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diff --git a/content-org/.#blog.org b/content-org/.#blog.org new file mode 120000 index 0000000..3cd0383 --- /dev/null +++ b/content-org/.#blog.org @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +mms@voyager.local.5880:1735849363
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content-org/blog.org b/content-org/blog.org index 620622d..604ee42 100644 --- a/content-org/blog.org +++ b/content-org/blog.org @@ -7,14 +7,7 @@ #+HUGO_WEIGHT: auto #+HUGO_SECTION: blog - -* 2024 [108/110] :@blog: -:PROPERTIES: -:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2024 -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image_dir "blog/images" :image_max_width 600 -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: image yt bookmark-month -:END: - +* FUTURE ** TODO Why I don't have header images @@ -63,7 +56,6 @@ Images are made to add additional value to the text, not to make it load slower. [fn:cool] Except of [[https://emacs.crys.site/][Coolmacs]]. Love you, Drew! - ** Archive and Wiki ** Timothy Cain on Capitalism @@ -124,6 +116,201 @@ Microsoft GitHub is still not near the biggest sin an Open Source can commit whe ** + + +* 2025 [2/4] :@blog: +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2025 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image_dir "blog/images" :image_max_width 600 +:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: image yt bookmark-month +:END: + +** TODO It's power of lo... blogs + +*Please note that content warning is warranted.* +*It's a nice post, but it touches the subject of cancer* + +When my wife got diagnosed with cancer, I became angry. +A few months later, the anger left and in it's place came cripling panic. +But then the scariest though came in: I am the one least impacted by it. +She was a doughther, wife but now she bacame a mother also. + +I was raised without a father, and it left huge scar on me. +Often have I woundered who would I be if there was a male figure to learn from. +But my son could have been raised without a mother. + +** TODO Phone of my dreams + +I have not chosen to be a phone user; it's the society who decied that requiring this peace of crap for anything is a great idea. +Ordering food? +A scooter maybe? +Taxi? +How about paying for stuff? +Listening to music? +We had all those handled elegantly, but the terror of modern tech decided that it was never good enough. + +I hate modern phone, yet I always have it at hand. +I hate everything about it: the battery, the size, the lack of buttons. +But if I had a chance to create a phone, what would I incorporate? + +1. Size. + I use an Iphone 13 mini and it's a bit too big for my use. + It's considered a post-stamp sized, but I'd love something smaller, like the phones of late 90s. +2. No edge-to-edge screen. + I already have problems holding the damn thing. + iPhone 4 level bezels were great. + They may have /looked/ worse, but they were a pleasure to use. +3. Buttons. + I /understand/ that moving all interaction into a screen allowed companies to destroy our society, and that it would be much less addicting with a 12 button grid, bit I don't /get/ it. + Especially recently, with recent iOS versions, I grew to hate it. + Guestures became error-prone, typing became harder (unless you use some swipe thingy which I was never able to get into), power drain became bigger problem. + Since I don't want a single lamp ocupying entirety of the front, I'd reduce the screen to have (at the very least) a few buttons for quick access. + Those floating icons on bottom on my screen? + Yeah, I'd love them to be buttons. +4. Hackability. + Of couse I'd love a phone I can adjust to my needs. + Sending SMS via SSH? + Cool! + Making emacs the entire UI? + Count me in. + Having a working GNU/Linux? + Color me intrigued! + Look with digust at every update making the interaction more diffult and ugier? + I'm out. +5. Headphone jack. + This goes without saying. + I don'w own any wireless headphones, so I am forced into dongle-life. + The [[https://www.crowdsupply.com/cool-tech-zone/tangara][gaypod]] seems like a great device, but sadly pockets are not infinite, as I've learned. +6. E-ink screen. + Yeah, I don't think anything just a single-tap away will make my video addiction less present. + I'd love the screen be designed not for dopaime rush, but for usability. + E-ink is better for battery, viewing in any condition and so on. + It should have been the future on all mobile devices, but this would not +7. No internet needed. + I'd love if my phone was local-first - local email, local bookmarks and & fetching RSS in the background. + I want to control what, where, and when sends data in to the vast