Ftrain, by Paul Ford
September 2020
I know there are other things going on in the world. And...
I know there are other things going on in the world. And yet.
➛This is a sort of an Enterprise sequel to my Consumer...
This is a sort of an Enterprise sequel to my Consumer low-code article in WIRED. wired.com/...
➛I wrote about the new API-without-middleware stacks we're...
I wrote about the new API-without-middleware stacks we're using at @Postlight, and why I love them, and how they are weirdly 100% enterprise-compliant. postlight.com/...
➛I've had this whole complicated joke in my head for years...
I've had this whole complicated joke in my head for years where Bruce Hornsby does a talk radio show about current events and they can't figure out what to call the show, and finally market research insists they call it Mandolin Rain with Bruce Hornsby.
➛You: The perfect user interface doesn't exist. Spotify:
God to be in a dimly lit pyramid right now during the...
@younggalaxy God to be in a dimly lit pyramid right now during the Carter Administration with a TEAC TASCAM 80-8 1/2 inch reel-to-reel tape recorder.
➛Absolutely cranking "Initiation: Psalm 3" at 0:55 right now.
@younggalaxy Absolutely cranking "Initiation: Psalm 3" at 0:55 right now.
➛yeah but they don't vote
@textfiles yeah but they don't vote
➛The thing is, ultimately, if we are to survive as a...
If you need to bring it down a notch here's an album from...
If you need to bring it down a notch here's an album from 1977 where a jazz musician named Paul Horn plays a flute inside the pyramid of Giza for an hour. open.spotify.com/...
➛f̸̼͖̈͗̅ȧ̸̢̒c̷̛̻̕͝t̸̫̅͘ ̸͍͗̏̚ċ̶̢̣̓̎h̸̯͑e̴̺̩̤͗̃c̶̱͠͝k̵̡̘̯̾̈́:̴...
f̸̼͖̈͗̅ȧ̸̢̒c̷̛̻̕͝t̸̫̅͘ ̸͍͗̏̚ċ̶̢̣̓̎h̸̯͑e̴̺̩̤͗̃c̶̱͠͝k̵̡̘̯̾̈́:̴̼̝̌͑ͅ ̸̣́͂A̸͖̾̓͠ͅA̶̮̝͌̆̚Ą̷̹̆A̶̞͒̿Ả̸̞A̸̧̖̰̓Ȧ̷̛͈̫Ā̷̡̻͕A̸͙͛Ȧ̵͎̖̤́A̶̗͛̌ͅǍ̶̻Â̵̠̈͠A̸̤̽͑A̶̬͚̿͂͜A̸͍̙͌
➛This is extremely interesting and good.
It's a good song!
@r1che5 @stevendrozd It's a good song!
➛it's telling us in no uncertain terms that fall is here and...
@SyzygyGerund it's telling us in no uncertain terms that fall is here and we need to start summoning things
➛i haven't even made it to the rest of the album yet, it...
i haven't even made it to the rest of the album yet, it turns out my heart ached for sincere, hopeful incantatory yearning with huge synth pads
➛this is the theme song for my agnostic coven
this is the theme song for my agnostic coven
➛This song, which I have listened to over 250 times, has...
This song, which I have listened to over 250 times, has convinced me to go back to grad school and get an advanced degree in Goth Studies (which is known as the 4a.D.)
r1ch3s.bandcamp.com/...
➛r1ch3s.bandcamp.com/...
I have been following this tumblr for years and I think it...
I have been following this tumblr purpletimespaceswamp.tumblr.com for years and I think it is spectacular. I just want to make sure people see it. It's a “visual archive” of Houston.
➛Cut-and-pasting Imitation without understanding Saying...
@hondanhon Cut-and-pasting
Imitation without understanding
Saying mass in Latin
Madlibs-style
(Further afield)
Potemkin Programming
Olympic Stadiums
I refer to when people are working hard to gain the approval of a dead industry (publishing, academia) as kissing a ghost's ass.
➛Imitation without understanding
Saying mass in Latin
Madlibs-style
(Further afield)
Potemkin Programming
Olympic Stadiums
I refer to when people are working hard to gain the approval of a dead industry (publishing, academia) as kissing a ghost's ass.
You're welcome
@michaelroston You're welcome
➛Until I had children I never expected to say, “Don't play...
Until I had children I never expected to say, “Don't play harmonica in the shower.”
➛The self-aware optimist is the least cool but most...
@craigmod @katelaurielee The self-aware optimist is the least cool but most rewarding of comic archetypes. I was slightly on the fence until DIAMOND DOGS and then I was in the bag.
➛oh yeah this is extremely right for me thank you
@spencertweedy oh yeah this is extremely right for me thank you
➛Congratulations!
