I'd like $1,000 a month from the government I don't need it, there are much better things to spend it on). My full breakdown was Yang, Warren, Buttigeg, Sanders, Klobuchar, Steyer, Bloomberg, Biden and finally as a last resort Gabbard.

I think the problem with this sort of quiz is that it doesn't let you indicate how much you care about each issue. I'm totally fine with legalizing marijuana at the federal level but it's not the first thing I'd want any democratic president to work on. So I downloaded my results and fixed this by force-ranking the scale. My #1 was eliminating the electoral college and #19 was letting all prisoners vote (I agree with Sanders here, but he should work on it after he fixes the pot law which is #18 on my list). Once weighted on this scale my #1 issue is worth 1.00 points and #19 is just 0.05.

With this list Warren is restored to the top spot. In order I now have Warren, Yang, Buttigeg, Kloubuchar, Steyer, Sanders, Bloomberg, Biden and again if some form of green room food poisoning kills the top eight, Gabbard.

I'm a little surprised that Buttigeg is so high up this list and very surprised that Sanders (who I voted for in the last primary) is so low. Without any policy assistance from WaPo I'd go Warren, Sanders, Kloubuchar, Biden, Yang, Buttigeg, Steyer, Bloomberg and (sorry again) Gabbard. Although, full disclosure, if it would get rid of Trump I'd vote for a McConnell/Graham ticket.

If you want to try this and save a few minutes here's my spreadsheet. Add your quiz result in columns B through J and then rank the issues in column L from 1 to 19 where 1 is the most important to you.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Fixing the Washington Post Democratic Candidates Quiz #politics #election ##resist How to rank policy issues by importance to fix the Washington Post which democratic candidate do you agree with most quiz and discover who you should vote for in the 2020 primary. )

Clockwise - Meeting Defragmenter

Back in 2016 I shared an idea for a tool that would automatically arrange meetings to maximize stretches of production time. As a marketing genius I called it Meeting Defragmenter.

I just read about Clockwise, a startup that is doing exactly this. Right now it supports GSuite and it looks like Office365 is coming soon. Can't wait to try it!

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Clockwise - Meeting Defragmenter #etc #lazyweb #meetings Clockwise - a tool that is close to my idea for a Meeting Defragmenter. )

Catfood Earth for Android 4.00

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Monday, May 31, 2021.

Catfood Earth for Android 4.00

Catfood Earth for Android 4.00 is available for download and is updating through the Google Play Store.

As with the 4.00 update for Windows all images have been remastered to 4K resolution. Earth for Android has also been updated to better support Android 10 (updates are faster and the settings layout looks much better). You'll need to grant location permission in settings to have Earth automatically center on your current location. It's also possible to set a center longitude manually (I find -90 works well for centering most of the Americas).

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Catfood WebCamSaver 3.20

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, September 5, 2021.

Catfood WebCamBrowser

Catfood WebCamSaver 3.20 is available for download.

WebCamSaver is a Windows screensaver that shows you a feed from open web cameras around the world. It also includes WebCamBrowser which allows you to explore the directory and launch a URL where you can control each cam.

Version 3.20 includes an updated list of working webcams - if you are an existing user this will replace any current list the first time you run the updated version.

(Previously)

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Catfood Earth 4.00

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, February 19, 2022.

Image from Catfood Earth 4.00

Catfood Earth 4.00 is available for download.

The main change is that all of the images shipped with Catfood Earth have been remastered to 4K resolution. This includes NASA Blue Marble 2 monthly images (which Catfood Earth interpolates daily) and the 2016 version of Black Marble (city lights at night). The Catfood Earth clouds service has been updated to full 4K resolution as well.

Earth 4.00 also includes an update to the 2019c version of the Time Zone Database.

As well as providing desktop wallpaper and a screensaver, Catfood Earth can render frames for any time and date. To celebrate the release of 4.00 I created the 4K video below which shows all of 2019, 45 minutes per frame, 9,855 frames. You'll see the shape of the terminator change over the course of the year (I always post the seasonal changes here: Spring Equinox, Summer SolsticeAutumnal Equinox, and Winter Solstice). If you watch closely you'll also see changes in snow and ice cover and even vegetation over the course of the year.

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San Francisco New Year's Eve Timelapse

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, February 19, 2022.

San Francisco New Year's Eve Timelapse

A timelapse portrait of San Francisco on New Year's Eve 2019:

The video features the view from Inspiration Point, The Palace of Fine Arts, Union Square, Crissy Field, The Ferry Building, Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park, Market Street and the sun setting over downtown shot from Twin Pearks.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: San Francisco New Year's Eve Timelapse #timelapse #video #sanfrancisco A timelapse of San Francisco, California on New Year's Eve 2019 featuring Inspiration Point, The Palace of Fine Arts, Union Square, Crissy Field, The Ferry Building, Music Concourse and Market Street. )

Mt. Livermore on Angel Island

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Thursday, July 22, 2021.

Sunset trail to Mt. Livermore to North Ridge trail loop on Angel Island

Turkey Vultures on Angel Island

View toward Mount Tamalpais from Angel Island

Harbor Seal at Ayala Cove on Angel Island

Mt. Livermore on Angel Island

The Immigration Station at Angel Island is a fascinating piece of history. It's amazing how unwelcoming we were to Chinese immigrants while the station was in operation, and how ineffective all of the unpleasantness was. It's a racist mirror universe of Ellis Island. Get a guided tour if you can. I've visited the Immigration Station a couple of times and also hiked around the perimeter (which is spectacular), but this trip was the first time going up to the top. The Angel Island Company site suggests that this is a 6.5 mile hike but my GPS thinks it was 5 miles and so did the fact that we made it back in time for our planned ferry back to San Francisco.

Get off the boat, head right and up the hill to pick up the sign for Sunset Trail. This takes you up to a spur about half a mile from the top that is well signed for Mt. Livermore. There are a few picnic tables and an annoying mast that makes it hard to take the panorama that this peak is so obviously calling for. On the way back down head right at the first opportunity to follow North Ridge trail back to Ayala Cove.

Hike starts at: 37.868337, -122.434656. View in Google Earth.

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(Hike Map)

(Published to the Fediverse as: Mt. Livermore on Angel Island #hike #sanfrancisco #angelisland #map Five mile hike to Mt. Livermore at the summit of Angel Island State Park in the San Francisco bay. )