web. +8. No-finger pointing device. + I don't know if it's the UX or my fingers, but I'd love something in between a device and me. + I don't care about multi touch, buttons would better. + Maybe something pen-shaped? + It could even hide in the device itself! + Most important features are controllable via real buttons after all. +9. User replacable battery +10. User expandable storage +11. Has good camera + +It seems I want not a modern-day smartphone, but rather augumented... phone. +I look at Palm devices with envy, as adding a moden modem to them would make it as close as it gets. +Devices created with purpose (noticed I have not mentined an built-in program store?), and with better interaction model. +A device for a more civilized time, as one might say. + +** DONE Bookmark dump for December 2024 +CLOSED: [2025-01-03 Fri 16:14] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: bookmarks-dec +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Link dump! +:END: + +#+attr_shortcode: :month 2024-12 +#+begin_bookmark-month +2024-11 +#+end_bookmark-month + +** DONE 2024 in retrospect +CLOSED: [2025-01-02 Thu 21:37] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: 2024-in-retrospect +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Abstract Content warnig: cancer, developmental problem and other scares +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening Nightwolf ยท Bohren & der Club of Gore +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :Listening_Url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_sAquIWE8o +:END: + +*Please note that content warning is warranted.* +*The year was good, but I touch unpleasant subjects.* +*/O tempora!/* + +I have never done a retrospect here. +I've made the rookie mistake of writing (or even having) plans for upcoming year, but that was futile. +Now I don't even plans of dinner. +So, even though mistakes were made in the past, this time I am armed with experience and only looking back. + +Let's start with my personal life. +I don't write about it often, as it's trespassing on the lives of closest to me, but I think they'll allow me to indulge myself here. +It's also a subject I don't particularly /enjoy/ thinking of, not to even mention writing about. +The last few years of my life were centered around two things: my wife's cancer and my son's developmental problems. +I think I'll write about what king of toll being a cancer caregiver takes, but that's not the day. +Today is a happy day, as both of those things are doing great... or terribly, depending on who you ask! +My wife is now 6 years after initial treatment and still in full remission. +It's crazy expensive ([[https://justyna.sapka.me][we are raising funds for continuous treatment!]]), but she beat all chances and prognoses. +Not only is she still alive, but her cancer has not shown any signs of returning. +Similarly, my son (who was born prematurely) is beating all his problems like a champ. +He struggles, but all signs point toward him needing only some extra time to catch up. +Being a father of prematurely born child is a horror show on it's own, but none of the worst cases materialized. +I am also not showing no bigger problems, though it is time to do something about my cholesterol - it's elevated and I'm /almost/ 40, so it's time. +I have been diagnosed with asthma, but it seems I had it my entire life. +All in all, my personal life is as good as it could have been. +I was not expecting it to be as good as it is, but panic attacks still happen, and dreams often become nightmares. + +In other side of my personal life, my father passed away. +We had complicated relation, and I still don't know how I feel about his death. +Another subject I don't want to pollute this happy site with. + +Work-wise, well. +I was not laid off, which is an accomplishment in 2024. +But what have I done? +On one hand, I have not much to show. +I enjoy it, I like our product and my team - which is always great. +I also don't have much stress - which is extremely great. +Just think: I could have ended in something like Netflix! +I would have had heart attack by now! +I have also delivered some /small/ projects which was a lot of fun. +Recently, I've added plain-text transactional emails to one of the subsystems we own, which brought a huge smile to my face, even though I don't think any client will notice. +It was a rather a case of thing I wanted to do to make the product (and the web) better. + +But more important things come from years of introspection. +I've been a software engineer for 10 years now (in the same company btw!), ever since I've changed fields from semi-manual labor. +After this 10 years I think I start to understand what /kind/ of software