Michael Pusateri
@cruftbox.com
Evil Corporate Exec Former Metaverse Warlord Cycling/Beekeeping/Gaming Smoking Meats/Reading/Tinkering
A wrong turn in 1914 started WWI. A boat capsizing in 1999 may have swung the 2000 election by 537 votes. And on one miserable Tuesday, I started wondering how much of my own life comes down to plain chance. #SubstackSky #BlueskyWriting New post:
Left turns, coin flips, and butterfly effects
The unsettling randomness of how we got here
mattpusateri.substack.com
A good explanation of the complicated Ceuta/Spain/Morocco situation. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8nrpxsh/
So the fallout from the migrant crossings from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Friday continues - but what the hell actually happened? The answer is nobody knows but here’s quite a lot of...
TikTok video by mrcodydahler
tiktok.com
At my last company, the corporate IT team decided to move a key workflow system onto Airtable. The business side (me) had concerns but ‘application portfolio reduction’ was their mantra. Took over a year to get to minimal functionality. Unplanned costs to the application portfolio freak them out.
A good article on veterinarians and scientists working on honeybee health and medicine. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/s...
Meet the Bee Vet, Now Making Hive Calls (Gift Article)
Veterinarians are gingerly embracing the honeybee, a vital pollinator for agriculture but one that’s in increasing danger.
nytimes.com
Adventures in beekeeping: Used the steam wax melter yesterday evening to harvest beeswax. This morning I weighed the beeswax and it's almost a full kilogram!
When harvesting honey I use buckets with a small gate, allowing honey to pour out. I 3D printed a simple 55mm honey gate wrench too help me put them on and take them off. cruftbox.com/2026/08/03/h...
Honey Gate Wrench
When harvesting honey I use several five gallon buckets. The buckets I use have small gates in them to allow honey to pour out. The internal nut is hexagonal and can be a headache to tighten or loosen by hand. I remove them for cleaning and storage. So I designed a simple 55mm honey gate wr
cruftbox.com
Gathered some variegated lemons in the easement while walking the dog. The screw holding my makeshift fruit picker fell out, so I fixed it up with a piece of wire I found on the ground.
The California Highway Patrol just DDOSed themselves with a Silver Alert.
We live in a world where the creators of Warhammer 40K had to explain that its universe is satire, a critique of fascism, because some far-right fans started treating it as a source of inspiration. www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articl...
When it comes to discussing AI/LLMs on social media, you are either a clanker 🤖 or a Luddite 🪓. Nuanced views are not allowed.
Adventures in beekeeping: Harvested 58 pounds of honey. After a spring when I couldn't do a lot of hive management, I feel lucky. www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4WM...
Honey Harvesting - July 2026
Harvesting two honey super boxes from the hives in my backyard.
youtube.com
It’s okay to keep your thoughts and views to yourself. You don’t have to have a public ‘take’ on everything. That said, the Designated Hitter is an abomination.
Saw a Western Giant Swallowtail butterfly while walking the dog today.
Adventures in beekeeping: Bottled honey this morning and ended up with 55 bottles!
Adventures in beekeeping: 58 lbs/26 kg of honey in a 5 gallon bucket.
You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. - Winnie the Pooh
Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.
metsfan@metsfan.lol · 6d agoFilm you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.
We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people. We need to get good people to restrain us from bad laws. - G. K. Chesterton www.theverge.com/policy/97231...
The US government just banned Roombas
It’s not just bots with legs.
theverge.com
I read all the Hugo & Nebula best novel nominees so you don’t have to.
The children do not yearn for another adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
My friend @haughey.com wrote about using my Tessera code for his smarthome setup! a.wholelottanothing.org/controlling-...
Controlling your home with tiny, cheap touchscreens
A few weeks ago, I read my friend Michael Pusateri's post on this tiny touchscreen you can buy at Aliexpress, and how he programmed it to become buttons for his Home Assistant setup, letting anyone wh...
a.wholelottanothing.org
I wish people would post more about the hobbies they enjoy instead of snarking.
Los Angeles always struggles with air quality. We have a PurpleAir sensor, but I wanted something my wife and I could easily check, instead of an app. So I made Ashlight. Its color tells us all we need to know. cruftbox.com/2026/07/27/a...
ashlight - air quality monitor gadget
We have had a PurpleAir PA-II on our back porch for years. It works fine. The problem is that checking it requires going online to look at a map to find ours. What I wanted was a small device that is green when the air is fine and turns other colors when it's worse. Here in LA between smog, w
cruftbox.com
Adventures in beekeeping: Quick inspection of the Pink and Blue hives. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ur...
Bee Hive Inspection - July 26th, 2026
Quick inspection of the Pink & Blue beehives.
youtube.com
Built a visual air quality monitor. Working on a video about it now.
