Big ideas require a big piece of paper. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
— The person who did, in fact, make this rule.
Et Cetera
“Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons, ‘twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we’re made.”
2024 App Defaults
As we head out of 2024, these are the apps I’m using.
- (Computing) Bookmarks: Raindrop
- (Computing) Browser: Firefox
- (Computing) Calendar: Apple Calendar
- (Computing) Chat: Beeper (Discord + Signal)
- (Computing) Cloud Storage: iCloud Drive
- (Computing) Passwords: 1Password
- (Computing) Photo Management: Apple Photos
- (eMail) Mail Client: Apple Mail
- (eMail) Mail Server: Fastmail
- (Entertainment) Media Player: Infuse Pro
- (Entertainment) Music: Apple Music, Radio Paradise, a growing collection of physical media
- (Entertainment) Podcasts: Pocket Casts
- (Finance) Budgeting: YNAB
- (Health) Body Tracking: Whoop
- (Health) Meal Planning: Plan To Eat
- (Health) Workout Tracking: Gentler Streak
- (Reading) Book Tracking: Hardcover
- (Reading) eBook Management: Calibre
- (Reading) eReader: Kobo Sage
- (Reading) Read It Later: Readwise Reader
- (Reading) RSS: The Old Reader + NetNewsWire
- (Social) Contacts: Apple Contacts
- (Travel) Flight Tracking: Flighty
- (Travel) Trip Planning: Tripsy
- (Writing) Blogging: Micro.blog
- (Writing) Word Processing: VS Code (need a real answer here, considering iA Writer)
- News: N/A
- Notetaking: Apple Notes
- PKM: Obsidian
- Presentations: N/A
- Project Tracking: YouTrack
- Shopping Lists: Obsidian
- Spreadsheets: Apple Numbers (with monumental effort)
- Todo: Omnifocus
On Generative AI
I would describe myself as “cautiously optimistic” about generative AI. LLMs are clearly capable of doing some useful things. Anyone who tries to argue otherwise at this point probably sounds a lot like they’re trying to argue the sky isn’t blue or the moon isn’t cheese.
For a little background, I first heard about GPT-2 back when it came out, a couple of years before ChatGPT hit the world stage, and some of the smartest nerds I know were marveling at the fact that you could get it to play chess competently. This was a surprising result, because LLMs use statistical techniques against words to predict outputs given an input. It shouldn’t know what “chess” is, and it shouldn’t be competent at the game.
Thinking out loud about the iPad
I have owned several iPads, and the role of the iPad in my life has changed over the years. With today’s announcement of the new iPad mini, I think it’s time to reevaluate which iPad(s) I need, and potentially start the trade-in process.
Question #1: What do I actually use my iPad for today?
I have an iPad mini. I bought it around the time my kindle kicked the bucket, and my intention was to use it mainly as a reading device. In my mind I thought it’d take it with me on appointments, but in practice I don’t have many of those. It has come with me on every flight since I’ve owned it, and it does a lot of heavy lifting as the main thing I do to keep myself busy while traveling. In that context, I mostly read blog posts through Readwise Reader.
From the journals of St. Rev. Dr. McPunch, Dweller, Vault 76
“Reclamation day” my entire ass. The vault has everything we need, and I’ve spent most of my life in it! Everyone else was in a hurry to get out and see the world. I’ll tell you what you’ll see: a fat lot of nothing. How could there be anything to see? Twenty years isn’t nearly enough time to clear the rads. But I’m running out of food, and I’m going to have to go out there eventually. Might as well be on my terms.
Things I have recently discovered ChatGPT is good at:
- jira templates
- confluence templates
- pictures of disturbingly happy fruit
- philosophical discussions about Zeno’s paradox as applied to disturbingly happy fruit
Things I have recently discovered ChatGPT is not good at:
- pictures of mothman
- pictures of mothman at a pool party
- pictures of mothman at a pool party with other cryptids
My curse is being incredibly picky about UI and UX but not being very good at implementing either.
Whether I live here for six months or six years, I’ve decided that I am not holding my house in escrow for the future owners. There are plenty of milquetoast plain white interior designs on the market, if they really care they’ll buy one of those. My walls shall have opinions.
My ideal April 1st is one where at no point do I see anything related to “April Fools.”
I realize this makes me sound like a buzzkill No-Funsington-Bear. I promise I’m not usually. What I am is exhausted of tricks, pranks, and other japery in poor spirit, poor execution, and poor intention.
We already live in a world where it’s rational to trust very little of what gets posted to the Internet. It’s time to put this “holiday” out of its misery, do us all a favor, and let it diminish and go into the West.