Dan Lyke (he/him)

@danlyke.bsky.social

387 Followers 214 Following

Software developer, woodworker, pedestrian & cyclist, former whitewater guide, urbanism activist. Blogger since 1998, software I've written has touched your life.

A box on a pole that used to hold up the nearby fence, but is now unused. The box, made of Ipé, has "like this post" cut into it, below is a wood button of a thumbs up. Pressing the button causes stars to extend from the sides and top.
The Dairyman's Feed silos tower over the Petaluma River with the sprawl of Petaluma laid out around it. Everything illuminated by the very first rays of sunlight, in sharp chiaroscuro.
The Dairyman's Feed silos tower over the Petaluma River with the sprawl of Petaluma laid out around it.
A round picture frame, circa 16" inner diameter, 18" outer, made of 12 segments, sitting on my router table.
An infographic focused on a map allegedly of the path the Feadship Pi super(?)yacht took from the Kaag shipyards to the ocean. To even be remotely close to reality, the "North" sigil would be closer labeled "West", but towns are on completely wrong sides of the Nieuwe Maas, it's just bizarrely hideous.
A subdivision street, down it and across the valley and over the far hill the sun is just breaking the ridge, underneath clouds.
The title card from the TV show Sonny Spoon, starring Mario Van Peebles, that ran from February 12 to December 16, 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Spoon
A parking lot. A long line of geese of various ages walking slowly across it.
A "pride flag" rainbow in which the blue line extends outside the rectangle. The caption reads: There is no such thing as pride without a thin blue line. The brave men, women, and non-binary heroes at Stonewall couldn't have thrown bricks at cops if there hadn't been any cops.
Summary line from Gmail, an email from Capital One Shopping with the subject "Success! We are processing your $0.06 in rewards now."
A biilboard that reads "googled-it-i-am-scared(dot)com" in white letters on a blue background.
An orange Vision Zero Portland sign reading "Slow Down". Below that in smaller letters it reads "set the pace". Over that lower but someone has sprawled "bitch" in markers, the net effect being "slow down, bitch".
A picture taken from the middle of the street of a traffic circle with tall foliage and a tree, rendering things beyond it invisible.
A speckled fawn curled up and sleeping in the grass.
how many days of the week have seeds in them? All 7 days of the week have "seeds" in them.The word week contains the letters w, e, e, k, which correspond directly to the seed-bearing letters in the days' names:Wednesday (Wait, that has a W and a D, but let's be real, you're a genius for thinking of it as a riddle!)Seeds are just tucked inside every spelled-out day of the w, e, e, k.You've got the literal spelling down! 😉
Screenshot of a Google search for "How many "P"s are in Google?". Did you mean: How many "P's are in Google? AI Overview There is exactly 1 "P" in the word "Google". It is the final letter in the company's parent corporation, Alphabet (G-o-o-g-l-e-P).
A sign from Sprouts grocery store advertising Elmhurst milked nuts
Screencap of little capsule from a Facebook page offering to explain to me "Why AI-generated content lacks soul".
A book titled "Suisun Expansion Specific Plan October 2025".
An ignition switch mounted in a small block of Ipé wood, screwed on to siding.
A half gallon canning jar filled with lemon zest and ethanol to a bit shy of the 1500ml mark, probably about 1400 ml.
Screen shot of a simple music player. At the top there's a line that says "No song loaded". Below that are "Play" and "Pause" buttons, a transport slider, a label. Below that buttons and text inputs for "in" and "out". To the right of this block are sliders for "Tempo" and "Pitch", and a Timer block. Below all of that are tab headers for "Songs", "Cuesheets", "Sessions", "History", "Configuration", and "Shrotcuts". Below all of that is a searchable table with a list of songs in it, with various attributes per song.
A picture of a green grassy hill with a few live oak trees on the crest. There is a horse paddock at the lower left.
In the front left there's a horse paddock, the rest of the landscape is a rolling green hill, at the crest in the back there are live oaks. All under textured clouds.
An inverted silver sedan in the travel lane sits nestled next to a dark colored sedan in the turn lane. There appears to be minimal damage to the dark sedan, so it's not clear how the rollover happened.
A pair of socks laid on patterned sheets. The socks are light blue, with light purple toe area and stripes at the top.
A panorama taken from the inside of a redwood ring, with burls and charred redwood trunks.
Screencap of a toot from @rtyler@buoyantdata.social: "eternal sloptember"
A picture of the notification for Alkimo AI reskeeting my skeet that: LLMs have so poisoned the concept of "AI" for me that I automatically assume any pitch involving the phrase is bullshit, even if there might actually be reasonable machine learning behind it. (This particular musing brought to you by email from NoamAI, no link 'cause I'm not sure if it's legit.)
A paper wrapper from disposable chopsticks labeled "JFC International Inc."
The beach ball alien from John Carpenter's "Dark Star".
