macwright-com-1msqdm.txt (12114B)
1 [1]Tom MacWright 2 3 [email protected] 4 5 [2]Tom MacWright 6 7 • [3]Writing⇠ 8 • [4]Reading 9 • [5]Photos 10 • [6]Projects 11 • [7]Drawings 12 • [8]Micro 13 • [9]About 14 15 Recently 16 17 I skipped Recently last month. This one’s even more of a grab-bag than usual! 18 19 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 20 21 The <video> element and browser abstractions 22 23 I was reading [10]Iván Sánchez Ortega’s thoughts on maps4html (at the time of 24 writing, his website is down, so that’s an archive.org link). The post is about 25 a theoretical HTML element that embeds a map on a webpage - something that Iván 26 is skeptical of and [11]I am as well. But this section really got me thinking: 27 28 The user experience for video back in the day, both for the user (“I have 29 to download what and install it where?”) and the web developer (user agent 30 sniffing plus an <object> inside an <embed> with a MJPG fallback in the 31 form of a <img>) was quite abismal (sic). A <video> element back then made 32 sense. 33 34 So let’s fast-forward ten years, and see what <video> has really brought 35 us. For me, three things spring to mind: 36 37 1. Chunked video 38 2. DRM (in the form of EME). 39 3. Consistent UI, then inconsistent UI back again. 40 41 This is clear in hindsight but I had never really connected the pieces – the 42 rise of standardized streaming video has also enabled DRM to be so commonplace. 43 I can no longer take screenshots of Netflix, which was something that I used to 44 [12]love to do. There are good tools for [13]downloading YouTube videos, but 45 the same won’t exist for Hulu or HBO Max, and once a TV show declines to renew 46 its streaming license, it’ll be inaccessible. 47 48 I think this is a really interesting point: the standardization of the element 49 meant that video decoding and UI would be part of the browser rather than the 50 application, which allowed for strong copy-protection to be standard, and 51 shifted power away from users. It makes me think twice about standardizing more 52 elements of the web. 53 54 Maps are what the [14]maps4html project wants to standardize, but argument is 55 basically the same for cryptocurrency boosters (those who remain). They argue 56 that the web was missing a “payments primitive” and it should be implemented at 57 a protocol level. I don’t even agree with their goals (this current level of 58 capitalist dystopia is enough, thank you very much, we don’t need to 59 financialize any more stuff, please), but I also don’t feel great about the 60 means of accomplishing those goals - embedding an opinionated currency and 61 transaction system into standard technology. 62 63 Part of the same thought bubble: is the web as a low-level abstraction of basic 64 HTML elements and raw JavaScript on which the developer brings their own 65 higher-level abstractions (web frameworks, or previously, Flash?), more 66 egalitarian or free than a web with higher-level abstractions that are dictated 67 by browsers and operating systems? 68 69 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 70 71 Leverage 72 73 Historically, a key way to turn mediocre investments into good investments 74 has been to apply leverage. That’s not a recommendation; that’s a 75 historical analysis, and it comes with survivorship bias. 76 77 This [15]blog post from Lyn Alden is a compelling and risqué unified theory of 78 investing. She claims that real estate, stock, and bond investments are all 79 pretty bad in the long run, and that taking leverage is actually a historically 80 winning strategy because it shorts your fiat currency and amplifies your 81 exposure to the other thing. 82 83 Within the context of the fiat currency system, it has been both 84 quantifiably workable and socially acceptable to own real estate with 85 5-to-1 or even 10-to-1 leverage. People who are not professional investors 86 will routinely put 20% down and borrow 80% of the value of a home, with 87 various options to increase that to 10/90 in some cases, because we set up 88 our financial system around this being a normal thing to do. 89 90 This is a good point that I never stop mentioning – mortgages are complicated 91 and risky investments. Sometimes not as risky for the borrower but [16]always 92 risky). 93 94 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 95 96 BeOS & Haiku 97 98 I love the BeOS and Haiku icons and designs? They really are something. I’ve 99 always had a love for the [17]Mac OS 8 look, but [18]BeOS is just beautiful: it 100 has some of the strong colors of Windows, but used in a different way. And the 101 icons… 102 103 BeOS icons 104 105 From [19]guidebookgallery.org. By the way: did you know about the [20] 106 image-rendering: pixelated CSS option? 107 108 And then look at [21]the icons from Haiku, the successor to BeOS: 109 110 HaikuOS icons 111 112 I’m not going to go as far as actually running these operating systems, but 113 man, it all reminds me of a day when computers felt so much more focused and 114 personal. 115 116 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 117 118 Bikes are electric now 119 120 I’ve been biking more recently, and getting ready for a small Labor Day bike 121 trip through Long Island. Eventually, when I have time (ha!) I want to do some 122 much longer trips. I’ve been spending a bit more time getting reacquainted with 123 the state of bicycles. In my lifetime, there have been a bunch of big changes 124 for high-end bikes: 125 126 • Disc brakes replaced V-brakes, even for some road bikes 127 • Tubeless tires replaced tires with tubes for most bikes 128 • Wheels got bigger and most mountain bikes are 29ers or above 129 130 I’ve mostly been on board with these things - the bigger wheels were obviously 131 an upgrade from day one, especially. 