ADDED articles/daredevil-cristopher-wright-say-hi.poly.pm Index: articles/daredevil-cristopher-wright-say-hi.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/daredevil-cristopher-wright-say-hi.poly.pm +++ articles/daredevil-cristopher-wright-say-hi.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; Copyright 2019 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved. + +◊(define-meta published "2013-02-08") + +◊dialogue{ +◊say["Jason"]{If I asked you to say “Hi” to your band mates would you: do it, say you would then +not, or tell me you wouldn’t?} + +◊say["Caroline"]{My band and I only talk through music; it’s the only form of ◊index[#:key "music!as +communication "]{communication} we know. But tonight I will write a guitar solo that delineates me +saying hi to them from you. I will call it “me saying hi to them from you”.} } + +◊attrib{◊link[1]{Caroline v. Daredevil Album Release Show}} + +◊url[1]{http://thedaredevilchristopherwright.com/post/23831123244/caroline-v-daredevil-album-release-show-eau} ADDED articles/future-proofing.poly.pm Index: articles/future-proofing.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/future-proofing.poly.pm +++ articles/future-proofing.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,154 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; Copyright 2020 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved. + +◊(define-meta published "2020-03-08") + +◊title{Future Proofing} + +Thing that’s been on my mind lately: if you want your blog posts or your photographs to be around +fifty years from now, you need to print them out. And the best format for that printout is a bound +book. And if you care about your stuff being around ◊em{after you die}, you’ll print lots of copies +and distribute them to anyone who might be persuaded to take one of them. + +Sixty years ago, Harper Lee wrote ◊i{Go Set a Watchmen} and lost track of it, and this year the +original manuscript was apparently ◊link[1]{found by someone rummaging through a box of old +papers}. Suppose she had written it on a computer, where is it now? Sitting ◊link[2]{on a punch tape +or a giant magnetic platter}, that’s where. Who cares if it is saved in plain text or WordStar +3.0 format; at that point it’s almost undiscoverable, and as good as gone. And sixty years from now + our SSDS, USB drives, and even our ◊link[3]{M-Discs} are going to be as difficult to use (and as + busted) as that fridge-sized IBM Model 350 is now. + +Keeping electronic files and photos around is like trying to keep a brain alive with tubes, wires +and chemicals. You have to keep checking in on them, making sure they’re backed up, and migrating +them to some stable combination of hardware and filesystem. ◊em{Every few years.} Maybe you have the +patience to keep doing that for a decade, to keep writing the checks and putting in the Saturday +afternoons. But someone has to keep up the effort or the day comes when you lose track of it, and at +that point it’s basically kaput. + +This is why I started my project of making a book-making machine. The goal of the project is to be +able to take a snapshot of whatever I write or photograph, and magically turn that into a bound +book. So that, should I someday no longer have the wherewithal to fiddle with computers and web +servers, I can still have all those words and pictures on a shelf somewhere. ` I could just print my +stuff out on my laser printer, staple it together and call it a day. But a bound book is more +compact, more durable and more useable than a sheaf of papers. We happen to live in a time when +printing books is easy, fast and cheap. You can send a PDF to CreateSpace, order a single book for +a few clams plus shipping, and it will show up on your doorstep a week later.◊fn[1] + +So that’s what I’m working on, for fun, in my spare time. I’ll probably make a book of The Local +Yarn, and a second one of transcripts of the Howell Creek Radio podcast. When I’m done, I’ll make +the books available for anyone to purchase. I expect to sell perhaps three copies and end up with +a couple of dimes in my pocket. The point isn’t to make money; it’s to ensure that whoever might +want a permanent, offline copy of this stuff can get one — and that, if my house gets hit by +a tornado, I can beg or buy a copy back from somebody. + +◊fndef[1]{I just can’t get over the fact that this service exists. The ability to print a single +bound book for the price of a hot dog is, as much as the internet itself, an economic result that is +unique in the history of the world. I keep thinking that, as a society, we could be taking much +better advantage of this capability than we do. Who knows how long it will last.