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  • Reading: N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance and Alastair Reynolds' Revenger

    Being sick over Christmas meant that I was flat on my back with lots of time for nothing but reading.

    N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy

    A fantasy trilogy of politics, world building, and god and human relations. As I wrote before, it’s on sale right now.

    Inheritance trilogy

    Alastair Reynolds’ Revenger Trilogy

    Far future space opera with pirate semantics. I’m on book two of three.

    Revenger series

    → 1:24 PM, Dec 29   •  reading, Blog
  • Playing: Deep Sky Derelicts

    Deep sky derelicts definitive edition switch hero

    I bought this on sale from Steam. It’s a fun sci-fi RPG, rogue-lite, turn-based card battler.

    I’ve put about 20 hours into it already across 2 runs. You have a party of three characters that you get to pick a base class for, and then pick a second specialization for.

    Lots of loot, plus crafting. It’s not very hard, although when pirates invaded the station on my first run I did get completely wiped.

    Recommended!

    → 12:44 PM, Dec 29   •  video game, Blog
  • I’ve been sick with a bad flu since Christmas Day. 🤒

    I went and got a COVID test first thing yesterday morning, and by last night I got notice that I tested negative.

    A relief, but a pretty sucky way to spend Christmas downtime. Stay safe and be well!

    → 8:15 AM, Dec 29
  • I just finished N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy. Conveniently, it’s on sale right now.

    → 5:21 PM, Dec 26
  • Forcing Amazon to Behave

    “Amazon wants to replicate every product it sells, discarding partnerships once they have their own version of that partner’s product”

    Dave Mark on the WSJ article ‘How Amazon Wins by Steamrolling Rivals and Partners’, found via mjtsai.

    This is exactly how I feel Amazon treats open source. It’s not illegal according to various licenses. mjtsai’s other linked commentary makes the same point about a physical product example.

    But the result is the same: clone and crush.

    I know there are well meaning open source folks at Amazon. I use Amazon for infrastructure. I think AWS has amazing operators.

    But your actions and culture are actively damaging. If you only listen to the law, rather than ethics, courtesy, and a spirit of partnership, we will evolve licenses that force you to behave.

    → 12:53 PM, Dec 23   •  Blog
  • Roland is working remotely with shifted hours, so he often bikes down to Revolver in the afternoons, Vancouver-time. I bumped into him in the rain.

    Rainy Roland outside Revolver

    → 11:58 AM, Dec 23
  • Riad and I walked around in the rain, and then retreated for a green tea & a whiskey to catch up. Tech Nomads of the Universe is Riad’s book, which includes an interview with me. Predictably, I talk about community :)

    Riad Hartani holding Tech Nomads of the Universe book

    → 11:52 AM, Dec 23
  • I ended up buying an Arturia Keystep MIDI keyboard recommended by bgins. So cool to use this in a web browser with WebMIDI + Moon Forge. I really have no idea what I’m doing, but making sounds is fun.

    Arturia Keystep plugged in at home

    → 11:45 AM, Dec 23
  • And so it begins. Bought the sous vide machine that Jae told me I should get.

    First time recipe: Pork Steak.

    → 1:53 PM, Dec 20   •  cooking
  • The websites must work without JavaScript debate makes total sense for the document web (see recent post by Remy Sharp).

    It doesn’t make sense for the app web. Great JS (and WebAssembly!) powered apps are a good thing.

    → 10:53 AM, Dec 20
  • Cognitect post on sponsoring the Clojure ecosystem

    “Imagine if every company using open source were to provide tangible sponsorship, on an ongoing basis, directly to the developers of the open source libraries and tools they use and rely upon.” – Cognitect, Sponsoring Open Source Developers

    So many great quotes in this article. I disagree with some of it, eg:

    Open source licenses effectively preclude developers from charging for their work.

    But the whole thing is laying out facts that have been obvious to some for a long time. It helps build the awareness and movement of the evolution of the concept of open source and how businesses should treat it.

    With Fission, we’re just taking the first steps on this path. We’re going to blend “traditional” open source with non commercial, with users banding together to fund features, and more.

    I’m really glad to have publicly posted our beliefs.

    → 1:21 AM, Dec 20   •  opensource, Blog
  • I added the latest post from my blog to my home page using Micro.blog’s sidebar.js.

    @manton, can we get permalinks in sidebar.js?

    → 1:05 AM, Dec 20
  • Actually figured Apple Family Sharing with Rachael today.

    But, since iTunes Match is essentially deprecated, I can’t share (for example) my Bandcamp tracks. So complicated!

    → 12:51 PM, Dec 19   •  music
  • “Facebook’s argument is along the lines of arguing that the police shouldn’t crack down on burglaries because it might hurt pawn shops.”

    Gruber in Daring Fireball on Facebook ads against Apple’s anti-tracking

    → 9:40 PM, Dec 18
  • Bandcamp Friday: Resurgam by Alias, + bonus Song Exploder and iTunes Match

    I’m working my way through past purchases. It’s been nice to at least spend time every Friday listening to and exploring music a little bit. This week is Resurgam by Alias, released in 2008. The artist passed away in 2018.

    Alias resurgam

    Here’s the I Heart Drum Machines track:

    I’m bad at genres, this is labeled on Bandcamp as electronic / hip-hop / beats. This also gives me a starting point to look for other music that is new-to-me. /me starts browsing ‘beatz’


    Song Exploder Vol 2 is now on Netflix:

    I really enjoyed the Dua Lipa and The Killers episodes. Genre-wise, I guess both of these are “pop”.

    I bought Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia (out now) and The Killers’ Sam’s Town (from 2006!).

    The bigger “commercial” artists however mostly only sell through platforms, so I bought these two through iTunes.

    I do use Amazon Music for random play lists and discovery. I have had a bunch of Dua Lipa favourited in there that I’ve been listening to.

    Oh, and my iTunes Match subscription renewed. It’s not really promoted by Apple any more. For $30CAD annually, all my music from any source (e.g. music I buy on Band Camp and add to the Music app) is stored by Apple and available on any device. Essentially, a fancy unlimited file sync service, optimized for music.

    → 9:53 AM, Dec 18   •  music, Blog
  • One of the new accounts I’m following: @ColorOfBerlin. Tweets Berlin sky colours.

    I think about Berlin a lot.

    It has recent memories of good times & great people, but it’s also where my family is from.

    → 7:59 PM, Dec 17
  • A walk around our East Van neighbourhood looking at Christmas lights. Ferndale was the most magnificent.

    → 1:27 AM, Dec 15
  • Bandcamp Friday: Keleketla by Coldcut

    As recommended by @carchrae, here’s one of my Bandcamp Friday purchases: Keleketla! By Coldcut:

    Keleketla

    → 2:52 PM, Dec 14   •  music, Blog
  • Made sourdough focaccia today.

    I’m getting the “sour” flavour, but only my first bread that I added commercial yeast to really worked.

    I’ll toast it in the morning and see how I like it.

    → 1:14 AM, Dec 14
  • Rui on the CentOS news:

    “I always wondered if IBM would just sit there and continue to allow people to effectively run RHEL (under the guise of CentOS) without licensing fees, and now we know the answer.”

    → 9:15 AM, Dec 13
  • Here’s a really great people-centric view thinking about open source maintainers by Evan You, founder of VueJS.

    The context is a thought experiment: what if only sponsors could file issues?

    → 12:11 PM, Dec 12   •  licensing, opensource
  • SearchMySite.net, a search engine for personal websites.

    Found via jlelse’s blog which links to some other examples.

    → 10:56 AM, Dec 12
  • Branch:

    an online magazine written by and for people who dream of a sustainable and just internet for all.