engineer I want to be. +I am glad I work on the backend (I like Ruby more and more), and I love that most of my work can be done using terminal and Emacs. +I don't care much about new technologies, even if some say it's professional suicide. +What I care about it simplicity and stability. +And even though we work with Kubernetes running on AWS, I think my little world allows for that. +I have yet to be forced to do anything with GenAI, and somehow I managed to leave a small crack in our "local" development environment which will allow me not to use docker. +What I add to the plate is a different mindset, as I am an outlier. +Unique doesn't always mean good, but I think in this case it does. +I'd love to have some more cool projects shipped /under my lead/ next year, and there are signs for that. +What I'd love even more would be if I believed in the product side of the project - but that also looks promising. + +Money is between those two areas. +Funny, how swiftly priorities shift when health problems arise - and I don't even live in the US! +My mental state /requires/ me to have a significant buffer of rainy day founds. +If my wife's illness returns - it will be expensive. +If my son's problems get worse - it will be expensive. +If my CEO gets the crazy idea of mutating my position into some GenAI investment - there will be no income. +I /need/ to have a dozen or so months of normal expenses secured, and my earnings allow for that. +Guess this is why I look at apartment prices with laughter (1,5mil PLN for 70 meters? This stopped being funny some half a mil ago.), as I can't add a huge liability. +This is also why I'm delaying purchasing a real computer for months, even though I really-really-really want to have full FreeBSD compatible desktop. +My job allows me to save a not insignificant sum, and this is what allows me to sleep at night. + +Sadly, the IT business is going in the worst direction, but I've already [[/blog/2024/llms-scare-me/][written about it]]. +As a counter measure, as I still love computes, my spare time is split between just few things. +I hack on this site, I use old tech (FVMW! Emacs), I interact with like minded folks online (IRC, Mastodon). +I love you all - the people I social with, and you who read this via web or RSS. +I have also started my first /true/ open source project - [[/projects/chotto/][Chotto]], and it should be usable in a month or so. + +A good year is a boring year. +A great year is a very boring year. +I look at future with growing distaste and huge amount of panic. +2024 has bean a good year, as nothing bad happened to me or the closest to me. + +Here's to another dull year! + +* 2024 [108/108] :@blog: +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2024 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image_dir "blog/images" :image_max_width 600 +:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: image yt bookmark-month +:END: + ** DONE LLMs are everything that it wrong in the world of computing CLOSED: [2024-12-23 Mon 21:53] :PROPERTIES: @@ -2559,54 +2746,6 @@ All those were effective for a few days, but none of them stayed with me. Anyway, here are 7 habbits of very effective people who follow Murakami's schedule for a week and it changed their lives. Oh, look! An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFHpuc4yqzk][2 hour long Ultima III]] analysis. -** TODO no wait? - -I was never much of a gamer. -I played games, mind you. -I played a lot of games actually. -And I still regularly indulge myself in a game on a borrowed PS4. -But, if anything, I would call myself an extremely casual gamer. -Sunday gamer, as we call similar type of a driver here in Poland. -Funny enough, sunday evenings are when I game most often. - -But the games changed significantly since my younger days. -No longer can one play for an hour here and there, no. -If you have a longer break (and I have longer breaks), you will forget what you've learned and what the game expects of you. -There so many mechanics, combinations and so on, that for the dozens of hours of a single playthgough it seem to be expected to treat the game as a job. -You could easily play Duke 3d or Quake 3 an hour a month, just to have some fun. -It was simple, focued and transplantable inside a genre. - -If you want to be good a game, any particular game, you need to dedicate a lot of time. -I don't even start multiplayer, because that alone is an infinite timesink, with all that games as a service nonsense - -And I am 38. -I have a job and I have a kid. -What I don't have is 100 hours in 3 days to play Witcher 3 in a week. - -I prefer it that way. -Instead of being a "gamer", I try get a varried dose of entertainment in this time constrained