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  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  2. <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title>p1k3::feed</title><subtitle>writing by brennen</subtitle><link href="https://p1k3.com/"/><link href="https://p1k3.com/feed" rel="self"/><icon>https://p1k3.com/favicon.png</icon><author><name>brennen</name></author><id>https://p1k3.com/</id><generator>App::WRT.pm / XML::Atom::SimpleFeed</generator><updated>2025-05-14T18:25:49Z</updated><entry><title type="html">Tuesday, May 13, 2025 - a very 2025 mid-may yard &#38; garden report</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2025/5/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2025/5/13</id><content type="html">
  3.  
  4. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, May 13, 2025&lt;/h1&gt;
  5.  
  6. &lt;h2&gt;a very 2025 mid-may yard &#38;amp; garden report&lt;/h2&gt;
  7.  
  8. &lt;p&gt;It got hot early. A harbinger, maybe.  Close to 90 a little to the east of
  9. here.  80-something here where there&#38;rsquo;s some mountain shade and running water.
  10. We had a few days of real rain, so it&#38;rsquo;s green, but I&#38;rsquo;m not sure how long it&#38;rsquo;ll
  11. last.  The tree pollen is just ecstatically blasting itself onto every
  12. available surface.  (Pollen: My eyes are burning, my nose runs constantly, I&#38;rsquo;m
  13. stupid and disoriented, it feels a little like I&#38;rsquo;ve been punched in the head at
  14. all times.)&lt;/p&gt;
  15.  
  16. &lt;p&gt;Amongst the considerable dandelions and the grass doing its best to run riot
  17. while the water lasts: Domestic honey bees, a few flies, grasshoppers in some
  18. early instar that&#38;rsquo;s still a later one than I expect.  The spiders are out.  It
  19. still seems like things are&#38;hellip; Missing.  The fruit trees flowered abundantly,
  20. and at least with the apples it seems like they got pollinated, but it&#38;rsquo;s hard
  21. not to wonder.  Everything is at least a little out of typical sync, but it&#38;rsquo;s
  22. hard to tell how much it matters from up close.&lt;/p&gt;
  23.  
  24. &lt;p&gt;There are eerily, distressingly, few birds — some starlings, a few crows, a
  25. little slender hawk of some sort, a single enormous crane that flies back and
  26. forth over town in the late afternoons, one pissed-off bluejay (chased the hawk
  27. out of the yard a bit ago) — and I guess it&#38;rsquo;s probably because a lot of the
  28. birds are dead now.  I haven&#38;rsquo;t seen a single hummingbird in the yard yet,
  29. though they&#38;rsquo;re usually here before the last snow.  This place being the way it
  30. is, I don&#38;rsquo;t know that we&#38;rsquo;ve had our last snow, but it feels more likely than
  31. usual.&lt;/p&gt;
  32.  
  33. &lt;p&gt;The headgate is open and the ditch is running, with surprisingly little
  34. incident.  I&#38;rsquo;m half ready to fill my reservoir cube and start running drip
  35. irrigation off it, but the remaining half is going to be an effortful one.&lt;/p&gt;
  36.  
  37. &lt;p&gt;I had plans to expand the deer fence around the garden and put in another
  38. raised bed.  At this rate&#38;hellip; Well, maybe in time for a late season planting.
  39. I won&#38;rsquo;t get it done this month.&lt;/p&gt;
  40.  
  41. &lt;p&gt;I weeded and turned a couple of the existing raised beds with a potato fork and
  42. put in some starts.  A tomato, a couple of peppers, a basil, a swiss chard and
  43. some collards.  I scattered 5 year old spinach and chard seeds around the bed.
  44. Maybe some will start.  There are volunteers:  Fennel (suspect that, like the
  45. oregano, I&#38;rsquo;m going to have to kill vast quantities of this stuff every spring
  46. to keep it from taking over the entire yard for the rest of the time I live
  47. here), peas, onions, potatoes I clearly forgot to harvest in the fall, cat mint
  48. (DO NOT PLANT), feverfew (SAME).  Survivors include sage that&#38;rsquo;s wintered over
  49. twice, now graduated from a handful of twigs to something you could reasonably
  50. describe as a bush, the aforementioned oregano, a little patch of lavender, a
  51. set of ragged strawberries originally transplanted from Kansas by way of
  52. Nebraska.&lt;/p&gt;
  53.  
  54. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t have ambitions about producing any food this year.  I want to draw in
  55. the tiny native bees to something flowering, and pick herbs and aromatics to
  56. cook with.  Maybe some greens.&lt;/p&gt;
  57.  
  58.  
  59. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  60. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/&#34; title=&#34;2025&#34;&gt;2025&lt;/a&gt; /
  61. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  62. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/5/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  63. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  64.  
  65. </content><updated>2025-05-14T18:25:49Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, may 1, 2025</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2025/5/1"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2025/5/1</id><content type="html">
  66.  
  67. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, may 1, 2025&lt;/h1&gt;
  68.  
  69. &lt;p&gt;&#34;nothing gets you high like it used to&#34;&lt;/p&gt;
  70.  
  71. &lt;p&gt;i remember that conversation like it&lt;br /&gt;
  72. just happened&lt;br /&gt;
  73. sitting outside the king soopers with casey&lt;br /&gt;
  74. at one of those rickety steel tables&lt;/p&gt;
  75.  
  76. &lt;p&gt;there were ways i hadn&#39;t gotten&lt;br /&gt;
  77. high yet, back then, but&lt;br /&gt;
  78. the observation itself&lt;br /&gt;
  79. has held up well all these&lt;br /&gt;
  80. sixteen years, give or take&lt;/p&gt;
  81.  
  82. &lt;p&gt;better than a lot of&lt;br /&gt;
  83. what i once thought i knew&lt;/p&gt;
  84.  
  85. &lt;p&gt;(better for that matter&lt;br /&gt;
  86. than the knowing of a lot&lt;br /&gt;
  87. i once really did)&lt;/p&gt;
  88.  
  89. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  90. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/&#34; title=&#34;2025&#34;&gt;2025&lt;/a&gt; /
  91. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  92. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/5/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  93. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  94.  
  95. </content><updated>2025-05-03T01:57:33Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, March 24, 2025</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2025/3/24"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2025/3/24</id><content type="html">
  96.  
  97. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, March 24, 2025&lt;/h1&gt;
  98.  
  99. &lt;p&gt;It seems like I have left this thing on, probably against my better judgment.&lt;/p&gt;
  100.  
  101. &lt;p&gt;The last time I posted here was an extended low-value ramble about a
  102. smartwatch, back in December.  I kind of thought that might be the &lt;em&gt;last&lt;/em&gt; last
  103. one before I just turned the server off for good.&lt;/p&gt;
  104.  
  105. &lt;p&gt;I had this idea that I was going to start sending out a snailmail newsletter
  106. instead.  I even collected some addresses.  And, well.  Maybe I&#38;rsquo;ll still do
  107. that.  But it turns out that the basic operations of the United States Postal
  108. Service are among those things I&#38;rsquo;ve taken for granted my entire life that are
  109. now on pretty shaky ground.  I feel a sort of anticipatory sense of futility
  110. and dread creeping into every part of my relationship to the machinery.  It
  111. makes it hard to focus on what I might actually &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  112.  
  113. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve been writing p1k3 since I was a teenager in the 1990s.  Something like 28
  114. years.  A lot has happened in these three decades, stuff I think of as
  115. system-level events, big world-historical shit.  I&#38;rsquo;ve tried more than once to
  116. write things in the mode of tracking or analyzing or confronting something like
  117. that.  Or in the mode of persuading.  The results have rarely been good, and
  118. looking back I&#38;rsquo;m suitably embarrassed.&lt;/p&gt;
  119.  
  120. &lt;p&gt;But then here we are having one god damned system-level event on top of
  121. another.  I haven&#38;rsquo;t been able to look away from the scroll for months now, and
  122. I&#38;rsquo;m pretty sure it&#38;rsquo;s actually killing me.  I&#38;rsquo;m angry and full of loathing.  My
  123. resting heart rate on the smartwatch looks like I&#38;rsquo;m 20 entirely sedentary years
  124. older.  In the evenings I tend to drink and smoke with useless,
  125. instantly-regrettable abandon.  My back hurts all the time from hunching over
  126. my desk.  My eyes are so fuzzed out from the screens that I can barely focus to
  127. read anything by the end of the day.&lt;/p&gt;
  128.  
  129.  
  130. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  131. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/&#34; title=&#34;2025&#34;&gt;2025&lt;/a&gt; /
  132. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  133. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2025/3/24/&#34; title=&#34;24&#34;&gt;24&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  134. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  135.  
  136. </content><updated>2025-06-16T17:17:46Z</updated></entry><entry><title type="html"> Wednesday, December 18, 2024 -  notes on the garmin instinct 2 solar -  table of contents -  background &#38; motivations -  the watch -  case design, fit, appearance, etc. -  display -  power -  durability -  sensors -  compass failures -  software -  on-device interface -  mobile apps, etc. -  gadgetbridge as an alternative -  data syncing -  some implications of this device -  notes for garmin</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2024/12/18"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2024/12/18</id><content type="html">
  137.  
  138. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1 id=&#34;2024/12/18-Wednesday-December-18-2024&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-Wednesday-December-18-2024&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; Wednesday, December 18, 2024&lt;/h1&gt;
  139.  
  140. &lt;h2 id=&#34;2024/12/18-notes-on-the-garmin-instinct-2-solar&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-notes-on-the-garmin-instinct-2-solar&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; notes on the garmin instinct 2 solar&lt;/h2&gt;
  141.  
  142. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;tl;dr:&lt;/strong&gt; These are incomplete notes on the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar, after a
  143. year and a half of regular wear.  The Instinct 2 is a smartwatch, first
  144. released in 2022, that focuses on activity tracking and fitness.  It has 5
  145. buttons and a monochrome non-touch display.  In many ways it feels like one of
  146. the digital watches of yore with a bunch of sensors added.  Unexpectedly, I
  147. find a ton of utility in this device, and on the whole like it more than not.
  148. In line with expectations, I have major qualms about privacy, openness, and
  149. software quality.  Also I’d like better documentation.  If you work at Garmin,
  150. I have some thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;
  151.  
  152. &lt;div class=&#34;details&#34;&gt;
  153.  &lt;h3 class=&#34;clicker&#34; id=&#34;2024/12/18-table-of-contents&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-table-of-contents&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; table of contents&lt;/h3&gt;
  154.  &lt;div class=&#34;full&#34;&gt;
  155.    &lt;div class=&#34;table-of-contents&#34;&gt;&lt;ul id=&#34;2024/12/18-toc&#34;&gt;
  156. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-Wednesday-December-18-2024&#34;&gt;Wednesday, December 18, 2024&lt;/a&gt;
  157. &lt;ul&gt;
  158. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-notes-on-the-garmin-instinct-2-solar&#34;&gt;notes on the garmin instinct 2 solar&lt;/a&gt;
  159. &lt;ul&gt;
  160. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-table-of-contents&#34;&gt;table of contents&lt;/a&gt;
  161. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-background-motivations&#34;&gt;background &#38;amp; motivations&lt;/a&gt;
  162. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-the-watch&#34;&gt;the watch&lt;/a&gt;
  163. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-case-design-fit-appearance-etc-&#34;&gt;case design, fit, appearance, etc.&lt;/a&gt;
  164. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-display&#34;&gt;display&lt;/a&gt;
  165. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-power&#34;&gt;power&lt;/a&gt;
  166. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-durability&#34;&gt;durability&lt;/a&gt;
  167. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-sensors&#34;&gt;sensors&lt;/a&gt;
  168. &lt;ul&gt;
  169. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-compass-failures&#34;&gt;compass failures&lt;/a&gt;
  170. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
  171. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-software&#34;&gt;software&lt;/a&gt;
  172. &lt;ul&gt;
  173. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-on-device-interface&#34;&gt;on-device interface&lt;/a&gt;
  174. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-mobile-apps-etc-&#34;&gt;mobile apps, etc.&lt;/a&gt;
  175. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-gadgetbridge-as-an-alternative&#34;&gt;gadgetbridge as an alternative&lt;/a&gt;
  176. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-data-syncing&#34;&gt;data syncing&lt;/a&gt;
  177. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
  178. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-some-implications-of-this-device&#34;&gt;some implications of this device&lt;/a&gt;
  179. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-notes-for-garmin&#34;&gt;notes for garmin&lt;/a&gt;
  180. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
  181.  &lt;/div&gt;
  182. &lt;/div&gt;
  183.  
  184.  
  185. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-background-motivations&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-background-motivations&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; background &#38;amp; motivations&lt;/h3&gt;
  186.  
  187. &lt;p&gt;I’m in my mid-40s and have had some health scares.  I work a remote desk job,
  188. so sitting at computers is slowly destroying my body and mind.  I don’t “train”
  189. much, but I do go on walks and bike rides, and spend a fair amount of time
  190. outdoors.  I like watches and I wear them regularly, but I’ve been very
  191. resistant to the idea of a smartwatch in the full-on-networked-wrist-computer
  192. sense.  Before the Garmin, I usually wore a Casio G-Shock (chonky old-school
  193. digital) or a Seiko 5 (a basic self-winding mechanical) any time I left the
  194. house.&lt;/p&gt;
  195.  
  196. &lt;p&gt;I wanted to try measuring things like steps, sleep, and heart rate.  For those
  197. purposes, I care more about relative magnitude and direction than absolute
  198. accuracy in numbers:  Are things getting better or worse?  Is something really
  199. anomalous, and does it seem like I’m getting dangerously worn down?  How does
  200. measured sleep and movement line up with subjective well-being?&lt;/p&gt;
  201.  
  202. &lt;p&gt;I’m leery of scorekeeping, metrics, and the quantified self.  On the other
  203. hand, I once owned a bike computer that told me whether I was going faster or
  204. slower than my average.  Paying attention to that made me a much faster rider.
  205. I wanted to experiment with similar feedback loops.&lt;/p&gt;
  206.  
  207. &lt;p&gt;A couple of people I know had a Garmin and liked it.  From reviews and forums,
  208. it seemed like it would &lt;em&gt;mostly&lt;/em&gt; work as a standalone watch without pairing to
  209. the mobile app.  A friend with a technical background had some luck pulling
  210. data off of the watch and said there was free tooling that could at least do
  211. limited things with it.&lt;/p&gt;
  212.  
  213. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-the-watch&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-the-watch&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; the watch&lt;/h3&gt;
  214.  
  215. &lt;p&gt;The Instinct 2 comes in multiple variants: 40mm, 45mm, and 50mm sizes, as well
  216. as standard and solar editions.  There are a handful of color options (mostly
  217. gray or white).  I got the 45mm solar one.  I paid $450 in February of 2023,
  218. but it now lists for $400 and it seems like you can get one for $300 or so on
  219. sale.&lt;/p&gt;
  220.  
  221. &lt;p&gt;I wrote some initial impressions after getting it:&lt;/p&gt;
  222.  
  223. &lt;ul&gt;
  224. &lt;li&gt;It seems well built.&lt;/li&gt;
  225. &lt;li&gt;Button interface isn’t as honed as a Casio product, but also not that bad.&lt;/li&gt;
  226. &lt;li&gt;Face looks decent.&lt;/li&gt;
  227. &lt;li&gt;Garmin Connect is kind of terrible, wants a scary amount of permissions,
  228. wraps a whole SaaS with a login.  I installed and registered an account,
  229. almost immediately uninstalled.&lt;/li&gt;
  230. &lt;li&gt;Step counting seems wildly exaggerated.&lt;/li&gt;
  231. &lt;li&gt;Heart rate’s interesting; very hard to know how accurate.&lt;/li&gt;
  232. &lt;li&gt;You can get at files via USB.  I tried opening an activity track with
  233. GPXSee, it works decently well.  More detailed stuff…  Well, I’m not
  234. sure.&lt;/li&gt;
  235. &lt;/ul&gt;
  236.  
  237.  
  238. &lt;p&gt;The rest of this document is broken into somewhat arbitrary sections.&lt;/p&gt;
  239.  
  240. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-case-design-fit-appearance-etc-&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-case-design-fit-appearance-etc-&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; case design, fit, appearance, etc.&lt;/h3&gt;
  241.  
  242. &lt;p&gt;It’s likely you have seen this watch in the wild.  (If you know anyone who
  243. casually runs marathons or has a favorite Linux distribution, check their
  244. wrist.)  It’s like a lot of models of mid-tier crossover sport utility
  245. vehicles:  Unless you own one, you probably haven’t &lt;em&gt;noticed&lt;/em&gt; it.  On the scale
  246. of ugly digital watches, this barely registers.  The overall vibe here is
  247. “utilitarian in a cargo pants or mildly-uncool running shoes kind of way”.
  248. It’s a bit like something Casio would have made before exaggerated versions of
  249. the G-Shock became a streetware / fashion / collectible thing, but larger, more
  250. rounded, and less 1980s.  I bought this at an REI, and it very much looks like
  251. I bought it at an REI.&lt;/p&gt;
  252.  
  253. &lt;p&gt;This is, to be clear, a chonker of a watch.  It’s big enough to make my Casio
  254. GW-5600J feel streamlined.  My kitchen scale says it weighs 51.5 grams (with
  255. its current strap), which is actually a touch less than the G-Shock or the
  256. Seiko 5, but it’s certainly noticeable on a wrist.&lt;/p&gt;
  257.  
  258. &lt;p&gt;Giant watches are the norm now, so there’s nothing unusual about the size.
  259. That said, I still don’t love it.  It gets stuck under shirt sleeves and jacket
  260. cuffs, and occasionally caught on stuff in the environment.  If I were doing it
  261. over, I might get the 40mm version even at the expense of some battery life.&lt;/p&gt;
  262.  
  263. &lt;p&gt;The band is silicone rubber, stretchy and fairly robust, but it won’t do well
  264. with some chemical exposures (more about that in a later section).&lt;/p&gt;
  265.  
  266. &lt;p&gt;There’s an optical sensor on the back that has to make contact with the wrist
  267. for (at least) heart rate and pulse oximetry, so it won’t take a standard NATO
  268. strap replacement.  That said, the spring bars on the default strap are
  269. extremely beefy and so far I haven’t managed to pop it off my wrist.&lt;/p&gt;
  270.  
  271. &lt;p&gt;I tend to wear other watches loosely enough for them to move a bit on my wrist,
  272. and I think I’m often wearing this one looser than it really wants for the
  273. heart rate sensor to work optimally.  It’s not the most comfortable watch I’ve
  274. ever worn, but I’ve gotten used to it enough that I wear it for large parts of
  275. the day and usually go to bed with it on.&lt;/p&gt;
  276.  
  277. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-display&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-display&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; display&lt;/h3&gt;
  278.  
  279. &lt;p&gt;The display is monochrome, readable in direct sunlight, and has enough
  280. resolution to display little graphs for various sensors.  It compares pretty
  281. favorably to classic LCD watch faces.  This is almost exactly what I want out
  282. of this kind of device.  Highly readable, not visually distracting.&lt;/p&gt;
  283.  
  284. &lt;p&gt;The watch faces can be customized, both at the level of choosing an overall
  285. layout and by selecting individual widgets to display on them.  For a rough
  286. idea of information density, my current watch face is set to show heart rate
  287. with a little graph, local time with seconds, date, step count, time in UTC,
  288. and local sunrise/sunset times.&lt;/p&gt;
  289.  
  290. &lt;p&gt;{a picture could go here}&lt;/p&gt;
  291.  
  292. &lt;p&gt;There’s a backlight that can either be activated with the upper left button, or
  293. set to turn on with a gesture (tilting your wrist to look at the watch,
  294. essentially).  After years of G-Shock use, I expected to prefer the gesture
  295. thing, but it’s aggressive about activating and I kept accidentally lighting it
  296. up in darkened rooms.&lt;/p&gt;
  297.  
  298. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-power&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-power&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; power&lt;/h3&gt;
  299.  
  300. &lt;p&gt;The battery life on this thing is a pleasant surprise.  It will frequently
  301. report remaining life around a month after a fresh charge.  In practice, I wind
  302. up charging it every couple of weeks, although it’d be a lot more often if I
  303. were routinely recording GPS tracks or using the pulse ox feature.&lt;/p&gt;
  304.  
  305. &lt;p&gt;I really like the &lt;em&gt;idea&lt;/em&gt; of the solar charging.  I’m not sure how much
  306. difference it makes in practice, although it seems like if you were stuck
  307. off-grid and put the watch in low-power mode, you could keep it limping along
  308. for quite a while.  This is one of those things that I look for in just about
  309. any class of battery-powered watch despite knowing that it constrains the
  310. search space in fairly limiting ways.  It just seems neat.&lt;/p&gt;
  311.  
  312. &lt;p&gt;Both charging and data transfer are done with a USB cable that plugs into a
  313. connector with 4 exposed pins on the back of the case.  I haven’t found a name
  314. for this, but Garmin apparently uses it on quite a few devices.  Replacement
  315. cables from Garmin seem expensive, although you can get third-party ones that
  316. are reported to work fine.  As a general rule I’m mad about weird proprietary
  317. connectors, but the physical design here is at least defensible on a watch
  318. that’s already plenty big and bound to get wet.  Based on other wearables I’ve
  319. seen lately, this is an area where there ought to be a standard.&lt;/p&gt;
  320.  
  321. &lt;p&gt;{a picture could go here}&lt;/p&gt;
  322.  
  323. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-durability&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-durability&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; durability&lt;/h3&gt;
  324.  
  325. &lt;p&gt;Things I do that seem well within the designed uses of this watch:&lt;/p&gt;
  326.  
  327. &lt;ul&gt;
  328. &lt;li&gt;Wear during most daily activities&lt;/li&gt;
  329. &lt;li&gt;Bike, hike, run, snowshoe, etc.&lt;/li&gt;
  330. &lt;li&gt;Tube and wade in a creek&lt;/li&gt;
  331. &lt;li&gt;Camp&lt;/li&gt;
  332. &lt;li&gt;Garden&lt;/li&gt;
  333. &lt;li&gt;Cook&lt;/li&gt;
  334. &lt;/ul&gt;
  335.  
  336.  
  337. &lt;p&gt;Things I don’t &lt;em&gt;usually&lt;/em&gt; do that might affect its life:&lt;/p&gt;
  338.  
  339. &lt;ul&gt;
  340. &lt;li&gt;Wear it into the shower&lt;/li&gt;
  341. &lt;li&gt;Wear it while painting, staining, sanding, etc.&lt;/li&gt;
  342. &lt;li&gt;Go swimming (I don’t swim, if I did maybe I’d keep the watch on)&lt;/li&gt;
  343. &lt;li&gt;Work for a living (I touch computers most days; fixing cars or building
  344. houses or farming would subject any watch-like object to a lot more
  345. violence)&lt;/li&gt;
  346. &lt;/ul&gt;
  347.  
  348.  
  349. &lt;p&gt;Things I have done that I fully expected to kill the watch:&lt;/p&gt;
  350.  
  351. &lt;ul&gt;
  352. &lt;li&gt;Spill half a gallon of gasoline on it&lt;/li&gt;
  353. &lt;li&gt;Wear it for ~9 days continuously at Burning Man, and during a bunch of
  354. associated prep work and cleanup&lt;/li&gt;
  355. &lt;li&gt;Press quite a few gallons of apple cider from scratch&lt;/li&gt;
  356. &lt;/ul&gt;
  357.  
  358.  
  359. &lt;p&gt;After the gasoline, the original band developed something of an unpleasant,
  360. tacky, returning-to-goo texture and nothing I tried would get the strong gas
  361. odor out of it.  (Additionally, one of the buttons seems more likely to trigger
  362. accidentally now, so I can imagine that a seal or something there was affected.
  363. I’m not aware of any changes to sensor behavior, but it’s possible that
  364. something took damage.)&lt;/p&gt;
  365.  
  366. &lt;p&gt;I tried to order a replacement band directly from Garmin (40 bucks) and they
  367. repeatedly canceled my order for no obvious reason, so I wound up buying a
  368. handful of aftermarket ones from strapsco.com.  These were cheap, but the
  369. quality isn’t great.  Their &lt;a href=&#34;https://strapsco.com/product/fitted-silicone-strap-garmin-instinct/&#34;&gt;“Endurance Strap for Garmin Instinct”&lt;/a&gt;
  370. does approximate the original, with rougher details and slightly worse
  371. materials.&lt;/p&gt;
  372.  
  373. &lt;p&gt;I should be careful to note that taking it to the burn hasn’t killed it &lt;em&gt;yet&lt;/em&gt;.
  374. Playa dust has an ability to stain, clog, infiltrate, and corrode that’s hard
  375. to fully convey, and sometimes things will seem fine only to fail months later.&lt;/p&gt;
  376.  
  377. &lt;p&gt;I haven’t actively set out to destroy this watch, but I also didn’t expect it
  378. to survive this long.  Again, I’m pleasantly surprised.&lt;/p&gt;
  379.  
  380. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-sensors&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-sensors&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; sensors&lt;/h3&gt;
  381.  
  382. &lt;p&gt;There are a bunch of functions on here, including at least:&lt;/p&gt;
  383.  
  384. &lt;ul&gt;
  385. &lt;li&gt;Heartrate&lt;/li&gt;
  386. &lt;li&gt;Sleep tracking&lt;/li&gt;
  387. &lt;li&gt;Thermometer&lt;/li&gt;
  388. &lt;li&gt;Barometer&lt;/li&gt;
  389. &lt;li&gt;Altimeter (via the barometer)&lt;/li&gt;
  390. &lt;li&gt;“Storm detection” (barometer again)&lt;/li&gt;
  391. &lt;li&gt;Compass&lt;/li&gt;
  392. &lt;li&gt;Step tracking&lt;/li&gt;
  393. &lt;li&gt;Pulse ox&lt;/li&gt;
  394. &lt;li&gt;GPS, GLONASS, Galileo&lt;/li&gt;
  395. &lt;li&gt;Solar intensity&lt;/li&gt;
  396. &lt;/ul&gt;
  397.  
  398.  
  399. &lt;p&gt;Of these, the heartrate, sleep, and step counters feel like the most day-to-day
  400. interesting.  Step count seemed high to me at first, but seems mostly in-line
  401. with reality after regular use.  It can be thrown off by motions that aren’t
  402. actually walking, but seems at least directionally correct.&lt;/p&gt;
  403.  
  404. &lt;p&gt;I’m not really sure what to do with the temperature value.  I have a sense of
  405. what ambient air temperature means, and likewise for internal body temperature,
  406. but this sits somewhere awkwardly in between and thus doesn’t feel like it
  407. connects to much.&lt;/p&gt;
  408.  
  409. &lt;p&gt;The storm alerts have become a running joke in my household.  Occasionally one
  410. will fire due to an actual change in the weather, but most of the time it’s an
  411. indicator that we’re driving up or down a mountain or have taken an elevator.&lt;/p&gt;
  412.  
  413. &lt;p&gt;The pulse ox is fiddly, and sometimes reads lower than I’d expect.  I haven’t
  414. checked it against a dedicated device, let alone a known-good medical-grade
  415. one, but I have my suspicions about its utility.&lt;/p&gt;
  416.  
  417. &lt;p&gt;The GPS (and related systems) need a clear view of the sky, but work acceptably
  418. well for recording a track or a point.  This isn’t a standalone navigation
  419. system in the vein of a dedicated GPS or Google Maps on your phone, but it can
  420. record pretty good data for later use and has a basic display for tracks that
  421. could be useful in a pinch.&lt;/p&gt;
  422.  
  423. &lt;h4 id=&#34;2024/12/18-compass-failures&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-compass-failures&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; compass failures&lt;/h4&gt;
  424.  
  425. &lt;p&gt;I had never gotten the standalone compass to give me an accurate reading in
  426. the field, despite repeated attempts at calibration that sometimes seemed to
  427. succeed.  Maybe, I thought, I’m holding it wrong.&lt;/p&gt;
  428.  
  429. &lt;p&gt;Eventually I found &lt;a href=&#34;https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/instinct-2-series/294592/compass-sensor-affected-by-the-springbars?pifragment-1292=4&#34;&gt;a long thread on the Garmin forums&lt;/a&gt; about the
  430. compass being unreliable because the springbars holding the strap on are
  431. sometimes magnetized.&lt;/p&gt;
  432.  
  433. &lt;p&gt;That seems like a pretty basic design flaw.  I’d be a lot more impressed if
  434. Garmin fully owned up to it instead of deflecting and implying user error, but
  435. I have to give them some credit: They mailed me a new set of springbars,
  436. apparently unmagnetized, and the compass now seems to work.  I still don’t
  437. really trust it, given the failure mode, but at least I know what it is.&lt;/p&gt;
  438.  
  439. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-software&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-software&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; software&lt;/h3&gt;
  440.  
  441. &lt;h4 id=&#34;2024/12/18-on-device-interface&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-on-device-interface&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; on-device interface&lt;/h4&gt;
  442.  
  443. &lt;p&gt;This took a little while to get used to.  The controls aren’t placed where I
  444. expected them after decades of Timex and Casio digitals.  Although there are
  445. conventions used throughout, there’s a strong feeling of modality to some of
  446. the basic features that has to be learned, and there’s a “single quick press”
  447. navigation layer as vs. a long press to access things like settings, activity
  448. recording, and timers that wasn’t super clear at first.&lt;/p&gt;
  449.  
  450. &lt;p&gt;These are minor complaints.  A bigger problem is that the whole thing leans a
  451. little too hard on menu diving, and tucks basic features like setting the time
  452. manually behind a weird number of clicks (hold middle left button with the
  453. embossed “MENU” until you get a menu, click down until you hit “System”, click
  454. into “Time”, change “Set Time” to manual, change “Time”).  Sometimes, as when
  455. recording a new activity, you just have to wait for the current mode to take
  456. effect.  You get used to this stuff, and I’m grateful for how much is
  457. accessible directly on the watch, but at least some of the menus could be
  458. streamlined or combined.  A few should clearly be first-class functions in the
  459. main interface.&lt;/p&gt;
  460.  
  461. &lt;p&gt;With all that out of the way, this is good software.  It does an admirable job
  462. providing snapshot visualizations of recent sensor data.  It’s discoverable,
  463. feature-rich, easy to customize, and can be used without pairing the watch to a
  464. phone.&lt;/p&gt;
  465.  
  466. &lt;p&gt;It feels like &lt;em&gt;someone&lt;/em&gt; at Garmin had my Luddite-ass use case in mind.&lt;/p&gt;
  467.  
  468. &lt;p&gt;(There are even some real grace notes: The little carousel menu thing for some
  469. of the utility features, the cheerful “morning report” with its platitudes
  470. about going out and seizing the day that I initially hated but have grown to
  471. feel a certain affection for.  The moon phase and sunrise/sunset times.)&lt;/p&gt;
  472.  
  473. &lt;h4 id=&#34;2024/12/18-mobile-apps-etc-&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-mobile-apps-etc-&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; mobile apps, etc.&lt;/h4&gt;
  474.  
  475. &lt;p&gt;I’ve used other Garmin hardware, so I knew this was not likely to be a strong
  476. point.  As it turns out, you probably need multiple apps to access everything
  477. the watch offers.  On an Android device I &lt;em&gt;think&lt;/em&gt; that means: Garmin Connect
  478. for health monitoring data, Garmin Explore for maps, and Garmin Connect IQ™
  479. Store for installing new apps or watch faces.  Don’t hold me to that, though:
  480. The whole situation is deeply confusing and there’s overlap between what
  481. different apps offer.&lt;/p&gt;
  482.  
  483. &lt;p&gt;The Garmin apps I’ve tried are unified in their mediocrity, and sometimes basic
  484. features like syncing data with the watch just seem to lock up.  The &lt;em&gt;main&lt;/em&gt;
  485. thing about the software, though, is that I absolutely do not trust it.  I
  486. don’t want my location data and health info stored on yet another
  487. poorly-secured corporate cloud, I’m not looking for social features, and I’m
  488. trying not to add more vendor lock-in to my daily life.  I think you can
  489. nominally keep data on-device, but the way the apps require account
  490. creation and a log-in, and how they’re clearly pushing a sharing-by-default
  491. agenda — well, that’s enough for me.&lt;/p&gt;
  492.  
  493. &lt;h4 id=&#34;2024/12/18-gadgetbridge-as-an-alternative&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-gadgetbridge-as-an-alternative&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; gadgetbridge as an alternative&lt;/h4&gt;
  494.  
  495. &lt;p&gt;I did try Garmin Connect for about a month out of curiosity.  There were three
  496. things I wound up missing when I uninstalled it:&lt;/p&gt;
  497.  
  498. &lt;ul&gt;
  499. &lt;li&gt;The “find my phone” feature.  A godsend.  I bet I’ve used this twice a week
  500. since noticing it.&lt;/li&gt;
  501. &lt;li&gt;Messaging alerts. I didn’t think I’d care about this at all, but it saves
  502. &lt;em&gt;so many&lt;/em&gt; direct interactions with the phone.&lt;/li&gt;
  503. &lt;li&gt;Automatic setting of the time (when it works).  You wouldn’t think this
  504. would stand out as a problem, but see above re: menu diving.&lt;/li&gt;
  505. &lt;/ul&gt;
  506.  
  507.  
  508. &lt;p&gt;I am thus forced to admit that a watch-shaped object as a sidecar device for a
  509. phone has useful properties.&lt;/p&gt;
  510.  
  511. &lt;p&gt;So, I guess the actually-maintained, local-only FOSS thing for this is
  512. Gadgetbridge.  I had to install it via F-Droid.  I won’t oversell this.  It is
  513. the kind of hobbyist project that you probably expect.  It contains some jank,
  514. it definitely doesn’t do everything, and installation requires that you trust a
  515. different third party.  That said, it took care of my desired features.  Phone
  516. finding and time setting actually seem to work better than with the official
  517. apps.&lt;/p&gt;
  518.  
  519. &lt;h4 id=&#34;2024/12/18-data-syncing&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-data-syncing&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; data syncing&lt;/h4&gt;
  520.  
  521. &lt;p&gt;You can plug this thing into a USB port, mount it as a drive, and pull data off
  522. in file formats that are at least somewhat documented.  This feels like the bare
  523. minimum, but it’s better than nothing and does at least a little to future-proof
  524. using this for data collection, route mapping, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
  525.  
  526. &lt;p&gt;People have built tooling around Garmin’s formats, albeit not with the features
  527. of the official apps.  See for example &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gpxsee.org/&#34;&gt;GPXSee&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  528.  
  529. &lt;p&gt;I haven’t really gone down this particular rabbithole yet.  It might or might
  530. not reward the effort.&lt;/p&gt;
  531.  
  532. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-some-implications-of-this-device&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-some-implications-of-this-device&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; some implications of this device&lt;/h3&gt;
  533.  
  534. &lt;p&gt;In no particular order:&lt;/p&gt;
  535.  
  536. &lt;ul&gt;
  537. &lt;li&gt;Yeah, ok, so watch-shaped wrist computers are &lt;em&gt;useful&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  538. &lt;li&gt;It feels like a safe bet there are going to be more and more smartwatches.
  539. It’s less clear whether this &lt;em&gt;kind&lt;/em&gt; of watch-shaped wrist computer will
  540. remain widely available, or if it’s a temporary aberration.&lt;/li&gt;
  541. &lt;li&gt;Insurance companies have got to be just losing their minds over the
  542. possibilities for doing evil shit with data like this.&lt;/li&gt;
  543. &lt;li&gt;Having this linked to a phone is useful.  Unfortunately, it also means having
  544. one more bluetooth gadget to be tracked by basically all of the
  545. other phones in the world.&lt;/li&gt;
  546. &lt;li&gt;This feels pretty durable, and I’m impressed at how it’s held up.  But is it
  547. repairable when it breaks?  Will it last a decade or more?  I have my doubts.
  548. The amount of watch hardware going into landfills by now must be pretty
  549. staggering.&lt;/li&gt;
  550. &lt;/ul&gt;
  551.  
  552.  
  553. &lt;h3 id=&#34;2024/12/18-notes-for-garmin&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2024/12/18#2024/12/18-notes-for-garmin&#34;&gt;#&lt;/a&gt; notes for garmin&lt;/h3&gt;
  554.  
  555. &lt;p&gt;You’re so very close on this one, and I think by extension probably other
  556. chunks of your ecosystem.&lt;/p&gt;
  557.  
  558. &lt;p&gt;The watch itself is Pretty Good, and as a system it &lt;em&gt;almost&lt;/em&gt; respects the
  559. agency of a user who doesn’t want a trust relationship with your telemetry and
  560. databases.  Why not offer a product that fully and deliberately respects that
  561. user?&lt;/p&gt;
  562.  
  563. &lt;p&gt;“Trust us!” is the default posture of any entity in the position of hoovering
  564. up and retaining user data.  As consumers of self-surveillance devices that
  565. phone home to corporate servers, we’re meant to assume both &lt;em&gt;benevolence&lt;/em&gt; (or
  566. at least a lack of active malice) and &lt;em&gt;competence&lt;/em&gt;.  Nothing in the history of
  567. our experience with companies who run databases supports either of those
  568. assumptions.  No company is (or stays, over time) good enough in an ethical
  569. sense to avoid doing malign things with user data.  No company is (or stays,
  570. over time) good enough in a technical sense to avoid having data stolen.&lt;/p&gt;
  571.  
  572. &lt;p&gt;What if you provided local-first tools for working with the data, opened up the
  573. code, supported more community efforts, tried harder to define stable APIs and
  574. data formats?&lt;/p&gt;
  575.  
  576. &lt;p&gt;I won’t belabor the point.&lt;/p&gt;
  577.  
  578.  
  579.  
  580. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/garmin&#34;&gt;garmin&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/watches&#34;&gt;watches&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  581. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2024/&#34; title=&#34;2024&#34;&gt;2024&lt;/a&gt; /
  582. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2024/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  583. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2024/12/18/&#34; title=&#34;18&#34;&gt;18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  584. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  585.  
  586. </content><updated>2024-12-19T07:50:45Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Thursday, January 11, 2024 - a concise theory of notes about notes</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2024/1/11"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2024/1/11</id><content type="html">
  587.  
  588. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Thursday, January 11, 2024&lt;/h1&gt;
  589.  
  590. &lt;h2&gt;a concise theory of notes about notes&lt;/h2&gt;
  591.  
  592. &lt;p&gt;Previously:&lt;/p&gt;
  593.  
  594. &lt;ul&gt;
  595. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes-on-notes/&#34;&gt;notes on notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  596. &lt;li&gt;2020: &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/20/&#34;&gt;meta meta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  597. &lt;li&gt;2020: &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/7/27&#34;&gt;the zettelkasten / the zeitgeist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  598. &lt;/ul&gt;
  599.  
  600.  
  601. &lt;p&gt;I came across an argument about what exactly makes something a zettelkasten,
  602. and then thought: &#38;ldquo;Zettelkasten&#38;rdquo; is a pretty great example of how one of
  603. the best ways to fuck up a neat idea is to have a bunch of people get really
  604. excited about it.&lt;/p&gt;
  605.  
  606. &lt;p&gt;Taking notes is one of those things in the unfortunate position of being:&lt;/p&gt;
  607.  
  608. &lt;ol&gt;
  609. &lt;li&gt; Surprisingly deep as a subject&lt;/li&gt;
  610. &lt;li&gt; Capable of being focused back on itself&lt;/li&gt;
  611. &lt;/ol&gt;
  612.  
  613.  
  614. &lt;p&gt;I guess nearly any practice can disappear up its own asshole under the right
  615. conditions, but some are extraordinarily susceptible.&lt;/p&gt;
  616.  
  617. &lt;p&gt;That&#38;rsquo;s my working model of what happens.  If you can say a lot about something,
  618. and you can use the something to say it, well, watch yourself.  You might just
  619. be teetering on the edge of the pit.  People should get a warning about the
  620. risks of this drilled into them right around the age they&#38;rsquo;re ready for
  621. something like &lt;em&gt;The Neverending Story&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;The Princess Bride&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  622.  
  623. &lt;p&gt;This post is mostly just the short version of &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/5/20&#34;&gt;meta meta&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  624.  
  625.  
  626.  
  627. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes&#34;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes-on-notes&#34;&gt;notes-on-notes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/writing&#34;&gt;writing&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/zettelkasten&#34;&gt;zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  628. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2024/&#34; title=&#34;2024&#34;&gt;2024&lt;/a&gt; /
  629. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2024/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  630. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2024/1/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  631. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  632.  
  633. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, december 14, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/12/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/12/14</id><content type="html">
  634.  
  635. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, december 14, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  636.  
  637. &lt;p&gt;it&#39;s december&lt;br /&gt;
  638. and that old hollow feeling&lt;br /&gt;
  639. biding something holy&lt;br /&gt;
  640. or forgotten, reappearing&lt;/p&gt;
  641.  
  642.  
  643. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  644. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  645. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  646. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/12/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  647. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  648.  
  649. </content><updated>2024-01-12T19:22:02Z</updated></entry><entry><title type="html">Wednesday, November 15, 2023 - reading: more patrick o&#39;brian</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/11/15"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/11/15</id><content type="html">
  650.  
  651. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, November 15, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  652.  
  653. &lt;h2&gt;reading: more patrick o&#39;brian&lt;/h2&gt;
  654.  
  655. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Previously: &lt;a href=&#34;/2018/1/18&#34;&gt;reading: master and commander&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  656.  
  657. &lt;p&gt;After thinking for a while that I should pick up more of this series
  658. (apparently for &lt;em&gt;five years&lt;/em&gt;), I bought copies of the following:&lt;/p&gt;
  659.  
  660. &lt;ul&gt;
  661. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Post Captain&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  662. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;H.M.S. Surprise&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  663. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Mauritius Command&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  664. &lt;/ul&gt;
  665.  
  666.  
  667. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m through the first two and about halfway into &lt;em&gt;The Mauritius Command&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  668.  
  669. &lt;p&gt;These remain really strange and wonderful books.  They cycle through subtle
  670. and complicated human relationships, absurdly specific sailing nerdery, comedy,
  671. tragedy, violence, the machinery of empire.&lt;/p&gt;
  672.  
  673. &lt;p&gt;Every bit worth the time, so far.&lt;/p&gt;
  674.  
  675.  
  676.  
  677. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  678. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  679. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  680. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/11/15/&#34; title=&#34;15&#34;&gt;15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  681. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  682.  
  683. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, November 14, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/11/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/11/14</id><content type="html">
  684.  
  685. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, November 14, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  686.  
  687. &lt;p&gt;A windy day. The leaves clattering down out of trees surprisingly late.  The
  688. sun down behind the hills by 4pm.  The cat dissatisfied.&lt;/p&gt;
  689.  
  690.  
  691.  
  692. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  693. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  694. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  695. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/11/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  696. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  697.  
  698. </content><updated>2023-11-28T04:52:21Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, August 13, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/8/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/8/13</id><content type="html">
  699.  
  700. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, August 13, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  701.  
  702. &lt;p&gt;I revisit this thought:&lt;/p&gt;
  703.  
  704. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;the ironies of a bunch of hyperliterates using a giant text machine to
  705. bootstrap text into a thing that exceeds the bounds of comprehension and then
  706. totally overwhelms all the tools of literacy itself&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  707.  
  708. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve spent most of my life enmeshed in language, with words as my main power,
  709. and also a lot of time dwelling on the insufficiency of language to what life
  710. is really like.  These days the latter sometimes feels like the &lt;em&gt;main thing&lt;/em&gt;
  711. about words.  Or at least the main thing about the dominant culture of words,
  712. the technology and system of them.&lt;/p&gt;
  713.  
  714. &lt;p&gt;The tools of literacy &#38;mdash; I don&#38;rsquo;t exactly mean to run them down.  We just live
  715. in a time when, for whole classes of human, a kind of hypertrophied literacy
  716. has enmeshed and eclipsed the experience of reality.  This isn&#38;rsquo;t so much &lt;em&gt;new&lt;/em&gt;
  717. as it&#38;rsquo;s just newly vast, encompassing, interconnected.  The language machine is
  718. so big, so ramified, that the sheer &lt;em&gt;mathematical accumulation&lt;/em&gt; of its products
  719. now feeds deafening oceans of noise back into the workings.  Whether by this I
  720. mean the outputs of machine learning or the behavior of a few billion minds
  721. over-saturated with internet bullshit:  I&#38;rsquo;m not sure it even matters.&lt;/p&gt;
  722.  
  723. &lt;p&gt;We&#38;rsquo;ve all had our part in building this, and you can get endlessly meta about
  724. the endless meta of it, which is part of how it exceeds the bounds of
  725. comprehension.  All of that is&#38;hellip;  Not really how I want to spend my time.  I don&#38;rsquo;t
  726. have any grand thesis here, or at least I don&#38;rsquo;t have any grand &lt;em&gt;prescription&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  727.  
  728. &lt;p&gt;There was a time when I was a big word fish in a small word pond, I guess.
  729. Somewhere along the way the contemporary internet happened and also I got a job
  730. where being a big word fish was a basic prerequisite.  Circa now: Sweet Christ
  731. am I ever weary of paragraphs.  There&#38;rsquo;s something useful in knowing that, if I
  732. don&#38;rsquo;t chase my own tail about it too much.&lt;/p&gt;
  733.  
  734.  
  735. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  736. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  737. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt; /
  738. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/8/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  739. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  740.  
  741. </content><updated>2023-10-10T01:41:11Z</updated></entry><entry><title>tuesday, august  1, 2023 - one for jack</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/8/1"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/8/1</id><content type="html">
  742.  
  743. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;tuesday, august  1, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  744.  
  745. &lt;h2&gt;one for jack&lt;/h2&gt;
  746.  
  747. &lt;p&gt;here we are in one of those times of dying&lt;br /&gt;
  748. and i&#39;m fucked if i know what to do&lt;br /&gt;
  749. i&#39;ve never known, i likely never will&lt;/p&gt;
  750.  
  751. &lt;p&gt;it was so dark at 5 o&#39;clock that the streetlight came on&lt;br /&gt;
  752. in the alley out back, and i started flicking switches&lt;br /&gt;
  753. on the lamps&lt;/p&gt;
  754.  
  755. &lt;p&gt;water poured through the kitchen window when it rained&lt;br /&gt;
  756. and i got one of those fancy new reverse 911 calls&lt;br /&gt;
  757. about the flash flood warning&lt;br /&gt;
  758. and now in the aftermath&lt;br /&gt;
  759. the mice in the walls are more agitated than usual&lt;br /&gt;
  760. i suppose they may have gotten wet&lt;/p&gt;
  761.  
  762. &lt;p&gt;now the storm has shuffled off east, and&lt;br /&gt;
  763. there&#39;s a thin mist rising off the streets&lt;br /&gt;
  764. and i&#39;m on the couch, drinking iced whiskey and orange soda&lt;br /&gt;
  765. out of an aluminum camp mug&lt;/p&gt;
  766.  
  767. &lt;p&gt;i should kill the mice in the walls&lt;br /&gt;
  768. (god damn them, i don&#39;t want to kill anything at all)&lt;br /&gt;
  769. i should fix the windows&lt;br /&gt;
  770. i should muck the rainwater out of the crawlspace&lt;br /&gt;
  771. i should be stone sober, waiting for what comes next&lt;/p&gt;
  772.  
  773. &lt;p&gt;but it&#39;s true enough:&lt;br /&gt;
  774. the times you should be most in your right mind&lt;br /&gt;
  775. are often the times you least want to be in that&lt;br /&gt;
  776. mind at all.&lt;/p&gt;
  777.  
  778. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  779. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  780. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt; /
  781. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/8/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  782. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  783.  
  784. </content><updated>2023-08-02T02:50:20Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, July 10, 2023 - recent fiction intake, first half of 2023 edition</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/7/10"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/7/10</id><content type="html">
  785.  
  786. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, July 10, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  787.  
  788. &lt;h2&gt;recent fiction intake, first half of 2023 edition&lt;/h2&gt;
  789.  
  790. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Gilligan&#38;rsquo;s Island&lt;/em&gt;, the first (mumble) episodes or so on DVD while killing
  791. time in a ski town (I don&#38;rsquo;t ski).  I had only ever caught smatterings of this
  792. back in the era of teevee re-runs.  It&#38;rsquo;s often kind of charming and also
  793. periodically extremely racist, which I guess maybe sums up a lot of
  794. mid-20th-century American television.&lt;/p&gt;
  795.  
  796. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Reservation Dogs&lt;/em&gt;, season 2.  I think this show might be about as good as TV
  797. has ever gotten.&lt;/p&gt;
  798.  
  799. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;A Prayer for the Crown Shy&lt;/em&gt;, Becky Chambers.  A &lt;em&gt;Monk &#38;amp; Robot&lt;/em&gt; book.  I like
  800. these, they&#38;rsquo;re enjoyable, but if I&#38;rsquo;m honest they feel pretty slight compared to
  801. the &lt;em&gt;Wayfarers&lt;/em&gt; books.  Intentional I&#38;rsquo;m sure.  A fine way to spend an evening
  802. without dwelling on the numbing horror of the actual world, but they don&#38;rsquo;t
  803. stick in my head all that much.&lt;/p&gt;
  804.  
