pig-monkey.com - general

Beginning Framework

2025-01-18T00:00:00-08:00

Near the end of 2024 I decided it was time to replace the Thinkpad X270. I still think the X2{6,7}0 is Peak Laptop. Unfortunately, as software gets worse, I need more CPU.

Everything on the market seemed inferior in one way or another to the X270. I considered:

After about two months of shopping around – including buying and returning an X1C Gen 12 from eBay – I settled on the Framework 13. Specifically, the DIY model with AMD Ryzen 5 7640U CPU, 2.8K matte display, and 61Wh battery. (I purchased the SSD and RAM separately.)

I have notes.

The keyboard is not as good as that on the X270 (which is not as good as that on older Thinkpads). But it seems to be on par with other modern laptop keyboards that I’ve seen. There is room for improvement, but it is acceptable. I’ve seen (and felt) much worse.

The hinges are not as good as on a Thinkpad. They feel nice when you move the lid – the feel is about the same as the hinges on my X270 – and they do hold the lid in position. But when typing with gusto, the lid shakes a bit. I did not notice this until I tested out the webcam. The movement of the lid is noticeable in the image. I practically never use a cam – if asked about this when on a call, I reply that I exist in a black hole devoid of light, warmth, love, etc – so this is acceptable to me.

The speakers are incredibly bad. Traditionally, Thinkpads had the worst speakers of any laptop, but Framework has lowered the bar here. I tried messing with EasyEffects and various scavenged presets. I suppose this made the speakers sound slightly less bad. But they’re still really bad. Fortunately, this is firmly in the category of things I do not care about. I tickle my eardrums with headphones when at a desk and with earbuds when mobile. About the only time I use the speakers on my laptop is for things like a countdown timer with a bell, for which shitty speakers are just as adequate as nice speakers.

I’ve not had the Framework 13 for long enough to comment on battery life. Less-than-stellar battery life was one of the main critiques I heard before purchasing the machine (though often it is not clear what specific machine generation and configuration the critic has). Framework explicitly says not to use TLP, which is unfortunate for me. I first installed TLP shortly after its initial release in 2010 and haven’t thought about it much since. I am trying to grok this brave new world of TuneD and power-profiles-daemon and subpar battery control. We’ll see how that goes.

The design aesthetic of the Framework 13 feels very mediocre. I find the aluminum slab design language pioneered by Apple and now emulated by everyone else to be inferior to the Thinkpad aesthetic. I would rather Framework copy Sapper than Ive. But this is purely a personal aesthetic judgment that does not translate into functionality. I have no complaints about the actual build quality of the machine (yet). Eventually I may stickerbomb the chassis to make myself feel better about it. I’d be embarrassed if someone saw it and mistakenly thought I was an Apple customer.

I point out what I dislike because that is easier than enumerating what I like. Everything else about the laptop is pretty nice. I am pleased with the purchase overall. The 3:2 aspect ratio of the Framework 13 screen is especially great – at least for how I use a computer (which can mostly be summed up as “reading and manipulating text”).

The promise of the Framework is in its modularity and repairability, which hopefully means that any shortcomings can be corrected over time. One of the small things that decided my purchase was seeing that Framework actually builds replacement screws into the machine. In my head the Thinkpad X260 and X270 are basically the same machine, and I used that same machine for nine years. My hope is that the Framework 13 can at least match that, and be as boring as possible during that time.

Link Log 2025-01-17

2025-01-17T00:00:00-08:00

“Best of the Best” Provides New Views, Commentary of Shuttle Launches

Public Domain Image Archive

Landing The Nostromo

Bike Touring Stretches

right to root access

Stone talk

Optimizing Local Munitions

2025-01-14T00:00:00-08:00

As previously mentioned, I use myrepos to keep local copies of useful code repositories. While working with backups yesterday I noticed that this directory had gotten quite large. I realized that in the 8 years that I’ve been using this system, I’ve never once run git gc in any of the repos.

