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Think globally, microblog locally
Mon, 30 Apr 2018

Why good people leave large tech companies - Steve Blank https://steveblank.com/2017/07/11/why-good-people-leave-tech-large-companies/

Working outside the tech bubble - Steve Blank https://steveblank.com/2017/08/12/working-outside-the-tech-bubble/

Why Uber is the revenge of the founders - Steve Blank https://steveblank.com/2017/10/24/uber-the-revenge-of-the-founders/

Janesville – A Story About the Rest of America - Steve Blank https://steveblank.com/2018/02/02/janesville-a-story-about-the-rest-of-america/

Have you heard about Steve Blank? https://steveblank.com/

Fri, 27 Apr 2018

I'm using Gvim for all of my news writing/editing, so I'm getting a lot of Vim practice

Are you really Facebook’s product? The history of a dangerous idea - Slate https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/are-you-really-facebooks-product-the-history-of-a-dangerous-idea.html

You know you're in trouble when you see the headline 'Can Kim's Peacemaking Efforts Be Trusted?' and you think they're talking about Kim Kardashian when it's really about Kim Jong Un.

Thu, 26 Apr 2018

Mahavishnu Orchestra - 'Between Nothingness & Eternity (Live)' Can you tell I'm exploring early jazz fusion? This live album is stunning. Love the interplay. Like all good fusion, everybody is burning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmNkGQm1YE4

I keep listening to Chick Corea's first "Return to Forever" album. I love the players and the vibe. I have a newfound interest in Chick and bassist Stanley Clarke. I really love the electric piano - it's like an electric guitar, piano and vibes rolled up into one instrument. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TcSK6MYkpU

Tabasco sauce is in a battle for its very survival - Michael Isaac Stein https://earther.com/tabasco-sauce-is-in-a-battle-for-its-very-survival-1825510123

Wed, 25 Apr 2018

Editing news stories in Vim: I figured out how to make macros and boosted my productivity by switching from Notepad++. Gvim works better when going between web browser and editor in Windows. http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Macros

Tue, 24 Apr 2018

I'm starting @Udemy's Complete Java Masterclass on the recommendation of @soniagupta504 https://twitter.com/soniagupta504/status/988110466923675648

Getting laid off in tech: The myth of upper middle-class security – Aakash Japi https://hackernoon.com/getting-laid-off-in-tech-4e3efed8649b

"Farewell - ETAOIN SHRDLU" (1978) - last day of hot metal type at the New York Times https://vimeo.com/127605643

Mon, 23 Apr 2018

Part of Twitter's appeal is its lack of financial success, real or imagined. It's like they just can't muster being as evil as Facebook.

I'm not 'deleting' my Facebook account, if that's even possible. I'm just not using Facebook. I never used the mobile app, and I'm not opening it on my desktop.

Firefox now has built-in screenshots, but it took me going to this page to figure it out https://screenshots.firefox.com/

What comes after the social media empires - BuzzFeed https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/facebook-youtube-fragmentation

The Windows Subsystem for Linux endgame is a full Linux desktop accessible from within Windows 10. How is this not where Microsoft is going?

How do I make this program? (An article written before I got started with my Ruby script to create and post social updates and then send them to Twitter) http://stevenrosenberg.net/blog/programming/2017_0912_how_do_i_make_this_program

How to back up your /home directory in the Windows Subsystem for Linux without losing permissions before killing your old WSL and installing a new one http://stevenrosenberg.net/blog/windows/linux_on_windows/2017_1013_backup_before_installing_new_wsl

Sat, 21 Apr 2018

When I don’t recommend Clojure – vemv.net https://blog.vemv.net/when-i-dont-recommend-clojure-2597039536ce

Yes, you should delete facebook – Nat Eliason https://medium.com/s/story/yes-you-should-delete-facebook-heres-why-bc623a3b4625

Another year in newspapers; how many more? – an excellent column by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin's @DavidAllen909 https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/04/21/another-year-in-newspapers-how-many-more/

Thu, 19 Apr 2018

I added Markdown syntax highlighting for Notepad++ with a "user defined language" file I got from this Github repo https://github.com/Edditoria/markdown-plus-plus

I am using the Tree Style Tab add-on for @firefox, and it's a bit of a game-changer https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/

Not sure how I stumbled on @ThePracticalDev, but I like it http://dev.to

Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior: I'm not sure what led me to the early albums of Chick Corea's Return to Forever (I think it was Brian Eno's "Music for Airports," or Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint"), but here's another excellent album. Chick burns as usual, and this is a great showcase for guitarist Al Di Meola. The playing is heavy, the tones, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqiC5_88cVQ

Sexual harassment was rampant at Coachella 2018, where Teen Vogue reporter says she was groped 22 times https://www.teenvogue.com/story/sexual-harassment-was-rampant-at-coachella-2018

Chick Corea/Return to Forever - 1972: I love the instrumentation and vibe of this record - kind of a quiet fusion with electric piano and bass with flute and otherworldly vocals. How can you not love Chick on the Fender Rhodes electric piano? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TcSK6MYkpU

Job interviews for programmers now often come with days of unpaid homework — Quartz at Work https://work.qz.com/1254663/job-interviews-for-programmers-now-often-come-with-days-of-unpaid-homework/

