mjb's recent activity
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
mjb LinkI'm reading The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley:I'm reading The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley:
A futuristic story of tragic love and of the gradual extermination of the human race by plague, The Last Man is Mary Shelley's most important novel after Frankenstein. With intriguing portraits of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, the novel offers a vision of the future that expresses a reaction against Romanticism, and demonstrates the failure of the imagination and of art to redeem the doomed characters.
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Comment on How do people run their personal blog? in ~tech
mjb LinkI used Wordpress for years, hosted on a Linode VPS, but I've never been a fan of PHP and grew tired of plugins breaking with upgrades. Also realizing that I really had no need of most of the...I used Wordpress for years, hosted on a Linode VPS, but I've never been a fan of PHP and grew tired of plugins breaking with upgrades. Also realizing that I really had no need of most of the advanced features, I opted to migrate to a static site generator. The real impetus was the demise of Google+ where I'd first post my content, which was subsequently pulled by and republished on my own blog site.
Owing to an interest in the Rust programming language, I selected the Zola static site engine, which uses Markdown similar to Hugo. I must admit, though, that I really haven't done anything with it.
FWIW, I also have a static site on github.io based on Sphinx, a Python-based generator, using the more powerful ReStructuredText format, rather than Markdown. It's not a blog site but I later found ABlog,
a Sphinx-based blog site static generator that is quite nice. -
Comment on Population decline due to expected global crash in children being born in ~health
mjb Link ParentIn the Developing World, many poor people can't afford not to have children. Reasons include infant mortality; children contribute to the household labour pool; and grown children care for elderly...In the Developing World, many poor people can't afford not to have children. Reasons include infant mortality; children contribute to the household labour pool; and grown children care for elderly parents. The decline in the number of children has followed improvements in nutrition, healthcare, education, and empowering women.
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Comment on The history of Turkey until Atatürk in ~humanities
mjb LinkThanks, I'll have to watch this for some context. I've been binge-watching Dirilis: Ertugrul (AKA Resurrection: Ertugral) on Netflix: It's a Turkish production with English subtitles. Somewhat...Thanks, I'll have to watch this for some context. I've been binge-watching Dirilis: Ertugrul (AKA Resurrection: Ertugral) on Netflix:
This series is about the Turkish warrior Ertugrul from the 13th century, one of the most famous warriors of his time and also the father of Osman (the founder of the Ottoman Empire). He is an ambitious man who wants to bring peace and justice to his people. He is in a war with the Crusaders on one side, the Byzantines on another side and the brutally expanding Mongols who killed a lot of Turks on another side. In between this he is in a psychological war between his love and his so called destiny.
It's a Turkish production with English subtitles. Somewhat melodramatic, like a soap opera with lots of sword-play and subplots, but the characters are well developed and the historical bits I've looked up check out.
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Comment on Good domain registrars? in ~comp
mjb LinkI've been satisfied using joker.com for over 20 years since seeing it recommended by DNS & infosec expert Daniel J. Bernstein (djb).I've been satisfied using joker.com for over 20 years since seeing it recommended by DNS & infosec expert Daniel J. Bernstein (djb).
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Comment on YAML: probably not so great after all in ~comp
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Comment on What is a good free alternative to Wordpress that requires little coding? in ~comp
mjb Link ParentStatic site generators such as Hugo do not typically require any software to be installed on the server, unlike a conventional CMS (e.g., Wordpress). Hugo is installed on your local system, where...Static site generators such as Hugo do not typically require any software to be installed on the server, unlike a conventional CMS (e.g., Wordpress). Hugo is installed on your local system, where you use it to generate your website's HTML and associated files (e.g., stylesheets, images, etc.), which can then be uploaded to your hosting account into a directory accessible via its web server.
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Comment on What is a good gender-neutral pet name for my daughter? in ~talk
mjb LinkMy daughter has endured 'Beast' for 35 years. :-DMy daughter has endured 'Beast' for 35 years. :-D
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Comment on What are you reading these days? #20 in ~books
mjb Link ParentOthers that I'd recommend: The Politics of Social Ecology: Libertarian-Municipalism by Janet Biehl and Murray Bookchin, which lays out a model for governance for realizing the political philosophy...Others that I'd recommend:
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The Politics of Social Ecology: Libertarian-Municipalism by Janet Biehl and Murray Bookchin, which lays out a model for governance for realizing the political philosophy of Social Ecology. (Note that that the term libertarian is used here in its original European sense, not as coopted in America by so-called 'anarcho-capitalist' individualists.)