  805. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Wednesday&lt;/em&gt;, Netflix.  This could have been good.  There&#38;rsquo;s a lot of talent
  806. involved, it&#38;rsquo;s (mostly) well cast, it&#38;rsquo;s often very pretty, the costuming is a
  807. delight, and the writing is&#38;hellip; Ok, first of all, why are they doing a &lt;em&gt;Harry
  808. Potter&lt;/em&gt;?  Second, why does Wednesday need to learn about the power of
  809. friendship?  Why does she just kind of suck as a character, despite Jenna
  810. Ortega&#38;rsquo;s completely dialed-in inhabiting of the part?  Why does the overall
  811. mode of this thing undermine all the appealing aspects of the Addams Family
  812. material it&#38;rsquo;s drawing on?&lt;/p&gt;
  813.  
  814. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Letterkenny&lt;/em&gt;.  We&#38;rsquo;re kind of always watching this.&lt;/p&gt;
  815.  
  816. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Avatar: The Way of Water&lt;/em&gt;.  You know what, I smoked a bowl in the parking lot
  817. before the movie, and I had a blast.  It&#38;rsquo;s gorgeous.  It&#38;rsquo;s the first time I&#38;rsquo;ve
  818. felt anything more than polite indifference about a 3D glasses kind of
  819. experience.  Also, at this late date, and thinking back on &lt;em&gt;Titanic&lt;/em&gt; (a movie
  820. which came out so long ago that I saw it on a youth group trip to a mall
  821. theater) I kind of enjoy the meta of &#38;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;this&lt;/em&gt; very expensive James Cameron movie
  822. is totally gonna bomb so hard you guys, just wait&#38;rdquo;.  Many criticisms of the
  823. basic ideas and form of these movies are valid, and also I am still waiting to
  824. hear that Cameron has cut Alan Dean Foster a very, very large check.&lt;/p&gt;
  825.  
  826. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Lincoln Lawyer&lt;/em&gt;, Netflix.  My girlfriend was out of town.  I was looking
  827. for something to watch with the cat while I sat on the couch and wrote shitty
  828. code on my laptop.  It was Fine.  They draw it out a bit too much.  The whole
  829. plot with the tech mogul&#38;hellip;  Ehhhh.  The main guy is implausibly good and
  830. decent.  It&#38;rsquo;s sort of pleasantly low-key.  It delivers a couple of really good
  831. lines.  This is airport novel material but sometimes you just want airport
  832. novel material.&lt;/p&gt;
  833.  
  834. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Point Break&lt;/em&gt;.  It had been so long since I saw this.  It&#38;rsquo;s way more over the
  835. top than I remembered.  &#38;ldquo;Quit being in the FBI and go surfing but maybe don&#38;rsquo;t
  836. rob banks in a murdery way&#38;rdquo; is a reasonable stance.  If this movie has a
  837. stance.&lt;/p&gt;
  838.  
  839. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Supernatural&lt;/em&gt;.  A procedural ghost murder thing with stupid but surprisingly
  840. consistent rules?  &lt;em&gt;The X-Files&lt;/em&gt; by way of &lt;em&gt;Buffy the Vampire Slayer&lt;/em&gt;?  I
  841. dunno.  We&#38;rsquo;re a couple seasons in.  This show is completely absurd, and
  842. intermittently flat-out appalling, but if I&#38;rsquo;m honest it&#38;rsquo;s grown on me.
  843. Better-crafted than it has to be, and whoever does the visual effects knows
  844. what they&#38;rsquo;re about.  More overt about its religious preoccupations than I
  845. usually expect.  Weirdly obsessed with quirky vintage motel room interiors.
  846. Too much of the thing where the main characters yell at each other about the
  847. same stuff over and over again.  Like many of its genre cousins, I suspect this
  848. works best as an anthology series with a frame of loose continuity and some
  849. recurring secondary characters, and kind of hope it won&#38;rsquo;t get eaten by the Big
  850. Plot stuff as it goes along.  But then also, holy shit, there are somehow &lt;em&gt;15
  851. seasons&lt;/em&gt; of this?&lt;/p&gt;
  852.  
  853. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ronin&lt;/em&gt;.  I had never actually seen this.  The car chases &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; legit.&lt;/p&gt;
  854.  
  855. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Witcher: Sword of Destiny&lt;/em&gt;.  We watched the Netflix show.  I liked it
  856. despite not being that into all the violence and only knowing what was going on
  857. maybe half of the time.  I&#38;rsquo;ve been reading some of the story / book stuff.  I
  858. expected it to be easier to follow the overall plot of the books than the show,
  859. and I was wrong.  On the whole, this is derivative schlock in a very uneven set
  860. of translations, and it&#38;rsquo;s frequently pretty sexist, but it&#38;rsquo;s also&#38;hellip;  Kind of
  861. appealing and humane in an unexpected way?&lt;/p&gt;
  862.  
  863. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lucifer&lt;/em&gt;, Netflix.  I was home alone again.  I wanted pulpy and ignorable.
  864. &#38;ldquo;The literal devil runs a nightclub&#38;rdquo; is one thing as a setup, &#38;ldquo;Lucifer uses his
  865. oddly-limited and very specific powers to help the LAPD solve crimes and it&#38;rsquo;s
  866. kind of basically &lt;em&gt;Castle&lt;/em&gt;&#38;rdquo; is another.  It has its moments, but I&#38;rsquo;m not sure
  867. I&#38;rsquo;m overly motivated here.  It&#38;rsquo;s a little too standard network murder
  868. procedural with hot cops.  The cat was indifferent.&lt;/p&gt;
  869.  
  870. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Name of the Wind&lt;/em&gt;, Patrick Rothfuss.  A couple of trusted friends have
  871. recommended this as something special, and they were right.  That rare big slab
  872. of fantasy that felt like something new despite a lot of familiar genre
  873. furniture (with hyper-competent protagonist in a school setting).  I am
  874. somewhat wishing my trusted friends had mentioned that there&#38;rsquo;s a second book
  875. but not yet (or maybe ever) a third.  I&#38;rsquo;ll probably read the second one anyway.&lt;/p&gt;
  876.  
  877. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves&lt;/em&gt;.  This was great.  A well-resourced
  878. action fantasy where the action and the fantasy are both good and the story is
  879. constrained enough to make for an entertaining, self-contained film with
  880. relatable stakes.  Actually funny.  Visually appealing in a way that&#38;rsquo;s
  881. meaningfully distinct from the standard visual language of fantasy movies circa
  882. now, which is kind of amazing for a product of a media empire that I&#38;rsquo;ve always
  883. thought of as deriving entirely from a slurry of standard fantasy components.
  884. There&#38;rsquo;s a straightforward lesson here that I very much doubt the movie
  885. machinery on the whole is prepared to learn, which is &lt;em&gt;go smaller&lt;/em&gt;.  (Even when
  886. you&#38;rsquo;re going big.)  Also: Jarnathan.  More bird guys, please.&lt;/p&gt;
  887.  
  888. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse&lt;/em&gt;.  This was also great.  I&#38;rsquo;m full up on
  889. superhero material in the general case, but this really stands out.
  890. The maximalist, meta-textual multiverse thing is probably getting worn out
  891. fast, but here it works and has things to say.  If you&#38;rsquo;ve seen it or aren&#38;rsquo;t
  892. worried about spoilers, I recommend Eric&#38;rsquo;s
  893. &lt;a href=&#34;https://ericsipple.com/superheroes-miles-morales-and-the-fallacy-of-hard-choices/&#34;&gt;Superheroes, Miles Morales, and the Fallacy of Hard Choices&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  894.  
  895. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Priscilla Queen of the Desert&lt;/em&gt;.  Flawed, I think, but kind of an amazing movie
  896. in ways I wasn&#38;rsquo;t expecting.&lt;/p&gt;
  897.  
  898. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;What We Do in the Shadows&lt;/em&gt; (tv show version).  I guess we&#38;rsquo;re a couple of
  899. seasons behind?  Somewhere along the way this kind of devolved into a mishmash
  900. of its constituent parts and characters doing stuff in a way that suggests it
  901. probably should have wrapped things up a while ago, but at the same time it&#38;rsquo;s
  902. still a pleasant enough diversion with individually funny bits.&lt;/p&gt;
  903.  
  904. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Bear&lt;/em&gt;, season 1.  I was iffy on this at the start, because I&#38;rsquo;m weary of
  905. &#38;ldquo;people yell fruitlessly at each other&#38;rdquo; as a driving mechanic and stories about
  906. the aftermath of suicide are hard even (or maybe especially) when they&#38;rsquo;re done
  907. well (see also &lt;em&gt;Reservation Dogs&lt;/em&gt;).  On the other hand, I&#38;rsquo;m a sucker for
  908. workplace stuff.  Anyway, it&#38;rsquo;s good.  The second-to-last episode of the season
  909. is a basically perfect chunk of shit-hitting-the-fan chaos.&lt;/p&gt;
  910.  
  911. &lt;p&gt;(Did I read a sentence like that last one somewhere else about this show?
  912. &lt;em&gt;Probably&lt;/em&gt;.  I&#38;rsquo;m not sure I&#38;rsquo;m even capable of original thoughts or phrases at
  913. this stage of the game.)&lt;/p&gt;
  914.  
  915.  
  916.  
  917. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/watching&#34;&gt;watching&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  918. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  919. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  920. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/7/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  921. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  922.  
  923. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, July  7, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/7/7"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/7/7</id><content type="html">
  924.  
  925. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, July  7, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  926.  
  927. &lt;p&gt;A thought I posted elsewhere not so long ago:&lt;/p&gt;
  928.  
  929. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;the ironies of a bunch of hyperliterates using a giant text machine to
  930. bootstrap text into a thing that exceeds the bounds of comprehension and then
  931. totally overwhelms all the tools of literacy itself&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  932.  
  933.  
  934.  
  935. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  936. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  937. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  938. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/7/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  939. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  940.  
  941. </content><updated>2023-08-09T04:48:16Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Thursday, June 29, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/6/29"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/6/29</id><content type="html">
  942.  
  943. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Thursday, June 29, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  944.  
  945. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s Thursday afternoon.  I&#38;rsquo;m sitting outside, on an otherwise-deserted stone
  946. patio, under an umbrella, drinking my second lager of the afternoon.  Motorized
  947. tourist traffic pulses through the 25mph zone at a steady 30 or 40mph, with an
  948. occasional outlier in a Tesla or a lifted truck or a very clean late model Jeep
  949. pushing it closer to 50 just to drive home the impression that its occupants
  950. feel very important and would not really mind killing a pedestrian all that
  951. much.&lt;/p&gt;
  952.  
  953. &lt;p&gt;Some guy just went past hauling a no-shit speedboat all decked out in giant
  954. chrome exhaust pipes, which confuses me on a couple of levels.  Where are you
  955. going?  What are you possibly going to do with that thing when you get there?
  956. I&#38;rsquo;m sure there&#38;rsquo;s a place for it somewhere around here, albeit one that hinges
  957. on a great deal of engineering and the expressed whims of a wealthy population
  958. who should never have moved so far from naturally occurring bodies of navigable
  959. water.  It&#38;rsquo;s just a striking discongruity in this arid expanse of grass, small
  960. cactus, prairie dogs, tiny rivers, looming mountains.&lt;/p&gt;
  961.  
  962. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s been warm for a week now, but there are storms in the forecast and the
  963. hills are still an unlikely green.  &lt;em&gt;Elsewhere&lt;/em&gt; in the States, a
  964. record-shattering heat wave is going into weeks of duration, at least.&lt;/p&gt;
  965.  
  966.  
  967. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  968. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  969. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  970. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/6/29/&#34; title=&#34;29&#34;&gt;29&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  971. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  972.  
  973. </content><updated>2023-07-07T14:40:27Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, June 27, 2023 - a thing, falling apart</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/6/27"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/6/27</id><content type="html">
  974.  
  975. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, June 27, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  976.  
  977. &lt;h2&gt;a thing, falling apart&lt;/h2&gt;
  978.  
  979. &lt;p&gt;(Context: American west, Great Plains, midwest.)&lt;/p&gt;
  980.  
  981. &lt;p&gt;Here&#38;rsquo;s something I notice:  Buying a fast food hamburger is borderline
  982. impossible a lot of places.&lt;/p&gt;
  983.  
  984. &lt;p&gt;You walk into let&#38;rsquo;s say a McDonalds situated at an interstate exit.  There are
  985. giant touch-screen kiosks you&#38;rsquo;re supposed to order from, but even if they&#38;rsquo;re
  986. turned on they don&#38;rsquo;t really work.  No one is at the counter, although if you
  987. wait long enough a teenager who doesn&#38;rsquo;t know how to work the register may
  988. appear.  Don&#38;rsquo;t try to spend cash; it will snarl the transaction.  (Unless the
  989. card reader is down, in which case you will have no choice, but the transaction
  990. will still be snarled.)  Wait longer and you may get food, if not exactly the
  991. food you ordered.  Odds are it will be grimly inedible:  Appalling even by the
  992. standards of early 21st century American franchise burger joints and quite
  993. possibly unsafe to eat.&lt;/p&gt;
  994.  
  995. &lt;p&gt;I hold no brief for the American chain fast food restaurant, but
  996. there&#38;rsquo;s something unsettling about this experience.  Like a kind of implicit
  997. contract has come unraveled.&lt;/p&gt;
  998.  
  999. &lt;p&gt;You expected that these institutions were, at root, evil.  You knew that they
  1000. abused animal life, the environment, the labor pool, and the economy as a whole
  1001. to deliver a product which was harmful to its consumers.  On the other hand,
  1002. you had a feeling that they were &lt;em&gt;functional&lt;/em&gt;.  Whatever the externalities,
  1003. they &lt;em&gt;worked&lt;/em&gt; in a sense that would be recognized both by a person in a minivan
  1004. at a drive-thru window and a stockholder in an evil megacorporation.&lt;/p&gt;
  1005.  
  1006. &lt;p&gt;You would be somewhere that might well be a food desert and you would need
  1007. calories.  A local outcropping of an efficient corporate machine organized &#38;mdash;
  1008. ruthlessly and immorally &#38;mdash; by competent people would take some of your money
  1009. and give you a paper bag full of food-shaped objects in exchange.&lt;/p&gt;
  1010.  
  1011. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m a pragmatist about roadtrip utility, and I have spent a substantial part of
  1012. my life on highways, subsisting on trash from chains and truck stops.  Still, I
  1013. didn&#38;rsquo;t quite realize how fundamental this system seemed until I found it in
  1014. tatters with a carload of sobbing toddlers and exhausted, sleep-deprived
  1015. 30-somethings in tow.&lt;/p&gt;
  1016.  
  1017.  
  1018.  
  1019.  
  1020. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/food&#34;&gt;food&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/systems&#34;&gt;systems&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/travel&#34;&gt;travel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1021. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  1022. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  1023. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/6/27/&#34; title=&#34;27&#34;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1024. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1025.  
  1026. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, June 14, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/6/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/6/14</id><content type="html">
  1027.  
  1028. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, June 14, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  1029.  
  1030. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s midway through a rainy, stormy, cool and clouded June.  The river&#38;rsquo;s up,
  1031. frothing in a usually-sedate channel.  I just pulled a load of laundry off the
  1032. line outside, wetter than when I hung it up three days ago, and scattered it
  1033. over surfaces inside the house before it could get rained on again.&lt;/p&gt;
  1034.  
  1035. &lt;p&gt;My garden is yellowing in the moisture and filtered light, battered by hail.
  1036. We left town for a few days and the grass tripled in height.  Our negligence in
  1037. mowing has tiny bees zipping around wildflowers we didn&#38;rsquo;t know were growing.
  1038. Green-white flower spiders hide atop the chives.  Two days in a row:  A double
  1039. handful of strawberries, vivid standouts in a bed half consumed by grass,
  1040. bindweed, and runaway oregano.&lt;/p&gt;
  1041.  
  1042. &lt;p&gt;There were grim levels of smoke, for a while, and then it drifted east.  A
  1043. round of those &#38;ldquo;[city] has among worst air quality in the world&#38;rdquo; headlines.  I
  1044. expect there to be smoke again before long.  Canada is still burning, after
  1045. all, and it&#38;rsquo;s only June.  There&#38;rsquo;s allergy-generating pollen now.  Not as bad as
  1046. some years, worse than others.  I can breathe, a lot of the time.  My eyes itch
  1047. but they aren&#38;rsquo;t streaming yet, or burning so much that I just have to close
  1048. them and lay down.&lt;/p&gt;
  1049.  
  1050. &lt;p&gt;I feel like I&#38;rsquo;m suspended for a moment between things that will force me to
  1051. hide indoors, only half-able to think, my whole self just rendered useless by
  1052. one irritant or another.  Part of this I&#38;rsquo;m sure is just the faltering strength
  1053. of being 40-something rather than 30-something.  The shift in my relative
  1054. position with respect to infirmity, the limits of the self and the system it
  1055. inhabits, mortality.  But then part of it feels like something that&#38;rsquo;s changed
  1056. about the world.  I suppose because it is.&lt;/p&gt;
  1057.  
  1058.  
  1059. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1060. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  1061. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  1062. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/6/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1063. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1064.  
  1065. </content><updated>2023-06-27T06:02:26Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, April 14, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/4/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/4/14</id><content type="html">
  1066.  
  1067. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, April 14, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  1068.  
  1069. &lt;p&gt;The end of this month will make 26 (twenty six) years of this.  I posted here
  1070. 13 times last year.  A low number.  It included this one about &lt;a href=&#34;/2022/2/21&#34;&gt;not blogging
  1071. much&lt;/a&gt;, so I won&#38;rsquo;t bother to repeat it so soon.  The state of things
  1072. is just, you know, all of that but more.  Enough more that I go around
  1073. muttering to myself about how quantity is a type of quality.&lt;/p&gt;
  1074.  
  1075. &lt;p&gt;Sometimes I feel a sense of vertigo, a sense of the world tilting.  Sometimes
  1076. it&#38;rsquo;s just one thing that does it.  Something big that changes on the horizon,
  1077. or something small throws it all into relief.  But sometimes it&#38;rsquo;s just:
  1078. Everything.&lt;/p&gt;
  1079.  
  1080.  
  1081. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1082. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  1083. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  1084. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/4/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1085. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1086.  
  1087. </content><updated>2023-06-15T04:25:58Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, march 2, 2023</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2023/3/2"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2023/3/2</id><content type="html">
  1088.  
  1089. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, march 2, 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
  1090.  
  1091. &lt;p&gt;the way that midmorning&lt;br /&gt;
  1092. on a tuesday&lt;br /&gt;
  1093. can be the worst time&lt;br /&gt;
  1094. to think of weekends&lt;br /&gt;
  1095. and the distance&lt;br /&gt;
  1096. from the last one&lt;br /&gt;
  1097. to the next&lt;/p&gt;
  1098.  
  1099. &lt;p&gt;the way february&#39;s a&lt;br /&gt;
  1100. bad month to think&lt;br /&gt;
  1101. back on christmas&lt;br /&gt;
  1102. and contemplate&lt;br /&gt;
  1103. september&lt;/p&gt;
  1104.  
  1105. &lt;p&gt;3:13 in the morning&lt;br /&gt;
  1106. is a grim interval&lt;br /&gt;
  1107. in which to see&lt;br /&gt;
  1108. the bedside numerals,&lt;br /&gt;
  1109. segments floating red&lt;br /&gt;
  1110. in the dark over&lt;br /&gt;
  1111. her shoulder&lt;/p&gt;
  1112.  
  1113. &lt;p&gt;and remembering the&lt;br /&gt;
  1114. day past, wonder if&lt;br /&gt;
  1115. you&#39;ll sleep before the&lt;br /&gt;
  1116. daylight on its way&lt;/p&gt;
  1117.  
  1118. &lt;p&gt;the threads of this life&lt;br /&gt;
  1119. weave in and out of&lt;br /&gt;
  1120. some pattern i cannot see&lt;br /&gt;
  1121. or they fray at the&lt;br /&gt;
  1122. edge of a spreading tear&lt;/p&gt;
  1123.  
  1124. &lt;p&gt;i waver without saying&lt;br /&gt;
  1125. much, between joy and ---&lt;br /&gt;
  1126. well, what i cannot say.&lt;br /&gt;
  1127. a sense of loss or&lt;br /&gt;
  1128. one of foreboding?&lt;/p&gt;
  1129.  
  1130. &lt;p&gt;my yesterdays all read&lt;br /&gt;
  1131. like missed exits&lt;br /&gt;
  1132. and letters left cruelly&lt;br /&gt;
  1133. unanswered for years on end&lt;br /&gt;
  1134. this time of night&lt;/p&gt;
  1135.  
  1136. &lt;p&gt;i get up to write this&lt;br /&gt;
  1137. but all the lamps are&lt;br /&gt;
  1138. too bright for a sleeping&lt;br /&gt;
  1139. house&lt;/p&gt;
  1140.  
  1141. &lt;p&gt;so i light a dusty candle&lt;br /&gt;
  1142. out of the clutter on&lt;br /&gt;
  1143. my grandma&#39;s kitchen table&lt;br /&gt;
  1144. and half the lines have left me&lt;br /&gt;
  1145. before i get them to the page&lt;/p&gt;
  1146.  
  1147. &lt;p&gt;you might imagine better ones&lt;br /&gt;
  1148. the way i imagine all the&lt;br /&gt;
  1149. tomorrows i might have made&lt;br /&gt;
  1150. had i been better then.&lt;/p&gt;
  1151.  
  1152. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1153. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/&#34; title=&#34;2023&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; /
  1154. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1155. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2023/3/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1156. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1157.  
  1158. </content><updated>2023-03-06T20:33:25Z</updated></entry><entry><title>sunday, december 18, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/12/18"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/12/18</id><content type="html">
  1159.  
  1160. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;sunday, december 18, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1161.  
  1162. &lt;p&gt;driving out east of denver&lt;br /&gt;
  1163. in the early hours after sunrise&lt;br /&gt;
  1164. onto the winter plains&lt;/p&gt;
  1165.  
  1166. &lt;p&gt;frost and haze,&lt;br /&gt;
  1167. black cattle moving slow&lt;br /&gt;
  1168. in the muted light&lt;/p&gt;
  1169.  
  1170. &lt;p&gt;the grass all gold and brown,&lt;br /&gt;
  1171. the sky all gray and&lt;br /&gt;
  1172. white, pale blue and&lt;/p&gt;
  1173.  
  1174. &lt;p&gt;industry bellowing steam&lt;br /&gt;
  1175. into the layer of smog&lt;br /&gt;
  1176. just above the horizon&lt;/p&gt;
  1177.  
  1178.  
  1179.  
  1180. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1181. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1182. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  1183. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/12/18/&#34; title=&#34;18&#34;&gt;18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1184. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1185.  
  1186. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, December  7, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/12/7"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/12/7</id><content type="html">
  1187.  
  1188. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, December  7, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1189.  
  1190. &lt;p&gt;Submitted:&lt;/p&gt;
  1191.  
  1192. &lt;ol&gt;
  1193. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you haven&#38;rsquo;t adopted a somewhat science fictional frame of mind in the
  1194. last decade or so, you probably don&#38;rsquo;t understand things as well as you
  1195. could.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1196. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you&#38;rsquo;re operating entirely on that basis, you&#38;rsquo;re still probably pretty out
  1197. of the loop.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1198. &lt;/ol&gt;
  1199.  
  1200.  
  1201.  
  1202.  
  1203.  
  1204. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1205. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1206. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  1207. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/12/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1208. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1209.  
  1210. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>wednesday, november 30, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/11/30"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/11/30</id><content type="html">
  1211.  
  1212. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;wednesday, november 30, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1213.  
  1214. &lt;p&gt;the blazing light at the edges of the ice on the sidewalk&lt;br /&gt;
  1215. wakes up something in my mind, some sense of the real&lt;br /&gt;
  1216. and i tell myself it doesn&#39;t mean anything at all&lt;br /&gt;
  1217. except for snow and sun and everything that entails&lt;br /&gt;
  1218. but then i guess that&#39;s a lot, maybe that&#39;s most of it&lt;/p&gt;
  1219.  
  1220. &lt;p&gt;it&#39;s hard to find the world beautiful when it&#39;s dying&lt;br /&gt;
  1221. it&#39;s hard to love what you&#39;re going to lose&lt;br /&gt;
  1222. but then if you can&#39;t find beauty in what&#39;s dying&lt;br /&gt;
  1223. what else would you find it in at all?&lt;/p&gt;
  1224.  
  1225.  
  1226.  
  1227. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1228. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1229. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  1230. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/11/30/&#34; title=&#34;30&#34;&gt;30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1231. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1232.  
  1233. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>tuesday, november  1, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/11/1"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/11/1</id><content type="html">
  1234.  
  1235. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;
  1236. &lt;h1&gt;tuesday, november  1, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1237.  
  1238. &lt;p&gt;some days i think&lt;br /&gt;
  1239. you&#39;re only ever&lt;br /&gt;
  1240. talking to yourself&lt;/p&gt;
  1241.  
  1242. &lt;p&gt;other days it seems like&lt;br /&gt;
  1243. we dwell in the&lt;br /&gt;
  1244. warmth of some&lt;br /&gt;
  1245. shared understanding&lt;/p&gt;
  1246.  
  1247. &lt;p&gt;(like there&#39;s a &lt;i&gt;we&lt;/i&gt;,&lt;br /&gt;
  1248. all told, lit with the light&lt;br /&gt;
  1249. of other souls)&lt;/p&gt;
  1250.  
  1251. &lt;p&gt;it&#39;s always fleeting,&lt;br /&gt;
  1252. too brief, an unstable&lt;br /&gt;
  1253. configuration&lt;/p&gt;
  1254.  
  1255. &lt;p&gt;except when it seems&lt;br /&gt;
  1256. bigger than the whole world&lt;/p&gt;
  1257.  
  1258. &lt;p&gt;the way a mountain&lt;br /&gt;
  1259. in the distance&lt;br /&gt;
  1260. is part of the landscape&lt;br /&gt;
  1261. while one underfoot&lt;br /&gt;
  1262. is the whole of it&lt;/p&gt;
  1263.  
  1264. &lt;p&gt;we&#39;re left i guess&lt;br /&gt;
  1265. unable to agree&lt;br /&gt;
  1266. what it all meant or&lt;br /&gt;
  1267. should mean&lt;/p&gt;
  1268.  
  1269. &lt;p&gt;but i still find myself&lt;br /&gt;
  1270. reaching for the idea&lt;br /&gt;
  1271. that it meant&lt;br /&gt;
  1272. that it means&lt;br /&gt;
  1273. something&lt;/p&gt;
  1274.  
  1275.  
  1276. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1277. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1278. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  1279. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/11/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1280. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1281.  
  1282. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>monday, october 17, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/10/17"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/10/17</id><content type="html">
  1283.  
  1284. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;monday, october 17, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1285.  
  1286. &lt;p&gt;there was one i was trying to write&lt;br /&gt;
  1287. i had the pieces in my mind&lt;br /&gt;
  1288. and then the most of them&lt;br /&gt;
  1289. rattled out to nothing in the&lt;br /&gt;
  1290. juttering motion of the year&lt;/p&gt;
  1291.  
  1292. &lt;p&gt;the bit i can remember, it&#39;s been&lt;br /&gt;
  1293. a theme of late, this little mysticism&lt;br /&gt;
  1294. i&#39;m carrying in my pocket and taking&lt;br /&gt;
  1295. out now and then to turn over in the light:&lt;/p&gt;
  1296.  
  1297. &lt;p&gt;an idea of the past&lt;br /&gt;
  1298. looping back into my life&lt;br /&gt;
  1299. 20 years since i first left home&lt;br /&gt;
  1300. half a life-so-far ago&lt;br /&gt;
  1301. cycles and rhymes in the shape of the days&lt;br /&gt;
  1302. distant lights through the trees&lt;/p&gt;
  1303.  
  1304. &lt;p&gt;i&#39;m a natural sucker for these minor pareidolias&lt;br /&gt;
  1305. born to a people who still read the hand of god&lt;br /&gt;
  1306. in passing birds and the placement of telephone poles&lt;/p&gt;
  1307.  
  1308. &lt;p&gt;or maybe i just have eyes, once in a while, for&lt;br /&gt;
  1309. drifts and currents in the way of things&lt;br /&gt;
  1310. even if i can&#39;t say what rocks and channels&lt;br /&gt;
  1311. give them a shape&lt;/p&gt;
  1312.  
  1313. &lt;p&gt;either/or i guess&lt;/p&gt;
  1314.  
  1315.  
  1316. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1317. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1318. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  1319. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/10/17/&#34; title=&#34;17&#34;&gt;17&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1320. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1321.  
  1322. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, September 21, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/9/21"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/9/21</id><content type="html">
  1323.  
  1324. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, September 21, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1325.  
  1326. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s late September, and we&#38;rsquo;re back from the big burn, back from bluegrass in
  1327. Kansas.  Outside the open window of my mud-room office, a light rain is falling
  1328. and the temperature drifts towards the 50s.  Camping gear and festival stuff is
  1329. everywhere.  My desk and the adjacent workbench are covered in the detritus of
  1330. a month&#38;rsquo;s traveling and unpacking.&lt;/p&gt;
  1331.  
  1332. &lt;p&gt;(My immediate field of view just below the monitors:  2 Altoids tins (1x actual
  1333. mints; 1x weed), a vintage Leatherman tool, a chapstick, 2 lighters, a pile of
  1334. dusty stickers, six pens &#38;amp; 2 pencils, $1.42 in change, some ink cartridges,
  1335. matchbox, coffee mug, 2 festival wristbands, plastic Snoopy pencil sharpener
  1336. dated 1958, microfiber glasses cloth, 2 pill bottles, some washers, 3 packing
  1337. checklists, button that says &#38;ldquo;God Bless John Prine&#38;rdquo;, necklace with a tiny
  1338. pewter guitar that says &#38;ldquo;THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS&#38;rdquo;, index card that just
  1339. says &#38;ldquo;Shit.&#38;rdquo; in large underlined letters, T25 driver bit, some screws, empty
  1340. nitrous cartridge, beercan pop tabs, RockyGrass stage schedule.)&lt;/p&gt;
  1341.  
  1342. &lt;p&gt;I can&#38;rsquo;t find anything.  Every time I locate something like a pair of glasses, a
  1343. wallet or a keychain goes missing.  My phone&#38;rsquo;s been absent since Sunday at the
  1344. latest.  I think it&#38;rsquo;s probably in a pocket, a plastic tub, the corner of a
  1345. rolled-up tent.  Odds are decent I&#38;rsquo;ll see it again but I don&#38;rsquo;t know when.  I
  1346. admitted defeat a few minutes ago and ordered a new one.&lt;/p&gt;
  1347.  
  1348. &lt;p&gt;Out in the yard, a good-sized buck is sitting under the neighbor&#38;rsquo;s tree.  We
  1349. made eye contact for a while after I stepped out the back door to watch the
  1350. rain.  He didn&#38;rsquo;t seem inclined to leave.  Later, he&#38;rsquo;ll probably eat more of my
  1351. garden.&lt;/p&gt;
  1352.  
  1353.  
  1354. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1355. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1356. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/9/&#34; title=&#34;9&#34;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt; /
  1357. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/9/21/&#34; title=&#34;21&#34;&gt;21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1358. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1359.  
  1360. </content><updated>2022-10-10T19:06:28Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, August  5, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/8/5"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/8/5</id><content type="html">
  1361.  
  1362. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, August  5, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1363.  
  1364. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s pushing midnight.  It&#38;rsquo;s hot and the air is thick.  I&#38;rsquo;m sitting on the bed
  1365. in my childhood bedroom, eating cold roast beef with Miracle Whip on a
  1366. hamburger bun, drinking a Bud Light.&lt;/p&gt;
  1367.  
  1368. &lt;p&gt;This room has changed since I lived here.  The worn-out carpet and the twin
  1369. mattress and the computer desk that used to house my Gateway 2000 are long
  1370. gone.  The shelves are still full of science fiction novels and comic strip
  1371. anthologies though, and they&#38;rsquo;ve never painted over all the places I drew on the
  1372. walls.  The paint is peeling now, water damage from a leak a dozen years ago.&lt;/p&gt;
  1373.  
  1374. &lt;p&gt;The house here has, in defiance of strict necessity or practicality, grown
  1375. substantially since my siblings and I lived here.  A series of DIY additions
  1376. and renovations have added a window seat here, a family room there, expanded
  1377. roof lines, an entire &lt;em&gt;covered walkway&lt;/em&gt;.  It&#38;rsquo;s excessive, but it&#38;rsquo;s hard to say
  1378. it&#38;rsquo;s unjustified.  I think the effort keeps them going.  It&#38;rsquo;s something like an
  1379. art project at this point.  Decades of salvage materials and a lifetime of
  1380. know-how going back into &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt;, even if it&#38;rsquo;s not strictly the most
  1381. necessary thing.  You have to keep it moving.  You can&#38;rsquo;t just accumulate 2×6s
  1382. and daydream, you&#38;rsquo;ve got to build.&lt;/p&gt;
  1383.  
  1384. &lt;p&gt;A place like this, like anywhere people live, isn&#38;rsquo;t a static fact.  It&#38;rsquo;s
  1385. &lt;a href=&#34;/2014/12/1&#34;&gt;something people keep doing&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1386.  
  1387.  
  1388.  
  1389. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1390. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1391. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt; /
  1392. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/8/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1393. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1394.  
  1395. </content><updated>2022-10-04T04:55:58Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, July 15, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/7/15"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/7/15</id><content type="html">
  1396.  
  1397. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, July 15, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1398.  
  1399. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2019/12/18&#34;&gt;One from 2019&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1400.  
  1401.  
  1402.  
  1403. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1404. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1405. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  1406. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/7/15/&#34; title=&#34;15&#34;&gt;15&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1407. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1408.  
  1409. </content><updated>2022-07-15T07:14:10Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, June 27, 2022 - aphoristic noodling</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/6/27"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/6/27</id><content type="html">
  1410.  
  1411. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, June 27, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1412.  
  1413. &lt;h2&gt;aphoristic noodling&lt;/h2&gt;
  1414.  
  1415. &lt;p&gt;I read &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2021/100-things-every-web-developer-should-know/&#34;
  1416. title=&#34;136 facts every web dev should know before they burn out and turn to landscape painting or nude modelling&#34;&gt;this
  1417. post by Baldur Bjarnason&lt;/a&gt;, listing &#34;Everything I’ve learned about web development in the almost twenty-five years
  1418. I’ve been practising&#34;, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2021/the-curious-case-of-the-crashing-conic-gradient/&#34;&gt;this
  1419. followup&lt;/a&gt;, which says:
  1420.  
  1421. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1422.  
  1423.  &lt;p&gt;Some of the aphorisms ended up not-so-pithy, but it was overall a fun little
  1424.  experiment that I recommend: note down everything relevant about the craft that
  1425.  you can think of over the space of a week.&lt;/p&gt;
  1426.  
  1427. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1428.  
  1429. &lt;p&gt;I thought about this, and then I thought: Ok, what exactly is my craft?  I
  1430. do computer shit.  So I started a list about that, challenging myself to be
  1431. &lt;i&gt;descriptive&lt;/i&gt; about things and not veer too far into pure advice.&lt;/p&gt;
  1432.  
  1433. &lt;p&gt;A year or so passed, and I noticed this post was still sitting in my &#34;work
  1434. in progress&#34; directory.  I tried picking it back up and noticed how much
  1435. overlap it would have with other posts like these:&lt;/p&gt;
  1436.  
  1437. &lt;ul&gt;
  1438.  &lt;li&gt;2013: &lt;a href=&#34;/2013/12/4/&#34;&gt;on software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1439.  &lt;li&gt;2014: &lt;a href=&#34;/2014/9/6/&#34;&gt;language things&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1440.  &lt;li&gt;2015: &lt;a href=&#34;/2015/5/5/&#34;&gt;YOUR CODE IS TOO COMPLICATED&lt;/a&gt;
  1441.  &lt;li&gt;2019: &lt;a href=&#34;/2019/10/5&#34; title=&#34;sfe&#34;&gt;this entry on the experience of working at SparkFun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1442.  &lt;li&gt;2021: &lt;a href=&#34;/2021/7/21/&#34;&gt;rules&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  1443. &lt;/ul&gt;
  1444.  
  1445. &lt;p&gt;This style of writing is basically catnip to people like me, whether it&#39;s of
  1446. much use to anyone else or not.  This post ultimately felt like a dead end,
  1447. because instead of a blog post, it really wants to be some long document where
  1448. I collect all sorts of aphorisms, pithy quotes, eponymous laws, and so forth
  1449. about technical work and maybe just work generally.  Maybe I&#39;ll start that
  1450. document one of these days.&lt;/p&gt;
  1451.  
  1452. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✯ &lt;/p&gt;
  1453.  
  1454. &lt;p&gt;Anyway, that very partial and uneven list:&lt;/p&gt;
  1455.  
  1456. &lt;ol&gt;
  1457.  
  1458.  &lt;li&gt;Caching is hard to think about and breaks often.
  1459.  
  1460.  &lt;li&gt;Cleverness in code is generally a sign of danger.
  1461.  
  1462.  &lt;li&gt;Business ruins everything.
  1463.  
  1464.  &lt;li&gt;Some forms of interoperability are a trap.
  1465.  
  1466.  &lt;li&gt;Bad ideas aren&#39;t limited to bad people.
  1467.  
  1468.  &lt;li&gt;Good people aren&#39;t limited to good ideas.
  1469.  
  1470.  &lt;li&gt;An aesthetic is not an ethic.
  1471.  
  1472.  &lt;li&gt;The customer is usually wrong.
  1473.  
  1474.  &lt;li&gt;If it&#39;s written in:
  1475.    &lt;ul&gt;
  1476.      &lt;li&gt;C: It&#39;ll work, but I should remember there&#39;s a buffer overflow or something.
  1477.      &lt;li&gt;PHP: It&#39;ll probably work, but there&#39;s an SQL injection vulnerability somewhere and the cool kids will be shitty about it being PHP.
  1478.      &lt;li&gt;Python: 50/50 whether it&#39;ll just barf stack traces into my terminal for non-obvious reasons.
  1479.      &lt;li&gt;Ruby: Decent chance I&#39;ll wind up reading the source code and cursing at clever Ruby programmers.
  1480.      &lt;li&gt;Haskell: It works, but I&#39;m not smart enough to understand it.
  1481.      &lt;li&gt;Rust: Probably works, if they finished writing it.  I&#39;m not smart enough to understand the code.
  1482.      &lt;li&gt;Go: Total crapshoot, but either way I bet the CLI has a bunch of infuriatingly nested subcommands.
  1483.      &lt;li&gt;JavaScript: Life is too short to deal with whatever package management and runtime I&#39;m supposed to use for this now.
  1484.      &lt;li&gt;Java: If I have to &lt;i&gt;find out&lt;/i&gt; it&#39;s Java, I&#39;m probably in trouble.
  1485.    &lt;/ul&gt;
  1486.  &lt;/li&gt;
  1487.  
  1488.  &lt;li&gt;Lightweight markup languages are fundamentally in tension with the range
  1489.  of structures that their users will inevitably want to express.
  1490.  
  1491.  &lt;li&gt;Design, marketing, and management are all real undertakings, but they are
  1492.  also aggressively self-reproducing ideological systems and political
  1493.  projects.
  1494.  
  1495.  &lt;li&gt;Environments within which small tools can be combined to operate on
  1496.  simple abstractions are powerful.  An environment might be what you think of
  1497.  as an operating system, a programming language, a database, or an
  1498.  application.  All else being equal, the ones that can bridge to other
  1499.  environments are more powerful.
  1500.  
  1501.  &lt;li&gt;There are few abstractions in computing more stable than filesystems,
  1502.  standard IO, text files, and the shell. Boring relational databases aren&#39;t
  1503.  too far behind, but the barriers to entry and data transfer are higher.
  1504.  
  1505.  &lt;li&gt;Technology is at least as fashion-oriented as the sartorial choices of
  1506.  highschoolers, actors, and musicians.  Changes are driven as much by a desire
  1507.  for difference from the perceived status quo as anything else.
  1508.  
  1509.  &lt;li&gt;Technical politics are also organizational, labor, and identity politics.
  1510.  The currents of power they involve are illegible without taking those factors
  1511.  into account.
  1512.  
  1513.  &lt;li&gt;There&#39;s no guarantee that your technical preferences will match up with
  1514.  the ideas, people, or power structures you find agreeable in other domains.
  1515.  (Or vice versa.)
  1516.  
  1517. &lt;/ol&gt;
  1518.  
  1519.  
  1520. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/work&#34;&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1521. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1522. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  1523. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/6/27/&#34; title=&#34;27&#34;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1524. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1525.  
  1526. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, May 29, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/5/29"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/5/29</id><content type="html">
  1527.  
  1528. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, May 29, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1529.  
  1530. &lt;p&gt;One earlier this month from Tyler &lt;a href=&#34;https://tylercipriani.com/blog/2022/04/30/ive-used-all-the-notebooks/&#34;&gt;on notebooks and paper
  1531. notes&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  1532.  
  1533. &lt;p&gt;This was a reminder that I&#38;rsquo;d been meaning to update &lt;a href=&#34;/notes-on-notes&#34;&gt;notes on
  1534. notes&lt;/a&gt; with the current shape of my system.  My habits haven&#38;rsquo;t
  1535. changed drastically in three years, but I&#38;rsquo;ve made some extensions worth
  1536. describing.  (In particular, I now make heavy use of the &lt;a href=&#34;/2021/1/4/&#34;&gt;tagged log
  1537. format&lt;/a&gt; I wrote about last year.  In turn, that&#38;rsquo;s shown me some things
  1538. that could be better.)&lt;/p&gt;
  1539.  
  1540. &lt;p&gt;On a meta level, that document is still mostly boring technical specifics. I&#38;rsquo;d
  1541. like it to include more of the &lt;em&gt;why&lt;/em&gt; of things, the stuff I&#38;rsquo;ve come to realize
  1542. after years of overthinking.&lt;/p&gt;
  1543.  
  1544.  
  1545.  
  1546. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notebooks&#34;&gt;notebooks&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes&#34;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1547. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1548. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  1549. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/5/29/&#34; title=&#34;29&#34;&gt;29&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1550. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1551.  
  1552. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>wednesday, march 16, 2022</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/3/16"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/3/16</id><content type="html">
  1553.  
  1554. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;wednesday, march 16, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1555.  
  1556. &lt;p&gt;what&#39;s the distance&lt;br /&gt;
  1557. between a nervous habit&lt;br /&gt;
  1558. and a ritual tradition?&lt;/p&gt;
  1559.  
  1560. &lt;p&gt;maybe just time and the collection plate&lt;br /&gt;
  1561. or how much group dynamics and trappings of&lt;br /&gt;
  1562. the numinous you can gin up&lt;/p&gt;
  1563.  
  1564. &lt;p&gt;but i notice how&lt;br /&gt;
  1565. a lot of us have lost all touch with the latter&lt;br /&gt;
  1566. while accumulating a distinct excess&lt;br /&gt;
  1567. of the former&lt;/p&gt;
  1568.  
  1569. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1570. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1571. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1572. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/3/16/&#34; title=&#34;16&#34;&gt;16&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1573. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1574.  
  1575. </content><updated>2022-03-25T05:48:37Z</updated></entry><entry><title type="html">Monday, February 21, 2022 - why i don&#39;t blog much, any more</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/2/21"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/2/21</id><content type="html">
  1576.  
  1577. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, February 21, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1578.  
  1579. &lt;h2&gt;why i don&#39;t blog much, any more&lt;/h2&gt;
  1580.  
  1581. &lt;p&gt;I read Tyler&#38;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://tylercipriani.com/blog/2022/02/21/why-i-blog/&#34;&gt;Why I Blog&lt;/a&gt; earlier today, and it reminded me of a
  1582. draft I started here back in early January.  I thought:  These are compelling
  1583. reasons to write in public, or at least I used to think so.  Then I remembered
  1584. I&#38;rsquo;d been been writing about not doing that any more.&lt;/p&gt;
  1585.  
  1586. &lt;p&gt;I used to.  Lately&#38;hellip; Well, prior to a &lt;a href=&#34;/2022/2/7&#34;&gt;bit about writing on paper&lt;/a&gt;
  1587. from the 7th, I last posted anything of length here in July.  In &lt;a href=&#34;/2021&#34;&gt;all of
  1588. 2021&lt;/a&gt;, I wrote 19 entries.  This is the fewest in any year that I&#38;rsquo;ve had
  1589. a blog, including the ones where it lived on GeoCities or still had a tilde in
  1590. the URL.  Reading back over the year, there&#38;rsquo;s not much weight to any of it.  A
  1591. few incomplete thoughts.  Some rabbitholing on mundane topics.  Mostly: Going
  1592. through motions and repeating myself.&lt;/p&gt;
  1593.  
  1594. &lt;p&gt;I could overthink this, but it isn&#38;rsquo;t warranted.  The reasons not to write here
  1595. are all just themes I&#38;rsquo;ve been repeating at (numbing) length for years:
  1596. Self-expression in the open seems like an attack surface.  A public record is,
  1597. as much as anything, a liability.  Kinds of text that once felt liberating now
  1598. feel like an embarrassment at best.  The internet in general is owned by bad
  1599. people and has gone septic as a culture, even as it determines culture as a
  1600. whole.&lt;/p&gt;
  1601.  
  1602. &lt;p&gt;Besides all of that, writing on the internet in 2022 is a lot like photos in
  1603. 2022: There&#38;rsquo;s just &lt;em&gt;so much&lt;/em&gt; of the stuff.  It&#38;rsquo;s not just that anything I write
  1604. here might be used to train a language model a la &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-3&#34;&gt;GPT-3&lt;/a&gt;, it&#38;rsquo;s that
  1605. increasingly it feels like it could be the &lt;em&gt;product&lt;/em&gt; of one.&lt;/p&gt;
  1606.  
  1607. &lt;p&gt;And so it naturally works out that instead of writing more p1k3 entries, I chat
  1608. with my friends, post to a handful of people on Mastodon, and take notes in
  1609. local files.&lt;/p&gt;
  1610.  
  1611. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✦ &lt;/p&gt;
  1612.  
  1613.  
  1614. &lt;p&gt;I still feel some kind of an attachment to this.  It&#38;rsquo;s my longest-running
  1615. project, more or less, and writing here has been a lot of how I sorted out the
  1616. world for myself.  &lt;a href=&#34;/2017/10/16&#34;&gt;Back in 2017&lt;/a&gt;, I wrote:&lt;/p&gt;
  1617.  
  1618. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1619. &lt;p&gt;On the other hand.  Writing is one of the only real powers I&#39;ve ever had,
  1620. and the surface of this terrible website is still mine to write on.  The web is
  1621. dead to me, as a hope or a cause, and the world it&#39;s made &#38;mdash; the world
  1622. that so many thousands of us helped to make &#38;mdash; is in bad shape and getting
  1623. worse.  But why should I give up my only real canvas, the only place where I
  1624. have any voice at all?&lt;/p&gt;
  1625.  
  1626. &lt;p&gt;Possibly (almost certainly) having a voice is itself an illusion, irrelevant
  1627. to the course of things now.  But I guess it&#39;s something.&lt;/p&gt;
  1628. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1629.  
  1630.  
  1631. &lt;p&gt;Over time, though, it feels less and less like something.  On matters public,
  1632. there are infinite voices.  The repetition and variation, the algorithmic
  1633. swell, is vast.  If I have anything to say, someone else is probably saying it
  1634. better.  At least if it &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; be said in any useful way.  The usefulness of
  1635. &lt;em&gt;saying things&lt;/em&gt; itself is frequently washed out in the deluge.  The
  1636. impossibility of communication feels like a defining feature of the age.&lt;/p&gt;
  1637.  
  1638. &lt;p&gt;The only thing that&#38;rsquo;s left is whatever&#38;rsquo;s particular to my perspective, and it
  1639. rarely feels like the networked ebb and flow has a healthy use for that.&lt;/p&gt;
  1640.  
  1641. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✾ &lt;/p&gt;
  1642.  
  1643.  
  1644. &lt;p&gt;Anyway, I&#38;rsquo;m repeating myself again.&lt;/p&gt;
  1645.  
  1646. &lt;p&gt;For a while I&#38;rsquo;ve been thinking about changing the structure of this whole site
  1647. into something less reverse-chronological, writing something besides the
  1648. personal narrative that a blog lends itself to, or just publishing somewhere
  1649. away from the public web.  Maybe somewhere away from screens altogether.  Who
  1650. needs Substack when you&#38;rsquo;ve got a laser printer and a roll of stamps?&lt;/p&gt;
  1651.  
  1652. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m not sure what I&#38;rsquo;ll do any different, if anything.  It&#38;rsquo;s just hard to let go
  1653. of something you&#38;rsquo;ve made at considerable length, even if it isn&#38;rsquo;t worth much,
  1654. even if it&#38;rsquo;s just a habit of talking mostly to yourself.  Maybe I&#38;rsquo;ll let it lie
  1655. fallow for years until I get hit by a bus, or find some better use for the
  1656. hosting costs and let it drop off the web without fanfare.  Maybe I&#38;rsquo;ll change
  1657. my mind about all of this in six months or a decade.&lt;/p&gt;
  1658.  
