Snippits – DocBug

Tom Lehrer Easter Egg in NSA Publication

bug — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 21:01:50 +0000

Tom Lehrer worked at the NSA from 1955 through 1957, and a recent thread on BlueSky reveals one of the papers he wrote while there included a bibliographical entry for “Analytic and Algebraic Topology of Locally Euclidean Metrizations of Infinitely Differentiable Remannian Manifolds” by Lobachevsky. Apparently the joke went unnoticed for almost 60 years.

[via r/TomLehrer]

Trader Joe’s Mango Black Tea is back

bug — Tue, 23 May 2023 17:36:03 +0000

It’s late May, and that means Trader Joe’s is stocking Mango Black Tea again. TJ’s seems to think this is a summertime thing, but we drink it iced all year round. Last summer we had about 25 boxes stocked away by the end of the season, and we still ran out a few months ago. I guess we’ll go for 35 this year.

Resurrecting DocBug

bug — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 00:37:01 +0000

I started blogging at DocBug back in 2003 as a way to think through my ideas about technology, culture, and whatever else was on my mind that didn’t fit LiveJournal’s vibe. For several years I was posting three to four times a week, sometimes spending hours researching a post, but after I got married and had kids blogging fell by the wayside. I moved over to Google+ back when it was fresh and new, but as the bloom on Google+ faded (and as I shifted over to working on super-sekrit projects at Google X) I stopped posting there as well. The blog went offline in 2013, and Google+ eventually disappeared in 2019.

Now after almost 10 years I’m bringing it back. I’ve reconstructed the old DocBug and public Google+ posts from backup and migrated them to a modern WordPress install, along with a couple of cross-posted LinkedIn posts from a few months ago. All the posts are back-dated to the original post date, but I didn’t copy over any of the comments. In the end the migration wasn’t too painful — I just wrote a quick Python script that translated the original MoveableType HTML into a CSV input file that I then fed into the WordPress All Import Plugin.

A self-hosted single-author blog feels a little retro in this era of FaceBook and its ilk, but I’ve always liked the feeling of being able to drill holes in the wall wherever I want. Not sure how often I’ll be posting (especially as life gets busy again), but I have a small backlog of content that has built up over the past few years that I’ll post over the next few weeks, after which I expect I’ll post whenever the muse strikes me.

Loon shutting down

bug — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 19:38:00 +0000

[Originally posted to LinkedIn 9/23/2021, migrated to DocBug 2/10/2022.]

As many of you know, Loon is shutting down. We landed our final balloon a few months ago, and while a few folks are still helping with the wind down, most of us (including myself) have moved on. Delivering wireless internet via high-altitude balloons was always a high-risk moon shot, with huge potential and equally huge technical, logistical and business challenges. It’s a testament to the talent of everyone who worked on the project that we got as far as we did.

Over the years I was able to work on some amazing projects, including designing and building Loon’s first mission control system, developing AI algorithms for steering our balloons, and modeling stratospheric winds for our simulation system. And since simulation and mission control touched on so many aspects of the project I also got to collaborate with people working on everything from balloon envelope design to the evolution of storms in the stratosphere to using free-space optics to communicate between balloons.

I’m spending the next few months working on some independent projects while I explore what’s out there. I’ve always been drawn to projects with multi-disciplinary problems, particularly when the solution (and even the problem) isn’t entirely clear. If you know something that might be a good fit, or just want to chat and catch up, drop me a line.

Halloween costumes from Portal 2

bug — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 21:24:00 +0000

Halloween costumes from Portal 2 this year. Next year I think I’ll push for a nice simple Dracula costume :).

[Migrated from Google+]

Atlas (from Portal 2) Halloween costume

bug — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 06:29:00 +0000

Close to finishing my son’s Halloween costume (just need to do legs and a portal gun). Biggest problem is that it’s too heavy on his shoulders to wear comfortably. I really need to figure out a better harness or padding.

[Migrated from Google+]

Coffee Computers and Song

bug — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Filk album put out by a former coworker of mine — take a listen.

[Migrated from Google+]

The perfectly fried egg

bug — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Looking to try this tomorrow morning…

[Migrated from Google+]

Kickstarter for 13th Age expansion

bug — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 06:12:00 +0000

A friend of mine is cofounder of a relatively new game design company made up of former (read: laid off) Wizards of the Coast designers, and they’ve just launched a kick starter to expand their new tabletop RPG, 13th Age. If you’re into RPGs you should definitely check it out — it’s an incredibly talented team that includes the former lead designers for D&D 3rd ed (Jonathan Tweet) and D&D 4th ed (Rob Heinsoo).

Originally shared by Jay Schneider

The Kickstarter for my company’s RPG (13th Age) is now live! I’d greatly appreciate your viewing it and sharing the link.
13th Age expansion book: 13 True Ways

Just glue some gears on it…

bug — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:52:00 +0000

[Migrated from Google+]