Navigator Nebular
LightNews LightNews
banner
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Navigator Nebular
@samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
6 followers 5 following 89 posts
biking on my #CargoBike
fighting oppression & #ClimateChange
I contribute to #ApacheSuperset (like Tableau or PowerBI but open-source and better)
#KidneyDonor
Jew for a […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://a2mi.social/@samfirke, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
Posts Replies Media Videos
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Parody sticker for sale: https://store.silversprocket.net/products/neighborhood-watch
Parody sticker of a neighborhood watch sign, with text "come over to my place and we can watch each other do crimes, do a crime together, whatever. Bring snacks"
December 14, 2025 at 6:32 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Grass growing out of an ancient Black Oak in Ann Arbor's Wurster Park.
A massive black oak tree. Mostly a giant trunk. A stub was left behind from a giant branch and there's a tuft of wilted grass growing out of it.
November 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Snowy weather has my doggo wearing her Hanukkah hoodie
A brown labradoodle dog, circled up on a dish towel, wearing a navy coat with blue driedels on it
November 9, 2025 at 11:51 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I clicked on a catchy headline from NPR. Then I noticed the image description sounded AI generated.

Then I looked again at the image and realized it was *definitely* AI generated.

WTF NPR #slop
A screenshot of an article on NPR.org about pickleball injuries. It includes a prominent image of a hand holding a pickleball racket. A hand which is missing a finger. The shading and shadow on the image are pretty janky too.
October 20, 2025 at 12:49 AM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I'm using Claude Sonnet 4.5 to draft the analysis tools, including the prompt to the classifier LLM. Then the actual classification is being done by Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite which is 1/30th the cost of Sonnet 4.5 for input tokens (and 1/37th the cost for output) […]

[Original post on a2mi.social]
Screenshot of my OpenRouter usage page. It shows calls to Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite costing about $0.0001 apiece, that I made 594 calls yesterday, using 610k tokens and racking up a bill of seven cents.
October 18, 2025 at 12:22 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
The City of Ann Arbor's new Open Data Portal is live! https://data.a2gov.org/

I've been working on this for months. My favorite part: it showcases our dashboards and maps! We have raw data available too, but I think 99% of people would rather interact with the […]

[Original post on a2mi.social]
Screenshot of the open data portal showing thumbnails and descriptions for three maps: Ann Arbor Floodplain, Champion Tree Tour, and Public Plan. Screenshot of the open data portal showing thumbnails and descriptions for three dashboards: AAPD Crime Data, Traffic Crashes, Street Tree Inventory.
October 16, 2025 at 8:15 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
LEZBEAN #a2vanityplatespotting
A pink Chevrolet sports car parked at the curb with license plates that say LEZBEAN
October 14, 2025 at 11:39 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I hit my annual cycling goal biking me, a kid, a bench, 8 soccer balls, and other gear to a game across town. Feels fitting.
October 4, 2025 at 4:15 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I'm #3dprinting with tree supports for the first time. The green "trees" hold up the parts that might otherwise sag. Then you tear them out when you're done. The slicing software generates them automatically!

I'm printing this […]

[Original post on a2mi.social]
A screenshot of the 3d modeling software OrcaSlicer, showing an orange box-like structure held up by green trees that branch and snake through the openings in the orange box. The model in question is a battery holder for a Bosch e-Bike battery.
October 3, 2025 at 1:25 AM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
The approach to the University of Michigan' Yost Ice Arena is frequently overflowing with mopeds. They must be a big hit with hockey players! There are hockey helmets hanging from some of them.
A large brick hockey arena exterior in the background. On the sidewalk in front of it are about twenty mopeds and a few scooters, all near and somewhat obstructing a bike rack.
October 1, 2025 at 9:53 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I'm buying this book which has a months-long line at AADL. I'm impressed, thought they might have to special order it.
The cover, salmon pink, of the book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
September 27, 2025 at 8:47 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I'm at the grand opening of Courageous Books, the new bookstore in Dexter, MI! Sooooo many books I want to read.
A bookstore interior with many books displayed with covers out Selfie in front of Courageous Books backdrop
September 27, 2025 at 8:45 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
@NickGates @FlockOfCats
A strip of Calvin and Hobbes where they speculate about whether the dad is becoming "some kind of subversive"
September 10, 2025 at 12:36 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
My boys configured an "educational" web game so that all the answers are nonsense and all correct
September 9, 2025 at 9:30 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Grilling tofu for lunches for the week
Two slabs of tofu grilling on an indoor griddle, with blackened grid marks
September 7, 2025 at 3:46 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Pauline Boulevard in #annarbor is about to reopen with new buffered bike lanes in both directions from South Seventh Street to Main Street. There's also this bike box at the intersection of Pauline and Seventh. New lighting and safer crosswalks as well. This […]