  1659. &lt;p&gt;(Of course this is more &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/5/20/&#34;&gt;meta-whatever&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;
  1660.  
  1661.  
  1662.  
  1663. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/writing&#34;&gt;writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1664. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1665. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  1666. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/2/21/&#34; title=&#34;21&#34;&gt;21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1667. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1668.  
  1669. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, February  7, 2022 - paper again</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2022/2/7"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2022/2/7</id><content type="html">
  1670.  
  1671. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, February  7, 2022&lt;/h1&gt;
  1672.  
  1673. &lt;h2&gt;paper again&lt;/h2&gt;
  1674.  
  1675. &lt;p&gt;What is it that paper has that the computer lacks?&lt;/p&gt;
  1676.  
  1677. &lt;p&gt;The answer might be humility.&lt;/p&gt;
  1678.  
  1679. &lt;p&gt;Paper doesn&#38;rsquo;t seek to consume and mediate all things &#38;mdash; or at least the age in
  1680. which it did so long ago fell to digital computers, databases, and networks
  1681. between them.&lt;/p&gt;
  1682.  
  1683. &lt;p&gt;Paper forms a part of the world computer, but in so many ways an almost
  1684. forgotten part.  Uncontested, or nearly so.&lt;/p&gt;
  1685.  
  1686. &lt;p&gt;If it seemingly offers few features and little apparent leverage compared to
  1687. software, then it also makes very few demands.  It extracts little from the
  1688. user&#38;rsquo;s autonomy and privacy, while remaining transferable, repurposable, cheap,
  1689. generic, accessible.  It&#38;rsquo;s not subject to platform degradation, malicious
  1690. updates, DRM, new rents at vendor whim, or remote code execution
  1691. vulnerabilities.  There will probably never be a CVE issued for my favorite
  1692. brand of paper, and I do not need to assume that three-letter agencies are
  1693. automatically indexing its contents with the cooperation of its manufacturer.&lt;/p&gt;
  1694.  
  1695. &lt;p&gt;What can be expressed on paper is vastly more constrained in many respects, but
  1696. limited as it may be, it&#38;rsquo;s also &lt;em&gt;open&lt;/em&gt;:  To whatever can be expressed through
  1697. ink, graphite, scissors, glue, binding, tape, staples, stitches, and filing.
  1698. Paper can&#38;rsquo;t embed full motion video or execute complex instructions on my
  1699. behalf, but neither are its possibilities bound by the hyper-elaborated
  1700. techno-social systems that govern the display of media formats or the
  1701. implementation of language runtimes.&lt;/p&gt;
  1702.  
  1703. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ⭒ &lt;/p&gt;
  1704.  
  1705.  
  1706. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s a line of thinking here that risks the kind of reductive rabbitholing
  1707. on a tool fetish you so regularly get from people fixated on a process idea:
  1708. People convinced that only plain text will serve as a format for any purpose.
  1709. Zettelkasten devotees who will stringently insist that connecting notes remain
  1710. grindingly manual.  Angry holdouts lecturing mailing lists about the evils of
  1711. HTML e-mail while the world conducts its business on Facebook and Slack.  That
  1712. sort of thing.&lt;/p&gt;
  1713.  
  1714. &lt;p&gt;All the same, I think there&#38;rsquo;s something to it, just like there&#38;rsquo;s something
  1715. vital that motivates a lot of hopeless impulses to digital minimalism and
  1716. performative exercises in retrocomputing.&lt;/p&gt;
  1717.  
  1718. &lt;p&gt;Here&#38;rsquo;s an age when the computer is the network and the network is a threat &#38;mdash;
  1719. simultaneously the only tool for thought and the thing that makes thought
  1720. nearly impossible.  It&#38;rsquo;s exhausting, enervating, periodically shattering.  Its
  1721. healthy effects are constantly overshadowed by its pathology.  It&#38;rsquo;s owned by
  1722. bad people and operated by a fundamentally compromised class of technocrats
  1723. whose occasional glimmers of self-awareness can never overwhelm the home truth
  1724. of who and what writes their paychecks.&lt;/p&gt;
  1725.  
  1726. &lt;p&gt;Against this backdrop, other channels of thought can feel like an escape hatch,
  1727. respite, a balm, a view of other paths that maybe aren&#38;rsquo;t entirely closed just
  1728. yet.  Opening a notebook, like going for a walk down by the river or messing
  1729. around in a garden or sitting with friends around a campfire somewhere away
  1730. from cell reception, can feel like sanity.&lt;/p&gt;
  1731.  
  1732. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✮ &lt;/p&gt;
  1733.  
  1734.  
  1735. &lt;p&gt;Of course paper is a technology, embedded in an industrial economy:  And this,
  1736. as usual, is to say that it is an ecological catastrophe.  It consumes trees,
  1737. soil, and landscapes.  It poisons water and air, clogs transport networks and
  1738. waste streams, facilitates consumption, and often assists in extending the
  1739. control of computerized systems deep into the physical realm.&lt;/p&gt;
  1740.  
  1741. &lt;p&gt;All the same, in the torrent of junk mail, grocery store fliers, BPA-coated
  1742. thermal printer labels &#38;amp; receipts, redundant bills, bank notices, invoices,
  1743. address change forms, fast food packages, and all the rest of it &#38;mdash; well, the
  1744. handful of notebooks and letters I spend in any given year feel comparatively
  1745. benign.&lt;/p&gt;
  1746.  
  1747. &lt;p&gt;(Drafted on paper.)&lt;/p&gt;
  1748.  
  1749.  
  1750.  
  1751. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notebooks&#34;&gt;notebooks&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/paper&#34;&gt;paper&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/systems&#34;&gt;systems&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/writing&#34;&gt;writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1752. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/&#34; title=&#34;2022&#34;&gt;2022&lt;/a&gt; /
  1753. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  1754. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2022/2/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1755. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1756.  
  1757. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Thursday, December 23, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/12/23"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/12/23</id><content type="html">
  1758.  
  1759. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Thursday, December 23, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  1760.  
  1761. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s 2021, and I&#38;rsquo;m sequestered in the guest house at my parents&#39; place, waiting
  1762. the results of a COVID-19 test.&lt;/p&gt;
  1763.  
  1764. &lt;p&gt;When we moved to this property, late in the 1980s, you could still tell it had
  1765. once been a prosperous working farmstead on the model of the early 20th
  1766. century.  Along with wooden barns, corn cribs, machine sheds, and all the rest,
  1767. most of it decaying rapidly as pigs rooted around the foundations, there was
  1768. this little house.  At the time it consisted of two rooms and a partially
  1769. enclosed porch.  Much of the structure was full of raccoon shit and corn cobs.&lt;/p&gt;
  1770.  
  1771. &lt;p&gt;Most of the original outbuildings have been gone for 25 years or better.  The
  1772. little house has been fixed up for guests, deteriorated again, moved a hundred
  1773. feet or so, and fixed up a second time.  We built a new outhouse once, but it&#38;rsquo;s
  1774. plumbed now.  Hooked up to the electric, insulated, with new windows and a new
  1775. woodstove in one corner.  The woodstove burns too hot for a building this size
  1776. and my dad&#38;rsquo;s got plans to put in a wall-mounted propane heater.&lt;/p&gt;
  1777.  
  1778. &lt;p&gt;We&#38;rsquo;ve always figured, and maybe my parents were once told, that this was the
  1779. hired man&#38;rsquo;s house.  It would make sense for the patterns around here.  I know
  1780. the name of a couple families that owned the farm at one time, but I couldn&#38;rsquo;t
  1781. guess at who lived in the little house.  A lot of the elders around here who
  1782. might have had stories are gone now, along with most of the farms that they
  1783. inhabited and worked.&lt;/p&gt;
  1784.  
  1785.  
  1786. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1787. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  1788. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  1789. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/12/23/&#34; title=&#34;23&#34;&gt;23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1790. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1791.  
  1792. </content><updated>2022-04-09T06:34:43Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, december 2, 2021 - spectra</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/12/2"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/12/2</id><content type="html">
  1793.  
  1794. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, december 2, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  1795.  
  1796. &lt;h2&gt;spectra&lt;/h2&gt;
  1797.  
  1798. &lt;p&gt;the richness of the colors&lt;br /&gt;
  1799. that come early in a deep drought:&lt;/p&gt;
  1800.  
  1801. &lt;p&gt;sometimes we have a false idea&lt;br /&gt;
  1802. of the variation within some range&lt;br /&gt;
  1803. we see as narrow&lt;/p&gt;
  1804.  
  1805.  
  1806.  
  1807. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/drought&#34;&gt;drought&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1808. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  1809. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  1810. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/12/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1811. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1812.  
  1813. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>monday, september 20, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/9/20"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/9/20</id><content type="html">
  1814.  
  1815. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;monday, september 20, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  1816.  
  1817. &lt;p&gt;it&#39;s always the last day of the festival&lt;br /&gt;
  1818. you&#39;re always packing to go home&lt;/p&gt;
  1819.  
  1820.  
  1821.  
  1822. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1823. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  1824. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/9/&#34; title=&#34;9&#34;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt; /
  1825. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/9/20/&#34; title=&#34;20&#34;&gt;20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1826. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1827.  
  1828. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>friday, july 23, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/7/23"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/7/23</id><content type="html">
  1829.  
  1830. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;friday, july 23, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  1831.  
  1832. &lt;p&gt;one thing i notice&lt;br /&gt;
  1833. the hotter it gets&lt;br /&gt;
  1834. the harder it is&lt;br /&gt;
  1835. to give a shit&lt;br /&gt;
  1836. about industry &#38;amp; thrift&lt;/p&gt;
  1837.  
  1838.  
  1839.  
  1840. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1841. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  1842. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  1843. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/7/23/&#34; title=&#34;23&#34;&gt;23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1844. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1845.  
  1846. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - rules</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/7/21"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/7/21</id><content type="html">
  1847.  
  1848. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, July 21, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  1849.  
  1850. &lt;h2&gt;rules&lt;/h2&gt;
  1851.  
  1852. &lt;p&gt;I was doing the laundry a while ago (I first started writing this in May of
  1853. 2019), and I got to some stuff where I wasn&#38;rsquo;t sure whether it was &lt;em&gt;actually
  1854. dirty&lt;/em&gt; and needed a wash, or if I&#38;rsquo;d just tossed it on top of the pile on the
  1855. way to the shower one night thinking I&#38;rsquo;d sort it later.  Should I trust my past
  1856. self to have made a definitive decision that everything in the pile was dirty?
  1857. Or did my past self act on the belief that my future self would make informed
  1858. decisions about the pile&#38;rsquo;s contents?&lt;/p&gt;
  1859.  
  1860. &lt;p&gt;In thinking about this, I came to something like a general rule:  &lt;em&gt;Minimize the
  1861. trust that you need to place in past and future versions of yourself.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1862.  
  1863. &lt;p&gt;That is, past-Brennen would have done best to make the decisions about whether
  1864. something was dirty instead of deferring them to future-Brennen.  And indeed I
  1865. washed pretty much everything in the laundry pile because it&#38;rsquo;s easier to assume
  1866. past-Brennen was sending a clear signal than to re-evaluate the whole pile, but
  1867. I think in more serious situations it&#38;rsquo;s important to always keep in mind that
  1868. past-Brennen is at least as likely to have screwed up as now-Brennen.&lt;/p&gt;
  1869.  
  1870. &lt;p&gt;Ideally, you shouldn&#38;rsquo;t have to make leaps of faith about your past selves&#39;
  1871. correctness, and you should operate with an awareness that your future selves
  1872. will have a lousy memory and shortages of time/energy to deal with your
  1873. unfinished work.  Consequently, you should label things, document interfaces,
  1874. write tests for your software, put your keys and wallet in the same place every
  1875. time they aren&#38;rsquo;t on your person, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
  1876.  
  1877. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❦ &lt;/p&gt;
  1878.  
  1879.  
  1880. &lt;p&gt;I have to think about that rule and its phrasing for before I add it to my
  1881. overall List of Rules, but it has promise.  I&#38;rsquo;ve been thinking about rules of
  1882. this sort&#38;mdash;aphorisms, rules of thumb, personal commandments, proverbs,
  1883. epigrams, whatever&#38;mdash;for a long time.  Now and then some phrase or
  1884. injunction-to-self will prove itself useful for a while, and the idea of a
  1885. personal canon of them seems attractive.&lt;/p&gt;
  1886.  
  1887. &lt;p&gt;Two that I&#38;rsquo;ve thought about lately: The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, and my
  1888. colleague &lt;a href=&#34;https://liw.fi/rules/&#34;&gt;Lars&#38;rsquo;s list&lt;/a&gt;, quoted here in full:&lt;/p&gt;
  1889.  
  1890. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  1891. &lt;ol&gt;
  1892. &lt;li&gt;Always copy and paste a URL.&lt;/li&gt;
  1893. &lt;li&gt;A will-do attitude trumps skills.&lt;/li&gt;
  1894. &lt;li&gt;Always ask the simple troubleshooting questions first.&lt;/li&gt;
  1895. &lt;li&gt;Externalize your memory: write things down, always carry a notebook.&lt;/li&gt;
  1896. &lt;li&gt;Measure, don&#39;t guess.&lt;/li&gt;
  1897. &lt;li&gt;Write flames, but don&#39;t send them.&lt;/li&gt;
  1898. &lt;li&gt;Always write unit tests for error handling.&lt;/li&gt;
  1899. &lt;li&gt;Aim for 100% test coverage. You&#39;ll never get there, but bugs mostly happen
  1900. in the parts without tests.&lt;/li&gt;
  1901. &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t be late in telling you&#39;re late.&lt;/li&gt;
  1902. &lt;li&gt;If you cannot automate it, make a checklist out of it.&lt;/li&gt;
  1903. &lt;li&gt;Be careful what you reward, because you will get more of it.&lt;/li&gt;
  1904. &lt;li&gt;Be careful what you measure, because you will optimize for that.&lt;/li&gt;
  1905. &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t debate with analogies.&lt;/li&gt;
  1906. &lt;li&gt;Always indicate time zone explicitly.&lt;/li&gt;
  1907. &lt;/ol&gt;
  1908. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  1909.  
  1910.  
  1911. &lt;p&gt;Those are pretty good.&lt;/p&gt;
  1912.  
  1913. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❀ &lt;/p&gt;
  1914.  
  1915.  
  1916. &lt;p&gt;Here&#38;rsquo;s a crack at the list that&#38;rsquo;s been floating around in my head:&lt;/p&gt;
  1917.  
  1918. &lt;ul&gt;
  1919. &lt;li&gt;Do the dishes.&lt;/li&gt;
  1920. &lt;li&gt;Only break one law at a time.&lt;/li&gt;
  1921. &lt;li&gt;Ask the stupid questions early.&lt;/li&gt;
  1922. &lt;li&gt;Don&#38;rsquo;t deploy on a Friday.&lt;/li&gt;
  1923. &lt;li&gt;Don&#38;rsquo;t let your gas tank drop below half.&lt;/li&gt;
  1924. &lt;li&gt;Remember that avoiding temptation is easier than resisting it.&lt;/li&gt;
  1925. &lt;li&gt;Never mistake an aesthetic for an ethic.&lt;/li&gt;
  1926. &lt;li&gt;Don&#38;rsquo;t mistake a shared experience for a shared understanding.&lt;/li&gt;
  1927. &lt;li&gt;Don&#38;rsquo;t trust systems that rely on the benevolence of a few powerful actors.&lt;/li&gt;
  1928. &lt;li&gt;If you figure it out: Write it down.&lt;/li&gt;
  1929. &lt;li&gt;If you have to figure it out three times: Automate it.&lt;/li&gt;
  1930. &lt;li&gt;&#38;ldquo;Read the manual&#38;rdquo; is good advice; &#38;ldquo;write the manual&#38;rdquo; is a moral imperative.&lt;/li&gt;
  1931. &lt;li&gt;If a server is broken, first make sure that something in &lt;code&gt;/var/log&lt;/code&gt; hasn&#38;rsquo;t
  1932. filled up the disk.&lt;/li&gt;
  1933. &lt;/ul&gt;
  1934.  
  1935.  
  1936. &lt;p&gt;It seems like there should be more of these and they should be pithier, or
  1937. something.&lt;/p&gt;
  1938.  
  1939.  
  1940.  
  1941. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/idealogging&#34;&gt;idealogging&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/rules&#34;&gt;rules&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  1942. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  1943. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  1944. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/7/21/&#34; title=&#34;21&#34;&gt;21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  1945. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  1946.  
  1947. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, July 13, 2021 - an appeal to people who sell stuff on the internet</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/7/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/7/13</id><content type="html">
  1948.  
  1949. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, July 13, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  1950.  
  1951. &lt;h2&gt;an appeal to people who sell stuff on the internet&lt;/h2&gt;
  1952.  
  1953. &lt;p&gt;This is a suggestion that people in business should be better at it.  It&#38;rsquo;s a
  1954. departure for me, inasmuch as I kind of hate business.  All the same, if you
  1955. work for or own a company that does e-commerce, build a web site that sells
  1956. stuff, etc., this is one is addressed directly to you.  (Unless the company /
  1957. site we&#38;rsquo;re talking about, is for example, Amazon, in which case my only message
  1958. to you is &#38;ldquo;stop that&#38;rdquo;.)&lt;/p&gt;
  1959.  
  1960. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ☼ &lt;/p&gt;
  1961.  
  1962.  
  1963. &lt;p&gt;My job doesn&#38;rsquo;t involve selling physical goods on the internet now, but it&#38;rsquo;s
  1964. something I spent around a decade on.  Since I moved on to other things, it&#38;rsquo;s
  1965. been unpleasant to watch so many of the people still doing it become so &lt;em&gt;bad&lt;/em&gt;
  1966. at it.&lt;/p&gt;
  1967.  
  1968. &lt;p&gt;Let&#38;rsquo;s start with this:  Your job is hard to do well.  It was never exactly a
  1969. cakewalk, but the whole environment has changed, and mostly not in a way that
  1970. favors your chances.  Web retail used to be an area where you could stumble
  1971. into a growing revenue stream just by having something people wanted and
  1972. posting half-decent pictures of it on a barebones shopping cart site.&lt;/p&gt;
  1973.  
  1974. &lt;p&gt;Now you have to contend with:&lt;/p&gt;
  1975.  
  1976. &lt;ul&gt;
  1977. &lt;li&gt;Amazon&#38;rsquo;s all-devouring maw&lt;/li&gt;
  1978. &lt;li&gt;Google&#38;rsquo;s adtech protection racket&lt;/li&gt;
  1979. &lt;li&gt;More and faster competition from a global supply chain&lt;/li&gt;
  1980. &lt;li&gt;Ubiquitous phones&lt;/li&gt;
  1981. &lt;li&gt;Facebook, Twitter, Instagram&lt;/li&gt;
  1982. &lt;li&gt;How you&#38;rsquo;ve probably hired marketing professionals&lt;/li&gt;
  1983. &lt;li&gt;The grotesque absurdity of contemporary web development tech&lt;/li&gt;
  1984. &lt;li&gt;&#38;hellip;just all of it, really.&lt;/li&gt;
  1985. &lt;/ul&gt;
  1986.  
  1987.  
  1988. &lt;p&gt;I mostly wrote code for a living, but that meant I got to see the moving parts
  1989. of a web retail business: Product design, purchasing, manufacturing, inventory
  1990. control and catalog management, content marketing, customer service and
  1991. technical support, picking/packing/shipping, fraud prevention, taxes,
  1992. regulatory compliance, etc.  I know there&#38;rsquo;s a &lt;em&gt;lot&lt;/em&gt; that might live behind any
  1993. given shopping cart icon.&lt;/p&gt;
  1994.  
  1995. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✺ &lt;/p&gt;
  1996.  
  1997.  
  1998. &lt;p&gt;Still, here I am.  I buy things on the web: Electronics, computers, audio gear,
  1999. notebooks, pens, tools, books, music, concert tickets.  I feel bad when I give
  2000. money to Amazon.  I don&#38;rsquo;t operate under an illusion that your business is
  2001. ethical, because mostly businesses are unethical, but all the same I would
  2002. rather pay smaller organizations.  Maybe your employees seem better treated,
  2003. maybe I want to support manufacturing where you&#38;rsquo;re located, maybe I just like
  2004. your product.&lt;/p&gt;
  2005.  
  2006. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s 2021, and I am a person with money who might like to give you some of it.
  2007. Help me to help you.&lt;/p&gt;
  2008.  
  2009. &lt;p&gt;What I want:&lt;/p&gt;
  2010.  
  2011. &lt;ul&gt;
  2012. &lt;li&gt;To give you money in return for a thing&lt;/li&gt;
  2013. &lt;li&gt;To know up front what the thing costs&lt;/li&gt;
  2014. &lt;li&gt;To see clear pictures and a description of the thing I&#38;rsquo;m buying, including
  2015. relevant technical specs&lt;/li&gt;
  2016. &lt;li&gt;To have the thing shipped to me&lt;/li&gt;
  2017. &lt;li&gt;To know where to ask for help if something goes wrong with getting the thing&lt;/li&gt;
  2018. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2019.  
  2020.  
  2021. &lt;p&gt;Things I won&#38;rsquo;t mind along the way if you manage not to louse it up:&lt;/p&gt;
  2022.  
  2023. &lt;ul&gt;
  2024. &lt;li&gt;Reading some reviews of the thing from your other customers&lt;/li&gt;
  2025. &lt;li&gt;Showing me the similar things you have for sale&lt;/li&gt;
  2026. &lt;li&gt;Getting an e-mail when I place the order and one when it ships (but seriously like 2
  2027. e-mails, no I don&#38;rsquo;t want your newsletter)&lt;/li&gt;
  2028. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2029.  
  2030.  
  2031. &lt;p&gt;What I do not want:&lt;/p&gt;
  2032.  
  2033. &lt;ul&gt;
  2034. &lt;li&gt;To load dozens of actively hostile 3rd-party spyware services&lt;/li&gt;
  2035. &lt;li&gt;To figure out which half dozen actively hostile 3rd-party spyware services I need to
  2036. tell my adblocker to ignore for your site to work&lt;/li&gt;
  2037. &lt;li&gt;To discover much later that my order has been silently canceled without notification&lt;/li&gt;
  2038. &lt;li&gt;To drive an hour to retrieve my order at a distribution center because you shipped it
  2039. to an undeliverable address&lt;/li&gt;
  2040. &lt;li&gt;To be remarketed at, anywhere, ever&lt;/li&gt;
  2041. &lt;li&gt;To install an actively hostile mobile app in order to access and/or transfer
  2042. ownership of the thing I purchased&lt;/li&gt;
  2043. &lt;li&gt;To give up and buy the thing on Amazon because your website doesn&#38;rsquo;t work&lt;/li&gt;
  2044. &lt;li&gt;To like and subscribe&lt;/li&gt;
  2045. &lt;li&gt;To fill out a survey&lt;/li&gt;
  2046. &lt;li&gt;To know I&#38;rsquo;m being A/B tested&lt;/li&gt;
  2047. &lt;li&gt;To engage with your brand&lt;/li&gt;
  2048. &lt;li&gt;Just about anything the marketing professionals you hired probably want&lt;/li&gt;
  2049. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2050.  
  2051.  
  2052. &lt;p&gt;To a first approximation and as best I can figure it out, &lt;a href=&#34;/2019/10/5&#34;&gt;the
  2053. business&lt;/a&gt; I know the most about took off because some people in
  2054. college stumbled into a growing revenue stream by way of posting decent
  2055. pictures of stuff or whatever.  As it grew, it was built and operated by a
  2056. bunch of mostly-20-something stoners and freaks, most with scant experience.&lt;/p&gt;
  2057.  
  2058. &lt;p&gt;I know it&#38;rsquo;s grim out there, but it keeps surprising me in 2021 just how
  2059. thoroughly almost everyone seems to have thrown up their hands in defeat.  A
  2060. decade ago, us misfit toys were halfway competent at this.  Now what happens is
  2061. the laptop fans spin furiously in order to show me a giant popover about the 16
  2062. ways you want to abuse my privacy while a couple layers of video try to play in
  2063. the background and the infinitely scrolling gallery of product photos fails to
  2064. load correctly for some reason, the little counters on the adblocker widgets
  2065. ticking ever upward.  Later, you cancel my order but neglect to mention it to
  2066. me.  The second time I place an order, you send it to an address I told you not
  2067. to use and I have to figure out which giant FedEx building a county over has
  2068. ahold of it.  When I finally open the box, a cable is missing.  Soon afterwards
  2069. I realize I&#38;rsquo;ve been subscribed to your newsletter.&lt;/p&gt;
  2070.  
  2071. &lt;p&gt;As the cast of &lt;em&gt;Letterkenny&lt;/em&gt; would say:  Figure it out.&lt;/p&gt;
  2072.  
  2073.  
  2074.  
  2075. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/business&#34;&gt;business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2076. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2077. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  2078. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/7/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2079. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2080.  
  2081. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>wednesday, june  2, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/6/2"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/6/2</id><content type="html">
  2082.  
  2083. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;wednesday, june  2, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2084.  
  2085. &lt;p&gt;sure the self dissipates and hollows&lt;br /&gt;
  2086. and all dignity is temporary at best&lt;br /&gt;
  2087. while memory itself will betray you&lt;br /&gt;
  2088. at every turn&lt;/p&gt;
  2089.  
  2090. &lt;p&gt;but all the same, if you&#39;re lucky,&lt;br /&gt;
  2091. you&#39;ll look back sometimes&lt;br /&gt;
  2092. across the sweep of time&lt;br /&gt;
  2093. and discover there was some extraordinary freedom&lt;br /&gt;
  2094. even in places you once read as trapped and lonely&lt;/p&gt;
  2095.  
  2096. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2097. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2098. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  2099. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/6/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2100. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2101.  
  2102. </content><updated>2021-07-14T05:45:07Z</updated></entry><entry><title>tuesday, april 27, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/4/27"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/4/27</id><content type="html">
  2103.  
  2104. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;tuesday, april 27, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2105.  
  2106. &lt;p&gt;there was a flood once,&lt;br /&gt;
  2107. and then it was years before&lt;br /&gt;
  2108. the sound of rain on a roof&lt;br /&gt;
  2109. for more than a few minutes&lt;br /&gt;
  2110. stopped being a reminder i didn&#39;t want&lt;/p&gt;
  2111.  
  2112. &lt;p&gt;you&#39;d see it in the people who&lt;br /&gt;
  2113. were there  &#38;mdash;  one of those rare wet&lt;br /&gt;
  2114. days would set in and they&#39;d&lt;br /&gt;
  2115. get a little nervous around the eyes&lt;/p&gt;
  2116.  
  2117. &lt;p&gt;last summer we patched together the&lt;br /&gt;
  2118. failing gutters on this old house&lt;br /&gt;
  2119. and added a section or two&lt;/p&gt;
  2120.  
  2121. &lt;p&gt;it was shoddy work and the lesson i&lt;br /&gt;
  2122. learned about gutters is next time&lt;br /&gt;
  2123. i&#39;ll hire it done, but they carry water&lt;br /&gt;
  2124. down to the ground better than before&lt;/p&gt;
  2125.  
  2126. &lt;p&gt;now, nearing midnight, it&#39;s been raining&lt;br /&gt;
  2127. steady since before sundown&lt;br /&gt;
  2128. i can hear it streaming through those&lt;br /&gt;
  2129. aluminum troughs, probably pooling in&lt;br /&gt;
  2130. the low spots i can&#39;t figure out how&lt;br /&gt;
  2131. to build up, trickling down into the&lt;br /&gt;
  2132. crawlspace we&#39;ll have to fix for real&lt;br /&gt;
  2133. one of these seasons&lt;/p&gt;
  2134.  
  2135. &lt;p&gt;and what i feel is just the old midwestern&lt;br /&gt;
  2136. calm of a roof overhead in weather&lt;br /&gt;
  2137. the quiet pleasure of being alive in a world&lt;br /&gt;
  2138. that&#39;s happening at some greater scale than mine&lt;/p&gt;
  2139.  
  2140. &lt;p&gt;the grass all lifting up to meet it&lt;br /&gt;
  2141. the birds waiting to make riot at dawn&lt;br /&gt;
  2142. the rabbits huddled under the scrubby&lt;br /&gt;
  2143. trees in the fenceline&lt;/p&gt;
  2144.  
  2145. &lt;p&gt;just rain on the roof.&lt;br /&gt;
  2146. i&#39;ll take it.&lt;/p&gt;
  2147.  
  2148.  
  2149. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2150. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2151. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  2152. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/4/27/&#34; title=&#34;27&#34;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2153. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2154.  
  2155. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, April 12, 2021 - software as government</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/4/12"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/4/12</id><content type="html">
  2156.  
  2157. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, April 12, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2158.  
  2159. &lt;h2&gt;software as government&lt;/h2&gt;
  2160.  
  2161. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m sketching an incomplete thought here.  For context:&lt;/p&gt;
  2162.  
  2163. &lt;ul&gt;
  2164. &lt;li&gt;GitHub eating open source, Microsoft eating GitHub.  Google eating
  2165. e-mail, the web, corporate communications.  Apple with its infinite dollars
  2166. and stranglehold on a class of users with deep, identity-defining emotional
  2167. attachments to its stuff.  All the usual monopoly-and-aspiring-monopoly stuff.&lt;/li&gt;
  2168. &lt;li&gt;The totality of cloud computing&#38;rsquo;s ideological and conceptual triumph in
  2169. the space of a decade, to the point where people tend to view a business
  2170. that owns servers and runs stuff on them instead of renting them from an
  2171. approved megacorporation as aberrant and maybe kind of offensive.&lt;/li&gt;
  2172. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2021/3/23/&#34;&gt;RMS and the Free Software Foundation&#38;rsquo;s apparent ongoing collapse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2173. &lt;li&gt;A few years&#39; experience working for a technical nonprofit embedded in a
  2174. large community.&lt;/li&gt;
  2175. &lt;li&gt;The way most of the general-purpose computers are phones now, and how much
  2176. less general purpose they&#38;rsquo;re looking these days.&lt;/li&gt;
  2177. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2178.  
  2179.  
  2180. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❃ &lt;/p&gt;
  2181.  
  2182.  
  2183. &lt;p&gt;So, the recurring thought: &lt;strong&gt;A lot of the things that people gravitate towards
  2184. or become dependent on in software are effectively governments.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2185.  
  2186. &lt;p&gt;That is, partly, things which:&lt;/p&gt;
  2187.  
  2188. &lt;ul&gt;
  2189. &lt;li&gt;Build and maintain infrastructure&lt;/li&gt;
  2190. &lt;li&gt;Create / enforce standards&lt;/li&gt;
  2191. &lt;li&gt;Police at least some kinds of bad actor&lt;/li&gt;
  2192. &lt;li&gt;Extract rents / taxes&lt;/li&gt;
  2193. &lt;li&gt;Provide employment to a class of technocrats&lt;/li&gt;
  2194. &lt;li&gt;Provide frameworks for cultural affiliation&lt;/li&gt;
  2195. &lt;li&gt;Express or enact aspects of the civic religion&lt;/li&gt;
  2196. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2197.  
  2198.  
  2199. &lt;p&gt;While often what a lot of us in FOSS / digital rights / free knowledge circles
  2200. are striving for is some combination, depending on priors and priorities, of:&lt;/p&gt;
  2201.  
  2202. &lt;ul&gt;
  2203. &lt;li&gt;Software anarchism - things that don&#38;rsquo;t require government, operate outside of
  2204. it, or actively defy it&lt;/li&gt;
  2205. &lt;li&gt;Mutual aid&lt;/li&gt;
  2206. &lt;li&gt;Certain kinds of resource sharing and cooperation between entities that
  2207. are effectively (and sometimes literally) competing governments&lt;/li&gt;
  2208. &lt;li&gt;Better governance&lt;/li&gt;
  2209. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2210.  
  2211.  
  2212. &lt;p&gt;There are thus contradictions that arise:&lt;/p&gt;
  2213.  
  2214. &lt;ol&gt;
  2215. &lt;li&gt; Within those aims&lt;/li&gt;
  2216. &lt;li&gt; Between those aims and the dominant forms of power&lt;/li&gt;
  2217. &lt;li&gt; Between those aims and the needs / wants / habits of users&lt;/li&gt;
  2218. &lt;/ol&gt;
  2219.  
  2220.  
  2221. &lt;p&gt;#2 is sort of a given, though we could do with a lot more self-awareness about
  2222. just how much our work is the foundation of now-dominant powers.  #1 and #3
  2223. bear more thinking about.&lt;/p&gt;
  2224.  
  2225. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s nothing new here, and I suppose it rhymes with stuff I&#38;rsquo;ve been saying
  2226. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2013/12/4/&#34; title=&#34;on software&#34;&gt;for&lt;/a&gt; a
  2227. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/14/&#34; title=&#34;the world computer: a marginally coherent bathtub rant&#34;&gt;while&lt;/a&gt;.
  2228. The frame, though, feels like recognizing something I&#38;rsquo;ve been bad at looking
  2229. at directly.&lt;/p&gt;
  2230.  
  2231.  
  2232.  
  2233. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/free-software&#34;&gt;free-software&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/idealogging&#34;&gt;idealogging&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2234. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2235. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  2236. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/4/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2237. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2238.  
  2239. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title type="html">Sunday, April 11, 2021 - observations on gear nerdery &#38; utility fetishism, 2021 edition</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/4/11"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/4/11</id><content type="html">
  2240.  
  2241. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, April 11, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2242.  
  2243. &lt;h2&gt;observations on gear nerdery &#38;amp; utility fetishism, 2021 edition&lt;/h2&gt;
  2244.  
  2245. &lt;ol&gt;
  2246. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In most settings, a big van covers about 70% of the utility afforded by a
  2247. pickup truck, plus you can sleep in it and the stuff inside won&#38;rsquo;t get rained
  2248. on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2249. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before you buy or gift a synthesizer, remember that owning a synthesizer is
  2250. like having a little robot voice whispering in your ear about how cool it
  2251. would be to own &lt;em&gt;more and better&lt;/em&gt; synthesizers and synthesizer accessories.
  2252. (The voice isn&#38;rsquo;t necessarily wrong, but it will never be satisfied.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2253. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;However many audio cables you think you&#38;rsquo;re going to need, double it and add
  2254. one for good measure.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2255. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whatever comes after USB-C, I&#38;rsquo;m already mad about it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2256. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2021, the primary determinant of what power tool you&#38;rsquo;re going to buy is
  2257. usually whatever brand of lithium batteries you already own a bunch of.&lt;/p&gt;
  2258.  
  2259. &lt;p&gt;It took concerted effort by some very smart people to create a situation
  2260. this thoroughly stupid.  I&#38;rsquo;d boycott the whole market if I didn&#38;rsquo;t already
  2261. own a bunch of tools encased in yellow plastic and dislike messing with
  2262. extension cords.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2263. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;My Casio G-Shock still works great.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2264. &lt;/ol&gt;
  2265.  
  2266.  
  2267. &lt;p&gt;Previously:&lt;/p&gt;
  2268.  
  2269. &lt;ul&gt;
  2270. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;2011/8/30/&#34;&gt;recent observations on gear nerdery &#38;amp; utility fetishism&lt;/a&gt; (2011)&lt;/li&gt;
  2271. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2012/4/12/&#34;&gt;more observations on gear nerdery &#38;amp; utility fetishism&lt;/a&gt; (2012)&lt;/li&gt;
  2272. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2273.  
  2274.  
  2275.  
  2276.  
  2277. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/synthesizers&#34;&gt;synthesizers&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/usb&#34;&gt;usb&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2278. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2279. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  2280. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/4/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2281. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2282.  
  2283. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, March 24, 2021 - the weather</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/3/24"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/3/24</id><content type="html">
  2284.  
  2285. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, March 24, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2286.  
  2287. &lt;h2&gt;the weather&lt;/h2&gt;
  2288.  
  2289. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Written back in March, posted 2021-07-14. Discusses a mass shooting.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2290.  
  2291. &lt;p&gt;I moved out of Boulder almost a decade ago.  Writing this now, I don&#38;rsquo;t remember
  2292. if I thought I was making a decision about &lt;em&gt;leaving Boulder&lt;/em&gt;.  I think I
  2293. figured I&#38;rsquo;d be back sooner or later.  I was just getting worn out on living in
  2294. basements, my landlords upstairs were about to have a baby, and it seemed like
  2295. time to make a change.  When I went to look, it turned out I could rent a
  2296. massive old 3 bedroom house in one of the L-towns for what a decent
  2297. above-ground apartment was running in Boulder.&lt;/p&gt;
  2298.  
  2299. &lt;p&gt;When I left, the exodus of most people I knew in town was just getting
  2300. underway.  The stuff that made it permanent seems pretty concrete and
  2301. inescapable now, but it accumulated gradually.  One formulaic conversation
  2302. about real estate and the money moving in at a time; the same story as every
  2303. other place in America that people from somewhere else want to live.&lt;/p&gt;
  2304.  
  2305. &lt;p&gt;Looking back on it now, those two years in a basement in South Boulder were the
  2306. best that town ever treated me.  Martian Acres, with Martin Park for a back
  2307. yard.  The bike path all the way out to Gunbarrel for work, or jamming onto the
  2308. crowded bus up Broadway.  Beers at the Southern Sun, breakfast at the Walnut
  2309. Cafe to go with the hangovers.&lt;/p&gt;
  2310.  
  2311. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s nothing much &lt;em&gt;extraordinary&lt;/em&gt; about that part of town.  As far as I
  2312. know, it&#38;rsquo;s just 1950s and 60s development that grew into something lived in.
  2313. Cheap little ranch houses on irrationally curving streets.  It felt a little
  2314. more real than the places the money had completely eaten by then, and by virtue
  2315. of that reality also maybe a little weirder in the way things around here are
  2316. &lt;em&gt;supposed&lt;/em&gt; to be weird.  They get fewer by the year, but Boulder as I knew it
  2317. was a place of little pocket-universe neighborhoods.  You&#38;rsquo;d find yourself in
  2318. some hidden corner and think: This is how it used to be.  This is why people
  2319. keep coming back.&lt;/p&gt;
  2320.  
  2321. &lt;p&gt;People in that part of town were good to me.  It&#38;rsquo;s the part I always feel like
  2322. I can still imagine living in.&lt;/p&gt;
  2323.  
  2324. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✢ &lt;/p&gt;
  2325.  
  2326.  
  2327. &lt;p&gt;There are things you remember about a neighborhood.  Mundane but also defining.
  2328. I wind up with strong opinions about grocery stores.  The Table Mesa one was my
  2329. favorite King Soopers around here.  Nice produce selection, friendly people at
  2330. the checkout.&lt;/p&gt;
  2331.  
  2332. &lt;p&gt;A couple of days ago, a guy walked in the door there and shot ten people to
  2333. death with, most probably, an AR-15 knockoff.  Nobody I know died, though I was
  2334. as worried about that as I&#38;rsquo;ve ever been during one of these.&lt;/p&gt;
  2335.  
  2336. &lt;p&gt;Some unbelievable asshole was streaming from the parking lot on YouTube during
  2337. all of this.  I watched more of it than I feel good about, with a more acute
  2338. version of that same sick dread you feel when a tornado is bearing down on
  2339. somewhere you know.&lt;/p&gt;
  2340.  
  2341. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✾ &lt;/p&gt;
  2342.  
  2343.  
  2344. &lt;p&gt;This is the weather in America.  If you live in a place where the violence is
  2345. usually at a distance, you put it in the mental background.  You figure today
  2346. probably isn&#38;rsquo;t the day a mass murder hits while you&#38;rsquo;re picking up groceries or
  2347. going to work.  Most days aren&#38;rsquo;t.  You&#38;rsquo;d take sensible precautions but there
  2348. aren&#38;rsquo;t any to take.  It&#38;rsquo;s like living in tornado alley, but you can&#38;rsquo;t look for
  2349. a house with a basement.&lt;/p&gt;
  2350.  
  2351. &lt;p&gt;I hate my country.&lt;/p&gt;
  2352.  
  2353.  
  2354.  
  2355. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/boulder&#34;&gt;boulder&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/colorado&#34;&gt;colorado&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/violence&#34;&gt;violence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2356. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2357. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2358. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/24/&#34; title=&#34;24&#34;&gt;24&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2359. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2360.  
  2361. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, March 23, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/3/23"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/3/23</id><content type="html">
  2362.  
  2363. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, March 23, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2364.  
  2365. &lt;p&gt;The RMS thing has come up again.  I wrote at some length about this back &lt;a href=&#34;/2019/10/20/&#34;&gt;in
  2366. October of 2019&lt;/a&gt;.  I felt messed up about it then, and I still
  2367. do.  If anybody wants or needs my opinions, they haven&#38;rsquo;t changed much since I
  2368. wrote that piece.&lt;/p&gt;
  2369.  
  2370. &lt;p&gt;Anyway, I signed &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/rms-open-letter/rms-open-letter.github.io/blob/main/index.md&#34;&gt;the open letter&lt;/a&gt;.  I could quibble with aspects of
  2371. the demands there, but I guess this feels like a necessary push right now.  A
  2372. lot of friends and colleagues are on that list, and it seems like for the right
  2373. reasons.&lt;/p&gt;
  2374.  
  2375. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t want to see the Free Software Foundation destroyed.  I would very much
  2376. like to see it saved from some of the worst impulses in this scene.  If that
  2377. can&#38;rsquo;t happen, then we as a community probably need to stop treating the FSF as
  2378. a useful proxy for the radical libre software position and put that effort,
  2379. time, and money into less damaged undertakings.&lt;/p&gt;
  2380.  
  2381. &lt;p&gt;At any rate:  I won&#38;rsquo;t personally renew my membership with the FSF until, and
  2382. unless, meaningful changes are made.&lt;/p&gt;
  2383.  
  2384.  
  2385.  
  2386. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/free-software&#34;&gt;free-software&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/richard-stallman&#34;&gt;richard-stallman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2387. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2388. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2389. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/23/&#34; title=&#34;23&#34;&gt;23&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2390. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2391.  
  2392. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, March 14, 2021 - reading: a desolation called peace</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/3/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/3/14</id><content type="html">
  2393.  
  2394. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, March 14, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2395.  
  2396. &lt;h2&gt;reading: a desolation called peace&lt;/h2&gt;
  2397.  
  2398. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.arkadymartine.net/a-desolation-called-peace-press-publicity&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A Desolation Called Peace&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, Arkady Martine, Tor Books, March 2021.&lt;/p&gt;
  2399.  
  2400. &lt;p&gt;The followup to &lt;em&gt;A Memory Called Empire&lt;/em&gt;, which I &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/11/13/&#34;&gt;read in November of last
  2401. year&lt;/a&gt;.  More overtly Space Opera in its plot mechanics and fantasy
  2402. physics, but digs deeper into the first novel&#38;rsquo;s most interesting ideas, and
  2403. pays off all over the place.  Doubled themes of memory, language,
  2404. theory-of-mind, small cultures surviving at great cost in the face of larger
  2405. ones, cultures and polities transformed by what they attempt to subsume.&lt;/p&gt;
  2406.  
  2407. &lt;p&gt;I have marginal notes like &#38;ldquo;this is so fucking good&#38;rdquo; in a couple of places.  If
  2408. this is a &lt;em&gt;kind&lt;/em&gt; of thing you enjoy, you will very likely enjoy this instance
  2409. of it.&lt;/p&gt;
  2410.  
  2411.  
  2412.  
  2413.  
  2414. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/arkady-martine&#34;&gt;arkady-martine&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2415. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2416. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2417. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2418. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2419.  
  2420. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, March  3, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/3/3"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/3/3</id><content type="html">
  2421.  
  2422. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, March  3, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2423.  
  2424. &lt;p&gt;We loved computers:  That&#38;rsquo;s a simplification, almost a category error.  What
  2425. happened is we found computers, we got on the network, and before long we lived
  2426. as much inside the possibility space of computing as we did anywhere else.&lt;/p&gt;
  2427.  
  2428. &lt;p&gt;Maybe what we got wrong is this:  From the beginning, computers appeared to us
  2429. as a kind of liberation.  Because we were young and our horizons were close, we
  2430. mistook the ways they opened the world to us for their most important quality.
  2431. What we couldn&#38;rsquo;t see then was that they were born as instruments of the
  2432. oppressor, and would help us become the same.&lt;/p&gt;
  2433.  
  2434. &lt;p&gt;Even when we grasped that the scaffolding of computation came from power, when
  2435. we were running free around those systems we felt like we understood their real
  2436. purpose in a way that the institutions that built and purchased them couldn&#38;rsquo;t.
  2437. Nevermind that they couldn&#38;rsquo;t exist without an industrial economy, ranked tiers
  2438. of exploited workers, and a relentlessly degraded environment.&lt;/p&gt;
  2439.  
  2440. &lt;p&gt;Computation was a power that we could see how to take for ourselves.  It
  2441. unfolded in front of us in a way that the authorities in our lives could, for
  2442. the most part, barely even perceive.  Sometimes they&#38;rsquo;d glimpse it and lash out
  2443. in fear or contempt.  We mistook their fear for a sign we were on the right
  2444. track.&lt;/p&gt;
  2445.  
  2446. &lt;p&gt;And maybe some of us were, for a while.  But we didn&#38;rsquo;t understand that what
  2447. power serves is usually power itself.&lt;/p&gt;
  2448.  
  2449.  
  2450. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2451. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2452. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2453. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/3/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2454. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2455.  
  2456. </content><updated>2021-03-04T05:31:45Z</updated></entry><entry><title>sunday, february 28, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/2/28"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/2/28</id><content type="html">
  2457.  
  2458. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;sunday, february 28, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2459.  
  2460. &lt;p&gt;in the transient world&lt;br /&gt;
  2461. nothing is incorruptible&lt;br /&gt;
  2462. except perhaps corruption itself&lt;/p&gt;
  2463.  
  2464.  
  2465.  
  2466. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2467. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2468. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  2469. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/2/28/&#34; title=&#34;28&#34;&gt;28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2470. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2471.  
  2472. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>sunday, february 14, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/2/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/2/14</id><content type="html">
  2473.  
  2474. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;sunday, february 14, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2475.  
  2476. &lt;p&gt;days and days into weeks and weeks and months&lt;br /&gt;
  2477. and months go by with all the variation of&lt;br /&gt;
  2478. fenceposts outside a car window&lt;br /&gt;
  2479. on a road through western kansas&lt;/p&gt;
  2480.  
  2481. &lt;p&gt;and then it&#39;s the late winter again&lt;br /&gt;
  2482. in february, we finally get a stretch&lt;br /&gt;
  2483. of cold weather&lt;/p&gt;
  2484.  
  2485. &lt;p&gt;i leave my desk and go out for a walk one day&lt;br /&gt;
  2486. and see a coyote hunting prairie dogs in the&lt;br /&gt;
  2487. grass, a bald eagle looking down over the&lt;br /&gt;
  2488. half-frozen saint vrain&lt;/p&gt;
  2489.  
  2490.  
  2491. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2492. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2493. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  2494. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/2/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2495. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2496.  
  2497. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - reading: the steerswoman (series)</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/1/26"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/1/26</id><content type="html">
  2498.  
  2499. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, January 26, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2500.  
  2501. &lt;h2&gt;reading: the steerswoman (series)&lt;/h2&gt;
  2502.  
  2503. &lt;p&gt;These are by Rosemary Kirstein, and available as e-books &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/13953&#34;&gt;on
  2504. Smashwords&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  2505.  
  2506. &lt;ul&gt;
  2507. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Steerswoman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2508. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Outskirter&#38;rsquo;s Secret&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2509. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Lost Steersman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2510. &lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Language of Power&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  2511. &lt;/ul&gt;
  2512.  
  2513.  
  2514. &lt;p&gt;I came across these by way of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.harihareswara.net/sumana/2019/03/20/0&#34;&gt;a blog post by Sumana Harihareswara&lt;/a&gt;, I
  2515. think with my ambient sense that I should read them enhanced by &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-345-46105-3a.html&#34;&gt;a review by
  2516. Russ Allbery&lt;/a&gt; and a blurb from Jo Walton.&lt;/p&gt;
  2517.  
  2518. &lt;p&gt;On first inspection, &lt;em&gt;The Steerswoman&lt;/em&gt; is a particular and familiar sort of
  2519. fantasy with one or two mildly interesting conceits.  It quickly becomes
  2520. something deeper than that, and after working through all four in the space of
  2521. a couple of weeks, I&#38;rsquo;d rank them with the classics of their genre.&lt;/p&gt;
  2522.  
  2523. &lt;p&gt;This is an unfinished series, the first of which was published in 1989, with a
  2524. whole lot of unresolved questions.  I normally try not to encourage people to
  2525. take up this kind of thing; most readers of speculative fiction have been
  2526. burned by &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; long-running series or another by now.  I&#38;rsquo;ll make an exception
  2527. for this one:  I eagerly await the concluding volumes, but even if they&#38;rsquo;re
  2528. never published, the first four are all worth the time.&lt;/p&gt;
  2529.  
  2530.  
