[silk] Hi there!

[José María Mateos]

Hi everybody,

I'm José María (Chema) Mateos, a Spaniard that emigrated to Montreal a 
few years ago to pursue a career in academia and that quit, bored to 
death, to reincarnate as a Data Scientist, where things seems to be more 
fun.

I used to have Twitter / Facebook accounts but social media burned me 
out. From time to time I hunt for mailing lists that seem to have 
interesting conversations (mailing lists tend to be smaller, have a 
certain friction to join and develop very interesting folklores 
long-term). I came across Silk scanning old Liberationtech posts and 
Udhay was kind enough to approve my subscription. I hope to contribute 
at some point, but for now I am enjoying the reading.

See you around,

-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos
https://rinzewind.org/blog-es || https://rinzewind.org/blog-en

Re: [silk] Hi there!

[José María Mateos]

On Thu, Sep 06, 2018 at 06:25:23AM +0530, Deepa Mohan wrote:
> Welcome, Jose! That was an interesting comment of yours about mailing
> lists... would like to hear a little more.

Just something I've experienced first hand. Mailing list discussions 
tend to be more nuanced and carried in more good faith that a lot of 
social network dumpster fires out there, where it seems like disruption 
is the way to go. I think there are several causes for that, but the 
facts that mailing lists have typically small memberships and, for a lot 
of people, are cumbersome to manage and require some effort to join, I 
think that nudges the subscribers to take more care of them.

Cheers,

-- José María (Chema) Mateos
https://rinzewind.org/blog-es || https://rinzewind.org/blog-en

Re: [silk] Organizing files/ folders on one's laptop

[José María Mateos]

On Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 08:13:48AM +0530, Prashant P Kothari wrote:
> A question for the hive mind: do you have any tips for how to organize
> files/ folders on one's computer.
> My challenge: after multiple laptops/ desktops/ hard rives and transferring
> data and files from one to the other, I have a mishmash of folders on my
> current laptop - and lots of duplicates
> Came across this article online that seems interesting
> https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15677/zen-and-the-art-of-file-and-folder-organization/
> But I'm always a big fan of learning from experience shares - what's worked
> for you?

I don't save a lot of stuff, but stuff that is important to me have 
their own location / method:

- E-mail: I save all my personal e-mail (newsletters and mailing lists 
  get wiped from time to time, except messages that I send myself, such 
  as this one) since around 2004. This is on my e-mail provider servers, 
  plus locally synchronized using IMAP.
- Code: I have a code/ folder on my home directory where every project 
  is its own folder. This typically also goes to a github repo (if the 
  project is public) or a gitlab one (if it's private).
- Music: with Spotify this is a bit of a legacy thing, but I have an 
  /mp3 folder with all the stuff I used to listen, plus an offline 
  backup in an USB disk.
- Books: they're all synchronized on my e-book reader, plus a local copy 
  managed using Calibre.

So: I tend to keep only important stuff ("important" depends on who you 
ask, of course), and at least a couple of copies of everything lying 
around so nothing is lost in the event of a disaster.

Cheers!

-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] A question for bloggers

[José María Mateos]

On Thu, 25 Oct 2018 07:37:37 +0530 Deepa Mohan 
wrote:

> Which blog do you use, and why?

I started my blog in 2003 using Drupal (!). The I moved it to Movable
Type. Then it was WordPress, and it stayed that way until 2014, when
the whole thing crashed due to I don't really know why. By that time, I
had grown a bit tired of the endless trolling in the comments and such,
so when I had a bit of free time, I moved to Pelican, which is simply a
set of Markdown files that are then compiled into HTML, with no comment
system, no PHP and no parts to maintain. And it's really been amazing.

If anyone wants to comment anything, they can always send me an e-mail.

Cheers,

-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] Tech & Social Good: Please Help Me Collect Readings & Syllabi

[José María Mateos]

On Thu, Nov 01, 2018 at 08:16:36AM -0400, Bruce A. Metcalf wrote:
> I respectfully suggest you include in your effort someone 
> knowledgeable about the literature of science fiction. A significant 
> fraction of stories in this genre touch quite directly on the social 
> impacts of technology, and they often do so long before the issues are 
> taken up by academia or public debate. Often written by scientists or 
> technical experts in the specific fields, such stories are something 
> of an early warning system for the threats and potentials of new 
> technologies.

Couldn't agree more. Specially, I would emphasize that you try to find 
sci-fi authors which specialize in "near-future" sci-fi. Charles Stross 
comes to my mind right now. You can check his blog [1], he has published 
some very interesting exploratory articles.