    Sustainable Internet + Climate Justice magazine. Cover illustration Hélène Baum.

    → 10:49 AM, Dec 12
  • I’m thinking about what other feeds I want to post to Micro.blog.

    I used Zapier to create a feed of the Github repos I star.

    This is the feed link you can subscribe to directly, also cross-posting to Mastodon social.coop/@bmann.

    → 9:09 AM, Dec 11   •  GitHub
  • Purple penguin de tuned

    It’s Bandcamp Friday!

    Purple Penguin’s De-Tuned was released 24 years ago. I was into UK imports of house / electronica during university.

    Here’s the Passion track:

    → 8:51 AM, Dec 11   •  music
  • If I have mate for lunch, apparently I stay up super late. Lesson learned, I guess?

    (still miss pomegranate club mate from my Berlin times)

    → 2:29 AM, Dec 10
  • Bandcamp Fridays: The Japanese House and Dirty Spells

    I became aware of Bandcamp Fridays from Jessica @ticky and it just so happened that I was buying Good at Falling by The Japanese House:

    I also bought Evil! by @dirtyspells. This track America is currently melting my brain in a good way:

    → 12:57 PM, Dec 6   •  music, Blog
  • Picked up these “Heritage” beans from Pilot Coffee House at Propaganda.

    I like this Classic <—> Adventurous scale. I am definitely on the more dark, rich “coffee” flavours rather than light and floral mango or whatever :)

    → 1:58 PM, Dec 5   •  Twitter, coffee
  • It’s @duchesscosmo o’clock. Locally made, refreshingly tangy & not too sweet, and available for delivery in Vancouver.

    → 5:19 PM, Dec 4   •  Twitter
  • Went out for a bike ride along Arbutus Greenway. Beautiful sun and a stop at Beacoup Bakery on the way back, plus all the cyclists waiting for the train at Union.

    → 7:29 PM, Nov 8   •  Biking, mastodon
  • I got sent this Azerbaijani Country Life Vlog video blog by @florence_ann and ended up watching the entire 45 minute video.

    Added to @atbrecipes.

    → 10:02 AM, Nov 8   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter
  • Yesterday’s lunch at Laksa King was a bowl of laksa, a bowl of mohinga (Fernando got a picture of it), and an order of roti canai

    → 6:52 AM, Nov 4   •  restaurant, mastodon
  • I made a chocolate cake to use up sourdough starter discard.

    It’s not a pretty cake, and making an entire sheet cake to use up a little sourdough is perhaps overkill, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

    → 7:36 PM, Nov 1   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter
  • One of the few times I’ve stayed somewhere else on #bowenisland. Up on Eagle Cliff, looking out to Strait of Georgia and across to UBC. Wind and whitecaps.

    → 5:14 PM, Oct 24   •  bowenisland, mastodon
  • My parents are moving today. Third move in 47 years they’ve been in Canada.

    → 12:32 PM, Oct 23   •  Twitter, Personal, bowenisland
  • Dude Chilling Park in the fall

    → 3:00 PM, Oct 21   •  Twitter, Vancouver
  • I should log my epic sandwich from yesterday’s lunch. Sourdough from Tall Shadow breads, polish mayo, pickle slice, Roma tomato, havarti, and salami.

    → 1:03 PM, Oct 20   •  cooking, mastodon
  • Spicy udon bowl for lunch today. Onions, ginger, garlic, some diced red peppers & carrots I had laying around. Diced Roma tomatoes. Miso. Soy Sauce. Samba Oelek. Rice vinegar.

    → 12:56 PM, Oct 20   •  cooking, mastodon
  • Managed to stop in at the new Radpower Bikes Vancouver showroom right before closing. Snagged a rear rack & basket for Rachael’s new bike.

    → 6:32 PM, Oct 19   •  Biking
  • When we went for brunch at Forage yesterday, I also bought some of their sourdough starter. Looking forward to waking it up!

    → 8:06 AM, Oct 18   •  AllTheBestRecipes, mastodon
  • Rachael won an overnight stay prize pack from VanMuralFest and the Robson BIA. Finishing our downtown adventure with a nice breakfast at Forage.

    → 9:17 AM, Oct 17   •  Vancouver, restaurant, mastodon
  • I’ve been stuck not really reading much. Gave up on the book I was on, and bought Sue Burke’s Interference.

    I loved the first one, and have been happily reading this before bed.

    #book #scifi

    → 9:56 PM, Oct 14   •  book, mastodon, scifi
  • The Sifter in Atlas Obscura

    The Sifter thesifter.org

    a multilingual database, currently 130,000-items strong, of the ingredients, techniques, authors, and section titles included in more than 5,000 European and U.S. cookbooks.

    – A Database of 5,000 Historical Cookbooks Is Now Online, and You Can Help Improve It, Atlas Obscura

    The data on this site is super interesting. Whatever is running the site is not great. It’s some sort of out of the box Microsoft thing including default loading animations.

    But! It aims to be a sort of Wikipedia. I’ve signed up to be a contributor and I hope that this can be built on and be licensed for re-use.

    I did a search for “Vancouver” and found only one entry, so my used cookbook collection may be able to add a handful more. It does say it only wants pre-1940 cookbooks, but it’s unclear why.

    It provides a bird’s-eye view of long-term trends in European and American cuisines, from shifting trade routes and dining habits to culinary fads. Search “cupcakes,” for example, and you’ll find the term may have first popped up in Mrs. Putnam’s Receipt Book And Young Housekeeper’s Assistant, a guide for ladies running middle-class households in the 1850s.

    Yes! Super interesting to me. Looking forward to see how this evolves.

    (From the Gastro Obscura section of A.O.)

    → 6:30 PM, Oct 13   •  AllTheBestRecipes, cooking, Blog
  • Ride out to our usual bench at Burnaby Lake was pretty cold. Got to get gloves and other gear sorted to keep #biking.

    The new Rad Mini in white has slightly smaller wheels, and of course no extended rear rack.

    → 9:40 PM, Oct 11   •  Biking, mastodon
  • Pulled out some old achiote and made a turkey thigh stew plus did a trial run of savoury waffles I’m going to serve tomorrow.

    → 9:09 PM, Oct 11   •  AllTheBestRecipes, mastodon
  • Had these “screw buns” from Dinesty Dumpling House last night, which came with sweetened condensed milk for dipping. So pretty, so tasty!

    → 11:18 AM, Oct 11   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter
  • I wrote a blog post about joining Social.Coop. It’s a co-op that runs “user-controlled social media” in the form of a Mastodon server. If you’re on Mastodon, please let me know, I’d like to follow you there!

    → 12:37 PM, Oct 10   •  Twitter
  • Check out @rachaelashe’s work at The Art Shop upcoming pop up “Wood Paper Scissors: Raw Materials in Art”. Opening is Oct 23rd, runs until Nov 3rd. The space is on East Hastings, next to Strathcona Brewing and Prototype Coffee.

    → 4:13 PM, Oct 9   •  Twitter, Vancouver, Rachael Ashe
  • Our new Rad Mini got delivered today! It looks cute and small compared to my Rad Runner, plus a few upgrades: it has gears and a bike computer screen, and an improved front light vs the Run

    This will primarily be Rachael’s bike, but I’ll borrow it on occasion ;)

    → 12:52 PM, Oct 9   •  Biking, mastodon
  • I have a cute little like green Bodum charcoal BBQ that we can take to the park at the end of the street. But charcoal is a bit of an ordeal so doesn’t get used often. What about a Scottish made gas pizza oven???

