Rob Shearer
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r.v.cx
Rob Shearer
@r.v.cx
460 followers 51 following 8.6K posts
Pretty sure I’m right about:

- RFC 3339 dates
- ISO 216 paper sizes
- Fahrenheit weather temperatures
- Dot-grid paper
- End-to-end encryption
- Software engineering being about collaboration costs

Less confident about the rest.

https://linktr.ee/rvcx
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r.v.cx
Social media is full of these people.
Meh. Moderation is a genuinely hard problem, and this particular case doesn't strike me as egregious at all. 5 35 • • • PineapplePizza @pineapplepizza123.bsky.soc... Follow Nope not hard, just need to get people in charge of moderation who actually have a clue. November 12, 2025 at 6:40 PM
November 13, 2025 at 1:45 AM
r.v.cx
I feel like encouraging public libraries to buy two hundred copies of such trash is a bad thing.

But buying the trash myself seems worse somehow.

I hope people who watch reality TV feel similarly conflicted about the harm they do to the world.
A library hold, #110 on 197 copies, of Exit Strategy, a Reacher novel, by Lee Child and Andrew Child.
November 10, 2025 at 11:14 PM
r.v.cx
Finally caught up on my years-long backlog of (manual) wood splitting.
November 8, 2025 at 9:51 PM
r.v.cx
November 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
r.v.cx
Colorado is a safe blue state because of Denver and Boulder. But when the GOP officials in deep red counties like Durango are turning on ICE, it can’t be a good sign for MAGA.
MEDIA RELEASE OFFICIAL STATEMENT DURANGO, COLORADO-OVER THE PAST WEEK, OUR COMMUNITY HAS EXPERIENCED PAIN, CONFUSION, AND CONCERN FOLLOWING THE RECENT PROTEST AND THE PRESENCE OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION AGENTS IN DURANGO. WE WANT TO REAFFIRM WHAT MATTERS MOST: THE DURANGO POLICE DEPARTMENT'S ROLE IS TO PROTECT THE SAFETY AND RIGHTS OF EVERY PERSON IN OUR CITY. UNDER COLORADO LAW (HB 19-1124), LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS PROHIBITED FROM ASSISTING OR PARTICIPATING IN CIVIL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. AT THE SAME TIME, FEDERAL LAW RESTRICTS US FROM INTERFERING WITH FEDERAL OPERATIONS. THESE LIMITS CAN CREATE FRUSTRATION WHEN COMMUNITY MEMBERS EXPECT US TO STEP IN-AND WE SHARE THAT FRUSTRATION BUT WE MUST ACT WITHIN THE LAW WHILE PRIORITIZING PUBLIC SAFETY. DURING THIS INCIDENT, NO DPD OFFICERS PARTICIPATED IN FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS. WHEN WE LEARNED THAT CHILDREN WERE BEING DETAINED, OUR OFFICERS WORKED TO FACILITATE THEIR SAFE RETURN TO FAMILY MEMBERS. WE HAVE ALSO REQUESTED INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIONS BY BOTH THE COLORADO BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (CBI) AND THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) TO REVIEW WHAT OCCURRED AND ENSURE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY. WE SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO PEACEFUL PROTEST AND CONDEMN ANY ACTS OF VIOLENCE OR INTIMIDATION FROM ANY SIDE. OUR MISSION REMAINS CLEAR: TO PROTECT, TO CARE, AND TO SERVE-ALL PEOPLE, WITHOUT EXCEPTION. WE ALSO COMMIT TO SUPPORTING HEALING AND RESTORATION IN THE AFTERMATH OF THIS EVENT. THE FACT THAT IT HAS STIRRED SUCH DEEP PAIN MEANS WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO WALK WITH OUR NEIGHBORS-THROUGH THEIR QUESTIONS, THEIR GRIEF, AND THEIR DOUBTS ABOUT THE ROLE OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT. WE WANT EVERY RESIDENT TO KNOW: YOUR SAFETY, YOUR RIGHTS, AND YOUR BELONGING ARE NOT OPTIONAL-THEY ARE CENTRAL TO OUR MISSION. WE UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL WEIGHT WHEN CHILDREN ARE INVOLVED, WHEN FAMILIES ARE SEPARATED, AND WHEN PEOPLE ARE CALLING OUT FOR HELP. THAT WEIGHT IS VERY REAL, AND WE HOLD IT SURANCO OEFIOE WITH HUMILITY AND SERIOUSNESS…
November 5, 2025 at 3:50 PM
r.v.cx
My best theory of local school board elections in which there is nothing to separate candidates—no party affiliations; nobody campaigned at all; even the most motivated politicos couldn’t find any basis to choose—is that voters slightly prefer female names.
November 5, 2025 at 2:26 PM
r.v.cx
Second innings: classic yellow mustard, ketchup, relish, and celery salt.
October 26, 2025 at 12:36 AM
r.v.cx
Leading off with a chili cheese dog.
October 26, 2025 at 12:13 AM
r.v.cx
World Series. Saturday night. What the hell: we’re doing 9/9/9. Ideally each of the nine hot dogs will be mildly different, using this combination of toppings:
October 26, 2025 at 12:07 AM
r.v.cx
Aww.
The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
October 25, 2025 at 1:15 AM
r.v.cx
Rob and Bailey pulling the old frog-n-dog.
October 19, 2025 at 12:05 AM
r.v.cx
Another month; another sign.

