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> I always liked that "offpunk" vibe as well. But my
> eyes get so tired quickly of the white-on-black of the
> terminal. I like it for playing with low level stuff,
> such as groping around a program with gdb, or looking at
> packet captures. But I also have no use for that kind of
> thing anymore. I like the pastel-ish look of plan9 and it's
> austere aesthetics. That's why I keep fantasizing about it.

I fantasize about not being at the mercy of OS's, so I settled on endowing a Chromebook's Terminal app with my scripts and a few vital binaries (lua, tmux, curle, lynx, gemget) such that I'm quickly in an environment I know and love. I get philosophic/ethical stances against Chrome, but as with this fucked up world, I'm too old to care. The majority speaks, suffers, dies, and a new cycle of stupidity begins. It's a locomotive I tired of getting run over by at least a decade ago.

> But recently I don't give a flying f about computers,
> either. I want to go offscreen as much as possible these
> days. I read on my tablet, I spend most of my day reading
> on my tablet, in fact, so I cannot just throw the baby
> out with the bathwater (as much as I'm a fan of throwing
> babies out the window!). I plan to get an ereader soon
> but in my experience those are not very good for reading
> pdfs. I don't know.

I'm still somewhat attached to onscreen, but feel I've at least become efficient about it. As I wrote somewhere else recently, for me the fun is in tweaking things in the direction of efficiency with respect to thinks working the way I prefer, and when I get there I generally lose interest whatever those tweaks have facilitated. It's not unlike pursuing a desired other, come to think of it: you land them, and poof is their luster so quickly gone - or at least tarnished.

I got a Kindle way back (was it a decade ago? no idea..), but as usual it couldn't do at least one thing I thought it ought (can't remember what that was, now..), and then I started feeling silly because I knew I was going to continue to use the computer anyway, so why not have such together in one place? As with alcohol, whether or not I wind up abusing *either* isn't the devices' fault, so sacrificing "general purpose" because I can't exercise moderation seems closer to band-aid than solution.

I'm the problem. Fix me, and the problem is gone. Boom.

Part of that is what referred to as "the white-on-black of the terminal". From my point of view, I fixed *me* to honestly prefer that, and my search for what looks right/best was solved.

At the risk of reusing the phrase "it's not unlike" too much, it's not unlike marriage, where I keep finding the only effective/permanent solution to annoyances/conflict is to change me. But it's gotta be fully embraced down to the bone, or the more painful point of view - i.e. waiting for or trying to get her to change - goes cat o' nine tails with a vengeance.

> Another alternative is for me to take as many notes now so
> that in the future I can have as much as possible on paper
> to refer to and go full analog, though that seems unlikely,
> I have gigabytes of pdfs waiting for me to read them.

You do only if you think you do. ;-)

I used to collect pdfs, text, URLs ("bookmarks"), etc. because I thought there might be a bunch of wisdom out there I was missing out on. But while operating under that assumption for quite a while, I started realizing most internet content is either fiction as a tool to make money, or people whining about their own misery in their own kingdom of individuality. Not that I don't like consuming some of either some of the time. But it's hardly what I'd hoped to find.

And then even when it's not misery-centric, it's quickly meh: "Oh boy, someone went for a bike ride... AGAIN..." Nothing new under the digital sun kind of thing. I rarely make it past the first couple paragraphs of a blog/phlog/gemlog entry anymore.

And that's not to blame people, mind you. It's more a point of view regarding "the world", "life", or whatever we might call it. The permutations came to seem far more limited than I hoped way back when USENET seemed like infinite possibilities.

> I 'm not really writing for you either, here, can we call
> this the solipsism thread?

We can call it whatever we like, but that won't change the fact that we'll assign private meaning to whatever label per our private conceptuality contexts - aka minds. To me the important thing is that we practiced our typing, and enjoyed exchanging the resulting word arrangements.

Honestly, the typing part remains where the bulk of my joy is with respect online....

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~detritus wrote (thread):

for me the fun is in tweaking things in the direction of efficiency with respect to thinks working the way I prefer, and when I get there I generally lose interest whatever those tweaks have facilitated.

Yeah, for me the fun is in figuring out how to get something done, on paper, and jotting all kinds of notes, and then half-implementing it in the computer where I am buffeted with obstacles that have little to do with the task I'm trying to accomplish it... and then leaving it.

sacrificing "general purpose" because I can't exercise moderation seems closer to band-aid than solution.

I'm the problem. Fix me, and the problem is gone. Boom.

That's an interesting perspective. Personally, I'm all in for special purpose, rather than general purpose. My favorite piece of tech that I own is an HP48 RPN calculator.

Another advantage of an ereader is battery life. As for abuse, I find myself in the need to impose moderation, rather than find the way to exercise it.

Oh boy, someone went for a bike ride... AGAIN...

You misread me, I said pdfs, meaning books.

Most of what I am interested in was written between 300 BCE and, say, 600 CE. I read to study stuff I am interested in. My favourite book has 78 pages and virtually endless permutations.

This is not to say the endeavour is any less hopeless, in the end, it is a faustian one. But there is little else I enjoy in life, at least this can keep me busy and away from, ahem, darker, thoughts.

To me the important thing is that we practiced our typing, and enjoyed exchanging the resulting word arrangements.

Honestly, the typing part remains where the bulk of my joy is with respect online....

Me too, I personally like typing my mind out a lot, even if it's about a bike ride I may have taken :-) I like to write about my inner world and maybe get a reply, I also like to write a post that nobody can possibly reply to, because I don't allow it. I also like to type in anonymous media where it will eventually drown out in a sea of other voices. It's therapeutic, and since I have nobody to talk to about my issues, I talk to the void. It's a good void.

FWIW I enjoy reading you.

~bartender please take away this instant coffe and bring me a proper espresso