  2531.  
  2532.  
  2533. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/rosemary-kirstein&#34;&gt;rosemary-kirstein&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/the-steerswoman&#34;&gt;the-steerswoman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2534. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2535. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  2536. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/26/&#34; title=&#34;26&#34;&gt;26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2537. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2538.  
  2539. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>wednesday, january 20, 2021</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/1/20"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/1/20</id><content type="html">
  2540.  
  2541. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;wednesday, january 20, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2542.  
  2543. &lt;p&gt;somewhere a little after 10pm&lt;br /&gt;
  2544. a mandolin, amplified loud enough for&lt;br /&gt;
  2545. most of town to hear it&lt;br /&gt;
  2546. plays a triumphant instrumental.&lt;br /&gt;
  2547. and then a single firework&lt;/p&gt;
  2548.  
  2549. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2550. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2551. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  2552. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/20/&#34; title=&#34;20&#34;&gt;20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2553. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2554.  
  2555. </content><updated>2021-01-21T05:36:56Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, January  4, 2021 - keeping a log: 9 months / ~1k entries in</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/1/4"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/1/4</id><content type="html">
  2556.  
  2557. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, January  4, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2558.  
  2559. &lt;h2&gt;keeping a log: 9 months / ~1k entries in&lt;/h2&gt;
  2560.  
  2561. &lt;p&gt;Previously: &lt;a href=&#34;/2017/1/22&#34;&gt;org mode, vimwiki, timeslice&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  2562.  
  2563. &lt;p&gt;Mechanisms inspired directly by: A &lt;a href=&#34;http://demo-journal.liw.fi/&#34;&gt;demo&lt;/a&gt; &#38;amp; talk
  2564. from Lars Wirzenius on his &lt;a href=&#34;https://ikiwiki.info/&#34;&gt;ikiwiki&lt;/a&gt;-based external
  2565. brain and journal; fediverse discussion of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://orgmode.org/&#34;&gt;Org mode&lt;/a&gt;
  2566. agenda; and possibly too much &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/7/27/&#34;&gt;reading about the Zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  2567.  
  2568. &lt;p&gt;Back in March, in the throes of a bunch of &lt;a href=&#34;/zettelkasten&#34;&gt;rabbitholing about
  2569. note-taking&lt;/a&gt;, I roughed out a system for keeping short,
  2570. granular log entries in my VimWiki.  I agonized for quite a while about how to
  2571. do this before deciding to start with the stupidest thing that could possibly
  2572. work.&lt;/p&gt;
  2573.  
  2574. &lt;p&gt;The short version is that I have a hotkey to create datestamped files in
  2575. a &lt;code&gt;log/&lt;/code&gt; directory, like these:&lt;/p&gt;
  2576.  
  2577. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;./vimwiki/log/2021-01-04-2033-33.wiki
  2578. ./vimwiki/log/2021-01-04-1719-51.wiki
  2579. ./vimwiki/log/2021-01-04-1516-18.wiki
  2580. ./vimwiki/log/2021-01-04-0914-03.wiki
  2581. ./vimwiki/log/2021-01-04-0142-59.wiki
  2582. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  2583.  
  2584. &lt;p&gt;A new entry opens with a template like the following:&lt;/p&gt;
  2585.  
  2586. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;%date 2021-01-04 21:46:40.056011313-07:00
  2587. %title
  2588. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  2589.  
  2590. &lt;p&gt;I then give the entry a human-readable title, links to relevant topics, and as
  2591. much text description as seems useful.  A typical entry looks something like:&lt;/p&gt;
  2592.  
  2593. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;%date 2020-12-11 16:49:51.356943342-07:00
  2594. %title Configuring digiKam again
  2595.  
  2596. [[/configuration]] [[/photos]] [[/digikam]]
  2597.  
  2598. Digging around in the guts of an old `digikam4.db`.  Changed the album root to
  2599. point to the new path in `~/workspace/photos`.
  2600. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  2601.  
  2602. &lt;p&gt;Then, when I&#38;rsquo;m viewing a topic page like &lt;code&gt;digikam&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;photos&lt;/code&gt;, I can press
  2603. another hotkey to pull up a window with any linked log entries.  When I&#38;rsquo;m
  2604. viewing the diary page for a given day, a bit of shell boilerplate shows me
  2605. all the log entries for that date.&lt;/p&gt;
  2606.  
  2607. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❉ &lt;/p&gt;
  2608.  
  2609.  
  2610. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve elaborated on this all a bit since March, but the underpinnings are still
  2611. just a few hundred lines of hacky scripting and Vim configuration.  Before I put any
  2612. work into cleaning it up, I thought I&#38;rsquo;d try to outline some stuff I&#38;rsquo;ve learned.&lt;/p&gt;
  2613.  
  2614. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ll use the time-honored form of &#38;ldquo;answers to questions no one has actually
  2615. asked me&#38;rdquo;:&lt;/p&gt;
  2616.  
  2617. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why a log?&lt;/strong&gt;  Because in taking notes, I&#38;rsquo;m worried about two dimensions:
  2618. Subject matter and time.  A single flat wiki namespace can be workable for
  2619. navigating the &lt;em&gt;who/what/where&lt;/em&gt;, but it&#38;rsquo;s lousy for navigating the &lt;em&gt;when&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  2620.  
  2621. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve also spent a lot of my life keeping logbooks, looking at logfiles on
  2622. computers, writing a journal, and publishing a datestamped blog.  At Wikimedia,
  2623. I&#38;rsquo;ve been particularly impressed by how useful the &lt;a href=&#34;https://sal.toolforge.org/production&#34;&gt;server admin logs&lt;/a&gt;
  2624. are, and I pretty much live and die by command-line history and bookmarks.
  2625. It&#38;rsquo;s a notion with an overwhelming amount of precedent in my life.&lt;/p&gt;
  2626.  
  2627. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What distinguishes a log entry from any other wiki page?&lt;/strong&gt;  Its placement in
  2628. the &lt;code&gt;log/&lt;/code&gt; namespace and a handful of formatting conventions.&lt;/p&gt;
  2629.  
  2630. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Was this actually a good way to approach the problem?&lt;/strong&gt;  Yeah, I think so,
  2631. with caveats.&lt;/p&gt;
  2632.  
  2633. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is the implementation sound?&lt;/strong&gt;  Not by miles, but it holds up better than I
  2634. expected.  Eventually the flat directory structure will get cumbersome in the
  2635. shell, and grepping through files like I&#38;rsquo;m doing some places might get less
  2636. practical.&lt;/p&gt;
  2637.  
  2638. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How are the ergonomics?&lt;/strong&gt;  Not &lt;em&gt;that&lt;/em&gt; bad, but there should be as few
  2639. keystrokes as possible involved in writing a new entry, and this doesn&#38;rsquo;t quite
  2640. cut it.&lt;/p&gt;
  2641.  
  2642. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What&#38;rsquo;s a good fit for this kind of log entry?&lt;/strong&gt;  Finding a new piece of
  2643. software, writing a letter, taking notes on a meeting, setting up or
  2644. decommissioning a piece of gear, finishing a book, garden/yard work, house and
  2645. vehicle maintenance, phone calls, general life events, sysadmin work, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
  2646.  
  2647. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What&#38;rsquo;s not?&lt;/strong&gt;  The single thing I&#38;rsquo;ve done the most of that probably makes the
  2648. least sense in this format is logging individual expenses and financial
  2649. transactions.  This has been useful enough to convince me that tracking what
  2650. I&#38;rsquo;m doing with money is a good idea, but clunky enough that I&#38;rsquo;ve learned stuff
  2651. like &#38;ldquo;paid the mortgage&#38;rdquo; and &#38;ldquo;bought groceries&#38;rdquo; should be structured,
  2652. query-able data.  The most that I have to bash out with a keyboard in that
  2653. context should be an annotation on a specific record or group of records.
  2654. That&#38;rsquo;s not to say I&#38;rsquo;m thrilled at the prospect of keeping a rigorous
  2655. double-entry ledger that balances out for every transaction in my life, but I
  2656. can see the appeal in a way I couldn&#38;rsquo;t really before.&lt;/p&gt;
  2657.  
  2658. &lt;p&gt;This generalizes I guess:  A lot of the history I care about lives in
  2659. structured, formal-ish systems like version control, banking, various databases
  2660. &#38;mdash; and other parts of it &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt;.  Like sometimes I log specific weather
  2661. events, but usually when I want to know about weather in the past, what I&#38;rsquo;d
  2662. really like is a way to quickly aggregate a bunch of data points.&lt;/p&gt;
  2663.  
  2664. &lt;p&gt;That points at two categories of &#38;ldquo;log entry&#38;rdquo;:  The loosely-typed human-readable
  2665. kind that make sense as wiki pages, and the granular, highly-structured and
  2666. repetitive kind that make more sense in something like a database table.  Then
  2667. there&#38;rsquo;s a third that doesn&#38;rsquo;t quite fit in either box.  Sometimes I paste a
  2668. lengthy shell transcript into a log entry, for example, and while that&#38;rsquo;s more
  2669. or less fine, it points at a gap in the tools I use.  It would be way nicer
  2670. just to push a button when I&#38;rsquo;m doing something in the terminal that it&#38;rsquo;s
  2671. important to remember exactly, and then it can record until I tell it to stop
  2672. and let me add some tags and a summary to the session.&lt;/p&gt;
  2673.  
  2674. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what next?&lt;/strong&gt;  Well, I&#38;rsquo;ve arrived at something I&#38;rsquo;m going to keep using.
  2675. I&#38;rsquo;d miss it if I quit, and it&#38;rsquo;s easy to accumulate a useful record this way.  I
  2676. might clean up the mess a bit and package its components as a VimWiki addon.
  2677. After that, I&#38;rsquo;m going to spackle more stupidest-things-that-could-possibly-work
  2678. on top to augment it, and think about more ways to surface and integrate other
  2679. parts of the meta-log that are scattered all over the systems I use.&lt;/p&gt;
  2680.  
  2681.  
  2682.  
  2683. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/data&#34;&gt;data&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/logging&#34;&gt;logging&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes&#34;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/vimwiki&#34;&gt;vimwiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2684. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2685. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  2686. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2687. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2688.  
  2689. </content><updated>2024-03-26T00:08:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Saturday, January 2, 2021 - reading in 2020 (books edition)</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/1/2"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/1/2</id><content type="html">
  2690.  
  2691. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Saturday, January 2, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2692.  
  2693. &lt;h2&gt;reading in 2020 (books edition)&lt;/h2&gt;
  2694.  
  2695. &lt;p&gt;As I &lt;a href=&#34;/2021/1/1&#34;&gt;look over the set of books I&#38;rsquo;ve piled up in my house&lt;/a&gt;, the
  2696. other thing that strikes me is that, in the years these books have been
  2697. accumulating, both the relationship of books to the culture and the nature of
  2698. reading itself have been rearranged.  Like I &lt;a href=&#34;/2018/1/1/&#34;&gt;wrote three years
  2699. ago&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  2700.  
  2701. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because really what I read in 2017, in most of the last several years, was
  2702. the internet. Not even, in any real sense that registers, individual
  2703. documents hosted on the network, or the work of authors I can clearly
  2704. identify. Just the endless scroll.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  2705.  
  2706. &lt;p&gt;&#38;hellip;it&#38;rsquo;s like that but more so, now.&lt;/p&gt;
  2707.  
  2708. &lt;p&gt;The last book I read in 2020 was Kim Stanley Robinson&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;The Ministry for the
  2709. Future&lt;/em&gt;, which has this bit (chapter 30):&lt;/p&gt;
  2710.  
  2711. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;So how you feel about your time is partly or even largely a result of that
  2712. time’s structure of feeling. When time passes and that structure changes, how
  2713. you feel will also change— both in your body and in how you understand it as a
  2714. meaning. Say the order of your time feels unjust and unsustainable and yet
  2715. massively entrenched, but also falling apart before your eyes. The obvious
  2716. contradictions in this list might yet still describe the feeling of your time
  2717. quite accurately, if we are not mistaken. Or put it this way; it feels that way
  2718. to us. But a little contemplation of history will reveal that this feeling too
  2719. will not last for long. Unless of course the feeling of things falling apart is
  2720. itself massively entrenched, to the point of being the eternal or eternally
  2721. recurrent individual human’s reaction to history. Which may just mean the
  2722. reinscription of the biological onto the historical, for we are all definitely
  2723. always falling apart, and not massively entrenched in anything at all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  2724.  
  2725. &lt;p&gt;The moment&#38;rsquo;s structure of feeling has changed, and you can tell it in just
  2726. about every text you encounter.  It&#38;rsquo;s also pretty hard to stop encountering
  2727. texts even if you want to.  The stuff is inescapable and much of it has a
  2728. quality of self-replicating churn that makes me feel kind of queasy about the
  2729. entire enterprise of human thought.&lt;/p&gt;
  2730.  
  2731. &lt;p&gt;I wonder if it felt something like this when literacy really took off as a
  2732. technology in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;
  2733.  
  2734. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✢ &lt;/p&gt;
  2735.  
  2736.  
  2737. &lt;p&gt;Anyhow, what booklike objects did I read this past year?&lt;/p&gt;
  2738.  
  2739. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;February&lt;/strong&gt;: I ordered a copy of Sönke Ahrens&#39; &lt;em&gt;How to Take Smart Notes&lt;/em&gt;.
  2740. Note-taking was on my mind a lot over the course of the year, and I spent too
  2741. much time reading other people&#38;rsquo;s ideas about it.  By July I managed to post
  2742. some &lt;a href=&#34;zk&#34;&gt;notes on the idea of the Zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt; that serves as a partial
  2743. review / summary of &lt;em&gt;Smart Notes&lt;/em&gt; and related things.&lt;/p&gt;
  2744.  
  2745. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2020/5/14&#34;&gt;May&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: I binged my way through Martha Wells&#39; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.marthawells.com/murderbot.htm&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Murderbot
  2746. Diaries&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.  Popcorn SF, socially anxious heart-of-gold protagonist.
  2747. I started &lt;em&gt;The Elephant in the Cornfield: The Politics of Agriculture and
  2748. Climate Change&lt;/em&gt;, by Chris Clayton, which I should probably revisit.&lt;/p&gt;
  2749.  
  2750. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2020/10&#34;&gt;October&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/10/9&#34;&gt;Meghan O&#39;Gieblyn&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Interior
  2751. States&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (essays), &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/10/11&#34;&gt;Vanessa Veselka&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;The Great Offshore
  2752. Grounds&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (a novel), &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/10/12&#34;&gt;Ron Chernow&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Grant&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
  2753. (biography).  The first two were quite good and I still haven&#38;rsquo;t finished the
  2754. Grant biography.&lt;/p&gt;
  2755.  
  2756. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;November&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/11/13&#34;&gt;Arkady Martine&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;A Memory Called Empire&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, first of a
  2757. trilogy.  The first two of a trilogy by &lt;a href=&#34;eden-robinson&#34;&gt;Eden Robinson&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Son of
  2758. a Trickster&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Trickster Drift&lt;/em&gt;. All recommended.&lt;/p&gt;
  2759.  
  2760. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;December&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Trail of Lightning&lt;/em&gt;, Rebecca Roanhorse.  I liked some characters
  2761. and scenes and ideas in this, and didn&#38;rsquo;t exactly love it as a novel.  Mileage
  2762. might vary.&lt;/p&gt;
  2763.  
  2764. &lt;p&gt;And then &lt;em&gt;The Ministry for the Future&lt;/em&gt;.  Near future SF, barely a novel at all
  2765. for a lot of its length.  A book that seems more deliberately pitched to be
  2766. read &lt;em&gt;right now&lt;/em&gt; than a lot of short-shelf-life fiction is just by accident.
  2767. Among other things, it&#38;rsquo;s partly an argument that the end of ecocidal capitalism
  2768. is achievable, partly a claim that eco-terrorist violence is likely (and quite
  2769. possibly necessary) as the climate struggle intensifies, and partly a fantasy
  2770. that cryptocurrency might have some kind of pro-social role to play in
  2771. engineering a survivable economy.  I will be thinking about this one for a
  2772. while.&lt;/p&gt;
  2773.  
  2774.  
  2775.  
  2776. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/climate&#34;&gt;climate&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/murderbot&#34;&gt;murderbot&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2777. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2778. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  2779. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2780. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2781.  
  2782. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, January 1, 2021 - shelves</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2021/1/1"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2021/1/1</id><content type="html">
  2783.  
  2784. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, January 1, 2021&lt;/h1&gt;
  2785.  
  2786. &lt;h2&gt;shelves&lt;/h2&gt;
  2787.  
  2788. &lt;p&gt;I rearranged my office back in mid-December.  This is always tricky because we
  2789. have more stuff (hand-me-down furniture, old computers, bins full of
  2790. electronics) than we really have house to put it in.  As per usual one thing
  2791. led to another and I wound up moving all of my books.&lt;/p&gt;
  2792.  
  2793. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve finally got just enough room to shelve most of them again, thanks to
  2794. secondhand bookshelves and a partner who went on a building spree for her own
  2795. collection over the summer.  It&#38;rsquo;s been a couple of houses since they were
  2796. anything like organized, though.  Half of them have been trapped behind a cat
  2797. tree and an armchair for years.&lt;/p&gt;
  2798.  
  2799. &lt;p&gt;I went for alpha-by-author ordering, with a handful of category exceptions:
  2800. Poetry, reference works, religious texts, computer stuff, a bottom shelf for
  2801. the oversized volumes.  It&#38;rsquo;s a mess because I&#38;rsquo;m doubling up to fit everything
  2802. and the books are wildly different sizes.  I can see one of the flimsier sets
  2803. of shelves coming apart under the load as I type this, and the U&#38;ndash;Z stacks
  2804. are still sitting on the bedroom floor because I ran out of space.&lt;/p&gt;
  2805.  
  2806. &lt;p&gt;So it&#38;rsquo;s imperfect, but it&#38;rsquo;s also really the first comprehensive view I&#38;rsquo;ve had
  2807. of this set of books since I was 6 or 7 years younger and it was a much smaller
  2808. set.  It&#38;rsquo;s kind of a strange experience.&lt;/p&gt;
  2809.  
  2810. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✥ &lt;/p&gt;
  2811.  
  2812.  
  2813. &lt;p&gt;From the time I started reading on my own until pretty far into college, I
  2814. lived in books.  As a kid I read and re-read my dad&#38;rsquo;s pile of genre paperbacks,
  2815. thrived on trips to the library, spent hours arranging things on shelves, was
  2816. always in the process of reading &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt;.  Once my friends and I could
  2817. drive, it meant I could go to B. Dalton and Waldenbooks before we saw whatever
  2818. the movie was that week.  Eventually the internet started to tell me about
  2819. writers and my personal canon expanded slowly outward, one novel-length trip at
  2820. a time.  It felt so weird to leave a book unfinished that until at least my
  2821. early 20s I could remember everything I&#38;rsquo;d ever bailed on (a &lt;em&gt;Hardy Boys&lt;/em&gt;
  2822. mystery with a scene containing a skeleton that wigged me out, the copy of
  2823. &lt;em&gt;Cujo&lt;/em&gt; that my mom got banned from the school library after I accidentally left
  2824. it where she could find it, &#38;hellip;).&lt;/p&gt;
  2825.  
  2826. &lt;p&gt;The books I have physically to hand in middle adulthood are a different kind of
  2827. animal.  There are, sure, beloved volumes from childhood, things that have
  2828. changed how I think, the kinds of books I go to for solace and perspective.
  2829. But looking at the whole spread, I&#38;rsquo;m honestly not sure I&#38;rsquo;ve even read more than
  2830. half of this stuff.&lt;/p&gt;
  2831.  
  2832. &lt;p&gt;Some of it I read but hated, or liked fine but never actually finished.  There
  2833. must be 30 lbs of assigned reading I&#38;rsquo;ve been lugging around since college.  A
  2834. dozen literary relics of relationships (romantic or otherwise) that have been
  2835. defunct for many multiples of the brief time they existed.  Detritus like the
  2836. copy of Jordan Peterson&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos&lt;/em&gt; that I
  2837. bought used and hate-read for reasons that now escape me but must surely
  2838. reflect poorly on my character.  Books about math that I own because I liked
  2839. the idea of being a person who would read them.  Poets who just leave me with a
  2840. sour feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Things that looked mildly interesting
  2841. on the book swap shelf at a coffeeshop I frequented in 2003, but which are in
  2842. fact bad.  I have a copy of &lt;em&gt;Battlefield Earth&lt;/em&gt; for some reason.  (It was
  2843. probably on the free table at SparkFun.)&lt;/p&gt;
  2844.  
  2845. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s at least as much dross in this collection as there is gold waiting to
  2846. be found, and then it&#38;rsquo;s funny how much of it belongs to some now-distant idea
  2847. of who I was &#38;mdash; or wanted to be &#38;mdash; as a reader or a thinker or a
  2848. person in general.&lt;/p&gt;
  2849.  
  2850. &lt;p&gt;I suppose all of that&#38;rsquo;s pretty normal for a stack of books sitting around going
  2851. into one&#38;rsquo;s 5th decade.  If you hold still for very long in this culture, stuff
  2852. accumulates around you, and plenty of it outlasts the parts of your life that
  2853. it attached to in the first place.  A library is a kind of memory and an index
  2854. to memory, but what it remembers can often be strangely fractured and unevenly
  2855. focused across time.  Not unlike the way things actually go in a given life I
  2856. guess.&lt;/p&gt;
  2857.  
  2858. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✣ &lt;/p&gt;
  2859.  
  2860.  
  2861. &lt;p&gt;Still and all:  I haven&#38;rsquo;t let go of the idea of a personal library, and I doubt
  2862. I will.&lt;/p&gt;
  2863.  
  2864. &lt;p&gt;Putting this stuff on shelves makes me think of what it was like at 10 or 12
  2865. years of age, crouching on the floor halfway through reordering a stack of
  2866. paperbacks, accidentally caught up in reading &lt;em&gt;The Green Hills of Earth&lt;/em&gt; or
  2867. &lt;em&gt;The Call of the Wild&lt;/em&gt; over again.  It also reminds me of what it was like at
  2868. 21, wandering deep in the stacks of a big university research library: All
  2869. those weird pathways and strange wonders.  Outcroppings of the sublime or the
  2870. sturdily useful in the most unexpected places, amidst treacherous pools of
  2871. boredom and fossilized nonsense.  All the times I intersected with some
  2872. decades-old choice in curation and bounced off of it as a slightly different
  2873. person.&lt;/p&gt;
  2874.  
  2875. &lt;p&gt;I think a library should be a refuge, but it should also be something with the
  2876. capacity to surprise and unsettle you.  Maybe a personal one should serve as a
  2877. reservoir of things you used to think and things you still might.&lt;/p&gt;
  2878.  
  2879.  
  2880.  
  2881. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/libraries&#34;&gt;libraries&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  2882. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/&#34; title=&#34;2021&#34;&gt;2021&lt;/a&gt; /
  2883. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  2884. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2021/1/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  2885. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  2886.  
  2887. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, December 28, 2020 - the yak queue: end of year 2020 - linux audio: pacmd, pavucontrol, and pasystray - limiting wacom tablet pen input to a single screen under X.Org - google pagespeed metrics for p1k3.com - displaying moon phase emojis for current phase of moon</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/12/28"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/12/28</id><content type="html">
  2888.  
  2889. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, December 28, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  2890.  
  2891. &lt;h2&gt;the yak queue: end of year 2020&lt;/h2&gt;
  2892.  
  2893. &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving&#34;&gt;Yak shaving&lt;/a&gt;:
  2894.  
  2895. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  2896.  &lt;p&gt;Noun: yak shaving (uncountable)&lt;/p&gt;
  2897.  
  2898.  &lt;ol&gt;
  2899.    &lt;li&gt;
  2900.      Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing you to overcome
  2901.      intermediate difficulties, allows you to solve a larger problem.
  2902.  
  2903.      &lt;dl&gt;&lt;dd&gt;&lt;i&gt;I was doing a bit of &lt;b&gt;yak shaving&lt;/b&gt; this morning, and it
  2904.      looks like it might have paid off.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;
  2905.    &lt;/li&gt;
  2906.  
  2907.    &lt;li&gt;
  2908.      A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to
  2909.      procrastinate about a larger but more useful task.
  2910.  
  2911.      &lt;dl&gt;&lt;dd&gt;&lt;i&gt;I looked at a reference manual for my car just to answer one
  2912.      question, but I spent the whole afternoon with my nose buried in it, just
  2913.      &lt;b&gt;yak shaving&lt;/b&gt;, and got no work done on the car itself.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;
  2914.    &lt;/li&gt;
  2915.  &lt;/ol&gt;
  2916. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  2917.  
  2918. &lt;p&gt;As Lars &lt;a href=&#34;https://yakking.branchable.com/posts/debugging/&#34;&gt;is fond of saying&lt;/a&gt;,
  2919. &#38;ldquo;queue your yaks, don&#38;rsquo;t stack them&#38;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
  2920.  
  2921. &lt;p&gt;That&#38;rsquo;s good advice which I&#38;rsquo;m bad at following, but early in 2019 I started a
  2922. list of yaks where I can stash problems as they come up.  Sometimes, at least,
  2923. I manage to put something on that list and then go back to whatever I was
  2924. nominally working on.  I think I would recommend this practice as a way to
  2925. eliminate some brain clutter.&lt;/p&gt;
  2926.  
  2927. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s the tail end of the year now, cold and snowy outside, and I have some days
  2928. off of work, so it seemed like a good time to go through the yak-shaving list
  2929. and try some things.  Here then is brief documentation of some problems solved
  2930. (or further complicated) along the way.&lt;/p&gt;
  2931.  
  2932. &lt;h3&gt;linux audio: pacmd, pavucontrol, and pasystray&lt;/h3&gt;
  2933.  
  2934.  
  2935. &lt;p&gt;I have a Behringer UMC404HD audio interface for recording synthesizer output
  2936. and other audio.  You plug it into USB and it gives you some new interfaces.
  2937. Works out of the box with Audacity and Ardour, no driver fiddling required.
  2938. You can plug headphones into it and monitor what it&#38;rsquo;s recording, or use it as
  2939. an output from the computer.&lt;/p&gt;
  2940.  
  2941. &lt;p&gt;This all works pretty well, but at least on my Debian Buster system, it made
  2942. juggling the builtin sound card, a set of external speakers, and the headphones
  2943. plugged into the UMC404HD kind of clunky.&lt;/p&gt;
  2944.  
  2945. &lt;p&gt;I searched and found out that you can use &lt;code&gt;pacmd&lt;/code&gt; at the command line to switch
  2946. which audio streams are going to which &#38;ldquo;sink&#38;rdquo;:&lt;/p&gt;
  2947.  
  2948. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;# Get a list of sinks - i.e. output devices, I guess:
  2949. pacmd list-sinks
  2950.  
  2951. # List sink inputs, i.e. apps sending audio somewhere:
  2952. pacmd list-sink-inputs
  2953.  
  2954. # Move an input to a different sink, for example from external
  2955. # sound card to builtin:
  2956. pacmd move-sink-input 79 0
  2957. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  2958.  
  2959. &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, &lt;code&gt;pacmd&lt;/code&gt; has verbose output and is tedious to work with.  I was
  2960. afraid I was going to wind up writing some kind of hacky wrapper script, but
  2961. then people on Mastodon told me about &lt;code&gt;pasystray&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;pavucontrol&lt;/code&gt;, which
  2962. expose GUIs with a view of what&#38;rsquo;s playing and let you select what hardware it
  2963. goes to.  &lt;code&gt;pasystray&lt;/code&gt; in particular gives you a little tray icon, which is
  2964. pretty much what I wanted.  There&#38;rsquo;s also &lt;code&gt;pamix&lt;/code&gt;, which seems to expose some of
  2965. the same info in a terminal interface.&lt;/p&gt;
  2966.  
  2967. &lt;p&gt;These are in Debian, so:&lt;/p&gt;
  2968.  
  2969. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;sudo apt install pavucontrol pasystray
  2970. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  2971.  
  2972. &lt;p&gt;Not perfect, but much improved.  I &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/bpb-kit/commit/ccb5db7f94db8c2e79dae219e2c65c8a8cfcfa18&#34;&gt;added pasystray&lt;/a&gt; to my
  2973. xmonad startup script.&lt;/p&gt;
  2974.  
  2975. &lt;h3&gt;limiting wacom tablet pen input to a single screen under X.Org&lt;/h3&gt;
  2976.  
  2977.  
  2978. &lt;p&gt;I have a Wacom Intuos pen &#38;amp; touch drawing tablet.  I don&#38;rsquo;t think this version
  2979. has been made for a while, but it&#38;rsquo;s probably similar to current models.  It
  2980. acts as both a pen input device and a trackpad.  I&#38;rsquo;ve always had the problem,
  2981. when using two displays, where the pen input is mapped across both screens so
  2982. that (typically) whatever image I&#38;rsquo;m working on I can only use half the tablet
  2983. for.&lt;/p&gt;
  2984.  
  2985. &lt;p&gt;I haven&#38;rsquo;t done much drawing on the computer since I got a second monitor
  2986. anyway, so I never dug into it all that deeply.  This time when I looked I
  2987. found &lt;a href=&#34;https://feldspaten.org/2017/05/06/ubuntu-linux-map-wacom-to-one-screen-when-using-multiple-screens/&#34;&gt;a blog post from 2017 on feldspaten.org&lt;/a&gt; with pretty clear
  2988. instructions.&lt;/p&gt;
  2989.  
  2990. &lt;p&gt;I wound up running (sample output in comments):&lt;/p&gt;
  2991.  
  2992. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;# I didn&#39;t have this installed:
  2993. sudo apt install xinput
  2994.  
  2995. xrandr | grep primary
  2996. # DisplayPort-0 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
  2997.  
  2998. xinput | grep -i Wacom
  2999. # ⎜   ↳ Wacom Intuos PT M Pad pad                   id=16   [slave  pointer  (2)]
  3000. # ⎜   ↳ Wacom Intuos PT M Pen stylus                id=17   [slave  pointer  (2)]
  3001. # ⎜   ↳ Wacom Intuos PT M Pen eraser                id=18   [slave  pointer  (2)]
  3002. # ⎜   ↳ Wacom Intuos PT M Finger touch              id=19   [slave  pointer  (2)]
  3003.  
  3004. xinput map-to-output 16 DisplayPort-0
  3005. xinput map-to-output 17 DisplayPort-0
  3006. xinput map-to-output 18 DisplayPort-0
  3007. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  3008.  
  3009. &lt;p&gt;I left the &#38;ldquo;Finger touch&#38;rdquo; input alone, and sure enough the pen input winds up
  3010. locked to my primary display while the tablet can still be used as a trackpad
  3011. across both displays.&lt;/p&gt;
  3012.  
  3013. &lt;p&gt;Not totally perfect and I&#38;rsquo;m not sure what the appropriate way to make this
  3014. permanent is, but at any rate it removes a frustration and makes
  3015. &lt;a href=&#34;http://mypaint.org/&#34;&gt;MyPaint&lt;/a&gt; fun to use again.&lt;/p&gt;
  3016.  
  3017. &lt;h3&gt;google pagespeed metrics for p1k3.com&lt;/h3&gt;
  3018.  
  3019.  
  3020. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t generally worry about Google&#38;rsquo;s opinion of this website, but it seemed
  3021. vaguely useful to be aware of the things they&#38;rsquo;re tracking here.  Profiling
  3022. usually reveals something you&#38;rsquo;ve missed.  So I read through the &lt;a href=&#34;https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fp1k3.com%2F&#34;&gt;PageSpeed
  3023. Insights for p1k3.com&lt;/a&gt;.  A few things:&lt;/p&gt;
  3024.  
  3025. &lt;ul&gt;
  3026. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They suggest inlining CSS and JavaScript files.  This would be easy enough, I
  3027. guess, but I&#38;rsquo;m probably not going to do it.  It&#38;rsquo;d bulk up each page with a bunch of
  3028. boilerplate and anyway it kind of grosses me out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3029. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Enable text compression:  Ok, easy enough.  I uncommented the line
  3030. &lt;code&gt;gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript
  3031. text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;&lt;/code&gt; in
  3032. &lt;code&gt;/etc/nginx/nginx.conf&lt;/code&gt;, which upped the score from 90 to 98, so I guess it
  3033. just wasn&#38;rsquo;t enabled for&#38;hellip;  Some type. See also: &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/web-server/compression/&#34;&gt;nginx docs on compression&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3034. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;They suggest minifying JavaScript.  There&#38;rsquo;s a copy of jQuery on here - used for
  3035. almost nothing, but handy every now and then.  I swapped it out for the minified
  3036. version of the latest version from the &lt;a href=&#34;https://jquery.com/download/&#34;&gt;official download page&lt;/a&gt;.
  3037. That got the score to 100.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3038. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It looks like I could tweak cache lifetimes on some files, but I think I
  3039. won&#38;rsquo;t bother.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3040. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3041.  
  3042.  
  3043. &lt;h3&gt;displaying moon phase emojis for current phase of moon&lt;/h3&gt;
  3044.  
  3045.  
  3046. &lt;p&gt;A while back I learned about the moon phase emojis:&lt;/p&gt;
  3047.  
  3048. &lt;p&gt;🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕 🌖 🌗 🌘 🌑&lt;/p&gt;
  3049.  
  3050. &lt;p&gt;I immediately wanted a way to display these in the terminal for (approximately)
  3051. the current phase, but I didn&#38;rsquo;t initially have much luck finding a utility that
  3052. would just spit out the phase of the moon without calling a web API or
  3053. anything.&lt;/p&gt;
  3054.  
  3055. &lt;p&gt;I realized while digging into this that &lt;code&gt;gcal&lt;/code&gt; will display moon phases,
  3056. although the documentation is impenetrable and trying to construct the right
  3057. format string gave me a headache, so on to other approaches&#38;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
  3058.  
  3059. &lt;p&gt;Paul Carleton &lt;a href=&#34;https://pcarleton.com/2018/06/18/cli-for-the-moon/&#34;&gt;wrote up a solution&lt;/a&gt; in Rust which uses a US Navy
  3060. Observatory API, but I&#38;rsquo;d rather network access not be a requirement.&lt;/p&gt;
  3061.  
  3062. &lt;p&gt;I did find a handful of libraries:&lt;/p&gt;
  3063.  
  3064. &lt;ul&gt;
  3065. &lt;li&gt;Perl: &lt;a href=&#34;https://metacpan.org/pod/Astro::MoonPhase&#34;&gt;Astro::MoonPhase&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3066. &lt;li&gt;Python: &lt;a href=&#34;https://astral.readthedocs.io/en/latest/package.html&#34;&gt;astral&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/sffjunkie/astral&#34;&gt;GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3067. &lt;li&gt;PHP: &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/solarissmoke/php-moon-phase&#34;&gt;solarissmoke/php-moon-phase&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3068. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3069.  
  3070.  
  3071. &lt;p&gt;Of these, Samir Shah&#38;rsquo;s PHP code was the least hassle to work with.  It doesn&#38;rsquo;t
  3072. really satisfy my goal of &#38;ldquo;a shell script I can toss in &lt;code&gt;~/bin&lt;/code&gt; and use for
  3073. whatever&#38;rdquo;, but it lets me stop thinking about the problem, so here&#38;rsquo;s a few
  3074. lines of PHP called &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/phasemoji&#34;&gt;phasemoji&lt;/a&gt; (also &lt;a href=&#34;https://packagist.org/packages/brennen/phasemoji&#34;&gt;on packagist&lt;/a&gt;,
  3075. though that distribution isn&#38;rsquo;t set up in any kind of useful way).&lt;/p&gt;
  3076.  
  3077. &lt;p&gt;Also, because I&#38;rsquo;m a dumbass, I bought a novelty domain and set up a web service.
  3078. Behold: &lt;a href=&#34;https://phase.city&#34;&gt;phase.city&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3079.  
  3080.  
  3081.  
  3082. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/audio&#34;&gt;audio&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/emoji&#34;&gt;emoji&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/google&#34;&gt;google&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/linux&#34;&gt;linux&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/moon&#34;&gt;moon&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/phase-city&#34;&gt;phase-city&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/phasemoji&#34;&gt;phasemoji&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/php&#34;&gt;php&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/yak-shaving&#34;&gt;yak-shaving&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3083. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3084. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  3085. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/12/28/&#34; title=&#34;28&#34;&gt;28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3086. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3087.  
  3088. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Saturday, December  5, 2020 - the garden cart - the short version - the long version - directions for further research</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/12/5"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/12/5</id><content type="html">
  3089.  
  3090. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Saturday, December  5, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3091.  
  3092. &lt;h2&gt;the garden cart&lt;/h2&gt;
  3093.  
  3094. &lt;h3&gt;the short version&lt;/h3&gt;
  3095.  
  3096. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve been lugging a lot of heavy stuff around the place lately, which has had
  3097. me wanting a utility item that was a staple of the gardening and building
  3098. projects of my childhood:  A garden cart.&lt;/p&gt;
  3099.  
  3100. &lt;p&gt;My parents own several of these by now, but there&#38;rsquo;s a specific version I think
  3101. of as The Cart.  It&#38;rsquo;s probably been around for 30 years, give or take.  I
  3102. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2009/1/3/&#34;&gt;wrote about it back in 2009&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  3103.  
  3104. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It consists of two wheels, four pieces of plywood, and some metal tubing +
  3105. trim. Its construction is far less complex than that of most bicycles. It&#38;rsquo;s
  3106. easy to load, capacious, and surprisingly sturdy. The wheels are positioned
  3107. so that the cart seems almost to lift itself when you tug upwards on the
  3108. handle. It moves easily over broken ground. It stands square on one end for
  3109. dumping or storage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3110.  
  3111. &lt;p&gt;Theirs turns out to be a Garden Way cart; unfortunately a company that went
  3112. bankrupt a while back.  Looking for the closest approximation I could find,
  3113. these are what I came up with:&lt;/p&gt;
  3114.  
  3115. &lt;ul&gt;
  3116. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gardeners.com/&#34;&gt;Gardener&#38;rsquo;s Supply Company&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gardeners.com/buy/large-garden-cart/8609662.html&#34;&gt;Large Gardener&#38;rsquo;s Supply Cart&lt;/a&gt; - USD 349.00&lt;/li&gt;
  3117. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cartsvermont.com/&#34;&gt;Carts Vermont&lt;/a&gt; - &lt;a href=&#34;https://cartsvermont.com/shop/garden-carts/large-garden-cart/&#34;&gt;Large Garden Cart&lt;/a&gt; - USD 399.95&lt;/li&gt;
  3118. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3119.  
  3120.  
  3121. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ll probably order one of those (although reading reviews of both has me
  3122. nervous about materials &#38;amp; build quality).  I&#38;rsquo;d also be remiss not to mention
  3123. the Whizbang Garden Cart, a wooden do-it-yourself design (by a guy also notable
  3124. for his homebrew chicken plucker):&lt;/p&gt;
  3125.  
  3126. &lt;ul&gt;
  3127. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gardencartblog.blogspot.com/&#34;&gt;The Whizbang Garden Cart Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3128. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.planetwhizbang.com/&#34;&gt;Planet Whizbang - Down-To-Earth Books, Tools &#38;amp; Inspiration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3129. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.planetwhizbang.com/gardening&#34;&gt;Plans on offer here&lt;/a&gt; - find-in-page for &#38;ldquo;Garden Cart&#38;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
  3130. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3131.  
  3132.  
  3133. &lt;h3&gt;the long version&lt;/h3&gt;
  3134.  
  3135.  
  3136. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve wanted one of these for years, but I spent a lot of this summer &#38;amp; fall
  3137. dragging tools, dirt, and building materials around our yard, and when I saw a
  3138. recent Mastodon post with a cart in the background I decided to do something
  3139. about it.  I spent an evening grubbing through search results, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://pinboard.in/u:brennen/t:garden-carts/&#34;&gt;bookmarked
  3140. a bunch of stuff along the way&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3141.  
  3142. &lt;p&gt;Garden Way seems to have been out of business since 2001, at least under that
  3143. brand name, which it appears was once the parent company of Troy-Bilt.  From
  3144. the depths of Troy-Bilt&#38;rsquo;s support site, an article about &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.troybilt.com/s/article/449-1&#34;&gt;parts for Garden Way
  3145. carts&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  3146.  
  3147. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Problem&lt;/strong&gt; Where can I order parts for Troy-Bilt &#38;amp; Garden Way Garden Carts?&lt;/p&gt;
  3148.  
  3149. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Solution&lt;/strong&gt; These garden carts are products that we have licensed another
  3150. company to build and support.  Service, parts and/or warranty inquiries
  3151. should be directed to the phone numbers and address below: …&lt;/p&gt;
  3152.  
  3153. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Older Models:&lt;/strong&gt; Prior to the 2001 closure of Garden Way Inc., similar
  3154. garden carts were sold as &#38;ldquo;Garden Way Garden Carts&#38;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3155.  
  3156. &lt;p&gt;And one &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.troybilt.com/s/article/218-1?language=en_US&#34;&gt;about Garden Way&#38;rsquo;s bankruptcy&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  3157.  
  3158. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Problem&lt;/strong&gt; What happened to the OLD Troy-Bilt manufacturing company?&lt;/p&gt;
  3159.  
  3160. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Solution&lt;/strong&gt; The product brand names Troy-Bilt® and Bolens® were formerly
  3161. manufactured under the parent company Garden Way Inc. of Troy, NY.&lt;/p&gt;
  3162.  
  3163. &lt;p&gt;In 2001 Garden Way Inc., filed for bankruptcy and is no longer in business.&lt;/p&gt;
  3164.  
  3165. &lt;p&gt;On September 1, 2001 MTD Products Inc. out of Cleveland, Ohio purchased most of
  3166. the remaining assets under the Troy-Bilt® and Bolens® names from the bankruptcy
  3167. court.&lt;/p&gt;
  3168.  
  3169. &lt;p&gt;MTD Products Inc. then transferred the Troy-Bilt® brand to the Troy-Bilt LLC
  3170. Corporation.  Troy-Bilt LLC Inc. is now manufacturing Troy-Bilt® brand outdoor
  3171. power equipment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3172.  
  3173. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s a &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/01/nyregion/lyman-p-wood-86-founderx-of-garden-products-company.html&#34;&gt;obituary for Lyman P. Wood&lt;/a&gt;, the founder of Garden Way:&lt;/p&gt;
  3174.  
  3175. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#38;ldquo;Lyman was an incredible mix of entrepreneur, futurist and marketer,&#38;rdquo; said
  3176. David Schaefer, a Burlington public relations man who was once host to a
  3177. syndicated gardening television program about Mr. Wood&#38;rsquo;s company. &#38;ldquo;Our last
  3178. conversation was about how are the political systems and resources of Earth
  3179. going to stand up to increased population growth.&#38;rdquo; …&lt;/p&gt;
  3180.  
  3181. &lt;p&gt;Mr. Wood is known for his book, &#38;ldquo;The Have More Plan,&#38;rdquo; a 1944 volume offering
  3182. a thrifty wartime population a way to live off the land.&lt;/p&gt;
  3183.  
  3184. &lt;p&gt;In the 1960&#38;rsquo;s he founded the privately held Garden Way Manufacturing Company,
  3185. expanding New York&#38;rsquo;s Troy-Bilt rototiller company into publishing, retail
  3186. stores and other ventures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3187.  
  3188. &lt;p&gt;Which brings us to the carts themselves, in their current incarnations:&lt;/p&gt;
  3189.  
  3190. &lt;ul&gt;
  3191. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gardeners.com/&#34;&gt;Gardener&#38;rsquo;s Supply Company&lt;/a&gt;
  3192.  
  3193. &lt;ul&gt;
  3194. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gardeners.com/buy/large-garden-cart/8609662.html&#34;&gt;Large Gardener&#38;rsquo;s Supply Cart&lt;/a&gt; - USD 349.00&lt;/li&gt;
  3195. &lt;li&gt;66″ long, 42.25″ wide, 30″ high&lt;/li&gt;
  3196. &lt;li&gt;&#38;ldquo;For over 25 years, our garden carts have been a beloved tool of gardeners everywhere.&#38;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
  3197. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3198. &lt;/li&gt;
  3199. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cartsvermont.com/&#34;&gt;Carts Vermont&lt;/a&gt;
  3200.  
  3201. &lt;ul&gt;
  3202. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cartsvermont.com/shop/garden-carts/large-garden-cart/&#34;&gt;Large Garden Cart&lt;/a&gt; - USD 399.95&lt;/li&gt;
  3203. &lt;li&gt;67.25″ long, 41.50″ wide, 30.25″ high&lt;/li&gt;
  3204. &lt;li&gt;&#38;ldquo;Home of the original “made in Vermont” garden cart and multi-purpose
  3205. hauler. Carts Vermont has the tried and true garden, firewood, and
  3206. utility carts for over 30 years!&#38;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
  3207. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3208. &lt;/li&gt;
  3209. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3210.  
  3211.  
  3212. &lt;p&gt;Based on photos and slightly differing measurements, I don&#38;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;think&lt;/em&gt; those are
  3213. exactly the same cart off of the same assembly line, but they&#38;rsquo;re close enough
  3214. they must have originated from the same plans somewhere along the way.&lt;/p&gt;
  3215.  
  3216. &lt;p&gt;I got closer to an origin story with &lt;a href=&#34;nancy-wood&#34;&gt;this piece by Nancy Wood&lt;/a&gt; -
  3217. Lyman Wood&#38;rsquo;s daughter:&lt;/p&gt;
  3218.  
  3219. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;But first, here’s a bit of clarification about the origin of Country Home
  3220. Products. The article says it was founded by Lyman Wood (my father) in the
  3221. 1960s and that it “became known as Garden Way.” In fact, they were two
  3222. completely separate companies. Lyman and others founded Garden Way in the
  3223. 1960s with the rebirth of the original Rototiller, which became the Troy-Bilt
  3224. rear-end tiller manufactured in Troy, New York. That successful mail-order
  3225. business provided the funding for the growth of several Garden Way divisions
  3226. in Vermont, including Garden Way Publishing (books for country living),
  3227. Garden Way Research (manufacturer of the Garden Way carts) in Charlotte, plus
  3228. the Garden Way Living Center retail store and the nonprofit Gardens For All
  3229. in Burlington.&lt;/p&gt;
  3230.  
  3231. &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, as it grew larger, not everyone ascribed to that mission. A
  3232. group of dissidents in Troy who were more concerned about profits
  3233. masterminded an internal takeover on January 28, 1982, ousting Lyman and
  3234. other key employees in Vermont on that day. Within two years, all of the
  3235. Vermont operations had been sold or closed and over 200 employees relieved of
  3236. their jobs. The nonprofit, Gardens for All, was the one exception, and it
  3237. continues today as the National Gardening Association.&lt;/p&gt;
  3238.  
  3239. &lt;p&gt;Many of those Vermont employees started new businesses (such as Vermont Teddy
  3240. Bear, Gardeners Supply and Williamson Publishing), and Lyman was no
  3241. exception. Even though he was forced out of Garden Way, he was still subject
  3242. to a non-compete agreement. Garden-related products were out, so he
  3243. investigated other possibilities. With his friends John Gibbons (former owner
  3244. of Harrington’s) and Dick Raymond (former gardening guru and author at Garden
  3245. Way) he came up with the name Country Home Products.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3246.  
  3247. &lt;p&gt;Drama, intrigue, garden industry strife!&lt;/p&gt;
  3248.  
  3249. &lt;p&gt;Anyway, based on this, it seems like the Gardener&#38;rsquo;s Supply cart is a clear
  3250. lineal descendant of the original.  I&#38;rsquo;m pretty much assuming the same is true
  3251. of the Carts Vermont one &#38;mdash; though I haven&#38;rsquo;t seen anything to indicate
  3252. what, if any, relationship they&#38;rsquo;ve got to the original company / factory.&lt;/p&gt;
  3253.  
  3254. &lt;h3&gt;directions for further research&lt;/h3&gt;
  3255.  
  3256.  
  3257. &lt;p&gt;I wound up ordering a copy of &lt;em&gt;What a Way to Live and Make a Living: The Lyman
  3258. P. Wood Story&lt;/em&gt;, by Roger Griffin.&lt;/p&gt;
  3259.  
  3260. &lt;p&gt;Mostly I just want to buy a cart, but there&#38;rsquo;re hints of a cultural history
  3261. lurking in this kind of thing.  Back-to-the-land ideas that were circulating in
  3262. the 1960s&#38;ndash;70s, mail-order retail, the ubiquitous rototiller infomercials
  3263. of the 1990s, whatever it is that leads people to do things like burn wood for
  3264. heat and can their own green beans.  It&#38;rsquo;s probably roughly one step from the
  3265. Garden Way garden cart to, say, the &lt;em&gt;Whole Earth Catalog&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3266.  
  3267. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m not sure how much I&#38;rsquo;m really going to pull on any of those threads, but
  3268. it&#38;rsquo;s a good reminder that most things run deeper than it seems at first.&lt;/p&gt;
  3269.  
  3270.  
  3271.  