I don’t think my art skills are improving.
“Critics are terrorists” -every fascist ever
October 16, 2025 at 11:58 PM
r.v.cx
Financial “journalists” don’t like being called on misleading their audience. He didn’t delete the post; he just didn’t like my quote. This is the chart he still thinks accurately represents a 13% drop:
October 8, 2025 at 7:43 PM
r.v.cx
So...not exactly the cute little mice that have occasionally found their way into the house.
October 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
r.v.cx
Kroger obviously wins on packaging. Just because it’s a fruity diet beverage doesn’t mean you can’t make it manly and sinister. Works a lot better than their similarly-stealth orange soda packaging, not just because “sip freely” is a nonsense slogan, but because the picture there is of a lemon.
October 4, 2025 at 6:03 PM
r.v.cx
I bring you another thrilling commodity-product brand comparison. Two sugar-free cherry colas enter. Does either leave? It’s Signature Select (Safeway’s house brand) vs Kroger (whose stores are called King Soopers here in Colorado).
October 4, 2025 at 5:58 PM
r.v.cx
You can tell when the voter guide had a lot of trouble soliciting someone to oppose the “small tax on high earners to keep funding school meals” ballot proposal.
Arguments Against Proposition MM 1) Proposition MM gives more taxpayer money to excessive government programs. The school meals program provides food to kids who do not need it or eat it, wasting both money and food. Federal changes are meant to make SNAP more cost-effective, and state taxpayers should not be on the hook for funding the program's inefficiencies. The state should live within its means and provide assistance to only those who need it most, rather than asking for millions more from taxpayers. 2) Proposition MM is a tax increase. For many households, this would more than double the amount they have to pay, a significant additional expense. The state should not be raising taxes on any households during a time of economic uncertainty. Fiscal Impact of Proposition MM Taxpayer Impacts Proposition MM will increase the amount of income tax owed by taxpayers who earn $300,000 or more annually. State law requires Legislative Council Staff to estimate the potential tax burden on affected axpayers within specified ineo
September 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
r.v.cx
The one part of the on-screen graphics with an obvious improvement impeded only by history: the team names and score should be on the side that team is defending. Ie they should flip each quarter—KC on the left, Philly on the right in the below.
September 15, 2025 at 4:20 PM
r.v.cx
My fastest-ever #nytxw solve. Just a Monday, but still.
September 15, 2025 at 3:35 AM
r.v.cx
I’m a big fan of glass marker boards. I have a big magnetic (metal-backed) Quarter glass board in my living room. But the magnetic bit is a little sketchy. You need really strong magnets, because the glass separates them from the metal. Just got some “magnetic” labels, and they don’t stick at all.
September 10, 2025 at 3:19 PM
r.v.cx
I am amused by the size of the YouTube logo.
September 5, 2025 at 4:48 PM
r.v.cx
The month in “middle-aged man attempts to learn primary-school art skills”…
Two protest signs, one reading “He sells hats; he sells bibles; he sells crypto; he sells visas; he sells tariff exemptions; he sells pardons; he sells us”; the other “Military curfews; gov’t-owned businesses; no individual rights; is this conservative?”
August 27, 2025 at 7:28 PM
r.v.cx
(This is particularly annoying because I spent a LOT of hours creating a whole visual language in TikZ for tableau diagrams, and it's like ChatGPT doesn't even care.)
August 8, 2025 at 3:36 AM
r.v.cx
For the first time, I asked ChatGPT to explain some of my own research to me. It successfully regurgitated the introductions to several old papers, and then asked if I wanted to see a diagram to explain the work. And...wtf? I have no idea what it was even trying to do.
August 8, 2025 at 3:32 AM
r.v.cx
Catching up on @matt-levine.bsky.social 's Money Stuff, and last week he wrote a little about memecoins. But this goes back farther than memecoins-as-indices: this was *exactly* the technical sleight of hand behind NFTs. "It just *is* the artwork I say. Shut up." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
There is a traditional form of financial structuring where you work at a bank, and a client comes to you and is like "I want a tradable instrument X that reflects the price of some other thing Y," and you have to think carefully about how to link X and Y. Perhaps, you think, there could be some sort of arbitrage mechanism where holders of Y could exchange it for X, to keep the prices of X and Y in line. Perhaps you could build some basket of Y, and then X could be tradeable ownership shares of the basket. Perhaps you could call up three banks every day and ask them for bids on Y, and take the average of the bids as the daily settlement price for X. Perhaps the settlement price of X could be derived from historical levels of some non-tradable index of Y. Depends on the situation, but as a general problem it is hard. "I want a tradable instrument that reflects US home prices": Sure, great, we all do, but which homes, and how can you make sure that the thing will accurately reflect home prices? And then a genuinely great financial discovery of crypto is that you can do without any of that and just rely on vibes. [2] You announce "I am launching a new token, HomePrice Token, that will reflect US home prices." And then boring old-timers like me ask questions like "wait but how does it reflect home prices?" And you say "it just does, it's in the name, it's HomePrice Token, what is even the problem here?" And I say "is there some sort of arbitrage mechan—" and you say "no, shut up, it's just HomePrice Token."
July 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM