Luis Villa
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lu.is
Luis Villa
@lu.is
5K followers 1.7K following 4.8K posts
Programmer-turned-lawyer, trying to build human(e) futures.

Day job: SonarSource. Boards: Creative Commons, OpenET (open water data), CA Housing Defense. Also: 415, dad. Past: Wikipedia, Moz, 305

Also: https://lu.is + https://social.coop/@luis_in_brief
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lu.is
A coffee cup with a label from “Park Coffee” indicating it was bought from a small S.F. cafe chain.
November 9, 2025 at 7:08 PM
lu.is
I had been mostly avoiding that temptation, but then right after you skeeted that @adapalmer.bsky.social dropped “and here are four books on the history of patronage” and
“Car dangerously swerving off the highway to take an off ramp at high speed” meme, where the main highway is labeled “renaissance historiography”, the car is labeled “me”, and the off ramp is labeled “history and sociology of WEIRD gift economies”
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
lu.is
Pictured: 48 Hills, pondering upzoning
A gargoyle at Notre Dame, with hand on chin, pondering something awful. In the distance stretches a terrible city that no one wants to live in because it is so dense and walkable.
October 11, 2025 at 10:08 PM
lu.is
Sunday update: MOAR SHEEP
A dog staring down 20 sheep on a green field. The shepherd is on the other side of the sheep, waving their crook. In the distance is a wooded hillside.
October 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
lu.is
My MIL grew up on a sheep farm, so I am doing some Extreme Grass Touching today at the National Sheepdog Finals in farrrrr northeastern California.
A huge open sky over a field of grass. In the foreground, the backs of a warmly-dressed family are visible, looking out into the distance. In the far distance five sheep are being herded by a single sheepdog.
October 4, 2025 at 6:11 PM
lu.is
Here’s the key data point; I admit some of these numbers are so huge I question the data quality but the direction is exactly what you’d expect:
A chart showing the following text: SFMTA found that instances of speeding fell at 15 corridors with speed cameras On a single day before implementation compared to a single September day after implementation. Table showing 15 corridors where SFMTA conducted a speed analysis before and after speed cameras were installed. Instances of speeding fell at every single one. Table with 3 columns and 15 rows. (column headers with buttons are sortable) Corridor % of drivers speeding before cameras % of drivers speeding after cameras Geneva 31% 3% Alemany 26% 5% Bayshore (SB Only) 21% 3% Monterey 17% 3% Bryant 15% 7%
October 4, 2025 at 4:42 PM
lu.is
#solarpunk short stories that wrestled with deeply reduced compute budgets would be very interesting.

Original post: tech.lgbt/@nina_kali_n...
September 21, 2025 at 6:41 PM
lu.is
🆒

Original post: mstdn.social/@winderful/1...
September 21, 2025 at 1:36 AM
lu.is
Original post: mastodon.social/@gvwilson/11...
September 20, 2025 at 9:57 PM
lu.is
September 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
lu.is
This is a very good ruling, on the face of it.

I’ve long thought that a missed opportunity for libre software (particularly in the context of LLMs) was emphasizing that democratic accountability can’t happen without code transparency.

Original post: mastodon.social/@dcabo/11522...
September 18, 2025 at 3:37 PM
lu.is
I wonder if this from @grimalkina.bsky.social is part of why so many senior devs are enjoying AI right now: they know their positions are (relatively) secure so they *feel* this as primarily a time of experimentation and upside.

Original post: masto.machlis.com/@smach/11522...
September 18, 2025 at 3:33 PM
lu.is
Going to be putting this one in a slide deck soon, I suspect

Original post: shrimp.starlightnet.work/notes/acl265...
September 14, 2025 at 7:17 PM
lu.is
This is interesting but not surprising. Real heads will recall the similar “government copyright licensing offices lose money” and “museum copyright licensing offices lose money”.

Original post: hachyderm.io/@jedbrown/11...
September 14, 2025 at 6:55 PM
lu.is
I would read a book on why this human+tech centric style (visible in S.F. both here on this 1920s car dealership and in Rivera’s Pan American Unity) went out of style. Anyone have any pointers?

(Also, it’d have been fun if the Abundance guys were hanging out with artists instead of… ya know.)
A sculpture above a majestic doorway. The Cadillac logo sits between two reclining men. The men are holding a wheel and matching large gear, as well as other mechanical implements like anvils and wrenches. They appear serious but satisfied, gazing into the distance.
September 9, 2025 at 10:33 PM
lu.is
FYI, Pennsylvania folks.

Original post: mathstodon.xyz/@mjd/1151586...
September 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
lu.is
I am cautiously pro-LLM in my own work, but collectively I fear the car is the predictive historical model: small wins for individuals + huge wins for a handful → massive externalities and collective action problems that will take generations to fix.

Original post: urbanists.social/@straphanger...
September 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
lu.is
“When replacing a parking space a single parking space can hold 8-12 spots” lets see how the recent daylighting corral on my block scores ooooooooh
August 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM
lu.is
Is there a formal name for the shallow ones? I’m thinking eg on the south side of Precita across from the playground:
Two plant boxes on a sidewalk. On closer inspection they actually cut through the sidewalk, exposing dirt below the sidewalk.
August 23, 2025 at 3:52 PM
lu.is
Took this just for you a few days ago
A screenshot recognizable from the style as NYT Spelling Bee, showing the word ZOOT and the phrase “not in word list”
August 22, 2025 at 4:55 AM
lu.is
I’d really like to go to this but also I dread actually shopping today 😂

Original post: sfba.social/@Larrybob/11...
A mastodon post highlighting that today is Rainbow Grocery Coop’s 50th birthday party
August 17, 2025 at 4:19 PM
lu.is
I’m expecting!*

* to start a podcast
A “pop filter” otherwise known as “the black circle visible in front of the microphones of many podcasters”
August 17, 2025 at 1:51 AM
lu.is
On a Tern, a flag pole + flags can be a reasonable substitute for personality. And aid in visibility.

If I were starting over today I’d look hard at something like this as the flag pole: riversidelightparade.com/products/bik...
A flag pole, mounted on the back of a cargo bike. Three flags (S.F. giants, S.F. city, and inclusive US) are visible in the wind.
August 13, 2025 at 3:11 AM
lu.is
I’m an amateur (though also in roughly a similar period there’s 6k miles on our ecargo bike)
Screenshot from the BayWheels app, showing that I have taken 263 rides of 559 miles over 70+ hours.
August 8, 2025 at 4:04 AM
lu.is
🧐

Original post: fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon/11497...
August 6, 2025 at 12:20 AM