    The Ooni: youtu.be/7kzenzsML…

    #cooking

    → 9:44 PM, Oct 8   •  mastodon
  • I just found out the mystery cheese we bought the other day is Braided Armenian String Cheese. Tomorrow is going to be a good day!

    → 8:25 PM, Oct 6   •  Twitter
  • Today was actually a pretty good day. Except! I got another flat in my back tire!

    → 5:01 PM, Oct 5   •  Biking
  • The funky liquid leftover from lemony pickled cabbage with some dried chilies added 🌶 I don’t have room to keep it around. Slices of lemon zest made it more magical over time.

    → 7:58 PM, Oct 3   •  cooking, pickling
  • “[Vancouver has] the lowest property taxes on the continent and most of the people who complain don’t even pay these taxes, but rather pass them on to renters.”

    — @seanorr in @scoutmagazine

    → 4:57 PM, Sep 30   •  Twitter, Vancouver
  • I figured out how to properly setup the VSCode Markdown Notes extension for how I’m making my public #secondbrain notes.

    → 1:15 PM, Sep 30   •  Twitter, Second Brain
  • Co-op and B-Corps structures are supposed to prevent this sort of thing. @jonrshell posts a thread covering the background of people soon to be in charge of MEC.

    → 7:34 AM, Sep 28   •  Twitter
  • I just “finished” revamping my website, and then @bopuc left a link to Simply Jekyll by Raghu.

    Pretty sure I’m going to replace what I’ve done with this template. It’s great when the data of your site is just Markdown files.

    → 1:39 PM, Sep 27   •  Twitter, Digital Garden
  • For people who like that sort of thing, I have a couple of RSS feeds on my site again.

    Have a blog? Shill me your feed, I’ve got room for more reading

    → 10:03 PM, Sep 26   •  Twitter, blogging
  • I wrote up some research on a System76 desktop and new Mac Minis with eGPU.

    Anyone want to shill me on a desktop PC setup and/or recommend a Canadian supplier?

    → 11:13 AM, Sep 26   •  Twitter
  • Sunset at Burnaby Lake. Was lovely to ride out at end of day with a few warm patches of sun left. @rachaelashe takes my picture as I get hers on the bench with the ebike.

    → 8:24 PM, Sep 25   •  Biking
  • Chilaquiles? Migas? Some sort of Mexican creation for breakfast — tortilla strips, diced onion, fresh jalapeño, eggs, fresh tomatoes. Cumin and salt, and finished under the broiler with some cheese.

    → 6:50 AM, Sep 24   •  Twitter
  • I need rain gear! Where’s the best place to buy in #Vancouver? What should I get for biking? Bonus points if anything is made in Canada.

    Reply here or comment with tips here.

    → 9:57 PM, Sep 23   •  Twitter, Vancouver
  • On the Sunshine Coast near Roberts Creek for a short bit of downtime. This was public beach access down a steep set of stairs by Marlene Road.

    → 9:50 PM, Sep 10
  • My bmannconsulting site is now a Jekyll-with-backlinks public notes garden #secondbrain, and it’s running on @FissionCodes.

    🚧 I’m doing some funky DNS things so likely a little slow. 🚧

    → 1:33 PM, Sep 9   •  Twitter, secondbrain, Fission, Jekyll
  • I just backed @doctorow’s Kickstarter for an audio book version of Attack Surface, the third Little Brother book.

    DRM-free to fight Audible, which has 90% of the market.

    → 4:25 PM, Sep 8   •  Twitter, book, KickStarter
  • Had a great get-to-know-you call with @JacobSayles, intro’d by @LeeLefever.

    Jacob has a long history with coworking, and we ended up jamming on Community Land Trusts and related models for #Vancouver.

    If you’re interested in creating new shared housing models — get in touch!

    → 11:58 AM, Sep 8   •  Twitter, Vancouver
  • Picnic in the park yesterday. Smashed cucumber & pasta salad recipes on @ATBRecipes.

    → 9:05 AM, Sep 6   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter
  • Hello #pickling friends! A quick stovetop pickle with golden beets.

    → 8:22 PM, Sep 2   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter, pickling
  • Fall 2020 Chromebooks for back to school in Canada

    I always work across multiple machines and operating systems. I wrote up my laptop choices back in Feb 2020, and I ended up dipping my toes back into Windows with a laptop. Before that, I had bought two Chromebooks in a row, and I still think they are some of the best value.

    Ryan recently asked me a question about Chromebooks:

    I’m thinking of getting my 12 year old a Chromebook for back to school and wanted your input. For context, most of what they’ll be doing is google docs driven and she’s not a gamer.

    Yeah, the Chromebooks are solid. And now that you can put Linux on them as a built in feature, there’s lots more that can be done with it.

    You can also game on it: with streaming services like Stadia or Geforce Now, or Steam and some Linux games.

    I usually follow the Wirecutter recommendations – I have personal experience with buying two ASUS Chromebooks and have been very impressed.

    Looks like the ASUS Flip C434 is available at London Drugs for $700CAD.

    The Lenovo model that is current WireCutter top rating looks to be good and available for about $560CAD.

    If you see Chromebooks for less than $500CAD – they are usually way too underpowered.


    And then Greg emailed me, so I’m turning this whole thing into a little Chromebook FAQ:

    We’re wanting/needing to get something for my kids to use for school, and since they use the GSuite at school a Chromebook seems like a good idea. However, they still want to be able to play Minecraft.

    Is there a site you would recommend for me to go to, in order to figure out what Chromebook to order? What Chromebook are you running?

    Today, you don’t need to “dual boot” into Linux any more. Like WSL for Windows, you run any flavour of Linux that you want and you can run graphical apps like Minecraft no problem. This site on installing Minecraft for Chromebooks has too many ads on it, but basically – Linux stuff installs directly on Chromebooks these days.

    Having a really solid browser environment, plus basic apps you can install, makes for a good stable system that is very inexpensive for what you get. You need to pay more for a Windows or Mac laptop – approximately 2-4 times the price of a solid Chromebook – to get equivalent performance.

    My current Chromebook is the ASUS C434, but as I said at the top, I’m also switching between an ASUS Windows laptop and a Mac desktop.

    I still wouldn’t pay more than $1000CAD for a Chromebook (and even that is pretty high).

    → 3:25 PM, Sep 2   •  Blog
  • Custom Bags and Shipping IP vs Products

    I’ve just ordered myself a custom Timbuk2 messenger bag.

    Custom? Yes, custom: you pick and choose fabrics and colours and various other options. This is mine.

    I have had a great red/gray reversible messenger bag for many years that my sister Gaby gave me. First one of the inside clips broke so it needed to stay gray, now the outside closing clip broke.

    I still use it while walking, but open bag flaps and biking don’t mix.

    Asking the Internet about bags is hard, so I went to Wirecutter and they said Timbuk2.

    When I was looking earlier the custom options weren’t as obvious, and I kind of wandered off. Did I want a bag the same as everybody else, especially in drab colours?

    Which led me over to Freitag, which my current bag is sometimes confused for.

    Colourful, unique, up-cycled bags? Yes! Well, except for two things. 1. Fashion is pricey — about $350CAD before shipping 2. Did I really want to ship up-cycled bags across the ocean?

    For a well-made, relatively unique bag that I intend to keep for a decade, price isn’t the barrier.

    But (2) got me thinking: can we ship IP rather than products?

    Especially as the pandemic has people thinking about supply chains and supporting the local economy, what would it take to collaborate with someone locally in Vancouver and make a bag?

    Vancouver has lots of apparel, outer wear, and other gear designers, so that’s a plus.

