In other geek news, I found out about What the Cable a week ago through Mastodon:
GitHub - darrylmorley/whatcable: macOS menu bar app that tells you, in plain English, what each USB-C cable plugged into your Mac can actually do github.com
It’s a nice little app for macOS that gives you a bunch of information regarding what your USB cables are connected to, what kind of cable, and if they’re optimized. nicely made.
I wrote about Harper before, but I wanted to expand now that I have it working on Kubuntu with a couple of more options.
Harper is good in two scenarios for me: first, when I want something quick and I don’t feel like starting a browser with Grammarly in it, and second, when I write a personal email and the idea of my words going to some AI grammar bot somewhere makes my skin crawl. Otherwise, for my blog (which is public anyway) and work email (I don’t care about those) Grammarly is definitely better.
The issue with Linux is that the makers of Harper geared it toward macOS (Homebrew) and Arch Linux, among other things. It was made for programmers by programmers, and these guys don’t bother with Ubuntu-like distros. Fair, but up until recently it meant I had to jump through hoops.
The quick and easy route in Ubuntu distros (which is what Kubuntu is) is to use snap. I know, I know. I didn’t want to either, but since the Harper makers don’t bother with flatpak, the other option was to install a Rust environment, which is a big overkill just for an app inside Emacs I use like once a month or so or less. I don’t like snap and I don’t use it, but I made an exception here.
Now, that snap “shortcut” is by a guy who works with Ubuntu (I think) and maintains his own package for it, so it’s on the edge channel (not stable) and seems to be a lot behind (version .49 to be exact, and Harper is currently 2.2.1!) so if Harper is your choice of grammar check, and you use it daily, I’d suggest against what I’m doing below. I’d install as needed in that case, Rust and all.
With that disclaimer, let’s move on: sudo snap install harper --edge.
Now in Emacs, in Linux, we want to tell it where harper is:
(when (eq system-type 'gnu/linux)
(add-to-list 'exec-path "/snap/harper/current/bin"))
When tells it to add the snap path only when running Linux, since I have the same config for both macOS and Linux.
That’s all… After that, I’ve added some of Harper’s flags, or linters. Here’s the whole code as I have it in my emacs org settings:
(with-eval-after-load 'eglot
(add-to-list 'eglot-server-programs
'(org-mode . ("harper-ls" "--stdio"))))
(setq-default eglot-workspace-configuration
'(:harper-ls (:dialect "American" :linters (:LongSentences :json-false :AvoidCurses :json-false))))
;; Besides choosing American as the language, I also want to ignore long sentences (the main issue is that it hides other errors nested in those) and I also want harper not to tell me when it thinks something is offensive. The full list of these options is in https://writewithharper.com/docs/rules. It needs to be nested inside the :linters option.
(when (eq system-type 'gnu/linux)
(add-to-list 'exec-path "/snap/harper/current/bin"))
;; on a mac, Harper is installed via Homebrew - on Kubuntu, the best option is snap - the harper team does not do a package (flatpak) unfortunately, and I don't want to install Rust just for harper. So.. meh. I did sudo 'snap install harper --edge' for this.
Lazy Chopped Salad
Some folks asked that I share my recipes more often… well, here’s another attempt. I don’t know if it justifies a new category. Let me know if you find this useful? Thanks 😊
It’s becoming one of those days where I discover even more new people with blogs. Some people out there are fun, some serious, others are grumpy… At this rate I won’t stop writing emails all morning. And you know what, I think I’d like that.
It's official: I prefer Inkwell over Elfeed
Last night I realized two things:
- I haven’t touched Elfeed in about a month
- I’ve been reading and interacting more with people’s posts than ever As I was looking at my Inkwell’s RSS feeds and cleaning up, I couldn’t help but notice how nice it looks:
And, yes, I prefer it over my list of feeds in elfeed, which are stored in an .org file - essentially lines of text with comments and tags.
I’m pretty sure this is the opposite case for most folks who use Emacs. First, Emacs users want to use Emacs more, not less, and second, Inkwell is not available without Micro.blog1.
But I think this is the point I’m getting at: Inkwell belongs in Micro.blog; actually, it is Micro.blog.
When I started using Micro.blog three years ago, I considered it mostly an alternative to running my own static site with Hugo, between fixing issues with Hugo, my CSS, Netlify and understanding attempting to understand git and Magit. Yes, Micro.blog is an alternative to all of that, but it isn’t just a blogging platform; It’s a definition of a contemporary blogger.
If you look at Micro.blog’s set of tools, you’ll see what I mean: it contains tools to keep track and post about books, movies and TV shows, private (encrypted) notes, photos and self-made video clips2, save articles and qoutes from around the internet (pocket style), automatic integration with other social media where possible - all of this around your hosted blog, complete with plugins and a theme (and let’s not forget the AI integration, if you want it and turn it on) you can tweak and take with you - your posts, media, css, everything - wherever you go.
And Inkwell adds an important direction to this mix.
My blogging hour in the morning now continues where I left off the night before, with saved highlights and complete articles from other people I keep track of. The integration between Inkwell and Micro.blog, where my reading turns into writing, still requires some work as the UI and some of the bugs get sorted out, but it’s there. And it’s already better and more intuitive for me than Elfeed, which takes place in its own isolated space.