  3272. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/garden&#34;&gt;garden&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/garden-carts&#34;&gt;garden-carts&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/lawn-and-garden&#34;&gt;lawn-and-garden&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/tools&#34;&gt;tools&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3273. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3274. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  3275. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/12/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3276. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3277.  
  3278. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, November 29, 2020 - notes from a time (4)</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/11/29"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/11/29</id><content type="html">
  3279.  
  3280. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, November 29, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3281.  
  3282. &lt;h2&gt;notes from a time (4)&lt;/h2&gt;
  3283.  
  3284. &lt;p&gt;COVID-19 numbers for late November 2020:&lt;/p&gt;
  3285.  
  3286. &lt;ul&gt;
  3287. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;who-dashboard&#34;&gt;WHO&lt;/a&gt; global numbers:
  3288.  
  3289. &lt;ul&gt;
  3290. &lt;li&gt;Current: ~61.87 million confirmed cases and ~1.45 million deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3291. &lt;li&gt;November 18th: 53.7 million cases / 1.3 million deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3292. &lt;li&gt;Early June: 6,535,354 cases / 387,155 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3293. &lt;li&gt;Late April: 2,804,796 cases / 193,710 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3294. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3295. &lt;/li&gt;
  3296. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data/blob/master/us.csv#L314&#34;&gt;NY Times&lt;/a&gt; US numbers:
  3297.  
  3298. &lt;ul&gt;
  3299. &lt;li&gt;Current: 13,311,031 cases / 265,940 deaths in the US&lt;/li&gt;
  3300. &lt;li&gt;November 18th: 11,439,304 cases / 248,462 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3301. &lt;li&gt;Early June: 1,883,033 cases / 108,194 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3302. &lt;li&gt;Late April: 938,590 cases / 48,310 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3303. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3304. &lt;/li&gt;
  3305. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://covid19.colorado.gov/covid-19-data&#34;&gt;colorado.gov&lt;/a&gt;:
  3306.  
  3307. &lt;ul&gt;
  3308. &lt;li&gt;Current: 228,772 cases and 2,521 deaths; 1,749 currently hospitalized&lt;/li&gt;
  3309. &lt;li&gt;November 18th: 176,694 cases and 2,324 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3310. &lt;li&gt;Early June: 27,615 cases and either 1,524 or 1,274 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  3311. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3312. &lt;/li&gt;
  3313. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3314.  
  3315.  
  3316. &lt;p&gt;Earlier this year, I started a series of posts under the heading of &#38;ldquo;fragmentary
  3317. notes from a bad time getting worse&#38;rdquo; (&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/21/&#34;&gt;April 21&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/26/&#34;&gt;April 26&lt;/a&gt;,
  3318. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/6/5/&#34;&gt;June 5&lt;/a&gt;).  And then I thought well, that could pretty well just be this
  3319. blog&#38;rsquo;s subtitle, so I guess I might as well ease up on the whole conceit.&lt;/p&gt;
  3320.  
  3321. &lt;p&gt;I spent a lot of time reading the internet about the virus in those early
  3322. months.  For a while I &lt;a href=&#34;https://pinboard.in/u:brennen/t:covid19/&#34;&gt;bookmarked a lot of it&lt;/a&gt;.  I was curious how
  3323. much, so I checked:&lt;/p&gt;
  3324.  
  3325. &lt;!-- exec --&gt;
  3326.  
  3327.  
  3328. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;$ cut -c 1-7 ./bookmarks-by-date.tsv | sort | uniq -c
  3329.     92 2020-03
  3330.    102 2020-04
  3331.     10 2020-05
  3332.     15 2020-06
  3333.      7 2020-07
  3334.      1 2020-08
  3335.      7 2020-09
  3336.      4 2020-10
  3337.     10 2020-11
  3338. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  3339.  
  3340. &lt;!-- end --&gt;
  3341.  
  3342.  
  3343. &lt;p&gt;I didn&#38;rsquo;t stop reading, but at some point it started to blur together and
  3344. tracking my idea of what was going on and when started to feel hopeless: too
  3345. unfocused and reflexive to carry any real signal.  Around the time the
  3346. bookmarking fell off at the end of April, I jotted a note about a call with my
  3347. sister: It just says &#38;ldquo;the sense that we burned out on being terrified and have
  3348. moved on to some form of resignation&#38;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3349.  
  3350. &lt;p&gt;In August I came down with something weird for a couple of days - the symptoms
  3351. seemed right but a test by the time they&#38;rsquo;d mostly abated came back negative.
  3352. No one I&#38;rsquo;d been in contact with ever got sick.  My partner got an antibody
  3353. test when giving blood a while later and it, too, was negative.  I wrote that
  3354. one off to &#38;ldquo;probably something random&#38;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3355.  
  3356. &lt;p&gt;Early on I had a lot of thoughts like:  Shit, what do we do about feeding the
  3357. cat if we both wind up in a hospital?  Now I think that&#38;rsquo;s not very likely, and
  3358. anyway I have a plan in place.  Mostly what I&#38;rsquo;ve worried about is family and
  3359. friends.  My family is full of old people in rural middle America with the
  3360. genes and lifestyle factors that get you heart disease, diabetes, and bad
  3361. lungs.  My friends run heavily to chain-smoking alcoholics with no health
  3362. insurance.&lt;/p&gt;
  3363.  
  3364. &lt;p&gt;So where are we now?  I&#38;rsquo;m not sure I know.  Cases are, as predicted, surging as
  3365. we go into the winter.  By mid-October I think I could have told you two people
  3366. I knew personally who&#38;rsquo;d had it.  A few days later I heard some extended family
  3367. in the midwest had tested positive and now I&#38;rsquo;m sitting at maybe 17 plus some
  3368. near misses.&lt;/p&gt;
  3369.  
  3370. &lt;p&gt;I feel overwhelmed trying to write about the dimensions of the pandemic,
  3371. nevermind the moment as a whole.  I don&#38;rsquo;t think I have anything to offer a
  3372. general reader on the subject.  There&#38;rsquo;s been such an ocean of text about this.
  3373. I&#38;rsquo;m not privy to any special perspective.  I just now and then feel like there
  3374. should be some index to memory of it amidst the other trivial crap I write
  3375. here.&lt;/p&gt;
  3376.  
  3377. &lt;p&gt;If I were trying to tell someone a few decades on a whole story about the
  3378. strange dimensions of life on earth just now, I wouldn&#38;rsquo;t know where to start.
  3379. I wonder what I risk forgetting.&lt;/p&gt;
  3380.  
  3381. &lt;p&gt;Maybe how quickly and radically things can change.  Not just at the scale of an
  3382. individual life, that one I knew already, but at the scale of &lt;em&gt;things
  3383. generally&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3384.  
  3385. &lt;p&gt;How much relationships will bend and dissolve and reconfigure across the
  3386. conceptual and epistemic fault lines that some system-level event reveals.&lt;/p&gt;
  3387.  
  3388. &lt;p&gt;The strange paralysis that can seep through things when a polity and a culture
  3389. are really riding the edge of decoherence and murderous collapse.&lt;/p&gt;
  3390.  
  3391. &lt;p&gt;The way I start to see some of how my grandparents got the way they were.&lt;/p&gt;
  3392.  
  3393. &lt;p&gt;How much of a self is contained and expressed in and through the places you go
  3394. and the people around you.  What happens when you stop going places.&lt;/p&gt;
  3395.  
  3396.  
  3397.  
  3398. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/america&#34;&gt;america&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/covid19&#34;&gt;covid19&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3399. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3400. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  3401. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/11/29/&#34; title=&#34;29&#34;&gt;29&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3402. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3403.  
  3404. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, November 13, 2020 - reading: a memory called empire</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/11/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/11/13</id><content type="html">
  3405.  
  3406. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, November 13, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3407.  
  3408. &lt;h2&gt;reading: a memory called empire&lt;/h2&gt;
  3409.  
  3410. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.arkadymartine.net/teixcalaan-memory&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A Memory Called Empire&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;,
  3411. Arkady Martine, Tor Books, March 2019.&lt;/p&gt;
  3412.  
  3413. &lt;p&gt;This evidently won the 2020 Hugo for Best Novel, which is not surprising.  I
  3414. thought as I was reading it &#38;ldquo;this is going to win some major awards&#38;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3415.  
  3416. &lt;p&gt;Space opera / vast empire / political intrigue in imperial capital city,
  3417. elements of romance, some fairly well-handled mind/memory/identity stuff.
  3418. Starts out kind of dry, works its way towards an emotional register that feels
  3419. a little like Guy Kay.&lt;/p&gt;
  3420.  
  3421. &lt;p&gt;First in a trilogy.  I&#38;rsquo;ll be reading the followup.&lt;/p&gt;
  3422.  
  3423.  
  3424.  
  3425.  
  3426. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/arkady-martine&#34;&gt;arkady-martine&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3427. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3428. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  3429. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/11/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3430. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3431.  
  3432. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, October 13, 2020</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/10/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/10/13</id><content type="html">
  3433.  
  3434. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, October 13, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3435.  
  3436. &lt;p&gt;I went for an aimless drive on Saturday.  It was accidental.  I set out to haul
  3437. the recycling and buy a can of Coke at the gas station, which they didn&#38;rsquo;t have
  3438. so I settled for a 20oz plastic bottle.  I left the gas station and got stuck
  3439. in the turn lane where I&#38;rsquo;d usually make a u-turn back towards home and thought
  3440. whatever, why not just go for a couple of miles.  It felt good to be out.  It
  3441. was pretty weather, apart from the wildfire smoke, and the fall colors were in
  3442. full effect.  A couple of miles turned into 20 or 30.&lt;/p&gt;
  3443.  
  3444. &lt;p&gt;I was feeling relaxed when I got back to town, turning over ideas about stuff I
  3445. wanted to write and stuff I needed to do in the yard.  Then I came around a
  3446. curve and there were a bunch of flags waving, which resolved as I got closer
  3447. into a little Trump rally:  MAGA hats, banners, oversized pickups, jeering
  3448. shitheads.  I flipped them off as I went past and caught a full wave of rage
  3449. noises, although the only specific phrases that stuck in my memory were a
  3450. chorus of &#38;ldquo;fuck you!&#34;s and a single &#34;God bless America!&#38;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
  3451.  
  3452. &lt;p&gt;I went back to the house all keyed up on stupid animal loathing and made a
  3453. &#38;ldquo;YOUR GUY SUCKS&#38;rdquo; sign on a cardboard box, but by the time I headed out the door
  3454. to stand across the street and get screamed at they&#38;rsquo;d dispersed for the day.
  3455. It was down to three teenagers looking a little confused about where to stand
  3456. while trading insults with drivers.  A few big coal-rolling pickups with flags
  3457. in the back trickled through town over the next hour or two and that was it,
  3458. more or less.&lt;/p&gt;
  3459.  
  3460. &lt;p&gt;&#38;ldquo;YOUR GUY SUCKS&#38;rdquo; isn&#38;rsquo;t much of a message.  I couldn&#38;rsquo;t think of anything more
  3461. high-minded that was also true.  I just didn&#38;rsquo;t want them there, being the way
  3462. they are, and I wanted them to know it.&lt;/p&gt;
  3463.  
  3464. &lt;p&gt;They feel, I&#38;rsquo;m sure, the same way about me.&lt;/p&gt;
  3465.  
  3466.  
  3467.  
  3468. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3469. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3470. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  3471. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3472. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3473.  
  3474. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, October 12, 2020 - reading: grant</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/10/12"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/10/12</id><content type="html">
  3475.  
  3476. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, October 12, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3477.  
  3478. &lt;h2&gt;reading: grant&lt;/h2&gt;
  3479.  
  3480. &lt;p&gt;There are two kinds of annoying biography:&lt;/p&gt;
  3481.  
  3482. &lt;ol&gt;
  3483. &lt;li&gt;The kind where the author hates the subject.&lt;/li&gt;
  3484. &lt;li&gt;The kind where the author loves the subject.&lt;/li&gt;
  3485. &lt;/ol&gt;
  3486.  
  3487.  
  3488. &lt;p&gt;This one, a biography of Ulysses S. Grant by Ron Chernow, is so far the second.
  3489. I&#38;rsquo;m a hundred pages in, out of 960-odd.  It&#38;rsquo;s a slightly disjointed read, in
  3490. that bouncing-from-source-to-source and speculating-about-motives kind of way.
  3491. It tells us how great its subject is with a regularity that quickly becomes
  3492. grating.  Still, it&#38;rsquo;s full of detail and deeply researched.  I&#38;rsquo;m learning stuff
  3493. and I&#38;rsquo;ll likely persist.&lt;/p&gt;
  3494.  
  3495.  
  3496.  
  3497. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/history&#34;&gt;history&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/war&#34;&gt;war&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3498. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3499. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  3500. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3501. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3502.  
  3503. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, October 11, 2020 - reading: the great offshore grounds</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/10/11"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/10/11</id><content type="html">
  3504.  
  3505. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, October 11, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3506.  
  3507. &lt;h2&gt;reading: the great offshore grounds&lt;/h2&gt;
  3508.  
  3509. &lt;p&gt;A novel by the author of &lt;em&gt;Zazen&lt;/em&gt;, a book I first read &lt;a href=&#34;/2012/11/14/&#34;&gt;back in
  3510. 2012&lt;/a&gt;.  At the time, you could &lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20160310205938/http://redlemona.de/vanessa-veselka/zazen&#34;&gt;read the whole thing on the
  3511. web&lt;/a&gt;, which I did, clicking through until the end.  I then bought the
  3512. paperback and read it again.&lt;/p&gt;
  3513.  
  3514. &lt;p&gt;I got to &lt;em&gt;Zazen&lt;/em&gt; by way of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.metafilter.com/121345/Invisible-People&#34;&gt;a MetaFilter thread&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gq.com/story/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012?verso=true&#34;&gt;&#38;ldquo;The
  3515. Truck Stop Killer&#38;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;, a long piece she wrote for GQ drawing on
  3516. her experiences hitchiking as a teenager and a bunch of research into serial
  3517. killers.  It&#38;rsquo;s probably one of the most disturbing things I&#38;rsquo;ve ever read.&lt;/p&gt;
  3518.  
  3519. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Great Offshore Grounds&lt;/em&gt; is a book you can tell didn&#38;rsquo;t come easy to write,
  3520. and although it&#38;rsquo;s not a slow read, it&#38;rsquo;s also not exactly an easy one.  Scenes
  3521. in here will stick with me for a long time.  Recommended.&lt;/p&gt;
  3522.  
  3523. &lt;p&gt;(Veselka, Vanessa.  &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780525658078&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Great Offshore
  3524. Grounds&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.  New York: Borzoi
  3525. Books / Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.)&lt;/p&gt;
  3526.  
  3527.  
  3528.  
  3529.  
  3530. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/books&#34;&gt;books&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/vanessa-veselka&#34;&gt;vanessa-veselka&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3531. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3532. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  3533. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3534. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3535.  
  3536. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, October  9, 2020 - reading: interior states</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/10/9"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/10/9</id><content type="html">
  3537.  
  3538. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, October  9, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3539.  
  3540. &lt;h2&gt;reading: interior states&lt;/h2&gt;
  3541.  
  3542. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Interior States: Essays&lt;/em&gt;, Anchor Books, 2018.&lt;/p&gt;
  3543.  
  3544. &lt;p&gt;An essay collection by &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.meghanogieblyn.com/&#34;&gt;Meghan O&#39;Gieblyn&lt;/a&gt;,
  3545. picked up after a friend linked me to one of the included essays,
  3546. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/ogieblyn_su16.html&#34;&gt;&#38;ldquo;Dispatch from Flyover Country&#38;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  3547.  
  3548. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many of our friends who grew up here now live in Brooklyn, where they are at
  3549. work on “book-length narratives.” Another contingent has moved to the Bay Area
  3550. and made a fortune there. Every year or so, these west-coasters travel back to
  3551. Michigan and call us up for dinner or drinks, occasions they use to educate us
  3552. on the inner workings of the tech industry. They refer to the companies they
  3553. work for in the first person plural, a habit I have yet to acculturate to.
  3554. Occasionally they lapse into the utopian, speaking of robotics ordinances and
  3555. brain-computer interfaces and the mystical, labyrinthine channels of capital,
  3556. conveying it all with the fervency of pioneers on a civilizing mission. Being
  3557. lectured quickly becomes dull, and so my husband and I, to amuse ourselves,
  3558. will sometimes play the rube. “So what, exactly, is a venture capitalist?”
  3559. we’ll say. Or: “Gosh, it sounds like science fiction.” I suppose we could tell
  3560. them the truth—that nothing they’re proclaiming is news; that the boom and
  3561. bustle of the coastal cities, like the smoke from those California wildfires,
  3562. liberally wafts over the rest of the country. But that seems a bit rude. We
  3563. are, after all, Midwesterners.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3564.  
  3565. &lt;p&gt;O&#39;Gieblyn comes from somewhere I half know — a life unlike mine but also not
  3566. that many degrees off of it: The definite Midwest rather than the ambiguous
  3567. Plains states of its western edge; evangelical Christianity rather than
  3568. conservative Lutheranism and rural Methodism; homeschooling like I watched
  3569. shape friends; an academic/literary path I didn&#38;rsquo;t go down.&lt;/p&gt;
  3570.  
  3571. &lt;p&gt;As I went through the book, I realized I&#38;rsquo;d read a few of the included pieces
  3572. before, somewhere on the internet, usually with a sense of recognition for
  3573. their subject matter.  These are good essays.  It occurs to me that reading
  3574. them from a place of immediate recognition (I, too, saw &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carman_(singer)&#34;&gt;Carman&lt;/a&gt; in
  3575. front of a packed house on a mid-90s tour) probably isn&#38;rsquo;t quite like reading
  3576. them in the &lt;em&gt;New Yorker&lt;/em&gt; as someone who grew up on a coast and feels a vague
  3577. anthropological interest in the in-between places.  I suppose that kind of
  3578. reader is closer to who these are written for, but it&#38;rsquo;s to the author&#38;rsquo;s credit
  3579. that they still work if you&#38;rsquo;ve spent time inside the frames they discuss.&lt;/p&gt;
  3580.  
  3581.  
  3582.  
  3583. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/essays&#34;&gt;essays&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/michigan&#34;&gt;michigan&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/religion&#34;&gt;religion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3584. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3585. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  3586. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/10/9/&#34; title=&#34;9&#34;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3587. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3588.  
  3589. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Thursday, July 30, 2020</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/7/30"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/7/30</id><content type="html">
  3590.  
  3591. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Thursday, July 30, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3592.  
  3593. &lt;p&gt;Earlier today I found myself in one of those moments of tractionless inaction
  3594. that people at the attention deficit end of the scale come to know well.  I was
  3595. in the midst of staring at logs and rolling back a broken deployment of
  3596. MediaWiki while outside a torrential downpour was overwhelming the failing
  3597. gutters and flooding the crawlspace under the house.&lt;/p&gt;
  3598.  
  3599. &lt;p&gt;I was thinking that maybe we&#38;rsquo;d lose power again, or something crucial in the
  3600. local infrastructure would get struck by lightning, and that maybe I should
  3601. have somebody&#38;rsquo;s phone number in case they had to pick up where I left off.
  3602. Then would I even have cell service in that situation?  Not if it was anything
  3603. like last time.  I wished again for a landline.  The kind that, more often than
  3604. not, still works when the electric is out.  (Albeit also the kind that gets
  3605. struck by lightning, sometimes, and then your phone rings violently and bursts
  3606. into flame, or at least that&#38;rsquo;s what happened in my aunt&#38;rsquo;s narrative about
  3607. this.)&lt;/p&gt;
  3608.  
  3609. &lt;p&gt;The cat, unsatisfied with the size of his afternoon meal, was yowling piteously
  3610. at the back of my head.  The rollback finished, the error logs stopped
  3611. exploding, I copied an error message to file a task, I opened the issue
  3612. tracking software in the wrong browser and copied the wrong 2-factor auth code
  3613. trying to log in and found myself locked out.&lt;/p&gt;
  3614.  
  3615. &lt;p&gt;Wait 57 seconds, it said.  I knew instinctively that I had just hit a cognitive
  3616. limit and was destined to lose track of all the pieces I was holding in my
  3617. mind and that would be it for the day, more or less.  At least I&#38;rsquo;d held it
  3618. together past 4pm on a day I touched production systems.&lt;/p&gt;
  3619.  
  3620. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s often like this inside my head.  Not always, maybe not even most of the
  3621. time, but not seldom either.  Everything happens at once, and because of that
  3622. nothing can happen at all.&lt;/p&gt;
  3623.  
  3624. &lt;p&gt;Stimulants of one description or another would probably help, for a while at
  3625. least, but I&#38;rsquo;m scared of a dependency on legal speed and I just can&#38;rsquo;t handle
  3626. caffeine the way I used to.  Weed used to help me dial in on things; these
  3627. recent years it typically leaves me with the working memory of a goldfish (&#38;ldquo;the
  3628. little plastic castle is a surprise every time&#38;rdquo;) and sprays my attention all
  3629. over the landscape like my nervous system is some kind of malfunctioning
  3630. glitter cannon.&lt;/p&gt;
  3631.  
  3632.  
  3633. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3634. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3635. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  3636. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/7/30/&#34; title=&#34;30&#34;&gt;30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3637. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3638.  
  3639. </content><updated>2021-03-14T21:08:01Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, July 27, 2020 - the zettelkasten / the zeitgeist - background -  - further research or whatever</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/7/27"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/7/27</id><content type="html">
  3640.  
  3641. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, July 27, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3642.  
  3643. &lt;h2&gt;the zettelkasten / the zeitgeist&lt;/h2&gt;
  3644.  
  3645. &lt;p&gt;Discussed: The idea of a Zettelkasten, note-taking, index cards, wikis,
  3646. &lt;a href=&#34;https://takesmartnotes.com/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;How to Take Smart Notes&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by Sönke Ahrens.&lt;/p&gt;
  3647.  
  3648. &lt;p&gt;This post roughly continues a thread that goes something like:&lt;/p&gt;
  3649.  
  3650. &lt;ul&gt;
  3651. &lt;li&gt;2006: &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2006/4/19/&#34;&gt;this one about notes on index cards&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3652. &lt;li&gt;2014: &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2014/8/23/&#34;&gt;a notes.txt / TODO file format&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3653. &lt;li&gt;2019: &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes-on-notes/&#34;&gt;notes on notes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3654. &lt;li&gt;2020: &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/20/&#34;&gt;meta meta&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3655. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3656.  
  3657.  
  3658. &lt;h3&gt;background&lt;/h3&gt;
  3659.  
  3660.  
  3661. &lt;p&gt;For the unfamiliar: &#38;ldquo;Zettelkasten&#38;rdquo; is German for &#38;ldquo;slip box&#38;rdquo;.  It refers to a
  3662. note-taking method where ideas and bibliographic references are stored on index
  3663. cards or slips of paper.&lt;/p&gt;
  3664.  
  3665. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s a decent chance my first exposure to the word was on a blog by Manfred
  3666. Kuehn called &lt;a href=&#34;https://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/&#34;&gt;Taking note&lt;/a&gt;, which started publishing in 2007 &lt;a href=&#34;https://takingnotenow.blogspot.com/2007/12/luhmanns-zettelkasten.html&#34;&gt;with an entry
  3667. about Niklas Luhmann&#38;rsquo;s Zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  3668.  
  3669. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the more interesting systems for keeping such index cards was
  3670. developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998). […] Luhmann
  3671. claimed that his file was something of a collaborator in his work, a largely
  3672. independent partner in his research and writing. It might have started out as
  3673. a mere apprentice when Luhmann was still studying himself (in 1951), but
  3674. after thirty years of having been fed information by the human collaborator
  3675. it had acquired the ability of surprising him again an again. Since the
  3676. ability of genuinely surprising one another is an essential characteristic of
  3677. genuine communication, he argued that there was actually communication going
  3678. on between himself and his partner in theory.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3679.  
  3680. &lt;p&gt;By the time I read that, I&#38;rsquo;d already spent time thinking about index cards as a
  3681. way to organize knowledge, and experimented with a card box that might have
  3682. become a full-fledged paper Zettelkasten if I&#38;rsquo;d kept at it.  I think these
  3683. ideas were on my mind because of &lt;a href=&#34;http://wiki.c2.com/?IndexCard&#34;&gt;C2&#38;rsquo;s stuff about index cards&lt;/a&gt;
  3684. in software development, the notion of the &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda&#34;&gt;Hipster PDA&lt;/a&gt;, and my
  3685. friend Brent&#38;rsquo;s fixation on David Allen&#38;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://gettingthingsdone.com/&#34;&gt;Getting Things Done&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3686.  
  3687. &lt;p&gt;Hypertext had been a preoccupation of mine for quite a while by the time I
  3688. heard of Niklas Luhmann:  HyperCard in the early 90s, the web, the wiki (with
  3689. its roots in a HyperCard stack), Ted Nelson&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Computer Lib/Dream Machines&lt;/em&gt;.
  3690. Apart from introducing me to Ward&#38;rsquo;s Wiki, Extreme Programming, Agile, and GTD,
  3691. Brent Newhall wrote a &lt;a href=&#34;http://walawiki.org/&#34;&gt;simple filesystem-backed wiki in Perl&lt;/a&gt; with
  3692. some unique features.  I wound up maintaining that code for years, and used it
  3693. to keep a personal wiki on this site for at least a decade.  (Any readers I
  3694. retain from back then might remember that it functioned as a comment /
  3695. &#38;ldquo;marginal notes&#38;rdquo; / linkblogging system here for much of that time.)&lt;/p&gt;
  3696.  
  3697. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/&#34;&gt;Luhmann&#38;rsquo;s Zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt; was a kind of paper hypertext.  He numbered individual
  3698. cards/slips in such a way that related things could be found in physical
  3699. proximity, and made links between cards by referencing those identifiers.&lt;/p&gt;
  3700.  
  3701. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✦ &lt;/p&gt;
  3702.  
  3703.  
  3704. &lt;p&gt;So now it&#38;rsquo;s 2020 and the Zettelkasten is having a moment.  Sort of a nested
  3705. moment, inside of a larger one about note-taking and &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_knowledge_base&#34;&gt;personal knowledge
  3706. systems&lt;/a&gt;.  I haven&#38;rsquo;t really traced out the web of influence
  3707. here, but there&#38;rsquo;s been an escalating flurry of pieces like these:&lt;/p&gt;
  3708.  
  3709. &lt;ul&gt;
  3710. &lt;li&gt;Magnus Eriksson - &lt;a href=&#34;https://omxi.se/2015-06-21-living-with-a-zettelkasten.html&#34;&gt;Living with a Zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt; - 2015-06-21&lt;/li&gt;
  3711. &lt;li&gt;Roberto Zoia - &lt;a href=&#34;https://zoia.org/2018/11/13/zettelkasten/&#34;&gt;Zettelkasten, a method for note-taking&lt;/a&gt; - 2018-11-13&lt;/li&gt;
  3712. &lt;li&gt;abramdemski on LessWrong - &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NfdHG6oHBJ8Qxc26s/the-zettelkasten-method-1&#34;&gt;The Zettelkasten Method&lt;/a&gt; - 2019-09-20&lt;/li&gt;
  3713. &lt;li&gt;Clerestory - &lt;a href=&#34;https://clerestory.netlify.app/zk/&#34;&gt;Zettelkästen?&lt;/a&gt; - 2019-10-09&lt;/li&gt;
  3714. &lt;li&gt;Clerestory - &lt;a href=&#34;https://clerestory.netlify.app/zk1/&#34;&gt;Zettelkasten!&lt;/a&gt; - 2019-11-09&lt;/li&gt;
  3715. &lt;li&gt;Nat Eliason: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nateliason.com/blog/smart-notes&#34;&gt;How to Take Smart Notes: A Step-by-Step Guide&lt;/a&gt; - 2020-02-07&lt;/li&gt;
  3716. &lt;li&gt;Jethro Kuan: &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.jethro.dev/posts/how_to_take_smart_notes_org/&#34;&gt;How To Take Smart Notes With Org-mode&lt;/a&gt; - 2020-02-14&lt;/li&gt;
  3717. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://jonathanlorimer.dev/posts/smart-notes-review.html&#34;&gt;Book Review: How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens&lt;/a&gt; - 2020-03-19&lt;/li&gt;
  3718. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3719.  
  3720.  
  3721. &lt;p&gt;There seems to be a thread of interest in the rationalist / LessWrong scene.
  3722. Apart from that, I&#38;rsquo;d guess much of this is due to the work of Christian Tietze
  3723. and Sascha Fast, who maintain a long-running blog and forum at
  3724. &lt;a href=&#34;https://zettelkasten.de/&#34;&gt;zettelkasten.de&lt;/a&gt;, sell note-taking software for the Mac, and have
  3725. recently begun promoting an online video course on the method.  (I believe
  3726. there&#38;rsquo;s also a book in the mix somewhere, albeit one not yet translated to
  3727. English.)&lt;/p&gt;
  3728.  
  3729. &lt;p&gt;Unsurprisingly, the community at &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.zettelkasten.de/&#34;&gt;forum.zettelkasten.de&lt;/a&gt; is the most
  3730. direct place to watch an entire ideological complex, complete with in-group
  3731. vocabulary and evangelical fervor, crystallize around the core idea.  That
  3732. said, it feels like it&#38;rsquo;s spreading and mutating in the wild by now, and would
  3733. probably continue to do so independent of any particular guru figure or
  3734. canonical text.&lt;/p&gt;
  3735.  
  3736. &lt;h3&gt;&lt;i&gt;how to take smart notes&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
  3737.  
  3738.  
  3739. &lt;p&gt;If there &lt;em&gt;were&lt;/em&gt; a canonical text in English, at the moment it would probably be
  3740. &lt;em&gt;How to Take Smart Notes&lt;/em&gt;, by Sönke Ahrens.  That&#38;rsquo;s the book that gets
  3741. mentioned over and over again.  I bought a copy back in February, after
  3742. skimming the first chapter and reading a bunch of blog material like the stuff
  3743. linked above.&lt;/p&gt;
  3744.  
  3745. &lt;p&gt;I decided to write up my notes here after I recommended reading it to a friend
  3746. who turned out to thoroughly hate it, and seeing similar reactions elsewhere.
  3747. Although it fails to make as strong a case for its ideas as it intends, I&#38;rsquo;ve
  3748. personally found it helpful for thinking about my habits.&lt;/p&gt;
  3749.  
  3750. &lt;p&gt;This is a short book - 170 pages with bibliography and a very brief index in
  3751. this edition.  It&#38;rsquo;s also substantially longer than it needs to be, which isn&#38;rsquo;t
  3752. unusual for this sort of self-help nonfiction.  To its credit, it&#38;rsquo;s fairly
  3753. dense, but it veers into evangelism and salesmanship often enough to be
  3754. frustrating, and makes claims that some readers will find questionable, if not
  3755. off-putting.  It also comes with a dose of pop-psych material.&lt;/p&gt;
  3756.  
  3757. &lt;p&gt;Construed strictly, Ahrens&#39; idea that &#38;ldquo;nothing else counts than writing&#38;rdquo; is too
  3758. narrow a conception of work for most people.  It&#38;rsquo;s simply not true for
  3759. programmers, engineers, designers, customer service reps, or project managers —
  3760. let alone general contractors, farmers, or electricians.  Most people who could
  3761. benefit from note-taking habits aren&#38;rsquo;t chiefly concerned with writing documents
  3762. even when documents are integral to their work.  Where the exhortation that
  3763. writing is the only thing &lt;em&gt;does&lt;/em&gt; ring true is when your goal is to produce
  3764. written artifacts, e.g. to turn your reading into research output.&lt;/p&gt;
  3765.  
  3766. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Smart Notes&lt;/em&gt; as a whole tends that way:  It&#38;rsquo;s explicitly aimed at students,
  3767. professional academics, and nonfiction writers.  While I occasionally qualify
  3768. as that last, none of those roles map to the scope of my note-taking.
  3769. Accordingly, this is a book I read selectively and with a critical eye,
  3770. gleaning what I could and generalizing where useful.  I&#38;rsquo;d suggest other readers
  3771. approach it the same, particularly if, like me:&lt;/p&gt;
  3772.  
  3773. &lt;ul&gt;
  3774. &lt;li&gt;You don&#38;rsquo;t work in an academic field.&lt;/li&gt;
  3775. &lt;li&gt;You aren&#38;rsquo;t much concerned with writing papers.&lt;/li&gt;
  3776. &lt;li&gt;You rely on your notes to archive collections of specific facts and
  3777. remember sequences of events as much as to connect and synthesize ideas.&lt;/li&gt;
  3778. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3779.  
  3780.  
  3781. &lt;p&gt;I do think it&#38;rsquo;s a useful read if you&#38;rsquo;re interested in the mechanics of a
  3782. Zettelkasten and haven&#38;rsquo;t found what you&#38;rsquo;re looking for in other writeups, or if
  3783. you&#38;rsquo;re just looking to yak-shave a personal knowledge system.&lt;/p&gt;
  3784.  
  3785. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t, strictly speaking, keep a Zettelkasten.  I have, however, been
  3786. borrowing ideas from people who do.  After finishing &lt;em&gt;How to Take Smart Notes&lt;/em&gt;,
  3787. here&#38;rsquo;s some of what I think I&#38;rsquo;ve taken away from it and related sources:&lt;/p&gt;
  3788.  
  3789. &lt;ul&gt;
  3790. &lt;li&gt;Your notes can be:
  3791.  
  3792. &lt;ul&gt;
  3793. &lt;li&gt;An extension of your long-term memory.&lt;/li&gt;
  3794. &lt;li&gt;A living system.&lt;/li&gt;
  3795. &lt;li&gt;Capable of surprising you with new connections, forgotten ideas,
  3796. and emergent patterns.&lt;/li&gt;
  3797. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3798. &lt;/li&gt;
  3799. &lt;li&gt;Writing is a means of thinking.&lt;/li&gt;
  3800. &lt;li&gt;Read (or work) with a notebook to hand.  Jot stuff down as you go.
  3801.  
  3802. &lt;ul&gt;
  3803. &lt;li&gt;Using the same notebook for everything will save you thinking about
  3804. which one to write in.&lt;/li&gt;
  3805. &lt;li&gt;The notebook can function like an inbox.  Process things from there into
  3806. permanent note storage, be that in electronic form or on index cards.&lt;/li&gt;
  3807. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3808. &lt;/li&gt;
  3809. &lt;li&gt;Track citations / bookmarks / bibliographical references.
  3810.  
  3811. &lt;ul&gt;
  3812. &lt;li&gt;Luhmann&#38;rsquo;s paper Zettelkasten seems to have used a dedicated card file for
  3813. this.  Ahrens recommends tooling like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.zotero.org/&#34;&gt;Zotero&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  3814. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3815. &lt;/li&gt;
  3816. &lt;li&gt;Work in small units.&lt;/li&gt;
  3817. &lt;li&gt;Summarize/restate ideas instead of just quoting or excerpting things.
  3818. Link them to other ideas already in your notes.
  3819.  
  3820. &lt;ul&gt;
  3821. &lt;li&gt;Just reading a text isn&#38;rsquo;t the same as understanding it.  Restating
  3822. an author&#38;rsquo;s ideas and integrating them with your existing knowledge is a
  3823. kind of self-test, and facilitates learning.&lt;/li&gt;
  3824. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3825. &lt;/li&gt;
  3826. &lt;li&gt;Add stuff to your notes if:
  3827.  
  3828. &lt;ul&gt;
  3829. &lt;li&gt;It connects to something already in the notes.&lt;/li&gt;
  3830. &lt;li&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s open to future connections.&lt;/li&gt;
  3831. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3832. &lt;/li&gt;
  3833. &lt;li&gt;You might understand something if you can effectively teach it.&lt;/li&gt;
  3834. &lt;li&gt;Hierarchy is likely to get in your way.  Draw connections within the whole
  3835. space of ideas, without being limited to the current level/tier/box/rank.&lt;/li&gt;
  3836. &lt;li&gt;&#38;ldquo;To get a good paper written, you only have to rewrite a
  3837. good draft;&#38;rdquo; for a draft, a series of notes, for a series of notes,
  3838. rearranging what&#38;rsquo;s already in the slipbox, which you&#38;rsquo;ve written as you go.
  3839. &#38;ldquo;All you &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; have to do is have a pen in your hand when you read.&#38;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
  3840. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3841.  
  3842.  
  3843. &lt;p&gt;That last one cuts pretty close to the heart of the method the book espouses.
  3844. It&#38;rsquo;s focused on writing an academic paper, but if you fuzz it out a little I
  3845. think it gestures at something more generally useful.&lt;/p&gt;
  3846.  
  3847. &lt;p&gt;Most of the work of understanding things is incremental and piecemeal: Refining
  3848. and tending a fragmentary web of memories, perspectives, practices, states, and
  3849. relationships.  Notes are a technology for &lt;em&gt;accumulating&lt;/em&gt; that work and
  3850. extending its durability outside of our skulls.  Used well, they&#38;rsquo;re a
  3851. foundation for making new things and a solid place to stand when faced with
  3852. recurring problems.&lt;/p&gt;
  3853.  
  3854. &lt;h3&gt;further research or whatever&lt;/h3&gt;
  3855.  
  3856.  
  3857. &lt;p&gt;Anyhow, while I find the Zettelkasten thing interesting as a cultural
  3858. happening, I&#38;rsquo;m not concerned with replicating it.&lt;/p&gt;
  3859.  
  3860. &lt;p&gt;In the broad outlines, the notes I keep in VimWiki look a lot like an
  3861. electronic slipbox.  There&#38;rsquo;s a bunch of stuff in the Luhmann / Kuehn / Ahrens /
  3862. zettelkasten.de trains of thought that seems useful to borrow, and lines up
  3863. well with things I&#38;rsquo;ve already learned working with wikis, version control
  3864. systems, bookmarks, and a couple decades of paper notebooks.  On the other
  3865. hand, there&#38;rsquo;s a lot in how I model the world and how I think in writing that
  3866. doesn&#38;rsquo;t fit.&lt;/p&gt;
  3867.  
  3868. &lt;p&gt;I often need to think in terms of when very specific things happened:  State
  3869. changes to complicated systems, what happened when I ran some technical
  3870. procedure, when I planted a bed of onions.  While restating ideas and
  3871. situations in my own words is a good way to get a handle on various things, I
  3872. also find it useful to archive verbatim fragments of conversation, specific
  3873. texts, chunks of code, and long transcripts of program output.  Some of my
  3874. &#38;ldquo;notes&#38;rdquo; are really executable scripts, and a lot of my external memory lives in
  3875. source code repositories, wikis, README files, command-line histories, and
  3876. issue tracking systems.&lt;/p&gt;
  3877.  
  3878. &lt;p&gt;All of that&#38;rsquo;s led me to thinking in terms of logs and journals, and roughing
  3879. out some tools for a 2-axis time vs. topic approach that I&#38;rsquo;ll elaborate on one
  3880. of these days.  I&#38;rsquo;d also like to make more room in my system for integrating
  3881. drawings, photos, and structured data, though I&#38;rsquo;m not entirely sure how to go
  3882. about it.&lt;/p&gt;
  3883.  
  3884. &lt;p&gt;In the meanwhile, I&#38;rsquo;ve been thinking a lot about various collections of public
  3885. notes (some more Zettelkasten-adjacent than others), stuff like:&lt;/p&gt;
  3886.  
  3887. &lt;ul&gt;
  3888. &lt;li&gt;Found by way of &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1128/compilation-of-public-zettelkastens-external-brains&#34;&gt;a Zettelkasten Forum thread&lt;/a&gt;:
  3889.  
  3890. &lt;ul&gt;
  3891. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://notes.andymatuschak.org/&#34;&gt;Andy Matuschak&#38;rsquo;s working notes&lt;/a&gt; are
  3892. full of interesting thoughts and presented in a format I fully intend to
  3893. steal from.&lt;/li&gt;
  3894. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://bactra.org/notebooks/&#34;&gt;Cosma Shalizi&#38;rsquo;s Notebooks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3895. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3896. &lt;/li&gt;
  3897. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://dannyreviews.com/&#34;&gt;Danny Yee&#38;rsquo;s Book Reviews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  3898. &lt;/ul&gt;
  3899.  
  3900.  
  3901.  
  3902.  
  3903. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notebooks&#34;&gt;notebooks&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes&#34;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/zettelkasten&#34;&gt;zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3904. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3905. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  3906. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/7/27/&#34; title=&#34;27&#34;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3907. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3908.  
  3909. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, june 18, 2020</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/6/18"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/6/18</id><content type="html">
  3910.  
  3911. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, june 18, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3912.  
  3913. &lt;p&gt;the sky turns heavy all afternoon&lt;br /&gt;
  3914. the cheap hardware store thermometer on the front porch&lt;br /&gt;
  3915. drops 20 degrees in a few hours&lt;/p&gt;
  3916.  
  3917. &lt;p&gt;in the evening, it rains for a long time&lt;br /&gt;
  3918. we&#39;re out walking when it starts, halfway through&lt;br /&gt;
  3919. a habitual loop down to the river, past the labyrinth&lt;br /&gt;
  3920. and the parking lot full of deputies and the post office&lt;/p&gt;
  3921.  
  3922. &lt;p&gt;it rains while i chop vegetables,&lt;br /&gt;
  3923. while we sit on the couch eating stir fry,&lt;br /&gt;
  3924. while we stand in the kitchen washing dishes,&lt;br /&gt;
  3925. and while i sit again at my desk, scratching notes&lt;br /&gt;
  3926. in ink and thinking that i ought to be thinking&lt;br /&gt;
  3927. something that weighs something&lt;/p&gt;
  3928.  
  3929.  
  3930.  
  3931. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  3932. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  3933. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  3934. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/6/18/&#34; title=&#34;18&#34;&gt;18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3935. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  3936.  
  3937. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, June 5, 2020 - fragmentary notes from a bad time getting worse (3)</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/6/5"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/6/5</id><content type="html">
  3938.  
  3939. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, June 5, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  3940.  
  3941. &lt;h2&gt;fragmentary notes from a bad time getting worse (3)&lt;/h2&gt;
  3942.  
  3943. &lt;p&gt;Back on the 25th of May, four police officers in Minneapolis murdered a black
  3944. man named George Floyd on camera.&lt;/p&gt;
  3945.  
  3946. &lt;p&gt;In 2018, on a &lt;a href=&#34;/2018/3/27&#34;&gt;list of guesses&lt;/a&gt; to check after 5 and 10 years, I
  3947. wrote:&lt;/p&gt;
  3948.  
  3949. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;No meaningful reforms of policing in America will have gained any traction.
  3950. When I go to look at this list again, I will be able to recall one or more
  3951. killings of an unarmed black civilian by law enforcement within the previous
  3952. 2-3 months.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  3953.  
  3954. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s only been two years, but the pattern has held and in a basic way I expect
  3955. that it will continue to hold for years and decades to come:  Because American
  3956. law enforcement is a violently racist system.  A system that both reflects the
  3957. racism of the society it operates within and actively works to entrench that
  3958. racism.&lt;/p&gt;
  3959.  
  3960. &lt;p&gt;George Floyd isn&#38;rsquo;t the first black person I&#38;rsquo;m aware of being murdered by
  3961. on-duty cops or cop-affiliated parties this year.  He wasn&#38;rsquo;t even the first one
  3962. that I learned about in &lt;em&gt;May&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;sup class=footnote&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  3963.  
  3964. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m a work-from-home white desk-job professional living in one of the whiter
  3965. places on the planet, surrounded by entrenched wealth.  In my small-town
  3966. neighborhood, the cops speed-trap tourists on their way to a national park and
  3967. are otherwise largely ignorable.  How many cop murders would I have known about
  3968. this year if I lived in that enormous swath of America where the police
  3969. function day-to-day as a hostile occupying force?&lt;/p&gt;
  3970.  
  3971. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❃ &lt;/p&gt;
  3972.  
  3973.  
  3974. &lt;p&gt;What if the pattern didn&#38;rsquo;t hold?&lt;/p&gt;
  3975.  
  3976. &lt;p&gt;This time feels different than the last &lt;em&gt;n&lt;/em&gt; iterations of this grim cycle.
  3977. There&#38;rsquo;s been, as best I can tell, an explosion of police violence in response
  3978. to a wave of protest that seems vast and not yet remotely contained.  As I
  3979. write this, people in my family are are marching.  Cities like Lincoln, NE have
  3980. seen actual unrest.&lt;/p&gt;
  3981.  
  3982. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s long seemed to me that, for the most part, America knows how to neutralize
  3983. street protest as a political force.  The machinery contains, suppresses,
  3984. deflects, and misinforms.  Structures within government, law enforcement,
  3985. news media, and activism itself all function to render it a kind of theater that
  3986. mostly plays out for its own participants.&lt;/p&gt;
  3987.  
  3988. &lt;p&gt;Whenever it feels like that machinery is breaking down, something is up.&lt;/p&gt;
  3989.  
  3990. &lt;p&gt;Maybe it feels that way in part because the vicious, bullying, riot-inciting
  3991. brutality of the cops is on such unguarded display right now.  A display that
  3992. might satisfy the longing to inflict pain and fear that fuels so much of our
  3993. politics, but also throws the hypocrisy and complicity of authority into sharp
  3994. relief and must put an incredible strain on the quiet consensus that usually
  3995. keeps these things so &lt;em&gt;manageable&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  3996.  
  3997. &lt;p&gt;Don&#38;rsquo;t mistake this for hope.  I&#38;rsquo;m not hopeful.  All the same, it&#38;rsquo;s possible to
  3998. imagine this as the moment it becomes &lt;em&gt;thinkable&lt;/em&gt; to cut police department
  3999. budgets, restrict police unions, end qualified immunity, scrap a bunch of
  4000. surplus military gear, fund alternative forms of emergency response, and fire a
  4001. lot of overt white supremacists.&lt;/p&gt;
  4002.  
  4003. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✴ &lt;/p&gt;
  4004.  
  4005.  
  4006. &lt;p&gt;And then meanwhile:  The pandemic.&lt;/p&gt;
  4007.  
  4008. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s been well over a month now since &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/4/26/&#34;&gt;I first felt like&lt;/a&gt; social
  4009. distancing efforts had pretty well ended where I live.  There&#38;rsquo;s been almost a
  4010. kind of weird sense of stasis since then.  Things are more open than they were.
  4011. The bar across the street is having bands in again.  The road&#38;rsquo;s full of cars.
  4012. But I think I underestimated the degree to which people were still laying low
  4013. in late April, and even now it&#38;rsquo;s clear that things are far from normal.&lt;/p&gt;
  4014.  
  4015. &lt;ul&gt;
  4016. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;who-sitrep&#34;&gt;WHO&lt;/a&gt;: 6,535,354 confirmed cases and 387,155 deaths globally
  4017.  
  4018. &lt;ul&gt;
  4019. &lt;li&gt;Late April: 2,804,796 and 193,710 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  4020. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4021. &lt;/li&gt;
  4022. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data/blob/master/us.csv#L137&#34;&gt;NY Times&lt;/a&gt;: 1,883,033 cases and 108,194 deaths in the US
  4023.  
  4024. &lt;ul&gt;
  4025. &lt;li&gt;Late April: 938,590 cases and 48,310 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  4026. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4027. &lt;/li&gt;
  4028. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://covid19.colorado.gov/covid-19-data&#34;&gt;colorado.gov&lt;/a&gt;: 27,615 cases and either 1,524 or 1,274 deaths&lt;/li&gt;
  4029. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4030.  
  4031.  
  4032. &lt;p&gt;It doesn&#38;rsquo;t seem, here, like there&#38;rsquo;s been the wild spike in cases I feared as
  4033. things loosened in April.  Nor does it seem like it&#38;rsquo;s anywhere near over.
  4034. Talking to friends scattered around the country about this recently, a rough
  4035. consensus: America ran out of attention span, now we wait and see how much of a
  4036. tragedy that is.  Of course that&#38;rsquo;s flippant and doesn&#38;rsquo;t really acknowledge the
  4037. crushing economic and social pressures to reopen, but it&#38;rsquo;s not exactly wrong.&lt;/p&gt;
  4038.  
  4039. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ☆ &lt;/p&gt;
  4040.  
  4041.  
  4042. &lt;p&gt;How does the state of the pandemic interact with mass street protest?  I guess
  4043. we&#38;rsquo;re going to find out.&lt;/p&gt;
  4044.  
  4045. &lt;p&gt;How does the pandemic&#38;rsquo;s function as an ideological pivot point interact with
  4046. mass protest?  We&#38;rsquo;re going to find out, but I already know I don&#38;rsquo;t like the
  4047. answer.&lt;/p&gt;
  4048.  
  4049. &lt;p class=footnote&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;
  4050.  &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Ahmaud_Arbery&#34;&gt;wp: Shooting of Ahmaud Arbery&lt;/a&gt;
  4051. &lt;/p&gt;
  4052.  
  4053.  
  4054.  
  4055.  
  4056. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/colorado&#34;&gt;colorado&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/covid19&#34;&gt;covid19&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/george-floyd&#34;&gt;george-floyd&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/policing&#34;&gt;policing&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4057. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4058. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  4059. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/6/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4060. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4061.  