Fortunately this is the sort of thing that myrepos makes simple – even providing it as an example on its homepage. I added two new lines to the [DEFAULT] section of my ~/library/src/myrepos.conf file: one telling it that it can run 3 parallel jobs, and one teaching it how to run git gc.

[DEFAULT]
skip = [ "$1" = update ] && ! hours_since "$1" 24
jobs = 3
git_gc = git gc "$@"

That allowed me to use my existing lmr alias to clean up all the git repositories. The software knows which repositories are git, and only attempts to run the command in those.

$ lmr gc

After completing this process – which burned through a lot of CPU – my ~/library/src directory dropped from 70 GB to 15 GB.

So that helped.

It Should Happen To You analyzes the disease that is influencer culture.

2025-01-04T00:00:00-08:00

1954.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Another favorite is A Face in the Crowd (1957), which explores the danger of social media influencers becoming Populist politic figures.

Link Log 2025-01-02

2025-01-02T00:00:00-08:00

Ethos

Gear 2025

The Work Itself

Deliberate Oxymorons: An Interview with Bruce Sterling (Part 1)

Konya wa Hurricane (Priss and the Replicants, 1987)

Harambe Resistance

2024-12-22T00:00:00-08:00

Back in 2007, the International Man of Mystery designated codename 503 told me to read Never Gymless by Ross Enamait. This was my introduction to the resistance band, which is one of the tools mentioned in the book. Enamait recommended bands from Iron Woody, so that’s what I bought. I replaced them periodically over the subsequent seventeen years, sticking with the same brand. The Iron Woody bands are 41”, which is the default length for loop bands across the market, though my understanding is that this is more a fluke of history rather than due to any considered reasoning.

This past Fall it was time once again to replace a couple of my most frequently used (and thus stretched out) bands. Iron Woody was out of most bands, so I looked around to see what was hip and cool on The Internet. The consensus seemed to be that Serious Steel Fitness and Harambe System had the some of the best bands. I was particularly intrigued by these two because the Harambe bands were 38”, and Serious Steel offered a handful of lengths, including 37”. The more I thought about, the more sense these shorter lengths made.

I ended up buying the Harambe band bundle. They are the nicest bands I’ve used. When I opened the package, I first grabbed the light green 1” band because this looked to be about the same width as the blue Iron Woody band that is my go-to for a lot of exercises. I was shocked by how hard it was. Part of this is the difference in length (and the difference in age), but it turns out the Harambe bands are also thicc. The width is deceptive. I’m using narrower bands now, but getting a better workout. The narrower width make it easier to do side-by-side band stacking to tune the load, which is great. Initially I thought that the yellow 1/4” band would be too light for me to use for much of anything, and that is true by itself, but I have found myself frequently stacking it with one of the other bands.

The shorter length is great, and my motto is now 38” or GTFO. (I’d probably be just as happy with the 37” length offered by Serious Steel, if their bands are of similar quality.) I can use the 38” bands for all the exercises I previously used the 41” for, but I get more resistance sooner, which is much more better. The way I visualize it in my head is that the force curve is flatter, but vertically higher. There are other exercises that were never an option with the 41” bands, because I would only get resistance for a small part of the movement, but are now possible with the 38” bands.

About three years ago I was given a Jaquish X3 Elite bar and platform. I was skeptical of these at first, but both have grown on me, and I have been using them regularly with my Iron Woody bands. (I borrowed a set of the X3 bands for a month, which were fine, but nothing special, and I decided I preferred my Iron Woody bands to them.) I still do some things with just bands, but most of my resistance band use involves the bar and platform. I’m now using the Harambe bands with the X3 pieces, and am pleased with the setup. I also use my zafu in place of the cork block for the Harambe-style bench press – which is one of the exercises I couldn’t really do with longer bands.

