Still running. Can't figure out why. Thought it might be because I had some other action calling it somewhere, but I can't find it.

I'll look into not using the clipboard and just populating the $Text attribute with a variable from Automator. It's possible I've done something incorrectly in the conditional if statement.

The beat goes on...

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:07 Thursday, 28 March 2024

It's 0300. I had to get up to use the head and when I went back to bed I realized it was easy to make that Midwatch Edict run once. Same way we don't let months keep making days when their time is over.

if $Text=="";

That had better work.

I'm going back to bed.

I'll check the clipboard in a few hours and know if it did.

(It's relatively nice out, and the window in my office is open. I can hear a train going by on the tracks next to Phillips Highway, not far from here. I just hear the whistle when it crosses an intersection, and maybe faintly the rumble. Pretty cool.)

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 03:02 Thursday, 28 March 2024

Got a nice note from Mark Anderson about the preceding post. Some insights on functions that I need to explore.

He wondered how aTbRef might be improved to make it less "intimidating," noting that it is intended as a reference and not a tutorial, though there are many examples.

I don't think there's any need to change anything. As a reference, it's invaluable. What makes it intimidating is that it demands close reading, and that is sometimes challenging from a computer screen. Nevertheless, it is possible, as I've managed to figure out how to create the Midwatch entry using a function, and not local variables within each Day container.

This requires sending an argument to the function, the bit of data from the calling note that the function needs to do its thing. In this case, I have to pass the $Path of the current Day container, so that the Create action has an entire path to make the new note unique within the file.

I write this now, after having successfully tested the code. It looks like this:

function fMakeMidwatch(iThisPath)

The p_Day prototype includes an Edict that simply says:

fMakeMidwatch($Path);

No sandbox variable, $MyString, to stick around like “data dust,” as Michael Becker calls it. So a new day is created, the Edict runs, a new Midwatch entry is created, and an Edict in it launches a little app that creates the $Text content of the entry.

After just spending the better part of an hour trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work (It’s evening. My brain is tired.), when it was all because it was missing a closing semi-colon, I think the list of tips should be as follows:

1.Always check for semi-colons

2. Always include parentheses, even if no arguments

3. Always define your variables

4. Don't forget to check for the closing semi-colon (outside the curly-brace).

I've got one last refinement to make to the Midwatch entry. I need to figure out how to make the Edict in the Midwatch entry run just once and then turn itself off. As you may recall, it uses the runCommand action to launch a little Automator app that queries the calendar for the next three days' events, places them on the clipboard, and then a brief AppleScript places the contents of the clipboard into the $Text of the Midwatch entry.

As it happens now, my clipboard is periodically populated with the contents of the next three days' events, which can come as a surprise in the midst of copying and pasting some other text. Fortunately, I have a clipboard history, so I can recover whatever it was I meant to paste.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 19:58 Wednesday, 27 March 2024

During the Tinderbox meetup when I demo'ed Captain's Log to that point, Michael Becker asked why I didn't use a function to create the various elements of the log, instead relying on "sandbox variables" ($MyString, $MyDate, etc.). The issue arises that those "$My..." sandbox variables are actually attributes that remain with the note.

They'll change every day with each month, so a given month container will only hold one day's sandbox variables, twelve notes' worth in a year, for however many years the log runs. But every day container creates a Midwatch entry using local variables, and there are 365 of those a year (366 for leap years) for however many years the log runs. Not a huge amount of data, but it's unnecessary if you use...functions.

Based on Michael's comments, I looked at using functions to create the Midwatch entry. I found it somewhat confusing and kept finding reasons to put it off. But after yesterday's success with the Agents, I figured I'd take another stab at functions. And since my mind works best first thing in the morning, that's what I've been doing (after my daily review) this morning.

I thought I'd try something simple first, and create a function that created a new day container in a month container. To keep it even simpler, I opened a new Tinderbox document, Function Test, to learn how to create one before I tried it in the log.

