Ftrain, by Paul Ford
August 2022
Seriously congratulations. That's genuinely exciting.
@maureenflaherty @shabbychef Seriously congratulations. That's genuinely exciting.
➛Like everything has to be downloaded and built anyway, or...
@doriantaylor @morungos Like everything has to be downloaded and built anyway, or you can copy the CDN version.
➛I tried to do stuff by hand into the browser and the world...
@doriantaylor @morungos I tried to do stuff by hand into the browser and the world is just not set up for that.
➛Agreed. Vite is really great. I'm using it to make some Lit...
@morungos @doriantaylor Agreed. Vite is really great. I'm using it to make some Lit stuff and it's almost invisible.
➛What would “cultural baggage” look like? My guess is a...
What would “cultural baggage” look like? My guess is a cloth bag quilted to look like a marble bust of a Roman emperor, with a zipper across the mouth. (You open it and tweets fly out.)
➛We rename the group chat to “VMAARPs.”
@GBBranstetter We rename the group chat to “VMAARPs.”
➛The design firm was from London which makes perfect sense.
@colinbooks The design firm was from London which makes perfect sense.
➛No.
@colinbooks No.
➛Tried out Little Island today and it is great if you like...
Tried out Little Island today and it is great if you like climbing stairs crowded with hundreds of people in extreme heat with no shade.
➛Whining is what binds us.
Whining is what binds us.
➛I love going to the Met Museum because you can sit in front...
I love going to the Met Museum because you can sit in front of an unimaginably beautiful painting or sculpture, and—often within minutes!—you will hear people from all over the world use dozens of languages to yell at their surly teenaged children.
➛Party City!!!
@kevin2kelly Party City!!!
➛My son refused to let me buy this to hang behind me on...
Wattli on Newkirk. It's great.
I'm tweeting this alone from a bar down the street from my...
I'm tweeting this alone from a bar down the street from my house.
➛When talking to other dads who are going through it with...
When talking to other dads who are going through it with their kids, I like to say, “Relax. Your worst day as a father is still YEARS in the future.”
➛Kendall please do not die on any hills.
NEOM is entirely modern and fully computerised in all...
NEOM is entirely modern and fully computerised in all regards and can be fully administered from any minicomputer that provides the Kermit Protocol.
➛I keep a NAS loaded with necessary items for my own...
@textfiles I keep a NAS loaded with necessary items for my own survival (Devil's Doorknob ISOs, 3TB of TOSEC-PIX, and OAI PMH XML dumps).
➛If NEOM ceases to hum do not leave your cooling sphere.
If NEOM ceases to hum do not leave your cooling sphere.
➛You're welcome.
You're welcome.
➛NEOM absorbs the bones it creates. For Earth.
NEOM absorbs the bones it creates. For Earth.
➛Are you ready for a 10,000-mile long city to read your...
Are you ready for a 10,000-mile long city to read your thoughts? NEOM angers slowly.
➛The smell will be punished. —NEOM
The smell will be punished. —NEOM
➛Sector 539 Pod B (Marketing) of NEOM was sealed for guest...
Sector 539 Pod B (Marketing) of NEOM was sealed for guest integrity. Reopening can occur after adjustment cubes are saturated.
➛We are investigating whether you can touch the walls of...
We are investigating whether you can touch the walls of NEOM.
➛When we put the roof on, NEOM will enter a long silence....
When we put the roof on, NEOM will enter a long silence. That's Future.
➛NEOM will ultimately have multiple sources of protein.
NEOM will ultimately have multiple sources of protein.
➛The 100-mile long walls of NEOM were not officially...
The 100-mile long walls of NEOM were not officially designed to roll towards each other like a giant mirrored trash compactor.
➛The difference between NEOM and MONEY is Y?
The difference between NEOM and MONEY is Y?
➛We will pay you $5,000 to believe in NEOM.
We will pay you $5,000 to believe in NEOM.
➛All those cast out of NEOM for insufficient dreamage are...
All those cast out of NEOM for insufficient dreamage are given a jerrycan of vegetable oil and a blanket.
➛Anyone can leave NEOM for several reasons.
Anyone can leave NEOM for several reasons.
➛NEOM will not randomly incinerate residents—we call them...
NEOM will not randomly incinerate residents—we call them “guests.”