environment. -Recently I've beenreading a lot of books. -Something I was unable to do for quite some time, due to varius personal reasons. - -I love them becase the are of a singular vission. -One person wrote them and envisione them. -There was no meeting of a focus group and multi-level acceptance process. -Books are not games, and books are not TV shows. -This is why I value them the highest - they are an expression of the writer, even if editor had a lot to say. - -This is also why I love older tv shows. -They were episodic, so one bad expisode was not a catastrophy. -You could take risks and not care that much about /lore/. -It was fun. - -One thing I don't get from currently released big production is this exact fun. -They are well made, they are huge in scope, they know what the public wants after all. -But there is very little /joy/. -When I enter particularly large area I don't feel excitement. -What lies ahead is not full of amusement, but of annoyances. -And this is my primary reason why I don't see Games as the highest form of entertainment. -There may be great story, but it's all serving the /gameplay/ which more often than not it a series of annoayanes. - ** DONE Never invest in DRM-ed content CLOSED: [2024-07-29 Mon 01:25] :PROPERTIES: @@ -6212,7 +6351,7 @@ So, you have the best features from Ubuntu (stable versions), Arch (cutting edge I am **this** close to installing FreeBSD on my personal computer. My work-issued Macbook is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)#Kernel][already running a BSD derivative]]... for better or worse. -** 2022 +* 2022 :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: blog/2022 :END: diff --git a/content-org/reviews.org b/content-org/reviews.org index efe59de..c8a4242 100644 --- a/content-org/reviews.org +++ b/content-org/reviews.org @@ -867,6 +867,119 @@ A true marvel you owe yourself to experience. ** TODO Monday Begins on Saturday (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1965) +What do you get when you combine folk tales and socialisitic analysis? + +/Monday Begins on Saturday/ is yet another Science Fiction novel by Strugatsky Brothers I've read this year. +It is also the weirdest one of those! + +Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov is a young programmer on his way to his new position. +His car breaks down, he meets strange fellows who recruit him to a nearby "Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry". +Yup - this is not run of the mill institute, as we're not dealing with boring stuf, like phisics. +Instead we've got magic, magical beasts and the pursuit to find happiness. +Nice combination, if you ask me. + +Strugaccy stray from western tropes. +Their adventure as writers started deep into praising socialism. +We'll go to space and show them all the nice things communism brings! +With time, they've abandoned the hope. +/Monday.../ was released right after /[[/reviews/books/hard-to-be-a-god-strugatsky-1964/][Hard to be God]]/ and they show striking similiarities. +The latter was a grim tale about the terrible nature of man, where happines does not exist. +This book is a funny novel about the terrible nature of the world, where happines is as real as a Baba Yaga. +It's also a great critical analysis of soviet ideas, but for that /[[/reviews/books/moscow-2042-1986/][Moscow 2042]]/ seems better written. + +- magic in mundane +- it is treated like any other science + +The idea is great, but it may be confusing for western audiences as it's rooted in Russian folklore. +I have more gripes with how the novel is constructed, as we're seemingly without a plot. +The Institute and Privalov (aka Sasha, don't ask me how) who is slowly learning about magic is the only element connecting pages. +The actual story is presented as series of disjointed stories, each with it's own begging and end. +Sure, some stories may conclude much later, but they don't build on each other. +The novel oconsistes of three parts, and each following is less and less guilty of that, but it's never a /novel/ in a common sense. + +The Institute is ocupied by wonderfully mad characters, much like Invisible Instutute from Discworld. +We've got a former grand inquisitor in chart of the Deparament of Meaning of Life; a director who has two personalities which have no idea what the other one is doing. +Some ideas are also amazingly creative - have you ever heard of using a geenie as a a bomb? +Each single part of the novel is great, but I had problrem with the complete set. +It's a collection of short stories with overarching plot. + +Personally, I loved the last part the most as the final mystery is revealed and it's very intiguing concept. + +So, as I've praised and recomended all