Journal

49 entries for December 2023

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Tech doesn’t make our lives easier. It makes them faster

[Instead of saving an hour from not having to walk an hour to work, speed and distance increases so that we spend a comparable amount of time occupied with new trajectories.]

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

The Linking of Opposites

[It’s fine to stop a video to talk about one frame, but we cannot separate it from the moving picture of life: we’re always in motion.]

Thursday, December 7, 2023

How Close Is That Photo to the Truth? What to Know in the Age of AI

[The camera’s photon sensor converts light into pixel data and makes guesses about how much red, green, and blue to represent in each one.]

[Breaking up the image into multiple frames helps better represent shadows and skies while reducing noise.]

[Cameras make choices about how to make photos more vivid or different skin colors better represented, and decide how to store them for maximum compression.]

More Money For Better Open-Source Software

I am going to emphasize, in the docs, the license file, and the communication surrounding the project, that free-loading is not socially acceptable. Along with this, I will provide convenient mechanisms to donate. The code of financial conduct would be something like this:

  • If you are a non-commercial user, don’t worry about it.
  • If I fix a bug you reported or add a feature you wanted and you have the financial means, a one-time tip is much appreciated. Even if this is unlikely to add up to serious money, it takes the one-sidedness out of the process of responding to user requests.
  • If you are extracting value from your use of my software, set up a proportional monthly donation.

The monthly part is the important thing here. Having to periodically beg a user base to please contribute to a donation drive again is a drag, and not very effective. Convincing users to donate as long as they get value from the software gives a maintainer a more or less predictable, low-maintenance source of compensations for their work.

Monday, December 4, 2023

Filhos de Bimba. Demonstration

Seamless flow, nothing stops, question and answer are one.

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Handstand progression with a wall

[First stage; keep your knees bent and touch your toes. Second stage: stretch one leg up straight. Third stage: loosen your toe touching the wall a bit. Fourth stage: loosen it even more until you almost don’t need to depend on it. Fifth stage: lift your toe away from the wall. Sixth stage: stretch the other leg. Give some weeks per stage and get comfortable holding for twenty seconds before advancing to the next.]

Saturday, December 2, 2023

flip the power dynamic with the high ground.

[When someone talks down to you, 1) flip it around with ’this way of speaking is beneath me’; 2) assert authority by ‘allowing’ or ‘giving them another chance’ to try that again’; and 3) express that you are ‘willing to continue the conversation if they speak respectfully’.]

Interoperability is people connecting, communicating, collaborating.

‘Capoeira should be fun’ can extend to the game itself; the movement you admire is never in frenzy; always calma, giving time and space, not allowing someone else to make you hyperventilate; how can it feel more like effortless language exchange?

We can even extend this farther: how can everything be fun? more like that? fluid conversation with yourself and the stars.