Rick Ballard
@rballard.bsky.social
Xcode engineer, @ Apple since '05. Cheerful Californian. World traveller. Food geek. I'm not a snob, I'm an enthusiast. (He/him)
📍 San Mateo, CA
Also:
🐘 https://mastodon.social/@rballard
🧵 (inert; no thank you, Meta) https://threads.net/@rickaballard
📍 San Mateo, CA
Also:
🐘 https://mastodon.social/@rballard
🧵 (inert; no thank you, Meta) https://threads.net/@rickaballard
Reposted by Rick Ballard
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”
In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Ok, just wow. If the content of this article is right, this is depressing. We're slowly reaching the point where ~100% of what I was taught in Social Psych was either innocently wrong or plainly frauded
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Addressing the housing crisis requires lowering costs, not just legalizing housing. One great proposed reform is allowing single-stair building design up to 6 stories, instead of the dual-stair design current CA fire codes require. Easy link to send a letter here: actionnetwork.org/letters/make...
Tell the State Fire Marshal: Legalize Single-Stair Buildings in California!
Improve California's building code so that more families can afford homes in our cities.
actionnetwork.org
October 25, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Addressing the housing crisis requires lowering costs, not just legalizing housing. One great proposed reform is allowing single-stair building design up to 6 stories, instead of the dual-stair design current CA fire codes require. Easy link to send a letter here: actionnetwork.org/letters/make...
Reposted by Rick Ballard
My new cooktop is induction, and induction is *so* nice. Heats up startlingly fast, and then easy to control. Water boils shockingly fast. I’ve zero regrets about saying goodbye to gas.
October 13, 2025 at 3:29 AM
My new cooktop is induction, and induction is *so* nice. Heats up startlingly fast, and then easy to control. Water boils shockingly fast. I’ve zero regrets about saying goodbye to gas.
I hate how the modern answer to "what file format should I use for this config file that should be both human and machine editable" is basically all bad options. Everything out there has serious limitations, or isn't widely supported. For all its verbosity, I kinda miss XML?
October 7, 2025 at 2:54 AM
I hate how the modern answer to "what file format should I use for this config file that should be both human and machine editable" is basically all bad options. Everything out there has serious limitations, or isn't widely supported. For all its verbosity, I kinda miss XML?
The passage of SB79 is a huge achievement. (No thanks to my representitives on the penninsula). It really feels like there's been a sea change in how housing policy is seen — albeit a change that has had to be fought for tooth and nail.
September 13, 2025 at 3:25 AM
The passage of SB79 is a huge achievement. (No thanks to my representitives on the penninsula). It really feels like there's been a sea change in how housing policy is seen — albeit a change that has had to be fought for tooth and nail.
Reposted by Rick Ballard
How much protein should you consume?
erictopol.substack.com/p/our-preocc...
erictopol.substack.com/p/our-preocc...
Our Preoccupation With Protein Intake
The data on high protein diets, bars, supplements, and powders will surprise you
erictopol.substack.com
August 31, 2025 at 3:17 PM
How much protein should you consume?
erictopol.substack.com/p/our-preocc...
erictopol.substack.com/p/our-preocc...
Reposted by Rick Ballard
5/ You’ve told us you want public health updates that are timely, clear, and relevant to your family. This is our response.
The first issue drops next week. Click here to be the first to get California public health news: yourlocalepidemiologistca.substack.com
The first issue drops next week. Click here to be the first to get California public health news: yourlocalepidemiologistca.substack.com
Your Local Epidemiologist in California | Substack
Translating the ever-changing science of public health for Californians so you can take action for your community’s health. Click to read Your Local Epidemiologist in California, a Substack publicatio...
yourlocalepidemiologistca.substack.com
August 7, 2025 at 2:38 PM
5/ You’ve told us you want public health updates that are timely, clear, and relevant to your family. This is our response.
The first issue drops next week. Click here to be the first to get California public health news: yourlocalepidemiologistca.substack.com
The first issue drops next week. Click here to be the first to get California public health news: yourlocalepidemiologistca.substack.com
Stop asking LLMs to calculate things (whether math or counting something or w/e). It's a probabilistic language model, not a calculator. Just ask the question and say "use code". LLMs are good at writing code, the big ones have access to a python sandbox, and code will give it the right answer.
