My current obsession has been thinking about #ActivityPub and owning my own space and data. I've been tossing around ideas for how to host my own identity on my own server/domain while still hosting a static site on the same domain, as well as decoupling that identity from any particular app or instance.
... And you know what? #atproto as used in #bluesky seems to solve all these problems (in theory - it's still in the process of being built)
In #StarWars canon: Project Necromancer.
In the writers room: Project "Somehow Palpatine Returned"
My wife uses the word "overpeopled" to mean overstimulated by too much social interaction with too many people.
"I'm good, I'm just overpeopled right now."
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Discover Typewriter Scroll Plugin: A Hidden Gem for Obsidian Users - Ric Raftis
I want to shine a light on one such plugin that has significantly improved my writing experience in Obsidian: the Typewriter Scroll.Ric Raftis
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@Ric Raftis :obsidian: 🇺🇦
Thanks for the shout-out, Ric! I'm glad you appreciate the plugin.
Brief editorial note: it's Pedersen, not Pederson (a pretty common mistake, and there are no hard feelings about it or anything)
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OBTF, Subtext, ELF... Oh my!
Some random ideas that have popped up are sort of coalescing. Into what, I'm not sure yet. But I fell down a rabbit hole, and this article represents my climb back up. As such, I wouldn't consider this a proper, professional think piece. Just some notes, thoughts and scratchings that I decided to share.
OBTF
@Ellane W has been documenting her experiments with OBTF (One Big Text File) (link). She links off to others who are doing this, and it's something I've seen before and not paid too much attention to. But now I'm seriously considering it.
One thing she's doing that stuck out to me, is following bullet-journaling principals and marking each entry with a single letter followed by a period (e.g. N.
for note, T.
for task, E.
for event...). She chose letters rather than symbols so they could be quickly and easily entered on a phone without too much hunting. Double-tapping space will enter the period for her. Plus it's simple to search write queries for.
Subtext
Entirely separate to that whole thing, I stumbled across Subtext, which bills itself as "markup for note taking". The general idea is to treat each line as its own block with a "sigil" at the start indicating the block's purpose (e.g. #
for heading, -
for list item, >
for quote). It bears a resemblance to markdown, except for that focus on blocks, and a complete lack of formatting (it's an index card, not a page).
It also supports linking, through simple URLs (or surrounding unusual URLS in <>
), as well as shorthand "slashlinks" to local files. The intention is for links to be transcluded. This allows things like tables to be included by linking to a CSV file. Or if you really need presentation formatting, you can link to a markdown file or PDF or something.
ELF
Subtext is conceptually similar to Ted Nelson's idea of an ELF (Evolutionary List File). An ELF has three elements:
- Entries: A discrete unit of information designated by the user. Text (long or short), symbols, pictures, anything. I could see these as "files" as they exist today. Remember, Ted was living in the 60s and 70s and imagining the future of computers at this point.
- Lists: An ordered set of entries as designated by the user. An entry can exist in any number of lists. #MOC s?
- Links: A connector, designated by the user, between two entries in different lists. An entry in one list may be linked to only one entry in another list. Of course, entries in lists can be linked to from multiple places
I think of Notion. Every Notion "document" is actually a list of blocks that can be of different types. Blocks can be linked to specifically.
Backlinks are a big thing, too. Seeing everything that links to the entry you're looking at is important. Of course, Ted is all about that transclusion, too. So this is where the "slashlinks" of Subtext come into it. A Subtext file is a list of entries. There is one entry per line - mostly plain-text, with specified "sigils" to indicate different types of meanings, or URLs/slashlinks, which can transclude files as different kinds of entries. As a plain-text file, it can't really block-reference entries in other list files, so it doesn't quite fit the ELF 100%, but it's close.
Putting it all together
Can we use the Subtext and ELF principals in OBTF? Subtext "sigils" are basically just the bullet types Ellaine was using for her bullet-journal-style approach to the OBTF. Also keep in mind that the OBTF isn't the entire knowledge base - it's just an inbox; a staging area; a replacement for your daily notes; an ever-evolving #MOC of your day-to-day life.
It's a highly personal thing. You could make a note in your OBTF, then later refactor it out into its own note file (I would leave the OBTF entry as-is and just link it to the new note). You can quick-capture tasks, which you keep track of through other means (by Dataview queries in Obsidian, or moving them over to a task management app as part of a daily process). It's all up to you.
I think I'm inspired to start my own OBTF experiment. I've been off-and-on looking for a new journaling practice since I fell off that bandwagon many years ago, but nothing has quite stuck. Maybe I could try some form of interstitial journaling, along with capturing tasks, ideas, meeting notes, etc in a OBTF list, using bullet journaling principals for each entry. As I intend to keep this file in Obsidian, I intend to use markdown-compatible "sigils" from Subtext (e.g. #
for heading, -
for list item, >
for quote), as well as others like - [ ]
for tasks.
There are some plugins/styles for rendering different kinds of "task statuses", too. I could render - [i]
as a lightbulb (💡) for example. Simple to search for and query, as well. A bit cumbersome to type on mobile, but I could put in some work to customize the toolbar in obsidian mobile...