    And in fact, when I asked around and shared the idea a bit, both of the people I talked to had a 1-degree connection to people who had made bags. And then I even found a 1-degree connection of my own who had made his own bag and was making more.

    So let’s say I budget $400-$500 for a customer one of a kind bag. Could I find 10 or 12 other people locally who would be interested?

    And once I did this, could I make the design (and sourcing of materials and manufacturing/sewing, etc) available for others to do in their local areas?

    Yes, I could. And we might just have a little network of locally made goods. Never mind connected links of makers and supporters interested in this sort of thing.

    Are you interested in the Vancouver custom bag experiment? Is there another custom thing you’d like to see created locally? Let me know!

    More on co-op models and small business peers and shipping IP another time.

    → 12:11 AM, Sep 1   •  Blog
  • Bike Ride to Riley Park and Van Mural Fest at River District

    Starting from the north end of Commercial Drive where we live, we did a grand loop and various adventures on the e-bike today.

    We started at Woodland and Venables, going up Woodland to the 10th Ave bike route and headed west.

    Federal Store, Quebec at 10th

    Federal Store stamp on take out cup

    First stop was at The Federal Store, on 10th just before Ontario.

    Rachael’s tea latte cup had a lovely little stamp. My cappuccino just had “The Federal Store” stamp. Note: The Federal Store has Johnny’s Pops and is open most days until 6pm.

    Then headed south on Ontario Street.

    Main at 28th

    Rad Utility Bike on Main Street

    Rachael went across the street to Jasmine Mediterranean Foods for fresh limit (Turkish bagel) and picked up a few other things.

    Riley Park (Ontario at 30th)

    Rad Utility Bike at Riley Park

    We lay in the grass at Riley Park. It was a gloriously sunny day, but with a bit of a breeze blowing. We had our coffee & tea drinks with limit and hung out for a bit.

    Looking at the map, it seemed like a pretty straight forward route south on Ontario and then east on Kent to the River District, which is a new Van Mural Fest neighbourhood.

    Rachael and I have never been down in that area at all, so seemed like a good adventure destination.

    East Kent Avenue

    We drove down Ontario until we hit Marine Drive. We passed by Coupland’s Infinite Tire and continued on a couple of blocks into an industrial area and a set of east - west train tracks. There’s a great bike path all along Kent Avenue.

    It’s a bit confusing at times which side of the tracks you need to be on. Both are East Kent Avenue, labeled S or N. In some places there is a clearly marked and dedicated bike path, in others you’re going along the road.

    Gladstone-Riverside Park

    Panorama at Gladstone-Riverside Park, Vancouver - looking at Fraser River

    We stopped at Gladstone-Riverside Park – we made it to the Fraser River! Across the river is Richmond, so this is the southern edge of City of Vancouver.

    There are a variety of both bike paths and walking paths, again on either a northern “road” path (which had bike paths, too), or a mixed pedestrian - bike path walk ways on parks and green space that is right next to the river. Several other bikers and e-scooters were stopping and looking at maps.

    Google Maps Gladstone Riverside

    You can see in the map the dotted green paths along the river, as well as East Kent N and S. We stayed on the road (which had a separated two way bike path), as the park paths had a lot of pedestrians.

    It was very interesting to see the mix of single family homes but really quite a lot of condos and townhouses either newly built or under construction. This is an area that I know nothing about. It was nice to have bike paths, but it seemed like where we were there was no transit at all, and no retail either. I guess all of that runs along Marine Way.

    River District Murals

    Here’s a custom Map label for roughly where the murals are (you can see it in the screenshot above on the right hand edge).

    It’s in the middle of a ton of construction, and there are detours and fences that will guide you in a loop through the construction. If you’re following audio map directions, they will be very confused and insist that you u-turn :)

    Rachael did a much better job capturing the murals and artists, so I’ll embed her Instagram here:

    View this post on Instagram

    @bmann and I did an epic ride to the River District to see @vanmuralfest murals. A few are finished but most are still works in progress. They are all fantastic. It’s an area we’d never explored before along the Fraser River… . #getoutside #vancouvermuralfestival #vancouvermural #publicart #streetart #vancouverart #yvrart #vanmuralfest #explorevmf

    A post shared by Rachael Ashe - Paper Artist (@rachael_ashe) on Aug 30, 2020 at 3:48pm PDT

    The murals are great and many of the artists are at the end of their epic week or so of painting. Apparently they will be up in this temporary space for about a year or so – installed along fencing and the path that detours through the construction site.

    The photos I captured below really were about me thinking about this construction and neighbourhood and some of the contrasts.

    IMG 3706

    I asked this artist how they got here, and they said Uber. I continue to have questions about how we’re still building car oriented dense housing in Vancouver.

    Caitlin Mcdonagh

    Caitlin Mcdonagh - River District Mural

    Instagram/@northweststyles

    IMG 3708

    This and the next murals were along an east-west path, fencing off a construction site with a few abandoned industrial buildings still remaining.

    Rachael looks at an unfinished mural

    IMG 3709

    The sketched out design looked super cute!

    Instagram/@luke046_art

    IMG 3710

    Overhead Power and Construction

    IMG 3711

    You see old, original poles, skinny and weathered brown, and the new, larger, treated greenish poles. And this ridiculous jumble of overhead wires that we have all throughout Vancouver. Even in this new area, I guess they’re not burying lines and laying fibre for Internet?!?!?

    Van Mural Fest River District Sign

    IMG 3714

    Lists all the artists. More discarded building materials and some sort of hangar or industrial building in the fenced off area.

    Looking west, Rachael looks at a mural

    IMG 3715

    The fence to the north (right in this photo) blocks off rail tracks, then East Kent Ave N, with condos, townhouses going up on the north side of that avenue.

    Blackberries, Barbed Wire, Power, and Construction

    IMG 3717

    Kerr Avenue

    After seeing all the murals, it was time to head home. There are a couple of different south / east routes, the most straightforward looked to be heading back along East Kent, and then going north on Kerr Avenue.

    IMG 3720

    Well, it turns out Kerr is an incredibly steep climb from East Kent to Marine Drive, and then keeps going up with Fraserview Golf Course on one side and Everett Crowley Park on the other. The area at the top is called Champlain Heights :)

    Anyway, got off the bike and walked it up a good chunk of this. Not enough power for getting both of us up here. There are a couple of epic hills in Vancouver, where a slightly more powerful motor would really help.

    We stayed on Kerr until it turns into Rupert next to Killarney Park, then west on East 45th which is a bike route.

    Then right and north on Earles Street, crossing Kingsway at the Purdy’s Chocolate factory.

    Left and west on Vanness, which turns into BC Parkway path, and a little left along the edge of Slocan Park.

    Right and north on Slocan, which is a long down slope. You’ll pass Banana Grove Market at 22nd, and keep going down and north until you hit South Grandview Highway.

    Cross that, and you’ll hang a left and be heading west on North Grandview Highway, which is the Central Valley Greenway.

    The CVG has been another common route for us, we’ll often head out to Burnaby Lake. But heading home and west we go to Lakewood, and then head right and south until we hit Adanac, and then turn left and west until we’re back at Commercial Drive and home.

    We were at one bar of power by the time we made it home, so one of the longest trips we’ve made. Doing a rough map calculation shows about 30km. There are a couple of mega hills in there as well as just long continuous slopes that are rough with two of us on the bike.