  4062. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, May 25, 2020 - feeds: linkblogs</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/5/25"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/5/25</id><content type="html">
  4063.  
  4064. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, May 25, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4065.  
  4066. &lt;h2&gt;feeds: linkblogs&lt;/h2&gt;
  4067.  
  4068. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Background:&lt;/em&gt; I&#38;rsquo;m &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/5/8&#34;&gt;writing some posts&lt;/a&gt; linking to feeds that I
  4069. like.&lt;/p&gt;
  4070.  
  4071. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Today&#38;rsquo;s theme:&lt;/em&gt;  Blogs that curate interesting links.&lt;/p&gt;
  4072.  
  4073. &lt;p&gt;Linkblogs were once a really common form, and if done lazily can be a formulaic
  4074. waste of time, but there are a few people with a real knack for sifting out the
  4075. good stuff who I find worth tracking.  Three examples:&lt;/p&gt;
  4076.  
  4077. &lt;ul&gt;
  4078. &lt;li&gt;Leah Neukirchen&#38;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;http://leahneukirchen.org/trivium&#34;&gt;trivium&lt;/a&gt; is a low-volume, high-value roundup of
  4079. mostly-technical links that nearly always contains something worth my time.
  4080.  
  4081. &lt;ul&gt;
  4082. &lt;li&gt;Feed URL: &lt;a href=&#34;http://leahneukirchen.org/trivium/index.atom&#34;&gt;http://leahneukirchen.org/trivium/index.atom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4083. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4084. &lt;/li&gt;
  4085. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://danny.oz.au/blog/&#34;&gt;Pathologically Polymathic&lt;/a&gt; is a linkblog by Danny Yee, author of the
  4086. consistently excellent &lt;a href=&#34;http://dannyreviews.com/&#34;&gt;Danny Yee&#38;rsquo;s Book Reviews&lt;/a&gt;.
  4087. Math, art, lit, news, politics, transportation, science, etc.
  4088.  
  4089. &lt;ul&gt;
  4090. &lt;li&gt;Feed URL: &lt;a href=&#34;http://danny.oz.au/blog/rss.xml&#34;&gt;http://danny.oz.au/blog/rss.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4091. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4092. &lt;/li&gt;
  4093. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://waxy.org/&#34;&gt;Waxy.org&lt;/a&gt; is Andy Baio&#38;rsquo;s blog - there&#38;rsquo;re occasional
  4094. longer pieces in the mix, but often just quick links.  Andy Baio is one of
  4095. the cool kids, and thus his tastes reflect cool-kid concerns that I don&#38;rsquo;t really
  4096. share, but a lot of this stuff is good anyway.
  4097.  
  4098. &lt;ul&gt;
  4099. &lt;li&gt;Feed URL: &lt;a href=&#34;https://waxy.org/feed&#34;&gt;https://waxy.org/feed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4100. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4101. &lt;/li&gt;
  4102. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4103.  
  4104.  
  4105. &lt;p&gt;I do some linkblogging of my own.  You can see stuff I&#38;rsquo;ve shared lately in the
  4106. &#38;ldquo;linkdump&#38;rdquo; sidebar on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;front page of this site&lt;/a&gt;, or
  4107. subscribe to:&lt;/p&gt;
  4108.  
  4109. &lt;ul&gt;
  4110. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://pinboard.in/u:brennen/&#34;&gt;My public Pinboard bookmarks&lt;/a&gt;
  4111.  
  4112. &lt;ul&gt;
  4113. &lt;li&gt;Feed URL: &lt;a href=&#34;https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:brennen/&#34;&gt;https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:brennen/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4114. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4115. &lt;/li&gt;
  4116. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://brennen.newsblur.com/&#34;&gt;My shared posts from NewsBlur&lt;/a&gt;
  4117.  
  4118. &lt;ul&gt;
  4119. &lt;li&gt;Feed URL: &lt;a href=&#34;https://brennen.newsblur.com/social/rss/98457/brennen&#34;&gt;https://brennen.newsblur.com/social/rss/98457/brennen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4120. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4121. &lt;/li&gt;
  4122. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4123.  
  4124.  
  4125. &lt;p&gt;The Pinboard one in particular is strictly &#38;ldquo;stuff I want to remember&#38;rdquo;, not
  4126. &#38;ldquo;stuff I think anyone else cares about&#38;rdquo;.  It informs a lot of things I write
  4127. here or work on elsewhere, and stands a fair chance of being deathly boring for
  4128. readers who aren&#38;rsquo;t me.&lt;/p&gt;
  4129.  
  4130.  
  4131.  
  4132. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/feeds&#34;&gt;feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4133. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4134. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  4135. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/25/&#34; title=&#34;25&#34;&gt;25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4136. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4137.  
  4138. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, May 22, 2020 - feeds: stuff that makes me think</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/5/22"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/5/22</id><content type="html">
  4139.  
  4140. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, May 22, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4141.  
  4142. &lt;h2&gt;feeds: stuff that makes me think&lt;/h2&gt;
  4143.  
  4144. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Background:&lt;/em&gt; I&#38;rsquo;m &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/5/8&#34;&gt;doing some short posts&lt;/a&gt; linking to feeds that I
  4145. like.&lt;/p&gt;
  4146.  
  4147. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Today&#38;rsquo;s theme:&lt;/em&gt;  Some stuff that complicates how I think about the world in a
  4148. useful way.&lt;/p&gt;
  4149.  
  4150.  
  4151. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✥ &lt;/p&gt;
  4152.  
  4153. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mattstoller.substack.com/&#34;&gt;BIG by Matt Stoller&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; is
  4154. technically an e-mail newsletter, I guess, but &lt;a href=&#34;https://substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;
  4155. provides RSS feeds so that&#39;s how I subscribe.  The tagline is &#34;[t]he history
  4156. and pollitics of monopoly power&#34;.  Stoller is a thinktank type at something
  4157. called the American Economic Liberties Project.  I&#39;m not actually sure I have
  4158. much of a bead on his politics as such, and I&#39;m frankly not smart enough to
  4159. evaluate a large chunk of the claims made here, but I&#39;ve found its take on monopolies
  4160. pretty striking.&lt;/p&gt;
  4161.  
  4162. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Feed URL:&lt;/i&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://mattstoller.substack.com/feed/&#34;&gt;https://mattstoller.substack.com/feed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4163.  
  4164. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Sample posts:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4165.  
  4166. &lt;ul&gt;
  4167.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/on-the-spotify-joe-rogan-deal-and&#34;&gt;On
  4168.  the Spotify-Joe Rogan Deal and the Coming Death of Independent Podcasting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4169.  
  4170.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/uber-grubhub-how-the-pandemic-is&#34;&gt;Uber-Grubhub:
  4171.  How the Pandemic Is Launching the Era of Online Platform Regulation&lt;/a&gt;
  4172. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4173.  
  4174. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✧ &lt;/p&gt;
  4175.  
  4176. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tenthmedieval.wordpress.com/&#34;&gt;A Corner of Tenth-Century
  4177. Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; is a blog on medieval history that talks about stuff like coinage,
  4178. charters, architecture, and administrative matters.  A special kind of drily
  4179. fascinating, and a window into the kinds of deep research that you don&#39;t seem
  4180. to get from a lot of popularizing works.&lt;/p&gt;
  4181.  
  4182. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Feed URL:&lt;/i&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://tenthmedieval.wordpress.com/feed/&#34;&gt;https://tenthmedieval.wordpress.com/feed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4183.  
  4184. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✪ &lt;/p&gt;
  4185.  
  4186. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/&#34;&gt;Kiwi Hellenist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
  4187. offers detailed breakdowns of all sorts of stuff in classical antiquity and its
  4188. footprint in modern culture.&lt;/p&gt;
  4189.  
  4190. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Feed URL:&lt;/i&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default&#34;&gt;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4191.  
  4192. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Sample posts:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4193.  
  4194. &lt;ul&gt;
  4195.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2020/05/ancient-greek-colours.html&#34;&gt;How to make sense of ancient Greek colours&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4196.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2020/02/bridges.html&#34;&gt;Did Roman engineers stand under bridges?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4197.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2019/10/spartan-losers.html&#34;&gt;Spartan losers&lt;/a&gt; - especially good if you&#39;re looking for some &lt;i&gt;300&lt;/i&gt; bashing.&lt;/li&gt;
  4198.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2019/01/sea-shanties-assassins-creed-odyssey.html&#34;&gt;Shanties in &lt;i&gt;Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4199. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4200.  
  4201. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✵ &lt;/p&gt;
  4202.  
  4203. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.ayjay.org/&#34;&gt;Snakes and Ladders&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; - A while
  4204. back, I made an effort to follow more conservative (religious or otherwise)
  4205. outlets and writers, consciously trying to get outside of my filter bubble.  A
  4206. lot of it didn&#39;t stick, but I kept reading &lt;a href=&#34;http://ayjay.org/&#34;&gt;Alan
  4207. Jacobs&lt;/a&gt; in various formats.  He&#39;s a writer, an academic, and the sort of
  4208. person who publishes in places like &lt;i&gt;The American Conservative&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  4209.  
  4210. &lt;p&gt;You should read that last as a disclaimer of many of his probable views,
  4211. because he keeps intellectual &#38;amp; cultural company with some people I find it
  4212. pretty hard to stomach.  Once in a while I come pretty close to unsubscribing.
  4213. All the same, I often read his work with some interest and find that it makes
  4214. me more aware of a conservative Christian intellectual culture that, while
  4215. super messed up about all kinds of things, is more complicated than the
  4216. American talk radio / Focus on the Family / Fox News / beat-your-children side
  4217. of things would suggest.&lt;/p&gt;
  4218.  
  4219. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Feed URL:&lt;/i&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.ayjay.org/feed/&#34;&gt;https://blog.ayjay.org/feed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4220.  
  4221. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❁ &lt;/p&gt;
  4222.  
  4223. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://granolashotgun.com/&#34;&gt;Granola Shotgun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt; has some
  4224. rich-guy-prepper-landlord vibes, which might be offputting here and there, but
  4225. also a ton of interesting thoughts and background on housing, urban planning,
  4226. regulation, etc.  I take this one with a substantial grain of salt, but it&#39;s
  4227. filtered into my thinking about the dynamics of the American built landscape
  4228. and how much dry goods I&#39;d like to have on hand.  Also uses just piles of
  4229. photos, which while often individually mundane do an effective job of conveying
  4230. a story or idea when taken in the aggregate.&lt;/p&gt;
  4231.  
  4232. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Feed URL:&lt;/i&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://granolashotgun.com/feed/&#34;&gt;https://granolashotgun.com/feed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4233.  
  4234. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Sample posts:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4235.  
  4236. &lt;ul&gt;
  4237.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://granolashotgun.com/2018/09/20/methodist-urbanism-ocean-grove/&#34;&gt;Methodist Urbanism: Ocean Grove&lt;/a&gt;
  4238.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://granolashotgun.com/2019/06/03/levittown/&#34;&gt;Levittown&lt;/a&gt;
  4239. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4240.  
  4241. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4242. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4243. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  4244. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/22/&#34; title=&#34;22&#34;&gt;22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4245. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4246.  
  4247. </content><updated>2020-05-23T09:11:18Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, May 20, 2020 - meta meta</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/5/20"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/5/20</id><content type="html">
  4248.  
  4249. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, May 20, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4250.  
  4251. &lt;h2&gt;meta meta&lt;/h2&gt;
  4252.  
  4253. &lt;p&gt;Opening my notebook to where I left off, I notice that the most recent pages
  4254. are full of the distracted scrawl and half-hearted jottings that result from
  4255. leaving it open on my desk while I work.  There&#38;rsquo;s a scratchpaper quality to all
  4256. of it.  Random TODOs, unfinished lists, scraps of conversation, doodles,
  4257. context-free exclamations.  It was probably useful for thinking earlier, but it
  4258. doesn&#38;rsquo;t tell me much now.&lt;/p&gt;
  4259.  
  4260. &lt;p&gt;Musing about this in writing &#38;mdash; writing about an act of writing, its
  4261. materials, etc. &#38;mdash; is a particular kind of thing.  Let&#38;rsquo;s call it &lt;em&gt;meta&lt;/em&gt;.
  4262. Meta-whatever:&lt;/p&gt;
  4263.  
  4264. &lt;ul&gt;
  4265. &lt;li&gt;Metawriting&lt;/li&gt;
  4266. &lt;li&gt;Metaprogramming&lt;/li&gt;
  4267. &lt;li&gt;Metaprocess&lt;/li&gt;
  4268. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4269.  
  4270.  
  4271. &lt;p&gt;Writing about writing.  Programming about programming.  Meetings about
  4272. meetings.  The mind reflecting on its own function.&lt;/p&gt;
  4273.  
  4274. &lt;p&gt;Meta-whatever can be both potent and dangerously tempting.  It&#38;rsquo;s not for
  4275. nothing that it shows up so many places, and at times it yields deep insights
  4276. or significant gains in power.  It&#38;rsquo;s also striking how often it seems to trap
  4277. people in localized loops and hopeless ruts.&lt;/p&gt;
  4278.  
  4279. &lt;p&gt;Methodology cults like Agile, Getting Things Done, and the recently emerging
  4280. nerd-frenzy over the Zettelkasten method are rife with process obsessions,
  4281. semi-stable patterns of recurring inquiry/argument, and people who mainly use
  4282. their methods of choice to refine their methods of choice.  You don&#38;rsquo;t have to
  4283. spend much time around any given large organization to notice how much effort
  4284. is burned on recursive bureaucracy, or how many contemporary jobs have
  4285. collapsed into closed-loop no-external-reality meta-work.&lt;/p&gt;
  4286.  
  4287. &lt;p&gt;This is all frustrating both to observe and to experience, when it gets out of
  4288. control.&lt;/p&gt;
  4289.  
  4290. &lt;p&gt;Maybe part of the reason it gets away from people is the high from when it pays
  4291. off.  Runaway metaprogramming might turn into such a nightmare &lt;em&gt;because&lt;/em&gt; it
  4292. starts with sharpening your tools to a keen edge, or with an act of
  4293. leapfrogging tiers of abstraction.  Automating your automation can feel like
  4294. the purest response to that age old imperative of the hacker, that you make the
  4295. computer do the stupid shit.&lt;/p&gt;
  4296.  
  4297. &lt;p&gt;Of course, follow that impulse too far, angle it the wrong way &#38;mdash; and pretty
  4298. soon you&#38;rsquo;re Mickey Mouse trying to bail while the ensorceled brooms flood the
  4299. whole joint.&lt;/p&gt;
  4300.  
  4301. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ☆ &lt;/p&gt;
  4302.  
  4303.  
  4304. &lt;p&gt;Writing about writing might not have quite the same potential for nested,
  4305. generative dysfunction, but it often produces artifacts just as unintelligible.
  4306. Self-referentiality in fiction can be a real punch in the brain pan sometimes,
  4307. but stories about stories get tiresome sooner or later.  Taking the framework
  4308. apart and putting it back together can be amazing; it can also become deeply
  4309. annoying when a reader&#38;rsquo;s looking for a framework that &lt;em&gt;contains&lt;/em&gt; something.&lt;/p&gt;
  4310.  
  4311. &lt;p&gt;Sure, all narrative is a sort of trick &#38;mdash; but artifice that&#38;rsquo;s purely
  4312. interested in its own mechanics eventually leads to &lt;em&gt;boring tricks&lt;/em&gt;.  It&#38;rsquo;s like
  4313. painting that&#38;rsquo;s purely about how paint adheres to a surface without any
  4314. particular interest in or reference to external objects and context: There&#38;rsquo;s
  4315. nothing &lt;em&gt;wrong&lt;/em&gt; with that sort of thing, but there&#38;rsquo;d be something kind of
  4316. depressing about a world where it was the only kind of painting.&lt;/p&gt;
  4317.  
  4318. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❃ &lt;/p&gt;
  4319.  
  4320.  
  4321. &lt;p&gt;To circle back to notes about note-taking, because that&#38;rsquo;s where this started:
  4322. It&#38;rsquo;s a fruitful line of inquiry, up to some limit of circularity, some moment
  4323. where you risk crawling up your own asshole about refining a System instead of
  4324. using it to learn other things and think other thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;
  4325.  
  4326. &lt;p&gt;This is a reminder I need, periodically.&lt;/p&gt;
  4327.  
  4328.  
  4329.  
  4330. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes&#34;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/systems&#34;&gt;systems&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/writing&#34;&gt;writing&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/zettelkasten&#34;&gt;zettelkasten&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4331. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4332. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  4333. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/20/&#34; title=&#34;20&#34;&gt;20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4334. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4335.  
  4336. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Thursday, May 14, 2020 - the world computer: a marginally coherent bathtub rant</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/5/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/5/14</id><content type="html">
  4337.  
  4338. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Thursday, May 14, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4339.  
  4340. &lt;h2&gt;the world computer: a marginally coherent bathtub rant&lt;/h2&gt;
  4341.  
  4342. &lt;p&gt;I was pondering Amazon just now, as I sat in the bathtub sweating profusely and
  4343. reading an installment of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.marthawells.com/murderbot.htm&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Murderbot Diaries&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; on an old e-ink
  4344. Kindle in a sandwich baggy.&lt;/p&gt;
  4345.  
  4346. &lt;p&gt;I started thinking about how I &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/artificial-condition-1&#34;&gt;bought a DRM-free edition of the book somewhere
  4347. besides Amazon&lt;/a&gt; and jumped through several hoops to get it in a
  4348. readable format on the Kindle (a device given to me by a former employer so I
  4349. could participate in a book club for reading the blend of self-help, technical
  4350. propaganda, and management porn that the class of people who go through startup
  4351. incubators pretty much swim in).&lt;/p&gt;
  4352.  
  4353. &lt;p&gt;And then I thought: For fucksake, the sheer &lt;em&gt;futility&lt;/em&gt; of this kind of
  4354. exercise, when we as people who read books all more or less live inside the
  4355. machinery constructed by Amazon.  I mean, sure, I have a copy of a book that I
  4356. can stash for later and read on some other gadget, which has some practical
  4357. value.  But if you think of it as some minor act of resistance to the bullshit
  4358. status quo&#38;hellip;  I mean, it feels good, I indulge in this kind of theatrics all
  4359. the time, but fundamentally Amazon still owns publishing and for fractally
  4360. similar reasons total assholes still control most of the code on pretty much
  4361. every device on the planet.&lt;/p&gt;
  4362.  
  4363. &lt;p&gt;From one reasonable but doomed point of view, the Kindle is a special-purpose
  4364. computer I own.  But that elides a whole lot of its essential nature, doesn&#38;rsquo;t
  4365. it?  What the Kindle &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; is: A fragment of Amazon&#38;rsquo;s computer that happens
  4366. to be physically located in my house, interfaced with both my credit card
  4367. balance and my brain.&lt;/p&gt;
  4368.  
  4369. &lt;p&gt;And then I thought: We&#38;rsquo;re over the threshold.  It&#38;rsquo;s not so much that there
  4370. are a lot of computers.  20 years ago there were a lot of computers.  Now it&#38;rsquo;s
  4371. more like there&#38;rsquo;s one massive computer and we&#38;rsquo;re all inside it.  We&#38;rsquo;ve
  4372. collapsed into the state where cyberspace isn&#38;rsquo;t just a meaningful concept; it&#38;rsquo;s
  4373. very nearly coterminous with human existence.&lt;/p&gt;
  4374.  
  4375. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✶ &lt;/p&gt;
  4376.  
  4377.  
  4378. &lt;p&gt;The same thought from a different angle:  I was reading a thread about this
  4379. &lt;a href=&#34;http://strlen.com/treesheets/&#34;&gt;pretty interesting piece of desktop software&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://lobste.rs/s/7catij/how_do_you_take_notes_organize_your#c_9syeuc&#34;&gt;someone
  4380. said&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  4381.  
  4382. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;This does look intriguing, but I can’t help but be disinterested in it
  4383. because it doesn’t look like you can share and collaborate over the Internet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  4384.  
  4385. &lt;p&gt;And I thought:  Right.  This is where we are.  Abstractions like &#38;ldquo;a kind of
  4386. file that this software can read&#38;rdquo; have become implementation details for the
  4387. technical class.  Even for the technical class, what doesn&#38;rsquo;t open onto the
  4388. network is essentially dead.  And in an age and architecture when scale and
  4389. corporate platform availability (Android, iOS, Facebook) are prerequisites for
  4390. meaningful participation, &#38;ldquo;the network&#38;rdquo; means what&#38;rsquo;s wholly owned.  The
  4391. network&#38;rsquo;s the computer, the computer is the megacorporation.&lt;/p&gt;
  4392.  
  4393. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✧ &lt;/p&gt;
  4394.  
  4395.  
  4396. &lt;p&gt;But that understates the case.  The &lt;em&gt;meta&lt;/em&gt;-megacorporation is the network is
  4397. the computer.  Amazon doesn&#38;rsquo;t own the whole machine, or Microsoft, or Apple, or
  4398. Facebook, or Google, or the governments of [the United States, China, Russia,
  4399. &#38;hellip;].  Vast territories are delineated within the network, but their boundaries
  4400. are permeable and ill-defined.  It&#38;rsquo;s impossible to cleanly disentangle client
  4401. hardware from operating systems from databases from protocols from supply
  4402. chains from datacenters.  Just as it&#38;rsquo;s impossible to disentangle computation
  4403. from the flow of money, the flow of goods, the flow of surveillance, the
  4404. software-riddled cognitive state of populations.  Scale permeates everything,
  4405. even scale.&lt;/p&gt;
  4406.  
  4407. &lt;p&gt;So:  There&#38;rsquo;s a computer and most of us live there now.&lt;/p&gt;
  4408.  
  4409.  
  4410.  
  4411. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/amazon&#34;&gt;amazon&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/business&#34;&gt;business&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/murderbot&#34;&gt;murderbot&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4412. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4413. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  4414. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4415. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4416.  
  4417. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Friday, May  8, 2020 - feeds for your consideration: a preamble</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/5/8"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/5/8</id><content type="html">
  4418.  
  4419. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Friday, May  8, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4420.  
  4421. &lt;h2&gt;feeds for your consideration: a preamble&lt;/h2&gt;
  4422.  
  4423. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s 2020, which makes &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed&#34;&gt;RSS and its siblings&lt;/a&gt; something on the
  4424. order of 20 years old as a technology in actual use.  It&#38;rsquo;s been a bit over 7
  4425. years since Google killed off Google Reader, and a year since &lt;a href=&#34;/2019/1/2/&#34;&gt;Firefox removed
  4426. feed discovery&lt;/a&gt; features, the last visible form of support in a mainstream
  4427. browser.&lt;sup class=footnote&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4428.  
  4429. &lt;p&gt;And yet:  Feeds are still widely published and remain surprisingly effective
  4430. for reading a slice of the web that isn&#38;rsquo;t overtly terrible.&lt;/p&gt;
  4431.  
  4432. &lt;p&gt;Maybe this is an accident, or an emergent nerd conspiracy.  Feed publishing
  4433. isn&#38;rsquo;t that hard for programmers to implement, and rarely comes to the malign
  4434. attention of marketing departments or upper management.  It remains baked into
  4435. enough widely-used software (WordPress, for example) that a lot of sites
  4436. probably publish feeds without even realizing it.  Podcasting is a whole thing
  4437. and is built on the same underlying tech, which probably helps too.&lt;/p&gt;
  4438.  
  4439. &lt;p&gt;This is tech I still use every day, and I feel like more people would benefit
  4440. if they knew about it, but unlike the last few times I&#38;rsquo;ve written about this
  4441. topic, I won&#38;rsquo;t waste space on the (doomed) idea that a browser vendor or the
  4442. software industry as a whole might behave any differently.  After decades of
  4443. very hard work, we&#38;rsquo;ve achieved the natural equilibrium of the web: It totally
  4444. sucks.  The infrastructure is all owned by assholes with bad ideas and the
  4445. technology is dominated by grotesque, unwieldy nonsense.&lt;/p&gt;
  4446.  
  4447. &lt;p&gt;Instead of worry about that, I thought maybe I&#38;rsquo;d just write a series of short
  4448. posts linking to feeds that I enjoy or get some value out of, so look for that
  4449. when / if I get around to it&#38;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
  4450.  
  4451. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✤ &lt;/p&gt;
  4452.  
  4453.  
  4454. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edit:&lt;/strong&gt; How do you subscribe to RSS/Atom feeds, you might reasonably ask?
  4455. Well, you need a feedreader.&lt;/p&gt;
  4456.  
  4457. &lt;p&gt;On the web, I use &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.newsblur.com/&#34;&gt;NewsBlur&lt;/a&gt;, a paid option with a free trial
  4458. that&#38;rsquo;s also open source.  On the desktop, I&#38;rsquo;ve used
  4459. &lt;a href=&#34;https://lzone.de/liferea/&#34;&gt;Liferea&lt;/a&gt;.  If you want to self-host a web app,
  4460. &lt;a href=&#34;https://tt-rss.org/&#34;&gt;Tiny Tiny RSS&lt;/a&gt; is popular.  For Firefox and Chrome,
  4461. there&#38;rsquo;s a plugin called &lt;a href=&#34;https://nodetics.com/feedbro/&#34;&gt;Feedbro&lt;/a&gt; that doesn&#38;rsquo;t
  4462. seem to be open source (which sketches me out a bit), but does seem to offer a
  4463. decent user experience.&lt;/p&gt;
  4464.  
  4465. &lt;p&gt;In Firefox, I use the &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/nt1m/livemarks/&#34;&gt;livemarks&lt;/a&gt;
  4466. extension to see when pages have a feed I can subscribe to and turn some of
  4467. them into &#38;ldquo;live bookmarks&#38;rdquo;.  For Chrome, Google offers
  4468. &lt;a href=&#34;https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rss-subscription-extensio/nlbjncdgjeocebhnmkbbbdekmmmcbfjd/&#34;&gt;RSS Subscription Extension&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  4469.  
  4470.  
  4471. &lt;p class=footnote&gt;&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt; I use both &#34;noticeable&#34; and &#34;mainstream&#34; lightly
  4472. here, given that the features were buried in a settings menu years before their
  4473. removal, and Firefox itself exists at the financial and technical sufferance of
  4474. the adtech search monopoly that owns the only browser anyone cares about
  4475. supporting.&lt;/p&gt;
  4476.  
  4477.  
  4478. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/feeds&#34;&gt;feeds&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/firefox&#34;&gt;firefox&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/syndication&#34;&gt;syndication&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/web&#34;&gt;web&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4479. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4480. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  4481. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/5/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4482. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4483.  
  4484. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, April 26, 2020 - fragmentary notes from a bad time getting worse (2)</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/4/26"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/4/26</id><content type="html">
  4485.  
  4486. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, April 26, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4487.  
  4488. &lt;h2&gt;fragmentary notes from a bad time getting worse (2)&lt;/h2&gt;
  4489.  
  4490. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer: I don&#38;rsquo;t know what I&#38;rsquo;m talking about.  These posts are snapshots of
  4491. what I was thinking on a given date so I can check myself later.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4492.  
  4493. &lt;p&gt;As I write this, early Sunday morning:&lt;/p&gt;
  4494.  
  4495. &lt;ul&gt;
  4496. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;who-sitrep&#34;&gt;WHO&lt;/a&gt;: 2,804,796 confirmed cases and 193,710 deaths globally&lt;/li&gt;
  4497. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data/blob/master/us.csv#L97&#34;&gt;NY Times&lt;/a&gt;: 938,590 cases and 48,310 deaths in the US&lt;/li&gt;
  4498. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4499.  
  4500.  
  4501. &lt;p&gt;In my rough personal chronology, I&#38;rsquo;m marking today, or at any rate this
  4502. weekend, as the point at which it seems like any very effective degree of
  4503. social distancing ended locally.  A steady trickle of people in neighbors&#39;
  4504. yards, a straight up party a few blocks down the way, a trip to the beer store
  4505. where it was pretty clear that no one shopping or working there had any fucks
  4506. left to give about transmission-limiting measures.  Big packs of old guys on
  4507. Harleys and young guys on crotch rockets, rumbling and screeching,
  4508. respectively, through town.  It&#38;rsquo;s probably not evenly distributed, but I&#38;rsquo;m
  4509. guessing it feels similar a lot of places up and down the Colorado Front Range.&lt;/p&gt;
  4510.  
  4511. &lt;p&gt;So: Does the disease move like I think it does after reading far too many &#38;ldquo;an
  4512. expert said this&#38;rdquo; articles, or is it somehow not as bad as all that?&lt;/p&gt;
  4513.  
  4514. &lt;p&gt;I think we&#38;rsquo;re going to find out, because it seems like we&#38;rsquo;ve just about
  4515. exhausted whatever social / political / administrative capacity we had to
  4516. mitigate things in a lot of the US.&lt;/p&gt;
  4517.  
  4518. &lt;p&gt;We&#38;rsquo;ve been stricter than average about limiting contact with people outside our
  4519. household, I think.  We&#38;rsquo;ve got computer jobs that can happen from home, which
  4520. makes that a lot more possible.  Still, the social pressure to give up on it is
  4521. substantial.  I can feel myself shifting into the category of humorless,
  4522. uptight asshole in the context of my relationships around town.  Mostly, people
  4523. are going to yield to pressures like that, sooner rather than later.&lt;/p&gt;
  4524.  
  4525. &lt;p&gt;I wonder what this is going to look like in a week, or a month.  I have some
  4526. guesses and I hope I&#38;rsquo;m wrong about all of them.&lt;/p&gt;
  4527.  
  4528.  
  4529.  
  4530. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/colorado&#34;&gt;colorado&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/covid19&#34;&gt;covid19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4531. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4532. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  4533. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/26/&#34; title=&#34;26&#34;&gt;26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4534. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4535.  
  4536. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, April 21 - fragmentary notes from a bad time getting worse (1)</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/4/21"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/4/21</id><content type="html">
  4537.  
  4538. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, April 21&lt;/h1&gt;
  4539.  
  4540. &lt;h2&gt;fragmentary notes from a bad time getting worse (1)&lt;/h2&gt;
  4541.  
  4542. &lt;p&gt;This isn&#38;rsquo;t going to be well-written and it&#38;rsquo;s probably not worth your time.  I&#38;rsquo;m
  4543. just pinning some thoughts where I can see them and check myself after a while.&lt;/p&gt;
  4544.  
  4545. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✦ &lt;/p&gt;
  4546.  
  4547.  
  4548. &lt;p&gt;As I&#38;rsquo;m writing this, the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200421-sitrep-92-covid-19.pdf&#34;&gt;WHO situation report for today&lt;/a&gt; lists
  4549. 2,397,216 confirmed cases and 162,956 deaths worldwide.  For the United States
  4550. it has 751,273 cases and 35,884 deaths.  The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html]&#34;&gt;New York Times map&lt;/a&gt;
  4551. shows 804,701 cases and 40,266 deaths for the US, though it&#38;rsquo;s not yet reflected
  4552. in their &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data/blob/master/us.csv&#34;&gt;CSV data&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  4553.  
  4554. &lt;p&gt;Both numbers are lower bounds on both the number of people infected and the
  4555. number of dead.  I&#38;rsquo;m wildly unqualified to guess how much bigger the real
  4556. numbers are.&lt;/p&gt;
  4557.  
  4558. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✮ &lt;/p&gt;
  4559.  
  4560.  
  4561. &lt;p&gt;I tried to look back in my notes and see when the virus first really entered my
  4562. awareness.  The best I can come up with is that I remember talking about it on
  4563. the phone with my dad.  I was standing in a hotel lobby at a conference in San
  4564. Francisco, full of coworkers who&#38;rsquo;d traveled internationally to attend.  The
  4565. 27th or 28th of January, I&#38;rsquo;d guess.  It was in the news by then in an
  4566. escalating kind of way.&lt;/p&gt;
  4567.  
  4568. &lt;p&gt;A throw away line in &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/1/&#34;&gt;an entry from the airport&lt;/a&gt; a few days later:
  4569. &#38;ldquo;People in face masks because the network made them afraid of a potential
  4570. pandemic.&#38;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
  4571.  
  4572. &lt;p&gt;I think the fear really set in towards the end of February.  My mom was in town
  4573. and we were in the car coming back from lunch one day.   I opened a laptop to
  4574. check work mail and skimmed some headlines and it hit me:  &lt;em&gt;This one is
  4575. happening.&lt;/em&gt; I was nervous about her taking a plane back home.  The same day she
  4576. left, I drank beers with a bunch of old work friends and we very carefully
  4577. didn&#38;rsquo;t talk about it.&lt;/p&gt;
  4578.  
  4579. &lt;p&gt;I began stocking up on canned food and dry goods in earnest somewhere around
  4580. then.  Work events started getting canceled.  I remember a series of social
  4581. gatherings haunted by that sense that this might be the last one before things
  4582. got real.  A series of those conversations where people said &#38;ldquo;wait, you really
  4583. think this is going to be a big deal?&#38;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
  4584.  
  4585. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❁ &lt;/p&gt;
  4586.  
  4587.  
  4588. &lt;p&gt;I haven&#38;rsquo;t regretted those early trips to the grocery store for a second.&lt;/p&gt;
  4589.  
  4590. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✪ &lt;/p&gt;
  4591.  
  4592.  
  4593. &lt;p&gt;I started bookmarking some of my reading &lt;a href=&#34;https://pinboard.in/u:brennen/t:covid19/&#34;&gt;under a covid19 tag&lt;/a&gt;
  4594. on the 1st of March.&lt;/p&gt;
  4595.  
  4596. &lt;p&gt;In the weeks after that, I argued with older relatives and talked to neighbors
  4597. and realized that the nature (and existence) of the disease had become a
  4598. partisan question and a focus for the kind of conspiratorial paranoia that
  4599. usually centers around chemtrails and cell towers.&lt;/p&gt;
  4600.  
  4601. &lt;p&gt;Fewer people tell me it&#38;rsquo;s just the flu now.  My nearest acquaintance with a
  4602. chemtrails / deep state / 5G / FEMA camps obsession decamped for New Mexico a
  4603. while back.  I don&#38;rsquo;t think the conceptual shear has gotten any less pronounced
  4604. overall, though.  The focus has just shifted a little.&lt;/p&gt;
  4605.  
  4606. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✧ &lt;/p&gt;
  4607.  
  4608.  
  4609. &lt;p&gt;It was always clear that, at best, Donald Trump is morally vacuous and
  4610. profoundly stupid.  For a long time I had conversations where people who shared
  4611. that premise would ask how much it really mattered.  Sure, Trump was personally
  4612. appalling, every bit the mobbed up piece-of-shit real-estate con artist you
  4613. knew you were getting.  But was this administration really any worse or more
  4614. extreme in terms of outcomes than x-random 2020-era Republican would have been?
  4615. I haven&#38;rsquo;t heard anyone ask these things lately.&lt;/p&gt;
  4616.  
  4617. &lt;p&gt;Of course, a lot of people don&#38;rsquo;t share that premise.  In the early days, back
  4618. when I still had the capacity to worry about things like national elections, I
  4619. said: It seems like the only way Trump is likely to lose the election in
  4620. November is if the pandemic and its consequences get bad enough.  I expected
  4621. some kind of reversal in popular understanding if a lot of people died and a
  4622. lot of jobs went away, but what we seem to be getting instead is a hardening
  4623. cultural divide over whether the virus is itself a serious threat and whose
  4624. fault it is if so.&lt;/p&gt;
  4625.  
  4626. &lt;p&gt;So: The US is decently likely to have federal leadership which combines
  4627. world-historical incompetence with actual villainy for the duration of this
  4628. thing.  As a bonus, we&#38;rsquo;re now a population permanently unable to agree on the
  4629. most basic questions of fact about an event that&#38;rsquo;s going to reshape politics,
  4630. culture, and the economy for decades.&lt;/p&gt;
  4631.  
  4632. &lt;p&gt;Then again, I guess you could say the same about a majority of the really big
  4633. things that have happened during my lifetime.&lt;/p&gt;
  4634.  
  4635. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ☆ &lt;/p&gt;
  4636.  
  4637.  
  4638. &lt;p&gt;Today I feel like the American federal project is collapsing.  This is an
  4639. empire not just in slow decline but in a state of active disintegration.  How
  4640. much of that did I think already?  How deep down did I feel it?  I&#38;rsquo;m not sure.
  4641. Maybe it&#38;rsquo;ll look different in a season or five.&lt;/p&gt;
  4642.  
  4643. &lt;p&gt;Right now you can watch the cracks open in realtime.  I don&#38;rsquo;t mean that there
  4644. won&#38;rsquo;t be a United States of America when we wake up one of these quarantine
  4645. days.  I think it&#38;rsquo;s a fair bet American militaries will still be murdering
  4646. people for resource extraction long after my natural lifespan runs out.  But
  4647. regional pandemic compacts between state governments, defunded public health
  4648. agencies, and governors making back-channel deals to smuggle medical supplies in
  4649. so they can&#38;rsquo;t be seized by the feds:  I don&#38;rsquo;t think this stuff is ephemeral in
  4650. its effects.&lt;/p&gt;
  4651.  
  4652. &lt;p&gt;Structures are failing.  Money and power are going to build other structures to
  4653. compensate.  Channels are going to shift, boundaries and systems are going to
  4654. reconfigure.&lt;/p&gt;
  4655.  
  4656. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s useful to have read &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Shock Doctrine&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; right about now.&lt;/p&gt;
  4657.  
  4658. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❃ &lt;/p&gt;
  4659.  
  4660.  
  4661. &lt;p&gt;Plenty of recent experiences have caused me to think some pretty anarchist
  4662. thoughts again.  The pandemic has complicated that.  Or maybe it&#38;rsquo;s only
  4663. informed it.  My politics don&#38;rsquo;t feel any more coherent than they did 6 months
  4664. ago.  Maybe it would be a bad sign if they did.&lt;/p&gt;
  4665.  
  4666. &lt;p&gt;The already-patchworky set of stay-at-home orders and other restrictions are
  4667. about to loosen, driven partly by death-cult consensus politics, and partly
  4668. just by the impossible pressures of keeping a lid on so many people and
  4669. systems.  Too soon and badly managed is what I expect out of this.&lt;/p&gt;
  4670.  
  4671. &lt;p&gt;&#38;ldquo;Fuck you I won&#38;rsquo;t do what you tell me&#38;rdquo; is simultaneously the best and worst of
  4672. American impulses.&lt;/p&gt;
  4673.  
  4674.  
  4675.  
  4676. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/covid19&#34;&gt;covid19&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/history&#34;&gt;history&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/policy&#34;&gt;policy&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4677. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4678. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  4679. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/21/&#34; title=&#34;21&#34;&gt;21&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4680. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4681.  
  4682. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, April 13</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/4/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/4/13</id><content type="html">
  4683.  
  4684. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, April 13&lt;/h1&gt;
  4685.  
  4686. &lt;p&gt;I learned how to dial on a rotary phone.  Listen for the dial tone.  Put a
  4687. finger in the hole over the number you want, turn it &#38;lsquo;til it stops, and let it
  4688. roll back.  Listen to the clicks.  Repeat.&lt;/p&gt;
  4689.  
  4690. &lt;p&gt;In the 90s, when half of what my dad seemed to do for a living was an elaborate
  4691. resource allocation game conducted in the menu trees of corporate voicemail
  4692. systems, he had this gadget that would play touch tones into the handset so you
  4693. could use the old rotary phones that were still littered all over the
  4694. landscape.  The kind of technical ephemera that you get as one kind of network
  4695. thrashes its way towards becoming another thing altogether.&lt;/p&gt;
  4696.  
  4697. &lt;p&gt;If you&#38;rsquo;d told me back then that I&#38;rsquo;d mourn fundamental qualities of that phone
  4698. system (with its by-the-minute long-distance charges and 14.4 modems) in a time
  4699. when I have access to hundreds of computers and an always-on Internet
  4700. connection, I&#38;rsquo;m not sure what I would have thought.&lt;/p&gt;
  4701.  
  4702. &lt;p&gt;My parents got rid of their landline earlier this year.  I don&#38;rsquo;t think they
  4703. would have, necessarily, but the service had degraded beyond usability by the
  4704. time they finally gave up on it.  For a while there, it&#38;rsquo;d go out completely if
  4705. it rained enough.  There was strange crackling on the line, and finally just an
  4706. error tone of some sort when you tried to dial in.  This is how the old world
  4707. dies: Piece by piece, quietly, at the edges, a decade or three after the fact
  4708. of its obsolescence.&lt;/p&gt;
  4709.  
  4710. &lt;p&gt;(I wrote a draft of this fragment a month ago, and looking through my bookmarks
  4711. I guess it must have been prompted by reading &#38;ldquo;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/opinion/landine-phone.html&#34;&gt;A Longing for the Lost
  4712. Landline&lt;/a&gt;&#38;rdquo;,
  4713. which is exactly the sort of NYT opinion piece you&#38;rsquo;d expect from the title.)&lt;/p&gt;
  4714.  
  4715.  
  4716.  
  4717. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/phone&#34;&gt;phone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4718. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4719. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  4720. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4721. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4722.  
  4723. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, April  5, 2020 - wrt 7.0.0 - new features - title extraction and entry caching - a tagging system - json feed output - a repl for debugging - breaking changes - future work / observations</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/4/5"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/4/5</id><content type="html">
  4724.  
  4725. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, April  5, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4726.  
  4727. &lt;h2&gt;wrt 7.0.0&lt;/h2&gt;
  4728.  
  4729. &lt;p&gt;Links:&lt;/p&gt;
  4730.  
  4731. &lt;ul&gt;
  4732. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt related entries here on p1k3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4733. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://metacpan.org/release/App-WRT&#34;&gt;wrt on CPAN as App::WRT&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4734. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt repo on code.p1k3.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4735. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/brennen/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt mirrored on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4736. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4737.  
  4738.  
  4739. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s been nearly a year since I released a version of wrt, the tool I use for
  4740. publishing this site from a collection of flat files.  I hacked on it for a
  4741. while late in 2019, and got somewhere in the neighborhood of a 7.0.0 release
  4742. before getting sidetracked by illness, a fried computer, and holiday travel.&lt;/p&gt;
  4743.  
  4744. &lt;p&gt;I checked on the state of the code last night and realized I&#38;rsquo;d left a bunch of
  4745. changes dangling and had mostly lost track of the mental state I&#38;rsquo;d built up
  4746. around my plans.  I even had a release blog post mostly written.  I went ahead
  4747. and cleaned up a few obvious loose ends and published a release, which I&#38;rsquo;ll now
  4748. attempt to describe.&lt;/p&gt;
  4749.  
  4750. &lt;h3&gt;new features&lt;/h3&gt;
  4751.  
  4752.  
  4753. &lt;p&gt;Minor stuff:  There&#38;rsquo;s some refactoring, improvement here and there of how
  4754. things outside of ASCII are handled, and probably a slightly better test suite
  4755. (it&#38;rsquo;s still abysmal, though).&lt;/p&gt;
  4756.  
  4757. &lt;h4&gt;title extraction and entry caching&lt;/h4&gt;
  4758.  
  4759.  
  4760. &lt;p&gt;I decided a while ago that wrt should know what an entry&#38;rsquo;s title is, so that it
  4761. can be used to do things like populate &lt;code&gt;&#38;lt;title&#38;gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags, display navigation links
  4762. for each entry, or generate an index for a site.  I was already doing some of
  4763. those things, on an ad hoc basis, but I wanted a general solution.
  4764. Before this version, an entry like today&#38;rsquo;s would have been made up of the
  4765. following files:&lt;/p&gt;
  4766.  
  4767. &lt;ul&gt;
  4768. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/index&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4769. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/tag-wrt.prop&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4770. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/tag-technical.prop&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4771. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/tag-perl.prop&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4772. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4773.  
  4774.  
  4775. &lt;p&gt;Where &lt;code&gt;index&lt;/code&gt; contains the body of the entry for the 5th, and &lt;code&gt;tag-wrt.prop&lt;/code&gt;
  4776. says that the entry has been tagged &#38;ldquo;wrt&#38;rdquo;.  The &lt;code&gt;.prop&lt;/code&gt; extension indicates a
  4777. &#38;ldquo;property&#38;rdquo;, and right now it just represents a boolean or a flag - either an
  4778. entry has a property or it doesn&#38;rsquo;t.&lt;/p&gt;
  4779.  
  4780. &lt;p&gt;I considered adding values to properties, based on the contents of the file,
  4781. and then using &lt;code&gt;title.prop&lt;/code&gt; to specify an entry&#38;rsquo;s overall title.  So, for
  4782. example, &lt;code&gt;2020/4/5/title.prop&lt;/code&gt; would have contained the string &#38;ldquo;App::WRT
  4783. 7.0.0 &#38;hellip;&#38;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
  4784.  
  4785. &lt;p&gt;It was easy to implement this, and it &lt;em&gt;worked&lt;/em&gt;, but I wasn&#38;rsquo;t happy with it as a
  4786. user.  I like to change entry titles as I&#38;rsquo;m writing, and I sometimes have more
  4787. than one top-level heading, or a set of subheadings in an entry that I&#38;rsquo;d like
  4788. the title logic to capture.  I&#38;rsquo;ve also never bothered teaching wrt to display
  4789. any kind of a page / date header separately from the text of an entry, and
  4790. entry titles are typically just represented with inline header tags.  It seemed
  4791. weird to duplicate the title into another file.&lt;/p&gt;
  4792.  
  4793. &lt;p&gt;Since keeping titles in separate files is cumbersome, the other obvious option
  4794. is getting them out of the body of the entry itself.  wrt now does this by
  4795. rendering the HTML for every entry in the archive and parsing it with a library
  4796. called Mojo::DOM, then extracting the text of tags &lt;code&gt;&#38;lt;h1&#38;gt;&lt;/code&gt; through &lt;code&gt;&#38;lt;h6&#38;gt;&lt;/code&gt; into
  4797. a title cache which can be queried later.&lt;/p&gt;
  4798.  
  4799. &lt;p&gt;Out of laziness, I started adding this feature by storing the rendered HTML for
  4800. each entry in memory, and accidentally discovered that by doing so I can avoid
  4801. rendering most entries at least twice - once for an individual date and once
  4802. for the display of every entry in a month, with a handful additionally showing
  4803. up on the index page and in feeds.&lt;/p&gt;
  4804.  
  4805. &lt;p&gt;As a downside, this is really slow for an operation like rendering a single
  4806. entry.  But at least displaying an entry can reference data extracted from
  4807. all the other entries.&lt;/p&gt;
  4808.  
  4809. &lt;p&gt;I feel a bit queasy about loading thousands of blog entries into memory at once
  4810. in order to display any given one of them.  But in thinking about it, I&#38;rsquo;m
  4811. pretty sure it would have worked fine even on the machine I used to write the
  4812. first version of wrt (originally called display.pl), circa 2001.  In 2019 I
  4813. guess I don&#38;rsquo;t really have a problem assuming that the systems I use for this
  4814. will have at least half a gig of RAM.  It would probably be good if wrt adjusted
  4815. its behavior for really constrained environments, but my gut says that even a
  4816. low end laptop or cheap shared hosting shouldn&#38;rsquo;t be too affected by this.&lt;/p&gt;
  4817.  
  4818. &lt;h4&gt;a tagging system&lt;/h4&gt;
  4819.  
  4820.  
  4821. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve been using, as mentioned above, property files named like &lt;code&gt;tag-foo.prop&lt;/code&gt;
  4822. to add tags to p1k3 entries and display them on a &lt;a href=&#34;/topics&#34;&gt;topic index&lt;/a&gt;.  This
  4823. was partially supported (if undocumented) in wrt, but mostly made up of ad hoc
  4824. stuff in the &lt;code&gt;Makefile&lt;/code&gt; that generates p1k3.&lt;/p&gt;
  4825.  
  4826. &lt;p&gt;Although it&#38;rsquo;s still not really documented and probably has lingering issues,
  4827. this release of wrt now fully supports a similar scheme, where the filenames
  4828. become something like:&lt;/p&gt;
  4829.  
  4830. &lt;ul&gt;
  4831. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/index&lt;/code&gt; → &lt;code&gt;index&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4832. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/tag-wrt.prop&lt;/code&gt; → &lt;code&gt;tag.topics.wrt.prop&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4833. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/tag-technical.prop&lt;/code&gt; → &lt;code&gt;tag.topics.technical.prop&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4834. &lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;archives/2020/4/5/tag-perl.prop&lt;/code&gt; → &lt;code&gt;tag.topics.perl.prop&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  4835. &lt;/ul&gt;
  4836.  
  4837.  
  4838. &lt;p&gt;A property file starting with &lt;code&gt;tag&lt;/code&gt; is treated as a link between the entry
  4839. containing it and another entry path with dots as directory separators, so
  4840. &lt;code&gt;tag.topics.wrt.prop&lt;/code&gt; tags &lt;code&gt;/2020/4/5&lt;/code&gt; as related in some way to &lt;code&gt;/topics/wrt&lt;/code&gt;.
  4841. If &lt;code&gt;/topics/wrt&lt;/code&gt; exists in the archive, it&#38;rsquo;ll be rendered like usual followed
  4842. by a list of tagged entries.  If it &lt;em&gt;doesn&#38;rsquo;t&lt;/em&gt; exist, it&#38;rsquo;s treated as a
  4843. &#38;ldquo;virtual&#38;rdquo; entry and the tag list still renders.&lt;/p&gt;
  4844.  
