Outlines, Wikis, and Wisdom
I have a great deal of respect for the people who layed the foundation of the computer technology I use today, people like Steve Wozniak, Dan Bricklin, Ward Cunningham, and Dave Winer. I follow Ward and Dave the closest because they actively write and because I use their work every day.
I am struck by the similarities and differences between Ward and Dave’s work. Ward created wiki, which is a tool he created to write and share pattern languages. Wiki’s emphasis is on easy writing and hyperlinking, which I think was the intended purpose of the Web. Dave also created writing tools, the outliner and blogs, that simplify publishing of writing on the Internet and he also created RSS to make it easier for one to keep up with the writing on the Internet. Dave’s original work is the conceptual basis for my stream while Ward’s original work provides the tools for my garden.
I like outlines and find that I really like Federated Wiki and today I realized that the similarity between them is that both provide context to writing but in different ways. Outlines are hiearchical while Federated Wiki has a lineup that shows context between source and destination links in a horizontal and linear fashion. I think this ability to easily see context and connections is also why I like Roam and use it for my private notes.
I am not sure that this matters much to others, but I think there is a relationship between context and history. History is the context of our lives and I think a great deal of our problems come from a failure to see meaning or to see what is really happening because we fail to know the context. Part of the problem may be that it’s too difficult to find the context of history, that’s where tools like oultliners might help, and because it is so difficult few people really take the time to seek out and understand context.
Context is needed for true understanding, knowledge, and thus wisdom and today there is a huge deficiency of wisdom.
Pairagraph is an interesting site, with an interesting starting dialog about whether America is in decline that Om Malik is participating in. I find my reaction is less about whether or not I agree with Om as much as the fact that he appears to associate Amercia’s not decline with wealth. Fixation on wealth as a measure of success is a uniquely human problem that is becoming more problematic, particularly for the United States. Should freedom and liberty be defined in wealth terms?
As to the site… why couldn’t the dialog occur between two people writing on their own blogs?
Another note about the Fossil Gen 5 watches, they don’t have the two dedicated hardware buttons of the prior models which I use and which I found to be a differentiater between it and other brands. Consequently I am now likely to consider other brands.
I am keeping an eye on the latest Wear OS watch announcements Fossil announced their new Gen 5E line, which I recommend people do not buy. The Gen 5E still uses the Qualcomm 3100 chip while there is a newer and better chip, the Qualcomm 4100 now available. I am waiting for a watch running the Qualcomm 4100 before I replace my Fossil Sport.
The same people who are convinced that the media and Democrats are making COVID-19 more than it is are the same people convinced that U.S. elections are highly corrupt. They call out as propaganda that which they do not want to hear nor accept but don’t apply the same criteria against those of their own tribe. When it comes to elections, start with a fact that the people currently in office do not want high voter turnouts, while everyone should be embarrassed that nearly half of Americans do not vote.
Not All Styluses Make The Same Point
The Lenovo USI Stylus arrived today, giving me the first chance to try a Universal Stylus Initiative digital pen. Historically, digital pens only work with the tablets made by the manufacturer of the pen, and the pens are not portable between tablets. USI is a protocol intended to enable one to use a pen across multiple tablets. Thus, the Lenovo stylus I just got is supposed to not only work with the Lenovo Duet, but other tablets and notebook computers that support USI.
Unfortunately, I don’t have another device that supports USI, but I can say that the stylus I received just worked with the Duet once I got the pen powered up, there was no pairing process. The problem that I have with this stylus is that its tip is too big and round and so writing with it is like writing with a used medium tip marker rather than like a fine point pen. The tip on the Apple Pencil and Microsoft Surface Pen is much more like a pencil or pen so that what you write on the screen does not look like big fat characters.
The upside to the Lenovo USI is that it only cost me $31, which is considerabily cheaper than the Apple Pencil. However, even if it is cheap, the fact that one cannot really write digital ink that approximates a fine tip pen will hinder its usefullness.
I am thinking that the state of COVID-19 in the United States may be less of a failure of leadership than we want to think. Imagine if this happened while Obama were President. Yes, the response would be more efficient, like hospital supplies would be better managed, but I think the people refusing to do the right things now, like wearing masks and social distancing, would refuse to do them with Obama as President.The same Republican Governors and state legislatures would do the same thing they are doing now.