➛Tweet
Big book publishers are watching HBO/Discovery pull digital...
Big book publishers are watching HBO/Discovery pull digital assets out of circulation and taking tons of notes.
➛I do appreciate it! Thank you!
@neilturkewitz I do appreciate it! Thank you!
➛N pehzzl pbzzrepvny?
@DannyPage N pehzzl pbzzrepvny?
➛He makes a dumb joke about a sculpture and ends up spending...
He makes a dumb joke about a sculpture and ends up spending an hour reading about poets on Wikipedia and ends up figuring out how to get the Project Gutenberg Lives of the Eminent Victorians to load on his Kindle via the built-in Web browser.
➛Now I want to reread The Waves.
Now I want to reread The Waves.
➛Joke's on me I just read a bunch of Teasdale poems.
Joke's on me I just read a bunch of Teasdale poems.
➛"I've been a huge Sarah Teasdale fan since I was 15."
"I've been a huge Sarah Teasdale fan since I was 15."
➛If this is a sarcophagus from Cyprus in the 5th century BC...
If this is a sarcophagus from Cyprus in the 5th century BC why is she about to teach a 20th century poetry seminar?
it's too late i am in the metaverse now
WOW
Sometimes you release buggy software and so you have to...
Sometimes you release buggy software and so you have to update the version number right away and release it again. This is known as Version Sacrifice.
➛I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm trying to delete it.
@merylfriedman I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm trying to delete it.
➛Huh!
Idk I like it.
Idk I like it.
➛Posted on the Upper East Side.
Lolol sometimes it's handy when a giant man says he broke...
@andrew_jaqam Lolol sometimes it's handy when a giant man says he broke something so I know it's not for me. Especially bicycle stuff.
➛Last I checked
@andrew_jaqam Last I checked
➛Hmmmm
@andrew_jaqam Hmmmm
➛There's something so evocative about connecting a computer...
There's something so evocative about connecting a computer to the Internet, every time I set up a new machine it's a Remembrance of Pings Past.
➛I mean I was in consulting, that's all we did. Disruption...
No worries, demand will go up as chaos increases.
I'm very excited for my tutorials.
I'm very excited for my tutorials.
➛I wrote a thing about STABILITY. (Also I *am* working on...
I wrote a thing about STABILITY. wired.com/... (Also I *am* working on that tutorial it'll be out right after the Let's parse Wikidata! tutorial.)
➛Fredhammer is an itch that can never be scratched. An...
@abrahamjoseph Fredhammer is an itch that can never be scratched. An utterly perverted piece of media. Gonna go listen to it again.
➛You left NYC for LA after Parsons, you're single, the man...
You left NYC for LA after Parsons, you're single, the man you date says he sells metals but he's a criminal, you work at a bookstore, your computer cost 3/4 of your disposable income, and you're trying to do good work but wrestling with the influence of David Carson.
➛This is the only part of the movie I remembered.
This is the only part of the movie I remembered.
➛I'm watching HEAT (1995) for the first time since, well,...
I'm watching HEAT (1995) for the first time since, well, 1995, and (1) It's great to see Edie's QuarkXPress 3.2 setup again; and (2) she was a solid designer IMO.
Can't talk I'm in the Metaverse.
(First one is from March but I just read it.)
(First one is from March but I just read it.)
➛(2) And this one, about a grieving DOTA2 player who coaches...
(2) And this one, about a grieving DOTA2 player who coaches an esports team in Wyoming, which is also about the real lives of some videogame kids, and how they grow up and enter the world.
wired.com/...
➛wired.com/...
Some great profiles of non-famous humans are being...
Some great profiles of non-famous humans are being published in @WIRED. Two that jumped out:
(1) About an engineer for Meta in the US and how the Indian caste system has affected every part of his life. He stays anonymous--tricky but handled really well. wired.com/...
➛(1) About an engineer for Meta in the US and how the Indian caste system has affected every part of his life. He stays anonymous--tricky but handled really well. wired.com/...
Custom made for me. Great way to start the day.
Thank you.
I appreciate when science is simply, “Please breathe into...
I appreciate when science is simply, “Please breathe into the Viraphone.” nature.com/...
➛Can't skip. Gotta do it for the otters.
@scott_bot @jtth Can't skip. Gotta do it for the otters.
➛It's on like half our playlists. My kids think it's some...
