Misc: Links and videos and commentary which may compel thee

I had not seen this repost of Mother Earth Mother Board, an article by Neal Stephenson from Eric Meyer and I’m glad to see it now.

It reminds me I put up a repost of Stephenson’s In the Beginning Was The Command Line in 1999 and it’s still up.

The notes from this past week’s Front End Study Hall #013 are rather good. If you like CSS, and want to learn more CSS, these events are good. I say this as the person who thought up this event. I hope I say it with a not-excessive dose of ego.

Even if Jeff Bezos is scared to let the Venerable Newspaper he bought endorse Kamala Harris for President, I am not. I do so endorse, and voted by mail, early. Here, watch Bobby Finger’s astounding and creepy and wonderful video about Jeff Bezos’ empty fat head being made into a rowboat.

Alan Moore in The Guardian waxing philosophical about the nature of and dangers of fandom? Yes please.

There are, of course, entirely benign fandoms, networks of cooperative individuals who quite like the same thing, can chat with others sharing the same pastime and, importantly, provide support for one another in difficult times. These healthy subcultures, however, are less likely to impact on society in the same way that the more strident and presumptuous fandoms have managed. Unnervingly rapidly, our culture has become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in. Our entertainments may be cancelled prematurely through an adverse fan reaction, and we may endure largely misogynist crusades such as Gamergate or Comicsgate from those who think “gate” means “conspiracy”, and that Nixon’s disgrace was predicated on a plot involving water, but this is hardly the full extent to which fan attitudes have toxified the world surrounding us, most obviously in our politics.

On a lighter note, Know Your Shits from Alex Kunz. Language, and English in particular, is some crazy shit.

If you said to me, or some random post said to me: “post the most recent meme in your camera roll” I would find none. I mostly don’t like memes. They are an entertainment. I seldom feel that they can express what’s in me. But I do like a meme that is funny or silly. And a few I find useful. “My Specialty is Roofing” I posted to this here site in 2011 and it still manages to make me laugh.

I made this one this week as I was thinking about billionaires. Which is rather less benign but also makes me laugh. I have less hope this will continue to make me laugh for many years.

SVG Repo looks to be a pretty great resource. For many of the icons on this site I am currently using Font Awesome which is absolutely unnecessarily heavy but works and I don’t have to think about it. I think about replacing them sometimes. What I might do is use some from SVG Repo. But I also have a certain amount of “not invented here” about this site and I also have an impulse to redraw logos myself. For now, inertia will probably win and I will do nothing.

The Substack to RSS OMPL worked well for me. It might interest you. By Les Orchard.

Anil Dash wrote It feels like 2004 again is along the lines of what I wrote not long ago about history rhyming. I’ve been thinking back a lot lately. Anil nails what’s exciting about the current moment:

Interestingly, most of the people who’ve heard me say this over the last year or so think that I’m complaining or lamenting the situation, but I’m actually excited about it. That malaise by the big players in tech a generation ago yielded an exciting and inspiring new wave of innovations. While much of the money in big tech was chasing distractions back in 2004, many communities of small, independent creators on the open web were making the new pillars of web culture — many of which are still standing to this day.

The past is compelling too, I was reminded by Pinguino of some photos from a BarCamp from back in the day:

She’s got a photo of me playing, I think, Rock Band.

I think it’s related somehow that I wrote a piece like MAKE A MARK–an explicit call to people to draw. I was crap as a tech evangelist and salesperson. But I do have some zeal to share. Go learn stuff. Tell people you like you like them. Call out injustice. Say what you mean. Don’t seethe in resentment. Get yer ya yas out.

While I’m banging a drum, I’ll namecheck my pal gRegor. His piece about Safer Events Workshop is on point. I love this quote:

“When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof.”

I am very glad and gratified that gRegor is part of the team for IndieWeb events, and particularly that he’s enthused for and a contributor to how we will make IndieWeb Camp San Diego happen in December. It’s going to be great.

I’m so happy to see XOXO talks go out and have an impact. I liked Tracy’s take on Ed Yong’s talk. You should be reading Tracy Durnell, she’s got the digital garden thing wired.

All the talks are so good. I think the one with the most lasting impact on me is Cabel Sasser’s talk about Wes Cook and permanence and a lot of other things, though. We are lucky to live and we all die, we ought to have some fun with it and share of ourselves. Definitely in neighborhood of “MAKE A MARK.”

Thanks for reading. It’s rough out there. Stay strong.