August 14, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Stop asking LLMs to calculate things (whether math or counting something or w/e). It's a probabilistic language model, not a calculator. Just ask the question and say "use code". LLMs are good at writing code, the big ones have access to a python sandbox, and code will give it the right answer.
This is an excellent, and fascinating, dive into how LLMs work. Long, but never boring. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xTG...
Deep Dive into LLMs like ChatGPT
YouTube video by Andrej Karpathy
www.youtube.com
August 7, 2025 at 4:20 AM
This is an excellent, and fascinating, dive into how LLMs work. Long, but never boring. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xTG...
The new Naked Gun movie is really good. I don’t usually see the point of remakes — just watch the original if you love it! — but this one is an exception (and more sequel than remake). Flawless joke execution about every 10 seconds for 85 minutes.
August 6, 2025 at 5:16 PM
The new Naked Gun movie is really good. I don’t usually see the point of remakes — just watch the original if you love it! — but this one is an exception (and more sequel than remake). Flawless joke execution about every 10 seconds for 85 minutes.
Reposted by Rick Ballard
today's a great day to make sure "require alt text before posting" is enabled in your settings and to continue to make bluesky more accessible and inclusive bsky.app/settings/acc...
July 9, 2025 at 1:39 PM
today's a great day to make sure "require alt text before posting" is enabled in your settings and to continue to make bluesky more accessible and inclusive bsky.app/settings/acc...
Sinners is so, so good. Don’t read anything about it if you haven’t already; just go see it.
May 4, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Sinners is so, so good. Don’t read anything about it if you haven’t already; just go see it.
Reposted by Rick Ballard
Courage is contagious. But how do we catch it?
For months, @amifieldsmeyer.bsky.social and I have been asking dissidents and activists from around the world how we can topple authoritarianism.
We assembled their lessons into a field guide to courage.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...
For months, @amifieldsmeyer.bsky.social and I have been asking dissidents and activists from around the world how we can topple authoritarianism.
We assembled their lessons into a field guide to courage.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...
So You Want to Be a Dissident?
A practical guide to courage in Trump’s age of fear.
www.newyorker.com
April 12, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Courage is contagious. But how do we catch it?
For months, @amifieldsmeyer.bsky.social and I have been asking dissidents and activists from around the world how we can topple authoritarianism.
We assembled their lessons into a field guide to courage.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...
For months, @amifieldsmeyer.bsky.social and I have been asking dissidents and activists from around the world how we can topple authoritarianism.
We assembled their lessons into a field guide to courage.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-wee...
A thing I appreciated about the Hands Off! protest in San Mateo today is how visible it was. Lined up along El Camino, an endless stream of drivers passed by (so much honking ❤️) and saw people turning bodies out to demonstrate. Hopefully a step towards making folks feel like it’s worth engaging.
April 5, 2025 at 8:36 PM
A thing I appreciated about the Hands Off! protest in San Mateo today is how visible it was. Lined up along El Camino, an endless stream of drivers passed by (so much honking ❤️) and saw people turning bodies out to demonstrate. Hopefully a step towards making folks feel like it’s worth engaging.
Reposted by Rick Ballard
Protests aren’t the only tool in the anti-authoritarian toolkit, but they’re incredibly important. Protests help us see each other; they make it feel safer to refuse to obey the dictator, and make it more possible for us to organize mass non-cooperation.
It’s an essential step in the process.
It’s an essential step in the process.
April 5, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Protests aren’t the only tool in the anti-authoritarian toolkit, but they’re incredibly important. Protests help us see each other; they make it feel safer to refuse to obey the dictator, and make it more possible for us to organize mass non-cooperation.
It’s an essential step in the process.
It’s an essential step in the process.
Reposted by Rick Ballard
*Please repost* @sjgreenwood.bsky.social and I just launched a new personalized feed (*please pin*) that we hope will become a "must use" for #academicsky. The feed shows posts about papers filtered by *your* follower network. It's become my default Bluesky experience bsky.app/profile/pape...
March 10, 2025 at 6:14 PM
*Please repost* @sjgreenwood.bsky.social and I just launched a new personalized feed (*please pin*) that we hope will become a "must use" for #academicsky. The feed shows posts about papers filtered by *your* follower network. It's become my default Bluesky experience bsky.app/profile/pape...