I am in a science fiction anthology!
The JSON is keyed to internal IDs as opposed to IRIs, which...
@epoz @datasetteproj The JSON is keyed to internal IDs as opposed to IRIs, which are teensy.
(With NT I replaced the namespaces with their well known prefixes and that got me down to like 200gb.)
The JSON was grisly at first but I got there with lbzcat piping to parallel piping to jq, will share.
➛(With NT I replaced the namespaces with their well known prefixes and that got me down to like 200gb.)
The JSON was grisly at first but I got there with lbzcat piping to parallel piping to jq, will share.
No languages besides "en" shaves off like 80% .NT has...
@epoz @datasetteproj No languages besides "en" shaves off like 80%
.NT has redundancy around rdfs:label, schema:name, etc.
Cut "scientific journal articles"; they're 35% of subjects and represent 100s of millions of rows
Extract all labels into one table and key everything off native db ids.
➛.NT has redundancy around rdfs:label, schema:name, etc.
Cut "scientific journal articles"; they're 35% of subjects and represent 100s of millions of rows
Extract all labels into one table and key everything off native db ids.
We can hope!
Its a very taxonomical way to die
oh sorry context
Wikidata does NOT care (well also it flags people as...
@Boogieknight Wikidata does NOT care (well also it flags people as fictional elsewhere).
➛This is the result of a query across wikidata of how human...
This is the result of a query across wikidata of how human beings with the occupation writer met their demise. it took 87 seconds. my favorite is the "unfortunate accident" down at the bottom (it was Vasyl Levytsky, he drowned).
Well definitely for my subscribers.
@tomcoates Well definitely for my subscribers.
➛Termux on android installed through F-droid. Good tmux...
@dataeditor @xor Termux on android installed through F-droid. Good tmux support, stays awake through mosh connections when I take the subway.
➛BTW I highly recommend doing computer things where you make...
BTW I highly recommend doing computer things where you make a few tweaks and then start an all-night batch process and go to bed, and then the first thing you check in the morning is the terminal emulator on your phone to see how your little processes are.
➛Probably! But maybe less than hoped, as a ton of that 50g...
@cldellow @datasetteproj Probably! But maybe less than hoped, as a ton of that 50g is small integers (i.e. ids) or DB indices, which I doubt compress super-well. Maybe 15gb of it is tokenizable text, which would squeeze down a lot. I'll put it all out there for folks to play with though.
➛Paul why would you do this when literally any other...
Paul why would you do this when literally any other solution exists? Well you're right!
➛Well...hold on...a SUBSET of WIKIDATA with only ENGLISH.
Oh ccing @simonw, I'm looking forward to you seeing this...
Fun stuff that kind of works: - CTEs for walking family...
Fun stuff that kind of works:
- CTEs for walking family trees
- Instant full-text-search for triple names
- Ready to go in about 4 hrs on a fast machine (vs 12 days for full import of everything into Blazegraph according to official docs)
- Thoughtless lazy clicky browsy!
➛- CTEs for walking family trees
- Instant full-text-search for triple names
- Ready to go in about 4 hrs on a fast machine (vs 12 days for full import of everything into Blazegraph according to official docs)
- Thoughtless lazy clicky browsy!
I've been dinking for weeks on this ridiculous hobby...
I've been dinking for weeks on this ridiculous hobby project where I parse down the ~1TB Wikidata JSON data dump into a 50gb SQLite file so I can browse it at home with @datasetteproj. It just started working. Works with Postgres too. I'll write it up and release the code soon.
You're one of the ones I'm worried about!
@joeljohnson You're one of the ones I'm worried about!
➛It sucks! I ended up using a paid playlist migration...
@NeonPlatypus @SubstackInc It sucks! I ended up using a paid playlist migration service (but it was like $5). Apple Music can't handle lonnnnng playlists. Apple is a giant beast that cares not. That said:
1) The lossless sound quality truly is better, esp on amped headphones.
2) I feel less shitty.
➛1) The lossless sound quality truly is better, esp on amped headphones.
2) I feel less shitty.
gary let's administer our own mail server on a raspberry pi
Ahhhhh blocking everything but /messages is really smart!...
@jeremymeyers Ahhhhh blocking everything but /messages is really smart! DMs are important to me and that never occurred to me.
➛LinkedIn can be safely ignored though. It has absolutely no...
