index.md (13158B)
1 --- 2 title: "Dispatch #22 (December 2024)" 3 date: 2024-12-04T00:05:32-05:00 4 draft: false 5 tags: 6 - dispatch 7 references: 8 - title: "Daring Fireball: How It Went" 9 url: https://daringfireball.net/2024/11/how_it_went 10 date: 2024-11-11T05:54:54Z 11 file: daringfireball-net-9cm2ax.txt 12 - title: "What I'm Thankful For - Freddie deBoer" 13 url: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/what-im-thankful-for 14 date: 2024-12-02T04:15:51Z 15 file: freddiedeboer-substack-com-srv3tk.txt 16 - title: "Building LLMs is probably not going be a brilliant business" 17 url: https://calpaterson.com/porter.html 18 date: 2024-12-02T04:15:54Z 19 file: calpaterson-com-gg1ovh.txt 20 - title: "Ella’s First Website | Brad Frost" 21 url: https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/ellas-first-website/ 22 date: 2024-12-02T04:15:56Z 23 file: bradfrost-com-t3o1za.txt 24 - title: "Stinky Gifts From Your Idea Kitty" 25 url: https://taylor.town/idea-kitty 26 date: 2024-12-02T04:15:58Z 27 file: taylor-town-hsouvj.txt 28 - title: "Signls" 29 url: https://empr.cl/signls/ 30 date: 2024-12-02T04:16:03Z 31 file: empr-cl-epss77.txt 32 - title: "Is there really a way to push back on the complexity of the web? - macwright.com" 33 url: https://macwright.com/2024/11/16/web-complexity.html 34 date: 2024-12-02T04:16:08Z 35 file: macwright-com-fc93ce.txt 36 - title: "The Cleanse – Rands in Repose" 37 url: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-cleanse/ 38 date: 2024-12-02T04:16:11Z 39 file: randsinrepose-com-ddmssa.txt 40 - title: "Getting Stuff Done By Not Being Mean to Yourself - The Open Heart Project" 41 url: https://openheartproject.com/getting-stuff-done-by-not-being-mean-to-yourself/ 42 date: 2024-12-02T04:16:16Z 43 file: openheartproject-com-qgxuup.txt 44 - title: "MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia" 45 url: https://jan.miksovsky.com/posts/2024/11-12-momboard 46 date: 2024-12-02T04:16:32Z 47 file: jan-miksovsky-com-muc8ja.txt 48 - title: "Wind the clock" 49 url: https://www.citationneeded.news/wind-the-clock/?ref=wheresyoured.at 50 date: 2024-12-02T04:16:50Z 51 file: www-citationneeded-news-303wkb.txt 52 - title: "It's the “1998” of the AI Revolution. So Why Can I Safely Ignore It? | The Internet Review" 53 url: https://theinternet.review/2024/10/29/generative-ai-2024-is-not-like-1998/ 54 date: 2024-12-02T04:17:28Z 55 file: theinternet-review-w06lf0.txt 56 - title: "On Working With Your Passion | datagubbe.se" 57 url: https://www.datagubbe.se/passion/ 58 date: 2024-12-02T04:17:42Z 59 file: www-datagubbe-se-og9kur.txt 60 - title: "How many hobbies is too many? • Buttondown" 61 url: https://buttondown.com/monteiro/archive/how-many-hobbies-is-too-many/ 62 date: 2024-12-02T04:17:45Z 63 file: buttondown-com-jpzwsx.txt 64 --- 65 66 I lost my notebook. I've been keeping a [Bullet Journal][1]-style notebook for the last several years. It's got everything in it: my daily log, journal entries, short- and long-term todo lists, all my upcoming events, meeting notes, woodworking plans, everything. And I lost it. I brought it to a 1-on-1 meeting with one of my guys at a local bar, and then rushed out to make it to daycare on time, and somewhere along the way, I misplaced it. 67 68 [1]: https://bulletjournal.com/ 69 70 <!--more--> 71 72 Once I realized it was missing, I retraced all my steps from that evening, thinking maybe I'd left it on top of the car, but no luck. I was on grief stage four, wallowing in depression, when I stumbled on an [article on Daring Fireball][2] that's really about Trump's victory, but that uses his father's lost wedding ring as a framing device. It hit ... hard. 73 74 [2]: https://daringfireball.net/2024/11/how_it_went 75 76 But that story ends on a positive note, and guess what? The next morning, I got an email from a kind soul who found my notebook on top of a parking meter, and got it back that afternoon. The first thing I did when I got home was to order an AirTag and a little [holder][3] to attach it to the wire binding. Never again. 77 78 [3]: https://www.belkin.com/p/secure-holder-with-wire-cable-for-airtag/P-MSC009.html 79 80 --- 81 82 We ventured to upstate New York to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her family. Ended up skipping the [Troy Turkey Trot][4] -- it was miserable out, though I wish I'd just gone for it. The trip was a perfect way to welcome the winter -- cozy, snowy. Sarah Beth & co. were wonderful hosts. 