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The Week #45
by James- I checked my DMs on twitter for the first time in a couple of months and I found a request to send me a DM from early March. I don't recall ever getting a notification. It was from a TV producer in Houston wanting to to a segment about my Airbot and @kuukihouston. C'est la Vie.
- The tomato seeds have come out of the ground and the bell peppers have just started peaking out. I may yet eat some "free" veggies yet.
- We got visited by a Japanese white gecko (yamori). They're known as protectors of the house and an omen of good luck. Good luck as he may be, he's not allowed in the in the house. Kicking him out of the entrance was a fun 3 minutes with a broom while Leo and Yumi watched.
- Ever wondered how to trim trees next to high voltage power lines in the middle of the forest? If you answered "with 8 huge circular saws spinning from a helicopter", you'd be correct. How do I know? I watched Summer in the Finnish Lake District on Arte.tv. It (like most of the documentaries I watched on Arte.tv) was in German, but had English subs.ย
It makes senses sense that a machine as hardcore as this would come from Finland, after they, they do have the highest number of metal bands per capita. Recommended, if only to watch a helicopter with saws dangling from it trim trees next to high voltage power lines.
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Taiyaki!Taiyaki -
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by JamesVaccine Progress Bar
Vaccinating Japan... 1.238% CompleteA nice page that helps visualize the (glacial) rollout of the covid-19 vaccine in Japan. Worth checking every so often to see progress bar move. Averaging 200k shots / day. 1240 days until completion, 732 days until 60% herd immunity. ๐ฑ1.238% Complete -
by JamesAccidentally deleted my local develop database. Good excuse to start building out the first run screens in Tanzawa.
First run form -
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Morning shrine vibes.Shrine Vibes -
by JamesLaunched a fun feature in Tanzawa today: Search. There isn't a direct link to a search page, but clicking the place name in a post will search for all posts within 2km of that post.
Search results -
The Week #44
by James- This past Sunday was Mother's Day. A few weeks ago ( Week #38 ) when Leo and I went to Kamakura we dropped by the Ghibli shop. They have these great My Neighbor Totoro pots and for Mother's Day, you could order them with flowers. I couldn't order it in the shop with Leo (toddlers aren't the most patient people) and luckily I could order it online. It came early and is a great addition to the front of the house.
Totoro welcoming visitors - Last week we planted some seeds in some containers and they've started sprouting! So far just the corn and the green beans have started popped out. I'm still skeptical that it'll all live long enough for me to actually eat, but for now I'm remaining positive.
Green beans sprouting - I cycled to two new parks with Leo. I really love the range that a bike, especially an electric assist bike with all of the hills, gives you. The more I ride my bike, the less I'm convinced EVs are "the" solution for personal transport with regards to climate change. This isn't surprising for me, as I've never been a fan of cars in general.
It's not the energy or space required to made and keep cars, it's that they encourage sprawl, dominate our neighborhoods and hog our resources. Self-driving EVs doesn't change that equation. Cities should be designed for people and cars tend to get first consideration when designing the streets. More people on bikes for more trips would make the streets safer and connect people with their neighbors. - The new Anthony Bourdain, World Travel, an Irreverent Guide, book arrived and I've started reading it. The parts that Tony wrote are in blue. Even though he died a couple years ago, I can hear in it in his voice when I read it. One day I hope that I can write half as good as he did.
- This past Sunday was Mother's Day. A few weeks ago ( Week #38 ) when Leo and I went to Kamakura we dropped by the Ghibli shop. They have these great My Neighbor Totoro pots and for Mother's Day, you could order them with flowers. I couldn't order it in the shop with Leo (toddlers aren't the most patient people) and luckily I could order it online. It came early and is a great addition to the front of the house.
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Summer feels like itโs arrived early this year. Great time to watch some trains.
Watching the train -
Build Open Systems And Maintain The Promise For Future Generations
by JamesGrowing up in the 90's, tech and the internet promised us open-data and open-systems. With a good idea and a bit of know-how could do most anything. And for a while that was true. But over time the systems have been slowly closed off.
Even if you put your data into their systems you can only retrieve it under their terms. If you can even retrieve it. Formats are opaque or undocumented. API access could be revoked at any time for any reason with little or no recourse on your part.
In other words: your data isn't yours. And you're certainly not free to do with it what you please.ย
Why do people subject themselves to this unfair and unequal status-quo? I'd argue that it's because how people view tech, including within the tech circle, has changed.ย
You can draw a line: Hackers vs The Social Network.
If you watched Hackers, Sneakers, or Wargames in high school, you likely remember that promise of open-systems and open-data. You also see that promise being reneged one company after another. You may not feel it's as important as it once was, because, let's be real, goofing around on "free" services is easy and fun.
However if your high school movie was The Social Network, you likely see the current state of tech as normal. Like a fish in water. Those VC companies neglected to mention the promise of the internet. In fact, the idea that your data is yours may not even be something that crosses your mind. Why should it? Nobody talks about it, so it must not be important. But it is.
One of my major motivations for building Tanzawa is to help us regain control of our data and help uphold the promise back.ย Want to visualize your Tanzawa data for a new project? Point your project to your Tanzawa db (or make a copy of it) and you can do whatever you want.
The promise of open-systems and open-data isn't a given.ย The default is closed. Or at least open until you're big enough consolidate and centralize. It's up to each of us to be stewards of an open internet. It's up to each of us support an open and free internet.
Build open systems and maintain the promise for future generations. -
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Lovely renewal with 3 slides. Oneโs even a double wide!
