Notes
Short updates, links, and thoughts that do not need to be full blog posts.
I just deployed my first #rust API service. It doesn't do much, essentially, reading a bunch of markdown files and serving them as JSON, but it was fun to build!
There is no read me right now. I'll maybe add one later.
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
The older I get the more this seems true
This cartoon is relevant I think
In a non perfect world, how many levels removed from something your find amoral do you have to be before you’re okay benefitting from it?
In some ways we all do that, right?
I get that these are all just my dumb thoughts and that I have a lot of privilege, but are there any right answers to those questions where there aren’t also negative consequences?
I’ve been reading about the #kagi drama today (They have started using the Brave API for search results. The CEO of Brave is problematic.) and it has surfaced a lot of interesting questions I’ve not thought deeply about before.
Should a private company have the power to sensor content on their platforms?
There are obvious arguments for this right? Nazis are obviously bad etc. But if we force companies to do that, where do they draw the line? Who actually decides what is right and wrong?
I hate clothes shopping. Everything is poorly made stretchy denim crap. There is no amount of money I wouldn’t spend on a pair of jeans that are made of actual denim and that fit me.
My favourite thing about #mastodon is how it’s kinda boring. I can scroll for 5 mins a few times a day then get back to the real world. That may sound like a bad thing, but I think it might be why this place is so pleasant compared to Twitter.
Incase you missed it yesterday, I did some writing about writing: https://paulmcbride.com/posts/writing-is-thinking
I'm researching for an post that I'm writing and came across this video. I know I'm fairly susceptible to stoic focused advice, but it is excellent. I highly recommend giving it a watch.
This last year, I've spent a lot more time writing it has made me a better thinker.
I just tried our https://helix-editor.com and it is nice! If you like #vim, check it out.
Are any of you running #linux as your main desktop OS? What are you using? What is it like? Anything you wish you’d known when you started?
It’s my birthday today. I’m now 32. I woke up wanting to learn about Linux. Is that normal?
Anyway, I just installed pihole on a server and use Tailscale to route all my dns lookups through it.
On the eve of my 32nd birthday, I find myself wondering when I went from being young and wild to being excited to show people how much water my dehumidifier has collected.
Ireland is far from perfect, but this Christmas message from Michael D. Higgins is well worth a listen. He’s the president of Ireland, which is mostly a ceremonial position, but he uses that position to speak truth to power.
https://president.ie/en/diary/details/christmas-message-from-president-michael-d-higgins23/video
“Software engineering is what happens when you add time and more developers to a code project correctly”
I had another play with #elixirlang this weekend. I very much like the pattern of not really worrying about errors; Let it crash and try again.
I might spend a bit more time with it…
I bought a carbon dioxide monitor online after reading a few stories of people finding out that their houses were terribly ventilated. I live an a drafty terrace house and was also very shocked to see readings around 1800 ppm (outside is around 420 ppm). Opening a window makes a difference pretty quickly, but it’s freezing. I’ve no idea what I’ll do with this info, but it’s been fun watching the data.
I bought a big yellow poncho because I knew my friends would detest it. I wasn’t wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFlMtZmvY0
An excellent video
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
Oof
https://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transition
I also need to be able to create notes without redeploying as that seems likes a wasteful process.
I would have to create the note file on the server so that the note page could be published and also create the file using the GitHub api so that the note is persisted.
I know there are solutions to all of these issue, but they all involve compromises on how I want to store my data or involve writing and maintaining more code that I’d like to.
I’ve been working on rebuilding my personal website. I want a system where my writing is stored in plain text/markdown. For my blog posts, this is easy, I make a commit and the site will rebuild with the new article.
The problem comes when I want to also host my own notes (basically my mastodon posts). It can work the same way, but I expect to have vastly more notes that posts. Reading and parsing this many files at runtime just isn’t very efficient.
If you're not using the #JavaScript debugger, you're probably missing out.
I learned how to solve a megaminx this evening!