Reposted by Rick Ballard
The office of Gavin Newsom's phone number is:
(916) 445-2841
You can call him just like you call your representatives.
If you are disgusted by his conscious and intentional betrayal of us all, by cozying up with nazi Charlie Kirk and offering up trans people for slaughter, please tell him.
(916) 445-2841
You can call him just like you call your representatives.
If you are disgusted by his conscious and intentional betrayal of us all, by cozying up with nazi Charlie Kirk and offering up trans people for slaughter, please tell him.
March 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
The office of Gavin Newsom's phone number is:
(916) 445-2841
You can call him just like you call your representatives.
If you are disgusted by his conscious and intentional betrayal of us all, by cozying up with nazi Charlie Kirk and offering up trans people for slaughter, please tell him.
(916) 445-2841
You can call him just like you call your representatives.
If you are disgusted by his conscious and intentional betrayal of us all, by cozying up with nazi Charlie Kirk and offering up trans people for slaughter, please tell him.
I love when I'm late to discover a great band and they already have years of albums to listen to.
Challenge: listen to Caravan Palace without dancing all over the house.
Difficulty: impossible.
music.apple.com/us/playlist/...
Challenge: listen to Caravan Palace without dancing all over the house.
Difficulty: impossible.
music.apple.com/us/playlist/...
Caravan Palace Essentials on Apple Music
Playlist · 12 Songs
music.apple.com
March 6, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I love when I'm late to discover a great band and they already have years of albums to listen to.
Challenge: listen to Caravan Palace without dancing all over the house.
Difficulty: impossible.
music.apple.com/us/playlist/...
Challenge: listen to Caravan Palace without dancing all over the house.
Difficulty: impossible.
music.apple.com/us/playlist/...
If you're the sort of person who liked having a daily NYT/WaPo news read, but aren't willing to give money / attention to either now — what do you recommend to take their place? NPR? I have a bunch of local and specialized subscriptions, but they don't replace having a general "paper of record".
March 1, 2025 at 3:34 AM
If you're the sort of person who liked having a daily NYT/WaPo news read, but aren't willing to give money / attention to either now — what do you recommend to take their place? NPR? I have a bunch of local and specialized subscriptions, but they don't replace having a general "paper of record".
I gave WaPo one more shot after a protest-cancellation when Bezos blocked their Harris endorsement, but this morning’s Bezos mandate for opinion to only publish pro “free markets” and “personal liberties” content is it for me. Those terms are doing a lot of euphemistic heavy lifting here.
February 26, 2025 at 4:30 PM
I gave WaPo one more shot after a protest-cancellation when Bezos blocked their Harris endorsement, but this morning’s Bezos mandate for opinion to only publish pro “free markets” and “personal liberties” content is it for me. Those terms are doing a lot of euphemistic heavy lifting here.
Reposted by Rick Ballard
We open sourced Xcode’s build system github.com/swiftlang/sw...
GitHub - swiftlang/swift-build: A high-level build system based on llbuild, used by Xcode, Swift Playground, and the Swift Package Manager
A high-level build system based on llbuild, used by Xcode, Swift Playground, and the Swift Package Manager - swiftlang/swift-build
github.com
February 1, 2025 at 6:59 PM
We open sourced Xcode’s build system github.com/swiftlang/sw...
I’m so happy to see us open-source swift-build, the swift-native build system Xcode uses. I had the privilege of managing the team when we created it years ago; it’s a fantastic team whom I was lucky to work with. And now swift-build belongs to the whole community.
GitHub.com/swiftlang/swift-build
GitHub.com/swiftlang/swift-build
GitHub - swiftlang/swift-build: A high-level build system based on llbuild, used by Xcode, Swift Playground, and the Swift Package Manager
A high-level build system based on llbuild, used by Xcode, Swift Playground, and the Swift Package Manager - swiftlang/swift-build
GitHub.com
February 2, 2025 at 1:14 AM
I’m so happy to see us open-source swift-build, the swift-native build system Xcode uses. I had the privilege of managing the team when we created it years ago; it’s a fantastic team whom I was lucky to work with. And now swift-build belongs to the whole community.
GitHub.com/swiftlang/swift-build
GitHub.com/swiftlang/swift-build