83 84 [4]: https://troyturkeytrot.com/ 85 86 {{<dither IMG_7133.jpeg "782x600">}}Grandma and mom share a cozy couch storytime, kids snuggled in blankets and pajamas, all smiles.{{</dither>}} 87 {{<dither IMG_5239.jpeg "782x600">}}Two bundled‑up cousins sample fresh snow from their mittens on a frosty deck morning.{{</dither>}} 88 89 {{<dither IMG_5158.jpeg "782x600">}}Mom and little chef chop potatoes side-by-side on a cozy kitchen afternoon.{{</dither>}} 90 {{<dither IMG_5234.jpeg "782x600">}}Big cousin giggles as her baby cousin reaches up to grab her hand on the play mat.{{</dither>}} 91 92 I loved this quote from Freddie DeBoer about [what he's thankful for][5]: 93 94 > **Thanksgiving.** No commercialism or materialism. No overt religiosity. No stress about getting the right presents. No pressure to find a cool party like with Halloween. The weather of late fall, the natural rhythms of harvest and feast before the winter, the pleasure of a holiday devoted to the concept of being grateful. The football, the family, the food. The after-meal nap. The wonderfully laidback nature of the whole affair. My favorite holiday. 95 96 [5]: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/what-im-thankful-for 97 98 I've outgrown the [music setup][6] I built a few months ago, and ordered a three-tiered rack to hold my synths. 99 100 [6]: /journal/dispatch-14-april-2024/ 101 102 {{<dither IMG_7078.jpeg "782x600">}}Stack of synths and drum machines at the ready in a DIY studio corner.{{</dither>}} 103 {{<dither IMG_7126.jpeg "782x600">}}Little DJ in pink pajamas happily jams on glowing synths with giant headphones.{{</dither>}} 104 105 This has been a ton of fun -- I can play chords on the Prophet with my left hand, melodies on the Bass Station with my right, drums + sequencing with the Circuit, and then the SP-404 at the end for effects. Next up: build a simple workstation, add a mixer and MIDI interface to drive more instruments. 106 107 Random small stuff: 108 109 * I biked the [Neuse River Trail][7] with a friend -- gorgeous, safe, no traffic lights. I need to make this a regular thing. 110 * I've been walking in the evenings after my family goes to bed as a way to stay off my phone, and I started carrying a backpack with a 20-pound weight in it. This has had surprising benefits -- all my back pain is gone, and I can carry a toddler for miles. 111 * I added spellchecking to this site, and [wrote a post about it][8]. It's funny to see the patterns in my writing, like my tendency to smash words together. 112 * I ordered a [record player][9] on Black Friday after nerding out about them with my brother-in-law. I'm going to limit myself to one record a month. First up: J Dilla's [_Donuts_][10]. 113 114 [7]: https://neuserivertrail.com/ 115 [8]: /journal/spellcheck-your-hugo-site-with-cspell/ 116 [9]: https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at-lp120xbt-usb 117 [10]: https://www.turntablelab.com/collections/j-dilla-vinyl-records/products/j-dilla-donuts-smile-cover-2lp 118 119 ### This Month 120 121 * Adventure: celebrating THREE YEARS of Nev; Greensboro for Christmas; Mexico to ring in the new year and celebrate our five-years anniversary 122 * Project: music workstation 123 * Skill: subtractive synthesis (read the Bass Station manual, learn all the knobs) 124 125 ### Reading & Listening 126 127 * Fiction: [_Graveyard of Demons_][11], Larry Correia 128 * Non-fiction: [_Dilla Time_][12], Dan Charnas 129 * Music: [_Donuts_][10], J Dilla 130 131 [11]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/graveyard-of-demons-larry-correia/21080837?ean=9781982193737 132 [12]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/dilla-time-the-life-and-afterlife-of-j-dilla-the-hip-hop-producer-who-reinvented-rhythm-dan-charnas/18415833?ean=9781250862976 133 134 ### Links 135 136 * [Building LLMs is probably not going be a brilliant business][13] 137 138 > Large language models (LLMs) like Chat-GPT and Claude.ai are whizzy and cool. A lot of people think that they are going to be The Future. Maybe they are — but that doesn't mean that building them is going to be a profitable business. 