Beautiful day. Beautiful flower.
All Posts
The firehose of all my posts, including replies, likes and reposts. If this is too much,
you may be interested in just my lifestream which provides
a calmer, more curated experience.
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Sep 24, 2023, 3:42 PM -04:00
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Sep 15, 2023, 6:41 AM -04:00 Yeah I may have judged too quickly with regard to Obsidian. Do you use or recommend it?
titaniumbiscuit (@titaniumbiscuit@nerdculture.de)
@desmondrivet@indieweb.social Please don't use literal ASCII but sth like UTF-8 😅 > Longevity is also the reason I avoid solutions like Obsidian or Roam Research for my notes or my GTD lists. I don't know how these pieces of software store your notes behind the scenes, but I do know that if they suddenly up and disappeared, I'd be in a bind. At least Obsidian literally does use plain text files, markdown and [[wiki-style links]] which should be compatible with a lot of other software. -
Sep 14, 2023, 8:11 PM -04:00 On the Durability of Plain Text
My blog is 16 years old. I've rotated through several blogging engines in that time (Bloxsom, YAWT 1.0/2.0, Pelican and finally Eleventy) but they all have one thing in common: they all process blog entries stored as plain text files.
The fact that all my blog entries are stored as plain text files on my computer is, I believe, one of the main reasons my blog has lasted this long. Text files are trivial to back up. Text files don't really crash and rarely get corrupted. Text files are readable and writable on any computer manufactured since the 1980's - hell, the 1960's if I let punch cards into this conversation. When you contrast this simple durability with, for example, a MySQL data store (used by several blogging engines, including one of the most popular ones, WordPress), with all of its attendant version compatibility and data corruption issues, the superiority of plain text becomes undeniable if you're trying to write something that lasts.
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Sep 13, 2023, 7:52 PM -04:00 Photo enlarged to show texture
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Aug 30, 2023, 11:29 AM -04:00 Wow, the Brontë family was kind of cursed, eh?
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Aug 28, 2023, 10:33 PM -04:00 A Library of the World
I recently saw Umberto Eco: A Library of the World, a documentary about Umberto Eco's extensive book collection. At first blush this doesn't sound like the sort of topic that would make for an interesting documentary but with something like 50000 books spread over two libraries, a significant number of them dating from the medieval era, there's actually a surprising amount of stuff to unpack here. If you like books, you'll like the film. I thought it was great.
In my case, I found myself thinking less about the books themselves and more about the subtext surrounding them. Eco was unsurprisingly disdainful of e-books and valued the physical durability of paper. It's an opinion with which it's easy to sympathize given how e-books are often saddled today with restrictive DRM and competing formats. Ink on paper doesn't have a "format" problem and often lasts centuries. Do you think you'll be able to read your Kindle 100 years from now?
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Jul 10, 2023, 6:35 PM -04:00 Try as I might, I simply cannot seem to get the hang of that "food flip" chefs on TV do when they're frying something.
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Jun 28, 2023, 10:44 AM -04:00 I've been blogging sporadically for a long time, and I've written several things that I've kind of liked, so it's hard for me to pick just one.
I guess my favourite would be this one, about an abandoned factory in my neighbourhood: https://desmondrivet.com/2013/07/31/canada-malting.html
Runners up would be: My trip to Poland: https://desmondrivet.com/2016/06/29/poland.html Catholic Atheism: https://desmondrivet.com/2016/04/02/on-escaping-your-past.html
Indieweb.Social
INDIEWEB.SOCIAL is an instance focused on the evolution of #Openweb, #Indieweb, #Fediverse, #Mastodon, #Humanetech and #Calm technologies. -
Jun 27, 2023, 11:09 AM -04:00 Good article. I find myself becoming more sympathetic to this point of view the older I get. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/06/the-perils-of-innovator-mindset
The Perils of ‘Innovator’ Mindset
Five people are dead because Stockton Rush believed in a toxic ideology that sees ‘regulation’ as the enemy of ‘innovation.’ -
Jun 18, 2023, 6:37 PM -04:00 Bookmark of https://youtu.be/Kok5RLFYtSo
Torta piu amata in Italia 🤩 La farai ogni settimana 🍋🍋🍋
Ingredienti : crema :500 ml. latte2 uova4 cucchiai amido di mais6 cucchiai zucchero80 gr. mascarpone o philadelphia1 limone 🍋1 uovo120 gr. zuccheroscorza di... -
May 30, 2023, 8:30 PM -04:00 I Enjoy Writing Software
I enjoy writing software more than I enjoy using software. I'm not berating myself over this, nor am I proud of it. It's just how I am.