Cheers,

[1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/

-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] What do you do when you get to know that you have been pwned?

[José María Mateos]

On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 06:54:41AM -0800, Thaths wrote:

> In addition to all of those steps, I also recommend using unique
> passwords in all the sites. It is not going to be possible for you to
> remember that many unique passwords (especially if you choose strong
> passwords). I recommend you choose strong passwords that you memorize
> for one or two of your key accounts (Google, Facebook). And use a
> password management (I personally use keepass) to generate and store
> strong unique passwords for your other sites.

This, this so much. I have a KeePass2 file with all my passwords. Every 
time I have to register into a new site, I tell it to generate a new 
one, which will be something like Q4s.-.-%534[]aTMfd_. I don't even have 
to forget it. If (or when) the site gets breached, it gives a bit of 
peace of mind to know that the password can't be used to access any of 
my other accounts.

Also, I have that password file sync with my phone, and then I use 
KeePassDroid to access them.

Cheers,

-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] Yahoo Groups shutting down, and Silklist archives

[José María Mateos]

On Thu, Oct 17, 2019, at 12:28, Thaths wrote:
> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xwe9p/yahoo-groups-is-winding-down-and-all-content-will-be-permanently-removed
> 
> "Users won't be able to upload new content to the site after October 21 and
> have until December 14 to archive their content, Yahoo said in an
> announcement."
> 
> As some of you might know, most of Silklist is archived in Yahoo Groups
> . If Yahoo Groups
> disappears, (most of) the 20+ history of Silklist will disappear too.
> 
> Any thoughts on how to preserve the archives?

There was a discussion yesterday on Hacker News[1] about this: the top posts 
have links to scraping and data downloading utilities. It's been a while since 
I have used Y!G, but don't they have something to bulk-download all messages? I 
guess that could then be fed to Mailman to have a unified archive.

Cheers,

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21269614
-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?

[José María Mateos]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 05:35:27PM +0100, Srijith Nair wrote:

Hi all,

I would like to pick your brains on how you organise and retrieve information 
that you read in books (physical or ebook) and long-form articles online.

Over the years I have been getting increasingly frustrated at not being 
efficient in deriving meaningful value from what I have read and curated via 
notes and highlights from these readings. I wanted to get better at retaining 
what I read and also in being able to connect the dots and identifying 
overlapping and intersecting themes and topics across the various books and 
articles I have read. I also have the recurring problem of not being able to  
remember/find that quote or that impressive eloquent passage in a book or 
article that I read a few weeks or months ago.


I'm on your same boat, but I have found out it makes no sense (for me) 
to try to find a solution. I know I have very bad memory when I read 
books, so I've made peace with it in two ways: for every book I read, 
distill the contents to a mental paragraph that I could use to explain 
to someone what the book is about; and also focus on two or three very 
salient points the book makes, and treasure them. So I don't try to 
remember most of what I read, it's pointless for me.


Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?

[José María Mateos]

On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 07:02:16AM +0100, Srijith Nair wrote:

That is a refreshing contrarian view.

Do you store the metal paragraph in some form or other somewhere other 
than in your head?


No, I don't typically write anything down after I read some book or 
article. For me, it's enough to have a vague recollection that a given 
text had information about topic A, and if I need to really refresh my 
memory I try to find the actual source. I've found out that it's better 
for me to work as a "librarian": I might not know that detail, but I 
know where to find it.


I am guessing you have not regretted not being able to recollect the 
material that you don't recall? Do you not need any such material for 
professional or daily use in some form?


For professional stuff I use references heavily. I am a "data 
scientist", so I keep some quite good books at hand, and internet search 
engines are my best friends.


Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] What did you change your mind about in 2019?

[José María Mateos]

On Mon, Jan 13, 2020 at 08:13:27PM -0800, Heather Madrone wrote:
In a similar vein, I realized that I deeply value quirky businesses 
where people come together to try to fill a need in the world. Many of 
these businesses provide mundane things at reasonable costs, and the 
people who work there are uniformly pleasant to work with.


We were in Japan on holidays last year. We visited Tokyo and some of its 
surrounding cities and towns, spent New Years Eve in Kyoto (and, again, 
explored around a bit), then went to Hiroshima, the "Rabbit Island" that 
is nearby and back to Tokyo to get the plane home.