  4845. &lt;p&gt;This is kind of confusing, but it allows for an arbitrary number of
  4846. user-defined tagging schemes.&lt;/p&gt;
  4847.  
  4848. &lt;h4&gt;json feed output&lt;/h4&gt;
  4849.  
  4850.  
  4851. &lt;p&gt;wrt 7 uses JSON::Feed to output &lt;a href=&#34;https://jsonfeed.org/&#34;&gt;JSON Feed&lt;/a&gt; data in
  4852. addition to Atom feeds.&lt;/p&gt;
  4853.  
  4854. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m not really sure how many feedreaders support this format, but it was
  4855. relatively painless to implement, and at least &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.newsblur.com/&#34;&gt;NewsBlur&lt;/a&gt;
  4856. seems to handle it.&lt;/p&gt;
  4857.  
  4858. &lt;h4&gt;a repl for debugging&lt;/h4&gt;
  4859.  
  4860.  
  4861. &lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;wrt repl&lt;/code&gt; in a repository root will now yield a simple commandline where you
  4862. can interactively inspect the &lt;code&gt;App::WRT&lt;/code&gt; object.  Handy for development
  4863. purposes, more than anything.&lt;/p&gt;
  4864.  
  4865. &lt;h3&gt;breaking changes&lt;/h3&gt;
  4866.  
  4867.  
  4868. &lt;p&gt;I removed &lt;code&gt;entry_map&lt;/code&gt; from configuration and hardcoded its assumptions about
  4869. how entries are laid out.  This is a major change if you were using it, but I&#38;rsquo;d
  4870. be even more surprised if anyone had been than I already would be if anyone
  4871. were using wrt in the first place.  (As always, if I&#38;rsquo;m wrong, please do let me
  4872. know.)&lt;/p&gt;
  4873.  
  4874. &lt;p&gt;I got rid of the &lt;code&gt;embedded_perl&lt;/code&gt; toggle, since turning it off would have broken
  4875. templates.  (The underlying embedded Perl feature is still in place, though I
  4876. may deprecate it in future.  It really shouldn&#38;rsquo;t be used for anything besides
  4877. templates.)&lt;/p&gt;
  4878.  
  4879. &lt;p&gt;The old (undocumented) tagging system has been ripped out and replaced, as
  4880. described above.&lt;/p&gt;
  4881.  
  4882. &lt;p&gt;Since it uses Mojo::DOM to parse the HTML of rendered entries, wrt will now
  4883. issue warnings for parsing errors.  For the most part, I don&#38;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;think&lt;/em&gt; this
  4884. will break anything, but it may surface stuff like character encoding issues.
  4885. It led to me noticing that I had some 20-year-old entries originally written
  4886. in&#38;hellip; Well, something that definitely wasn&#38;rsquo;t UTF-8, at any rate.&lt;/p&gt;
  4887.  
  4888. &lt;h3&gt;future work / observations&lt;/h3&gt;
  4889.  
  4890.  
  4891. &lt;p&gt;Apart from improving and fully documenting the tagging system, I&#38;rsquo;d like to
  4892. spend some time making sure wrt could actually be used by someone else without
  4893. the scaffolding and assumptions built into the one site where I routinely use
  4894. it.  My thought right now is to build a manual published with wrt itself.
  4895. We&#38;rsquo;ll see how that goes, I guess.&lt;/p&gt;
  4896.  
  4897. &lt;p&gt;In some ways this release feels a little shaky.  It&#38;rsquo;s got ideas in it that
  4898. deviate from the stark simplicity of most of this code&#38;rsquo;s history, and it brings
  4899. the total of external library dependencies to 16, at least a couple of which
  4900. are non-trivial.  Mojo::DOM in particular makes me a bit nervous.&lt;/p&gt;
  4901.  
  4902. &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, it adds a couple of things I&#38;rsquo;ve wanted for years, and some
  4903. of the underlying changes are a good foundation for solving the problems that
  4904. remain.  I continue to think of wrt as both a format for storing writing and a
  4905. concrete implementation of a tool for publishing that format.  For what they
  4906. are, I&#38;rsquo;m happy with both.&lt;/p&gt;
  4907.  
  4908. &lt;p&gt;(Elsewhere: I&#38;rsquo;m thinking hard about how I take notes and conduct research, how
  4909. doomed the web generally feels as a platform, and what language ecosystems I
  4910. want to spend my remaining time as a programmer in.  All of that might
  4911. influence future extensions to the wrt format, or lead to implementations in
  4912. something besides Perl.  Time will tell.)&lt;/p&gt;
  4913.  
  4914.  
  4915.  
  4916. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/perl&#34;&gt;perl&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4917. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4918. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  4919. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/4/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4920. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4921.  
  4922. </content><updated>2024-03-26T00:08:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Saturday, March 28, 2020 - a sheltered-in-place lawn and garden report</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/3/28"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/3/28</id><content type="html">
  4923.  
  4924. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Saturday, March 28, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4925.  
  4926. &lt;h2&gt;a sheltered-in-place lawn and garden report&lt;/h2&gt;
  4927.  
  4928. &lt;p&gt;We start the day somewhere after noon with a Bloody Mary each and
  4929. egg-and-cheese sandwiches on English muffins.  The bloodies are from a
  4930. store-bought bottle of mix, but I doctor the mix with homemade hot sauce and
  4931. the eggs are bartered farm eggs, so in terms of authenticity it could be worse.&lt;/p&gt;
  4932.  
  4933. &lt;p&gt;Outside: Blue skies, a breeze out of the south, a little chill but warm enough
  4934. if you&#38;rsquo;re moving around.  We start cleaning up around the shed we plan to tear
  4935. down out back, moving piles of scrap wood and old brick and rocks to different
  4936. corners of the property.  There are often slugs, snails, or earthworms on the
  4937. undersides of these objects.  No mosquitoes yet, but here and there you see
  4938. little clouds of gnats.  Patches of boxelder bugs mill around where the sun
  4939. warms a wall or fence.&lt;/p&gt;
  4940.  
  4941. &lt;p&gt;There was snow yesterday.  Today the grass is half-green, through the shag of
  4942. last fall&#38;rsquo;s final growth.  There are buds on the apple tree.  I uncover my
  4943. strawberry patch and find that most of the plants have survived under the
  4944. mulch.&lt;/p&gt;
  4945.  
  4946. &lt;p&gt;Later, after dinner, I start a batch of bread dough for tomorrow&#38;rsquo;s baking.
  4947. This will make a week since I picked it up again, after better than a decade
  4948. out of the habit.  The no-knead approach where you let it sit overnight has a
  4949. lot to recommend it, for a man as lazy as I am.&lt;/p&gt;
  4950.  
  4951. &lt;p&gt;We try not to read the news.&lt;/p&gt;
  4952.  
  4953.  
  4954.  
  4955.  
  4956. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/bread&#34;&gt;bread&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/colorado&#34;&gt;colorado&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/food&#34;&gt;food&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/garden&#34;&gt;garden&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/weather&#34;&gt;weather&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4957. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4958. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4959. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/3/28/&#34; title=&#34;28&#34;&gt;28&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4960. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4961.  
  4962. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>tuesday, march  3, 2020</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/3/3"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/3/3</id><content type="html">
  4963.  
  4964. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;tuesday, march  3, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4965.  
  4966. &lt;p&gt;the old cat snoozes in his bed&lt;br /&gt;
  4967. i sit at my desk, wrapped up in the&lt;br /&gt;
  4968. immediate confusion of code and&lt;br /&gt;
  4969. the remote-for-now thrum of pandemic anxiety&lt;br /&gt;
  4970. suddenly a shadow breaks the sunlight&lt;br /&gt;
  4971. blazing from just above the hills through&lt;br /&gt;
  4972. the grime on my back windows&lt;br /&gt;
  4973. wondering what in the hell,&lt;br /&gt;
  4974. i stand in time to see a pair of enormous&lt;br /&gt;
  4975. crows swooping down to pause on the dead&lt;br /&gt;
  4976. grass&lt;/p&gt;
  4977.  
  4978.  
  4979.  
  4980. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/birds&#34;&gt;birds&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/corvidae&#34;&gt;corvidae&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4981. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  4982. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  4983. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/3/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  4984. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  4985.  
  4986. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, February 25, 2020 - extracting filenames from packages available in debian</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/2/25"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/2/25</id><content type="html">
  4987.  
  4988. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, February 25, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  4989.  
  4990. &lt;h2&gt;extracting filenames from packages available in debian&lt;/h2&gt;
  4991.  
  4992. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2016/7/11&#34;&gt;Back in 2016&lt;/a&gt;, I wanted to check the names of existing
  4993. command-line utilities in order to avoid a collision when I renamed my blogging
  4994. software to &lt;a href=&#34;/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  4995.  
  4996. &lt;p&gt;I wound up using &lt;code&gt;apt-file&lt;/code&gt; data to see what binaries are available from Debian
  4997. packages, and I&#38;rsquo;ve referenced the list of files I generated then a bunch of
  4998. times since.  It&#38;rsquo;s obviously way out of date by now, and today I had a similar
  4999. question to answer, so here&#38;rsquo;s a scripted version of that process that worked on
  5000. my current machine, running Debian Buster:&lt;/p&gt;
  5001.  
  5002. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;#!/bin/sh
  5003.  
  5004. # Make sure we&#39;ve got apt-file and lz4 compression utils:
  5005. sudo apt install apt-file lz4
  5006.  
  5007. # Update lists:
  5008. sudo apt-file update
  5009.  
  5010. cd /var/lib/apt/lists
  5011. lz4cat ./*.lz4 | \
  5012.  grep -E &#39;^(usr/bin/|sbin/|bin/)&#39; | \
  5013.  cut -f1 -d&#39; &#39; | \
  5014.  perl -pe &#39;s/^(.*)\/(.*)$/$2/&#39; | \
  5015.  sort | uniq &#38;gt; ~/used_names.txt
  5016. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  5017.  
  5018. &lt;p&gt;Then you can &lt;code&gt;grep whatever ~/used_names.txt&lt;/code&gt; to look for binaries.&lt;/p&gt;
  5019.  
  5020. &lt;p&gt;The main difference here is that the contents lists are now in
  5021. &lt;code&gt;/var/lib/apt/lists&lt;/code&gt;, as LZ4-compressed files named like
  5022. &lt;code&gt;deb.debian.org_debian_dists_buster_main_Contents-amd64.lz4&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  5023.  
  5024. &lt;p&gt;I haven&#38;rsquo;t taken the time to investigate whether this data is still just loaded
  5025. for &lt;code&gt;apt-file&lt;/code&gt;&#38;rsquo;s benefit or is in some way more integrated with &lt;code&gt;apt&lt;/code&gt; or what.
  5026. Maybe I&#38;rsquo;ll revisit at some point.&lt;/p&gt;
  5027.  
  5028. &lt;p&gt;Today&#38;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;/2020/2/25/used_names.txt&#34;&gt;used_names.txt&lt;/a&gt; is attached to this post
  5029. just in case it&#38;rsquo;s helpful to people coming in from web search.&lt;/p&gt;
  5030.  
  5031. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;more:&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/25/used_names.txt&#34; title=&#34;used_names.txt&#34;&gt;used_names.txt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5032.  
  5033.  
  5034. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/apt&#34;&gt;apt&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/debian&#34;&gt;debian&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/shell&#34;&gt;shell&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5035. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  5036. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  5037. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/25/&#34; title=&#34;25&#34;&gt;25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5038. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5039.  
  5040. </content><updated>2024-03-26T00:08:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, february 20, 2020</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/2/20"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/2/20</id><content type="html">
  5041.  
  5042. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, february 20, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  5043.  
  5044. &lt;p&gt;i took the trash out just now,&lt;br /&gt;
  5045. and turning around to go back inside&lt;br /&gt;
  5046. caught the layer of new snow in the porch light&lt;br /&gt;
  5047. it shines more perfectly than&lt;br /&gt;
  5048. any i&#39;ve seen in recent memory&lt;br /&gt;
  5049. almost incorporeal&lt;br /&gt;
  5050. offers no tangible resistance to my steps&lt;br /&gt;
  5051. and when i scoop a handful from the ground&lt;br /&gt;
  5052. in the seconds before it collapses into slush&lt;br /&gt;
  5053. and meltwater, the outlines of individual&lt;br /&gt;
  5054. flakes all set on edge against one another are&lt;br /&gt;
  5055. visible in sharp crystal relief&lt;br /&gt;
  5056. gleaming stars and polygons, lattices and&lt;br /&gt;
  5057. near-symmetries.&lt;/p&gt;
  5058.  
  5059.  
  5060.  
  5061. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5062. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  5063. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  5064. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/20/&#34; title=&#34;20&#34;&gt;20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5065. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5066.  
  5067. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Saturday, February  1, 2020</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/2/1"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/2/1</id><content type="html">
  5068.  
  5069. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Saturday, February  1, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  5070.  
  5071. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m sitting in an airport bar at roughly 11am after my employer&#38;rsquo;s annual
  5072. all-hands meeting in San Francisco.  I have just paid $15 for avocado toast
  5073. (which was pretty good) and I am carefully not thinking about how much for a
  5074. mediocre bloody mary.&lt;/p&gt;
  5075.  
  5076. &lt;p&gt;SFO is science fictional as fuck, in the way that modern airports along the
  5077. money&#38;rsquo;s path tend to be.  Automated trains along elevated tracks.  Concrete
  5078. shapes that would work on the cover of some trade paperback featuring a
  5079. slightly abstracted spaceport.  People in face masks because the network made
  5080. them afraid of a potential pandemic.  In the distance out the windows, through
  5081. the fog slowly burning off, the surface of California&#38;rsquo;s engineered vastness.&lt;/p&gt;
  5082.  
  5083. &lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&#34;/2019/2/1&#34;&gt;year ago&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  5084.  
  5085. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Downtown SF in 2019:  A grotesque and surreal environment.  Gleaming towers,
  5086. all the trappings of an unfathomable wealth, the sidewalks and doorways
  5087. scattered with people in the throes of debilitating addiction and untreated
  5088. mental illness.  You&#38;rsquo;re quickly socialized to ignore the screaming and step
  5089. around the bodies and assume that someone else will attend to it if this or
  5090. that figure sprawled out across the pavement is dead instead of merely
  5091. unconscious.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5092.  
  5093. &lt;p&gt;This hasn&#38;rsquo;t changed, as far as I can tell.  Maybe it&#38;rsquo;s worse.&lt;/p&gt;
  5094.  
  5095. &lt;p&gt;I usually try to travel light these days.  A backpack with some changes of
  5096. clothes, a laptop, a notebook and some pens, toothbrush and some laundry soap
  5097. for the hotel sink.  But of course the lightness of these habits is mostly a
  5098. fiction, apart from the convenience of skipping baggage claim in airports.
  5099. What I&#38;rsquo;m &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; carrying is ready access to credit and enough social capital
  5100. to get me through any very likely situation, along with a home in a prosperous
  5101. and stable region, white skin, a steady job, health insurance, and all the rest
  5102. of it.&lt;/p&gt;
  5103.  
  5104. &lt;p&gt;Self-flagellation about having good shit in life seems like a pointless
  5105. exercise, but I&#38;rsquo;m aware these days of what feels like a divide becoming a chasm
  5106. between me and the set of people tending bar, waiting tables, driving for Uber.&lt;/p&gt;
  5107.  
  5108. &lt;p&gt;The threat of precarity is real for nearly all of us, but it isn&#38;rsquo;t evenly
  5109. distributed.  Like most people, I&#38;rsquo;m one bad hospitalization away from financial
  5110. ruin.  In relative terms I also have a hell of a lot more buffer than it&#38;rsquo;s
  5111. likely the guy who made my drink does.  As long as I stay lucky and stay useful
  5112. to some slice of the technocracy, that&#38;rsquo;ll probably stay true.  There&#38;rsquo;s a
  5113. feeling of sickness in knowing these things.  In the movie of my life, it&#38;rsquo;s
  5114. something dissonant and droning swelling on the soundtrack while I bullshit my
  5115. way through these paragraphs on an expensive laptop in a gleaming airport.&lt;/p&gt;
  5116.  
  5117.  
  5118.  
  5119. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/airports&#34;&gt;airports&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/california&#34;&gt;california&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/san-francisco&#34;&gt;san-francisco&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5120. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  5121. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt; /
  5122. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/2/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5123. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5124.  
  5125. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - watching: solo: a star wars story</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2020/1/7"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2020/1/7</id><content type="html">
  5126.  
  5127. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, January 7, 2020&lt;/h1&gt;
  5128.  
  5129. &lt;h2&gt;watching: solo: a star wars story&lt;/h2&gt;
  5130.  
  5131. &lt;p&gt;The prequel: On the one hand, a narrative frame within which storytelling that
  5132. nominally coheres with its source material is usually flattened, trivialized,
  5133. and robbed of any sense of freedom or possibility.  A sure-fire antidote to the
  5134. sense of expansiveness or openness that once attended a big story.&lt;/p&gt;
  5135.  
  5136. &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, a frame which typically renders efforts at revelation and
  5137. expansion totally incoherent.&lt;/p&gt;
  5138.  
  5139. &lt;p&gt;But: Donald Glover does a heck of a good Lando.&lt;/p&gt;
  5140.  
  5141.  
  5142.  
  5143.  
  5144. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/movies&#34;&gt;movies&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/star-wars&#34;&gt;star-wars&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/watching&#34;&gt;watching&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5145. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/&#34; title=&#34;2020&#34;&gt;2020&lt;/a&gt; /
  5146. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/1/&#34; title=&#34;1&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt; /
  5147. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2020/1/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5148. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5149.  
  5150. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>wednesday, december 18, 2019 - notes to a much younger self, to the extent that i can reconstruct him</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/12/18"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/12/18</id><content type="html">
  5151.  
  5152. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;wednesday, december 18, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5153.  
  5154. &lt;h2&gt;notes to a much younger self, to the extent that i can reconstruct him&lt;/h2&gt;
  5155.  
  5156. &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;(posted wednesday, july 13, 2022)&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5157.  
  5158. &lt;p&gt;i&#39;ll start by saying that it&#39;s&lt;br /&gt;
  5159. better after a while&lt;br /&gt;
  5160. for you at least&lt;/p&gt;
  5161.  
  5162. &lt;p&gt;the dimensions of your&lt;br /&gt;
  5163. life, they do expand&lt;/p&gt;
  5164.  
  5165. &lt;p&gt;it&#39;s worse, too, and&lt;br /&gt;
  5166. sometimes for years on end&lt;/p&gt;
  5167.  
  5168. &lt;p&gt;there are things ahead&lt;br /&gt;
  5169. that are going to destroy parts of you&lt;br /&gt;
  5170. there are things ahead&lt;br /&gt;
  5171. that are going to tear at the whole frame&lt;br /&gt;
  5172. of the world you inhabit&lt;br /&gt;
  5173. one of the things that life is&lt;br /&gt;
  5174. is a series of losses&lt;br /&gt;
  5175. that you never quite recover from&lt;/p&gt;
  5176.  
  5177. &lt;p&gt;and in all that,&lt;br /&gt;
  5178. you&#39;re going to fuck up a lot&lt;br /&gt;
  5179. you&#39;ll learn most of what you learn&lt;br /&gt;
  5180. the hard way&lt;br /&gt;
  5181. you&#39;ll fail altogether&lt;br /&gt;
  5182. to learn far too much&lt;/p&gt;
  5183.  
  5184. &lt;p&gt;but all the same you&#39;ll make some friends,&lt;br /&gt;
  5185. fall in love more than once&lt;br /&gt;
  5186. and in more than one way&lt;br /&gt;
  5187. wake up on some mornings&lt;br /&gt;
  5188. to find yourself strong and able&lt;/p&gt;
  5189.  
  5190. &lt;p&gt;maybe fear will always be with you, and&lt;br /&gt;
  5191. far too much of it&lt;br /&gt;
  5192. but the walls that arise in your mind&lt;br /&gt;
  5193. between you and some imagined truer self&lt;br /&gt;
  5194. they fall away with time&lt;/p&gt;
  5195.  
  5196. &lt;p&gt;along, maybe, with the idea that&lt;br /&gt;
  5197. there&#39;s any truer self to be found.&lt;/p&gt;
  5198.  
  5199.  
  5200. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5201. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5202. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt; /
  5203. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/12/18/&#34; title=&#34;18&#34;&gt;18&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5204. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5205.  
  5206. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, november  7, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/11/7"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/11/7</id><content type="html">
  5207.  
  5208. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, november  7, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5209.  
  5210. &lt;p&gt;the light through the library windows&lt;br /&gt;
  5211. the leaves still on the trees, just&lt;br /&gt;
  5212. against the fog rising from the snowmelt&lt;br /&gt;
  5213. on the mountainsides&lt;br /&gt;
  5214. the road rising gray through the grass&lt;br /&gt;
  5215. all bright in its browns and yellows&lt;br /&gt;
  5216. russets and dull greens&lt;br /&gt;
  5217. frostcolored and the patches of early&lt;br /&gt;
  5218. snow the black cattle here and there&lt;br /&gt;
  5219. on the hillsides between expensive&lt;br /&gt;
  5220. houses and failing barbed wire fences&lt;/p&gt;
  5221.  
  5222.  
  5223.  
  5224. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5225. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5226. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  5227. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/11/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5228. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5229.  
  5230. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, November  4, 2019 - ...or you might just get it</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/11/4"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/11/4</id><content type="html">
  5231.  
  5232. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, November  4, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5233.  
  5234. &lt;h2&gt;...or you might just get it&lt;/h2&gt;
  5235.  
  5236. &lt;p&gt;I woke up this morning thinking about the class of technical problems where for
  5237. years you hope for some kind of solution to emerge, and then when it finally
  5238. does, the solution entails such an egregious technical and political context
  5239. that you wonder if you ever should have wished for it in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;
  5240.  
  5241. &lt;p&gt;FOR EXAMPLE, I wanted straightforward, usable transcription of speech.  Well,
  5242. it&#38;rsquo;s 2019 and it&#38;rsquo;s there if you want it, more or less.  All it took was massive
  5243. data hoarding, warehouse-scale computing, and universal networked surveillance
  5244. under the control of a handful of megacorporations.  A little piece of the
  5245. Panopticon in every pocket.  What I probably &lt;em&gt;thought&lt;/em&gt; it would require was
  5246. something on the order of better software and more computing power.  What it
  5247. took in practice was nothing short of a revolution in human affairs.&lt;/p&gt;
  5248.  
  5249. &lt;p&gt;The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like these problems are
  5250. everywhere.  Oh, you wanted to travel to that far off place where your family
  5251. lives in a day or so?  Wait &#38;lsquo;til you get a load of the environmental, cultural,
  5252. and political footprint of automotive transit.  You&#38;rsquo;re gonna love it.&lt;/p&gt;
  5253.  
  5254. &lt;p&gt;The crucial difference is that things like cars and the modern road network
  5255. were in place by the time I was born.  Now I&#38;rsquo;m getting old enough to have
  5256. watched expectations I had for the future unfold in realtime.  And they&#38;rsquo;ve come
  5257. not just &lt;em&gt;with&lt;/em&gt; unintended consequences, but &lt;em&gt;as&lt;/em&gt; consequences of entire
  5258. undesired systems.&lt;/p&gt;
  5259.  
  5260. &lt;p&gt;There&#38;rsquo;s some kind of lesson here.  Probably.&lt;/p&gt;
  5261.  
  5262.  
  5263.  
  5264. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/idealogging&#34;&gt;idealogging&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/systems&#34;&gt;systems&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5265. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5266. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/11/&#34; title=&#34;11&#34;&gt;11&lt;/a&gt; /
  5267. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/11/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5268. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5269.  
  5270. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, October 27, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/10/27"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/10/27</id><content type="html">
  5271.  
  5272. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, October 27, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5273.  
  5274. &lt;div class=photos&gt;
  5275. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8711.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5276.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8711.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5277. &lt;/a&gt;
  5278. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8744.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5279.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8744.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5280. &lt;/a&gt;
  5281. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8777.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5282.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8777.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5283. &lt;/a&gt;
  5284. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8817.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5285.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8817.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5286. &lt;/a&gt;
  5287. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8823.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5288.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8823.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5289. &lt;/a&gt;
  5290. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8842.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5291.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8842.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5292. &lt;/a&gt;
  5293. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8846.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5294.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8846.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5295. &lt;/a&gt;
  5296. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8900.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5297.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8900.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5298. &lt;/a&gt;
  5299. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8903.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5300.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8903.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5301. &lt;/a&gt;
  5302. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8908.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5303.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8908.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5304. &lt;/a&gt;
  5305. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8920.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5306.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8920.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5307. &lt;/a&gt;
  5308. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8927.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5309.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8927.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5310. &lt;/a&gt;
  5311. &lt;a href=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/IMG_8939.JPG&#34;&gt;
  5312.  &lt;img height=&#34;200&#34; src=&#34;/files/photos/./2019-10-27/Thumbs/IMG_8939.JPG&#34; width=&#34;200&#34;&gt;
  5313. &lt;/a&gt;
  5314. &lt;/div&gt;
  5315.  
  5316.  
  5317. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/cat&#34;&gt;cat&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/gallery&#34;&gt;gallery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5318. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5319. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  5320. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/27/&#34; title=&#34;27&#34;&gt;27&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5321. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5322.  
  5323. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>tuesday, october 22, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/10/22"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/10/22</id><content type="html">
  5324.  
  5325. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;tuesday, october 22, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5326.  
  5327. &lt;p&gt;outside my back window leaves swirl in the wind&lt;br /&gt;
  5328. and the streetlight over the alley flicks on&lt;br /&gt;
  5329. against the sky pale blue and pink&lt;/p&gt;
  5330.  
  5331.  
  5332.  
  5333. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5334. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5335. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  5336. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/22/&#34; title=&#34;22&#34;&gt;22&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5337. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5338.  
  5339. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, October 20, 2019 - on rms / necessary but not sufficient</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/10/20"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/10/20</id><content type="html">
  5340.  
  5341. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, October 20, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5342.  
  5343. &lt;h2&gt;on rms / necessary but not sufficient&lt;/h2&gt;
  5344.  
  5345. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m old enough now that, of the famous people I admired when I was young, more
  5346. have fallen in my estimation than not.  At best I&#38;rsquo;ve learned about the
  5347. difference between a person and the construct of their fame, and something
  5348. about how to put the work I still admire in context and acknowledge its
  5349. problems.  At worst, well, plenty of days I&#38;rsquo;m just disgusted.  The idea that
  5350. you shouldn&#38;rsquo;t have heroes at all resonates in these times, even if there are a
  5351. few I still find it hard to let go.&lt;/p&gt;
  5352.  
  5353. &lt;p&gt;I couldn&#38;rsquo;t tell you exactly when I first ran into Richard M. Stallman&#38;rsquo;s
  5354. thinking.  I spent an ocean of time on Slashdot and IRC in the 90s.  I probably
  5355. read &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html&#34;&gt;&#38;ldquo;The Right to Read&#38;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; right after it was published.  I was running
  5356. a Linux desktop by late 1998, and read &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution&#34;&gt;Steven Levy&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Hackers&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; right around then.  I
  5357. was 17, which must be right about the age when radical ideas take hold with the
  5358. most ferocity: You&#38;rsquo;re old enough to entertain big thoughts, but not old enough
  5359. to have many defenses against taking them on wholeheartedly.&lt;/p&gt;
  5360.  
  5361. &lt;p&gt;Since then, I&#38;rsquo;ve built my working life and quite a few personal beliefs on
  5362. ideas that originated and developed in hacker culture.  Even so, most of the
  5363. people, places, and institutions that crop up in the hacker mythos have stayed
  5364. in the realm of abstraction or distant figure for me.&lt;/p&gt;
  5365.  
  5366. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve shared both antipathy and (I hope) friendship with people from the orbit
  5367. of MIT, but it was never anywhere near my orbit.  American East- and West-Coast
  5368. cultures crop up repeatedly in my life, but they aren&#38;rsquo;t exactly &lt;em&gt;my&lt;/em&gt; culture either.
  5369. I haven&#38;rsquo;t worked on public projects of much significance (until recently,
  5370. anyway), and I don&#38;rsquo;t do conferences all that often.&lt;/p&gt;
  5371.  
  5372. &lt;p&gt;As a result, I&#38;rsquo;ve never been in direct social proximity to RMS, the staff of
  5373. the Free Software Foundation, or most of the people who work on GNU projects.
  5374. I also haven&#38;rsquo;t spent much time on the mailing lists, forums, or IRC channels
  5375. that would have given me more experience of them as distinct individuals.  I
  5376. suspect the same is true of many people who rely on GNU tools, advocate
  5377. software freedom, publish work under the GPL, and donate to orgs like the FSF.&lt;/p&gt;
  5378.  
  5379. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; &#38;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
  5380.  
  5381.  
  5382. &lt;p&gt;The way it now reads to me, RMS has behaved like an asshole for a long time,
  5383. and the moment of his resignation from the FSF after ill-advised opinionating
  5384. about the Epstein scandal was bound to come in &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; form eventually.  A lot
  5385. of people in that scene have written to the effect that there&#38;rsquo;s a long term
  5386. pattern here, and/or that they and others tried and failed to get him to behave
  5387. less like an asshole.&lt;/p&gt;
  5388.  
  5389. &lt;p&gt;Some links:&lt;/p&gt;
  5390.  
  5391. &lt;ul&gt;
  5392. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://wingolog.org/archives/2019/10/08/thoughts-on-rms-and-gnu&#34;&gt;thoughts on rms and gnu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5393. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2019/joint-statement-on-the-gnu-project/&#34;&gt;Joint statement on the GNU Project&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5394. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://medium.com/@thomas.bushnell/a-reflection-on-the-departure-of-rms-18e6a835fd84&#34;&gt;A reflection on the departure of RMS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5395. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://sfconservancy.org/news/2019/sep/16/rms-does-not-speak-for-us/&#34;&gt;Richard Stallman Does Not and Cannot Speak for the Free Software Movement&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5396. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2019-10/msg00007.html&#34;&gt;Re: conflicts in the gnu project now affect guile&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5397. &lt;/ul&gt;
  5398.  
  5399.  
  5400. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t think these read as simple efforts at character assassination, and they
  5401. appear to come from people who share the values of the movement and have put in
  5402. the work to prove it.&lt;/p&gt;
  5403.  
  5404. &lt;p&gt;I also find it credible that there&#38;rsquo;s been an ongoing problem here because I
  5405. paid a little attention during a couple of previous blowups about RMS, and
  5406. I sent this to the FSF late in 2018:&lt;/p&gt;
  5407.  
  5408. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Howdy,&lt;/p&gt;
  5409.  
  5410. &lt;p&gt;I wasn&#38;rsquo;t really sure where to write, but as someone who continues to support
  5411. the FSF financially, I wanted to register with the organization in some way
  5412. that I broadly agree with what Bradley M. Kuhn has to say here:&lt;/p&gt;
  5413.  
  5414. &lt;p&gt;http://www.ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2018/11/22/gnu-kind-communication-guidelines.html&lt;/p&gt;
  5415.  
  5416. &lt;p&gt;Regards,&lt;/p&gt;
  5417.  
  5418. &lt;p&gt;&#38;ndash;
  5419. Brennen Bearnes&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5420.  
  5421. &lt;p&gt;And then:  I&#38;rsquo;ve talked with women who have said that RMS&#38;rsquo;s behavior is
  5422. alienating or that they&#38;rsquo;ve stayed away from the FSF because of his reputation.
  5423. I have every reason to think that this &lt;em&gt;kind&lt;/em&gt; of thing drives people away from
  5424. a movement that&#38;rsquo;s supposed to be liberatory and fundamentally concerned with
  5425. human agency.&lt;/p&gt;
  5426.  
  5427. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; &#38;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
  5428.  
  5429.  
  5430. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m not writing this to throw fuel on any fires.  Not that it would be needed;
  5431. reaction in some quarters has been more or less on par with the systemd
  5432. flamewars of these last 5 or 6 years or the least pleasant threads I&#38;rsquo;ve slogged
  5433. through on Wikimedia mailing lists.&lt;/p&gt;
  5434.  
  5435. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m tired of that kind of thing.  I&#38;rsquo;m tired of technical work and technical
  5436. politics being defined by fear and loathing.  I&#38;rsquo;m far less willing than I used
  5437. to be to participate in the outrage cycle that&#38;rsquo;s overtaken social media and
  5438. journalism.  I&#38;rsquo;m weary of callouts, pile-ons, and network-amplified harassment.
  5439. I&#38;rsquo;m way beyond jaded by the dysfunctions and endless self-immolation of
  5440. activist culture.  I have friends and colleagues who are decent people without
  5441. sharing many of my beliefs, and for the most part I&#38;rsquo;m happy to collaborate with
  5442. them on things that seem beneficial regardless of that.&lt;/p&gt;
  5443.  
  5444. &lt;p&gt;So:  As little sympathy as I have for the view that free software isn&#38;rsquo;t a
  5445. political project, I understand the desire to avoid getting drawn into the
  5446. unrelenting nightmare of partisan politics and its ancillary culture war.&lt;/p&gt;
  5447.  
  5448. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; &#38;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
  5449.  
  5450.  
  5451. &lt;p&gt;But free software &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; a political project.&lt;/p&gt;
  5452.  
  5453. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Software&lt;/em&gt;, broadly speaking, is a political project, and it&#38;rsquo;s one that has
  5454. come to govern human existence.  So far it&#38;rsquo;s done so mostly without the consent
  5455. of the governed, and it operates to an intolerable degree in the interests of
  5456. concentrated wealth and unaccountable power.&lt;/p&gt;
  5457.  
  5458. &lt;p&gt;Computation is everywhere.  Less and less of it is subject to the understanding
  5459. or control of its individual users.  Or, for that matter, to any democratic
  5460. representation or governance.  Systems that define our jobs and social lives
  5461. are managed by a technocratic class beholden to megacorporations and
  5462. billionaires.  These systems&#39; workings are opaque, their maintenance is an
  5463. unrelenting nightmare, and everyone involved is fundamentally compromised.&lt;/p&gt;
  5464.  
  5465. &lt;p&gt;Free software saw much of this coming and tried to stop it.  It failed, in ways
  5466. large and small.  It&#38;rsquo;s a very incomplete set of answers to a problem of almost
  5467. incomprehensible scope.  But any humane future for computation is going to
  5468. require ideas and practices that have thrived within the free software
  5469. movement.  The content of the ideas matters, and without them we&#38;rsquo;re basically
  5470. fucked.  That&#38;rsquo;s what&#38;rsquo;s at stake.&lt;/p&gt;
  5471.  
  5472. &lt;p&gt;Accordingly:  I think it&#38;rsquo;s reasonable to ask better of people with authority in
  5473. our community, and &lt;em&gt;imperative&lt;/em&gt; that we outgrow cults of personality as an
  5474. organizing principle.  I&#38;rsquo;m not still in this after 20 years because I admire a
  5475. particular dude.  I&#38;rsquo;m in this because at heart I&#38;rsquo;m an anarchist a lot of the
  5476. time.  Free software isn&#38;rsquo;t whatever RMS says it is.  Free software is what we
  5477. make of it: We who want to be free, we who want others to be free.&lt;/p&gt;
  5478.  
  5479. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; &#38;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
  5480.  
  5481.  
  5482. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve been using the phrase &#38;ldquo;state of total defeat&#38;rdquo; when I talk about the goals
  5483. of free software and related ideas, but I recognize that that&#38;rsquo;s hyperbolic and
  5484. not especially nuanced.&lt;/p&gt;
  5485.  
  5486. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m writing this on a computer that, even if I can&#38;rsquo;t inspect it all the way
  5487. down to the metal, runs &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.debian.org/&#34;&gt;an operating system&lt;/a&gt; and a bunch of
  5488. applications I can crack wide open any time I feel like it.  The OS and its
  5489. package repositories are a product of anarchy in the real sense, assembled over
  5490. the course of decades into a mostly-coherent whole by a distributed collective
  5491. of volunteer hackers from the work of thousands of other projects.&lt;/p&gt;
  5492.  
  5493. &lt;p&gt;Free and open source software has given me both a tolerable scope for my
  5494. individual use of computers, and the ecosystem where I make a living.  To the
  5495. extent that free software was about wanting the freedom to hack and freely
  5496. exchange the fruits of your hacking, this hasn&#38;rsquo;t gone so badly.  It could be
  5497. better, but I remember the 1990s pretty well and I can tell you that much of
  5498. the stuff trivially at my disposal now would have blown my tiny mind back then.
  5499. Sometimes I kind of snap to awareness in the middle of installing some package
  5500. or including some library in a software project and this rush of gratitude
  5501. comes over me.&lt;/p&gt;
  5502.  
  5503. &lt;p&gt;The elephant in the room is that open source, combined with the networks it did
  5504. so much to help build, has provided much of the technical architecture for a
  5505. proprietary control over computing that exceeds all but the wildest dreams of a
  5506. few decades ago.&lt;/p&gt;
  5507.  
  5508. &lt;p&gt;There are plenty of ways that RMS-style obsession with terminology has done
  5509. more harm than good in the last few decades.  The conflation of &#38;ldquo;free/libre
  5510. software&#38;rdquo; and &#38;ldquo;open source&#38;rdquo; into one thing might even be a good idea, provided
  5511. the political motivations of the &#38;ldquo;libre&#38;rdquo; side of the question are retained.
  5512. But it&#38;rsquo;s still worth making some distinctions, and worth knowing some history.
  5513. Open Source&#38;trade; set out partly to make open code palatable to business, and
  5514. it succeeded in that.&lt;/p&gt;
  5515.  
  5516. &lt;p&gt;In fact, tons of people taught business that open source / FOSS was a good way
  5517. to get economic leverage:  At one end of the scale, just people like me and a
  5518. lot of my coworkers, who started out as amateurs on shoestring budgets, wanting
  5519. to make a living with the stuff we already knew and liked.  At the other end,
  5520. straightforward predators of the sort who found tech companies and hold upper
  5521. management positions:  People who looked at open code and open standards and
  5522. saw unpaid labor and a commons ripe for enclosure.&lt;/p&gt;
  5523.  
  5524. &lt;p&gt;Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Netflix, Uber, and so on down the
  5525. line:  To varying degrees, they&#38;rsquo;ve all used FOSS as a basic technical
  5526. foundation for their current empires.  Google and Facebook&#38;rsquo;s history is riddled
  5527. with instances of using an open technology or medium to gain the leverage
  5528. necessary to subvert the tech&#38;rsquo;s openness:  Mail, RSS/Atom, the web itself.&lt;/p&gt;
  5529.  
  5530. &lt;p&gt;Android and Chrome use open source rhetoric and development practices to drive
  5531. their adoption while operating purely in furtherance of Google&#38;rsquo;s agenda &#38;mdash; a
  5532. pattern you can see replicated in countless products and systems.  Locked-down
  5533. APIs replace protocols, personal computers are relegated to the status of
  5534. &#38;ldquo;client&#38;rdquo;, and keystone projects like web browsers become impossible to replace
  5535. without billions in funding and hundreds of engineers.&lt;/p&gt;
  5536.  
  5537. &lt;p&gt;The scale, complexity, and rent-seeking of megacorps have poisoned our
  5538. expectations for software and the practice of software development to an extent
  5539. that&#38;rsquo;s hard to get your head around.  Technical work is well-paid, at least for
  5540. the skilled and well-connected, but that typically comes at the price of a
  5541. livelihood held hostage by terrible people in service of terrible goals.&lt;/p&gt;
  5542.  
  5543. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; &#38;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
  5544.  
  5545.  
  5546. &lt;p&gt;It could be otherwise, but I think we first have got to recognize that the
  5547. existing tools of FOSS aren&#38;rsquo;t remotely sufficient to remedy everything that&#38;rsquo;s
  5548. broken about software.  What the communities writing and publishing all this
  5549. code have accomplished is astonishing, but it remains embedded in a system of
  5550. exploitation and a profoundly damaged larger culture.&lt;/p&gt;
  5551.  
  5552. &lt;p&gt;Technical culture is broken, generally concentrating rather than diffusing the
  5553. inequities and pathologies of the one that surrounds it.  Employment is broken
  5554. and jobs are rife with bullshit.  What Diana Thayer calls the poverty gun &#38;mdash;
  5555. the relentless, asymmetrical threat of unemployment pointed at anyone in
  5556. conflict with the whims of capital &#38;mdash; stifles most meaningful dissent.
  5557. Capitalism, however inevitable or useful some of its basic elements are, is
  5558. broken.&lt;/p&gt;
  5559.  
  5560. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t know how to solve those problems.  What I think I know at the moment is
  5561. that free software is necessary, but it&#38;rsquo;s not sufficient.  As something
  5562. necessary, it needs to be better.  As something insufficient, it needs to be a
  5563. place where more people can find a home.&lt;/p&gt;
  5564.  
  5565.  
  5566.  
  5567. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/free-software&#34;&gt;free-software&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5568. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5569. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  5570. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/20/&#34; title=&#34;20&#34;&gt;20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5571. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5572.  
  5573. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Saturday, October 5, 2019 - sfe</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/10/5"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/10/5</id><content type="html">
  5574.  
  5575. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Saturday, October 5, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5576.  
  5577. &lt;h2&gt;sfe&lt;/h2&gt;
  5578.  
  5579. &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note: I&#38;rsquo;ve edited this since initial publication, mostly to add links to other
  5580. entries, but there&#38;rsquo;s some new text as well.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5581.  
  5582. &lt;p&gt;Late summer into middle fall seems to be a time when things get kind of loose
  5583. around the edges and I think about what I&#38;rsquo;m doing and, often enough, make
  5584. decisions that change the whole structure of my life.&lt;/p&gt;
  5585.  
  5586. &lt;p&gt;Not coincidentally, it&#38;rsquo;s coming up on 5 years
  5587. &lt;a href=&#34;/2014/11/3&#34;&gt;since I quit SparkFun Electronics&lt;/a&gt;.  They&#38;rsquo;ve been eventful
  5588. years, for good and ill both.  I&#38;rsquo;ve had some times, man.  Even so, I
  5589. wonder in a clichéd way how it&#38;rsquo;s been this long already.&lt;/p&gt;
  5590.  
  5591. &lt;p&gt;Mostly, SparkFun gets further from my mind all the time.  Every passing year
  5592. fewer of my friends are trapped there while it decays into the kind of thing it
  5593. used to repudiate just by existing.  I&#38;rsquo;m still bitter, but it&#38;rsquo;s a bitterness I
  5594. don&#38;rsquo;t have to think about very much.  Still, it comes back in waves now and
  5595. then.  This time I wondered:  What did I learn from all of that?&lt;/p&gt;
  5596.  
  5597. &lt;p&gt;There was probably a lot.  After all, it was seven years of my life, and on one
  5598. end of it I was still young and on the other I wasn&#38;rsquo;t really.  I probably knew
  5599. a lot of things in the middle of that experience that I&#38;rsquo;ve lost since.&lt;/p&gt;
  5600.  
  5601. &lt;p&gt;So, first: You won&#38;rsquo;t always know more than you used to.&lt;/p&gt;
  5602.  
  5603. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❦ &lt;/p&gt;
  5604.  
  5605.  
  5606. &lt;p&gt;When I started working on sparkfun.com it was an e-commerce site written mostly
  5607. in a programming language called PHP, and when I left it was still an
  5608. e-commerce site written mostly in PHP.  We made plenty of mistakes along the
  5609. way, but I&#38;rsquo;m pretty sure we were right not to do a wholesale replacement of a
  5610. functioning system using trendier tech.&lt;/p&gt;
  5611.  
  5612. &lt;p&gt;If you are not familiar with the politics of programming languages, a thing you
  5613. should understand is that it&#38;rsquo;s important to the way technical culture operates
  5614. that some tools (and often by extension the people who use them) be understood
  5615. as generally bad and without value.  PHP is, in this model, marked as
  5616. fundamentally misguided and thoroughly regrettable, and is thus an acceptable
  5617. target of derision and mockery.&lt;/p&gt;
  5618.  
  5619. &lt;p&gt;Just as important are two other facts:  First, that despite its nastiness and
  5620. reflexive contempt, this understanding is in many ways &lt;em&gt;correct&lt;/em&gt;, insofar as it
  5621. applies to tooling.  Second, that it errs mainly in being applied so narrowly.
  5622. Which is to say that yes, PHP is a bad programming language, but generally so
  5623. are the programming languages preferred by PHP&#38;rsquo;s most vocal detractors.  (I
  5624. should know, as I have often been a vocal and ardent detractor of PHP.)  I have
  5625. yet to find an exception to this, though I continue to learn programming
  5626. languages and may one day be pleasantly surprised.&lt;/p&gt;
  5627.  
  5628. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;ve spent most of my working life using tools that are, as I&#38;rsquo;ve written
  5629. elsewhere, terminally unhip.  SparkFun was an extended lesson in the difference
  5630. between something&#38;rsquo;s received reputation and its consequences in practice.&lt;/p&gt;
  5631.  
  5632. &lt;p&gt;See also:&lt;/p&gt;
  5633.  
  5634. &lt;ul&gt;
  5635. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2014/9/6&#34;&gt;language things&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5636. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2010/12/11&#34;&gt;and all history unfolds before you&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5637. &lt;/ul&gt;
  5638.  
  5639.  
  5640. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✪ &lt;/p&gt;
  5641.  
  5642.  
  5643. &lt;p&gt;I learned that you should be kind to customer service reps and tech support.&lt;/p&gt;
  5644.  
  5645. &lt;p&gt;There were a lot of times I was unkind to the people I worked with, and I&#38;rsquo;ve
  5646. learned to regret that.&lt;/p&gt;
  5647.  
  5648. &lt;p&gt;I learned that &#38;ldquo;the customer is always right&#38;rdquo; is poisonous, and that there&#38;rsquo;s
  5649. some joy in explaining to the kind of person who has always used that notion as
  5650. a weapon that their business isn&#38;rsquo;t worth the abuse.&lt;/p&gt;
  5651.  
  5652. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✴ &lt;/p&gt;
  5653.  
  5654.  
  5655. &lt;p&gt;I already knew how to program when I started at SparkFun, or at least I thought
  5656. I did.  While I was there, I learned how to make software.  A bunch of the
  5657. apparatus and the tooling, but more than anything that you have to work with
  5658. people.  That it&#38;rsquo;s a shared thing.  That, mostly, you&#38;rsquo;re going to do it
  5659. together or you&#38;rsquo;re going to fail at it.&lt;/p&gt;
  5660.  
  5661. &lt;p&gt;I learned a lot about unintended consequences, and the ways that design
  5662. decisions unfold into patterns you never anticipated.  I learned to mistrust
  5663. cleverness and prize the explicit.&lt;/p&gt;
  5664.  
  5665. &lt;p&gt;Models are always wrong, maps are territories unto themselves, and shared
  5666. understanding is a harder thing to build than almost any other kind of
  5667. technical artifact.  If people use the tools you create, even if they helped
  5668. you build them, they&#38;rsquo;re going to do it in ways that break every expectation you
  5669. had and put the lie to every unstated assumption you made.&lt;/p&gt;
  5670.  
  5671. &lt;p&gt;I discovered all that at painful length, and then I thought that when I got
  5672. into the wider technical world I&#38;rsquo;d find out how unsophisticated we&#38;rsquo;d been about
  5673. the whole thing.  In some ways that&#38;rsquo;s what happened, and it&#38;rsquo;s painful (but also
  5674. funny) to think about how little I knew back then.  In others it turns out that
  5675. most people are groping in the dark and a lot of what gets sold to you as
  5676. sophistication just curls back around into wishful thinking, technical debt,
  5677. and bureaucratic churn.&lt;/p&gt;
  5678.  
  5679. &lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&#34;/2013/11/7&#34;&gt;late 2013&lt;/a&gt; I wrote this:&lt;/p&gt;
  5680.  
  5681. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Programmers must, as long as we hope to be effective, sustain a dispassionate
  5682. awareness that all we do is dust in the wind: That entropy is destiny,
  5683. disorder is law, and futility is the architecture of existence. We succeed,
  5684. to the extent that success is possible, only as long as we remember that our
  5685. efforts are but brief disturbances in the ordinary course of time’s certain
  5686. triumph over the integrity of all built systems. Everything you make will
  5687. surely die, and unlike the children of your body or the structure of a great
  5688. city, the code you write will probably die long before you do.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5689.  
  5690. &lt;p&gt;See also:&lt;/p&gt;
  5691.  
  5692. &lt;ul&gt;
  5693. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2013/12/4&#34;&gt;on software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5694. &lt;/ul&gt;
  5695.  
  5696.  
  5697. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✵ &lt;/p&gt;
  5698.  
  5699.  
  5700. &lt;p&gt;I learned that salespeople will find a way around you, and that no one is more
  5701. susceptible to marketing than marketers.&lt;/p&gt;
  5702.  
