author: @gtl
last refresh: Sat 31 Aug 2024 12:00 EDT
currently agregating 17 tinylogs (Urls at the bottom of the page)
Recently, I learned that the Macbook Air laptops do not have glued-in batteries! I just assumed it did, but it turns out it is the work of a few minutes to replace the battery, and I was able to purchase a replacement for my ancient model off Takealot for a reasonable sum. It even came with the necessary tools to unscrew the parts, and iFixit has a great guide on how to do it. #apple #macbook #diy #repair #battery
iFixIt
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+11-Inch+Late+2010+Battery+Replacement/4384
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I love that "buồn" (sad) in Vietnamese has a possible etymological link to "muốn" (to want). There's a nice potential philosophy in that.
Life changed a lot recently, so here’s a little “now” update. https://martinrue.com/now
My apartment in BKK has a Japanese toilet. I've never spent so much time in the bathroom.
Today is my last day in Vietnam, but I'm actually not coming back to Europe any time soon. I made a video explaining why: https://youtu.be/_Ob78fOc5iw
I posted yesterday about finally launching Yakk's Vietnamese course. A few people have already bought it, read it, and said some unbelievably nice things. Thank you! You don't know how much it means. Here's a little video I made about launching it: https://youtu.be/I0Wx0-itYa8
Really happy that, after a few months of hard work, I've finally finished the latest course for https://yakk.app, "Nomad Vietnamese". If you're into languages and want to learn some basic Vietnamese, please take a look :)
The secret to getting great performance out of a Raspberry Pi, even an older one like the model 3B+, is to use the lowest screen resolution possible (in addition to the obvious things like enabling hardware GPU acceleration). Using 720p or less leads to really smooth performance and low memory usage even in the heavy Chromium browser. #raspberrypi #diy #hacking #making
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In which I demo the #raspberrypi #handheld #portable #computer I built last year, espousing it's virtues. #video
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I woke up to the awesome news that my 5-year DTV visa was approved for Thailand!
Almost everywhere in Vietnam has a "bike guy" (usually an older man) responsible for organising all the motorbikes.
Last night, I spoke to my bike guy outside of my favourite restaurant in Vietnamese for about 10 minutes. That's basically all the Vietnamese I know.
It was so awesome. It's such a deep joy to start speaking in a new language you're learning. That feeling will never get old for me.
I also got lots of numbers practice when he asked me "Em bao nhiêu tuổi?" (How old are you) and I asked him to guess. 🤣
Recently I've been thinking about (and enjoying) the benefits of "slow". Here are some thoughts: https://martinrue.com/embrace-slowness
I bought a cheap MP3 player last week and before I went to the gym today I wanted to find some old apple wired earbuds, only to find I couldn't find any in my home, anywhere! I was baffled. I remember having drawers full of them, and now, nothing. it's a sign of the times.
Gemlog entry of the week:
Delete your twitter (and everything else), by Winter
Every device gets a cert. Every device gets an IP address and a DNS name and end-to-end encryption and an identity, and safely bypasses firewalls. Every device can be a peer.
The New Internet
https://tailscale.com/blog/new-internet
Over breakfast this morning, my girlfriend said "is my chair moving?" I looked at her like she was crazy. Then 3 seconds later the entire room started shaking. We promptly exxited the building to find everyone outside wondering if another was coming. It's been a few hours now and I think everything is cool.
Does language influence how we think? https://lingoh.news/does-language-influence-how-we-think
Feliĉan Esperanto-Tagon al ĉiuj el la Esperantistoj ĉi tie en Gemini :)
just had some spicy chicken Tikka masala. my body is going to make me pay for this later.
I discovered what a kosher phone is yesterday. they're dumb phones for communities not allowed to have smart phones, and there are websites dedicated to getting apps on them, like Waze and stock market trackers.
I can't tell you how often people just stare at me in the street. It was weird at first, but I've gotten used to it now. It's kind of cool – I sometimes throw a "Chào chị! Hôm nay chị khỏe không?" and they love it.
I'm happy to report that, while the world burns down due to Crowdstrike nuking a fucking ton of Windows machines running everything from news channels to airlines, Station doesn't come within a kilometer of a Windows kernel, so we're all good over here. :)
For fellow coders: I just made a quick video showing my new vim setup. I decided to move back to vim after years of using VSCode and setting up (neo)vim was super easy, so I wanted to share: https://youtu.be/5HDzrAMSXUA
Waking up and taking your mechanical keyboard to a coworking space is waking up and choosing violence.
🃏 Here's a fun one for you.
Take a deck of cards. Shuffle them randomly. There's no chance any human alive (or ever alive) has seen the sequence of cards you just made.
The maths: number of combinations of 52 unique cards = 52! = 8×10⁶⁷ (more than the total atoms on earth)
I've been playing with neovim again today. Think I might move back to using vim over my recent years with VSCode. The speed boost alone will be worth it.
For anyone interested in my recent writing on language and tips for learning, both past issues of my newsletter are online now: https://lingoh.news/issues
If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share :)
Here's my Vietnamese progress after 45 study hours: https://mstdn.social/@martinrue/112766888678790939
Sorry, fat web link because video.