When we were there, we noticed that Japan seemed to be full of very 
small businesses that took life, let's say, slow. Once we were having 
breakfast in front of a place that repaired bicycles. The guy (we like 
to think he was the owner, though he might as well not be) was working 
almost in the street, with his garage open, anyone could see what was 
inside. We left with the feeling that, as atrocious as Japanese work 
ethics might be, specially when one's talking about big businesses (we 
saw it more than once in Tokyo, people leaving big offices building at 
insane hours), other side of its business life was not as horrible.


Lately, my wife and I have started watching a TV program called 
"Japanology". You can find many, if not all, episodes on YouTube. 
Coincidently, yesterday we watched one about "Shinese", or long 
established business. As one of the people interviewed in the program 
said (quoting from memory): "There are a lot of companies that aim for 
10 % growth for a couple of years. Shinese are happy with 2 % sustained 
growth, they just want to be here for years to come". This is the 
episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG6tgTMzXGY


Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

[silk] The Internet of Beefs

[José María Mateos]

I just want to take a moment to appreciate places to have quiet and slow 
discussions, such as this list. I was reminded of how much we'd miss it if 
(when) everything goes to hell while reading this article:

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/01/16/the-internet-of-beefs/

Cheers,

-- 
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] Coronavirus and behaviour change

[José María Mateos]

On Mon, Mar 09, 2020 at 07:18:11AM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

My use of e-commerce is like a game for me, trying to see what is the
lowest price I can get for something (tip: you can ALWAYS get it cheaper if
you just put it on a watchlist for a month and have price data). To this
end, I've been observing hand sanitizer get sold out or unavailable at all
outlets. This made me a little more enthusiastic than I otherwise would
have been and I have now ordered more of this product than I can feasibly
use.


Not related to the main topic of the threads, but probably relevant: 
I've seen that several online vendors will nudge you with a discount if 
you just put some items in your basket but don't finish the order for a 
few days. I think it's a handy detail to take into account when ordering 
non-urgent stuff from small-ish vendors (definitely not Amazon, I've 
never seen them do that, and at this point I try not to buy there 
anyway).


Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] Coronavirus and behaviour change

[José María Mateos]

On Sun, Mar 08, 2020 at 06:00:41PM +0530, Peter Griffin wrote:

What behaviours (if any) have you changed because you're worried about the
coronavirus?
Stuff that you would recommend others do too. For instance, washing hands
more, using hand sanitsers, avoiding crowds, not going to events,
cancelling travel.


In my case the reaction has been mixed. Day to day hasn't changed much. 
I try not to hold on to the rail in the metro as much as before, and 
anyway I was always washing my hands when getting to whatever place I 
was getting to (home, work, a restaurante, etc). That daily routine has 
been kept as usual.


On the travel side, I live in Montreal, where COVID-19 has not still 
exploded (emphasis in *still*), but would like to travel to Spain to 
visit my family in June. So far, I am not buying my tickets and are 
waiting to see how events unfold. Spain has a daily increase of 20 % in 
the number of detected cases right now (with current numbers around 600 
sick, 17 dead), and there is a chance flights might get cancelled. Also, 
if Spain gets into the list of countries Canada recommends not to visit, 
I wouldn't be able to go to Spain and return to work immediately, I'd 
have to "self isolate". Remote work might be an option in that case, 
though.


Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/

Re: [silk] Coronavirus and behaviour change

[José María Mateos]

On Sun, Mar 08, 2020 at 12:41:45PM -0400, José María Mateos wrote:
In my case the reaction has been mixed. Day to day hasn't changed much. 
I try not to hold on to the rail in the metro as much as before, and 
anyway I was always washing my hands when getting to whatever place I 
was getting to (home, work, a restaurante, etc). That daily routine has 
been kept as usual.


Well, three weeks have passed since my e-mail. Things have changed fast:

- Working from home, so no more subway for me.

- No eating out, take-away food or anything else. A lot of restaurants 
in Montreal are closed anyway.


- Just getting out of the house twice a week more or less to buy 
groceries, and we wipe all plastic stuff with disinfectant wipes as soon 
as we get home. Some people say that's too much, but we don't want to 
run the risk.


In the meantime, public statements have changed slowly but steadily from 
"a Montreal lockdown is not on the table" to a place where I can 
actually see it happening next week. Let's see what happens.


Stay safe our there.

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] Spammer attack

[José María Mateos]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 11:03:49AM +0530, Biju Chacko wrote:

I feel like *I'm* stuck in the 20th century because I still like mailing
lists. Recently when I tried to explain that for engineering discussions a
mailing list would be better than a slack channel I had to stop to explain
what a mailing list was. (!)