  5703. &lt;p&gt;I came to think of marketing itself as an aggressive ideological cult, or maybe
  5704. just the most visible part of one &#38;mdash; a complex of ideas spidering out into
  5705. most domains of human endeavor, and hungrily grasping at whatever cognitive
  5706. territory remains unconquered.  Marketing as a mask worn by something deeper in
  5707. the culture and harder to name or delineate, let alone contradict.&lt;/p&gt;
  5708.  
  5709. &lt;p&gt;See also:&lt;/p&gt;
  5710.  
  5711. &lt;ul&gt;
  5712. &lt;li&gt;This one on &lt;a href=&#34;/2013/9/6&#34;&gt;the idea that numbers create meaning&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5713. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2013/12/4&#34;&gt;on software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5714. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2014/11/24&#34;&gt;so spam is normal behavior, but what if you stopped?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5715. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2019/7/9&#34;&gt;still creepy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5716. &lt;/ul&gt;
  5717.  
  5718.  
  5719. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ☼ &lt;/p&gt;
  5720.  
  5721.  
  5722. &lt;p&gt;I learned that you should moderate the comments, &lt;a href=&#34;/2012/11/10&#34;&gt;if you have them at
  5723. all&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;em&gt;maybe&lt;/em&gt; something about how.&lt;/p&gt;
  5724.  
  5725. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✤ &lt;/p&gt;
  5726.  
  5727.  
  5728. &lt;p&gt;I learned to ride a bicycle again, commuting as many days as not on an aluminum
  5729. road bike from the early 80s with downtube shifters and straps on the pedals.
  5730. A coworker found it on craigslist and helped me tune it up - the first bike
  5731. I&#38;rsquo;ve ever owned that &lt;em&gt;wanted&lt;/em&gt; to go fast.&lt;/p&gt;
  5732.  
  5733. &lt;p&gt;Despite an ocean of beer and liquor and all the attendant bad decisions, I was
  5734. probably healthier then than I&#38;rsquo;ve been any time before or since.  I was
  5735. definitely more plugged into the landscape and the seasons where I live.  Every
  5736. working day bookended by little adventures.&lt;/p&gt;
  5737.  
  5738. &lt;p&gt;See also:&lt;/p&gt;
  5739.  
  5740. &lt;ul&gt;
  5741. &lt;li&gt;This one &lt;a href=&#34;/2009/1/3&#34;&gt;about bikes, garden carts, technological determinism, utility&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5742. &lt;/ul&gt;
  5743.  
  5744.  
  5745. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❁ &lt;/p&gt;
  5746.  
  5747.  
  5748. &lt;p&gt;Some things about hiring:&lt;/p&gt;
  5749.  
  5750. &lt;ul&gt;
  5751. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s hard and very often the people doing it are flailing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5752. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interviews are mostly nonsense.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5753. &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hiring your friends (and maybe relatives) is an entirely rational way to go
  5754. about things, &lt;em&gt;to a point&lt;/em&gt;.  What you have to deal with is this: Some of your
  5755. friends might be incompetent or worse, and even if they&#38;rsquo;re not, leaning too
  5756. hard on your existing social connections reinforces all the privileges and
  5757. biases and latent power structures that put you in the position to hire
  5758. somebody in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  5759. &lt;/ul&gt;
  5760.  
  5761.  
  5762. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ☆ &lt;/p&gt;
  5763.  
  5764.  
  5765. &lt;p&gt;I learned how much quality matters and how much it doesn&#38;rsquo;t:  From how hard we
  5766. tried to get things right in the software and how little it probably mattered
  5767. in the final analysis.  From selling things that were basically pretty good and
  5768. also from selling bottom-dollar no-utility garbage, both with enormous
  5769. externalities.&lt;/p&gt;
  5770.  
  5771. &lt;p&gt;I was pretty good at not thinking about those externalities: Cheap labor and
  5772. industrial pollution in someone else&#38;rsquo;s country.  Fuel oil and gasoline and jet
  5773. fuel in transit.  I was fully complicit, and I knew it on some level, but as
  5774. long as we were getting &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; right I &lt;a href=&#34;2010/11/20&#34;&gt;felt like&lt;/a&gt; we were
  5775. ahead of the game anyway.&lt;/p&gt;
  5776.  
  5777. &lt;p&gt;We sold stuff with open designs and open code and showed people how to use it.
  5778. A faction of us free software partisans fought pretty hard on that &lt;em&gt;open&lt;/em&gt; part,
  5779. and got listened to for a while.  A lot of the people I worked with were
  5780. teachers in the best and simplest sense.  I couldn&#38;rsquo;t begin to guess how many
  5781. people learned to solder and write a simple program from SparkFun workshops and
  5782. tutorials.  It worked for a long time.  Maybe we &lt;em&gt;were&lt;/em&gt; ahead of the game.
  5783. Maybe we made people more free, gave them greater agency in a time when the
  5784. tech in general is spinning wildly out of their control.&lt;/p&gt;
  5785.  
  5786. &lt;p&gt;Then again maybe we mostly taught the children of technocrats to put more tiny
  5787. computers in everything, to the long-term advantage of the billionaires and
  5788. authoritarian scumbags currently hastening civilization along to an end state
  5789. that&#38;rsquo;d slot pretty cleanly into the &lt;em&gt;Mad Max&lt;/em&gt; franchise.&lt;/p&gt;
  5790.  
  5791. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s hard to say exactly.&lt;/p&gt;
  5792.  
  5793. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✩ &lt;/p&gt;
  5794.  
  5795.  
  5796. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2014/3/23&#34;&gt;Erik Winn&lt;/a&gt; always said business ruins everything.  I learned I
  5797. think he was right, for the most part.  I also learned that you have to work
  5798. with people to get anything done, and that businesses are a lot of where that
  5799. happens, for better and worse both.&lt;/p&gt;
  5800.  
  5801. &lt;p&gt;&#38;ldquo;Community&#38;rdquo; has to be one of the most abused and debased words in the
  5802. contemporary vocabulary.  There&#38;rsquo;s this Greg Brown recording I half remember
  5803. where he makes fun of the idea of intentional community and says that
  5804. community is what happens when you have to get along with the people you&#38;rsquo;re
  5805. stuck with.&lt;/p&gt;
  5806.  
  5807. &lt;p&gt;Well, for years I went to work in a gray-carpeted room in a shabby building in
  5808. a half-empty suburban office park, and after a while I woke up looking forward
  5809. to it as often as not, because I was going to work with my friends.&lt;/p&gt;
  5810.  
  5811. &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;/2014/11/23&#34;&gt;Sunday after my last day at Sparkfun&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  5812.  
  5813. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can be an astonishing thing, in a certain sort of life, to look around and
  5814. understand that you have, and have had for a long time now, a lot of friends.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5815.  
  5816. &lt;p&gt;I still feel like that.&lt;/p&gt;
  5817.  
  5818. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✪ &lt;/p&gt;
  5819.  
  5820.  
  5821. &lt;p&gt;A lot of what I learned from SparkFun came right at the end.&lt;/p&gt;
  5822.  
  5823. &lt;p&gt;I learned never to mistake an aesthetic for an ethic.  That the signifiers of
  5824. style can&#38;rsquo;t be relied on as the signs of a lived belief or a worked
  5825. understanding.  That a keg in the break room and a high tolerance for stoner
  5826. hijinks makes a pretty good smokescreen for lousy wages and bad faith.&lt;/p&gt;
  5827.  
  5828. &lt;p&gt;I learned just how easy it can be to kill something from the top, even if it
  5829. got built from the bottom up.&lt;/p&gt;
  5830.  
  5831. &lt;p&gt;I knew for a long time before SparkFun that employment was mostly bullshit, and
  5832. that the interests of the owners are not the interests of the workers.  I
  5833. managed to set that one aside for a while, but it all came back in a rush: More
  5834. complicated by all the contradictions of experience, but true all the same.&lt;/p&gt;
  5835.  
  5836. &lt;p&gt;As long as there&#38;rsquo;s no shared power that can check and hold to account the
  5837. owning class and their enablers, we&#38;rsquo;re &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; their enablers.  Individual
  5838. workers are, more often than not, left with rage-quitting an organization as
  5839. the only means of signalling meaningful dissent.  And at that it&#38;rsquo;s a form of
  5840. dissent open only to the few who are cushioned enough by their skills, family
  5841. wealth, or social status to exercise it at will.&lt;/p&gt;
  5842.  
  5843. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❁ &lt;/p&gt;
  5844.  
  5845.  
  5846. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s late on a Saturday night and I&#38;rsquo;ve been trying to write this for days
  5847. without getting half of what I wanted to say into it.&lt;/p&gt;
  5848.  
  5849. &lt;p&gt;I guess for now I&#38;rsquo;m going to call it good and close this set of entirely too
  5850. self-serious reflections with some dialog from the Coen brothers&#39; &lt;em&gt;Burn After
  5851. Reading&lt;/em&gt;, as quoted on IMDb.com:&lt;/p&gt;
  5852.  
  5853. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;CIA Superior: What did we learn, Palmer?&lt;/p&gt;
  5854.  
  5855. &lt;p&gt;CIA Officer: I don&#38;rsquo;t know, sir.&lt;/p&gt;
  5856.  
  5857. &lt;p&gt;CIA Superior: I don&#38;rsquo;t fuckin&#39; know either. I guess we learned not to do it again.&lt;/p&gt;
  5858.  
  5859. &lt;p&gt;CIA Officer: Yes, sir.&lt;/p&gt;
  5860.  
  5861. &lt;p&gt;CIA Superior: I&#38;rsquo;m fucked if I know what we did.&lt;/p&gt;
  5862.  
  5863. &lt;p&gt;CIA Officer: Yes, sir, it&#38;rsquo;s, uh, hard to say.&lt;/p&gt;
  5864.  
  5865. &lt;p&gt;CIA Superior: Jesus Fucking Christ.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5866.  
  5867.  
  5868.  
  5869. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/business&#34;&gt;business&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/hardware&#34;&gt;hardware&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sparkfun&#34;&gt;sparkfun&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/work&#34;&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5870. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5871. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/&#34; title=&#34;10&#34;&gt;10&lt;/a&gt; /
  5872. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/10/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5873. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5874.  
  5875. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>monday, august 19, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/8/19"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/8/19</id><content type="html">
  5876.  
  5877. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;monday, august 19, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5878.  
  5879. &lt;p&gt;it was damn near a hundred again today&lt;br /&gt;
  5880. over at the airport where they measure&lt;br /&gt;
  5881. a little cooler here on the edge of things&lt;br /&gt;
  5882. the river is running low, like it&#39;s august in fact&lt;br /&gt;
  5883. as well as by date&lt;/p&gt;
  5884.  
  5885. &lt;p&gt;so like you expect,&lt;br /&gt;
  5886. the grass turns gray-brown and gold in the sun&lt;br /&gt;
  5887. but all told it&#39;s been a green year in colorado&lt;br /&gt;
  5888. the way the locals seem to remember their childhoods:&lt;br /&gt;
  5889. thunderstorms in the summer afternoon,&lt;br /&gt;
  5890. big rains and little ones&lt;/p&gt;
  5891.  
  5892. &lt;p&gt;the orb weavers, growing fat now, build outsized&lt;br /&gt;
  5893. webs on what will hold still long enough  &#38;mdash;  my bike,&lt;br /&gt;
  5894. the trashcan by the corner of the house,&lt;br /&gt;
  5895. the bucket hanging on my garden fence&lt;/p&gt;
  5896.  
  5897. &lt;p&gt;bees hum where i&#39;ve let the herbs go to flower&lt;br /&gt;
  5898. i wonder if some of them fly home to the hive&lt;br /&gt;
  5899. in the cracked brick walls&lt;br /&gt;
  5900. of the first house i lived in here&lt;br /&gt;
  5901. it&#39;s fourteen years this month&lt;br /&gt;
  5902. or a couple of lifetimes depending on how you count&lt;/p&gt;
  5903.  
  5904. &lt;p&gt;in the mountains, my niece is learning to crawl&lt;/p&gt;
  5905.  
  5906. &lt;p&gt;while out on the plains my family waits to bury&lt;br /&gt;
  5907. my great aunt, gone at 95, who had already seen&lt;br /&gt;
  5908. i can&#39;t begin to guess how many lifetimes&lt;br /&gt;
  5909. by the year i was born&lt;/p&gt;
  5910.  
  5911. &lt;p&gt;everything is always happening&lt;br /&gt;
  5912. all at once&lt;/p&gt;
  5913.  
  5914. &lt;p&gt;and i&#39;m not sure i can tell any more&lt;br /&gt;
  5915. all the joy from the grief&lt;br /&gt;
  5916. or the longing from the gratitude&lt;/p&gt;
  5917.  
  5918.  
  5919. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/colorado&#34;&gt;colorado&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5920. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5921. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt; /
  5922. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/8/19/&#34; title=&#34;19&#34;&gt;19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5923. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5924.  
  5925. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, August 12, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/8/12"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/8/12</id><content type="html">
  5926.  
  5927. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, August 12, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5928.  
  5929. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m sitting in a Barnes &#38;amp; Noble Starbucks, a class of institution I don&#38;rsquo;t
  5930. really expect to exist a few years hence.  Heavily sweetened coffee drinks
  5931. aren&#38;rsquo;t going anywhere, of course, but chain bookstores feel pretty doomed and
  5932. it&#38;rsquo;s not really clear to me that this one can manage a transition to selling
  5933. random toys and board game crap instead of books.&lt;/p&gt;
  5934.  
  5935. &lt;p&gt;I love independent bookstores, and spend most of my book money at several, but
  5936. I&#38;rsquo;m going to have some feelings when B&#38;amp;N kicks the bucket.  I grew up in the
  5937. country, and the mall bookstore chains in the nearest city big enough to have a
  5938. mall were my primary option for anything I couldn&#38;rsquo;t get at our small-time
  5939. library.  Those first trips to a big, well-stocked Barnes &#38;amp; Noble were
  5940. revelatory.  The SF&#38;amp;F section alone felt bigger and more expansive than the
  5941. entirety of a B. Dalton / Waldenbooks.&lt;/p&gt;
  5942.  
  5943. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s strange to think of that sense of things opening up as a side effect of
  5944. the end stages of an entire economy and medium, but I suppose that&#38;rsquo;s more or
  5945. less what it was.&lt;/p&gt;
  5946.  
  5947.  
  5948.  
  5949. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  5950. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  5951. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt; /
  5952. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/8/12/&#34; title=&#34;12&#34;&gt;12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  5953. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  5954.  
  5955. </content><updated>2020-01-15T06:49:58Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, July  9, 2019 - still creepy</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/7/9"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/7/9</id><content type="html">
  5956.  
  5957. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, July  9, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  5958.  
  5959. &lt;h2&gt;still creepy&lt;/h2&gt;
  5960.  
  5961. &lt;p&gt;I read a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/opinion/email-tracking.html&#34;&gt;New York Times opinion piece by Charlie Warzel&lt;/a&gt;, about tracking
  5962. behavior in a mail client called Superhuman &#38;ndash; it embeds tracking pixels in all
  5963. its sent mail so it can report views back to the sender.  The piece starts off
  5964. with a succinct and reasonably accurate reading of how this sort of thing
  5965. usually plays out:&lt;/p&gt;
  5966.  
  5967. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Call it the Five Stages of Privacy Erosion.&lt;/p&gt;
  5968.  
  5969. &lt;p&gt;Tech Company builds popular product.&lt;/p&gt;
  5970.  
  5971. &lt;p&gt;Product is exposed in the press for doing something shady behind the scenes.&lt;/p&gt;
  5972.  
  5973. &lt;p&gt;Tech Company apologizes/clarifies/signals a fix.&lt;/p&gt;
  5974.  
  5975. &lt;p&gt;Brief phase of collective rejoicing and moving on.&lt;/p&gt;
  5976.  
  5977. &lt;p&gt;It’s revealed (usually by the same people) that Product was never really fixed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5978.  
  5979. &lt;p&gt;&#38;hellip;and then midway through it comes to this disclaimer:&lt;/p&gt;
  5980.  
  5981. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;(I want to pause here to offer an email-tracking disclosure and some
  5982. clarification. Tracking is a tricky subject. It isn’t inherently nefarious.
  5983. This newsletter tracks things like how many times the newsletter email is
  5984. opened and what links are clicked, which helps to improve the newsletter.
  5985. But like all privacy issues, it’s a matter of transparency and
  5986. expectations. When it comes to marketing emails and newsletters, which
  5987. often come from corporate entities, there’s often more of an expectation
  5988. that open rates might be tracked. In Superhuman’s case, as Davidson notes,
  5989. the tracking takes place with every personal email sent, which is more
  5990. likely to violate the expectation of privacy.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  5991.  
  5992. &lt;p&gt;Which I think demonstrates how fucked we are just about as well as anything.
  5993. The tracking is creepy, under this model, when you don&#38;rsquo;t expect it from an
  5994. individual quite as much as you do from a &lt;em&gt;company&lt;/em&gt;, which has legitimate
  5995. reasons to hoard your data.  Don&#38;rsquo;t you want the newsletter to improve?&lt;/p&gt;
  5996.  
  5997. &lt;p&gt;This is the mode of reasoning that&#38;rsquo;s gotten us where we are now, after decades
  5998. of principled objection from people with both functioning consciences and a
  5999. coherent grasp of privacy:  to an ever-ratcheting state of intrusive,
  6000. unregulated, irremediable surveillance.  Surveillance as a cornerstone of the
  6001. economy and a baseline expectation of business, publishing, government, and
  6002. law.&lt;/p&gt;
  6003.  
  6004. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t mean to pick on Charlie Warzel and if he reads this I hope he doesn&#38;rsquo;t
  6005. take it as mean-spirited.  I don&#38;rsquo;t disagree with the rest of the column, and
  6006. including that parenthetical disclosure shows more self-awareness than the
  6007. majority of editorializing you read about this stuff, hosted as it is on
  6008. websites with dozens of embedded trackers and ad services.  But!  When a
  6009. journalist specializing in privacy topics explains that the technology he&#38;rsquo;s
  6010. calling out as creepy isn&#38;rsquo;t creepy &lt;em&gt;when it&#38;rsquo;s built into the platform he writes
  6011. on&lt;/em&gt;, it says something about what understandings are possible and allowed.&lt;/p&gt;
  6012.  
  6013. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s possible to understand that these behaviors &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; inherently nefarious,
  6014. but taking that idea seriously, let alone saying so out loud, isn&#38;rsquo;t compatible
  6015. with keeping a lot of jobs.  You always have to soften the blow, to acquiesce
  6016. in ways that undermine either your own awareness or your honesty.  You might
  6017. try to fight it, but in most situations it&#38;rsquo;s like shoveling back the tide with
  6018. a fork.  I&#38;rsquo;ve tried more times than I can count and I&#38;rsquo;ve lost pretty much every
  6019. time, in every way that matters.&lt;/p&gt;
  6020.  
  6021. &lt;p&gt;All the same, that this is an intractable situation for anyone whose livelihood
  6022. is caught up in it doesn&#38;rsquo;t change that the shady behaviors are shady.  The
  6023. creepy stuff is still creepy even when a respected media outlet does it for
  6024. reasons that seem to bolster the media outlet&#38;rsquo;s interests.&lt;/p&gt;
  6025.  
  6026.  
  6027.  
  6028. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/new-york-times&#34;&gt;new-york-times&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/panopticon&#34;&gt;panopticon&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/surveillance&#34;&gt;surveillance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6029. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6030. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  6031. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/7/9/&#34; title=&#34;9&#34;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6032. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6033.  
  6034. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, July  3, 2019 - word of the day: wildering</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/7/3"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/7/3</id><content type="html">
  6035.  
  6036. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, July  3, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6037.  
  6038. &lt;h2&gt;word of the day: wildering&lt;/h2&gt;
  6039.  
  6040. &lt;pre&gt;
  6041. $ dict wildering
  6042. 2 definitions found
  6043.  
  6044. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
  6045.  
  6046.  Wilder \Wil&#34;der\, v. t. [imp. &#38; p. p. {Wildered}; p. pr. &#38; vb.
  6047.     n. {Wildering}.] [Akin to E. wild, Dan. forvilde to bewilder,
  6048.     Icel. villr bewildered, villa to bewilder; cf. AS. wildor a
  6049.     wild animal. See {Wild}, a., and cf. {Wilderness}.]
  6050.     To bewilder; to perplex.
  6051.     [1913 Webster]
  6052.  
  6053.           Long lost and wildered in the maze of fate. --Pope.
  6054.     [1913 Webster]
  6055.  
  6056.           Again the wildered fancy dreams
  6057.           Of spouting fountains, frozen as they rose. --Bryant.
  6058.     [1913 Webster]
  6059.  
  6060. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
  6061.  
  6062.  Wildering \Wild&#34;er*ing\, n. (Bot.)
  6063.     A plant growing in a state of nature; especially, one which
  6064.     has run wild, or escaped from cultivation.
  6065.     [1913 Webster]
  6066. &lt;/pre&gt;
  6067.  
  6068.  
  6069.  
  6070. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/dict&#34;&gt;dict&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6071. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6072. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt; /
  6073. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/7/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6074. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6075.  
  6076. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, June 25, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/6/25"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/6/25</id><content type="html">
  6077.  
  6078. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, June 25, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6079.  
  6080. &lt;p&gt;I rode my bike for utility this morning:  Dropping off a vehicle at the shop
  6081. and pedaling the dozen miles or so home.  I&#38;rsquo;m years out of this habit, by now.
  6082. I work from home and find some plausible rationale to ride more than half a
  6083. mile maybe once every couple of months.&lt;/p&gt;
  6084.  
  6085. &lt;p&gt;It brought me back to thoughts I used to have constantly:  Speed is a kind of
  6086. abstraction over distance.  Rolling wheels are a kind of abstraction over
  6087. surfaces and spaces not really accessible by foot or rarely traversed at less
  6088. than 35mph by car.  The landscape and the culture built on top of it are so
  6089. much different at every speed.&lt;/p&gt;
  6090.  
  6091.  
  6092. &lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6093. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6094. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  6095. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/25/&#34; title=&#34;25&#34;&gt;25&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6096. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6097.  
  6098. </content><updated>2020-01-19T01:57:17Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, June 18, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/6/19"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/6/19</id><content type="html">
  6099.  
  6100. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, June 18, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6101.  
  6102. &lt;p&gt;Some weeks ago, I read &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/books/review/upheaval-jared-diamond.html&#34;&gt;a New York Times review&lt;/a&gt; of Jared Diamond&#38;rsquo;s
  6103. latest:&lt;/p&gt;
  6104.  
  6105. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you’ve ever been at a wedding or conference or on board a United
  6106. connection from O’Hare, and been cornered by a man with Theories About It
  6107. All, and you came away thinking, “That was a great experience,” have I got
  6108. the book for you.&lt;/p&gt;
  6109.  
  6110. &lt;p&gt;Jared Diamond’s “Upheaval” belongs to the genre of 30,000-foot books, which
  6111. sell an explanation of everything. I travel often and see them a lot: at
  6112. airport bookstores, where Steven Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari (both of whom
  6113. blurbed “Upheaval”) and Diamond, of course, deserve permanent shelves; and in
  6114. the air, where I’ve noticed that a pretty disproportionate fraction of
  6115. readers who read in the quiet of 30,000 feet have a preference for writers
  6116. who write from the viewpoint of 30,000 feet.&lt;/p&gt;
  6117.  
  6118. &lt;p&gt;&#38;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
  6119.  
  6120. &lt;p&gt;When Diamond describes “highly egalitarian social values” as an ethos that has
  6121. “remained unchanged” in Australia, despite having written a chapter about the
  6122. country’s history of legalized racism, he is using a definition of egalitarian
  6123. that applies only to white people. When he says, “Social status in Japan
  6124. depends more on education than on heredity and family connection,” he is
  6125. ignoring what it means to be born a woman. “Of course, my list of U.S. problems
  6126. isn’t exhaustive,” he admits. “Problems that I don’t discuss include race
  6127. relations and the role of women.” You know, the problems affecting the vast
  6128. majority of Americans.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  6129.  
  6130. &lt;p&gt;I don&#38;rsquo;t quote this by way of piling on Diamond.  I&#38;rsquo;m pretty sure I won&#38;rsquo;t read
  6131. &lt;em&gt;Upheaval&lt;/em&gt;, but I also doubt it&#38;rsquo;s going to do as much damage in the world as,
  6132. say, any given bestseller by the NYT&#38;rsquo;s own Thomas Friedman.&lt;/p&gt;
  6133.  
  6134. &lt;p&gt;I mention it here because that review got me thinking about a time when I was
  6135. really drawn to this kind of book:  Big, framework-y pop science and history
  6136. narratives with (at least ostensibly) a grand cross-disciplinary synthesis to
  6137. communicate.  Stuff like Diamond&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
  6138. Societies&lt;/em&gt;, Steven Pinker&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human
  6139. Nature&lt;/em&gt;, E.O. Wilson&#38;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge&lt;/em&gt;.  (Subtitles
  6140. included for maximum effect.)&lt;/p&gt;
  6141.  
  6142. &lt;p&gt;I pulled that specific grouping of books out of memory, but the list probably
  6143. stuck in my head in the first place because I wrote &lt;a href=&#34;/2004/9/13/&#34;&gt;this p1k3
  6144. entry&lt;/a&gt;, or others like it.  It&#38;rsquo;s cringey material, like a lot of
  6145. things I wrote in those years.  I was at the time 23 years old, inexperienced,
  6146. constantly drunk, and months out of a mediocre undergraduate degree with no
  6147. idea what to do next.  I had spent time around very smart people who were
  6148. nevertheless too much in the grip of Evolutionary Psych and similar ideas, and
  6149. I was too lazy by far to be a tenth as well-read as I pretended to be.  In
  6150. general I was insufferable, and it comes through in the text.&lt;/p&gt;
  6151.  
  6152. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ✵ &lt;/p&gt;
  6153.  
  6154.  
  6155. &lt;p&gt;As usual, &#38;ldquo;I didn&#38;rsquo;t understand a lot of things when I was younger&#38;rdquo; is true, but
  6156. not very interesting.  I have plenty of regrets, but if I couldn&#38;rsquo;t forgive
  6157. myself for being a posturing jackass when I was trying to figure out my place
  6158. in the world, I&#38;rsquo;d just be permanently crippled by self-loathing, which is no
  6159. use to anyone.&lt;/p&gt;
  6160.  
  6161. &lt;p&gt;Anyhow, what strikes me now, aside from a lot of ideological drift, is how much
  6162. my own hopes and ambitions have changed since then.  I once wanted to write
  6163. something big, encompassing, cross-cutting, etc.  I wanted, even if I didn&#38;rsquo;t
  6164. have the work ethic or the cognitive capacity, to understand as much as I could
  6165. and abstract it across as many domains as I could touch.  I was inclined to
  6166. manifestos, grand plans, programs, prescriptions, the idea of an overarching
  6167. research project.  At least I thought about those things a lot.  And even once
  6168. I&#38;rsquo;d mostly given up on &lt;em&gt;designing&lt;/em&gt; that kind of project, maybe I sincerely
  6169. thought that something more or less whole, greater than the sum of its parts,
  6170. could emerge from the slow iteration of my work. (&lt;a href=&#34;/2007/4/1&#34;&gt;One from 2007&lt;/a&gt;
  6171. and &lt;a href=&#34;/2016/1/14&#34;&gt;one from 2016&lt;/a&gt; suggest as much.)&lt;/p&gt;
  6172.  
  6173. &lt;p&gt;In 2019, I still hold plenty of strong opinions (a few even grounded in
  6174. experience), but I hope I have fewer illusions about their coherence or my
  6175. grasp of the overall set of problems.  I think a lot about just how brittle and
  6176. partial and misleading the materials of history tend to be, how difficult and
  6177. fallible it is to construct science, journalism, or historical narrative that
  6178. doesn&#38;rsquo;t crucially misrepresent the world.  The feeling that once kept me from
  6179. writing fiction &#38;mdash; an uneasiness about my ability to describe or portray any
  6180. experience outside my own &#38;mdash; has deepened and spread to other domains.&lt;/p&gt;
  6181.  
  6182. &lt;p&gt;These days I&#38;rsquo;m uncomfortable, despite a long-time &lt;a href=&#34;/2010/6/28/&#34;&gt;fixation on the idea that
  6183. you should write &lt;em&gt;for&lt;/em&gt; someone&lt;/a&gt;, with the idea of publishing at all,
  6184. at least in the deranged and weaponized shitstorm climate of the modern
  6185. network.  I haven&#38;rsquo;t given up on the &lt;a href=&#34;/notes-on-notes&#34;&gt;long project&lt;/a&gt; of a
  6186. lifetime&#38;rsquo;s jotting and correspondence.  If anything I do more of it &#38;mdash; but I
  6187. don&#38;rsquo;t expect it to yield much besides a better memory and some communication
  6188. with friends.  Those are good things in themselves, and I&#38;rsquo;m not seeking any
  6189. broader justification for the habits that underpin them.  Still, they&#38;rsquo;re very
  6190. different from the work of the writer I might have become, if I&#38;rsquo;d had more raw
  6191. ability and worked harder at it.&lt;/p&gt;
  6192.  
  6193. &lt;p&gt;I&#38;rsquo;m not altogether sure that&#38;rsquo;s a bad thing.&lt;/p&gt;
  6194.  
  6195. &lt;p class=&#34;centerpiece&#34;&gt; ❦ &lt;/p&gt;
  6196.  
  6197.  
  6198. &lt;p&gt;(As a postscript, I want to acknowledge the strong possibility that I&#38;rsquo;m still
  6199. insufferable.)&lt;/p&gt;
  6200.  
  6201.  
  6202.  
  6203. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/history&#34;&gt;history&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/jared-diamond&#34;&gt;jared-diamond&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/steven-pinker&#34;&gt;steven-pinker&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/writing&#34;&gt;writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6204. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6205. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  6206. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/19/&#34; title=&#34;19&#34;&gt;19&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6207. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6208.  
  6209. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Thursday, June 13, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/6/13"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/6/13</id><content type="html">
  6210.  
  6211. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Thursday, June 13, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6212.  
  6213. &lt;p&gt;Maciej Cegłowski, &lt;a href=&#34;https://idlewords.com/2019/06/the_new_wilderness.htm&#34;&gt;the New Wilderness&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  6214.  
  6215. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;So why have the gravediggers of online privacy suddenly grown so worried
  6216. about the health of the patient?&lt;/p&gt;
  6217.  
  6218. &lt;p&gt;Part of the answer is a defect in the language we use to talk about privacy.
  6219. That language, especially as it is codified in law, is not adequate for the
  6220. new reality of ubiquitous, mechanized surveillance.&lt;/p&gt;
  6221.  
  6222. &lt;p&gt;In the eyes of regulators, privacy still means what it did in the eighteenth
  6223. century—protecting specific categories of personal data, or communications
  6224. between individuals, from unauthorized disclosure. Third parties that are
  6225. given access to our personal data have a duty to protect it, and to the
  6226. extent that they discharge this duty, they are respecting our privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
  6227.  
  6228. &lt;p&gt;Seen in this light, the giant tech companies can make a credible claim to be
  6229. the defenders of privacy, just like a dragon can truthfully boast that it is
  6230. good at protecting its hoard of gold. Nobody spends more money securing user
  6231. data, or does it more effectively, than Facebook and Google.&lt;/p&gt;
  6232.  
  6233. &lt;p&gt;The question we need to ask is not whether our data is safe, but why there is
  6234. suddenly so much of it that needs protecting. The problem with the dragon,
  6235. after all, is not its stockpile stewardship, but its appetite.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  6236.  
  6237.  
  6238.  
  6239.  
  6240. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/facebook&#34;&gt;facebook&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/google&#34;&gt;google&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/panopticon&#34;&gt;panopticon&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/policy&#34;&gt;policy&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/politics&#34;&gt;politics&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/scale&#34;&gt;scale&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/surveillance&#34;&gt;surveillance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6241. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6242. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  6243. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/13/&#34; title=&#34;13&#34;&gt;13&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6244. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6245.  
  6246. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, June  2, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/6/2"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/6/2</id><content type="html">
  6247.  
  6248. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, June  2, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6249.  
  6250. &lt;p&gt;I recently read &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/intermediate-vim/&#34;&gt;At least one Vim trick you might not know&lt;/a&gt;, which is
  6251. a pretty high-quality example of the stuff-about-text-editors blog post.&lt;/p&gt;
  6252.  
  6253. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are- very roughly- two categories of Vim users. &lt;strong&gt;Purists&lt;/strong&gt; value
  6254. Vim’s small size and ubiquitousness. They tend to keep configuration to a
  6255. minimum in case they need to use it on an unfamiliar computer (such as
  6256. during ssh). &lt;strong&gt;Exobrains&lt;/strong&gt;, on the other hand, stuff Vim full of plugins,
  6257. functions, and homebrew mappings in a vain attempt to pretend they’re using
  6258. Emacs. If you took away an exobrain’s vimrc they’d be completely helpless.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  6259.  
  6260. &lt;p&gt;Not too unreasonable a model of the thing, probably.  I&#38;rsquo;m definitely
  6261. &lt;a href=&#34;/notes-on-notes&#34;&gt;somewhere in &#38;ldquo;exobrain&#38;rdquo; territory&lt;/a&gt; at this point.&lt;/p&gt;
  6262.  
  6263. &lt;p&gt;I ought to write one of these eventually - or maybe follow Tyler&#38;rsquo;s lead and
  6264. write a &lt;a href=&#34;https://tylercipriani.com/blog/2017/06/14/literate-vimrc/&#34;&gt;literate .vimrc&lt;/a&gt;.  My &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/bpb-kit/src/branch/main/home/.vimrc&#34;&gt;existing one&lt;/a&gt; has a lot
  6265. of comments, but it&#38;rsquo;s not exactly a coherent document.&lt;/p&gt;
  6266.  
  6267.  
  6268.  
  6269. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/vim&#34;&gt;vim&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6270. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6271. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt; /
  6272. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/6/2/&#34; title=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6273. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6274.  
  6275. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>thursday, may 9, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/5/9"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/5/9</id><content type="html">
  6276.  
  6277. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;thursday, may 9, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6278.  
  6279. &lt;p&gt;a may snow, all day&lt;br /&gt;
  6280. the skies gray and&lt;br /&gt;
  6281. the grass growing taller&lt;br /&gt;
  6282. while it falls, tulips&lt;br /&gt;
  6283. blooming round the side of the house&lt;br /&gt;
  6284. the frogs across the street&lt;br /&gt;
  6285. sounding low and slow through&lt;br /&gt;
  6286. the patter of barely frozen&lt;br /&gt;
  6287. water falling on the just-unfolding&lt;br /&gt;
  6288. leaves&lt;/p&gt;
  6289.  
  6290.  
  6291.  
  6292. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6293. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6294. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  6295. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/9/&#34; title=&#34;9&#34;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6296. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6297.  
  6298. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Wednesday, May 8, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/5/8"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/5/8</id><content type="html">
  6299.  
  6300. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Wednesday, May 8, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6301.  
  6302. &lt;p&gt;Thesis:  The complexity ratchet in technology is designed (or has evolved, take
  6303. your pick) to drive the concentration of administrative power.&lt;/p&gt;
  6304.  
  6305.  
  6306.  
  6307.  
  6308. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6309. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6310. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  6311. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/8/&#34; title=&#34;8&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6312. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6313.  
  6314. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - App::WRT v6.0.0.</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/5/7"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/5/7</id><content type="html">
  6315.  
  6316. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Tuesday, May 7, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6317.  
  6318. &lt;h2&gt;App::WRT v6.0.0.&lt;/h2&gt;
  6319.  
  6320. &lt;p&gt;Links:&lt;/p&gt;
  6321.  
  6322. &lt;ul&gt;
  6323. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/wrt&#34;&gt;related entries on p1k3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6324. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://metacpan.org/release/App-WRT&#34;&gt;on CPAN as App::WRT&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6325. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/wrt&#34;&gt;on code.p1k3.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6326. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/brennen/wrt&#34;&gt;mirrored on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6327. &lt;/ul&gt;
  6328.  
  6329.  
  6330. &lt;p&gt;Despite the bump in major version number, this one is &lt;em&gt;mostly&lt;/em&gt; a bugfix
  6331. release.  A hypothetical user wouldn&#38;rsquo;t notice many changes, but I&#38;rsquo;m rearranging
  6332. things further in a direction I &lt;a href=&#34;/2018/4/9/&#34;&gt;started on a year ago&lt;/a&gt;,
  6333. abstracting interaction with the underlying directory structure to a class that
  6334. caches the full set of entries and some metadata about them.  More on this in
  6335. the &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/wrt/commit/be13fadb7c428cf801bad3e2fd00d12fec1032d5&#34;&gt;latest commit message&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  6336.  
  6337. &lt;p&gt;This kind of change has gotten easier as I&#38;rsquo;ve added more tests, even if the
  6338. tests themselves are sort of ridiculous, which is a useful lesson.&lt;/p&gt;
  6339.  
  6340. &lt;p&gt;As I wrote last year:&lt;/p&gt;
  6341.  
  6342. &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;This was an interesting way to kill some time, both because I revisited an
  6343. algorithm I’d forgotten about, and because every time I hack on a project like
  6344. this I’m in a dialog with basic decisions I made before I knew how to write
  6345. software at all. And maybe, by the same token, looking with fresh eyes at norms
  6346. that I’d take for granted in any more modern context. wrt isn’t a good piece of
  6347. software by any contemporary standard, and the approach it represents isn’t one
  6348. I’d use for anything bigger than a trivial shell script at my day job, but
  6349. there’s a curious durability to it all the same.&lt;/p&gt;
  6350.  
  6351. &lt;p&gt;Every few years I revisit some facet of this tiny, mundane tool and apply a bit
  6352. of understanding I lacked when it was first written, and some structure comes a
  6353. little clearer that lives in the space between my ignorance at 20 and my
  6354. experience, such as it is, at whatever age I’ve reached.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
  6355.  
  6356.  
  6357.  
  6358.  
  6359. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/perl&#34;&gt;perl&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6360. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6361. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  6362. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/7/&#34; title=&#34;7&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6363. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6364.  
  6365. </content><updated>2024-03-26T00:08:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Monday, May  6, 2019 - reading: the raven tower</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/5/6"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/5/6</id><content type="html">
  6366.  
  6367. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Monday, May  6, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6368.  
  6369. &lt;h2&gt;reading: the raven tower&lt;/h2&gt;
  6370.  
  6371. &lt;p&gt;(Structural spoilers may follow.)&lt;/p&gt;
  6372.  
  6373. &lt;p&gt;Previously:&lt;/p&gt;
  6374.  
  6375. &lt;ul&gt;
  6376. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2015/10/20&#34;&gt;Reading: &lt;em&gt;Ancillary Justice&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ancillary Sword&lt;/em&gt;, by Ann Leckie&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6377. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;/2018/1/1&#34;&gt;reading in 2017&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6378. &lt;/ul&gt;
  6379.  
  6380.  
  6381. &lt;p&gt;Leckie&#38;rsquo;s earlier novels have fallen roughly in the space opera / military SF
  6382. zone.  This one is fantasy, with recognizable genre apparatus (swords, horses,
  6383. fortresses, hereditary nobility, etc.), but in terms of plot mechanics and tone
  6384. it&#38;rsquo;s not a radical departure.  It&#38;rsquo;s concerned with a world where gods are real
  6385. and intervene routinely in human life, but once you grant the basic premise it
  6386. unfolds a system of rules and consequences in a way that rings far more science
  6387. fictional than mystical or theological in the usual sense.&lt;/p&gt;
  6388.  
  6389. &lt;p&gt;I read the whole thing in a sitting last night, having wrecked my ability to
  6390. fall asleep by combining too much of microbrew, espresso, and cheap cigars into
  6391. a low-level panic attack, so I was grateful for the distraction.&lt;/p&gt;
  6392.  
  6393. &lt;p&gt;The ending felt a little rushed, but on the whole I think the author may have
  6394. gotten better at pacing since her first big trilogy.  I would happily spend
  6395. more time with these characters.  Recommended.&lt;/p&gt;
  6396.  
  6397.  
  6398.  
  6399.  
  6400. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/ann-leckie&#34;&gt;ann-leckie&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/reading&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/sfnal&#34;&gt;sfnal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6401. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6402. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  6403. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/6/&#34; title=&#34;6&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6404. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6405.  
  6406. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>saturday, may 4, 2019</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/5/4"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/5/4</id><content type="html">
  6407.  
  6408. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;saturday, may 4, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6409.  
  6410. &lt;p&gt;few animals&lt;br /&gt;
  6411. are as satisfying to contemplate&lt;br /&gt;
  6412. as the bumble bee, all round and&lt;br /&gt;
  6413. purposeful&lt;/p&gt;
  6414.  
  6415.  
  6416.  
  6417. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/poem&#34;&gt;poem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6418. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6419. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/&#34; title=&#34;5&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt; /
  6420. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/5/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6421. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6422.  
  6423. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Sunday, April 14, 2019 - App::WRT v5.0.0</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/4/14"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/4/14</id><content type="html">
  6424.  
  6425. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Sunday, April 14, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6426.  
  6427. &lt;h2&gt;App::WRT v5.0.0&lt;/h2&gt;
  6428.  
  6429. &lt;p&gt;It&#38;rsquo;s been almost a year, so I&#38;rsquo;m putting together a release of wrt, the site
  6430. generator I use for p1k3:&lt;/p&gt;
  6431.  
  6432. &lt;ul&gt;
  6433. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://metacpan.org/release/App-WRT&#34;&gt;on CPAN as App::WRT&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6434. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/wrt&#34;&gt;on code.p1k3.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6435. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/brennen/wrt&#34;&gt;mirrored on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  6436. &lt;/ul&gt;
  6437.  
  6438.  
  6439. &lt;p&gt;v5.0.0 abandons the idea of running persistently under FastCGI, &lt;a href=&#34;/2018/5/28&#34;&gt;handles
  6440. character encoding more gracefully for Atom feeds&lt;/a&gt;, adds &lt;code&gt;wrt ls&lt;/code&gt;
  6441. and &lt;code&gt;wrt config&lt;/code&gt; commands for listing entries and dumping configuration values,
  6442. refactors a bunch of the logic for finding and displaying entries, and fixes a
  6443. slew of minor bugs.  It should be substantially more performant, though as a
  6444. tradeoff it uses more memory.&lt;/p&gt;
  6445.  
  6446. &lt;p&gt;Here&#38;rsquo;s (I think) the full changelog since the last time I pushed this thing to CPAN:&lt;/p&gt;
  6447.  
  6448. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;v5.0.0 2019-04-14
  6449.  
  6450.  - Add bin/wrt-ls for listing entries in current archive
  6451.  - Add bin/wrt-config for displaying configuration info
  6452.  - Allow header tags with attributes
  6453.  - Minor documentation cleanup
  6454.  - Bump XML::Atom::SimpleFeed to 0.900; remove wrt-fcgi
  6455.  - Concatenation instead of variable interpolation in HTML::tag()
  6456.  - Remove hardcoded &#34;public&#34; from renderer directory path copying
  6457.  - Remove unused feed_url param from wrt-init and example dir
  6458.  - Remove an extraneous JSON-&#38;gt;convert_blessed(1) call
  6459.  - WRT::entry(): fix glitch with contents list for binfile_expr matches
  6460.  - Correctly encode feed output - see https://p1k3.com/2018/5/28/
  6461.  - Add App::WRT::Util::file_get_contents();
  6462.  - Optionally cache included files in-memory
  6463.  - Add EntryStore, a class for wrapping various methods for finding entry lists
  6464.  - Refactor display()
  6465.  - Use Carp for errors
  6466.  - Remove old LaTeX markup stuff
  6467.  - Add this Changes file
  6468.  
  6469. v5.0.0-alpha 2018-04-19
  6470.  
  6471.  - Use 5 most recent entries for home page instead of latest month
  6472.  - Remove accessor methods for instance variables / configuration
  6473.  - Give absolute paths to imgsize() so it chills out on Cwd::getcwd() calls
  6474.  - Remove local_path(), recent_month(), month_before, and feed_print_latest()
  6475.  - Stop using a() in entry_markup()
  6476.  - Cache get_date_entries_by_depth() results
  6477.  - Swap out state vars for stashing things on $self in get_all_source_files()
  6478.  - Add get_date_entries_by_depth()
  6479.  - Tweak link_bar() behavior to retain link for current page
  6480. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  6481.  
  6482. &lt;p&gt;Actually, looking at some of this, I think my history of version numbers vs.
  6483. Git tags vs. releases is&#38;hellip;  Less than accurate.  In future I&#38;rsquo;m going to just
  6484. increment the &lt;a href=&#34;https://semver.org/&#34;&gt;semver&lt;/a&gt; patch version for every commit and release to CPAN
  6485. routinely.&lt;/p&gt;
  6486.  
  6487.  
  6488.  
  6489.  
  6490. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/cpan&#34;&gt;cpan&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/perl&#34;&gt;perl&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/semver&#34;&gt;semver&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/wrt&#34;&gt;wrt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6491. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6492. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/4/&#34; title=&#34;4&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt; /
  6493. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/4/14/&#34; title=&#34;14&#34;&gt;14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6494. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6495.  
  6496. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry><entry><title>Saturday, March 30, 2019 - skipping over already-visible workspaces in xmonad</title><link href="https://p1k3.com/2019/3/30"/><id>https://p1k3.com/2019/3/30</id><content type="html">
  6497.  
  6498. &lt;article&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;entry&#34;&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Saturday, March 30, 2019&lt;/h1&gt;
  6499.  
  6500. &lt;h2&gt;skipping over already-visible workspaces in xmonad&lt;/h2&gt;
  6501.  
  6502. &lt;p&gt;I recently went back to a two-monitor setup on my work system (an &lt;a href=&#34;/2018/11/11/&#34;&gt;Intel NUC I
  6503. bought back in November&lt;/a&gt;).  For the most part this has been a big
  6504. improvement, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmonad.org/&#34;&gt;xmonad&lt;/a&gt; handles multi-screen layouts just as well
  6505. as I remembered.  Each screen displays a workspace, and they can be switched
  6506. independently.&lt;/p&gt;
  6507.  
  6508. &lt;p&gt;I have had one nagging complaint:  I have a bunch of pre-configured workspaces
  6509. and tend to cycle through with them with the arrow keys. When I switched to a
  6510. workspace that was already displayed on the other screen, it&#38;rsquo;d swap onto the
  6511. current screen.  This seems like a pretty minor thing, but in practice it tends
  6512. to add confusion - I might, for example, have a page of notes up on one display
  6513. and be trying to quickly navigate on the other display for items from mail,
  6514. code, IRC, etc., to summarize in the notes.  If that workspace jumps around,
  6515. it&#38;rsquo;s easier to lose track of what I&#38;rsquo;m doing.&lt;/p&gt;
  6516.  
  6517. &lt;p&gt;I wondered if it was possible to &#38;ldquo;lock&#38;rdquo; a workspace to a specific display.
  6518. I still don&#38;rsquo;t know the answer to that question, but skimming the docs for
  6519. &lt;a href=&#34;https://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmonad-contrib-0.15/docs/XMonad-Actions-CycleWS.html#g:5&#34;&gt;XMonad.Actions.CycleWS&lt;/a&gt;
  6520. I found an alternative that mostly solves my problem.&lt;/p&gt;
  6521.  
  6522. &lt;p&gt;Originally I had the following keybindings in my &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.p1k3.com/gitea/brennen/bpb-kit/src/branch/main/home/.xmonad/xmonad.hs&#34;&gt;xmonad.hs&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
  6523.  
  6524. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  (&#34;M-&#38;lt;Right&#38;gt;&#34;, nextWS)
  6525. , (&#34;M-&#38;lt;Left&#38;gt;&#34;, prevWS)
  6526. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  6527.  
  6528. &lt;p&gt;These have been replaced with:&lt;/p&gt;
  6529.  
  6530. &lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  (&#34;M-&#38;lt;Left&#38;gt;&#34;, moveTo Prev HiddenWS)
  6531. , (&#34;M-&#38;lt;Right&#38;gt;&#34;, moveTo Next HiddenWS)
  6532. &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
  6533.  
  6534. &lt;p&gt;In practice this means that the workspace cycling for mod-Left and mod-Right
  6535. will skip over any already-visible workspaces, leaving them in place on the
  6536. other display.  There are other possibilities, including the next/previous
  6537. &lt;em&gt;empty&lt;/em&gt; workspace, but this is pretty close to what I was looking for.&lt;/p&gt;
  6538.  
  6539.  
  6540.  
  6541. &lt;p class=&#34;tags&#34;&gt;&lt;b&gt;tags:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/notes&#34;&gt;notes&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/technical&#34;&gt;technical&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/xmonad&#34;&gt;xmonad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&#34;datestamp&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/&#34;&gt;p1k3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6542. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/&#34; title=&#34;2019&#34;&gt;2019&lt;/a&gt; /
  6543. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/3/&#34; title=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt; /
  6544. &lt;a href=&#34;https://p1k3.com/2019/3/30/&#34; title=&#34;30&#34;&gt;30&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  6545. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/article&gt;
  6546.  
  6547. </content><updated>2024-03-25T18:45:12Z</updated></entry></feed>

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