So in the new document I created a top level note and just called it Test Note Sandbox Variables (TNSV), and copied the $Edict from the p_Month container in Captain's log into the TNSV $Edict. Hit, "Run Now" in the Edict pane of the Action Inspector and it created a new note, "Wednesday, March 27, 2024" as expected.

This will be important in a moment.

I created a new note called Test Note With Function, and its $Edict would call whatever function I came up with instead of just creating a note with today's date as its name using sandbox variables.

So then I read the Help file in Functions, and the aTbRef main entry on Functions. A little intimidating.

First thing I had to do wast turn on the Library folder. Now, this isn't strictly mandatory, a function will run from anywhere it's created. But I'm trying to be a good little coder and do it right the first time.

What wasn't clear from the documentation, and still isn't, is whether the $Name of the function note is semantically relevant. I think it is, but you kind of define the function in the $Text of the note anyway, so I don't know if Tinderbox scans the $Text attributes of all notes looking for the keyword function, or if it looks at the $Name of the note to locate the function. In any event, I gave the $Name of the function note the name of the function I was defining, "MakeDay." (Functions should be named with verbs, as they do something.)

The first thing I tried, because I have to see what doesn't work to understand the documentation, was to just copy the $Edict into the function curly braces. (That probably doesn't make sense, but trust me, I seem to have to get things wrong in order to understand how to get them right.)

That looked like this:

function fMakeDay

Didn't work.

So I went back to aTbRef and read some more about functions. The first thing I noticed is that parentheses are always required. So the first line is wrong and should be function fMakeDay() with parentheses.

Didn't work.

Read some more at aTbRef. Function doesn't use arguments here. Name should be ok. I think it's defined correctly.

Then I got to variables.

Ok, I guess this makes sense. Maybe sandbox variables (My...) are inappropriate here, and it looks like you have to define your variables at the beginning like you do in Pascal. (I actually recall hearing about this in a meet-up where they introduced functions. But I didn't recall it until after this.)

So then I tried this:

function fMakeDay()

}

That didn't work either, first because I'd omitted the semi-colons after defining each variable. Duh.

Fixed that. Then something happened. I'd hit Run Now in the $Edict pane of the Test Note With Function, and something would happen, a new note would appear without a name and then disappear instantly.

Recall that TNSV, the first note, created a note named "Wednesday, March 27, 2024."

Because this is the first thing in the morning and my brain is working a peak efficiency, (It's all downhill from here.) I remembered that Tinderbox won't create two notes with the same name, unless you specify different paths.

I didn't want to screw around with paths for this simple test, so I tried this:

function fMakeDay()

}

And that worked!

And this blog post is just me documenting this to myself, because I'll try to do something in the afternoon and forget why this worked and the other thing didn't.

So, a few tips on functions:

1. Always include parentheses

2. Always define your variables

3. Don't forget to check for semi-colons.

Since a Library note (or any note, I guess) containing a function can contain more than one function, I guess I've just figured out that the $Name of the note isn't semantically relevant with regard to calling the function.

I don't know that I'm going to be creating a lot of functions, now that I kind of know how to, but I think I'll stick with one function per note, and give the $Name of the note the name of the function, just so I can keep things straight.

Time for a walk.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:19 Wednesday, 27 March 2024

Apart from the usual crap your skin starts sprouting when you live past your "best by" date. She did find the mole on the bottom of my foot interesting. They all do. It's been there for decades, but apparently it could be a ticking time bomb. I'm supposed to watch it carefully.

It's on the bottom of my foot! But ok. I'll try.

Also had a cyst removed from my face. Just noticed it this morning, shaving for this very appointment. I thought it was an ingrown hair and tried to remove it. Failed. She said it was a blackhead, which was faintly offensive.

Turns out it was neither, and required a real effort to extract. She worried she was hurting me. It did hurt, but I didn't say anything. I'm just glad it's out. I guess the hole in my face will fill in. (Kidding. It's a small hole. Not like a crater or anything.)

TMI? Probably. Deal with it.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:14 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

In lieu of a this and that post.

