David Merfield and Blot.im
I was already a fan of David Merfield and Blot before today, and then I read all the pages in Blot’s Notes section. What a great dude. This is the kind of philosophical, technical, monetary, and aesthetic restraint I want to get better at:
No, I probably don’t want to subscribe to your newsletter. No, I don’t want this, or that. I just want to read your webpage and get on with my life.
We use a text-file (todo.txt) to keep track of tasks. If somebody needs to be notified when a task is complete, I include a link to the appropriate email thread in the task. This text-file is checked into version control which means we can easily summarize our completed tasks — the feed of work completed on Blot’s news page is generated automatically from this todo list.
I’ve used a variety of complicated tools to track tasks in the past but I still prefer a text-file.
Blot/todo.txt at master · davidmerfield/Blot · GitHub
Gaze upon it. A public todo.txt file that he actually uses.
So you accept that free speech causes harm?
Yes, I think that being serious about the principle of free speech means accepting that free speech causes harm. My belief is that the harm resulting from censorship is greater than the harm resulting from free speech. To give up the right to determine which words are acceptable to you is to give up a terrible power.
Blot does not have a presence on any of the social media platforms.
…
One of the desperate ideas I had in the past, was to cold-email a number of prominent people and demo them Blot. I decided against this since it seemed undignified.
Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022
Over a century of spinning - A history of Dual - StereoLife Magazine
It’s nice that Dual is back and making new things. I should disassemble, clean, and reassemble the motor in my Dual 1219 and get it back in working order. I just have a mental block against attempting it.
Craft raises $12m in Series B round | Craft Blog Post
We are extremely excited to announce that we have secured $12.2 million in a Series B round led by EBRD Venture Capital, with further participation from earlier backers, Creandum and InReach Ventures.
Uh-oh. I don’t know how venture capital works, but I do know that it has a bad track record of not messing with apps and services one loves.
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022
Org-mode as my exoself — stormrider.io:
Org’s outline mode keeps me focused. Everything I do can be placed in an outline. Higher-level tasks can be given tags that are then inherited by lower-level tasks. Also, when I’m on a task, the bottom of the screen shows me a condensed waterfall, so I always know where each task fits in the overall scheme of things. I always know why I’m doing something, and this takes my mind instantly to the end goal.
If I never left my house and always had my laptop close by, I would absolutely put my entire life into org-mode. I still just love that idea. It can go as deep or as high as you need.
Monday, Sept. 5, 2022
I tried for so long to “be disciplined”, “stick to a schedule”, and “not fall behind” in processing photos. I thought if I slogged through everything one folder or event at a time, I could keep up with the insane pace that I keep adding digital images to Lightroom Classic and Capture One. But I have more fun and it’s less of a burden to just dive in, scroll through, and process whatever photo grabs me, even if it’s just one. If that’s the only thing I get done that day, that’s fine.
We want to see the EXIF data on each others’ photos, but I bet we’d be happier overall if we couldn’t.
Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022
Shane Hawkins is clearly already a monster drummer. Just wish there were better circumstances behind his opportunity to play on stage with Foo Fighters.
Foo Fighters ft. Shane Hawkins Perform “My Hero” | MTV
Julia Baier
I saw this Leica video about Julia Baier, a photographer based in Berlin. I love finding people who can see things I just can’t.
Here’s more from her: