An 8 TB drive attached to my Mac Mini is failing. A replacement costs $329.99. I paid $180 for the same drive less than 2 years ago. The whole "Storage is expensive now!" thing is kind of abstract until you actually need some storage.
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Jack Baty
@jbaty@social.lol
mastodon 4.7.3+glitchDirector of Unspecified Services
I'm mostly into photography (film and digital) these days. I like using analog tools when I can. I spend too much time tinkering with my Emacs config. I've been trying to move to Linux full-time, with only partial success. I'll try just about anything.
This account has moved to @jack@social.baty.net
993 Followers
220 Following
50 Posts
Joined April 14, 2023
Blog:
Flickr:
I couldn't help but install an instance of the new #littleFedi ActivityPub server. It's at https://social.baty.net/. Now what? I don't dare migrate followers yet, so for the moment I have 2 ActivityPub identities 🙄. littleFedi has a static blog generator built in, so I tested that by copying a post from yesterday. I picked the most playful theme, for a change. @jack@social.baty.net. Anyway, I like it, but still noodling over what to do with it. Could I move my identity there? Should I? It's from @stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe, super friendly author of BSSG so I'm in good hands.
The Smith Corona Standard (1934) was returned to me after an overdue CLA. It's such a beautiful machine that now works as good as it looks.
And of course with a typewritten receipt :)
Sunday morning waffling https://baty.net/posts/2026/10/my-brain-on-a-sunday-morning/
John Paul Jones' bass in "The Lemon Song". My god.
There's always something interesting in @82mhz@mastodon.bsd.cafe link dumps: https://82mhz.net/posts/2026/10/linkdump-no-127/
I haven't finished a roll of film in weeks. This morning I ran across this photo from 2016, when I /was/ shooting a lot of film. What a trove!
Game over.
Leica MP. Mandler 35mm. HP5
#FilmPhotography
The battery life of this writerdeck is amazing!
My "Let's shoot and edit 8mm film" period was fun, but short-lived.
I made a contact print of the (found) negative that I pulled my avatar from and keep it pinned to the board behind my desk. Makes me smile every time I look at it.
Just last week I ran into a photo in which my computer screen was running AIM and it made me all nostalgic. And then today: https://veronicaexplains.net/open-oscar-server/ 🤔
I'm not ashamed to admit that I use my mouse with Emacs a lot. Some days it's my preferred way to do things. Stock mouse support is lackluster, at best. In walks Anju (https://github.com/kickingvegas/anju) and after 5 minutes it seems like quite an improvement.
Neal Stephenson: Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain - Here's how to do it (https://nealstephenson.substack.com/p/writing-by-hand-is-good-for-your):
About twenty-five years ago I stopped composing at the keyboard and switched over to fountain pen on paper. Since then I have written many thousands of pages that way. The manuscript of The Baroque Cycle was a stack of handwritten pages 42 inches high.
Good lord, how cool is that? As a fountain pen using, hand-writing sort, I found this to be a great read.
(h/t Sal (https://sals.place/blog/stephenson-on-writing-by-hand/))
The new issue of County Highway arrived. I started an article on the cover and it said, "continued on page 14" so I turned to page 14 and almost passed out. More evidence that my attention span is shit.
I love science and space flight as much as the next boomer, but my attitude has changed over the past decade. Now, when some billionaire's rocket "experiences an anomaly", I cheer a little.
Accidentally middle-clicked the network widget on the panel (KDE) and it enabled Airplane Mode, which also disables Bluetooth, which rendered my mouse inoperative, which prevented me from disabling Airplane mode. I found the way to reverse this using a terminal.
~ ❱ nmcli radio all on
~ ❱ bluetoothctl power on
It seems like there should be a way to toggle this using the Settings GUI (without using the mouse), but I can't find anything related to Airplane Mode.
RapidRAW just keeps getting better and better. And quickly. https://www.getrapidraw.com
Well hello, old friend.
This morning I installed Radicale on a VPS, proxied via Caddy. Then connected my iOS/macOS calendars. Then added it to KOrganizer on Linux. Then configured two-way sync with Org mode via org-caldav. None of it was as difficult as I expected, which is so rare that I felt the need to mention it.
I'm too old to listen to Chappell Roan except no I'm not.
