Done Since 2018-10-07

[mdlbear]

Not too bad of a week, and productive after a fashion. A job rejection (npm; I didn't have much hope for that one), and a couple of applications including one Friday that got a same-day response asking more questions. I posted on Monday about one of my latest software, under the title Adventures in Hyperspace (and Javascript) -- then spent at least half of this week chasing a very mysterious bug. That post originally appeared on Computer-Curmudgeon.com, and was pretty successful as an experiment in cross-posting. It did produce much uglier HTML than I prefer; the post was originally written in markdown. (I also used pandoc to do the conversion; it looks as though the converter Jekyll uses does a better job of it, so I'll have to see if I can take advantage of that.)

I also started the process of separating the Computer Curmudgeon site, which exists mainly for my (currently non-existent) consulting business, from my GitHub Pages site, which I've decided ought to be about the software I'm sharing. They have a very similar look at the moment, but that's changing. Tell me what you think!

There's obviously going to be a lot of cross-posting going on (and I still need to automate that) -- I think I'll put that in my next curmudgeon post. TL;DR: everything except specifically site-related news will get cross-posted to DW (and from there to LJ), and the news posts will at least be linked. For completeness, I probably ought to post links on twitter and FB, too -- I don't read them unless I get a link, but I know some people do. Maybe.

Let's see... the usual collection of data breaches. This time, Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public, but now that the cat's out of the bag, they're (belatedly) "Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+". That last bit is the main one affecting those of us who were using G+ as our main alternative to Twitter and The Book of Faces Lies. As for me, I guess I'll be reading more eBooks on the ferry.

My mood's been all over the place. Tuesday, I wrote, "I seem to be feeling more competent/confident now that I've spent the last couple of weeks getting back into a work groove. Who knew?" It does indicate that I actually can work full days, if the work fascinates me. But Thursday, I wrote, "losing hope. Cash low; no jobs I'm qualified for", and had a "bit of a breakdown". More like a meltdown, I suppose. Still enough for me to snap at Colleen for trying to help. Mostly a case of "what not to say to a depressed person", but I can't fault her for suggesting that I get out of the house or make some music, because those really do help. It's just that when I'm that depressed, it feels as though nothing will help. And of course the underlying cause is mostly my financial trainwreck, which only makes me feel worse about myself.

I'd really like to get onto Drip, but it's invite-only at the moment. Meanwhile, anyone have any advice for choosing between Patreon, Buy Me A Coffee, Ko-fi, PayPal, or anything else? (I should get on Bandcamp, too, I suppose.) update: PayPal donation button added to DW profile. Feed the bear?

Notes & links:

1007Su
  * up 4:30ish; S=4:29;
  * debugging statements in polytopes -- something is very wrong.
    -> patched around it by making all the polytopes at once and caching them.  Ugh.
  * uploaded to DH:  stephen.savitzky.net/hyperviewer/build/. 
  * SL: blackberry jam, chocolate ice cream, malt-o-meal, sugar, flour, ground beef,
    miracle whip, winter squash, bananas, spinach, fatty bacon for salad, canned tomatoes
    with onions and chilis (brand Rotel), dried pineapple, baking cocoa, unbleached white
    flour, 1# walnuts, shredded coconut (in baking aisle next to cocoa), green beans,
    mushrooms, ground lamb, 4 red bell peppers, 1 can tomato sauce, small piece of ham
    (1-2lbs), cheeses (blue, swiss, grated cheddar, mozz, parm), buttermilk, 1 pkg lemon
    drops, chicken thighs; x sherbet, fiber gummies
  % wiped.  Had to rest for about half an hour after getting home; took meloxicam, which
    appears to be helping.
  & burgers for dinner (with cheese, onion, and barbecue sauce on toasted English muffins)
  * 10ish pm - take a bath.

1008Mo Indigenous Peoples' Day (AKA Columbus Day)
  * up 7:30ish; W=198.2, S=7:28;
  @ Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public - WSJ
    " A software glitch in the social site gave outside developers potential access to
      private Google+ profile data between 2015 and March 2018 "
    also in the article, and much more relevant to those who still use it,
    " As part of its response to the incident, the Alphabet Inc unit plans to announce a
      sweeping set of data privacy measures that include permanently shutting down all
      consumer functionality of Google+, the people said. The move effectively puts the
      final nail in the coffin of a product that was launched in 2011 to challenge
      Facebook Inc. FB -0.41% and is widely seen as one of Google’s biggest failures. "
  @ Project Strobe: Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting
    consumer Google+  
  @ NISTIR 8202 Blockchain Technology Overview -- NIST [PDF] Flow chart [jpg]
  * morning work session:  hyperviewer on GH: license, improved README
    @ ssavitzky/hyperviewer:
      See objects rotating in hyperspace, anywhere from two to six dimensions.
      HyperViewer DEMO!
  * 12:30 C Dr. Rochier
  * music: do some actual singing: Cap and Bells, For Amy.  fingers hurting a little; I'll
    do another round later.
  * blog post:  release techniques -> already done:
    Jekyll without GitHub | Stephen Savitzky
  & picked up prescriptions for C; got tums and fiber gummies at the same time.
  * blog post:  JavaScript lessons from hyperviewer
  : C and V made fry bread and chicken paprikas for dinner
  @ Adventures in hyperspace (and JavaScript) | Stephen Savitzky 2200 words
  * Pandoc makes something of a hash of converting to html.  Next time go the other way?
    -> looks okay, though.  Right thing may be to put the conversion in ljpost
  * put ncube up on GH, with new (MIT) license

