Mike Olson

@mikeolson
1.1K Followers
230 Following
3.7K Posts

Ex-Illustra, Sleepycat, Cloudera. Currently: Board member at Cityside. Working on: Climate. Politics.

Not a tech bro.

Mediumhttps://maolson.medium.com/
Websitehttps://www.olsons.net
Githubhttps://github.com/maolson0/
Not a Tech Brohttps://not-a-tech-bro.ghost.io/
Mike Olson7h ago
Hmmmmmm…
Mike Olson23h ago
Sean Casten23h ago
So there's a really important debate on civil liberties and national security going on on the House floor right now. It is shameful that it's taking place at this late hour of the night / morning. But I'm going to at least do something productive & try to explain here:
Show threadMike Olson1d ago
You guys Postgres is Turing-complete!
Mike Olson1d ago

A 6502 emulator implemented as a collection of PostgreSQL tables and stored procedures:

https://hackaday.com/2026/04/15/a-6502-all-in-the-data/

I love this, of course. My first CPU in my favorite database!

A 6502 All In The Data

Emulating a 6502 shouldn’t be that hard on a modern computer. Maybe that’s why [lasect] decided to make it a bit harder. The PG_6502 emulator uses PostgreSQL. All the CPU resources are …

Hackaday
Mike Olson1d ago

Cool clock:

https://kottke.org/26/04/the-peoples-clock

The People’s Clock: a Timepiece Made of People

As part of his Real Time series, artist Maarten Baas has created The People’s Clock, a timepiece that lives in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. To create the c

kottke.org
Mike Olson1d ago

Ummm hey @futurebird:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/scientists-just-discovered-5-6-140800555.html

Scientists just discovered 5.6 million bees under a New York State cemetery

A New York State cemetery may be home to nearly 5.6 million ground-nesting bees, according to a new study. Scientist have known that one species of these...

Yahoo News
Mike Olson1d ago

If you're going to San Francisco, don't drive.

https://www.berkeleyside.org/2026/04/15/i-80-closure-what-to-know-about-travel-through-san-francisco-this-weekend

I-80 closure: What to know about travel through San Francisco this weekend

Eastbound lanes are scheduled to close from 11 p.m. on April 17 to 6 a.m. on April 20 for planned construction work, with detours in place during the closure.

Berkeleyside
Mike Olson2d ago
Mignon Fogarty2d ago

It's tax day in the U.S., so let's talk abut the word: "tax" dates to the 1300s, from the Latin "taxāre" — "to charge or valuate."

But taxation is way older than the word. In ancient Egypt, governors just walked through your fields and took a portion of your crops. Before money even existed.

This piece has all kinds of fun slang terms for money (and why taxidermy has nothing to do with money): https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/qdtarchive/slang-words-for-money-a-tax-day-special/

Slang Words for Money: A Tax Day Special

Bread, greenbacks, and lucci. There are hundreds of slang terms for money, and we have the rundown on some of your favorites.

Quick and Dirty Tips
Mike Olson2d ago
Robert Reich2d ago
Mike Olson2d ago

Two nerd birthdays today, gang!

Leonardo da Vinci, on this day in 1452, got up to all kinds of anachronisms. Invented helicopters, created the cover art for the Voyager I spaceship, did a bunch of human dissection when the Catholic patriarchy was pretty against it:

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

Leonhard Euler, OTD 1707. Inserted himself into most of mathematics. Never met a fundamental constant he didn't like:

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

Scientists outlast politicians.

Leonardo da Vinci - Wikipedia