} + +◊url[1]{http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2015/02/03/harper-lee-to-publish-new-book-in-july-her-first-since-to-kill-a-mockingbird.html} +◊url[2]{http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/04/08/the-history-of-computer-data-storage-in-pictures/} +◊url[3]{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC} + +◊note[#:date "2015-03-08" #:author "Rundy" #:author-url "http://silverwarethief.com/"]{I have +thought this about my own writing as well, but I would add that a less ego-centric take I have also +considered on this idea is future proofing what I read. The vast majority of what I read on the +internet is not worth reading again (and plenty was not worth reading the first time), but a small +percentage is really good—even worth reading again in ten years, or sharing with my children. I find +some deep sadness, or irritation, in knowing that what I have read and valued is lost in the day +I read it, slipping away in the water torrent of the internet never to be read by me and considered +again. + +I entertain the idea of copying out the very best of what I read on the internet, with proper +attribution, and collecting it in volumes of reading in a nice book. It is a wonderful thing that we +can so easily collect our own writing in book form, but isn’t it an even greater thing that we can +so easily create books of awesome writing that we have found to share with others in our lives?} + +◊note[#:date "2015-04-18"]{Ben Fino-Radin, of the MoMA Department of Conservation, wrote about the +complex measures needed to preserve digital art across 100-year time scales: + +◊blockquote{The packager addresses the most fundamental challenge in digital preservation: all +digital files are encoded. They require special tools in order to be understood as anything more +than a pile of bits and bytes. Just as a VHS tape is useless without a VCR, a digital video file is +useless without some kind of software that understands how to interpret and play it, or tell you +something about its contents. At least with a VHS tape you can hold it in your hand and say, “Hey, +this looks like a VHS tape and it probably has an analog video signal recorded on it.” But there is +essentially nothing about a QuickTime .MOV file that says, “Hello, I am a video file! You should use +this sort of software to view me.” We rely on specially designed software—be it an operating system +or something more specialized—to tell us these things. The problem is that these tools may not +always be around, or may not always understand all formats the way they do today. This means that +even if we manage to keep a perfect copy of a video file for 100 years, no one may be able to +understand that it’s a video file, let alone what to do with it. To avoid this scenario, the +“packager”—free, open-source software called Archivematica—analyzes all digital collections +materials as they arrive, and records the results in an obsolescence-proof text format that is +packaged and stored with the materials themselves. We call this an “archival information package.”} + +He also touches on the problem of verifying that no file corruption has taken place, and the giant +robotic tape deck that will ultimately house and index 1.2 million gigabytes of digital art and +associated metadata. + +‘Ambitious’ and ‘technically impressive’ are the most favourable ways I can describe this +arrangement. ‘Unsustainably complicated’ may also be applicable. + +(via ◊link['kottke]{kottke}) +◊url['kottke]{http://kottke.org/15/04/momas-digital-art-vault} + +} + +◊note[#:date "2015-05-12"]{ + +◊blockquote{E-book backup is a physical, tangible, human readable copy of an electronically stored +novel. The purchased contents of an e-book reader were easily photocopied and clip-bound to create +a shelf-stable backup for the benefit of me, the book consumer. I can keep it on my bookshelf +without worry of remote recall. A second hardcover backup has been made with the help of an online +self-publishing house. + +◊footer{◊link['eb]{Ebook backup} by Jesse England (◊link['rg]{via Roberto Greco})} + +} + +◊url['eb]{http://jesseengland.net/index.php?