I've got to run to the dermatologist in about 45 minutes. It's that indeterminate time when I feel like I can't do anything except wait for the moment when I have to leave. I should read a book. I feel like I'm going to a uniform inspection, except it's like in a bad dream where I'm not wearing my uniform.

Oy.

Anyway, saw a post about plug-in hybrids likely to become a larger part of manufacturers' offerings in order to meet climate goals while stretching out the transition to all-EV products. Concern was that many people won't "plug in" their plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

I think they will. If it has decent range, 30 miles or more, it just makes economic sense, even if they don't want to spring for the cost of a Level 2 charger in the garage (essentially, having and electrician install a 220v outlet). I've seen some PHEVs with battery ranges around 20 miles, and it'd still make sense to plug those in, but maybe not to install a Level 2 charger.

But they have data and I have my own experience. Maybe they're right. I just wish we could become less car-dependent, and get over our fixation with giant SUVs and pickup trucks. But how are you going to survive the apocalypse without your monster truck?

I suspect Jacksonville will see a significant uptick in shipping if Baltimore harbor is closed for some weeks, clearing bridge wreckage from the channel. Makes you wonder about the safety features of these giant container ships if they can lose power and steering like that in a constrained channel. What happened to that ship that blocked the Suez Canal? Was it wind? I should google it. The Dames Point Bridge is lovely, I'd hate to think what would happen if one of those monsters struck it.

In the navy, when we were in "restricted maneuvering," we had all redundant systems online so a failure in any one piece of equipment wouldn't hazard the ship. (Or the channel. Or any bridges. Not that we still didn't run aground now and then. Looking at you, PORT ROYAL.)

Glad to see Boeing cleaning house. But I suspect it'll be years, if not decades, before they can recover their lost reputation.

Make meaning or make money? Again and again, we choose to make money. It'll be the end of us.

What's the "meaning of life"? To make money, I guess.

Well, I guess I'd better go.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:47 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

They're unreliable that way.

Mark Anderson of aTbRef wrote to say that I should omit the quotation marks (straight quotation marks, I should add) around boolean values.

Made the change in the log and in the preceding post.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:44 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

Got around to creating the Agents to collect entries that have not been reviewed, or that I should not forget.

The "Don't Forget" agent was straightforward. Just query for the $DontForget boolean.

$DontForget=="true";

The Not Reviewed agent was trickier, because it would include all notes that didn't have $Reviewed checked. As I learned to my chagrin.

At first, I thought I could just make $Reviewed checked in the Prototypes for $Year, $Month and $Day, but there are a lot of other notes, and more that will be added, which won't have it checked.

So I thought about it a little bit. Thinking is hard, so a little bit is about all I can muster.

I just want to check whether or not log entries have been reviewed. All log entries have the prototype $p_Entry, where $Reviewed is a Displayed Attribute (All notes have all attributes at all times, just most of them have "empty" values.) So the Agent query should be a logical "and": Is p_Entry and unreviewed.

That looks like this:

($Prototype=="p_Entry" & $Reviewed!="true");

Which was trickier to write than it looks. But it works. And now items that aren't in the category of "don't forget about this," but I'm not finished with them either, can be left unreviewed and they won't disappear into history.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:25 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

I guess I should have read the news before checking email.

Video of the event.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:47 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

I don't know what app developers are going to do in a few years. Maybe even Apple is doomed because of AI. Who needs "an app for that," when you can just tell Siri, or whatever, to do anything you can imagine. Apple's talking to Google about AI because Apple was so focused on "on device" privacy that they realize they don't have the resources for the kind of AI the cloud can deliver.

It may seem unlikely, and it'll probably suck at first, but it'll get better and before I'm dead, unless AI kills me, we'll likely have cloud-based AI managing all of our devices and media, and burning through what's left of our carbon budget in the process.

I guess Affinity probably saw that as clearly as anyone else and decided to cash in while they cold.

AI will become our "wallfacers." We won't have a clue why they're doing what they're doing, but we'll do what they tell us to do, because we can't figure out how to solve our own problems.

