Author: Carl Setzer

A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.

Thinking about effectiveness

Carl Setzer1 Comment

I came across this quote from Steve Jobs this morning:

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” — Steve Jobs

I’ve found answering the question “what do I say no to?” the hardest. Whether it’s because I loathe disappointing people, or simply letting fascinating ideas go, saying “no” is highly challenging for me.

What about you? Does “no” flow easily of of your tongue? How do you go about de-selecting work? Oru time is limited, so it’s our focus that’s golden. How do you protect that?

Tonight’s Haiku: May 31, 2025

Carl Setzer 
this rain's gentleness 
flowing over the blossoms 
before the sun's grace

Ah, Good Ol’ Email Scams

Carl Setzer1 Comment
close up shot of fake money

This one was sent to me today. Now, back in the day I used Dashlane, but I deleted that account years ago. That was my first clue that this was a scam. Now, let’s explore this further.

This one has a few other easy ways to see that it’s a scam. The first is the email address it was sent from. Notice, the sender is NOT Dashlane.

The second comes when you hover over the action button:

Again, nothing to do with Dashlane.

There’s no way to know if the scammers “know” I had a Dashlane account due a data breach which has been dumped on the dark web, or is just a random guess. They usually send these sorts of messages out by the thousands: a purely numbers game. But it doesn’t matter. The investment from the criminal is minimal, so they only need a few clicks to make this payoff.

In the end, be careful out there.

A look at the inevitable failure of political coalitions

Carl Setzer

I have a deep appreciation for Cory Doctorow’s writings. (If you haven’t yet, read his post where he coined the term “Enshittification”). “Strange Bedfellows and Long Knives” is another look into the strange alignment of political forces that make up the current Republican party and MAGA: Evangelicals and The Finance Sector. Historically at odds, Reagan was able to bring this group together. And, still, many of their respective goals are at serious odds with each other. That will, most likely, feed the flames of failure. After the “war” is won, the members tend to shift towards bickering about the post-victory order. Someone will have to lose.

Another example of this type of powerful coalition? The alliance between the USSR and the USA during WWII. “…after WWII, when (spoilers) the USSR and the USA switched from being allies to being rivals even before anyone could (spoilers) clean Hitler’s brains off the walls of his bunker.”

Looking at the confused muddle that is Project 2025, we see the fault lines, and also see that no one faction looks strong enough to contain the coalition after the fractures form. Tariffs, healthcare, and Elon are all elements Doctorow cites and areas of friction.

I recommend taking a look at this post if you want a look at what the possible end of this currently political struggle looks like.

Today’s Haiku, Sunday, May 18, 2025

Carl Setzer4 Comments 
within this silence 
listening to the rainfall 
peace before the dawn

An evening haiku

Carl Setzer2 Comments 
memories of dusk
treetops hidden by the night 
silent memories

Some Podcast Fun For Your Listening Pleasure!

Carl Setzer
greyscale photography of condenser microphone

I’ve long been a fan of Wil Wheaton. So it was pretty delightful to get the email (that’s how I consume most of my blog posts right now) letting me/us know that he was on the Katee Sackhoff podcast. Which got a “wait, what!?! Katee Sackhoff has a podcast? Man, it really bugs me that I missed that. However, I don’t really follow her, so I guess I can excuse myself. I have fixed that, though, by subscribing.

Now, I’ve been aware of Katee for years. I remember back in 2003 the launch of the new Battlestar Galactica, and the furor/uproar/noise about Starbuck being a woman! In my circle of geeky friends, I seemed to be one of the few unbothered at all by that. Mostly, I like to see what the creators create. I really liked this Starbuck! I thought she was an amazing, dynamic, complex, and interesting character. (*Sidenote: in hindsight, the character that should’ve caused the most consternation was Commander Adama, who was NOT even close to the Lorne Greene character.) And I love the character Bo Katan from Clone Wars and The Mandalorian.

I thought she did an amazing job as host. Guiding the discussion just enough to keep things moving (Wil did a nice job as a guest, too) without tripping over her guest. They clearly value each other, treat each other with grace and respect. It was just so delightful.

Wil was on to promote his new podcast “It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton“. Now, I need to confess that I haven’t listened to any episodes yet. Que a whiny “there’s so much content…” bit. I had every intention of changing that state. However, I feel the need to move the timeline up on that. Yeah, the reason I pushed this podcast to “I need to listen to this…today…” was simply having two people who I value together. Those sorts of alignments need to be celebrated.

I’ll post when I’ve given Mr. Wheaton’s project a listen. Hey, let me know: have you listened yet? What do you think?