1009Tu
  * Up 5:35; W=200.4, S=6:47;
  @ Indigenous Peoples' Day - Wikipedia counter-celebration to Columbus Day; that
    explains why there wasn't any mail yesterday.
  : 9:24 robocall from Island Drug.  No way to get a human.  Called, hold timed out, left
    message.  Maybe they'll call me back.  Drive up Wednesday if not.
  * clean up ss.g.io - split off from curmudgeon.  In the planning stage.
  ! I seem to be feeling more competent/confident now that I've spent the last couple of
    weeks getting back into a work groove.  Who knew?
  @ New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom - Bloomberg
    Still dubious.  Fair amount of handwaving in that one, e.g.:
    " One of the keys to any successful hardware attack is altering components that have
      an ample power supply to them, a daunting challenge the deeper into a motherboard
      you go. That's why peripherals such as keyboards and mice are also perennial
      favorites for intelligence agencies to target, "
  @ Yossi Appleboum Disagrees with How Bloomberg is Positioning His Research Against
    Supermicro OTOH it could be much _worse_ than just Supermicro
  @ Wi-Fi Switches from Obscure Protocol Names to Simple Generation Numbers - TidBITS 
  : rejection from npm.
  * split ssavitzky.github.io off from computer-curmudgeon.com. 
  * (spent much of the evening/night chasing the simplex bug, with no success)
  % to bed after 1am; C was reading.

1010We
  * up 6:50ish; W=202.4, S=5:13;
  * fixed page banner text on c-c.c
  * drive up to Oak Harbor to talk with Island Drug.
  & reading MDN on cross-browser compatibility and accessibilith
  x last day to set up property tax autopay
  * humira

1011Th
  * up 6:30ish; W=201.4, S=7:35;
  * got the figure selection box in HV working.  The simplex bug is still there.
  ! losing hope.  Cash low; no jobs I'm qualified for.
  * split the viewer out into a class; that among other things keeps the figure selections
    from flickering.
  % bit of a breakdown.  Colleen kept trying to give me advice.
  % decided it might be inadvisable to have a drink tonight
  * guitar.  pure improv.  Mostly major chords in C with some G, and a couple of Am and Em
    thrown in.  Fast and somewhat...?  There was more emotional content than I usually put
    into noodling.
  @ ysabetwordsmith | Content Notes for "A Double-Edged Sword" emotional pain scale.
    No idea where I am on that.  High, mostly
  * feed fish on Thursdays 

1012Fr
  * up 4am; S=5:25;
  * job app to Signal
  * Writing -> Articles on /ssavitzky.github.io
    articles are a collection.  As I should have expected, putting the index page in the
    collection causes recursion and other havoc.
  ~ afternoon - Island Drug in Clinton will have CPAP supplies.
    => nope.  Call; dial 6 for DME
  ~ 3:30ish Rite Aid will have the senior flu vaccine
    => out.  Maybe Sunday.  Call in the morning.  No shingles until next year.
  * SL: large sweet onions, (lean, fat) bacon, tofu, eggs, bread,
    butter-flavored crisco,   -x ground beef, sherbet,
  : Heard back from Signal -- that was fast!  Some questions to answer.
  * 9:15ish pm *finally* figured out perspective transform, including the correction
    factor (which turns out to be added to z).  How long has it been?  => 30 years!

1013Sa
  * up 6:50; W=199.0, S=7:28;
  * ssavitzky.github.io - improved _layouts/post; broke out post-nav
  * hyperviewer - improved formatting, added selector for dimensionality.
  * ssavitzky.github.io - articles collection.  The index page has to NOT be inside the
    _articles directory, and the collection name wants to be lowercase. :P
  ~ called Island Drug.  put in an inquiry, and told me to also call the Clinton store.
    that, however, simply hung up on me.  Their phone system is in disarray atm.
  : New medicare cards arrived.  The ones without SS#s.
  @ Stephen Colebourne's blog: Oracle's Java 11 trap - Use OpenJDK instead! NOT FREE!
  @ Tech Workers Now Want to Know: What Are We Building This For? - NYT 

Comments

[spiffyvoxel]

To be honest, I never really found a good use for Google+. Most of my friends stayed on Facebook, and Google then proceeded to make it as much like Facebook as possible *and* shoehorn it into all their other products. (And two years after Google+ launched, they went and shut down Google Reader, which people liked. Go figure.)

At least I can nix my Google+ profile while keeping my Google account. Only really hanging onto that for the Google Drive space which comes in handy for sharing photos with family.

Meanwhile, I've started winding down my activity over on Tumblr, which is turning into a walled garden inside of the stupidly-named Oath, itself the mashing together of the corpses of Yahoo and AOL, with Verizon as Dr Frankenstein. Not only are Tumblr blocking search engines and requiring you to log in to view if you blog anything remotely adult, but now their RSS feeds are breaking, probably to a page requesting your permission to be tracked and profiled by Oath. Ugh.

Drip looks interesting. (Oh, and I see Mary Anne Mohanraj is one of their early members. Small world.) Kickstarter (who own Drip) have made fewer dumb moves than Patreon, at least over the last few years. (I'm a supporter of both platforms, thinking about becoming a Creator on Patreon.) Of the other options you mention, I only know PayPal and Bandcamp. PayPal is the big beast, mostly benign but not above occasionally being an asshole. Bandcamp seems to be doing all the right things, judging by the amount of stuff I've purchased through them.

[mdlbear]

Thanks! I also note that I might not be writing enough for Drip, though that might change.

[archangelbeth]

After the Patreon mess where they were going to do some Really DAFT stuff with charging patreons (!!) for their pledges, and had to walk it back after the firestorm... I'd say that having Diverse Locations To Receive Money is a good idea, so that if one place has a corporate-level "we are drunk and should go home instead of making policy" issue, you can switch people to another one without a hasty scramble to set something up.

[mdlbear]

That makes sense.