The zx shell
In researching alternative shells, I came across zx, a JavaScript runtime for shell scripting. It looks great! Perhaps I'll use it some time.
Thoughts from John Karahalis
In researching alternative shells, I came across zx, a JavaScript runtime for shell scripting. It looks great! Perhaps I'll use it some time.
Bash has always felt like a programming language designed by someone who sleeps upside down and eats soup with a fork. I kind of love it, though.
After sharing the previous post about dotfiles and workshops with my dad, he reminded me of a story involving Papou's workshop that reveals how just how analytical I've always been. I don't say that as a boast. There's more to life than logic.
One day, as children, my older sister and I played in Papou's workshop, emulating our beloved grandfather. We hammered at a bench, striking not nails, but rather at the flat surface of the bench itself. Our naive pride must have been cute. At some point, a confused expression came across my face. My subsequent question made everyone laugh:
Why are we doing this?
After honing them for many years, I've finally open-sourced my dotfiles. For those unacquainted, dotfiles are small files that customize a computer and its programs, as well as a set of utilities that make day-to-day operations easier. If a computer is a workshop, dotfiles are the shelves, pegboard, and carefully crafted tools.
I've actually never thought of dotfiles that way until writing that sentence. I'm reminded of my papou's workshop, which he loved just as much, if not more. I guess his skills really do live on in me, albeit in a different form. I also have no doubt he would cry if he could read this. He was extremely sensitive and sweet, a WWII teddy bear. I inherited some of that from him.
In any case, I'm open-sourcing my dotfiles because I hope they can be useful to others. I've shared them under the MIT license, which basically means anyone can use them for any purpose as long as they give me credit. It's another departure from my past ideological support for the GPL, which enforces something like mandatory cooperation. I definitely admire and see the value in the GPL, but I don't think it makes sense for a simple project like this. Use my code! I'm just glad it may be helpful.
On the technical side, I'm really proud of my shell scripts, Bash functions, and methods of organization. I started using docopts in shell scripts about one or two months ago, and it's a real game-changer. I encourage everyone to check it out. It may even help others reuse my code.
Have at it!
In writing about the dangers of social media, I've encountered the objection that social media probably isn't worth worrying about because people said the same thing about the internet, television, radio, books, and so on. I think this objection is flawed for two reasons.
What is clickbait? Some people define clickbait as any headline, thumbnail, or similar (let's call them teasers) that is factually incorrect. I don't agree. I don't think correctness is the point. I think clickbait is any teaser that is psychologically manipulative, that uses our emotions against us to win engagement.
Our opinions are powerful. They affect others, sometimes more than we realize, and no one can take them away from us.
#Belief #Communication #PersonalDevelopment #Philosophy #Wellbeing
Here's something I never expected would happen. Apple says it plans to support RCS. Does this mean Apple is done with its dirty tricks in messaging and elsewhere? Of course not. It's a baby step in the right direction, though.
Don't get me wrong. I have a love-hate relationship with Apple. They build great products, but they also refuse to play nice with others, even admitting it's for their own selfish gain. As the article explains, software executive Craig Federighi once wrote in a private email that publishing iMessage on Android, let alone supporting an open standard, would “remove obstacle [sic] to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.”
#Business #Communication #Technology #Usability #UserExperience
Here's something I never expected would happen. Apple says it plans to support RCS. Does this mean Apple is done with its dirty tricks in messaging and elsewhere? Of course not. It's a baby step in the right direction, though.
Don't get me wrong. I have a love-hate relationship with Apple. They build great products, but they also refuse to play nice with others, even admitting it's for their own selfish gain. As the article explains, software executive Craig Federighi once wrote in a private email that publishing iMessage on Android, let alone supporting an open standard, would “remove obstacle [sic] to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.”
#Business #Communication #Technology #Usability #UserExperience
“It doesn't seem to conventional-minded people that they're conventional-minded. It just seems to them that they're right. Indeed, they tend to be particularly sure of it.”
—Paul Graham in Orthodox Privilege