@alfredapp Giving it a shot, thanks!
Archive for January 2020
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Mac OS Catalina has completely an utterly broken @alfredapp for me, and I feel like my fingers are broken.
I'm at 4.07, I've reset the prefs for application location, I've used the "reload" command. Nothing. Apps are all in /Applications
Write The Web, 2020
For 2020, I'm writing a new blog app. It's just for myself, a toy to remind me why I love the web. It's called Goldfrog, and it sounds a bit like "Go, blog!"
Why in the hack, in this day and age, would I spend time writing my own #blogging software, when you can't sign up for a VPS anywhere without tripping over offers to help you set up Wordpress, or Ghost, or what have you?
A few reasons.
New Year, New You
2019 was shite-filled, and due to politics, the tech trashfire, and the friction of blogging through several variations of static, git-powered versions of this site, I simply stopped blogging. I've wanted to, but the effort killed the motivation before I could get some words out.
So I finally decided to write something myself, that did just the things I wanted #goldfrog is written in Go, because while I will love Python to my dying day, my brain needed a kick in the pants this year, which relates to my next point.
The Builder's High
Rands writes eloquently on the builder's high. With family engagements and work over the last few years my hobby coding has dropped to almost nil (None if I were writing Python).
I needed something to reboot my creative juices, and trying to write something I really wanted, that thought would be quick, in a new language, seemed like a good way to go (I did want it, it wasn't easy, and Go hates me. But I'm learning and that feels great!)
Goldfrog
A bit more about Goldfrog: the single feature I wanted was a posting form on the home page, right up front. Various Userland products had had this, and it always felt right.
Second to this was an "Edit" link next to every post, wherever it was found on the site.
Finally, my main technical "innovation": My content is still stored on the filesystem as Jekyll-compatible Markdown files. However, build times via Jekyll or Hugo are fairly slow for my 2800+ posts (since 2000, baby) and I hate that. So #goldfrog indexes all posts in a sqlite database on disk. Post creation and edits go to the DB and to the filesystem, so I can still periodically sync the changes to the git repo I have checked out there. But all the list views, archives, tag pages, and search functionality go to the DB, and are really fast.
The Setup
This is really the app I've wanted for a long time.
- It's hosted on a Linode "nano"
- The app builds on CircleCI and the binary is pushed to an S3 bucket.
- I've got ansible playbooks that setup the VPS pretty much from scratch with Nginx fronting Goldfrog.
Next
I really need to get my logging story fixed, and I've got some idea on adding basic metric tracking to the app.
MONSTER Blew My Mind
R.E.M. recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of 1994's MONSTER, an album that french-fried expectations of both critics and fans of R.E.M., after the success of the rich, string and mandolin-y flow of '92's Automatic For The People.
Me? I loved AFTP so completely. I have multiple singles and special releases, including the one in an actual wooden box with vellum prints of the band (back when packaging was a thing). I was living in the states when MONSTER was released, and I recall rushing to play it for my small group of friends, who honestly looked at me like I was insane. Monster was SO different, so raw, simultaneously in your face and hiding behind a flash facade. Grinding electrics, stripped back thumping percussion, and Michael Stipe alternatively crooning or growling.
The first track, and first single, Whats the Frequency, Kenneth? -- I was hooked from the first guitar, and Buck's possibly-recorded-backwards-then-played-forwards solo left me agape. My CD copy of the single is scratched now beyond believe, but treasured.
Crush with Eyeliner's droning guitar wah, backed by Mike Mill's walking bass lines #chefskiss she's three miles of bad road
Make your money – King of Comedy introduced voice-crushing compression on Stipe's and Mills' vocals, perhaps for the first time? I was all "whuuuh whoa"
I don't sleep I dream, dreamy piano, atmospheric distortion, and a more tom-driven drum background that keeps the song less driven than almost rolling forward. Also featuring Stipe – Stipe's falsetto – on lead vocals.
Star 69 starts fast, stays fast, and still Mike Mills lays down interesting bass lines throughout. The title makes sense to us olds, ask your mother. squirrelies didn't chew the wire
"I don't know, why you're mean to me", starts Strange Currencies, a slow, rising tune that doesn't so much confront as much as wish. Stipe brings his plaintive, meaningful voice to this and I'm there for it. During a bridge, playing the strings above the bridge of his guitar, Buck adds a childish, toy-like section that is both sweet and creepy.
Tongue is a full falsetto crooner from Stipe, over a (likely Mills-provided) Hammond organ. Not my favorite track on the album, but I won't skip it either.
Bang and Blame is a pretty full rocker, still with Bill Berry's steady but tom-heavy drums keeping the song rolling more than driving. The guitars, with a long, echoey reverb, are more accent than impact.
Nice tag at the end, too.
I Took Your Name is another guitar-heavy rocker, with the wah and distortion cranked to 11. Another one that's not a fave, but I usually won't skip it. It definitely has its moments. There was some confusion, some confusion, as to who's to blame
Let Me In – another song I will often put on repeat, Let Me In is Stipe's, and the bands', tribute to Kurt Cobain. The guitar is heavy, droning, omnipresent. I believe in concert Mike Mills sometimes played Cobain's left-handed sky blue guitar for this track. Stipe's voice is almost reverent, plaintive, then powerful as he sings out his love for Cobain.
Circus Envy – another WTF tune that is really fun to listen to even while SMH at the crawling, self-loathing lyrics. Put pepper in my coffee I forgot to bark ON COMMAND
You – I woke up in a sleeping bag, with no where else to run I love you crazy just keep on I love you madly just keep on I love this album just keep on
#goldfrog is coming along - archive pages done and image uploading works. I think the image upload feature is a nice addition and doesn’t add a lot of complexity
RT @radiomorillo: 💥NEW BLOG POST💥
I wrote about the ways a grad school library science course helped me finally understand database design…
RT @polotek: "Just keep going and eventually you'll win."
This one is much more insidious. This is how these white men learn that if they…
Bloomberg riding the "please I need a Non-Bernie alternative to voting for a woman" wave #Warren2020 https://t.co/j96hnGRVjE
RT @stereogum: Listen to @remhq frontman Michael Stipe's second ever solo song for his 60th birthday https://t.co/A5rnhfhuFG https://t.co/a…
RT @ambernoelle: I just want to say that if a lot of us olds seem extra depressed today it’s because in 2003 we bled and and wrote blogs an…
Man this new blog project is turning into 35% code, 78% fighting Linux distros, ansible, and dependencies
@simplebits I sold my .net to the owner of the .com for about the same, and we’ve been friends (of a sort) ever since :-) /waves @monkchips 🤣
Write where it matters
I'm writing a new blog app. It's just for myself right now, a toy to remind me why I love the web.
It's called Goldfrog, and it sounds a bit like "Go, blog!"
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