[Original post on a2mi.social]
A street under construction, blocked by barricades, with a bright green, freshly painted bike box.
September 4, 2025 at 1:05 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I hadn't been to a Michigan game in some years.

The bad: Alcohol sales and louder sound / more videos
The good: cell phone light shows, singing Mr. Brightside
The crowd at Michigan Stadium in the dark The crowd at Michigan Stadium holding up their phone flashlights The crowd at Michigan Stadium with some lights held up
August 31, 2025 at 2:54 AM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
My most-mended pants are ready for another fall

#mending #sashiko
Front view of medium-wash denim jeans laid flat on a wooden floor, showing repairs: a large navy floral patch on the left thigh, a small pink-thread hole near the belt loop, and white cross-stitch around distressed areas. The left knee features an oval green-blue patch with white stitching, while the right knee has a red polka-dot patch outlined by white stitches, with frayed denim around both patches.
August 26, 2025 at 9:09 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
My decentralized version of a sharing library is getting close to ready. Work-in-progress screenshot attached.

This article is inspirational - and I think we can share even more if we lend directly to each other!

https://social.afront.org/@MLE_online/115066955300787508
Screenshot of items available to lend in a peer-to-peer sharing app. They include a few board games, a chisel, a hammer, and a doughnut pan.
August 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Rolled over a big round number on my cargo e-bike odometer
E-bike odometer showing 4000 mi total distance
August 11, 2025 at 1:58 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
Up by 20 points with 5k votes in. How many total votes do we expect, 35k? That's a huge portion in. Looking very good unless that's not a representative sample.
Election results page screenshot from eWashtenaw
August 6, 2025 at 12:44 AM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
@bunkum.us I biked past a sticker today so I'm including a pic for others reading these posts. (I haven't visited the site yet myself, full disclosure).
Sticker on a sidewalk slab directing passers-by to visit a website to learn more about Allen Creek
August 4, 2025 at 8:41 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
This is only part of one month's library use for my family but since it's gleaming hardcovers I looked at the price tags. These books alone would cost us $141.

We can devour and return them without having to ponder the cost of the books, except when we stop to […]

[Original post on a2mi.social]
A stack of seven library books placed horizontally on a wooden surface. The top three books are by Beth Revis: "Full Speed to a Crash Landing," "How to Steal a Galaxy," and "Last Chance to Save the World," each with library labels on the spine. Below them are four books from the "Warriors: The Broken Code" series by Hunter, numbered 3 to 6, titled "Veil of Shadows," "Darkness Within," "The Place of No Stars," and "A Light in the Mist," also with library labels on the spines. The background includes a wooden panel and a green tiled wall.
August 1, 2025 at 9:55 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
David Zinn chalk art at the downtown #annarbor library. Is this even chalk?? It's impossibly fine detail.
July 31, 2025 at 7:02 PM
samfirke.a2mi.social.ap.brid.gy
I'm growing a cottonwood tree in a bucket on my deck and I noticed it's hosting what looks like ant-aphid mutualism. The ants keep drinking droplets from the aphids and touching them. Reading up on it a little, apparently it benefits both species as well as the cottonwood?
Ants scurrying around little aphids on the slender stem of a cottonwood tree Ants scurrying around little aphids on the slender stem of a cottonwood tree
July 27, 2025 at 11:50 PM