Currently reading: The Secret Pilgrim by John le Carré, ISBN: 9780340552056

#Fiction

Finished reading: The Final Solution by Michael Chabon, ISBN: 9780060777104

#Fiction

My DropBox bill is going up, and while I get value from it, I wonder whether there might be alternatives. I don't think I want to be responsible for hosting something like NextCloud, but I'm willing to be persuaded. Could anyone who has done so offer an honest appraisal. Thanks.

How did I find the link? https://stream.jeremycherfas.net/2020/just-discovered-i-have-a-digital-note

I read both of the pieces Chris Aldrich linked to, and my main response was to feel underwhelmed. Maybe that's because I don't have the baggage of caring one whit about George Washington's teeth. And of the other discussion, on "open" I am too ignorant to form an opinion.

Yay, and welcome to WithKnown. Glad to see you got it working. One comment, I think that the twitter logo might be missing from the syndicated link for this post.

Just discovered I have a digital note called today that has entries that go back to 2015-10-10. How did that happen?

So I added "Process this note to the top of it".

Thanks to Kicks Condor I too have discovered Legible News, which is a great way to scan the previous day's events. But seriously, why did it need someone else to build the RSS feed? I imagine that creating the daily Legible News is fully automated anyway. How hard would it have been to add the microformats to make it an h-feed?

Since getting a new VPN, Spotify thinks I am in Sweden, and it is remarkable how much more tolerable the ads are. Not just because I don't understand them, because they are so much less frenetic.

I wrote about reviving my sourdough after an extended absence.

https://www.fornacalia.com/2020/sourdough-revival/

I'd certainly pay for an app that used RSS (or similar) to aggregate photographers' streams. Heck, I'd even exert pressure on my own favourite photographer to create a dedicated photo stream. I've kickstartered less promising pitches. h/t @chrisaldrich

I managed to restore my Apple Time Capsule to proper working order, I think, but how sensible is it, really, to have the reset button and the status lights on opposite sides of the device?

2019 was pretty good. 2020 will be pretty good too. That is all.

Eat This Newsletter 115 is up. Full version at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-115-chewy-bonus/

I have absolutely no problem shilling for Flickr, so if you've been considering signing up to a Pro account, use this link and save 25% https://www.flickr.com/account/upgrade/pro?coupon=25in2019

Reddit’s Best Mindblowing Facts of All Time at https://lifehacker.com/reddit-s-favorite-mindblowing-facts-of-all-time-fact-c-1840398431

My favourite: “Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in Vienna in 1913.”

h/t jgordon

What gets me about Jason shaving in the shower is not that he thinks he looks too young, but that he might have solved the problem of a mirror that does not fog up. If I could shave in the shower, gosh, how much more time I'd have to be productive the rest of the day.

Very peeved. Time Machine can no longer see my Time Capsule and neither can I. Tried restarting the computer, but that didn't help. Don'[t really want to do a factory reset. What else can I try?

"UK podcast listeners willing to pay £4 average for monthly subscriptions" it says here: https://podnews.net/press-release/uk-podcast-listeners-four-quid

Standing by, here: https://www.eatthispodcast.com/supporters/

I do not believe that consumers are the main beneficiaries of recent trends in the centralisation and industrialisation of food production. Convenient, perhaps, but safe and affordable? At what price?

Podcasts are not radio shows. Or at least, they didn't used to be. Now, judging by how almost all awards lump them together, there is no meaningful distinction. Except that, in our hearts, we know that there is.

The big problem with the “all food is processed” and “everything is a chemical” arguments is that they fail to speak the same language as the people for whom “processed” and “chemical” have other meanings. I prefer to ask who benefits from the processing and the chemicals.

Day 1 of IndieWeb Challenge https://indieweb.org/2019-12-indieweb-challenge.

Fixed all the feeds for my main blog website and checked their validity.