    Wesgroup

    At home now, I’m doing a little research on this River District. This is a “planned community” being built by Wesgroup. Here’s one article:

    The River District is located along the Fraser River, just off Marine Way, west of Boundary. It is a brand new, award-winning, master-planned community created by Wesgroup – a Vancouver based builder that has been building in the Lower Mainland for over 50 years. Wesgroup has spent the last decade carefully planning River District, the last waterfront development in the city. Spanning 130 acres, it is three times the size of Granville Island and will soon become a vibrant destination for living and shopping when complete in 2017…

    It’s now 2020, and there are lots of new homes completed, but as you can see from my photos, lots of new buildings still going up.

    → 4:20 PM, Aug 30   •  Biking, Vancouver, Blog, VanMuralFest
  • Went for a tour of the in-progress @vanmuralfest murals and met animalitoland at 7th and Ontario.

    → 7:49 PM, Aug 26   •  Twitter, Vancouver, VanMuralFest
  • Applying free shipping as well as a 100% discount in Shopify

    Shopify Shipping Rate Settings Screenshot

    There are 20 pages of requests for multiple discounts for Shopify to be able to apply free shipping.

    The way to do it without a plugin, is to add a new rate, label it “Free Shipping”, and set the conditions to only apply when the min and max are both $0.

    Any other paid shipping options will still display – and be selectable by the customer! – but obviously they can just pick free shipping and there won’t be a charge.

    So to give a “free” item to someone, make a dollar value discount code of the price of the item, so that the cost is zero, and then this free shipping rate will appear. Note: if you are dealing with multiple currencies, sometimes the conversion means that your dollar value discount code makes it not quite $0. You’ll need to experiment and set a discount $ value appropriately.

    → 4:54 PM, Aug 24   •  Blog
  • Sean @coates wrote up how he checked Canada’s COVID Alert app and submitted a fix.

    Thanks Sean, & thanks to the Canadian Digital Service for source code availability & responsiveness!

    → 11:33 AM, Aug 24   •  Twitter, Canada, opensource, COVID19
  • Montecristo Magazine talks about East Van alleys filled with oregano and other Mediterranean herbs. And yes, 6ft tall rosemary bushes are definitely common too.

    → 1:47 PM, Aug 23   •  Twitter, EastVan
  • The Tyee’s story of how the Himalayan blackberry came to North America is really interesting. Attached are pictures of three different kinds I took on Bowen.

    → 1:31 PM, Aug 23   •  Twitter, Bowen Island, The Tyee
  • I’m a fan of the Ghost blog in part because you can easily run it with one-click “Deploy to Heroku”.

    Mike Haynes documented how to set Ghost up to support microblogging with title-less asides.

    → 1:05 PM, Aug 23   •  blogging, Ghost Blog, RSS
  • Made my first salt-baked salmon tonight. Full step-by-step photos on @ATBRecipes. Definitely want to try more salt-baked things ;)

    → 7:57 PM, Aug 22   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter
  • Zettlr, an #opensource desktop markdown editor. Zettelkasten support, tags, and more.

    via @brianwisti

    → 11:18 AM, Aug 22   •  Twitter, Bookmark, Markdown
  • Made it into Columbus Meats for the first time in a long time. Their prepared roasts and other items are SO GOOD — although I didn’t buy any this time.

    → 11:12 PM, Aug 19   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Columbus Meats
  • Biked around Stanley Park, using the new bike lanes on the road. Relaxing and an awesome ride.

    Photos are bike & chestnut tree at Brockton Point, and view to North Shore.

    → 11:31 AM, Aug 16   •  Biking
  • Success with the lactic fermented tomato 🍅 #pickling experiment! Less garlic next time.

    → 8:32 PM, Aug 15   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter, pickling
  • I found @hecker’s “thoughts on Mozilla for people who don’t know Mozilla” to be a good read.

    If you’re not in the tech industry, this adds lots of background.

    → 12:22 PM, Aug 15   •  Twitter, Mozilla, Open Web, News
  • At the Riley Park Farmers Market. Stopped in at Farmhouse Cheese for quark and curds, and big line for Scavenger Coffee.

    → 10:51 AM, Aug 15
  • “Lost in this billionaire slapfight…is the salient point that Epic is not actually wrong here.“

    — @imranzomg, writing for IGN on Epic vs Apple and Google’s app store policies.

    → 9:21 AM, Aug 15   •  Twitter, appstore, News
  • “If we want to maximize opportunities for safe social interaction, and build up physical and mental health, we need to socialize in parks”

    — Parks and Bars: Socializing with Lower Risk, SFU MAGPIE Group

    → 8:55 AM, Aug 15   •  Twitter, COVID19
  • LinkedIn 1746

    Chris Fralic of First Round Capital explains how to figure out what your LinkedIn member number is.

    Basically, go to your own profile, “view source” to look at the code for the web page, and search for “member”.

    I’m member #1746. Yes, I was early to social networks :)

    → 12:15 AM, Aug 12   •  Blog
  • We're all in the same lifeboat

    The hashtag #MozillaLifeboat is highlighting the ~250 people laid off by Mozilla.

    Here’s Mitchell Baker’s official announcement.

    Daring Fireball has further links and commentary, including that the layoff number is “about on-third of its workforce”:

    Firefox was very popular, and Google paid Mozilla a small fortune to make Google search the default in Firefox because it was so popular. But then came Chrome. Why should Google fund Mozilla when Chrome is about 10 times more popular than Firefox, other than out of the goodness of their heart?

    It is a very good thing for the world and the web that a truly independent browser exists from a privacy-minded company, but there’s not much of a business model for it unless it’s popular enough to get the dominant search engine to pay for placement.

    The Open Web, open source, Web3, global Internet commons infrastructure. Security. Privacy. Data ownership. We’ve got a lot on our plate that is looking pretty concerning.

    I pretty much felt the same in the early 2000s, facing down FUD from Microsoft vs. open source. And we … won? Sort of? Except now it’s time to reboot again, because the ad supported web and big tech owned open source is an awkward place to have ended up.

    I don’t know Chris Riley who just got laid off and tweeted this, but I’ll bold the key part here:

    It’s been a heck of a ride at @mozilla for the past 7 years. But this is where I get off the train too. I’m sad; I’m going to miss the people, a lot. For me, my calling to make the internet better will continue. I just need to find the right next venture for it. #MozillaLifeboat – @MChrisRiley

    We’re all in the same lifeboat. Grab an oar and get involved.

    → 11:49 PM, Aug 11   •  opensource, Open Web, Blog
  • “no amount of extra vitamins makes sugary vegetable oil healthy for you.” — Oatly: The New Coke

    The article is likely a bit of an outrage generator itself. What about other oat milks? Nut milks also have high environmental impact, what else is out there?

    → 11:25 PM, Aug 11
  • Craigstarter - open source crowdfunding tool for Shopify

    Craigstarter on Github

    A free to use / edit / extend crowdfunding tool for Shopify with multiple goals and variants as campaign tiers.

    Shopify is an absolute massive ecosystem. Blending crowdfunding with straight up sales is a really powerful way to more directly own your platform for the long term, whereas one-off Kickstarters you immediately need to plan for off-platform websites, sales, communications, etc.:

    Kickstarter is an excellent way to run a crowdfunding campaign. But if you already have a community built up, and have communication channels in place (via a newsletter, for example), and already run an online shop, then Kickstarter can be unnecessarily cumbersome. Kickstarter’s 10% fee is also quite hefty. By leaning on Shopify’s flexible Liquid templating system and reasonable CC processing fees, an independent publisher running a campaign can save some ~$7,000 for every $100,000 of sales by using Craigstarter instead of Kickstarter. That’s materially meaningful, especially in the world of books.

    This is particularly relevant because I’m in the midst of learning more about how to run and setup Shopify stores, both for work, and ideally for some side projects. Gathering interest from a group of people so we can collectively fund / buy things is exactly the kind of thing I want to do.