The Harambe bars and platforms look objectively superior to the X3, but not enough to make me want to spend money to replace my existing equipment. I’d likely go with Harambe if I was starting over. (I also appreciate that Harambe has a decent website, and the guy behind it seems like just a normal dude in his videos. The Jaquish website feels like some sort of multi-level marketing cult and I need to perform ablution after I look at it.) The bars and platforms from both are expensive – probably unnecessarily so – and I hear there are a bunch of cheap knock-offs of the bar-and-platform idea that probably work fine. But I am smitten with the Harambe bands, and feel like that piece was money well spent.

But the main takeaway is: try bands shorter than 41”.

Loop Switch

2024-12-21T00:00:00-08:00

I’ve been carrying the Loop Switch earplugs everyday for the past 13 months now. A couple months ago, Loop replaced this model with the Switch 2. This v2 Switch looks to be a minor incremental upgrade, but overall the same product. I think my impressions of the v1 Switch are still relevant.

The Switch is an earplug with a rotary mechanism that allows the attenuation to be adjusted between three different modes:

Quiet (v1: 25 dB SNR, v2: 26 dB SNR)
Experience (v1: 21 dB SNR, v2: 23 dB SNR)
Engage (v1: 17 dB SNR, v2: 20 dB SNR)

My most frequent application for earplugs is nightclubbing. Having three modes on a single pair of plugs, which can be adjusted in-ear, is a really great capability in this application. If I happen to find myself near a speaker, I can crank them up to Quiet. Then when I join the cool kids in the back, I dial them down to Engage and can carry on a conversation with someone while still being protected. At shows with multiple artists I often find myself setting them to Experience for an opener, going down to Engage between sets, and then up to Quiet for the headliner.

I have not found any other earplug that offers anything quite like this. There are others that have multiple filters that you can swap between, but the earplugs need to be removed from your ear to do that. And even then, trying to mess around with taking out one small part and install another, in the dark, in the middle of Club Hel, is not a winning strategy.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Previously, my preferred plugs were the SureFire EP3 Sonic Defenders. These are in a somewhat similar vein as the Loop Switch, in that they have filter caps that can be opened or closed to adjust the attenuation. I find the Switch to be superior. The Sonic Defenders offer 24 dB SNR when the caps are closed, which is good, but only 11 dB SNR when the caps are open. This isn’t much, so I find that my for use cases the Sonic Defenders only really get used in cap-closed mode. The range of attenuation offered by the Switch (both v1 and v2) is a more useful neighborhood for the environments I operate in.

The mechanical nature of the Switch means that the body itself is a rigid plastic. This makes them inappropriate for sleeping. At least, if you spend any time on your side. They don’t stick out much, but they do so enough that sleeping on them is uncomfortable. I bought a pair of Loop Quiet 2 earplugs this summer for sleeping. These are entirely made of a soft silicone, and I find them comfortable to wear all night. I do not sleep with earplugs regularly, but anytime I’m on the road I throw the Quiets in my bag (along with the Switch – they’re small enough that I’m fine with carrying both sets) in case the hotel or campsite or redoubt or whatever is loud.

I’ve worn the Switch for multiple consecutive hours, and find them to be perfectly comfortable (as long as you are not laying on them). With other plugs it’s often a relief to finally remove them, not because they cause any discomfort when installed, but just because they feel like they’ve been cutting me off from the world for a few hours. Removing them is like coming up for a breath of air – a breathe the free air again my friend sort of moment. Not so with the Switch, I think because I am periodically dropping them down to Engage mode when appropriate. Sometimes I forget to take them out for a while after leaving.

The Switch comes with four different sizes of silicone tips to adjust the fit. Replacement tips are available to extend the life of the tool.

The dial of the Switch has a small tab protruding. This provides a haptic reference point for what mode is selected, and gives you something to grab on to when moving the dial. It works well enough for switching the dial between Quiet and Experience modes. But Engage mode is the most anterior position on the dial, and when in that mode I find the tab slips underneath my tragus. It is small enough that this causes no discomfort, but the smallness also means it can be difficult to get purchase on the tab to pull the dial back to either of the other two modes. I have to slip a fingernail under there to grab it, which sometimes takes a couple seconds to get right. This is the only negative thing I have to say about the Switch, and I am told this was fixed on the Switch 2. It is not enough of an annoyance to make me want to move to new model while my current ones are still working fine, but I look forward to someday upgrading.

