Saturday 17th September, 2022 - Doppelgängers

Another week of great javascript, tech and web development links

Sep 17, 2022

Hello and welcome to my newsletter!

Another season 2 instalment…

In this week’s issue there’s stuff on history, web site redesigns, tech news, even a bit of philosophy and geo-politics. A basket of goodies for renaissance web developers.

Substack’s web UI is refusing to load correctly for some reason this week, so I can’t see any previous posts or any of my drafts. Hopefully I’ll find a way to send the issue out!

This week I’ve been fixing quite a few annoying bugs in the ssg’s Breadcrumbs component that builds the archives navigation. It’s looking good now, all broken urls fixed. The exciting new feature I’ve made a start on is creating a feeds plugin. It’’s in the form of some components which you drop into your template, that create RSS feeds for blogs, linkblogs and even podcasts. Since the ssg has file based routing and works with markdown+frontmatter it makes it super easy to create an RSS feed, with all the relevant details. Hoping to have something working by next weekend.

The mutilations on my leg have nearly cleared up again. Really hoping they don’t mysteriously re-appear again, as they have done 3-4 times now. A lot of gang stalker harassment this week, but I don’t want to dwell on that.

Doppelgänger watch: Matt Groening on a scooter, Pete Dougherty’s little brother and a lady that was very Camilla Parker Bowles-esque. Also a couple a weeks ago I saw a ‘large’ Harry. Like if you crossed Harry with Brian Blessed. Go figure.

Keeping the intro short and sweet this week.

Podcasts

Queen Elizabeth II (The Rest is History Podcast) - Excellent 2 parter that has probably the best and most thoughtful discussion I’ve heard about what monarchs really are, there aren’t many occasions where you can stop to experience such ideas as a changeover occurs, much more rare than a solar eclipse even, there are so many sides to it that I hadn’t considered, the thing I really dislike about the whole thing is that ultimately a monarch is a sort of prisoner in a guilded cage, and I find that terribly sad, the thought that the only time the queen really felt part of society was on VE Day is so heartbreaking, and I wonder and worry that that pattern repeats itself throughout monarch based societies, but perhaps it’s something that is just part of human nature, a dynamic that arises in some form anyway, and so maybe it’s better to make it obvious rather than hide it, I dunno but I am genuinely sad about the death of the queen and wish King Charles all the best https://shows.acast.com/the-rest-is-history-podcast/episodes/231-queen-elizabeth-ii-part-1
Python’s :=, email falsehoods, no more self hosting and Leon (Changelog Podcast) - Another great episode packed with good dev news and cool, relevant and humorous cultural soundbites https://changelog.com/podcast/news-2022-09-05
Walled Culture Interview (Techdirt Podcast) - Includes some interesting analysis of how NFTs are similar in concept to copyright

The future of Apple - Our biggest questions and hottest takes (Vergecast Podcast) - Lots of upbeat joking around mixed in with thoughtful discussion about products, direction, leadership, privacy vs advertising, search, curse of popularity, software complacency and messiness https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/NGZkZjFiNjYtYzY0Zi0xMWVjLTg5YWEtZDdhNWQwYjdkMzZh?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwjY--ju-pr6AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
Websites are back: Inside the Verge’s redesign (Vergecast Podcast) - Cool to hear the background and thought process around the redesign, which I mostly very much like, especially the colors, but I think the readability of articles could be improved, I kept thinking omg-why-is-everything-bolded, and then other times it was more like why-is-this-text-so-damn-thin, best feature: removal of stupid consent popups, added to favorites https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/NGZlZDcwMWMtYzY0Zi0xMWVjLTg5YWEtZDdhZDQ1MGFkZDAz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwjY--ju-pr6AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ
Brian Keating interviewed by Abhijit Chavda (#AskAbhijit Podcast) - Really interesting discussion about his current scientific areas of exploration, talks about accusations of conflicts of interest by other scientists, the place of religion in science, his 4 Big Bangs model for important things we still don’t fully adequately understand, the various people he has interviewed, and their differing views about what is consciousness and superintelligence, also aliens; At times I find Brian comes off a bit cringey and self-important, but I feel like I understand him better after listening to this interview https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vaW50b3RoZWltcG9zc2libGU/episode/NDg1MmMyYjAtMzEzYi0xMWVkLTkxMTUtMWJlMjFiN2MwOGI2?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir9ISLgpv6AhUBGRoKHfRNBGsQ8qgGegQIARAE
Short stuff: Hangry? (Stuff You Should Know Podcast) - Can confirm hangry is defo a thing, also not mentioned in this podcast is that people including gang stalkers know and exploit this human quirk to make you angry, worth knowing about https://omny.fm/shows/stuff-you-should-know-1/short-stuff-hangry
Germans behaving badly (The Rest is History Podcast) - Covers the german literary and philosophical scene that gave rise to the very notion of ‘the self’ and romanticism, the whole idea of the self isn’t actually that old, that’s mindblowing, especially since the psychologists of the current era confidently talk about these sorts of topics as if it’s always been like that https://shows.acast.com/the-rest-is-history-podcast/episodes/233-germans-behaving-badly

Mark Smith’s Newsletter

Saturday 17th September, 2022 - Doppelgängers

Another week of great javascript, tech and web development links

Hello and welcome to my newsletter!

Podcasts

Links