@RachelFersh @sylviethecamera Congratulations!
➛When do you teach your class on government?
freakin wasik
Salinger's “Hapworth 16, 1924” was the only article in a...
@nbj914 @brookejarvis @BW @NewYorker @CalSunday Salinger's “Hapworth 16, 1924” was the only article in a 1965 New Yorker. I think also there was a 2016 National Geographic on Yellowstone by David Quammen that was mostly him and maybe an issue of NYTM that was one big article?
➛Dear @SlackHQ and @stewart, This new feature works very...
When you catch your reflection in the green room.
Tweet
The best Brooks did IMO is TELEPHONE about AT&T at it's...
We are all Uncle Louie G now
“In June, my baby became a toddler and transitioned away...
“In June, my baby became a toddler and transitioned away from breast milk, we delivered final designs to the client for approval, and I became a Lead Product Designer.”—@liztan with maybe my favorite sentence we've ever published. postlight.com/...
➛Selected @Postlight news. We are: Helping...
Selected @Postlight news. We are:
Helping Lebanon
postlight.com/...
Partnering w/anti-racism orgs
postlight.com/...
Promoting parents in a pandemic
postlight.com/...
Helping product teams
postlight.com/...
& Making election day a holiday. VOTE!
➛Helping Lebanon
postlight.com/...
Partnering w/anti-racism orgs
postlight.com/...
Promoting parents in a pandemic
postlight.com/...
Helping product teams
postlight.com/...
& Making election day a holiday. VOTE!
Good morning Jessica! It's a sunny day in Ditmas!
@winterjessica Good morning Jessica! It's a sunny day in Ditmas!
➛Absolutely room in the market for a book series about all...
Absolutely room in the market for a book series about all the teensy tiny librarians who run the little free libraries.
➛I mean I could have gone Dynamite! magazine/Sidewinder...
I grew up on them and last year we picked up a lot of them...
Michael Stipe (holding up Cricket magazine): Everybuggy...
Michael Stipe (holding up Cricket magazine): Everybuggy hurts...sometimes
➛Boone can only mean one thing in magazineworld and...
@mccanner Boone can only mean one thing in magazineworld and that's...CDS. cds-global.com/...
➛Oh god LabVIEW is such a special category here. I mean,...
@j_medland Oh god LabVIEW is such a special category here. I mean, please!
➛I once converted 80,000 u.s. military PPTs just to look at...
@jeremyzilar @procuremancer @WIRED I once converted 80,000 u.s. military PPTs just to look at them. I'm ready.
➛The album is good too. Nothing else like that one song but...
@stew_rtsmith The album is good too. Nothing else like that one song but definitely fun.
➛It's pronounced pass-en-jay.
Congratulations! You made sense of chaos and created...
@bmorrissey Congratulations! You made sense of chaos and created something excellent.
➛It's so good!
@stew_rtsmith It's so good!
➛paul.ford+badsoftware@postlight.com
paul.ford+badsoftware@postlight.com
➛When I write in my @WIRED column that I love receiving...
When I write in my @WIRED column that I love receiving screenshots of messy software, I mean it, and I absolutely want you to DM me or email me pics of the mess you put up with and why you hate it (purely for my own edification, I will never share them).
wired.com/...
➛wired.com/...
It's mutual. I always come away from our meetings with a...
@JeromeHardaway It's mutual. I always come away from our meetings with a lot to think about.
➛One of my favorite Mike Oldfield albums is Titular Bells.
@ChappellTracker One of my favorite Mike Oldfield albums is Titular Bells.
➛you can tell the anarchists because they are armed with...
@harmancipants you can tell the anarchists because they are armed with ferns
➛a @maureenflaherty special filled with swedish fish,...
@JessicaFKane a @maureenflaherty special filled with swedish fish, strawberry nerds, and sour patch kids
➛I mean at this point frankly it's my fondest hope that...
I mean at this point frankly it's my fondest hope that Proudhon-reading Mutualists take over the Board of Ed.
➛God this is exhausting. NYC is not some hellscape. This...
this song holds up and can guide you through the week
this song holds up and can guide you through the week youtube.com/...
➛Thinking around the TikTok stuff, it's good to read this...
Thinking around the TikTok stuff, it's good to read this article restofworld.org/... about how religious clerics oversee fintech apps in Indonesia.
➛Ernie it's like you and me against the world here.
@ShortFormErnie Ernie it's like you and me against the world here.
➛I'm going to push this again. I ponied up, then stayed up...
FRIENDS this is a good idea. It'll be guaranteed to piss...
(
Tweet
Every time you find success you immediately start working...
What you just described is a Reply Man.
@modernserf What you just described is a Reply Man.