139 140 * [Ella’s First Website][14] 141 142 > I could go on about all of these things, but I won’t. Instead I will say that I am so incredibly proud of Ella. I am lucky to be the dad of such a smart, creative, hilarious, curious, and yes obnoxious girl. I hope this is but one of many many many many many many creations that leave her head and make their way out into the world. I love you so much, Ella. 143 144 * [Stinky Gifts From Your Idea Kitty][15] 145 146 > Your mind will never improve at finding good ideas; that cat will always deliver 90% crap. What changes is you. You somehow teach yourself to sort and salvage. You learn to forgive yourself faster, to bury the dead, and to pay proper respect to Nature's harsh whims. You name this new feeling "intuition" and "taste" and sometimes "luck". 147 148 * [Signls][16] 149 150 > Signls (pronounced signals) is a non-linear, generative MIDI sequencer designed for music composition and live performances, all within the terminal. It allows you to create complex, evolving musical patterns using a grid-based approach. You can place nodes on the grid, and these nodes can emit signals, relay them, or trigger MIDI notes. There are 9 different types of nodes to explore, each with its own unique behavior. 151 152 * [Is there really a way to push back on the complexity of the web?][17] 153 154 > I don’t think everything should be a React app! I want more things to be like Flickr used to be, and GitHub used to be. But at the same time, I don’t see an obvious way out of the current dynamics. Yelling is popular but the track record isn’t very good. Being quietly annoyed about the web’s descent into complexity, my preferred approach, doesn’t work very well either. 155 156 * [The Cleanse][18] 157 158 > A friend calls this turtling. Pulling your head inside your shell and hiding. It’s quite comfortable here. 159 160 * [Getting Stuff Done By Not Being Mean to Yourself][19] 161 162 > Yesterday, I finally realized that this method would never, ever work. I was shocked. But it never, ever has. I’ve been after myself on this score for, what, like ten years? Had it ever worked once in that time, I asked myself. No! I said immediately. 163 164 * [MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia][20] 165 166 > Today marks two years since I first set up an e-ink display in my mom’s apartment to help her live on her own with amnesia. The display has worked extremely well during those two years, so I’m sharing the basic set-up in case others find it useful for similar situations. 167 168 * [Wind the clock][21] 169 170 > Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. 171 172 * [It's the “1998” of the AI Revolution. So Why Can I Safely Ignore It?][22] 173 174 > I don’t say all of this to revel in my curmudgeonly Luddism. I say it because I’m living proof that you can be a fulfilled, modern, very online, technical expert & creator and completely sit out this hype cycle. Seriously. You can just not use any of these generative AI tools. 175 176 * [On Working With Your Passion][23] 177 178 > I think this - be it romanticized fantasy or actual historical fact - is what a lot of us programmers, deep down, desire from our professional life. Sadly, we're not celebrated geniuses working at the research department of a telecomms monopoly during the rise of an empire. We're instead doing yet another customer checkout form for a mid-sized e-commerce site, helplessly watching our profession slowly, as Marx put it, "sink into the proletariat". 179 180 * [How many hobbies is too many?][24] 181 182 > Hobby is capitalism’s word. It’s a crumb from capitalism’s table. Capitalism is happy that you have a hobby, especially if it can sell you HO-scale train sets to complete it, but that hobby can never be taken as seriously as what capitalism might need from you. (Oh, and that thing capitalism might need from you? Well, design is your passion, so they don’t really need to pay you adequately for that, do they?) 183 184 [13]: https://calpaterson.com/porter.html 185 [14]: https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/ellas-first-website/ 186 [15]: https://taylor.town/idea-kitty 187 [16]: https://empr.cl/signls/ 188 [17]: https://macwright.com/2024/11/16/web-complexity.html 189 [18]: https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-cleanse/ 190 [19]: https://openheartproject.com/getting-stuff-done-by-not-being-mean-to-yourself/ 191 [20]: https://jan.miksovsky.com/posts/2024/11-12-momboard 192 [21]: https://www.citationneeded.news/wind-the-clock/?ref=wheresyoured.at 193 [22]: https://theinternet.review/2024/10/29/generative-ai-2024-is-not-like-1998/ 194 [23]: https://www.datagubbe.se/passion/ 195 [24]: https://buttondown.com/monteiro/archive/how-many-hobbies-is-too-many/