All of the earplugs offered by Loop feel a little overpriced, but the two models I have are good products, and I think it’s great that they are trying to normalize PPE into a fashion accessory. I want more of that in the world.

All Watched Over

2024-12-17T00:00:00-08:00

I had They See Your Photos use the Google Vision API to analyze my most recent selfie.

The foreground shows a man relaxing on a portable camping chair next to his touring bicycle. The bike is heavily laden with panniers suggesting a long journey. In the background, there is a dry, scrubby landscape with low-lying vegetation and sparse trees under a clear blue sky. The location appears to be a trail or roadside somewhere in a temperate climate. The overall setting suggests a sense of adventure and self-sufficiency.

A Caucasian male, appearing to be in his 30s, of seemingly middle-class economic status, is seen taking a break, enjoying a drink from a thermos. He seems relaxed and content; possibly on a solo bikepacking trip. His attire suggests an outdoor lifestyle and active pursuits. His expression appears peaceful and reflective. The image appears to be taken with a professional camera during daytime.

The man’s sunglasses appear to be polarized, which might suggest he is protecting his eyes from glare on a bright sunny day. A small, almost invisible detail of a thin twig can be seen to the left of the bicycle tire. The overall setting suggests a planned stop during his journey, with equipment suggesting a well-prepared and experienced cyclist. The overall cleanliness of his equipment points to a tidy and organized individual.

It hallucinated panniers (the bike has a bar bag and saddle bag, not panniers – get your luggage straight, Google). There is nothing heavy about my tea party load-out. I’m out for the afternoon. The thermos is on the ground; I’m drinking from a mug.

But I do like to think of myself as well-prepared, experienced, tidy, and organized. I’m glad the Machine sees me that way. I feel seen.

Link Log 2024-12-16

2024-12-16T00:00:00-08:00

Science Fiction as a Literary Genre: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture

what does your local architecture student carry: too much.

Specific Suggestions: Simple Sabotage for the 21st Century

RFC 35140: The Do-Not-Stab flag in the HTTP Header

Anime Mechanics

Claim File Helper

Spark Joy

2024-12-12T00:00:00-08:00

I have a rule that I am allowed to purchase certain goods whenever I both can afford to do so and think that I may possibly have a use for them. It is a small list, including items such as Voile straps, Abloy Protec2 padlocks, and Pelican cases. Even if the specific model I purchase ends up not working for whatever project I currently have in mind, I can always use more of these items, and will never regret the purchase¹. In the parlance of our times, these items spark joy.

Recently I determined that my zibaldoni situation was getting out of hand. I had completed notebooks in two different locations, empty notebooks in three, and accoutrements like covers and inserts all over the place. “Self,” I said to myself, “This situation will not stand.” But it seemed like the perfect excuse to buy another Pelican case. I trawled eBay for a week until I found a good deal on a used yellow 1450. This now holds all notebooks, along with their directly related accessories. It sits on top of a cabinet next to my other 1450 (a previous eBay find). I figure I’ve got space for at least two more.

Notes

↵ Purchases of all other durable goods go through a protracted, multi-day period of hem and haw, where I ask myself: do I really need this thing, is the particular model I'm eyeing really the best suited to the problem I am trying to solve, will the item work in the short run but cause me to have regrets later on, etc.

Clipped, Hot, and Metro

2024-12-04T00:00:00-08:00

ASP recently redesigned their Metro Defender OC sprays to include a clip. This is an excellent addition. Some years ago I had tried to find add-on pen clips that may work on my old Defenders, but had no success. Previously I used a Blue Force Gear mag pouch to keep the OC in place on my Raven Pocket Shield. Now I can clip it to the shield directly, for less bulk in the pocket. Much speed, little drag.