➛i logged in to spelling bee this morning and it just typed...
i logged in to spelling bee this morning and it just typed this on its own like a ghost it was weird
That said when people ask for recommendations on this site...
That said when people ask for recommendations on this site and then reply “seen it” to all of them they deserve to have wet spaghetti thrown at their heads.
➛When someone smart (not me) is talking about a subject on...
When someone smart (not me) is talking about a subject on here and you want to recommend some book/podcast/movie/site, don't say, “You should check out (name of thing).” Instead, say “I've really loved (name of thing) on this lately.” If you don't get why just do it anyway.
➛HOW
Tweet
I haven't written code in a month so I made a Python solver...
I haven't written code in a month so I made a Python solver for Spelling Bee. gist.github.com/...
➛god bless public school teachers, admins, student...
god bless public school teachers, admins, student coordinators, paras, janitors, and everyone else this morning
➛i mean i guess you could publicly pressure them to be more...
@evanpro @hondanhon i mean i guess you could publicly pressure them to be more participatory but you'd need a giant web-based distribution platform that could advertise the fact that wikipedia powers the rest of the internet, he said as he clicked on the head of jimmy wales to donate
➛but that would require people to consider the provenance of...
@evanpro @hondanhon but that would require people to consider the provenance of their data instead of just consuming it, while damaging the brand value perception that a giant platform company is all-knowing and perfect
➛lolol evan next you'll ask them to pay taxes
@evanpro @hondanhon lolol evan next you'll ask them to pay taxes
➛This is sadly typical behavior for a lot of Paul Fords.
The twins turn nine tomorrow and I just put then to bed...
@monavernon The twins turn nine tomorrow and I just put then to bed saying, “I'm saying goodnight to an eight-year-old for the last time,” and we all laughed, and now I'm completely devastated.
➛It belongs to the world now
It belongs to the world now reddit.com/...
➛Tweet
Since tweeting that I have frequently had cause to regret...
I've got rack-mounted servers aplenty I've got routers and...
I've got rack-mounted servers aplenty
I've got routers and bandwidth galore
(Want Linux subsystems?
I got twenty)
I sure hope
That it's not
Insecure
➛I've got routers and bandwidth galore
(Want Linux subsystems?
I got twenty)
I sure hope
That it's not
Insecure
Look at this tube Isn't it large? Would you believe it's a...
Wait what did I do? I was talking about the Helsinki summit...
(Just testing the "no one can reply to your tweet"...
(Just testing the "no one can reply to your tweet" function.)
➛The plural of “peanut butter” is “peanuts butters.”
The plural of “peanut butter” is “peanuts butters.”
➛I'm thinking good thoughts for my West Coast friends, East...
I'm thinking good thoughts for my West Coast friends, East Coast friends, Lebanon friends, laid-off friends, media friends, LGBTQIA+ friends, BIPOC friends, friends with mental or other health challenges, friends with young kids, friends with older kids, christ this year is impos
➛Yes I had an immediate URL sense memory of that URL and the...
@michaelroston @hhavrilesky @TaylorLorenz @lindsayism @ultragrrrl Yes I had an immediate URL sense memory of that URL and the rabbit.
➛Yep.
I live on that block, he's right here, and the...
@katienotopoulos I live on that block, he's right here, goo.gl/... and the photographer is standing right next to a funeral home. So it could simply be death that illuminates Ben.
➛You bought the collection? I was going to buy it for you...
@shabbychef You bought the collection? I was going to buy it for you and realized it was like 90% you already had it. I keep reading it slowly so I have something to look forward to.
➛Worth the hospital.
Naval warships—big early consumers of SGML-based hypertext...
@kevinbaker Naval warships—big early consumers of SGML-based hypertext workstations.
➛No really that's it, that's the dream.
Jerome is a great, thoughtful guest/writer who has taught...
okay but did you rip off garfield or u.s. acres
context collapse you know it's a real thing
@joshmillard @a1phab3t context collapse you know it's a real thing
➛It actually in my brain refers to a specific sycamore tree...
I've thought about this and come to the conclusion that who...
It's such a simple thing to go, what if they're connected?...
@GBBranstetter It's such a simple thing to go, what if they're connected? I guess that's how you get QAnon.
➛Just an amazing gift of a paragraph from @jason_koebler,...
Just an amazing gift of a paragraph from @jason_koebler, one of the best things I've read all pandemic.
➛Tweet
Oooooooooof. Stay safe.
@SaraKeiko Oooooooooof. Stay safe.
➛The essential, timeless story about human inequality during...
The essential, timeless story about human inequality during a societal and ecological collapse turned out to be twitter.com.
➛Hard to get excited about the Dune trailer when you can see...
Hard to get excited about the Dune trailer when you can see CA and OR living it on the timeline.
➛I mean the whole statement was obviously hard to justify.
