Is there a progressive version of the EFF whose mission is less “don’t regulate us, bro” than “tech can fight fascism rather than supporting it”? I’d rather join it than have to start it.
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Watts Martin
@chipotle@mstdn.social
mastodon 4.7.2Emacs-using writer, of both technical and sf/fantasy persuasions. Cocktail aficionado. Social justice coyote.
783 Followers
146 Following
32 Posts
Joined December 14, 2022
New post: “Org Mode, Marked, and Workflows”
Writing prose in Org Mode is just as nice as doing it in Markdown…except when you want to do anything with it outside of Emacs. Pandoc, though, can ride to the rescue.
New post: “Reconsidering the Apple Watch”
After wearing an Apple Watch for nearly a decade, Apple's weird choices with the Series 12 may finally kick me back into the normal watch world.
I don’t doubt Apple has made the new Apple Watch’s “rewind” feature as privacy-minded as it could possibly be, but “let’s make the Watch compete with the Humane AI pin” is a bogglingly monumental failure to read the room.
I tried LinkedIn Premium’s free trial, on the off chance that it would surprise me by not being essentially useless. It did not surprise me.
Knowing that today will be the first day I don’t close all my Apple Watch rings in years is surprisingly anxiety-inducing! It’s going to take me a bit to figure out the Way of the FitBit.
The irony of continuing to try to de-Google in places—I just unsubscribed to two Buttondown newsletters that were on my Gmail account and resubscribed with another account—while also preparing to switch to the FitBit Air has struck me yet again just now. Oh well.
After just two days of MacSparky-style hyperscheduling, I’m not sure I *am* more productive but it certainly *feels* like I am. #FakeItTillYouMakeIt
It seems like the Fitbit doesn’t record as many steps as the Apple Watch, and maybe not as much in general? Bevel, another health app I’m trying, was happy with me the last few days but today it thinks I’m a complete slacker.
I have the FitBit Air, and now have to figure out how to coordinate between three different health tracking apps that all want to be in charge. And I don’t think Pedometer++ works gracefully with the FitBit, which will be kind of annoying, but, well.
My Apple Watch’s battery is fading, and for the first time in years I’m considering going back to my long-ignored mechanical watch and a $99 FitBit Air.
New post: "Ready for the revolution" https://coyotetracks.org/blog/ready-for-revolution/
Technology needs another revolution. It's just not the one the industry seems hellbent on delivering.
It’s always fascinating when a service I don’t remember ever using lets me know it’s shutting down. “Salesforce will be retiring Quip, which means your free Quip account will not be available after March 31, 2027.” Oh no! What the hell is Quip?
Replying to
@mjdxp@labyrinth.zone @bigzaphod@mastodon.social The Iconfactory is great. (If I ever actually get the program idea I've had for years off the ground, I’ll almost certainly try and get them to do some work on it.)
It occurred to me while I was writing my most recent blog post that we don’t talk nearly enough about how and why PayPal incubated so many of the worst people in tech and technofascist politics. What the hell was going on there?
VCs, I am waiting for your call
New post: "Soylent Confessions" https://coyotetracks.org/blog/soylent-confessions/
Soylent is frequently held up as a poster child of everything wrong with Silicon Valley, which makes it hard to admit that I liked it.
Every pollen forecast in Florida: “Is there a plant nearby? It’s trying to kill you.”
Considering writing about moving my email to mu4e, the Emacs-based mail client, which is ugly and difficult to set up and, if you aren’t happy with any other mail client, might actually be what you’re looking for in spite of yourself.
Replying to
@marcoarment@mastodon.social Fun (?) fact: Minecraft Education Edition, which is largely the same codebase as Bedrock, is available on the Mac, so most of the porting is already done. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@mdhughes@appdot.net re: Mac IRC clients (a bit late), did you ever try Textual? That was my go-to until I gave up and started using weechat on my VPS.
I’m beginning to suspect Andon Labs, the startup that keeps creating businesses run entirely by AI models just to see what happens, is actually a subversive anti-AI art project.
When Rosetta x86 emulation ends on Apple Silicon, won’t that effectively kill all techniques for running x86 Windows programs on those chips, too?
Okay, while these are still infection-like symptoms, I discovered my heart rate has been around 90 bpm since Sunday. Making an urgent appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning. Yikes.
Yesterday was one of those days that simultaneously felt incredibly exhausting and like I did nothing.
The Mayo Clinic has surprisingly good restaurants. (Taking mom here for a consultation.)
Replying to
@noondlyt Who are the board members you’re thinking of? I’m guessing one is Mike Masnick?
Replying to
@djwfyi They expect they can replace the entire team with AI?? Argh. Good luck to you and the others.
This flu, or perhaps Covid that has managed to return three negative tests, has really messed with my appetite. You know what? I wish I still had some damn Soylent. (I’ve ordered vegan Ensure that’ll get here tomorrow morning.)
After over a year on Emacs, I am starting to finally use Org mode’s agenda system for daily planning, sort of a take on @macsparky@mastodon.social’s “hyperscheduling” (which I’d also been resisting even as I started to follow more of the Productivity Field Guide’s advice).