An AI will compute and execute swarm-based drone attacks. An AI will compute and execute swarm-based drone attack defenses. An AI will compute and execute a water resource sharing protocol for the Colorado River watershed, because we can't figure it out for ourselves. An AI will compute and distribute all the relevant "news" we need to know. An AI will compute and generate all of our entertainment.

An AI will monitor our health and compute and execute medical interventions.

It's why I don't read science fiction anymore. The future is really going to really suck.

But it won't last long. At least, not for most of us. Maybe the Andreeson-type techbro "optimists" can have an AI design a "lifeboat" for civilization where all the billionaires can hide, with suitably attractive women, while the rest of humanity undergoes the "Great Reset."

Ugh. What a depressing morning.

Just have to keep in mind that all we have are moments to live, and nobody gets out of here alive anyway.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:19 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

Affinity has been acquired by Canva.

That means they will eventually become a subscription model. Which the FAQ essentially states by not stating that at all. Subscription isn't horrible, but it does suck. And it's going to become "cloud based," which feels like Adobe's "creative cloud" bullshit. And, inevitably, it is going to be changed by its corporate masters in ways that it wouldn't have if it had remained independent.

I never used their desktop publishing or vector drawing apps, though I owned them, so maybe it's not such a huge deal for me. I can use Acorn or Photomator. There are other choices.

But I liked Affinity because it seemed like they were a small shop doing great products instead of a corporate greed-machine. I guess everyone wants their payday.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:06 Tuesday, 26 March 2024

The black E-PL7 arrived today, and it's beautiful. Cleaned up well. A couple of minor scratches on the screen, but you have to look for them. Once I get my office cleaned up and squared away I'll do some glamor shots. Maybe.

Captain's Log continues to be useful, and I'm adding "features," as necessary. Although I don't wish to replicate the functionality of Reminders, since that is available on my iPhone and iPad, I decided I did want something in the Log to pull together entries that may require a revisit. So I created a "DontForget" boolean and made it a Displayed Attribute. I'll create a Don't Forget agent and open it in another tab. Tabs are another feature of Tinderbox I'm beginning to make use of more.

This came up in my NASA Hubble RSS feed. Click through to the download. Makes for nice phone or tablet wallpaper.

Got an interesting email from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with a link to this video about how owls turn their heads. I think I could watch owl videos all day long.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:12 Monday, 25 March 2024

Okay, I wasn't hallucinating. It was on the SSD. I guess I didn't think it was good enough to get added to the Photos library, which is a pretty low bar. But it's a pretty cool little place. It even came up last month at the Photography Club meeting, because they're doing a lot of construction down there and much of the "old Florida" charm is being renovated into "modern" sterility. Magic Beach is supposedly safe.

For now.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:07 Monday, 25 March 2024

Mitzi and I stayed in Vilano Beach last October for our anniversary, and I would have sworn I took pictures of this hotel. But I did take a picture of the TV screen last night and texted it to Mitzi in New York.

That hotel is in Vilano Beach, just down the road from here. We didn't stay at that place, we stayed at the newly-opened Hyatt Place. But we did notice it, and I thought I shot the neon rabbits, but nothing in Photos. Maybe they're on the SSD I use.

Anyway, surprised I hadn't seen anything in local media about Netflix filming locally. Kinda cool.

Finished the series yesterday. I liked it. Would like to see it continue.

I decided not to read the trilogy. I have other sf books lying around here I haven't read. I seem to be more interested in non-fiction history than imagined futures these days.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:54 Monday, 25 March 2024

Although I appreciate John P. Weiss' take on farm life, I think this paragraph deserves a comment:

No doubt, the farmers of the past had difficult lives, and we mustn’t romanticize every facet of their agrarian world. But they had a deep sense of purpose and pride in their work. Also, their physical labor provided exercise, which helps with sound sleep and overall health.

My grandfather was a farmer, and my mom was a farmer's daughter. I spent some time on that farm as a kid. Shoveling shit, pitching silage, baling hay, you know, "farm work."

