Rubenerd

This originally appeared on the Annexe, chronicling my adventures unsubscribing from email newsletters. The only acceptable outcome from clicking unsubscribe in an email footer is immediately being unsubscribed!

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Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at em.box.com.

FAIL.

• Endpoint error preventing unsubscribe is worst case

When parliament resumes, and the civil use of metadata is inevitably discussed, let’s remember what everyone’s favourite Attourney General Senator George Brandis QC said on Q&A:

GEORGE BRANDIS: [..] the mandatory metadata retention regime applies only to the most serious crime, to terrorism, to international and transnational organised crime, to paedophilia, where the use of metadata has been particularly useful as an investigative tool, only to as a tool, only to crime and only to the highest levels of crime.

And in case he wasn’t clear enough:

Breach of copyright is a civil wrong. Civil wrongs have nothing to do with this scheme.

This whole scheme was ripe for scope creep from the start.

Podcast: Play in new window · Download

55:32 – Imposter syndrome, community podcast standards, the Trump inauguration, Jimbo’s comment on my American airport security experience, the Borders bookstore in Wheelock Place, border security theater, and why we're not supposed to eat breakfast now.

Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

Released January 2017 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts.

Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.

2016 was a rough year for so many people, in so many parts of the world, that even by my own narrow definition of news on Rubenerd I feel a little indulgent discussing this. I also hate to pile on, and voice what increasingly sounds like a doomsday scenario.

I’m worried about the Mac, too.

For some uninteresting context, I got my first Mac in the late 90s after growing up on DOS and Windows. I ran FreeBSD, NetBSD and Linux for the sake of curiosity and, later, for file servers, Plex and automation; but the Mac was what I chose to use. I’m sure I’m not special here, most Mac users in the last 20 years would have a similar story.

The Linux desktop is increasingly passable today, save for ecosystem compatibility and weird edge cases that I suspect will always plague the platform. Windows 10 was a minor course correction from Windows 8.x, but is still as unpleasant a mess as everything since Windows 2000 Professional.

The Mac is a breath of fresh air by comparison. It’s not rock solid or foolproof, but it gets me a pleasant *nix environment without worrying or tinkering with a ton of stuff, especially now when I have other things I want to do with my time.

The reason so many of us are worried is, by all outward indications, Apple doesn’t put as much stock or time into the Mac that they used to. One clear advantage with Linux and Windows is you can have your pick of good (and less good) vendors. The consistent Apple experience is a double edged sword; we’re beholden to them to release hardware.

But let’s not get carried away

At the risk of sounding Casey Lissish (which I’d be fine with, mind) I do think some of the anger levelled against Apple seems excessive.

Pundits complained the new MacBook Pros didn’t represent a large enough leap forward, but had Apple waited even longer to release them with new features, those same people would have lamented the lack of new hardware. You can’t entirely blame them, given the 1000+ days (and counting) the Mac Pro hasn’t had an update/

Worries about thin and light above all else are also misguided, to an extent. Pundits should know by now that these metrics are important to Apple, and should be unsurprising. But then, we defer to the competition that are still behind Apple in usability and design, but seem to be progressing at a faster clip than Apple did in 2016.

Tim sent out his now-famous message to staff about people’s desktop Mac concerns late last year. While people were trying to tease out meaning and read between the lines (or “nuance”, if I wanted to be a cringe-worthy 2016 hipster), I was more fascinated with him needing to release such a message at all.

Nothing I’ve said here is groundbreaking, but this has long since lapped the PowerBook G5. I hope the Mac gets some attention this year, if only for my own selfish reasons of not wanting to go elsewhere.

Static site generators are wonderful, and Hugo has the best performance. What used to take half an hour for others to generate 5000+ posts here now takes seconds. It made static blogging available to me again, like a delightfully creamy puff patry. What?

I missed it in a routine software update, but 0.18 was released last year:

Today, we’re excited to release the much-anticipated Hugo 0.18!

We’re heading towards the end of the year 2016, and we can look back on three releases and a steady growing community around the project. This release includes over 220 contributions by nearly 50 contributors to the main codebase. Since the last release, Hugo has gained 1750 stars and 27 additional themes.

Hugo now has:

13750+ stars 408+ contributors 137+ themes

And a patch was recently released:

Hugo 0.18.1 is a bug fix release fixing some issues introduced in Hugo 0.18:

Fix 32-bit binaries #2847 Fix issues with preserveTaxonomyNames #2809 Fix .URL for taxonomy pages when uglyURLs=true #2819 Fix IsTranslated and Translations for node pages #2812 Make template error messages more verbose #2820

That last one especially is a life saver.

