davideisinger.com/content/journal/dispatch-13-march-2024/index.md

title, date, draft, tags, references

title	date	draft	tags	references
Dispatch #13 (March 2024)	2024-03-04T23:24:54-05:00	false	dispatch	title url date file Publish Your Work | Brain Baking https://brainbaking.com/post/2024/01/publish-your-work/ 2024-03-04T04:27:21Z brainbaking-com-u5mnoz.txt title url date file Remembering HFStival: 20 years since DC's festival went quiet | wusa9.com https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/remembering-hfstival-dcs-biggest-music-festival/65-60a8d4f0-68a7-4ac0-b79a-80d596e6ec67 2024-02-21T04:42:43Z www-wusa9-com-aimglr.txt title url date file The 1998 HFStival https://hfs98.tripod.com/ 2024-02-21T04:38:29Z hfs98-tripod-com-jmnzh1.txt title url date file The 1999 HFStival https://hfs99.tripod.com/ 2024-02-21T04:38:54Z hfs99-tripod-com-v7f3u9.txt title url date file Enable Full Text RSS Feeds in Hugo https://jasonmurray.org/posts/2021/rssfulltexthugo/ 2024-03-04T04:49:23Z jasonmurray-org-ch0tvb.txt title url date file Create a systemd service for your docker-compose project in 10 seconds - TechOverflow https://techoverflow.net/2020/10/24/create-a-systemd-service-for-your-docker-compose-project-in-10-seconds/ 2024-02-21T16:55:13Z techoverflow-net-fvl0ss.txt title url date file Cory Doctorow: What Kind of Bubble is AI? – Locus Online https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/ 2024-03-05T03:45:13Z locusmag-com-lrcibx.txt title url date file Subprime Intelligence https://www.wheresyoured.at/sam-altman-fried/ 2024-03-05T03:51:01Z www-wheresyoured-at-ntkfj5.txt title url date file Neal Stephenson's Most Stunning Prediction - The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/chatbots-ai-neal-stephenson-diamond-age/677364/ 2024-03-05T03:53:39Z www-theatlantic-com-qqbuyc.txt title url date file Why all your notes and files should be plain text - The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/18/24075077/bose-ultra-open-superlist-bulletin-text-files-note-apps-installer 2024-03-05T04:06:47Z www-theverge-com-118g7r.txt title url date file Skiff Should Be A Reminder To Us All – The New Oil https://blog.thenewoil.org/skiff-should-be-a-reminder-to-us-all 2024-03-05T04:06:47Z blog-thenewoil-org-ahtqki.txt title url date file How to make self-hosting and local-first software work - The Verge https://www.theverge.com/23938533/self-hosting-local-first-software-vergecast 2024-03-05T04:06:48Z www-theverge-com-ywplts.txt title url date file File over app – Steph Ango https://stephango.com/file-over-app 2024-03-05T04:06:48Z stephango-com-hgqfrw.txt title url date file More Files Please - Jim Nielsen’s Blog https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2024/more-files-plz/ 2024-03-05T04:06:49Z blog-jim-nielsen-com-qvpn02.txt title url date file The future needs files – Scott Jenson https://jenson.org/files/ 2024-03-05T04:06:49Z jenson-org-arxfgm.txt title url date file The internet used to be fun https://projects.kwon.nyc/internet-is-fun/ 2024-03-05T03:57:45Z projects-kwon-nyc-bqys6y.txt title url date file What’s the fun in writing on the internet anymore? https://jamesshelley.com/blog/writing-on-the-internet.html 2024-03-05T03:59:48Z jamesshelley-com-iaarz3.txt title url date file Rhoneisms https://www.patrickrhone.net/14412-2/ 2024-03-05T04:15:48Z www-patrickrhone-net-u4rozv.txt title url date file The Year of the Personal Website · Matthias Ott – User Experience Designer https://matthiasott.com/notes/the-year-of-the-personal-website 2024-03-05T03:44:34Z matthiasott-com-qomg4t.txt

Highlights this month: a weekend in Wilmington, a successful 10K, and a solo dad weekend (including a rainy bike adventure followed by an incredible rainbow over Central Park). Plus some new music and a bunch of website improvements.