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Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin
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Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben
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Comment on How do you organize your bookmarks? in ~tech
mjb LinkI have several topical folders in my Firefox bookmarks toolbar (e.g., Reference, SocialMedia, News, Personal, Business, To-Post, To-Read, To-View, etc.) for some oft-used or ephemeral links but I...I have several topical folders in my Firefox bookmarks toolbar (e.g., Reference, SocialMedia, News, Personal, Business, To-Post, To-Read, To-View, etc.) for some oft-used or ephemeral links but I use BibSonomy, an open social bookmark and publication sharing system, for managing a tag-classified archive of most of my links to particular material of interest. It is somewhat reminiscent of Delicious.com (when that site was popular before its demise and repeated failed attempts at being rebooted) but with added support for document citations. There is a nice browser add-on to easily save bookmarks or citations, with the option of posting either public or private entries.
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Comment on What are some genuinely good places online? in ~talk
mjb LinkPluspora is a Diaspora pod inhabited largely by refugees from Google+, which is shutting down soon. I've long enjoyed the quality of content and discussion on Google+, and this has carried over to...Pluspora is a Diaspora pod inhabited largely by refugees from Google+, which is shutting down soon. I've long enjoyed the quality of content and discussion on Google+, and this has carried over to Pluspora.
Diaspora is a nonprofit, user-owned, distributed social network that is based upon the free Diaspora software. It consists of a group of independently owned nodes (called pods) which interoperate within a federated network, part of what is known as the Fediverse. You can operate your own node or join an existing one. Notably, Diaspora supports long-form posts, rather than being restricted to the shorter content length found on most micro-blogging platforms.
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Comment on What is a favorite book of yours, and why should people read it if they haven't? in ~books
mjb Link ParentIt's been on my list to read for a while now. The 1950 film adaptation with José Ferrer is a personal favourite.It's been on my list to read for a while now. The 1950 film adaptation with José Ferrer is a personal favourite.
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Comment on Theses on Libertarian Municipalism in ~science
mjb LinkBookchin elaborates on this thesis in his book Social Ecology and Communalism, and further refined these ideas in collaboration with Janet Biehl in Politics Of Social Ecology, which deals more...Bookchin elaborates on this thesis in his book Social Ecology and Communalism, and further refined these ideas in collaboration with Janet Biehl in Politics Of Social Ecology, which deals more with the organizing model of Libertarian Municipalism.
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Comment on What is your experience with jailbreaking your e-reader? in ~books
mjb Link ParentWell, it's certainly the one feature that piqued my interest, although I'm still not assured that the rendering quality of the reflowed text merits the effort and any potential risk of bricking my...Well, it's certainly the one feature that piqued my interest, although I'm still not assured that the rendering quality of the reflowed text merits the effort and any potential risk of bricking my device.
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Comment on What is your experience with jailbreaking your e-reader? in ~books
mjb Link ParentI'll be interested to read of your experience and whether the PDF reflowing is worth the effort.I'll be interested to read of your experience and whether the PDF reflowing is worth the effort.
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Comment on How many of you host your own email server? Do you recommend hosting one? in ~comp
mjb Link ParentGood to know. However, after years of futzing with it, I'm happier having someone else manage my email infrastructure.Good to know. However, after years of futzing with it, I'm happier having someone else manage my email infrastructure.
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Comment on Learning to Program in ~comp
mjb LinkHere are some resources I've bookmarked that you may find useful: python learning resources coding exercisesHere are some resources I've bookmarked that you may find useful:
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Comment on Giving up on privacy in ~talk
mjb Link ParentThere is minitube, a native YouTube client app, and mps-youtube, a terminal-based YouTube player and downloader. Disclaimer: I've not used either of these apps; I've just seen them in the Debian...There is minitube, a native YouTube client app, and mps-youtube, a terminal-based YouTube player and downloader.
Disclaimer: I've not used either of these apps; I've just seen them in the Debian package repos.
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Comment on How many of you host your own email server? Do you recommend hosting one? in ~comp
mjb (edited )LinkI ran a postfix email server for my personal domains for several years but eventually tired of the spam whack-a-mole game. Despite installing numerous anti-spam tools and configuring various...I ran a postfix email server for my personal domains for several years but eventually tired of the spam whack-a-mole game. Despite installing numerous anti-spam tools and configuring various countermeasures, such as relay blocking lists, bayesian filters, and authentication protocols including DKIM, SPF, etc., I concluded that I would never have a large enough corpus necessary to reduce spam to acceptable levels. I migrated my domains to Google back when what's now called GSuite (I think) was free; if I were to have to pay for the service today, I'd choose another provider, especially for privacy reasons.
If you do choose to run your own server, though, I do highly recommend postfix and dovecot.
ETA: As for hosting, I'm currently running my personal domains on Debian VPS hosted at Linode but I've also worked with DigitalOcean, which I'd highly recommend.
I've started reading Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari after just finishing his brilliant Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which I quite enjoyed.