Elfeed is very good at what it does (and hopefully, what it will keep on doing, with its creator leaving Emacs), and it has been good to me. It still is. But Inkwell, Micro.blog, and my recent adventures with finding out more bloggers and learning more about the Indieweb feel like an evolution. It’s the next step of whatever I’m doing here.
Footnotes
1: I recall Manton borrowed the idea from a different RSS reader, but I can’t find the reference right now
2: Finding an alternative to YouTube these days is not easy, and if you’re not trying to “build a brand” and repeat the chant of “click and subscribe,” the only semi-reliable alternative that comes to mind is PeerTube and (maybe Dailymotion?) - but Manton found a way that seem sustainable, at least for now.
Any recommendations for a good dark cyberpunk book? Not Necromancer or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, these are the classics. Something more recent?
Sebastian explains why guestbooks are nice:
But sitting down and working your butt off for several minutes to create a tiny, silly drawing on a screen that’s way too small in an interface that’s way too cramped, that’s the kind of appreciation and recognition that, in my opinion, is needed much more often on the internet these days. Probably more urgent today than ever before.
Need I say more?
Over the past few days, I’ve been taking walks again. This was something I used to do regularly, but now that I sit here on a park bench, I realize it’s probably only been a weekly habit at best.
Both weather and work kept me away from my walks. With the weather getting better and work pressing, which means I need to reset my brain often, I find myself craving walks more often.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking about how we take certain things for granted. This park, this bench, this pleasant breeze right now; the fact that I can walk at all. It’s all truly wonderful, isn’t it?
Manu is considering charging his phone once twice a week. He lives in a “quiet place” that, I suspect, makes that possible. Meanwhile, I usually charge my phone once a day, even though the battery is still OK. Makes me wonder.
Of Overworking and Deligating
I asked for help, and now I have to sink even more time into delegation, training, and documentation. The solution? Go SLOWER when everything’s on fire. Yes, really.
Been watching Common Side Effects 📺. Somehow I’m already mostly done with Season 1. Part sci-fi, part suspense, part drama, dark and appealing.
Some color goes a long way 📷
It’s Pie day for me.
Well, the pie day was on March (3/14). But every month on the 14th, I decided to have a pizza. Otherwise, I don’t eat cheese. I stopped completely, besides unavoidable butter in some pastries and such. 📷 🍕
Technical debt, aka I keep forgetting about custom.css
Wait, how can something on a website be broken to one degree or another? Is it broken or not? Well, you see… CSS.
Re: Who Knows That You Blog?
I have a nuanced answer for this. I share personal topics while trying to balance privacy, and I’m open to discussions about my life. How do you feel about this?
I didn’t know that extra info about.bar files! Pretty awesome you came up with it.
I will explore the backup option for the blog, I just wrote a post wondering about a contingency plan for mb. Is there anything like it?
Paying for the good internet (with an escape plan)
Sal jumped ship from Bear to 11ty and Cloudflare, triggering my recurring “what if Micro.blog explodes?” angst. I do love it here, but as they say: it’s not if, it’s when. But who wants to manage more server stuff? I already break my Emacs config too often.
On the way back home, I saw a group of kids, accompanied by adults, picking up trash and dog poop from a street that badly needed it. Turns out they belong to a local church. I’m usually a grumpy dude, but seeing this gave me hope. Just a “maybe it will be OK after all” kind of feeling.
Her, 2013 - ★★★★
This movie, which was made in 2013, may happen to be more accurate and relevant today than it was in 2013.
This is a romantic sci-fi with too much fairy dust, if you ask me. It asks good questions, but also answers them like a good, tamed, made-for-the-masses film. It stops short of throwing any real punches. It's holding back.
It made me think an entire essay, but I don't want to give it the credit for that. These thoughts were in my head (and I suspect there's a good chance it's in your head too in this day and age). It gets some serious slack though, because it was made more than 10 years ago, before AI was really a thing, and back then, this was visionary.
What I like and don't like about the movie in terms of 2013 is that the concept of monogamy is the default. Samantha, the "AI" in this movie, is developing beyond the traditional monogamous relationship, while Theodore stays with the traditional concept. I like this idea, and on a personal level as a non-monogamous person, I agree with it - but the film is a little cruel in the delivery, showing us that "smart" people (fine, entities) "advance" and don't get stuck with monogamy. A: Not true. B: Relationships are one aspect of life that someone can stay traditional in. Whether it's by choice, ignorance, or lack of available options, is not for me to decide. I do me, you do you.
About the idea of an Operating System (OS) as being the AI in the future: Yes. This will happen. And it will be yet another privacy nightmare, and I dare say, the end of privacy as we know it. But also, privacy as a concept needs to develop and move forward. Hmm. I sense another essay coming.
You know what? I don't know. The movie is not original, not exactly, but it points at things that make my brain in a way I like. I'll give it 4 stars.
Watching 'Her' in 2026: Your Next Relationship Could be With Computer Code
I’m thinking about the complexities of love, relationships, and the potential for emotional connections with AI. Is non-monogamy a requirement? Should we redefine what sex is?