I chose Pika Backup (https://apps.gnome.org/PikaBackup/) for backups on Linux because it's very basic and simple to use, which is at least as important as features. Anyway, I somehow stepped on May's org-journal file and was able to browse the backups and quickly restore an earlier version. So, Pika Backup passed it's first real test for me. Nice.
I made a new blog this morning as an excuse to try @davep@fosstodon.org's new blogging tool, BlogMore along with the companion Emacs package, blogmore.el.
I like it! When I can set up a new static blog and start posting in like 20 minutes, I feel like I'm onto something.I've not published it anywhere because I have enough blogs right now. It's worth checking out if you're looking for a simple SSG.
This might be my favorite part about using fountain pens.
Inks:
iroshizuku shin-kai in the Lamy 2000. It's a beautiful blue.
Noodler's Bernanke Blue in the Pilot Custom 823. The Pilot has a juicy nib so, being left-handed, I need a quick drying ink.
I hated this record when I first heard it, what, 45 years ago. It's grown on me since then. I'm not the biggest Scorpions fan, but you can tell they'd figured out who they wanted to be with this one.
The little Kodak Charmera doesn't handle highlights too well.
Replying to
@bytebro@mastodonapp.uk I think it's "Nobody Home" from The Wall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2HGTHkqnU
Pink Floyd - Nobody Home
Replying to
@82mhz@mastodon.bsd.cafe I'm going to convince everyone I know to move from Apple Messages to AIM. OK maybe that's too much :). But yeah, I doubt I'd find many folks to chat with.
I can still use the "share" feature of Roon via Bottles, but I need to go through an imgur link because "Save to desktop" doesn't seem to work. Not terrible.
Pretending to use the Crown Graphic while taking a self-portrait using the Linhof Master Technika.
Ben Thompson, Stratechery:
I think digital ads, particularly Meta-style ads that introduce you to things you never knew you wanted, a societal good.
Thompson's and my worldviews continue to diverge.
Replying to
@oantolin@mathstodon.xyz @davep@fosstodon.org Good question! I wish I used different blogs for different topics, but mostly I have different blogs for different moods :). Makes no sense, but that's kind of how I do it.
Replying to
@greg@masto.gregnewman.io I tried a split keyboard once. It seemed OK but I was constantly fiddling with positioning. More angle? less angle? farther apart? I drove myself nuts :)
Peter Frampton has a new record out!? Where have I been, it's pretty great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl_ZToe4vTw
Replying to
@octothorpe@mastodon.online If there's an actual GUI version of the player, I'm not aware of it. I run a standalone NUC for the server. I've not tried running it elsewhere.
This is Roon running via Bottles on Linux. That's one more gotta-have app I can run here.
Replying to
@tmcfarlane@toot.community Yes! That's the video that reminded me I haven't used the OM-1n in a while :)
Replying to
@tomnorthfilm@mastoart.social I still can't figure out how they fit that huge, bright viewfinder in such a tiny space. Love it.
Replying to
@iworx@infosec.exchange @davep@fosstodon.org On Reddit or somewhere he said he's experimenting with pricing. I think he's seeing how high he can go before it falls off. But yeah, too much as-is.
There's a (macOS) Markdown editor called Paper that I didn't know about. It's quirky, but it resonated immediately. Some standout features...
1. The corners are square. I mean like radius: 0. Lovely.
2. I can grab anywhere outside of the text to move the window. That includes about 10% of the space on either side of the entire window. In addition to the title bar. I think Mr. Fitts would be pleased.
It's not free, but worth a try if you're looking for something different.
OK, so I'm in the mood to migrate my identity to the new #littlefedi instance. I can do the official migration so that all followers move automatically. Or, I can just pin something here that says, "Hey, I'm over there now..." and let everyone re-evaluate following me on the new instance.
I can't decide. Maybe a poll will help?
"Hey Siri, what is half of two thirds?" is something I just said.
"I'm not aloud to sing in the house" 😆
Replying to
@jemostrom@mastodonsweden.se Those are great. I can't imagine what you'd gain by bringing a whole FF kit.
Replying to
@dadakopf@dobbs.town 45s do seem pretty quaint. I still have a very 70s denim-patterned storage box for mine, so they come out once in a while.
Replying to
@joel@fosstodon.org I don't know what their market looks like, but this move sure feels like a giant shoe gun.