What this means in practice is that I will often write a whole bunch of code before I even start trying to debug it. Writing code tickles what I imagine is the creative part of my brain, and it feels good. Running and debugging code tickles the "chore" part of my brain and it doesn't feel as good.
(Yes, programming is creative. It's an act of creation. I'm emphasizing this point because there is a tendency in non-technical circles to view programming as something sterile or clinical, like accounting. I would imagine, however, that there are very few accountants who do accounting in their spare time, whereas you can easily find tons of programmers who do coding in their spare time, myself included).
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May 27, 2023, 9:20 AM -04:00 
About the Time I Wrote an Inform 7 Game
Thoughts on writing my first game. -
May 9, 2023, 9:43 AM -04:00 Interesting door in Saint-Henri, Montreal
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Apr 30, 2023, 6:22 PM -04:00 On the Psychology of “Tech Money”
Reading Time: 11 minutes One time, a literal millionaire purchased a coffee for me while he was pitching me to come work for him as an engineer. I splurged and asked for a vanilla latte (about $6). a latte After we spoke about the position, I told him I didn’t think I was a fit and explained my reasons why, none of which were personal. It was an “I could probably do this job, but I’m not uniquely qualified to do it” type of situation. He texted me within the hour to ask for h... -
Apr 29, 2023, 3:47 PM -04:00 Jack the Cock is coming...
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Apr 26, 2023, 7:37 AM -04:00 Fred Rocha (@john_fisherman@mastodon.social)
@desmondrivet@indieweb.social you’re live! https://fredrocha.net/like-minded/ -
Apr 25, 2023, 3:53 PM -04:00 It's just a building with fire escapes but this strikes me as very New York
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Apr 24, 2023, 2:08 PM -04:00 I can't be the only one who thinks that the Brooklyn Tower looks like Sauron's home base from Lord of the Rings, right?
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Apr 21, 2023, 10:16 PM -04:00 Joralemon and Columbia
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Apr 21, 2023, 1:32 PM -04:00 The Oculus, near the World Trade Center
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Apr 21, 2023, 1:00 PM -04:00 Near the new World Trade Center, New York
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Apr 19, 2023, 10:18 AM -04:00 I didn't know what btconf was before today but my personal website is https://desmondrivet.com Please enjoy responsibly (that's sarcasm) :-)
Fred Rocha (@john_fisherman@mastodon.social)
We finished #btconf last night talking about the discoverability of personal websites with @sophie@social.lol and @nickautomatic. It turns out it's hard to be read, even if you have captivating and original content. Reply to this post with your personal url and I'll link you on my website, https://fredrocha.net. Bonus points if you have an RSS feed link. Let's start a @btconf webring! #indieweb -
Apr 8, 2023, 2:31 PM -04:00 What other kinds of servers are on the Fediverse?
There are lots of different types of server on the Fediverse. You can follow and interact with people on different server types, because they all talk to each other using a common standard. See the guide “What is Mastodon? What is the Fediverse?” for more details. Here are some of the best-known server types on the Fediverse, click on a platform’s name to find out more about it: Mastodon – Twitter-style microblogging platform BookWyrm – Social reading platform, an alternative to Amaz... -
Apr 4, 2023, 11:56 AM -04:00 I never really had that conversation with my family. In my case, it more about becoming an atheist than switching religions. I guess religion doesn't really come up.
Do you need to tell them anything all? Are you being pressured to go to mass, take communion, etc.?
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Apr 2, 2023, 12:35 PM -04:00 Noice
