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:

​

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?