@jeremymeyers LinkedIn can be safely ignored though. It has absolutely no urgency. And then it's handy when you need a rolodex.
➛I wonder what other online platforms there are where I...
I wonder what other online platforms there are where I would feel an immense sense of relief if I deleted my account.
➛Look what can I say I need a gavage tube of content turning...
I have varied interests!
It feels great to just...remove myself from a chunk of the...
It feels great to just...remove myself from a chunk of the discourse. I'll miss your newsletters.
I guess this narrows it down to Ghost, Revue, Medium, Mailman, Majordomo, ezmlm, Sympa, DadaMail, or BCC.
➛I guess this narrows it down to Ghost, Revue, Medium, Mailman, Majordomo, ezmlm, Sympa, DadaMail, or BCC.
Gotta say this is a MUCH better experience than getting off...
Gotta say this is a MUCH better experience than getting off Spotify and migrating my playlists. Kudos to @SubstackInc.
Ah okay so it exports everything in reasonable HTML, but...
Ah okay so it exports everything in reasonable HTML, but the images remain on the CDN. Which seems fine.
➛Not that anyone gives a shit. I'm going to miss some of my...
Not that anyone gives a shit. I'm going to miss some of my paid subs and friends!
➛"We'll make sure the writers with whom you are working are...
"We'll make sure the writers with whom you are working are taken care of and matched with new editors."
This sucks. Fuck this. However to @SubstackInc's credit they offer easy bulk export and account deletion, so I'm gonna export my little mailing list and erase my account. t.co/...
➛This sucks. Fuck this. However to @SubstackInc's credit they offer easy bulk export and account deletion, so I'm gonna export my little mailing list and erase my account. t.co/...
Congratulations!!!
@troutgirl Congratulations!!!
➛I didn't even get upset for this exact reason. Just...
@keirdubois I didn't even get upset for this exact reason. Just ridiculous.
➛Samosas!
An entire key got into my bike tire and the trains are a...
An entire key got into my bike tire and the trains are a mess so I had to walk home and an old guy said, “Your tire is flat! Hahah! It is your lucky day!” But then I walked right into the Little Pakistan street fair (T-shirt slogan: Little Pakistan—Since 1990) and got samosas.
Tweet
This came from a $10 piece of camping equipment made in...
Yeah, this book is valuable and very true to life, and...
whoa you're totally right
NYC represents money and high culture in America, but the...
NYC represents money and high culture in America, but the all-time best thing here for me are moments when everyone is invited to participate and then everyone literally sings along. Would watch extremely random folks sing show tunes in the park over just about anything else.
➛(Sorry it's so loud.)
(Sorry it's so loud.)
➛A really great moment from an open-to-all singalong in...
A really great moment from an open-to-all singalong in Bryant Park yesterday.
➛Of course we even have big surge protectors
@triketora Of course we even have big surge protectors
➛can we at least get a box set
@thetfuckingd can we at least get a box set
➛The true purpose of art is to render skratch piklz visible.
The true purpose of art is to render skratch piklz visible.
➛“Look! A little bridge!” —Me appreciating art
“Look! A little bridge!” —Me appreciating art
➛I'm at NYPLs “Treasures” exhibit which is sort of a...
I'm at NYPLs “Treasures” exhibit which is sort of a in-person Tumblr feed of their good stuff (this is high praise) and I've come to realize that my favorite genre of art is “big scroll with lots of little people doing stuff” which is essentially highbrow Busytown.
The name of this bar is “Every other drink is a seltzer”
The name of this bar is “Every other drink is a seltzer”
➛Would it be legal to have a bar where to get in you had to...
Would it be legal to have a bar where to get in you had to prove you were at least 35? Also it would be open 5pm-9:30pm.
➛This goes in a surprising direction.
This goes in a surprising direction. grubstreet.com/...
➛It's prismatic though
@feartomorrow It's prismatic though
➛It's reaalllllllllly good.
and shot them into a young galaxy!
If you like the Pet Shop Boys AND are extremely aware of...
If you like the Pet Shop Boys AND are extremely aware of your own mortality you will like this song a lot. That is my promise.
youtube.com/...
➛youtube.com/...
The @younggalaxy expanded cinematic universe is EXPANDING.
The @younggalaxy expanded cinematic universe is EXPANDING. t.co/...
