Ray Ryan

@rjrjr

Once wrote Android apps and open source, esp. Now gloriously unproductive. Former: Distinguished Senior Software Citizen at Square, Instigator at Google, Chief Pedant at Lighthouse Design.

194 Folgt927 Follower1.596 Posts

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir rjrjr.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· 21d

Timeline synergy.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· 27d

Greetings from San Francisco circa September 2020.

Orange row houses under an orange sky, with one rear window showing normal colors

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· 28d

Crimson sunset clouds, a construction crane in silhouette.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Jul 4

San Francisco fireworks.

Grand finale flaming orange dahlia. This thing is huge!

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Jun 30

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

When I last wrote a diary like this in 2019, I felt a gnawing anxiety about global heating that never quite left me. But now my feeling is one of outright fury.

The homegrown fossil fuel company TotalEnergies brought in a profit of €5.8bn (£5bn) in the first quarter of 2026, and the AI lobby is pushing the EU to abandon its already inadequate climate ambitions to prioritise building datacentres. The city authorities have put in place some measures to cope, but it still feels as though we are being abandoned to our fate by those in power. And yes, even pregnant, I am still one of the lucky ones.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Jun 9

Hearing a gramophone for the first time. I especially love the comparison to using the telephone. #ReadingPilgrimage

Whistling softly Gerald placed a small square box on the table amongst the breakfast things.

“Oh dear me,” moaned Harriett from behind the coffee pot, smirking coyly backwards over her shoulder, “hoh, ar’n’t we grand.” “It’s the new toy” she rapped avertedly towards Miriam, in a despairing whisper. Gerald interrupted his whistling to fix on to the box a sort of trumpet, a thing that looked like a wide-open green nasturtium.

“Is it a musical box?” asked Miriam.

“D’you mean to say you’ve never seen a gramophone yet?” murmured Gerald, frowning and flicking away dust with his handkerchief. They did not mean as much as they appeared to do when they said life was not worth living … they had not discovered life. Gerald did not know the meaning of his interest in things. “People grieve and bemoan themselves, but it is not half so bad with them as they say” …

“I haven’t. I’ve heard them squeaking inside public houses of course.”

“Now’s your chance then. Woa Jemima! That’s the ticket. Now she’s off—”

Miriam waited, breathless; eagerly prepared to accept the coming wonder. A sound like the crackling of burning twigs came out into the silence. She remembered her first attempt to use a telephone, the need for concentrating calmly through the preliminary tumult, on the certainty that intelligible sounds would presently emerge, and listened encouragingly for a voice. The crackling changed to a metallic scraping, labouring steadily round and

round, as if it would go on forever; it ceased and an angry stentorian voice seemed to be struggling, half-smothered, in the neck of the trumpet. Miriam gazed, startled, at the yawning orifice, as the voice suddenly escaped and leapt out across the table with a “Edison-Bell Record!” Lightly struck chords tinkled far away, fairy music, sounding clear and distinct on empty space remote from the steady scraping of the machine. Then a song began. The whole machine seemed to sing it; vibrating with effort, sending forth the notes in a jerky staccato, the scarcely touched words clipped and broken to fit the jingling tune; the sustained upper notes at the end of the verse wavered chromatically, as if the machine were using its last efforts to reach the true pitch; it ceased and the far away chords came again, fainter and further away. In the second verse the machine struggled more feebly and slackened its speed, flattened suddenly to a lower key, wavered on, flattening from key to key and collapsed, choking, on a single downward-slurring squeak—

“Oh, but that’s absolutely perfect” gasped Miriam.

“You want to set it slower silly; it all began too high.”

“I know, la reine, he knows, he’ll set it slower all right.”

This time the voice marched lugubriously forth, with a threatening emphasis on each word; the sustained notes blared wide through their mufflings; yawned out by an angry lion.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· May 28

Dorothy Richardson at her best.

A day of blazing heat changed the season suddenly. Flat threatening sunlight travelled round the house. The shadowy sun-blinded flower-scented waiting-room held street-baked patients in its deep armchairs. Some of them were languid. But none of them suffered. They kept their freshness and freedom from exhaustion by living away from toil and grimy heat; in cool clothes, moving swiftly through moving air in carriages and holland-blinded hansoms; having ices in expensive shade; being waited on in the cool depths of west-end houses; their lives disturbed only by occasional dentistry. The lean dark patients were like lizards, lively and darting and active even in the sweltering heat.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· May 22

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· May 13

Lux Interior cited this as an inspiration for Bikini Girls with Machine Guns. youtu.be/XnBbjc5hmho?...