Wed, 18 Apr 2018

I’m Ben and I am a Rails developer - Ben Halpern https://dev.to/ben/im-ben-and-i-am-a-rails-developer-1j67

Facebook to ask everyone to accept being tracked so they can keep using it | The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-gdpr-latest-data-ad-tracking-opt-out-stop-ads-marketing-a8310031.html

ClojureScript, beginners' home page http://clojure-script.org/

Cherry MX Board Silent: The keyboard for professionals - ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/cherry-mx-board-silent-the-keyboard-for-professionals/

Tue, 17 Apr 2018

Today's most important article you'll read all day: How to save your privacy from the Internet’s clutches – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/14/how-to-save-your-privacy-from-the-internets-clutches/

The iPhone changed our lives. Now Apple needs to tackle addiction - Tony Faddell/WIRED UK http://www.wired.co.uk/article/tony-fadell-apple-iphone-addiction-control-design

I built a progressive web app and published it in 3 app stores. Here’s what I learned - Judah Gabriel http://debuggerdotbreak.judahgabriel.com/2018/04/13/i-built-a-pwa-and-published-it-in-3-app-stores-heres-what-i-learned/

My day-job Firefox transition is going well. I have been creating and arranging the bookmarks I need. I sync those bookmarks so I have them on all PCs. Tasks still on Chrome: Getting weather information across SoCal (that's a LOT of bookmarks) and Google Maps screen-grabs, which render more clearly on Chrome than FF.

Mon, 16 Apr 2018

The Finns who refuse to give up on Sailfish OS - Engadget https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/01/jolla-sailfish-os-team-interview-mwc/

The missing building blocks of the Web – Anil Dash https://medium.com/@anildash/the-missing-building-blocks-of-the-web-3fa490ae5cbc

The most important article you will read today: It's time to rebuild the web - by Mike Loukides for O'Reilly Media https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/its-time-to-rebuild-the-web

Fri, 13 Apr 2018

It's not like Google didn't have an unfair advantage in collecting data with its ubiquitous search engine, free and functional email and apps, as well as a phone OS, but it also controls the web browser that most of us use. There are other browsers besides Firefox, but for me it stands alone, and its importance today cannot be overstated.

Go: the good, the bad and the ugly - Sylvain Wallez https://bluxte.net/musings/2018/04/10/go-good-bad-ugly/

Build a JSON API with Hugo's custom output formats - Forestry.io: This is huge: Using the Hugo static blogging system as the engine for an API. https://forestry.io/blog/build-a-json-api-with-hugo/

Key to avoiding Firefox tab scrolling: Maximum of 16 tabs (at least on my laptop screen)

To get around the problem in Firefox where you can't see all of your tabs without using scroll buttons (if you have a lot of tabs), I am going to try to uses more windows, and I am making bookmark folders that I can use to populate individual windows more quickly.

I'm doing another serious Firefox test. I already use it for most of my non-day-job browsing, but having so many bookmarks set up in Google Chrome plus Firefox's tab issue (you can only fit so many on the screen before you have to use scroll buttons) has kept me in Chrome.

Thu, 12 Apr 2018

(Puts tinfoil hat on) The worst thing is a smartphone. It's like we're all wearing a wire AND a tracking device at all times. Facebook is telling us how creepy it is in terms of how much data it collects, and while that is oddly refreshing, Google, Amazon, Apple, Twitter and others are being suspiciously quiet about what they do and how much control we have over it.

The question is becoming, "Should we avoid being tracked, and how can we do it?" It sounds very tinfoil hat but likely includes all commercial social-media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat), everything Google, Apple and Amazon, and all branded browsers.

Wed, 11 Apr 2018

I'm really getting into using multiple desktops in Windows 10. Coming from a desktop Linux background, it's yet another thing that Windows is doing that makes a Linux user more comfortable.

How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim? - Vi and Vim Stack Exchange https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/84/how-can-i-copy-text-to-the-system-clipboard-from-vim

The Macros page is a powerful on from the Vim Tips Wiki http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Macros

Mon, 09 Apr 2018

Fascinating story: Nikon versus Canon - A story of technology change https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/nikon-versus-canon-a-story-of-technology-change-45777098038c

Uber acquires dockless bike-share startup Jump - The Verge https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/4/9/17213994/uber-acquires-dockless-bike-share-jump

How to use Cloudflare's DNS service to speed up and secure your internet | ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-use-cloudflares-dns-service-to-speed-up-your-internet-and-protect-your-privacy/

The most important article you will read all day: How to keep your ISP’s nose out of your browser history with encrypted DNS | Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/04/how-to-keep-your-isps-nose-out-of-your-browser-history-with-encrypted-dns/

Facebook urged to make GDPR its 'baseline standard' globally – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/09/facebook-urged-to-make-gdpr-its-baseline-standard-globally/

GIMP 2.10.0 Release Candidate looks great but still can't really work with IPTC metadata, which is a hard requirement for an image editor that I can use. I've been waiting more than 10 years, so I'll keep using IrfanView and digiKam. https://www.gimp.org/news/2018/03/26/gimp-2-10-0-rc1-released/