Strugasky Brothers novels up to this, I have a bit of problem here. +As I've finished it a few months ago and had some time to digest it, I consider it another bullseye. +But when I read it, I sad much more problems, as the story-based structure is much less gripping that a full-on novel. +I'm glad I've read it, but I will never re-read it. + +** TODO The Courts of Chaos (Roger Zelazny, 1978) +CLOSED: [2024-03-24 Sun 22:27] +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: time-of-contempt +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract My review of the second book in the Witcher saga +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :aliases '(/blog/2024/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt /brain-rot/witcher/andrzej-sapkowskis-time-of-contempt/) +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :rating 3.5 +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :image reviews/covers/sapkowski-time-of-contemt.jpg +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :related '("Witcher Saga") +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :relatedName Time of Contempt +:END: + +It's a stain of my honor - I am a Pole, but I've never read The Saga. +It's not that I've never read any of The Witcher, but somehow I always stopped after the short stories. +Last year I've decided to finally fix this. +I am a proud nerd for crying out loud! + +/Time of Contempt/ is the second part of The Witcher Saga, but it's also the 4th book about Geralt and his world. +Let's ignore the short stories for a second and let's talk about this book in context of The Saga. +Here it suffers from being the middle child: Andrzej is developing the characters and story, but it lacks a impactful begging and an end. +I haven't felt like that after finishing the /Blood of Elves,/ as it had a /begging/ and the ending was emotional. +Geralt reunited with Ciri. +The story is clearly not over, but we have a kind of closure. +We know she is safe and ready for what's coming next. + +Here? +Here we have no beginning as it follows the last book. +It was to be expected. +But I fail to notice anything new created here. +Yes, we've got /amazing/ development of Ciri (I can't wait what how her blood heritage will screw over everyone), but nothing more. +It just moves from scene to scene[fn:st], not spending any meaningful time anywhere. +After 300 pages of this, it ends with Ciri joining some random group. +I guess I will get to know them in /Baptism of Fire/, but I am not yet there. +Are they good? +Are they cool? +Who the hell they even are? +For me it was a huge let down. + +But the biggest thing missing in The Saga is humour. +Both, /Sword of Destiny/ and /Last Wish/ were hilarious. +It was not on Pratchett's level of humor, but Geralt was amazing when it came to deadpan. +Moreover, I have no idea how well it translated to other languages, as it was based on Polish humour, but: +the books were written for Polish reader who was expected to know /Szewczyk Dratewka,/ and therefore the way Geralt dealt with dragon was a funny refernce. +But this aspect is now completely missingm[fn:enemy-mine], but it was what made the short stories for me. + +The biggest problem for me however was the fact I saw two seasons of The Witcher TV Series[fn:netflix]. +It was terrible and had nothing to do with the book (luckily for me!), but the TV versions of Ciri and Yennefer were irritating at best. +Their book counterparts are not like that - Ciri is extremely cool and Yen is, well, not so bad - but the visual image is etched in my brain. +I finally start to have a separate personnas for them, but it was difficult. +Yes, to some extent Netflix ruined the books for me. + +I was never a fan of /fantasy/, as I always preferred /SciFi/. +Give me a blaster or give me death[fn:rand]! +If I found /Time of Contempt/ as a random book, I would not care for the rest of the series. +It was ok, but nothing to write home about. +Sapkowski has a great style and I very much want more, but he has not told anything interesting here. +I will continue reading The Witcher, but mostly because it *is* The Witcher. + +I liked reading /Blood of Elves/ much more. + +I give it 3.5/5. + +[fn:rand] If you get the refence know, that I am no longer that type of a person. +[fn:enemy-mine] We've got *huge* reference to /Enemy Mine/ in the single best part of the book, but it's not funny at all. +Sad, scary - sure; but not funny. Just like the movie. +[fn:st] ... /No one had a chance to interrupt/. +/It was really quite hypnotic/. +[fn:netflix] And not an episode more. +It was already too much. + * Movies [15/15] :@reviews: :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_HUGO_SECTION: reviews/movies |