➛I've been getting super into Wikidata and I'm starting to...
I've been getting super into Wikidata and I'm starting to become suspicious that it's Kabbalah for nerds. wikidata.org/...
➛True! Across the street there's an eight-story tree. We are...
Extremely! I thought our neighborhood (Flatbush) would do...
Huge fan of Slack's new Gauss Mode.
None of these people are making detective.
@ItsTheBrandi None of these people are making detective.
➛"What was cool was so many officers have seen the movie so...
@ItsTheBrandi "What was cool was so many officers have seen the movie so many times and they never saw the parallels with real life, policing, the internal issues we deal with and the external," Ofc. Colleen Rooney said.
➛Reading the Zootopia trivia page when—
In my defense I forgot to update the version of Android on...
@michaelroston In my defense I forgot to update the version of Android on my crystal ball.
➛Well he hates nuclear so get ready.
@jackrusher Well he hates nuclear so get ready.
➛Thank you! Will do.
@SekaiFarai Thank you! Will do.
➛Me too, and then I bought it from Satan's Web Services and...
Any part I should read first? It's a totally new...
@SekaiFarai Any part I should read first? It's a totally new book/author for me (although I've read a lot on sustainability and climate more broadly).
➛It doesn't happen much any more but occasionally I still...
It doesn't happen much any more but occasionally I still find a book that appears to have been created just for me.
Yes! Los Tacos No. 1. Genuinely good.
@yawstalgia Yes! Los Tacos No. 1. Genuinely good.
➛Kind of forgot about it until I saw your tweet, but it's...
@snackwave_julie Kind of forgot about it until I saw your tweet, but it's just a truly solid album.
➛Tweet
finally we can talk about this
@xxbobbyzxx finally we can talk about this
➛well now there's a site that brings back MEMORIES
Oh no I've watched like 10 so far and plan to watch them...
@jackrusher Oh no I've watched like 10 so far and plan to watch them all. I think it's Twitter's nature—you go away and watch them and then think about them but you don't come back to chat.
➛Been deeply enjoying these.
@jackrusher Been deeply enjoying these.
➛Me to my friends before the fourth cocktail.
Hey before we begin this week's episode I have a small...
Hey before we begin this week's episode I have a small favor to ask.
➛What's the longest-running process you ever ran?
What's the longest-running process you ever ran?
➛When do you unpack after a trip?
When do you unpack after a trip?
➛oh yeah he's a DISASTER
also just an absolute sucker for "receipt" for recipe
i wasn't prepared for modern drunkard to still exist. WHOA
god yes, news to me, thank you
share some selections sometime! we have some messy classics...
The outline of the article is: This man is very large. He...
The outline of the article is:
This man is very large.
He is German, but fights like an Irishman.
He'd make a fine judge, but his life's work is sanitary plumbing.
"Work to him is like a certain brand of pop-corn."
➛This man is very large.
He is German, but fights like an Irishman.
He'd make a fine judge, but his life's work is sanitary plumbing.
"Work to him is like a certain brand of pop-corn."
Having a little trouble focusing today, so I'm catching up...
Having a little trouble focusing today, so I'm catching up on the plumbing news from 1913. archive.org/...
That might work.
@tressiemcphd That might work.
➛I have a thing I call the "money horn." It grows out of...
@tressiemcphd I have a thing I call the "money horn." It grows out of your head. It can do two things to people: Kill them or grant wishes. You can't see it, you're just chatting. But THEY are staring at it, wondering if it will grant their wishes or kill them. And this hurts relationships.
➛listen I'm telling you
I'm doing Logan's Couch to 5k right now!
Middle-aged men getting excited is how we got WWII, every...
August 1 reminder: The database is slow because sqlite3...
August 1 reminder: The database is slow because sqlite3 does not autoindex foreign keys.
➛Once when we had an early morning meeting downtown and...
@xxbobbyzxx Once when we had an early morning meeting downtown and @richziade said, “Let's stop into Pearl River and get some breakfast,” and we bought some banana cookies, and five years later it haunts me.
➛We took his powerboat to Watertown it was like hoddadocnis.
We took his powerboat to Watertown it was like hoddadocnis.
➛Heart of Darkness is a very problematic text. However it is...
Heart of Darkness is a very problematic text. However it is hilarious in a Boston accent.
➛