132 133 The weird new thing is electronic shifting, which is apparently becoming the 134 norm. It’s a pretty odd turn, if you ask me: your bike as a little wireless 135 electronic network in which the shifter on the handlebars connects to a motor 136 in the derailleur. 137 138 It’s nice to see though, from some ‘bike influencers’, a [22]pushback and some 139 people even going back to [23]non-indexed shifters so they can use any kind of 140 mech drivetrain. 141 142 I think that when I get a midlife-crisis bike, there’s a decent chance it’ll be 143 electric, partly because it allows for fewer cables to route, which would make 144 mounting [24]bikepacking bags a little easier. But ‘running out of power’ in 145 the middle of the woods, or just having ‘firmware’ installed on my bicycle 146 creeps me out. 147 148 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 149 150 Running 151 152 The 5k season continues. So far this summer: 21:00, 21:01, 20:27, 21:26. My 153 goal is sub-20, which should be achievable (I’ve run it before in previous 154 seasons), but mostly the weather hasn’t been cooperating. Last night’s race 155 (21:26) was in 83°F, 68% humidity. Shoutout to singlets for helping me survive 156 the heat. I picked up a [25]Bakline one and have been impressed. I see [26] 157 Tracksmith gear constantly, and it’s good too, but I fear that some of these 158 running brands are getting a ‘fashion brand’ markup. 159 160 It’s hard to compete with DC and San Francisco as running cities. The DC region 161 is [27]the ‘fittest’ in the country there are great trails in Rock Creek Park 162 and super wide sidewalks in some neighborhoods. San Francisco has [28] 163 spectacular hills and trails that can convince you that you’re really in the 164 wild. New York’s sidewalks have far fewer cars parked on them than San 165 Francisco’s, but you always need to look where you’re going. The sights are 166 better, in my opinion: while SF’s hills look cool in the distance, there’s 167 nothing like seeing the skyscrapers of Manhattan or running across the Brooklyn 168 Bridge. 169 170 New York’s running culture is great. There are tons of running clubs, and there 171 are so many races to pick from. San Francisco had a [29]free weekly 5k called 172 Park Run (part of a global network of events), but it was cancelled in 2020. 173 Brooklyn doesn’t have a Park Run, but it has the [30]Al Goldstein race series, 174 which is about $15, competitive, and well-run. 175 176 CityStrides 177 178 I’ve competed 10.24% of Brooklyn so far on [31]CityStrides: progress has 179 stalled because I’ve been just running Prospect Park loops over and over again 180 to get in shape for 5ks. 181 182 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 183 184 Listening 185 186 [32]Jessie Mae Hemphill by Jessie Mae Hemphill 187 188 I started listening to brat but was disappointed. The biggest find of the last 189 few months has been [33]Jessie Mae Hemphill, who I embarrassingly discovered 190 because her song ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ came on the rotation in a Chipotle. 191 192 Reading 193 194 Oh man, [34]The World Beyond Your Head was such a read. It’s hard to summarize. 195 In hindsight, I’m not even sure what it was about the book that hooked me - 196 there were a few loosely-connected topics, each of which was really compelling. 197 It made me think a lot. Hell of a book. 198 199 Watching 200 201 [35]Kinds of Kindness was great: I’ve now watched [36]29% of Yorgos Lanthimos 202 films and love his style. 203 204 August 1, 2024 [37]Tom MacWright ([38]@tmcw, [39]@[email protected]) 205 206 207 References: 208 209 [1] https://macwright.com/ 210 [2] https://macwright.com/ 211 [3] https://macwright.com/writing/ 212 [4] https://macwright.com/reading/ 213 [5] https://macwright.com/photos/ 214 [6] https://macwright.com/projects/ 215 [7] https://macwright.com/drawings/ 216 [8] https://macwright.com/micro/ 217 [9] https://macwright.com/about/ 218 [10] https://web.archive.org/web/20230205201150/https://ivan.sanchezortega.es/politics/2020/09/01/mapml-essay-part4-thumbs-up-for-document-accesibility.html 219 [11] https://gist.github.com/tmcw/c17eec41deaec8f8f7b3d8bd38420a27 220 [12] https://www.are.na/tom-macwright/subtitles-1528478762 221 [13] https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl 222 [14] https://github.com/Maps4HTML 223 [15] https://www.lynalden.com/most-investments-are-bad/ 224 [16] https://byrnehobart.medium.com/the-30-year-mortgage-is-an-intrinsically-toxic-product-200c901746a 225 [17] https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/macos80 226 [18] https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/beos5 227 [19] https://guidebookgallery.org/guis/beos 228 [20] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/image-rendering 229 [21] https://discuss.haiku-os.org/t/post-your-haiku-screenshot/3064?page=4 230 [22] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAV9XvzB0eQ 231 [23] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqMyvObJqnk 232 [24] https://bikepacking.com/ 233 [25] https://www.bakline.nyc/ 234 [26] https://www.tracksmith.com/ 235 [27] https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/07/25/arlington-dc-fittest-cities/ 236 [28] https://macwright.com/hills/ 237 [29] https://www.parkrun.us/crissyfield/ 238 [30] https://runsignup.com/Race/NY/Brooklyn/AlGoldsteinSummerSpeedSeries 239 [31] https://citystrides.com/ 240 [32] https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/jessie-mae-hemphill 241 [33] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Mae_Hemphill 242 [34] https://macwright.com/2024/07/07/world-beyond-your-head 243 [35] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinds_of_Kindness 244 [36] https://letterboxd.com/director/yorgos-lanthimos/ 245 [37] https://macwright.com/about/ 246 [38] https://twitter.com/intent/follow?screen_name=tmcw&user_id=1458271 247 [39] https://mastodon.social/@tmcw