    Via @pat

    → 10:14 PM, Aug 11   •  opensource, Blog
  • Public vs Common Goods in Open Source, responding to @tobie

    Responding to @Tobie’s thread on examining open source as a commons.

    In the context of digital abundance, the open source code itself can be infinitely copied.

    1) open source code = public good

    2) support, maintenance, etc. = common good

    3) paying customers = common good (assuming multiple consultants or hosting services etc.)

    From my understanding of @Dries’ Makers and Takers post, the distinction between a public good which can’t be depleted and a common good which can be, and must be protected, is key.

    Commons Grid - Private Goods, Common Goods, Club Goods, Public Goods (from Dries' Makers and Takers)

    The activity around open source code is a common good. It is provided by the maintainers and other contributors. @tobie mentions maintenance, but also documentation, marketing, communication, responding to issues, and so on.

    The “consumers” of these activities may evolve into new contributors, so in one model providing this activity will grow the commons. And even the add to the public good of the code if the new contributors eventually provide code, too.

    But taking time for these activities is a scarce resource, as Tobie points out. Sponsorship and similar types of funding can potentially “buy” more of a maintainer’s time, so they can provide more support for (2) – but isn’t really a business model or a commons management strategy on its own.

    Finally, my third point from above. Dries made this point quite clearly: if you have multiple businesses built around an open source code base, the (paying) customers are a common good: they can (mostly) only be the customer of one business.

    Approaches that restrict aspects of a project to paying users run the risk of making this no longer a common or public good, and yet Ostrom mostly proved that “good fences make good neighbours”. This is the challenge we face that @tobie highlights, and the ongoing experimental phase that I see open source at large moving into.

    For a sustainable commons that goes beyond code, we need more makers than takers.

    → 9:33 PM, Aug 11   •  opensource, Blog
  • Went for an afternoon bike ride and ended up at Banana Grove Market on 22nd for the first time.

    A mashup of an Italian deli and an Asian grocery in a really excellent way.

    → 9:05 PM, Aug 9   •  AllTheBestRecipes
  • Checked in at Resurrection Distillery.

    Catch Weight fish & chips plus distillery cocktails.

    → 5:16 PM, Aug 8   •  checkin
  • Ok shiny happy #pickling people, here’s some fermented rhubarb getting started, with orange peels and cardamom.

    → 9:31 AM, Aug 8   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter, pickling
  • Back to important #pickling content. Lacto fermenting some tomatoes with garlic and some fresh green peppercorns.

    → 4:54 PM, Aug 7   •  Twitter, pickling
  • I like this future where I can be emailing my local grocer and they’re asking if I want 6lbs of heirloom plum tomatoes delivered. Yes, obviously!

    Plum tomatoes

    → 11:09 AM, Aug 7   •  Twitter
  • The Changli is a $1200USD electric car that you can order from Alibaba. Jalopnik bought it and road tested it in the US.

    I kind of want to do a bulk order to Vancouver…

    → 8:01 PM, Aug 3   •  Twitter, electric car, Jalopnik
  • Developer community chat tools: @swyx points out Slack ⬇️ and Discord ⬆️

    Slack is Fumbling Developers and the Rise of Developer Discords by @swyx

    Slack’s revenue is firmly linked to enterprise, so I don’t see this as a strategic error. It is, however, a fact that open developer communities are increasingly using Discord.

    I also expect more Matrix adoption in the next 1-2 years.

    Although Discord open sourcing at least server instances while still following their federation model could be interesting. Or interop with the Matrix protocol.

    I have a draft post that I’ve been meaning to finish for months of how Fission uses Discord chat + Discourse forum. Soon!

    → 8:00 PM, Aug 3   •  Twitter, community , Discord, Blog, Discourse, chat
  • Digital Abundance and creator compensation

    Kyle Mitchell writes The Truth is Paywalled But The Lies Are Free as commentary to Nathan J. Robinson’s editor’s note in Current Affairs of the same name. “Quality” journalism is paywalled and the rest is free?

    This point by Robinson on membership models seems key:

    a podcaster who sells their product on Patreon rather than giving it away but filling it with mattress and “box-of-shit-a-month” ads has an important kind of freedom: they only have to please the audience, not the sponsors.

    “Open Source”, funding, and digital works available at no cost have many parallels in industries beyond software, including journalism.

    Kyle points out that not all creators should expect to be compensated just because they are creators:

    I deserve…no compensation whatever for the bad musical improvizations, repetitive doodles, or unfunny or dead-end software libraries I churn out from time to time. Everyone, including me, should be fine with this.

    Also, that in areas of creative work, especially those available digitally, “giving away” work may be the best strategy:

    I happen to believe that in most areas of creative work, and in most adjacent industries, giving more away for $0 online would improve outcomes for most players, overall. Our business instincts and well-worn patterns haven’t quite kept up with the times, and never do.

    I’m thinking a lot about digital abundance lately in this same context.

    Read the whole thing. You can also sign up on Kyle’s Artless Devices forum if you want to discuss this further.

    → 4:04 PM, Aug 3   •  opensource, Blog, Kyle Mitchell, digital abundance, paywall
  • Last BC Day at Millers Landing

    My parents have sold their house on #bowenisland. They move out in October, after 41 years living there.

    This also means shutting down the Seven Hills B&B, which they’ve run for 25 years or so.

    They’re lucky to not have to leave Bowen. They’re building a 4-Plex with 3 other couples, which is just 500m closer to Snug Cove from where they are now.

    It was a lovely BC Day long weekend. But also a bit of an end of an era. My childhood home, that was always there for me, always “home”, won’t be around much longer. I’m lucky to have had it, and of course my parents and Bowen Island itself are still there.

    → 3:04 PM, Aug 3   •  Personal, Blog, bowenisland
  • Checked in at Tell Your Friends Cafe.

    Another #bowenisland happening spot, my first time visiting in person.

    → 11:14 AM, Aug 3   •  checkin, bowenisland
  • Brought the charcoal BBQ over to Bowen. Beets, zucchini rounds, pork, Orbaek bratwurst, and some beef.

    → 7:07 PM, Aug 2
  • Checked in at Orbaek

    New food option on #bowenisland. Rice bowls with great pickled veggies, plus house made meats.

    → 12:10 PM, Aug 2   •  Bowen Island, bowenisland
  • Checked in at Skipper Otto.

    A #biking pickup of #SkipperOtto fresh mussels.

    → 3:31 PM, Jul 30   •  Biking, SkipperOtto
  • Checking in at Jericho Beach.

    #biking to Jericho. A beautiful evening in the sun.

    → 7:39 PM, Jul 29   •  Biking
  • Went for a walk after dinner. The blackberries are starting to ripen!

    → 10:26 PM, Jul 28
  • This is basically a pickle / fermentation appreciation account now. Bought this kit at Welk’s today, plus two more lids & springs.

    → 4:33 PM, Jul 28   •  Twitter, pickling
  • New podcast: Value in Open, about doing #opensource for a living:

    Any open source value creator is deserving of a fair share of the profits that their work generates for others. But figuring out reasonable ways to “collect” without running afoul of deeply rooted open source principles is an incredible challenge. – @erlend_sh

    → 10:28 AM, Jul 28   •  Twitter, opensource
  • Checked in at Best Food’s Grocery.

    Corner store popsicles while #biking — and a really great #mural by Jenn Brisson.

    → 6:57 PM, Jul 27
  • At the #Fission office

    → 12:08 PM, Jul 27
  • Checked in at Hime.

    Take out from the #sushi #restaurant that’s close to the office.