In many ways the U.S. response to COVID-19 is the same as how respond to mass shootings, no matter where they occur. We are trapped in a selfish, individualistic mindset fueled by capitalists and religious and taken advantage of by the power brokers.
I get a lot of packages delivered to our house and I find UPS is the best delivery service in terms of provide me ways to be notified about the delivery status. On the morning of delivery I get a link to a live map that shows the delivery truck in relation to our house, so that I can narrow down when I can expect the package to be delivered.
It is possible that Trump will recover well from his bout with COVID-19, which will then result with his supporters declaring, “see, no worse than the flu!” We must not obsess on how this affects Trump personally and focus on how it spreads and affects others. Trump and those directly in his orbit do not care about others, and apparently people who should know better, like college professors and presidents, as if in an abusive relationship, are too intimidated to stand for themselves.
Chris Christie, for the sake of your family and your own life, stop hanging out with President Trump!
The purpose of wearing a mask is so that one may not spread the virus to others. Because Trump has demonstrated he does not care at all for others, anyone coming in close physical contact with him is putting their life in danger. This act alone is a violation of Trumps oath of office, but since grown ups who identify Republican were incapable of standing up to him and removing him from office when they had the chance, they get to suffer the consequences. (Republicans, when will you face the fact that Trump is not one of you and doesn’t care about you?)
Isolate Trump in the White House until after the election. No more tax dollars spent on him to spread the virus around. No more press conferences. No rallies. Enough is enough.
CNN: This is a code red moment for the US government
“Strategically speaking, it weakens any credibility that the US has, in terms of being a competent global leader prepared to confront threats. "
Making America Great? Greatness is not self declared, it is determined by consensus of others. If I say I am great, I am being arrogant. America’s greatness is thus truly determined by the people who live in countries other than the United States of America.
We were first considered great in 1787 when we did something never done before by creating a nation governed by citizens rather than ruled by monarchs. Any doubt was removed by the end of World War II when we saved the world from fascism.
Unfortunately we got drunk on our own press clippings, puffed our chest, and started trying to impose our superiority upon the world, first in Korea, then in Vietnam, and as we started losing the “war” in Vietnam the government declared war on its own citizens, which has been raging toward the near boiling point that we are experiencing now.
It turns out to be great you do have to care about others. Nobody ever thought to be great was so self centered as to not be willing to sacrifice for the other.
It puzzles me how people who demonstrate an incapability to handle simple things are given pass to do more important things like keep the world safe.
Took some pictures of the clouds the other day.
Two years later and the same question.
This is such a good article by the Rolling Stone, There’s a Right and a Wrong Way to Talk About Trump’s Attempts to Rig the Election
The main overarching issue, which has been the issue since the 2016 election, is Trump says X, and Democrats and progressives say, “Can you believe he just said X?” That’s the problem
The above is one of many good quotes.
Trump shouted, he bullied, he hectored, he lied, and he interrupted, over and over again.
Compare this to the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, which gained a positive reaction from Republicans simply because he was “angry.” Trump’s strategy is to appear stronger than Biden, but the thing is his definition of strength is not the same as many other’s definition.
Roam Is a Note-Taking Tool, and a Dream of a Better Self is a decent article about Roam.
If I’m being honest, what I do is not “note-taking” but rather “record keeping”. I write things down that I don’t want to forget. I don’t do it as an aid to “thinking”.
That’s what I do too, and there is nothing wrong with that, record keeping is important. In my work I take notes to record what I did and I often have do search for things along the lines of “when this last broke, what did we do?”
The new Extreme Battery Saver mode coming to Pixel phones looks interesting.
Om Malik shared the following quote of Steve Jobs that I find disturbing.
“We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids,” Steve Jobs, 1996.
I thought making America a better place for our kids was the American dream. What then does Make America Great Again mean?
Looking at the differences between the Pixel 5, 4A5G, and 4a phones and their associated prices, I think Google has a good line up of phones. I am curious to read the reviews and options that are forthcoming.