The Art Of Not Asking Why

I love org mode, I do, but as I read through my tiddlywiki pages – the way I constructed the table of contents, the explanations, the log explaining what I did and when, the way you can open the tiddler and see what makes it work. It’s just makes sense. With Emacs, I sometimes have to scratch my head for hours if not days.

Had some time to think about writing micro.blog documentations, and I’m considering TiddlyWiki again. @jbaty@social.lol would probably agree with me: when it comes to presenting technical documentation and instructions to others, TW is much better than org-mode.

The same issue as I had in the past though: writing in Emacs is how I do things, and how I work on my notes. Converting org-mode to TW format (tiddlers) adds friction. I’ve been in this spot several times before…

I fixed another issue I caused myself with my blog: I accidentally switched my blog’s theme when I thought what I selected on the back end was just a preview of that theme.

This happens about once a month. A new feature comes hot out of the oven, I want to try it, and I break things. That’s how I learn. Micro.blog is a pretty forgiving environment, and I have backups and options to rebuild when this happens. The community is great and Manton himself (the guy who made Micro.blog) usually jumps in to help as well.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

Manton has been working hard and keeps improving and adding things to Micro.blog at a pace like never before, anything from polishing up on the dedicated macOS and iOS apps to adding brand new features, like encrypted notes or maybe (in the future) the option to host videos on the platforms. He’s a prolific individual who is passionate about what he does, and it’s hard to keep track.

I respect Manton, and I love what he does. I’ve been working with people who share a similar mindset for years: software engineers, system administrators, and IT managers. My job has been—and to an extent still is—to explain what they do, why they do it, and how it affects their users and community. I’ve been wanting to do the same for Micro.blog since I joined (one of my earlier attempts has been in my wiki, which is still around, though neglected).

In truth though, I can’t keep up with Micro.blog updates. Not with my full-time job and other obligations. By the time I’m done working, I don’t have much energy left to do even more tech-related stuff and documenting things, but I do want to. I know I can do a decent job at it, and if nothing else, it might help people and make Micro.blog a bit more inviting to non-techie newcomers. I’m just not sure how to fit it into my day, and where to start. Do I go back to the wiki? Do I just start on my blog? Do I write documentation on GitLab, as I used to? I don’t know.

Listening to a familiar piano piece in the office, and I’m thinking “I hope this is not Mozart” because I’m trying to stay away from here and enjoy other composers too. It is Mozart. Concerto for Piano No. 20 KV 466. Man, I don’t want to be that guy who just likes Mozart, but dude has some skills.

Not sure I get the new quoting thing from Mastodon. I understand how it works more or less (I can’t use it, not on my insistence), but what’s the point? Is copy-pasting not good enough? I usually just “@” someone if I want to mention them.

A good article about BookFinder, a pirate torrent site on books that went down. I still need to finish reading it:

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I Came, I Typed, I Downloaded - How a Pirate Librarian Became an FBI Target * TorrentFreak torrentfreak.com

I don’t know, with the state of how knowledge and books are treated today in the US, I think websites like these are actually leaning more toward the good guys than the FBI.

I actually don’t hate liquid glass. At least not yet. And the new colored icons look fine to me, in case I get tired of it. What tools and gizmos do you use to customize your iPhone better in the year of our lord iOS 26?

Brandon is annoyed at commercials these days:

Commercials brandons-journal.com

when is it too much? When is the line crossed where the entertainment stops being worth the commercials?

Good question. As a person who never cared for Football, the NFL commercial craziness never bugged me. But I hate commercials in general. My threshold is always between low and very low. Whenever a commercial comes up, I usually just quit on the movie/show (or the streamer if I’m watching Twitch) as soon as they come on.

Reddit is shit. It was said so many times, and it will be said many more times.

The problem is that many of the users there just sit and accept it, and you can’t find these communities in alternative places. Mastodon comes a little close, but not really.

Sal doesn’t think that justifying text on your blog is a good idea. I tend to agree, though it would be an interesting experiment.

Re: justify sals.place

My Anker USB and screen switches came today. So far so good. My gaming keyboard and mouse switch between the Mac and the PC with no problem; there’s just a second or so of delay. The HDMI switch also works, and it’s better than changing the input with the tiny screen-joystick.

It’s a nice Saturday morning here in NYC, with mostly clear skies. I’m sipping my morning coffee. In about half an hour I’ll head to the shower, put some clothes on (I need to get another pair of jeans, my single Levi is becoming my default out-and-about pants), and then take my 1.7 miles walk to the farmer’s market to get some fresh vegetables for my sandwiches and hopefully some hearty soup.

This morning, still in bed, I was reading through my RSS feeds and enjoying myself. I’ve picked up some new blogs which are currently “on trial” to see if I want to keep them. It’s nice to finally have some new voices among the old favorites. I took some time updating my recommendations (AKA my blogroll) section with a few of those.

Looking at this short list, I’m realizing I contacted almost all of them directly via email. I’m starting to understand why some veteran bloggers rave about receiving emails: there’s something very personal and honest about receiving an email from a person who usually writes for the whole world. At the same time, you get more insight into what made them write something you enjoy, and develop the conversation further. I highly recommend this. It would definitely make you feel better about emails, especially if emails are a big part of daily work and errands, which I suspect is true for all of us.

Alright, I’ll leave you to it. Hopefully you’ll find something you like. And good morning from NYC, or #tzag, as we see on the interbwebs these days.

I got the new KVM, set it up, and I’m not happy.

The new KVM switch doesn’t work with my gaming keyboard (a split keyboard I use for its ergonomics mostly) connected to the dedicated USB on the KVM switch. There are issues with the mouse where it starts freezing randomly, and I need to replug the dungle. The keyboard shortcut key to switch between inputs doesn’t work either.

I recall gaming keyboards work a bit differently than regular keyboards, and KVMs usually have issues with them, but my old one worked OK. So far, I’ve had a better experience with the Software-based KVM. The keyboard worked fine, and I just had to plug in the mouse dangle for some games. The addition of a common clipboard is nice, and it doesn’t cost me anything.

Now I’m looking at USB switches and asking around on Reddit. This seems to be a better solution. It won’t allow me to switch video input, but I can do that physically on the screen and switch from one input to the other while both computers are connected.

I guess we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m returning it.

I ended up buying the same KVM switch I had before, a newer model (the one I had was discontinued). Better KVMs are $200 and up and meant for two screens, which I don’t have, so it’s a waste. Besides, the performance of the old one was OK. Meanwhile, I’m using Deskflow.