I would not go so far as to say that farm labor helps with sound sleep and overall health. Grampa died at age 78, Gramma was 72. Grampa died in his sleep, Gramma died of complications from a bleeding ulcer. Neither of them was especially "healthy" at the end. Mom is 90 now, her brothers that farmed died in their 70s.

As to how much "meaning" they felt in their lives, I can't say. We never talked about it. They liked to watch TV, and before that, listen to the radio. Grampa had a CB radio that he liked to use to talk to other farmers in the area. I don't recall any philosophical conversations. Mostly they talked about the kinds of stuff people talk about, prices, the weather, sick animals, their health, stuff like that.

Farm life is hard. It's easier today, with electricity and modern equipment. But if we think we can abandon all of modernity and enjoy an idyllic, "meaningful" existence on subsistence farming, we're deluding ourselves.

Growing food, or milking cows wasn't about service, it was about making a living. Survival. "Meaning" is a subject that requires cognitive surplus. Time and energy for thought, two commodities in short supply when you're a farmer, at least in the era before electricity.

We gave the responsibility for explaining "meaning" to the clergy. They had the cognitive surplus to think about it. And farmers went to church.

Anyway, I'm in favor of "quiet living." I'm in favor of turning away from certain aspects of modernity. But I have no illusions about the appeal of farm life, absent the advantages of modernity.

Not to take away from John's post, and the value of giving it a read.

Because it can make you think.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:15 Sunday, 24 March 2024

In a "further to the foregoing" vein, I starred two posts in NetNewsWire to commend to your attention. These are examples of the kinds of thoughtful writing that can be done more readily in blog format. Yeah, I suppose you could have broken them up and posted them as "threads," but why?

Anyway, John P. Weiss isn't especially prolific, but he posts on the regular and seldom disappoints. This is worth a read. Especially vis-a-vis public figures on "X."

Manuel Moreale offers a take on the Justice Department suit against Apple, which I think is spot on.

Blogs are best.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:51 Sunday, 24 March 2024

It's not that you can't do thoughtful, meaningful posts in short-form social media. You probably can. But it's not a conducive format. And the things it is conducive for, reactive, performative, are invariably toxic.

There was some local news I heard last week on the Friday week in review on the local public radio station WJCT, that a couple of Jacksonville City Council members got into a little back-and-forth on Twitter, er, X and it got vulgar.

And the former mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, one of the leading figures behind the attempted sale of JEA, evidently posted a maternal vulgarity in response to an interlocutor who may have asked a provocative question regarding the conviction of the former CEO of JEA, and friend of Lenny's, Aaron Zahn.

He deleted the tweet, but not before someone screen-capped it and turned it into a Mother's Day meme. (I haven't seen it, this was just mentioned on the show.)

I felt a brief twinge of regret that I wasn't still on Twitter, er, X, so I could have piled on, er, added to the conversation. But I got over it.

If you're kind of morally compromised, if you've wandered pretty far from the path of righteousness, I'm pretty sure you're not going to find your way back on Twitter.

X.

Whatever.

And if you are one of the "good guys," I think it's likely that you'll find your stores of virtue and righteousness will be diminished by participation there, if you're not very careful.

Wrestling with pigs and all that.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:30 Sunday, 24 March 2024

Slept pretty well last night. Some dreams related to watching 3 Body Problem, but not nightmares. Can't recall them now. Got about halfway through the 4K HDR version of Aliens before I gave up and went to bed.

I'd read the first book in the 3 Body Problem several yeas ago, 2020 maybe? When I was a kid, I could recall every part of a science fiction book I'd read. Not so much anymore. I gather they've made significant changes to aspects of the story. I didn't recall the Panama Canal incident until just before it was revealed. I've lost a step or three, because who could forget that?

I've got two episodes left, and I like it overall. I'll finish it tonight.