/project/e-book-backup/} +◊url['rg]{http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/post/118835221028/ebook-backup-jesse-england-2012-via} + +} + +◊note[#:date "2015-05-13"]{ + +◊blockquote{Unlike with other digital expressions, format is not the problem: HTML, CSS, and +backward-compatible web browsers will be with us forever. The problem is, authors pay for their own +hosting. + +…Keeping your website active is probably the last thing your family will wish to focus on in their +grief. As they move on, attending to your digital affairs may not be high on their task list. + +◊footer{Jeff Reifman, ◊link['wh]{Hosting Your Website After Your Death} } + +} + +◊url['wh]{https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/hosting-your-website-after-death--cms-23492} + +} + +◊note[#:date "2015-10-15"]{ + +◊blockquote{The web, as it appears at any one moment, is a phantasmagoria. It’s not a place in any +reliable sense of the word. It is not a repository. It is not a library. It is a constantly changing +patchwork of perpetual nowness. + +You can’t count on the web, okay? It’s unstable. You have to know this. …If a sprawling Pulitzer +Prize-nominated feature in one of the nation’s oldest newspapers can disappear from the web, +anything can. “There are now no passive means of preserving digital information,” said Abby Rumsey, +a writer and digital historian. In other words if you want to save something online, you have to +decide to save it. Ephemerality is built into the very architecture of the web, which was intended +to be a messaging system, not a library. + +◊footer{Adrienne LaFrance, ◊link['rtw]{Raiders of the Lost Web}} + +} + +I can envision only one sort-of-practical way the web can be “preserved” in any meaningful sense of +the word: a giant microfiche archive with a card index. Yes, it would be inconvenient to use. It’s +also the only option likely to be useable at all in 100 years. + +} ADDED articles/making-a-bookmaking-machine.poly.pm Index: articles/making-a-bookmaking-machine.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/making-a-bookmaking-machine.poly.pm +++ articles/making-a-bookmaking-machine.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,129 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; Copyright 2015 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved. + +◊(define-meta published "2015-02-24" conceal "blog,feed") + +◊title{Making a Book-Making Machine} + +I’m trying to automate the process of taking a blog (or any collection of plain text and images) and +producing a printed book, for reasons that will be stated elsewhere. These are my notes on doing +so. + +◊newthought{Working backwards:} I’ll be using CreateSpace to print and bind the book. CS’s main +inputs are 1) a PDF of the book’s cover and 2) a PDF of the book’s interior. I’ll figure out how to +automate the creation of the cover later; for now I’ll focus on the book’s interior. I’ll be using +◊link[1]{pandoc} to convert HTML or Markdown into LaTeX, which can then be used to generate the PDF. +Most of the work will be in creating a suitable LaTeX template. On my Mac, I set up the development +environment for this by installing ◊link[2]{MacTeX} and ◊link[3]{Homebrew}, then installing pandoc +from the command line with: + +◊blockcode{$ brew install pandoc} + +As a simple test, I took the plain text of one of my own blog posts and saved it to simplepost.txt. +I also manually added some meta-data to the top (as ◊link[4]{described} in pandoc’s user guide), +like so: + +◊blockcode{--- +title: Imagination and Self-Doubt +author: Joel Dueck +date: July 18, 2014 +--- + +# Imagination and Self-Doubt + +...} + +and then ‘compiled’ to PDF: + +◊blockcode{$ pandoc -s -o out.tex simplepost.pdf +$ xelatex out.tex out.pdf} + +The result is a very basic PDF set in Computer Modern, suitable for printing on loose sheets of 8.5″ +× 11″ paper: + +◊figure-@2x["bookscript-output1.png"]{PDF output using Pandoc and LaTeX on a simple Markdown file} + +In later notes I’ll be working on customizing the LaTeX template used by pandoc to get +a good-looking PDF suitable for use with CreateSpace. + +◊url[1]{http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/index.html} +◊url[2]{http://www.tug.org/mactex/index.html} +◊url[3]{http://brew.sh/} +◊url[4]{http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#metadata-blocks} + +◊note[#:date "2015-02-28"]{Since this effort happens to be geared towards created printed copies of +blogs, we’ll have each blog post correspond to a chapter in the book. + +Blog posts are a little different than normal book chapters, though. Book chapters usually have +numbers, but posts are more commonly marked by the date on which they were posted. I had a hard time +finding examples of LaTeX chapter styles which featured a date within the chapter heading itself, so +I came up with my own solution. My preferred starting point was memoir’s “dowding” chapter style, in +which the chapter number appears above the chapter title, and both are centered. I copied its +definition and changed it so that, instead of printing automatic chapter numbers in numbered +headings (e.g., “Chapter One”) it instead prints whatever text I supply: + +◊blockcode{ +\makeatletter +\makechapterstyle{dowdingdate}{% + \setlength{\beforechapskip}{2\onelineskip} + \setlength{\afterchapskip}{1.5\onelineskip \@plus .1\onelineskip + \@minus 0.167\onelineskip}% + \renewcommand*{\chapnamefont}{\normalfont}% + \renewcommand*{\chapnumfont}{\chapnamefont}% + + % Remove the word "Chapter" before the date (where the chapter + % number would normally be) + \renewcommand*{\printchaptername}{}% + + % Print the contents of \chapterDesc in place of the chapter number + % (except in appendices, where a simple [roman] numeral is printed) + \renewcommand*{\printchapternum}{\centering\chapnumfont + \ifanappendix \thechapter + \else \chapterDesc\fi} + % (Original, for reference:) % + %\renewcommand*{\printchapternum}{\centering\chapnumfont + % \ifanappendix \thechapter + % \else \numtoName{\c@chapter}\fi}% + \renewcommand*{\chaptitlefont}{\normalfont\itshape\huge\centering}% + \renewcommand*{\printchapternonum}{% + \vphantom{\printchaptername}\vskip\midchapskip}} \makeatother } + +Then I define a couple of new commands that allow me to pass an additional string of text to be used +in place of each chapter’s number: + +◊blockcode{\newcommand{\setChapterDescription}[1]{% + \def\chapterDesc{#1}% +} + +\newcommand{\ChapterDate}[2]{ + \setChapterDescription{#2} + \chapter{#1} + \setChapterDescription{} +} + +% define as empty to prevent an error the first time +\def\chapterDesc{} } + +And here’s how I use all this in the template: + +◊blockcode{ +... +\begin{document} +\chapterstyle{dowdingdate} + +\ChapterDate{My Summer Vacation}{July 22, 2014} +... +} + +◊figure-@2x["bookscript-output2.png"]{The new chapter style, set in Adobe Caslon Pro} } + +◊note[#:date "2018-03-01"]{The first version of the LaTeX template pictured in the previous note is +now available on github as part of ◊link['github]{Simple Book Machine}, which is a shell script and +a system for using LaTeX templates to build a book from a collection of text files. + +The output generated can theoretically be uploaded straight to CreateSpace for use in a 5.25″ × 8″ +sized bound book. (I have yet to actually try this, but the PDF does meet all their requirements.) +I plan to add options for a few other book sizes and designs in the future.} + +◊url['github]{https://github.com/otherjoel/simplebookmachine} ADDED articles/quote-arthur-longevity.poly.pm Index: articles/quote-arthur-longevity.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/quote-arthur-longevity.poly.pm +++ articles/quote-arthur-longevity.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; Copyright 2012–2018 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved. + +◊(define-meta published "2012-01-31") + +◊blockquote{“I wish it longevity so that it might find shabbiness.” +◊footer{Arthur, on the occasion of Path’s launch, ◊link[1]{comparing new social networks to new +museums}.}} + +◊url[1]{http://sexpigeon.tumblr.com/post/16729718345/path-puts-a-silly-amount-of-trust-in-its-avatars} + +◊note[#:date "2018-11-11"]{Path did not achieve longevity or shabbiness: + +◊blockquote{“On May 28, 2015, Path announced it had been acquired for an undisclosed amount by +Kakao. + +“On September 17, 2018, Path ◊link[2]{announced} its termination of the service. From October 18, +2018, existing users are no longer able to access the Path service.” +◊footer{◊link[3]{◊i{Path (social network)}} on Wikipedia}}} + +◊url[2]{http://blog.path.com/post/178172780707/the-last-goodbye} +◊url[3]{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(social_network)} ADDED articles/quote-chesterton-humiliation.poly.pm Index: articles/quote-chesterton-humiliation.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/quote-chesterton-humiliation.poly.pm +++ articles/quote-chesterton-humiliation.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; I have made no determination of the copyright for this file’s contents — Joel Dueck + +◊(define-meta published "2011-03-26") + +◊blockquote{“He felt the full warmth of that pleasure from which the proud shut themselves out; the +pleasure which not only goes with humiliation, but which almost is humiliation. Men who have +◊index[#:key "drowning"]{escaped death by a hair} have it, and men whose love is returned by a woman +unexpectedly, and men whose sins are forgiven them. Everything his eye fell on it feasted on, not +aesthetically, but with a plain, jolly appetite as of a boy eating buns.” ◊footer{G.K. Chesterton, +◊cite{The Ball and the Cross}}} ADDED articles/quote-dave-barry-ketchup.poly.pm Index: articles/quote-dave-barry-ketchup.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/quote-dave-barry-ketchup.poly.pm +++ articles/quote-dave-barry-ketchup.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; I have made no determination of copyright on this file’s contents. + +◊(define-meta published "2010-04-29") + +◊blockquote{“One thing that is not in my fridge is ketchup and mustard. You know why? Because you +don’t have to put them in the fridge! Too many Americans are putting cold ketchup on nice, hot +hamburgers. And I ask those Americans, When you go to the diner, where is the ketchup? Sitting out +on the table.” +◊footer{Dave Barry, ◊link[1]{profile in the ◊cite{New York Times}}}} + +◊url[1]{https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02fob-domains-t.html} ADDED articles/quote-lewis-carrol-vertical.poly.pm Index: articles/quote-lewis-carrol-vertical.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/quote-lewis-carrol-vertical.poly.pm +++ articles/quote-lewis-carrol-vertical.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; Copyright 2011 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved. + +◊(define-meta published "2011-03-25") + +◊verse{I often wondered when I cursed, +Often feared where I would be – +Wondered where she’d yield her love +When I yield, so will she. +I would her will be pitied! +Cursed be love! She pitied me…} +◊attrib{Attributed to Lewis Carrol} + +◊note[#:date "2011-03-25"]{This is a “◊index{square poem}”: it can be read vertically (first word of +each line, second word of each line, and so on) as well as horizontally. + +◊blockquote{“One of Carroll’s most remarkable poems, if indeed he wrote it, ◊index[#:key "tenuous +paper trails"]{was first published} by Trevor Wakefield in his Lewis Carroll Circular, No. +2 (November 1974). The poem is quoted in a letter to The Daily Express (January 1, 1964) by a writer +who tells of a privately printed book titled Memoirs of Lady Ure. Lady Ure, it seems, quoted the +poem as one that Carroll wrote for her brother. Wakefield says that no one has yet located a copy of +Lady Ure’s Memoirs, but whether this is still true I do not know.” ◊footer{Martin Gardener, +◊link[1]{◊cite{The Universe in a Handkerchief}, p. 20}}}} + +◊url[1]{https://books.google.com/books?id=77kcKHmLZXIC&lpg=PA20&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false} ADDED articles/soar.poly.pm Index: articles/soar.poly.pm ================================================================== --- articles/soar.poly.pm +++ articles/soar.poly.pm @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +#lang pollen + +◊; Copyright 2003 by Joel Dueck. All Rights Reserved. + +◊(define-meta published "2003-03-27") + +◊verse[#:title "Soar"]{ +Though our labour soon devours all that lies within our powers +Soon it’s late and all our hours into past’s abyss have tore; +See, the light of Heaven’s fire pales both fame and funeral pyre; +Earthly glory, gain & hire lose the glimmer that they wore +Light of heaven pales the shallow grace and glimmer that they wore; + Now they sway us — soon, no more. + +For we find in all the ages, men whose passing life presages +Life beyond our dusty cages, light behind that darkest door; +May we, as we end this chapter, freed from earth, our sometime captor, +Hail the advent of an apter sphere for all our souls to soar; +Hail, in death, the ageless God whose sight will make our souls to soar, + Dying as we lived before.}