    → 11:58 AM, Jul 27
  • Checked in at Kissa Tanto. Always order the pickle plate. Look how perfect this is, and so tasty.

    → 6:01 PM, Jul 26   •  checkin
  • I’ve really enjoyed Martha Wells’ MURDERBOT books. On special today.

    → 4:26 PM, Jul 26   •  Twitter, book, Martha Wells, MURDERBOT
  • Checked in at 1931 Gallery Bistro. Halloumi galette for her, Peking duck eggs benny for me. Also first time at a #restaurant in 4 months.

    → 11:28 AM, Jul 26   •  restaurant, checkin
  • Checked in at Vancouver Art Gallery. Starting Rachael’s birthday with this exhibit about #BC craft and design. “Shadow Wood” is a type of plywood that was produced locally.

    → 10:29 AM, Jul 26   •  BC, checkin
  • Barbados is offering a 12 month “remote work” visa

    I don’t think this is the only one of these we’ll see. As remote employment becomes normalized, cities & countries will compete for workers.

    → 5:43 AM, Jul 26   •  Twitter, remote work, Barbados
  • That last post was testing OwnYourSwarm, to use MicroPub to send FourSquare Swarm check-ins here. Worked!

    → 9:03 PM, Jul 25   •  Micropub, IndieWeb
  • Checked in at Dude Chilling Park. Cuban Taxi Guava Gose #beer from Callister Brewing. Remember: #gose is basically German gatorade.

    → 8:48 PM, Jul 25   •  beer, gose, checkin
  • Is an open source Instagram possible?

    The Sunlit 3 beta is available, and now open source.

    Is an open source “Instagram” possible?

    I had a long discussion with an artist about moving off Instagram and Facebook. I told him he was putting photos up inside a mall, and he didn’t disagree. Because he can sell inside the mall.

    He was uncomfortable about it. That I was kind of accusatory, shouldn’t he go first, to walk out of the mall and lure people outside instead.

    So how do we encourage people that doing street graffiti is something they might want to do?

    Putting my technologist hat back on, an open source mobile app like Sunlit is an interesting starting point.

    Supporting Micropub and WordPress are great starting points.

    Now what about a SquareSpace interface? Drupal and Joomla? Mastodon?

    Tumblr? Flickr?

    This mix of open source and protocols and networks gets us to an interesting spot.

    Does multiple forks of Sunlit help? That is, say other people use the code and deploy apps to the App Store. Can that be additive to a network of users using open protocols and platforms? I’m sort of asking if we can kickstart a more open and federated network.

    What if that app added “Buy Now” buttons? Where users could add their own links to a place where they could buy what is in the photo. Or tip the photographer!

    Thanks @manton for open sourcing. That begins to give us the opportunity to contribute and build upon what’s there now.

    → 5:47 PM, Jul 25   •  Twitter, opensource, Open Web, Micropub, Blog
  • Treats from Pacific Bread Company for Rachael’s birthday girlfriends gathering. PBC has excellent pastries.

    → 12:17 PM, Jul 25   •  Personal, Rachael Ashe, Pacific Bread Company
  • The Impact of the Coronavirus on Software Valuation Multiples, Tomasz Tunguz

    “The bigger question is whether software purchasing habits change because of reduced travel and networking. We will see that in the earnings reports coming out over the next month, and startups may begin to observe it in longer sales cycles.”

    via @davidcrow

    → 1:48 PM, Jul 24   •  LinkedIn, startup
  • What’s that vague unease about Fava beans? Oh yeah, you need to take them out of their pods and shell them before cooking.

    → 5:40 PM, Jul 23   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Fava beans
  • “we’re not replacing front-end devs with attention-layer-stacks anytime soon.”

    Agustin Lebron in Marginal Revolution, The case against the import of GPT-3, referencing this React layout generator.

    → 8:02 AM, Jul 23   •  ML, Marginal Revolution, GPT-3
  • DaveO has just posted two kitchen posts. One on salt fermented pickles, the other on preparing two food gifts, tai snapper fish and wagyu beef.

    Yum! Clearly I need to go visit DaveO in Japan so we can cook epic feasts together.

    → 11:25 PM, Jul 22   •  cooking, DaveO, Japan
  • Eggplant and okra in a peanut coconut sauce. I felt good about the flavour balance in this.

    Did I really need to cook two dishes tonight and make the house hot??? 👨‍🍳

    → 8:42 PM, Jul 21   •  AllTheBestRecipes, eggplant
  • A variation on my last brown butter and fresh peas pasta. No scapes, 3 minced bacon slices, minced onion & lemon juice & zest, served over macaroni.

    → 8:21 PM, Jul 21   •  AllTheBestRecipes, pasta
  • Lovely animations illustrating Ralph Ammer’s Make me think!: rather than using design to shield people from complexity, use it to empower people. “Should the technology grow — or the person using it?”

    (via @baldur)

    → 6:25 AM, Jul 20   •  LinkedIn, Ralph Ammer, design
  • On the fifth anniversary of Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory, @PackyM posts his Entropy Theory: “most successful businesses are those that use the latest technology to wrangle that chaos”

    → 6:16 AM, Jul 20   •  Twitter
  • If you need to delete a known host in Blink.sh, you’ll need to use this sed hack:

    sed -i.bak '5d' known_hosts

    Where 5 is the host line number. Although apparently Blink will ship with a full editor soon.

    → 9:59 PM, Jul 19   •  CLI, Unix, Blink Shell
  • Step two of kimuchi and pickled cabbage. The kimuchi will sour for 3 days in a corner, the cabbage goes to the back of the fridge for 3 weeks.

    → 9:28 AM, Jul 19   •  AllTheBestRecipes
  • Turning a giant head of green cabbage into Kimuchi and some pickled cabbage & jalapeños, from The Joy of Pickling

    → 1:36 PM, Jul 18   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter
  • Currently reading: The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich 📚

    → 1:24 PM, Jul 18   •  cookbook, pickling
  • I’ve written up a bit of a “best of” of a bunch of mainly food / grocery places for North Commercial Drive / Grandview-Woodland. My neighbourhood is a really nice place to live, shop, and eat ;)

    → 10:42 AM, Jul 18   •  Vancouver
  • Pineapple 🍍 Mango 🥭 #tepache with a knob of ginger. Back to basics!

    → 2:44 PM, Jul 15   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter, tepache
  • Straight & Marrow is going into the old Bistro Wagon Rouge space, Scout Magazine

    Looking forward to trying this new place. Bistro was pretty classic French bistro, the updated room looks spectacular.

    → 10:46 AM, Jul 15   •  Vancouver, restaurant, Scout Magazine
  • Discord and the Cozy Web

    Tom Critchlow writes ‘Setting up a Discord Room for my Blog’, calling it a “cozy chat space”, for me a direct call back to this:

    the cozyweb works on the (human) protocol of everybody cutting-and-pasting bits of text, images, URLs, and screenshots across live streams — Venkatesh Rao, Extended Internet Universe, May 2019

    I have introduced/explained Discord to several friends with kids who use it extensively for gaming and hanging out with friends.

    I’ve used Discord for several years now, as many of the global tech communities I’m part of use it. I’d say that there is definitely an increase of adoption by open source projects.

    I tweeted about why Discord:

    [Discord has much better] permissions [than Slack]! It's default open, with members, roles, channels being able to have permissions.

    Plus, of course, mod powers like Kick and Ban.

    Slack is swipe card entry only, Discord is a public festival with various members only sections, VIP rooms, and an operations center.

    Our usage for public, group, and company-only chat at Fission has gone well, all in one server.