Aliens looks good in 4K HDR. I don't think it's revelatory. Sigourney Weaver's skin was amazing. I mean, that's the kind of thing you notice at these resolutions. It's also strange the things you think about after seeing a movie many times, and being a much older viewer now.

Like, Gorman's got maybe a platoon of marines? Backup or reinforcements are months away at best. They encounter this significant "xenomorph" infrastructure at the base of the atmosphere processing plant where all the colonists are apparently located. And they decide to just go in anyway? Then keep going when they realize they can't fire their rifles? Then keep going when they encounter the first dead colonists?

After Ripley's report of what they're likely to encounter?

After seeing the stuff in the med lab? After seeing the colonists put up a fight?

Cameron made Gorman monumentally stupid. Which, I guess could be forgiven. But Bishop? "By omission of action," can't harm humans? Seems like he might have spoken up and suggested they retreat to the ship and report their findings to headquarters and await reinforcements.

I can recall how much l loved that movie as a 29-year-old lieutenant. So I guess I should cut Gorman some slack. But Bishop? Wow. That movie just got a whole lot creepier.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:06 Sunday, 24 March 2024

Not expecting much, I carried the silver E-PL7 with the 45mm/f1.8 mounted just for something different. Rainbow was a pleasant surprise.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:01 Saturday, 23 March 2024

The E-PL7 is inbound and should be here on Monday. Caitie was here the other day, and we were looking at Canon mirrorless cameras. She does some semi-professional work as an adjunct to her salon work. She's had a couple of product promotion shoots for, I think, an advertising firm. They don't pay much, but she enjoys the work.

I'd given her my E-M10 Mk2 over a year ago and encouraged her to shoot with it and find out what it can do. But film, and then medium format film and now full-frame digital have all turned her head and she's never, to my knowledge, done very much with little Oly. I offered to buy it back from her to help pay for a Canon body, but she said she'd return it to me.

I don't need the 10, but I'd like to have it again. I don't really have shelf space for it, but I can make room if I have to.

The biggest thing I'm missing in my photographic endeavors is subjects. And that's mostly because I'm kind of lazy. Well, not "kind of," I'm just lazy. If we go out somewhere, I bring a camera because there'll be something different to shoot. But I don't go out just to shoot. I should probably change that.

When I was single, I went out a lot more socially. It's important to add that we didn't have COVID back then either. I'd much rather risk second-hand smoke at trivia than COVID, though I suppose a case could be made that they might be equally risky. And I lived in a place that offered a lot of interesting subjects. Here I live in an "interest" desert. A sterile void of suburban conformity. I can get out to the kayak launch point and do some wetlands and birds and what have you, and I should do that more often, but I like shooting other stuff too.

I guess I'm just talking to myself, trying to convince myself to get out of this neighborhood and bring a camera. The thing is, you have to go pretty far, as Nocatee is pretty much entirely devoid of interest, unless you're looking to shoot real estate marketing brochures. I should probably look for the absurdity. I usually like to look for wear, or decay, something that indicates the passage of time, which is, I suppose, a kind of story-telling. There is a lot of absurdity here. But that's in your face everywhere these days. Not sure I need to capture it in images.

Anyway, in the car in a little while to bring Mitzi and Judy to the airport. Mitzi is accompanying Judy back to New York because Judy has some understandable anxiety at the moment. They're going to wheel her through the airport to avoid the risk of a tumble. She's mobile again, but it's likely a few more weeks before her pelvis is completely healed, and it'll never be especially durable anyway.

Mitzi will stay with Judy for a week, and so I'll have the car and I should probably take advantage of that to get out of here and do something different.

We'll see. I'd say I'm a "creature of habit," and there is something to that. But mostly I think I'm just lazy.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:23 Saturday, 23 March 2024

We're "whistling past the graveyard" here in the Sunshine State. We're one or two major hurricanes away from an economic disaster of biblical proportions. It's the insurance crisis. We have not priced in the "risk" of climate disasters in Florida, even as that risk has grown and the state has (over) developed to place even more property in harm's way. The size of the impending disaster has grown in two dimensions. More powerful hurricanes. More property to destroy.