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Here's a new track called "Arcus" -- smash play and read on.

I'm really pleased with my result in the in the Wrightsville Beach Valentine Run 10K. You can see I'm still far from competitive, but that's much faster than I ever thought I'd be when I started this journey in 2021. Running (at least at the level I'm at) is one of the few things you can get improve at just by showing up. Want to get better? Run more. Were all the other things I pursue so straightforward.

At the beginning of February, I updated the site to store encrypted photos and display them as black-and-white dithered images. I documented the process in some detail, and then put a link to it on the Hugo discussion forum. Imagine my suprise when, a few days later, one of the core contributers posted that the next version of Hugo would ship with native dithering functionality. I guess my post inspired him to add it, which echoed a post I'd read a few days earler, "Publishing Your Work":

I don’t create or publish in the hopes of influencing others. I create things because I have an urge to create. But it sure is great to help others along the way, however small my contribution might be.

I stumbled on a retrospective of the HFStival, a DC-area music festival that was a big part of my adolescence. I remembered that I made fan sites for a few of them, and after a few minutes of trying to recall the domains, I discovered that the 1998 and 1999 editions are still online. Not bad, 15-year-old Dave. Funny how I'm still doing basically the same thing 25+ years later, though I guess we have CSS now and I write in Markdown rather than hand-editing HTML files on a server.

I made several website updates this month:

• The site now has full-text RSS; I wish this was the default or at least a toggleable option. The fix is to copy the RSS template into your site and then change .Summary to .Content, which is a maintenance headache.

• I added a favicon using this friendly generator.

• I moved the site to a new server on Digital Ocean. My previous VPS was running a version of Ubuntu from 2014 and was just a mess. I haven't really kept up with modern DevOps and didn't want to learn Ansible for my relatively basic needs, but I do have a lot of experience with Docker and decided to use Docker Compose to run this site and a handful of others. It all came together easily with Caddy plus php-fpm and MySQL for an old Textpattern site I keep around. Now I've got all my infrastructure in a version-controlled repository I can test locally, and the actual server is doing very little. Here's a handy script for running docker-compose as a systemd service that I used.

• Finally, I've wanted to be able to send out these dispatches as emails for a while now, but didn't want to sign up and pay for a service like Buttondown when I've no idea if anyone would sign up. I discovered Listmonk, which is open-source, self-hosted software that offers exactly what I need: a signup form, an admin UI, and an API for creating new emails. It snapped into my Docker setup super easily, and now you can go to dispatch.davideisinger.com and sign up to receive these posts in your inbox. Go on! Be the first.

This month:

• Adventure: we're headed back to Wilmington again, this time to run the Steve Haydu St. Patrick's Lo Tide Run; I've also got my annual Vegas trip and we'll head to Lake Norman at the end of the month
• Project: Nev has this little fidget toy that I'm obsessed with; I want to learn three.js and create a digital version of it
• Skill: just keep making music; I've got my eye on this Roland SP-404 sampler that I might pick up -- curious how that might pair with my Novation Circuit

Reading:

• Fiction: The Disposessed, Ursula K. LeGuin
• Non-fiction: Dilla Time, Dan Charnas

Links:

• What Kind of Bubble is AI?

  Tech bubbles come in two varieties: The ones that leave something behind, and the ones that leave nothing behind. Sometimes, it can be hard to guess what kind of bubble you’re living through until it pops and you find out the hard way.

  Best piece of AI skepticism I've read (though I'd also recommend Ed Zitron)

• Neal Stephenson's Most Stunning Prediction -- if I had to pick a favorite book, Diamond Age would be it; I should re-read it at some point, especially now that I have a young daughter

• On files & data ownership:

  • Why all your notes and files should be plain text
  • Skiff Should Be A Reminder To Us All
  • How to make self-hosting and local-first software work
  • File over app
  • More Files Please
  • The future needs files

• On personal websites / writing online in general:

  • The internet used to be fun
  • What’s the fun in writing on the internet anymore? (via)
  • The Year of the Personal Website