Gavin Morgan
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gavin.follows.tools
Gavin Morgan
@gavin.follows.tools
87 followers 520 following 100 posts
Software startup product engineer by day, @satchel.ruins.party by night.
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gavin.follows.tools
The fundamental nature of AI as a product may be its ability to stingily titrate access to what Lux's Josh Wolfe calls "longitudinal repositories of siloed information."

The essential benefit of this titration is certainly not latency. It may be intelligence—greater penetration—or obfuscation.
Objects of indiscernible shape obscured by frosted glass
September 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM
gavin.follows.tools
@miquai.bsky.social I knew there were observatories all over, but I don't know why it never occurred to me that we never stop designing and building bigger, better ones!

Very exciting to consider, and the scope of the data brought in is absolutely mind-boggling.
Comparison of nominal sizes of primary mirrors of notable optical reflecting telescopes, and a few other objects. Dotted lines show sizes of round mirrors that would have had equivalent light-gathering ability. The telescopes shown on this comparison chart are listed below, ordered in each sub-section by (effective) mirror/lens area, low to high, and then by actual/planned first light date, old to new. The "present-day" status is given as of the beginning of 2024. See also List of largest optical reflecting telescopes. Largest refractors (for comparison): 1) Yerkes Observatory's 40-inch (1.02 m) refractor, 1893 (largest refractor consistently used for scientific observations) 2) Great Paris Exhibition Telescope, 49 inches (1.24 m), 1900 (largest refractor ever built; had practically no scientific usage) Ground-based reflectors: 3) Hooker Telescope, 100 inches (2.54 m), 1917; world's largest telescope from 1917 to 1949 4) Multiple Mirror Telescope, 186 inches (4.72 m) effective, 1979–1998; 6.5 m, from 1998 5) LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope), 4.9 m effective at best, 2009 6) Hale Telescope, 200 inches (5.1 m), 1949; world's largest telescope from 1949 to 1975 7) BTA-6, 6 m, 1975; world's largest telescope from 1975 to 1990 (when it was surpassed by the partially-completed Keck I telescope) 8) Large Zenith Telescope, 6 m, 2003; largest liquid-mirror telescope ever built; decommissioned in 2019 9) Magellan Telescopes, two 6.5‑m individual telescopes, 2000 and 2002; 10) Vera C. Rubin Observatory (formerly Large Synoptic Survey Telescope), 6.68 m effective (8.4‑m mirror, but with a big hole in the middle), planned 2025 11) Gemini Observatory, 8.1 m, 1999 and 2001 12) Subaru Telescope, 8.2 m, 1999; largest monolithic (i.e. non-segmented) mirror in an optical telescope from 1999 to 2005 13) Southern African Large Telescope, 9.2 m effective, 2005 (largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere) 14) Hobby–Eberly Telescope, 10 m effe…
June 24, 2025 at 12:37 AM
gavin.follows.tools
Yo, check me out, I'm pouring a silicone mold!

This is a crazy project involving five different machines, and five different plastics, but in the end I'll have a significant quantity of something that isn't sold in stores!
January 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
gavin.follows.tools
This is possibly the most profound infographic I've ever come across. It's an addendum to Matt Might's "Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D."
January 13, 2025 at 6:10 AM
gavin.follows.tools
NYT asserts that maximalism is en vogue, but these Amazon style influencers are making enviable bank pushing a monochromatic look reminiscent of Kim Kardashian's neutral tone home.

So which is it?
December 23, 2024 at 12:49 AM
gavin.follows.tools
Yeah, I have great taste.
December 5, 2024 at 1:06 AM