This is a list of links, in no particular order, of things I found interesting enough to note this week but for one reason or another, didn't make it as an individual post. This is my way of clearing the decks and showing what is on the cutting room floor and maybe provide you with … Continue reading The Weekly Dump
Category: writing
The Work vs. The Job
"Many people conflate your work with your job, but they are completely different things. Your job is the daily tasks you are assigned to complete. Many people think checking these boxes off in a timely manner is their only responsibility... ...Work is all the tangible and intangible things that happen while people are performing their … Continue reading The Work vs. The Job
Fun with HTML: Writing Backwards / Writing Backwards
The HTML Entity for changing the directionality of text from right-to-left (rtl) is 8238. To change it back to left-to-right (ltr), use 8237. Repeating the paragraph above with rtl and ending with the ltr: "The HTML Entity for changing the directionality of text from right-to-left (rtl) is 8238. To change it back to left-to-right (ltr), … Continue reading Fun with HTML: Writing Backwards / Writing Backwards
Cracker Country
I met someone recently. And during the course of conversation, we discovered we grew up around the same area. The conversation went along these lines: Stranger: I'm from X.Me: Oh, really? I grew up near there.Stranger: Where are you from?Me: The Y/Z area.Stranger: Don't take this the wrong way, but we used to call that, … Continue reading Cracker Country
Preinstalled Android Apps are Harvesting and Sharing Your Data
"Many Android phones ship with software that has been pre-installed by the smartphone vendor......Not only did preinstalled applications harvest geolocation information, personal email, phone call metadata and contacts, but some of them even monitored which applications users installed and opened. In many cases, personal information was funneled straight back to advertising companies."—Danny Bradbury, "Preinstalled Android … Continue reading Preinstalled Android Apps are Harvesting and Sharing Your Data
OpenBSD’s Guide to Netiquette
The OpenBSD's mailing list page netiquette section is excellent. It is a distillation of how to communicate online, i.e.: Plain text, 72 characters per line [or simplest formatting available]Do your homework before writingInclude a useful subject line [or headline]Trim your signatureStay on topicInclude important informationRespect differences in opinion and philosophy Using only plain text is … Continue reading OpenBSD’s Guide to Netiquette
Learn to Program With Common Lisp
Tim Ferriss has a currently popular blog post, "Ten Lessons I Learned While Teaching Myself to Code," that I've seen mentioned in a few places. While it is largely good advice, there is one point that is wrong. It does matter what language you learn. Here's the ten lessons from his article: The online world … Continue reading Learn to Program With Common Lisp
Semi-Auto Cut-Up: Experimental Condition
Pixels without proverbial provenance, they both knew what they were. Buffet Buddhists, defying cages, tagged for progressive classification. Wonder world, inexpressible problems, all lonely, we live with each other. Chronic complainers, a hundred times a hundred, gloomy mind experiments. The emotional surface of lost futures. Do we know enough to know the truth? Unconscious man … Continue reading Semi-Auto Cut-Up: Experimental Condition
Semi-Auto Cut-Up: Another Offering (KJV)
Eat the congregation, together,smite them afraid, blast vessels.O ye dead life, mercy, semblanceof a kind, a measure of shadow.But, they had no prophet, neighborsand friends, children of fate, troubledthe Others, remember them not, no-name,wilderness sacrifices, sore consumed.Desolation came and passed, Death,bare the enemy, dead, desolate,good and great together into the land,begat headstones, seeds unto the … Continue reading Semi-Auto Cut-Up: Another Offering (KJV)
How to Write a Short Story — Kurt Vonnegut
This is What Democracy Looks Like
"The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee warned political strategists and vendors Thursday night that if they support candidates mounting primary challenges against incumbent House Democrats, the party will cut them off from business... ...To apply to become a preferred vendor in the 2020 cycle, firms must agree to a set of standards that includes agreeing not … Continue reading This is What Democracy Looks Like
Semi-Auto Cut-Up: The First in the First Place
The first in the first place, The Others, standing beside us. Aware of destruction, strange, ineffectual, a matter of force. The bare path, dark and closed, From the stairs, an ascent of story, a complicated service, clean, psychological, a social alone. The world has not yet been consumed by the light of the stars. A … Continue reading Semi-Auto Cut-Up: The First in the First Place
Lessons Learned from the Hemingway Editor
As an exercise, I tried rewriting an essay I wrote for this blog, Ergot on Rye, in the Hemingway editor. I learned that my writing in too academic. It is too hard to read. Expressions need to be simpler. I need to use fewer qualifiers. The Hemingway editor helps me break down some of those … Continue reading Lessons Learned from the Hemingway Editor
Robin Sloan & Writing With The Machine
I am just so compelled by the notion of a text editor that possesses a deep, nuanced model of… what? Everything ever written by you? By your favorite authors? Your nemesis? All staff writers at the New Yorker, present and past? Everyone on the internet? It’s provocative any way you slice it.I should say clearly: … Continue reading Robin Sloan & Writing With The Machine
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