Alternately, I could just keep things like "ideas" as basic text blocks with a hashtag (e.g. #idea
) at the end of the line if it's something I'll want to search for later. It might resemble a more free-form journal that way.
As I stated at the start, this was a collection of ideas I needed to braindump and decided to share. So I don't really have a proper conclusion for you.
I'm wondering about rigging up a static site generator to fetch statuses from Friendica/Mastodon, with some JavaScript on the individual status pages to fetch any replies / conversations.
But it's complicated.
I'm liking omg.lol's approach with a kind of static-page CMS for home and now pages, with a status log built in which posts to Mastodon (shoutout to @Prami ), but it's not the same as a website on my own domain, nor is it the same as having community interaction like on Mastodon, etc.
There is this huge, untapped potential to combine these things. But I lack the expertise and funding to build it myself, which frustrates me.
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So... where do you fit in??
Please partake and please boost
#Generations
#HumanUnity
#DiversityIsStrength
- Boomers (60 - 78 yrs old) (8%, 58 votes)
- Gen X (44 - 59 yrs old) (46%, 310 votes)
- Millennials (28-43 yrs old) (38%, 257 votes)
- Zoomers (12 - 27 yrs old) (5%, 37 votes)
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If the #AppleVisionPro is the next "iPhone moment"...
Then I'll wait for the 3rd gen.
Or the cheaper, more open Android equivalent.
I could wait for Microsoft's answer, but it would probably be too late and fail to garner support from developers, even if it is better than the alternatives.
@Magnus Hedemark
You're probably right.
I was thinking that they already have the HoloLens they could build onto as a competitor... But then I remembered they also had Windows phones/PDAs before the iPhone hit, too.
Don't bother repeating history, Microsoft.
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Most mood trackers I've seen just rank from negative to positive, and I feel like there's a lot of nuance there that is lost.
If I have a negative day, it doesn't necessarily mean I was ☹️. I might've been angry or irritable or just sick.
Has anyone seen any good alternatives?
It seems like a problem that is likely solved somewhere already.
Like a rating of 1-5 for each of "pessimistic optimistic", "serene manic", "peaceful angry", etc.
(I'd need to come up with a definitive list)
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PSA for my friends:
Mastodon has no algorithms. That might be a tad weird, especially for people who come from Xitter or FB where a Like actually triggers something.
Here, a Like triggers only one thing: a smile on my face. Thank you.
If you think more people should read a post, you must boost it. Then your friends can see it in their timeline. Nothing else.
There is no algorithm. You see posts by who you follow and what those people share by boosting.
Simple.
It's people, not algos.
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I recently organised everyone I'm following into lists, and I found I have no need for my home timeline.
I'm now using the single toolbar and wanted to hide the home timeline altogether. But when I did so, something weird happened and a bunch of my lists and timelines got duplicated.
Is this a known issue?
Couldn't sleep last night, started writing a manifesto, couldn't focus today, finished and posted to my personal blog.
https://blog.webb.page/2024-01-16-manifesto.neue.txt
It's essentially a call-to-action. The internet we miss is zombified; let's work on a new one, with intention.
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However, I mostly interface to it via the #fedilab app (https://fedilab.app, @[email protected]), which saves my positions in feeds and, crucially, allows me to seamlessly follow external instances, such as the lovely people at https://pkm.social
I wish I could do this in #friendica itself, too.
It's like the bookmark feature on #mastodon, but supercharged.
Friends have previously told me they could see me getting a job somewhere just to fix a bug or bad UX choices that bother me.
In absolutely unrelated news, does anyone know if the Microsoft Teams team is hiring?
Learned a new word today:
respair
From the 16th century. It means "fresh hope, and recovery from despair."
I wish you all a year filled with respair.
Please feel free to pass it on to others; this one needs to be spread around, I think.
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There was an electrical storm yesterday, and one bolt of lightning did hit quite close to home, but no breakers or anything seemed to be tripped, and nothing else has malfunctioned.
But when I try to turn the stereo on, the backlight does not turn on, it flashes "STANDBY" and then turns off again.
Hopefully there's something I can do to save it...
It's that time of year where one reflects on the year that has passed and looks forward to the new one. A lot of people like to set a "theme" for the new year, which is something I've not done before.
But next year, I think I'd like to set a theme of #focus
Focus is something I constantly struggle with, and I really need to step up my game.
So how does one practice focus? What does that even mean? That is what I'm setting out to discover.
Focus Toolkit: Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration
Listen to this episode from Huberman Lab on Spotify. In this episode, I provide a list of behavioral, nutritional, and supplement-based tools you can use to improve your ability to get into a focused state to do mental or physical work.Focus Toolkit: Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration (Spotify)
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Thanks for sharing, @[email protected]
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNaQyFE4/
@Fedilab Apps
I absolutely love the ability of #fedilab to be able to remote follow instances. I've set up my own single-user instance (#friendica) and being able to follow instances is awesome for my very blank timeline.
I have a question - more technical than a feature request - is it possible/feasible to post to another instance's shared inbox endpoint to show in their local public feed?
Gordon Pedersen
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