+1 for the love of mailing lists.

Email doesn't come naturally to a lot of people. Apparently, some 
people are beginning to wonder whether this is becoming a problem for 
open source projects:


https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/25/linux_kernel_email/


Reading the article, there's this thing that bothers me:

As an example, my partner submitted a patch to OpenBSD a few weeks 
ago, and he had to set up an entirely new mail client which didn’t 
mangle his email message to HTML-ise or do other things to it, so he 
could even make that one patch. That’s a barrier to entry that’s 
pretty high for somebody who may want to be a first-time contributor.


So, what's the problem here? That open-source projects use e-mail or 
that e-mail is a tool and when used for technical purposes needs to be 
properly set up?


It turned out, though, that this time Outlook was not guilty. “I think 
it was actually Gmail that was a barrier. And he also couldn’t do it 
from Apple Mail. It is just that the modern mail client has 
intentionally moved towards HTML,” she said.


The modern e-mail client has intentionally moved towards HTML *and* 
towards not letting the user do whatever task is actually intended, 
apparently.


E-mail is simple to use. One only has to follow very old, 
well-established rules; see for instance points 2.3 and 2.4 here: 
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/mailing-list-faq/etiquette.html. 
The problem is that at some point someone thought it would be amazing to 
have animated gifs in the middle of your message and reply 'ok' to an 
entire thread from your phone. Everything went downhill from there.


/rant

Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

[silk] homelinux.org domains (was Re: What are the things you splurge on that are worth the money?)

[José María Mateos]

On Mon, Dec 07, 2020 at 09:21:44PM +0100, dev...@dvb.homelinux.org wrote:

Completely unrelated to the current thread, but I just had a blast for 
the past. For years, I had the domain chema.homelinux.org pointing at my 
home computer when I was finally able to get a cable connection (well, 
my parents were able to get it for me, as back then I had no money). I 
even used to send e-mails from that machine, mail controls not being as 
strict as they are today; and when they started getting tighter, I 
remember I could send e-mail from my domain using Yahoo! SMTP servers.


Thanks for the memories :-)

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] An anniversary

[José María Mateos]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 07:05:56AM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

The first message on silklist went out 23 years ago.

There are some members who have been around since then, and many others who
hopped on at a later time.

How did you find out about silklist? Share your stories.


I quit social media cold turkey on Dec 2016 and I started looking for 
interesting places to read. This led me to nettime-l, David Farber's IP 
list and others. Checking my e-mail archive, I can see that I found Silk 
because someone cross-posted a message to the Liberationtech mailing 
list, and I just followed the thread. Udhay was kind enough to let me in 
(that was in Summer 2017), and here I am today.


Cheers!

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] 2020 vision

[José María Mateos]

On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 10:25:31PM +0530, Peter Griffin wrote:

Looking back at that weird year we just went through, what are the
positives for you?


Answering more to this than to the second part: to me, work from home. I 
really love it, and I'm lucky that I have that option. I save 1 hour and 
half in commuting every day. It's true that I took the Metro, and I 
normally sit and read, but now I'm at home...


... which brings me to the second part: I got a keyboard and I'm now 
learning to play piano. Enjoying it a lot so far.


Cheers,

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org

Re: [silk] 2020 vision

[José María Mateos]

On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 10:50:59PM +0530, Madhu Menon wrote:

What resources are you using to learn?


Just books. I already play guitar, but my grasp of theory is 
rudimentary, so I basically had to start sight-reading from scratch. I 
bought the two volumes of "Bastien piano for adults" so I can follow the 
basic exercises. I found this YouTube channel[1] which is amazing: 
basically and old guy that is going through these method books one song 
at a time. That way I can see how he plays it and correct any mistakes 
after I tried by myself.


I also got a copy of "The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 exercises"[2] so that I 
can do something completely mechanical to give my fingers a bit of 
strength and dexterity. I practice one hour a day (sometimes a bit more, 
sometimes a bit less) and I can definitely see improvements.


My objective for this year is to finish the method books and, perhaps, 
play a couple of songs from a Joe Hisaishi songbook that I also got 
second-hand. Sonatine[3] and Kikujiro[4] would be nice :-)


Cheers,

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeSnI-BmRMkxURGZ7nHtzQ
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virtuoso_Pianist_in_60_Exercises
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSLlX4czsZA
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0GN40EL1VU

--
José María (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org