Happy Monday! I just sent out the second issue of my newsletter Ling-oh! This one is about how to remember things for longer - a pretty helpful skill when learning a new language. If you’re subscribed and have any thoughts, please feel free to share here. 🙏
I made a new video. 5 month update on life in Vietnam: https://youtu.be/bCD1S04futE?si=OnKubLUP2qKWhLgi
Currently editing a new video about Da Nang. It's so fun editing... I love piecing it all together and trying new things. In many ways it's a lot like coding.
Well, the weather for my daughter's birthday at a park isn't working out for Saturday so we're hosting at our place. Time to crazy clean
A personal highlight from today: we were riding at 50kmh down a highway on the bike when a old Vietnamese woman shot up on our left hand side to have a chat. "Where you from?" This country is full of surprises.
I just got recognised in the street due to a YouTube video. I’ve made it. So when does my yacht arrive?
Hey folks! I made some small changes to the public feed. Please read gemini://station.martinrue.com/updates for the full details. I hope this makes sense.
I just introduced someone to the Konami Code (↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A) and how us programmer nerds have ensured that our various employer's websites respect in some amusing way.
I used Discord's 404 page as an example, but which others still exist as working examples?
In case you missed it: I published my first ever newsletter this week. It's all about the wonders of language, and how to learn them better.
If you missed issue 1, fear not, I just uploaded the web version: https://lingoh.news/issues
Upcoming issues:
1. How can we remember better?
2. Does language influence how we think?
3. Hacks to learn a language faster
Enjoy the weekend, folks. ✌️
There's something about "weeks" that hits different. On average, we have 4000 weeks on this planet. Said in days or years, I lose the significance, but "weeks" really lands. Make the most of it, folks.
Well, that feels good! After weeks of work the first Ling-oh! issue just went out. Next one in two weeks. 😎 https://lingoh.news
I've been traveling by train, and while bad cellular-Internet coverage, I've visited Antenna. Antena had been flooded by boring entries some time ago. But today I've enjoyed:
From above things I've jumped some links to
It's was delightful journey through small net. I was there as if I had never been there before.
gemini://redterminal.org/gemlog/2024-06-22-No_LoRaWAN_in_the_near_future.gmi
gemini://idiomdrottning.org/gtd-in-a-connected-world
gemini://jsreed5.org/log/2024/202406/20240620-devterm-and-the-fifty-year-computer.gmi
I watched Inside Out 2 with my kids and spouse today. recommend.
what a surprising and delightful discovery to find my handle mentioned in a post that I randomly browsed on Cosmos. My guide apparently helped and inspired (along with others) someone to write a bookmark CGI script for their first time. neat!
keep it going
Courtesy of a friend, I’ve just discovered the next thing I’m excited to announce publicly, in a nice loud voice, chest out, when the time calls. Here’s a preview. Clears throat:
BEHOLD the field, in which I grow my FUCKS. LAY THINE eyes upon it and THOU SHALT SEE that it is BARREN.
"As a programmer, I'll likely be making off-by-one errors until the day after I die."
took a game in racquetball against the young guy today, 16-14. felt good. I'm drenched in sweat, feeling those endorphins.
I spent the morning in Hội An speaking as much Vietnamese as possible. I had some great chats, and compliments! A lady asked me my age: “Em bao nhiêu tuổi?” Her “em” assumes I’m younger. My “Em ba mươi tám tuổi” (I’m 38) came as a shock. So much fun practising my tiếng Việt!
I finally finished installing bathroom fan after patching the hole I made to make the new one fit. This allowed me to finish painting the ceiling and put the fan cover back on
I also installed a new light in the bathroom. I had a free light that someone gave us, and I wired the whole thing up only to find out my measurements were wrong and it was too wide, since it was rubbing the left wall. I ran out and got a new LED light and installed that.
Between those things and updating Farkle, it's been pretty productive today.
I think the reason creatives/artists support each others' work is because they know how fulfilling it feels to be supported in their own. A compliment, a little of your attention, some feedback, or just a "nice work" is such low energy high impact act. Imagine not using that.
Farkle feature request: weekly high scores.
I have an initial implementation complete, I just have to test it before I push to production.
👋 I just published a little ode to language:
"Language is everywhere and it's an essential part of everything we do. Very few things in our lives aren't, at their core, just an application of language."
https://martinrue.com/an-ode-to-language
What are you up to this week? Share your work, side hustles, projects and interests that are keeping you motivated and feeling good this week.
Dear language fans! I just launched a free newsletter. Ling-oh! is here to bring you a twice-monthly dose of linguistic motivation and discovery. If you're curious, please subscribe! https://lingoh.news
Heuristic that you made good evening choices: the number of times you open Shazam.
Good work takes time. That's a big part of why it's good. I have to remind myself sometimes. To steal an expression a friend of mine used last night: "there's no point screaming at a seed."
The biggest predictor for productivity (and feeling happy) is having large, uninterrupted blocks of time. If I don't get that right, all the smaller factors fade to irrelevant for me.
Agregated tinylogs:
