Dan Crank
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danno.org
Dan Crank
@danno.org
280 followers 460 following 320 posts
[he/him] Maker of rockets, robots, tacos, and usually messes. Recently retired from Microsoft, but I had nothing to do with that thing you hate.

"I can take apart the remote control, and I can almost put it back together." -Flobots
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danno.org
"Tap the sign" memes irritate me, generally, but sometimes the sign must be tapped.
Tweet from "KrangTNelson": "no no no you misunderstood. I said 'fuck YOUR feelings'. MY feelings are very important and must be handled gently, like a tiny baby hummingbird"
September 17, 2025 at 12:39 PM
danno.org
Reskeet with a tweet you still think about
Tweet by Noah Smith: "We thought we had defeated the natural world because we defeated the animals and plants, but it turned out that they were only our fellow-travelers, struggling to survive. The real natural world is dust and fire and flood and hard radiation. It never sleeps and it always hungers."
August 13, 2025 at 11:41 AM
danno.org
Last night I did something rare for me these days - I put on shoes and left the house to go see live music. Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza playing English folk music and just generally being adorable.
English folk musicians Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza Carthy on stage at the Focal Point in Maplewood, Missouri. Martin is sitting on a wooden chair with an acoustic guitar on his knee and his hat is on the floor by his feet. Eliza stands to his left with her violin, smiling at Martin while speaking into a microphone. Behind them is a blue curtain and the Focal Point sign.
May 10, 2025 at 1:31 PM
danno.org
I have a staycation week, and today was working-on-the-car day. I did the differential fluid change, which isn't on VW's maintenance schedule but is recommended by the manufacturer of the diff. Just enough of a pain in the ass to make me feel like I accomplished something doing it myself. #VW #GTI
A silver Volkswagen GTI in a home garage, lifted on jackstands with the hood open and a red creeper on the floor in front of the car.
March 31, 2025 at 7:32 PM
danno.org
Without downloading any new pics, where are you mentally?
From season one of The Good Place, Jason is telling Eleanor, "there's so much thoughts in my brain it's like my head is filled with rocks."
March 21, 2025 at 6:39 PM
danno.org
Hong Kong Cavaliers would have been my pick too, but I guess I'll post my #2 choice.
The band "Dr. Fünke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution" from Arrested Development.
January 27, 2025 at 12:56 AM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

15/20
The cover of "The Straight Dope" by Cecil Adams.
January 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

14/20
The cover of "Tell Me Why" by Arkady Leokum.
January 18, 2025 at 5:45 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

13/20
The cover of "The Fourth Dimension" by Rudy Rucker.
January 17, 2025 at 4:26 AM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

12/20
The cover of "Every Tool's a Hammer" by Adam Savage.
January 16, 2025 at 4:23 AM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

11/20
The cover of "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers.
January 13, 2025 at 9:04 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

10/20
The cover of "The Java Programming Language, Second Edition" by Ken Arnold and James Gosling.
January 13, 2025 at 4:36 AM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

9/20
The cover of "The Food Lab" by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.
January 11, 2025 at 7:09 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

8/20
The cover of "Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Gleick.
January 9, 2025 at 4:07 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

7/20
The cover of "How to Be Perfect" by Michael Schur.
January 8, 2025 at 10:27 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

6/20
The cover of the first edition "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook" by Gary Gygax.
January 8, 2025 at 12:56 AM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

5/20
The cover of "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" by Richard Feynman.
January 6, 2025 at 4:59 PM
danno.org
(Ope I missed yesterday)

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

4/20
The cover of "The Art of Star Wars" edited by Carol Titelman.
January 6, 2025 at 1:18 AM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

3/20
The cover of "Salt Fat Acid Heat" by Samin Nosrat.
January 3, 2025 at 3:50 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

2/20
The cover of the novel "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson.
January 2, 2025 at 3:37 PM
danno.org
Mario is still taking 'er easy but very happy to be home. #CatsOfBluesky
A tabby cat lounging sleepily on the top level of a cat tree, in front of a yellow wall and next to a patio door with vertical blinds.
January 1, 2025 at 10:38 PM
danno.org
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

1/20
The cover of "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff.
January 1, 2025 at 3:30 PM
danno.org
#rocketry work in progress:

On the left is the tail section of a rocket that crashed about a month ago after an electronics failure. It was built from a LOC kit (wood and cardboard) and now has a couple of cracked fins.

On the right is a 3D printed replacement. (Issues in following posts.)
Two yellow rocket tail sections on a table. The tail on the left is traditional construction with cardboard tube, wood fins, and delrin rail buttons. If you look closely, a cracked fin is visible. The tail on the right is very similar but 3D printed, with the tube, fins and rail buttons in a single piece. Bottom view of the two pieces from the previous photo, showing the aluminum motor retainer on the old tail (and a better look at one of the cracked fins). On the right, the screw-on part of the motor retainer is printed from the same yellow plastic as the tail. A close-up of a cracked fin on the new 3D printed part, caused by warping of the plastic during printing.
December 23, 2024 at 4:24 PM
danno.org
So...it looks as if the entire state of Missouri stopped reporting #COVID wastewater data a month ago? That seems uncool.

covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-t...
A screenshot of the CDC's COVID wastewater data map, showing all of the sampling sites in Missouri in grey. The legend at the bottom indicates that grey means "no recent data." A graph to the right shows a decline between 8/15/2024 and about 11/1/1024, then a slight rise, and the graph appears to end at 11/29/2024.
December 23, 2024 at 4:12 AM
danno.org
Thinking this may *actually* be my last full playthrough of #BaldursGate3 so I'm making it a "victory lap" with one of the mods that removes the four-character party limit. I'm playing on the top difficulty (but not with any of the "even moar harder" mods) and just stomping everything. So much fun.
A screen shot of a modded game of Baldur's Gate 3 with a party of eleven characters: "Mini Minsc" the halfling barbarian and all ten of the named companions: Minthara, Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart, Lae'zel, Karlach, Halsin, Minsc, Wyll and Jaheira.
December 19, 2024 at 6:25 PM