Bluesky has a real “You can’t come here if you’re not one of us” vibe right now. I mean, someone suggested that anyone even inviting someone “bad” should be banned. What do you think is going to happen when it’s out of beta and anyone can join? People are people. I can’t wait to stop talking about Bluesky. I shouldn’t even have posted this, but it’s bugging my how both Mastodon and Bluesky think they can enforce culture at scale.

I’m eeking my way back into Mastodon. I’ve unfollowed a few and disabled boosts from nearly everyone. Let’s see how it feels.

April 30, 2023 Journal Reply by email

Since I use DEVONthink Pro (DTP) to index and store my notes and documents, I sometimes revisit the idea of using it to create notes.

DTP includes a variety of built-in scripts for creating new content. These are mostly written in AppleScript. I was interested in the “Daily Journal” template. By default, running the Daily Journal template would create a new Markdown document containing a random quote and a list of the 4 latest headlines from the New York Times website. I was OK with the headlines, but I didn’t feel the quote was necessary, so I replaced it with the current weather.

This turned out to be simple. I edited the existing script and added a getWeather() function:

on getWeather()
    tell application id "DNtp"
        try
            set theWeather to download markup from "https://wttr.in/90210?0q&format=%c+%C+%t"
        end try
        return theWeather
    end tell
end getWeather

The script calls the wttr.in weather website using a few parameters and that’s it. Here’s what it looks like here today:

⛅️ Partly cloudy +53°F

Then, I replaced the random quote bits in the script so that it now reads¹:

set theWeather to my getWeather()
set myNews to my getNews()
set theContent to "# " & theHeadline & return & theWeather & return & return & "# Headlines" & return & return
...

I’m not sure I’ll continue to use DTP for daily journals, but it’s nice that I can tweak it if needed.

April 29, 2023 Workflow DEVONthink Reply by email

Oh good, Bluesky is fast becoming yet another venue for snide insiderism. Just what we need.

Jaron Lanier, on-point as always:

To me the danger is that we’ll use our technology to become mutually unintelligible

Jaron Lanier, The Guardian

(h/t Jim Nielsen)

I unsubscribed from scripting news today because it increasingly feels like Dave’s lost the thread.

Current Mood:

I tried venting using an alt account on Twitter just for shit posting. That’s a terrible way to be and it made me feel gross so I deleted the account.

Whenever someone announces that they “Don’t care about…” something on social media you know that they kinda do.

April 29, 2023 Journal Reply by email

Woman with sun shining on hair at brewery. (Leica SL2, Sigma 35mm)

Lots going on today that doesn’t involve computers. This is a good thing but still kind of bugs me.

They’re calling them “skeets” now so I quit.

Another quote from Freddie deBoer that struck me, considering my declining attitude toward social media everywhere (subscriber paywall):

To capture that opportunity, they should work a little harder to tamp down the annoying, aren’t-we-so-cute-and-clever behavior that’s common to their coalition and listen a little more to people who are not already part of that coalition. It’s boring and can be frustrating but it’s part of the deal with a maturing political movement. And the only way any of it gets any better is if people who have credibility within that culture are willing to say to others, “knock it off, and grow up.”

Freddie deBoer, Do We Have a Responsibility to Deal with the Worst Elements of Our Own Coalitions?

April 28, 2023 Journal Reply by email

It’s happening again. My love of powerful, complex software has overrun my ability to avoid tinkering.

For example, I’ve spent several hours this week working on my Org-mode agenda display. Configuring org-super-agenda is tons of fun. It can make one’s Agenda absolutely sing and dance, which is not ideal for me because I’ve spent way too much time trying to teach it to sing and dance. I could have finished all of the tasks on my todo list in the time I’ve spent getting them to display just right.

I did the same thing with tweaking Elfeed for my RSS feeds and Notmuch for email. They’re just so cool and they can do so much. But they’re not really better than, say, NetNewsWire or Apple’s Mail.app. They’re just cooler.

Basically, I’ve been feeling like the more powerful the tool, the less effective I become. This seems counterintuitive, but it’s real. I get so deep into the weeds that I have a hard time finding my way back to wherever I started.

I’m not sure how to fix this. I’ve been down this road before so I just want to talk it through.

At times, I fall back to Apple Notes and Reminders and Mail and THAT’s IT! But nope, that frustrates me almost immediately. The ideal solution would be to find tools that are just right. But what? Probably Things, BBEdit, DEVONthink, and TheBrain. As much as I love Tinderbox, it’s second only to Emacs on the Powerful Software scale, so I’m backing away from that for now, too.

Stay tuned.

April 27, 2023 Emacs Workflow Reply by email

I love this (by @TrungTPhan on Twitter):

Bluesky really does feel like early Twitter. I’m not sure how long it will last. It’s different than Mastodon. There’s room for both, maybe. (Or perhaps neither).

The world is full of people who take themselves far too seriously. I’m reminded of this with every visit to LinkedIn.

After a day of frustration with all of the social networks, I’m taking a break. I’m exhausted and disgusted by all of it. Stepping back is healthy.

Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens. Buttons are back!

David Zipper, Slate

And none too soon. Touch screens are stupid and dangerious in cars.

April 27, 2023 Journal Reply by email

Twitter was the place I liked to be from 2006 until 2022. Or more accurately, it was the place I liked to be from 2006 until around 2015. After that, it was the place I felt I needed to be. Still, I managed to curate my Twitter feed well enough to avoid most of the awful bits. I’m a CIS white male, which made it easier of course.

Then Musk happened. I gave him the benefit of much doubt, hoping that just maybe he would “fix” things. The opposite has happened so far, so I’m out. I visit every few days to see if I’ve missed anything from my friends still there, but otherwise, it’s no longer a place I want to spend time or contribute to. It’s quite sad, honestly.

Mastodon to the rescue, right?! Sort of. Mastodon is a great idea. It’s distributed and federated and built on top of an open protocol. All good things. But it’s the culture that has put me off lately. There are a lot of people who feel it’s their job to police how everyone else uses the platform. “You need to CW things like that!”. “Hey, you didn’t add alt text to that image, shame on you!” In some cases, the scolding is justified, but who gets to decide? Not you, that’s for sure.

I signed up for Bluesky a few days ago. I don’t know why, really. I guess it’s because I try just about every new service, whether I need it or not. Also, I have been lamenting the loss of early Twitter. Those were heady days. The last couple of days on Bluesky have felt a little like that, which is nice. It’s currently like a calm Twitter.

It’s already changing. The Bluesky app is brand new and was really only meant as a way to test the API/Protocol they’re building. And yet, people sign up (for the beta, remember) and start demanding better blocking, GIFs, and whatever other flavor of Twitter they feel is missing. It’s a bit like Mastodon in that half of the conversation is dedicated to discussing the service itself. This is typical but gets old quickly.

The other Mastodon-like behavior is the non-stop snarky anti-Twitter smugness. That, too, gets old quickly. We get it, you’re all so above social media in general and Twitter in particular. I kind of want to tell everyone to get over themselves and just go back to sharing fun things they’re doing instead of pointing and yelling “That’s BAD!” at everything else.

Anyhoo, I’m just venting after reading a heated discussion (on yet another social network) about whether using Bluesky is “approved” because Jack Dorsey is loosely involved in the project¹. Remember, Jack did a Bad Thing that one time, so if he even walks by the project it’s contaminated. I disagree, but I sure as hell don’t feel like arguing about it.

In fact, I don’t feel like arguing about anything online. I don’t know how to avoid that and remain on any of the current social media platforms. This is why I write here on my blog that almost no one reads, and which requires some effort if you want to fight me. (But how hard is it to write an email, honestly?)

April 27, 2023 social Reply by email

I’m testing Captee on macOS. Captee adds an item to Share menus which convert links to either Markdown or Org-mode. It’s the Org-mode part I’m most interested in, but I just used it for grabbing that Captee link in Markdown, too. (h/t Mike Hall)

Banalities intentionally made difficult by shooting them on film

Dante Stella, Dear God, the film base is gray

You don’t stop shooting film because a roll goes from being the cost of one Starbucks to two. You stop doing it when it ceases to have any real enjoyment.

[ibid]

Now I don’t know if I want to shoot all film or give it up entirely.

I fired up an Alt Twitter account this morning so I could shit-post a bit, and I feel dirty but that’s really all Twitter is good for now.

You’ll never convince me that using present tense in commit messages is correct. The idea that a commit message tells us “what will happen after the commit is applied” is all well and good, but it will only be read in that context for a short time, after which it will always be read as a log of what happened. Past tense. The fact that the imperative form is prevalent and I should “just follow convention” is your problem 😜.

My views around generative art are evolving. I’ve always considered it to be amazing as a technology demo, but completely uninteresting as capital-A “Art”. But who am I to undermine someone’s creative output, whatever its form or process? Just because a person can’t successfully manipulate a brush coated in paint doesn’t mean they’re not full of creative energy and just looking for ways to express it. Good for them, I say.

If it weren’t for Hello Fresh I’d never eat this kind of stuff. I’d never even heard of grilling cheese before today.

April 26, 2023 Journal Reply by email

I give social media a hard time and often consider quitting altogether. I would love to be one of those people who get by with no social media presence at all. So of course I joined Bluesky the second I received an invite code (thanks @maique.eu).

Bluesky lets you use your own domain name as a handle, so I’m @baty.net.

April 25, 2023 Journal Reply by email

After the first two episodes of “Mrs. Davis” I am 100% all in. What a fun and completely bonkers show! You can keep your “Succession” with its meanness and dick jokes. I’ll keep Simone and friends.

One thing I like about writing in paper notebooks is its always-moving-forwardness. Anything new goes on the next available page. I don’t have to think about it.

I’ve used 1Password for years and it’s still the best option. I was concerned when they took funding but so far that’s not been a problem for me. But now they’re adding telemetry and that makes me a teensy bit nervous.

Mastodon is fine, but what I really want is old Twitter back.

April 24, 2023 Journal Reply by email