Via amazon.jp.

Late last month, I triumphantly announced I was getting rid of stuff. Decluttering sounded easy, until I started. Point is, I’ve made great progress getting rid of things, including certain items I thought I could never bear to part with. So much scanning and photography.

As far as 2017 goes, I’ll continue on this trajectory, so I can live in a smaller place with cheaper rent, or the same sized place with more space to breathe. It’ll be glorious, like a nerdy nirvana where all that remains are small tokens of a life lived the way I wanted.

And then the anime figure gods (headed by Musasabi YU-ko) rear their evil, evil heads and collude with Takashi Takeuchi to release a new 1/7 rendition of a classic that has me quivering over the pre-order button like a recovering addict tempted at the prospect of another fix.

This could be the greatest fig I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Saber is a legend, in her/his original time (it’s complicated), and now. Her summoning scene from the original Fate/Stay Night anime must surely rank as one of the most iconic moments in modern anime history; so much so that they repeated it in Unlimited Blade Works.

Perhaps more than any character before and since, she’s a tower of stoic calm and ruthless skill, yet also an unfathomable degree of patience and compassion for her otherwise bumbling master. And that’s why this fig works so well!

The first thing Clara and I noticed was her adorable expression. Her beaming smile and wide eyes are such a stark departure from her usually reserved nature, but they still look so natural. I love how her distinctive locks are billowing around her head too, as if she’s turned around excitedly to see us.

I would have been happy with her pose and expression on a fig of her in her original blue dress, but her race queen garb also works surprisingly well as a point of contrast. The little details on her cute jacket to the folds and zipper on her boots, are all done so well.

But this line from her marketing material takes the cake:

You can choose to display her holding the “Excaliparasol”, a parasol that looks similar to Excalibur.

Excaliparasol! Damn, now I actually really want this.

I didn’t get time to do fanmail submissions last Friday, so I thought I’d quote this delightful piece we got at work recently. Everything about this message is wonderful.

This is Mr.Fatmir from Daimler group World top enterprises ,

I’m already considering a blog name change to Rubenerd group World top super enterprises best in Singapore and JB and some say Batam.

From internet ,we know you are interest of our original brand of auto parts .

From INTERNET!? I hear they have that on computers now.

We are top agent (general distributor) of 100 famous auto parts brands such as Mercedes / Bmw / BBS / Toyota / Honda/ bearing FAG /Skf/ Ina Sachs ect..,see the list below.

BBS cars! They’re slower, but they’re retro. Can I get a NOCHANGE BBS car so I can play games while I drive to oblivion?

Our manufacturer base can also produce on your own b.r.a.n.d.

Are you s.u.r.e about that?

If you are a salesperson or customer service, please transfer this E-mails to your company purchaser , because competitive goods in low rate can make your sells easier ,

And you know me, I’m all about the making sells easier. That paraphraph wasn’t truncated, that’s how the email ended.

This e-mail is confidential. It may also be legally privileged. If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or use any part of it. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and all copies from your system and notify the sender immediately by return e-mail.

Whoops, it seems to have somehow made it onto my public blog. I did consider the environment and avoided printing, and it did introduce Phua Chu Kang and Simpsons references together for possibly the first time.

The MacVim maintainers continue to surprise me. If you do a search/replace the Vim way:

%s/something/else/

Then hit Command+F out of Mac muscle memory, the search field shows your last searched term:

Generic Mac search boxes miss much of the Vim’s search power, but in a pinch it can be a real time saver.

Today we bid a fond farewell to a dear friend and constant companion, my Keep Calm and Drink Coffee mug.

I found it cracked and leaking in the kitchen, which for safety reasons I’m told is less than ideal when its primary purpose is to contain aqueous beverages of a high temperature nature. The cleaners may have done it, or I did during a bout of absentmindedness. There’s insufficient evidence to swing either way, or to remove all reasonable doubt from a corporate jury.

Clara bought this mug for me on my first day at my current and first full time job back in Australia, and didn’t quite make it to three years here.

It survived the old office’s shared bathrooms as it was washed, my first attempt at making plunger coffee, then Aeropress coffee, and plenty of cups of hot chocolate, tea, and likely some soups.

Its sister mug, the deligtful Ministry of Silly Walks vessel, will have to step up now.