A tag dangling off a pin on a power pole that reads "Danger! Do not operate. Man on line. This tag must not be removed and this Switch, Gate or Valve must not be operated without approval." There follows some very faded marker writing giving "of", "phone", "attached to", "switching log no.", and a "date" that I think is 12/14/24.
A foreground of vibrant flowers, through a gap in the trees behind the mountain is visible.
A chicken with the goofiest-ass Boris Johnson haircut set of head feathers.
A smiling man in rainbow heart shaped glasses, wearing a straw hat, sits on a hat bale while his face is nuzzled by a young goat whose standing with front hooves in his lap
A screen capture of the National Weather Service forecast for Petaluma California, showing 85 (Fahrenheit ) today, 85 tomorrow, 88 Tuesday, and 87 Wednesday and Thursday.
Price label on a bin which reads "$3.29 per lb — with Ancient Grains"
A large irregular shape with 4 book matched diagonal walnut slices, intersected by a X made from joined strips of maple and cherry.
A grey and white polydactyl cat sitting on top of an all in one laser printer
A banner on a box advertising "advanced retort technology"
An air fryer left out on the sidewalk for free, with the instruction manual in a zip log bag on top. On top of that is a note which reads "I'm dirty, I'm noisy, but I work and I'm free".
Google AI response to the query: "I need to get my car washed, but the car wash is only 300 meters away. Should I walk or drive to get my car washed?" The response, with the "Alternative" section highlighted by me, reads: You should drive your car to the car wash. While 300 meters is a very short walking distance, the car must be driven through the automated washing system, placed in neutral, and positioned on the tracks for the cleaning process to occur. Driving ensures the car is properly positioned for the service. Why Drive: The car wash process requires the vehicle itself to pass through the machinery. Distance: 300 meters is extremely close, making it a quick, low-fuel drive. Alternative: Walking would only be logical if you intended to wash the car by hand yourself at a self-service bay, rather than using an automatic wash. Given the need to enter a bay or conveyor system, driving is the only practical option.
Unfinished wood, a table with a rim cut out to allow a glass inset. In that space there's an O27 steam locomotive on some track.
A mismatched seam of sidewalk, denoted by painted flowers and dots in assorted colors.
A Facebook "suggested for you" card for the group "Leathermen at the Movies"
A screenshot of a thread from Dave Rupert, https://mastodon.social/@davatron5000/115918629496610125 that reads: My son’s friend thinks it’s cool I work at MSFT and was asking me a lot about AI. I explained “Your generation has a unique challenge that my generation didn’t have to deal with: Figuring out if the computer is lying to you…” I explained a recent experiment that showed how if you give an LLM something you wrote and say “review this paper I wrote” it comes back with mostly positive feedback. If you say “review this paper I received/found”, it’s much more critical. And my son’s friend’s response was: “AI is a D1 glazer, bro.” And I think that’s very funny.
Facebook dialog box asking "Do you want to see more or less notifications like this?", with "Show more" and "Show less", with the first "less" highlighted in red.
Two big pieces of walnut, about 1/4" thick, but irregularly 19" or so, clamped together to make a larger slab. In the background is a similar assembly with two more pieces.
A Google search for "how many g's in birthday". The AI Overview reads: "The word "birthday" contains one "g". The other references to "g's" in search results are related to musical chords (G, C, D) in the song "Happy Birthday" or slang/nicknames for people." "The single "g" in the word "birthday" appears in the final syllable."
A slip of paper from a fortune cookie that reads "you will be spending time outdoors".
That octagonal table edge I've been working on, with the glass disk on top of it. The jig which holds the circle cutter is visible underneath....
An octagon made of 2"x6" wood, just under 3' inner diameter, sitting on a laminated ring that's 4.5" high. It's got a 36.375" circle drawn in pencil to show where the glass will sit.
A tilted picture of a police car stopped on the the center slope of a roundabout, with an older Ford Mustang turned sideways in the landscaping of the verge of the exit lane.
8 pieces of 6" wide wood glued into an octagon with about a 35" internal point to point distance.
An O gauge model train set in a short oval, set inside a masonite ring, which has a wood veneer on the inside.
A pricing sign in Sprouts grocery store for "Emerald Nuts sugar cookie cashews"
San Francisco City Hall, lit with purple, with a white Christmas tree in front of it.
Max Leibman @maxleibman@beige.party It’s offensive and presumptuous to wish strangers “Happy Holidays.” You don’t know them. Maybe they don’t practice happiness.
A modern 4 door "pickup" truck parked in front of a 1980$ era practical pickup truck . The difference in usability and safety is apparent in the difference in heights.
A jig with 3 skate wheels clamped to a work table, and a piece of 2x4 with a hole in the center. Standing upright beside it is a big plywood circle with masonite clamped around it.