ASP is also now including UV dye in their cartridges. This is a good thing. The cartridge itself is identical to the old ones. The new ones with the UV dye will work in the old clipless Defenders. The old cartridges without the UV will work in the newly clipped Defenders.

The way the head and body thread together on the new clipped models is different. A head from an old Defender cannot be attached to the new body, nor can the new head attach to the old body. I have made my peace with this.

The new head does have a logo on it, which is disappointing. Previously the head and body were both sterile. The pocket clip is attached to the body, which means it is below the logo on the head. The clip can be spun around freely, but given the way the safety works, if you were carrying this clipped into a shirt pocket you want the clip positioned such that the logo was facing outward. Anybody looking at you could see the thing in your shirt pocket, which otherwise looks vaguely pen-like, says ASP on it. This is a problem that I will probably eventually solve with tape or nail polish or sandpaper.

The clip (and UV dye) make a good tool better. I have been carrying the new one in my pocket for the past couple months, and have my older clipless models relegated to applications where a clip does not matter.

I still find it useful to apply skateboard grip tape to the safety. One time I tried hockey stick grip tape, but it did not really contribute anything useful. Something with more chutzpa is wanted.

Prior to these design updates, ASP also renamed the product line. The model previously called the “Key” is now the “D2”. This is the one that I like. (I ultimately decided that the smaller one – “D1”, nee “Palm” – didn’t float my boat.)

When I bought my two units in September, I could find no dealers who had updated their product photography to show the clip, nor was it clear what version they were selling. I ordered from ASP directly (and paid their ridiculous shipping fee) to ensure that I got the clip.

I enjoyed this excerpt from a psychiatric report on Joan Didion in the summer of 1968:

2024-12-03T00:00:00-08:00

It is as though she feels deeply that all human effort is foredoomed to failure, a conviction which seems to push her further into a dependent, passive withdrawal. In her view she lives in a world of people moved by strange, conflicted, poorly comprehended, and, above all, devious motivations which commit them inevitably to conflict and failure…

That was then a medical diagnosis, but today would just be seen as the normative baseline of the zeitgeist (within cells interlinked).

By way of comment I offer only that an attack of vertigo and nausea does not now seem to me an inappropriate response to the summer of 1968.

From the titular essay of The White Album.

Link Log 2024-11-29

2024-11-29T00:00:00-08:00

Re-Noted: Carl Jung’s Midlife-Crisis Notebooks

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber in Action | Training

The Power of the Powerless - Václav Havel

Apple Intelligence is for the Stupid Ones

The thought doesn’t count

Leica’s engraved fonts

The New New Class?

On Song Zhong

2024-11-27T00:00:00-08:00

I bought a couple ounces of Song Zhong the last time I found myself in Chinatown. Red Blossom recommends brewing it at 210°F. I did this for my first few sessions, and was not impressed with the tea. Then one day I accidentally brewed the Song Zhong at 190°F (I thought it was my old pal MLX in the gaiwan). That resulted in a much tastier liquor. I’ve been working through the rest of the leaves at that temperature.

I still only brew it for Red Blossom’s recommended time of 30 seconds. Though sometimes I get distracted writing a blog post and don’t decant it for 90 seconds. I’m not above drinking it. Life is full of sacrifice.

Her Homelife is Stormy

2024-11-26T00:00:00-08:00

In the Tamara de Lempicka exhibit at the de Young there’s a wall with a timeline of her life. The entry for 1923 reads:

Her homelife is stormy; Tadeusz grows intolerant of his wife’s affairs, cocaine use, late nights spent at clubs followed by valerian-induced sleep, and long work sessions listening to Richard Wagner at full volume.

A few years later they were divorced.

I prefer to interpret this as if he could have put up with the affairs, the coke, the clubbing and valerian, but the Wagner was just a bridge too far.

As someone who went to two performances of Tristan und Isolde this season, I’m not sure I concur with his assessment.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

2024-11-09T00:00:00-08:00

Goya at the Legion Centennial.