In the spirit of /Now and /Uses and /Hello pages, I've created a /Nope page.
It's for keeping track of things I don't like or want to do. It's a work in progress, but it'll probably see more updates than my now page 😄
In the spirit of /Now and /Uses and /Hello pages, I've created a /Nope page.
It's for keeping track of things I don't like or want to do. It's a work in progress, but it'll probably see more updates than my now page 😄
Emacs wouldn't launch this morning (don't ask) and I needed to do something so I fell back to using BBEdit and now I've spent an hour tinkering with BBEdit's Shell Worksheets, which are similar to a lightweight Babel feature from Emacs.
In a post from Andreas:
Well, of course it’s great, even fantastic - for Adobe. They can lure you in with low prices, then gradually make the subscription more expensive, and then move the features you use to the “premium” tier where you have to pay even more. Not to mention that they can remove features on a whim if they feel like it, or charge you even more if you want to keep them. And if you want to keep access to your files, you have to be subscribed until the end of time - “nice pictures you have there! It’d be a shame if you couldn’t open them because you decided to opt out of our subscription model, wouldn’t it?”
I dislike subscriptions. I rage-quit everything Adobe a few years ago in a huff about subscriptions and, well, I don't love Adobe. However, I'm once again paying a subscription to Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.
Why? First, because the product is, overall, more appropriate for me than the alternatives. And second, in seven years of subscribing to the Adobe "Photography" plan, none of the things Andreas mentioned have happened. The price is the same (I'd happily pay double). They've only ever added features (I don't remember a single feature being removed. Has there been any?) If I cancel my subscription, I still have 100% access to my files (I just can't make additional edits).
I'm not trying to single out Andreas. His post just reminded me that these "What if...?!" doomsday scenarios have guided way too many of my decisions. What if [SOME APP] stops being developed? What if Apple behaves even more badly? What if some "proprietary" (usually sqlite, so not really) database becomes corrupted? What if I can't read [FILETYPE] in 50 years?
Of course these things can happen, but how often do they? Basically never, has been my personal experience. And if they do happen, there's almost always a reasonable way out.
Why suffer using something we don't love, on a just-in-case, instead of something we do love and find immediately more useful, because "what if!?"
I still keep an actual calculator on my desk, and use it regularly. I find it easier and more "stable" than using either a calculator app or even the built-in calculator in Raycast.
I bought the Casio shown above years ago because it had a large screen and doesn't use batteries. It's fine, but there are a couple of things about it that bother me.
First, there's no "On" button. Ok, there is, but it's buried under the AC button. Bugs me.
The On button issue is bad enough, but that's not why I hate the Casio. I hate the Casio because when I turn it off, the screen reads "CASIO" for a few seconds before actually turning off. It's like watching a little ad each time. I hate it, so I bought a new calculator.
This is the re-issued version of the iconic, Dieter Rams designed Braun ET66 (1987). I recently watched the Dieter Rams documentary, "Rams" (2018), which reminded me of the Braun, so I thought this model would be a fine choice.
I like it. It's simple, clear, does what I need, and looks good doing it. And it doesn't shout its own name every time I turn it off. Much better.
I love software. I love learning what software can do. I love setting up workflows using all the fun software I've learned about. The problem is that this leads to chaos and complexity. Every time.
You're probably wondering what made me think of this. Well, yesterday I was exhausted from fighting with Obsidian and Emacs, so I installed Bear. You see what I mean? I spent an hour this morning importing stuff from Obsidian and cleaning up tags, etc. Bear is so nice and simple and absolutely does not lend itself to tweaking.
Problem solved! Not really.
What about daily notes? What about templates? What about complex exports? Why is folding so cumbersome? Where are the backlinks displayed again?
Sigh. I really appreciate Bear, but can I live in it? Probably not. I love simplicity, but can't abide constraints. I'm screwed, I guess.