But folks are beginning to notice.

Seriously, if you're even thinking of moving to Florida, don't. And if you live here and can get out, do so. We're kinda stuck. So we hold our breath every year, hoping this one won't be the "big one."

Not a great way to live. But I learned long ago that everything you have can be taken away from you.

And all we ever really have are moments to live, and each other.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:33 Friday, 22 March 2024

Heading out this morning to see the Ghostbusters movie with my son and grandson. Productivity here has been non-existent this week. I'll be alone all of next week, so maybe things will improve.

"Productivity." Hah! Who am I kidding? I'm retired! I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. Or, at least not the things I'd "planned" to get done.

Disk Utility reports I have 67GB of actual "free" space on my SSD this morning. That's still too little. I moved a bunch of images and movies from the internal SSD to an external one. Watched a time lapse movie I'd recorded at the Finger Lakes and noticed a dear wander through the frame for the first time. Of course, digging through old Photos libraries wasn't contemplated earlier this week either.

Something was up with Kottke's RSS feed. Hadn't noticed he was missing until dozens of posts showed up at once in the Blogs category. Thought I'd have a lot of interesting stuff to peruse, but it was just Kottke. He's great, don't get me wrong. But a little bit goes a long way and a huge backlog like that is just not feasible. "Mark all as read," and move on.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:06 Friday, 22 March 2024

I'm not much of an Apple (the corporation) fan these days, but if Apple is such a monopoly, why is Safari, the default browser on the "monopoly" platform, unsupported on so many official web pages?

The Social Security Administration, DFAS, I'm sure there are others, all report that Safari is "unsupported." I refuse to install Google Chrome (and someone should investigate what Google does with our data in its data centers), so I have Firefox for those sites.

This morning, I was reading a news piece in NetNewsWire that has an embedded map created by, of course, Google, and there was a red banner across it that I was using an unsupported browser. (NNW was using Webkit, which is the foundation of Safari.)

Is Safari somehow deficient? I thought all browsers were now "standards compliant." Why is the default browser on a supposed "monopoly" platform "unsupported"?

Is this 1999?

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:59 Friday, 22 March 2024

I shot this on July 5, 2017 with my E-PL7, which I liked to travel with back then. This is a downsized version of a downsized version, I'd have to go into my old library and look for the original. I just searched for E-PL7 "favorites" in my Photos library and this is one of them.

Some years ago, I decided to try and save space in my Photos library by only adding 3MP versions, then increased that to 5MP, now I just do full-res and deal with the heartache of finite disk space.

But I liked this shot. Shot it with the 14-150mm super-zoom. Kind of a big lens for that body, but I had a cheap, detachable grip/L-plate that I could use when the 14-150 was on it.

Anyway. Cool camera. Looking forward to getting a black one. It'll take better pictures! 😜

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:30 Thursday, 21 March 2024

After posting the preceding, we went out to the garden and I planted the sugar snap peas that had still been rooting in their little pots. They were well rooted and now they're planted in the soil and watered. We'll get some rain this weekend, but I wanted to make sure they were happy after the intrusion.

In the interim, a reply appeared in my email and the sexy black E-PL7 is mine. I didn't think they'd go for the offer because it was more than 10% below the asking price. Based on the pics, it'll need a bit of a cleanup, but the screen is good. You never really know since some of these sellers don't take very good product shots.

But they knew how to call up the maintenance screen and show the number of shutter activations, and that's valuable information. U.S. seller, there seem to be more PENs available from Japan. I've had pretty good luck with Japanese sellers, but with the E-PL7 their prices tend toward the higher side on the good ones, and there were few black ones. Mostly silver and quite a few white.

Complete setup with the charger, flash, two batteries and one of those pleather half-cases and a snap-over case, which will be banished to the dark recesses of a drawer somewhere. It's also wearing a brown pleather neck strap and that likewise will disappear.

Yeah, I probably need an intervention.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:40 Thursday, 21 March 2024