#IndieWeb_challenge #IndieWeb

Great piece about the difficult life of a solo podcaster, with lots of insights that another solo podcaster can both appreciate and make use of. But why on Earth limit its reach to Medium? You should have your own site, where you control the content.

Where to push for greater food safety as food supply systems change is such a difficult question, as discussed in my podcast with Shirley Tarawali and Delia Grace @ILRI https://www.eatthispodcast.com/in-praise-of-meat-milk-and-eggs/

I've been doing this too since you, I think, recommended it, but it is of little help for my mountainous backlog.

What magic is this? https://www.outpan.com/app/3ef086df04/musical-chord-progression-arpeggiator Found thanks to https://indieweb.xyz/en

Just published the latest issue of Eat This Newsletter at https://buttondown.email/jeremycherfas/archive/1b16073c-be83-40c9-a168-aeee7fb26b25

Yes, if you still need one.

Chris Aldrich wanted to know if I have a feed of podcasts I've actually listened to. Last time I checked, the RSS feed was very broken, a symptom of a site-wide problem. But the h-feed works, so there's that. At https://www.jeremycherfas.net/stream

I confess, I missed this story https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/norwegian-strawberry-group-and-altor-swoop-on-thomas-cook-assets-... when it first came out, and have not seen responses, but if a major backer of EAT has bought an airline, it does rather call into question the whole "less meat" aspect of climate change campaigners.

At last, I think I may have an actual genuine use for an IPad in my life https://overcast.fm/+NvaKdHCuY #Automators

Indeed, many of the people I've talked to about cashew nuts don't know the human suffering that goes into them. I learned about it ages ago, when the World Bank interfered with cashew production in Mozambique. That capuchins manage it amazes me.

Good work so far. As you note, micro.blog already offers a lot of the IndieWeb building blocks. And it recently started to offer an option to register your own domain, addressing another of your points. It's a good option for people (who can afford it) to explore the possibilities, and the nice thing is you can always move your content somewhere else if you want to. That's another good reason not to rely on silos.

#IndieWeb

Airbnb Promises to Verify All 7 Million Listings After VICE Report Exposes Scam, according to https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb58jd/airbnb-promises-to-verify-all-7-million-listings-after-vic....

At least until the next time.

John Naughton seems overly impressed by the distant blog of King's College Chapel. I prefer to think that Clare's Memorial Court occupies the centre of the frame.

Perhaps it was from you that I learned about @georgethepoet. In any case, his episode on Grenfell Tower was astonishingly good. So full of understanding and also so provocative. Can't wait to get stuck in to the live episode.

Just sent an email to the lucky winner of 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot from @prospectbooks Now to wait and see whether they want it. Of course they will. But if not, I'll pick someone else at random from my newsletter subscribers.

Snagging on the new website theme is progressing nicely, although some things do take a while for the cache to empty. I think I'll go for a walk and stop worrying about it.

#IndieWeb

What is the woman on the left doing? Is this some arcane form of Chinese exercise that I am not at all familiar with?

Rode my bike in town today for the first time in months -- and it's true what they say. I had not forgotten how.

Just flipped the switch on tickets for the next one-day Sourdough U course in Rome. Come and learn how to care for and use a sourdough leaven. Suitable for experienced bakers and absolute beginners. https://ti.to/sourdough-u/2019-11

TIL that there is such a thing as a non-food interpretation of 🌮

I've never actually paid attention to the small drop in volume when I do the final render to MP3 files; maybe I should.

I'm all for radishes as a nice bit of crunch. Plus, they're so easy and quick to grow, even in restricted spaces, and a home-grown radish is even more rewarding.

Finished reading: The Cockroach by Ian McEwan

Complex session on how to markup and consume a post that contains multiple photos and videos in any order.

"Meat traders came out in support of vegan activists who occupied Smithfield Market in London last night."

Happy to take your word for it, as The Times won't let me read without registering.

Uh-oh. Asking people to stop eating meat is one thing, stopping people who sell it for a living is quite another. I fear that the blockade of Smithfield market in London might prove to be an XR error.