    I have a longer post in draft about how we pair it with Discourse forums.

    Discord being free means…something else is the product. Mostly it’s stickers right now.

    Matrix is my exit plan.

    Mozilla selected Matrix as the chat protocol / platform to move to, away from IRC. It is an open protocol as well as being open source, meaning many clients and servers can be built and interoperate.

    New Vector, the main company behind Matrix development recently announced that Automattic, makers of WordPress, made a strategic investment.

    All these things make it clear that Matrix has momentum, and it’s important that there be an open — and secure! — option for chat.

    At the same time, because chat is ephemeral, I consider it less important that such a platform be open: the feeling and UX rank much more highly in importance.


    You can join the Fission server or try out my AllTheBest.Recipes server if you’d like to experiment.

    Prompted by Ton commenting on Tom’s post.

    → 6:53 AM, Jul 14   •  Discord, cozy web, Blog
  • “We want our house to be made from sustainable materials that last multiple decades, are resistant to rot, and require very low maintenance.”

    @LeeLefever has a different definition of smart home, and a great write up of choosing yakisugi siding.

    → 6:09 PM, Jul 13   •  Twitter, Lee Lefever
  • Om asks whether to pay for Pocket or Instapaper. I think a lot of people don’t know that Mozilla acquired Pocket back in 2017. Support Mozilla!

    → 6:51 AM, Jul 12   •  Mozilla, Pocket
  • My bike against the textured wall across from @DLChicken1

    → 1:05 PM, Jul 11   •  Biking, Twitter
  • Lunch with Brey at the Capitol Hill Reservoir Park. He made a gin lemonade, salad, and mashed potatoes to go with Downlow Chicken I brought.

    → 1:00 PM, Jul 11   •  Burnaby, Brey Tucker, Downlow Chicken
  • Lovely pale pink rhubarb lime ginger tepache. As I suspected, the pith from the limes is a bit bitter. Doesn’t feel like it will ferment? We’ll see in 3 days.

    → 12:48 PM, Jul 11   •  AllTheBestRecipes, tepache
  • So proud of @rachaelashe’s work. Check out her work featured for #FacesOfCraftFriday by @CraftCouncilBC

    → 6:44 AM, Jul 10   •  Twitter, Rachael Ashe
  • Do you know the story of Sleeping Giants?

    Hear about it from co-founder @nandoodles as she embarks on her next big thing, CheckMyAds.

    → 10:28 PM, Jul 9   •  LinkedIn
  • I’m on a buying-and-downloading-actual-music-files roll! Listening to Perturbator’s “I ran to the Arcade”, from Night Driving Avenger EP bought on Bandcamp.

    I think I got here through Randall’s Gunship Music reco.

    Perturbator Night Driving Avenger EP  Cover

    → 9:50 AM, Jul 9   •  music
  • This is a screenshot of Obsidian @obsdmd making a link graph of the Markdown source files of my bmann wiki and archive. After discussing with Ton, “just files” is a powerful means of ownership.

    → 7:59 AM, Jul 9   •  Twitter, Obsidian, secondbrain, notes
  • Next batch of #tepache, first time without pineapple: rhubarb, ginger, lime.

    → 11:24 AM, Jul 8   •  AllTheBestRecipes, Twitter, tepache
  • I’m testing @hopinofficial for my @drupalconNA #DrupalConGlobal presentation. Next week! On Tuesday July 14th! Drupal and the Decentralized Web

    → 7:23 AM, Jul 8   •  Twitter, Drupal
  • duckduckgo()
    {
      lynx "[lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/](https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=$(urlencode) "$@")"
    }
    

    Via DevTO @ThePracticalDev “What are your preferred bash aliases?”

    → 11:58 PM, Jul 7   •  Twitter, dotfiles, CLI, DuckDuckGo, dev
  • It’s Ottawa-era Boris music this evening 🎵 Andrew Vincent and the Pirates, I Love the Modern Way

    Album Art - Andrew vincent love the modern way

    → 9:43 PM, Jul 7   •  music
  • This video of the beta preview of mmhmm has been making the rounds. It’s a new video overlay / remix app, MacOS only for now, by @PLibin, who you may remember as the founder of Evernote. It looks lovely and I can’t wait to try it.

    → 8:03 PM, Jul 7   •  Twitter, video, Phil Libin, mmhmm
  • My friend @LeeLefever writes about his business @commoncraft and their start making explainer videos like “RSS in Plain English”. If you look closely, you can see my B. Mann Consulting blog there.

    → 3:51 PM, Jul 7   •  Twitter, Lee Lefever, blogging
  • Via David Crow, The Difference Between Budgets, Targets, and Forecasts.

    I see many startup founders afraid to really engage with their finances, from planning to maintenance. You can’t just outsource this to a bookkeeper, it’s an essential core skill.

    Love your spreadsheets :)

    → 9:18 AM, Jul 7   •  LinkedIn, finance, startup
  • What year is this? I just refreshed my LastFM user account. Bought a couple of @flor digital downloads. cc @walkah

    → 4:32 PM, Jul 6   •  Twitter, music
  • digital spaces generally have no equivalent of a disapproving glare

    — “The silence is Deafening”, by @devonzuegel, on how to improve digital discourse.

    What Devon describes would be called “tummling” by @kevinmarks

    → 12:25 PM, Jul 5   •  Twitter, community , tummling, Devon Zuegel, Kevin Marks
  • A test ride to Capitol Hill Reservoir Park in Burnaby. Straight shot along the Adanac bike route. Was surprisingly fast, the ebike really helps on the hills!

    → 12:02 PM, Jul 5   •  Biking, Twitter, Burnaby
  • Kyle writes about the evolution of @LicenseZero as an Indie Code Catalog. The tag line is “gainful open software development” — for developers looking to thrive.

    → 10:46 AM, Jul 5   •  Twitter, licensing, opensource
  • Currently reading: Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat 📚

    → 8:43 AM, Jul 5   •  cookbook
  • Buttondown Email is a simple email newsletter tool.

    The owner also funds open source that the business relies on.

    → 8:29 PM, Jul 4   •  Twitter
  • My friend Lee LeFever is building a new home on Orcas Island. He’s looking at options for whole home batteries if you have experience with them. I learned a bit about the electricity co-op on the San Juans & am inspired by co-op businesses.

    → 7:44 PM, Jul 4
  • Biked east into Burnaby. Some of the usual trails are under construction, which lead to some steep hills.

    → 1:37 PM, Jul 4   •  Biking
  • An old photo from my Flickr backup, taken with some sort of digital camera, not just a smartphone! A snail and an ant together, on one of the fruit trees in the back yard of my parents’ place on Bowen Island.

    → 11:47 AM, Jul 4
  • A picture of my RadRunner 1 Ebike from the Radpower website. It also happens to be for testing what photos look like in different microblog themes.

    → 10:19 AM, Jul 4   •  Biking
  • I think I’m going to make the move to the hosted version of Micro.blog for my microblogging. I’ll keep long form posting at blog.bmannconsulting.com.

    → 10:11 AM, Jul 4
  • I believe you mean SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE

    I believe you mean SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE

    SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE retro vapour wave style neon blue snake head with dark purple background and pink neon grid
    Screaming Snake Case by Fission

    Let me know if you want a sticker sent to you!

    I’m considering illustrating “Kebab Case” as one of our next projects.

    → 1:31 PM, Apr 13   •  Blog
  • “I value allyship more than anything. Home is people. Safe spaces are people, too. Not all people. But the right ones”.

    Happy 41, @benwerd. Whatever version of the web we’re on, we’re all in this together.

    → 11:16 PM, Jan 7   •  social
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