Real risk here is falling back on awkward product...
@AndrewCrow @goldman Real risk here is falling back on awkward product placement, i.e. Dunkin' Idaho, Old Spice Melange, POM Jabbar, Tostitos Salsa Secundus, and Shai-Hulu.
➛oh well that's very nice
Just bought, this is a GREAT suggestion for me, thank you.
@mikeswimm Just bought, this is a GREAT suggestion for me, thank you.
➛did cleo ever write back
did cleo ever write back
➛excellent advice
Seemed cool to me at the time!
@whiskeysteve Seemed cool to me at the time!
➛Would have been 91-92? It was the first year of the program.
@whiskeysteve Would have been 91-92? It was the first year of the program.
➛I don't think there's been one in a while but my favorite...
I don't think there's been one in a while but my favorite genre of newspaper article is, “Obituary of 106-year-old wealthy widow of extremely famous person who died 65 years ago.”
➛Oh hey! I need to return to this. Also: Fun fact, I...
@whiskeysteve Oh hey! I need to return to this. Also: Fun fact, I attended LVC for two semesters. Milton Hershey School sent me and a few others senior year. I was very lucky to have Gary Grieve-Carlson as a teacher, he was very supportive and I think I first read Middlemarch in his class.
➛is coruscant walkable?
is coruscant walkable?
➛I mean, happy birthday.
Seeing this on twitter means I'm broomscrolling.
@AlexJamesFitz Seeing this on twitter means I'm broomscrolling.
➛Mel Blanc would have been PERFECT.
@heybonanos @michelet Mel Blanc would have been PERFECT.
➛Don Wilson eating raw Jell-O powder and coughing.
@heybonanos @michelet Don Wilson eating raw Jell-O powder and coughing.
➛Dennis Day sings with Phil Harris playing, while Mary...
@michelet @heybonanos Dennis Day sings with Phil Harris playing, while Mary Livingston dances and points to pop-up text of “Things that annoy me about Jack,” and Jack eventually jumps into frame and yells “Now cut that out!”
➛Happppppy Birthday. I'll do something nice today.
Thank you for reminding me, @KristyT! Happy Birthday, Anil!...
The Power and the Lorry.
That's a remarkable trick!
oh god
@chrisbrandow oh god
➛Oddly comforting!
@frownstone Oddly comforting!
➛The twins are about to turn nine and I just realized that's...
The twins are about to turn nine and I just realized that's half.
➛To your point the sitcom hijinks on the show are eh but the...
@tressiemcphd To your point the sitcom hijinks on the show are eh but the meetings where everyone literally repeats the same phrases over and over are GRIPPING.
➛If you haven't seen it W1A is a BBC comedy about BBC...
@tressiemcphd If you haven't seen it W1A is a BBC comedy about BBC bureaucracy, and it's too cute, but it captures how hard people will work in department meetings to avoid any responsibility while still trying to gain territory, while perfectly polite.
➛Send us a resumé, Anonymous Tiger!
Friends, @Postlight is doing more content-focused work as...
Friends, @Postlight is doing more content-focused work as we grow. If you are a freelance content strategist/editor, more on the technical side, we have a great three-month+ contract for you! docs.google.com/...
➛If you're in my neighborhood (Ditmas, Brooklyn), there's a...
If you're in my neighborhood (Ditmas, Brooklyn), there's a grassroots organization called People In Need that is feeding hundreds of people, without fail. gofundme.com/...
➛This photo essay on hunger in America was put together with...
This photo essay on hunger in America was put together with enormous care and effort, and with attention and respect for the people involved. I see it and immediately think about my own kids (and about getting bags of food from the church 30 years ago). nytimes.com/...
➛For a writer there's a dopamine hit that comes with a...
For a writer there's a dopamine hit that comes with a @longreads mention that's hard to beat. You helped a lot of pieces get more light on them, @markarms, and helped a lot of writers keep going. x.com/...
➛Creative Computing Byte Dr. Dobb's Journal Omni Factsheet...
@brickhousecoop Creative Computing
Byte
Dr. Dobb's Journal
Omni
Factsheet Five
Dynamite
Emigre
Raygun
Games
Lingua Franca
Print
Lots of others that are SEO zombies.
➛Byte
Dr. Dobb's Journal
Omni
Factsheet Five
Dynamite
Emigre
Raygun
Games
Lingua Franca
Lots of others that are SEO zombies.
Number one reason everyone should blog!
@kosamari @Postlight Number one reason everyone should blog!
➛I turned playing Flight Simulator into content for...
I turned playing Flight Simulator into content for @Postlight. This makes it tax-deductible. x.com/...
➛never forget
i'm piqued
@silviakillings @snackfight i'm piqued
➛