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· May 7

Happening now

Lobby poster for the 2026 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· May 7

Back in the Castro and it looks spectacular. The ceiling in particular is a revelation. Balcony seats are still traditional. (And reupholstered, comfy!) I've heard the main level seating isn't so bad.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· May 1

doctor i trust more than rfk jr

Terrifying blood red Shock Treatment poster, featuring a bald headed Richard O'Brien with thick round specs saying "Trust me, I'm a doctor."

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Apr 21

This is a great summary of jj's appeal.

There are a number of things that Jujutsu got right, he said. For example, history is malleable by default. "It's almost as if you were permanently in an interactive rebase mode, but without all the confusing parts." When history is rewritten in Jujutsu all dependents update automatically "so if you added a commit, all children are rebased automatically". Conflicts are data, not emergencies. "You can commit them and resolve them at any later point in time." These features are nice to have, he said, and fundamentally change how users think about commits. "You stop treating them as precious artifacts and rather start treating them as drafts that you can freely edit".

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Apr 7

A locomotive has gone through a train station wall a good forty feet off the ground. Its nose is embedded in the pavement below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_derailment

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Apr 4

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Mar 25

Why is that in protest quotes?

Blue PG&E sign with white lettering reading:

DO NOT ENTER WORKSITE

WITHOUT RECEIVING "SAFETY BRIEF"

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Mar 2

Watching UFO. Future looks great. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_%28...

A retro future drinks dispenser. A man's thumb presses the green button beneath the rectangular Whisky light. To the right is a Bourbon light and button.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Mar 1

A set of novels by Toni Morrison with commonly themed dust jackets that show her name and a tree across their spines. Held up by a bronze frog bookend.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Feb 26

Three people holding three invisible dog leashes. That is, invisible dogs on visible leashes.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Jan 4

Yaaaay.

Screenshot from German Apothke by PaulsMart, "USA Shipping is no longer available. The US FDA has put a stop to all pharmaceutical items being imported. We are so sorry for the inconvience."

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Jan 1

Tracks.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Dec 12

Keep waiting to see this one in the thread.

Lance Link Secret Chimp tin lunchbox and thermos. Yellow frame around a picture of three chimps: a Q type,with gray hair in a suit, holding a transmitter and pointing at; Lance in a trenchcoat and fedora; and a smaller chunk in a trenchcoat and red hat.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Dec 4

I can think of worse ways to spend a year.

Your top songs of 2025, featuring a photo of a bowl of meal worms.

1. Wrecked with God • Bobby Fingers
2. It's Getting Boring by the Sea • Blood Red Shoes
3. The Machine • Bobby Fingers
4. Horse Outside • The Rubberbandits
5. Little Foot Big Foot • Childish Gambino

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Dec 1

Drop something MIRRORED

Classic Charles Addams cartoon of parallel mirrors reflecting a man in a barber's chair. One of his infinite reflections is a demon.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Nov 25

So close.

The usual 13 step hand washing instructional poster, but with the lyrics to Clash City Rockers.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Nov 20

What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?

The cover of King Crimson Discipline, featuring a silver Celtic knot outlined in black with an entirely red background.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Nov 17

SF Opera really outdid themselves with The Monkey King. Standing room only crowd. Like a lot of contemporary opera there was a strong emphasis on visual spectacle, and wow did they deliver that. But not at the expense of the music, which just got stronger and stronger all evening.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Nov 15

A forlorn wooden brown bear doll on an amber leaf on a gray sidewalk.

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Nov 10

I am furious to hear that the shutdown is likely to end without any protections for ACA, and if this happens I will blame all of you. Please inform leadership, especially Mr. Schumer, that this breakdown of party discipline is unacceptable. It renders the entire shutdown pointless, a complete failure and Republican victory. Your no vote, Schumer's no vote, are meaningless theater if they are ineffective. Get your party in line!

Ray Ryan@rjrjr· Nov 9

if you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.