September 2014

There were 20 posts published in September 2014 (this is page 2 of 2).

Postach.io

Postach.io takes the post you put in a notebook on Evernote and serves it in a blog hosted on Amazon Web Services.  This technical stuff happens in the background so, from the user’s point of view, the result is a really simple way to blog, with the added security that every blog post is synchronized both on Evernote and on one’s home computer.

In addition, Evernote has just improved its security in order to allow third party authorization only for a single notebook, which means that using Postach.io with Evernote is also much more secure than in the past.

I used Postach.io for a short time, but stopped mainly due to Evernote’s poor integration with Linux.  Unlike, say, Dropbox, the only way to use Evernote offline on a Linux desktop is to rely on third party solutions that are much poorer than the native Evernote desktop interface.  So, in order to use Postach.io, it was necessary to write online – in which case I may as well use WordPress, or use one of these Evernote 3rd party options. In addition, post-Snowden, I started to think about privacy issues and stopped using Evernote for other kinds of notes.  Nowadays I simply use Emacs Org Mode for my notes.

Postach.io has also introduced blogging via email – just as many blogging platforms including WordPress do – but that doesn’t work for me as I always need to edit and re-edit whatever I write.

For someone who is not a Linux user and loves Evernote, Postach.io is a clever solution.

Home | Postach.io Blog.

The Rich Are Getting Richer, Part the Millionth | Mother Jones

It’s not easy finding new and interesting ways to illustrate the growth of income inequality over the past few decades. But here are a couple of related ones. The first is from “Survival of the Richest” in the current issue of Mother Jones, and it shows how much of our total national income growth gets hoovered up by the top 1 percent during economic recoveries. The super-rich got 45 percent of total income growth during the dotcom years; 65 percent during the housing bubble years; and a stunning 95 percent during the current recovery. It’s good to be rich.

via The Rich Are Getting Richer, Part the Millionth | Mother Jones.

By A Large Majority, Israelis Fed Up With State-Mandated Religion – FailedMessiah.com

By A Large Majority, Israelis Fed Up With State-Mandated Religion – FailedMessiah.com.

The 2014 Religion and State Index demonstrates growing public support for freedom of religion and equality in Israel. In addition to surveying Israeli public opinion on core issues surrounding Israel’s religion and state conflict, (marriage, conversion, equality in sharing the burden, Shabbat, gender, and others) this year’s Index bears a clear and crucial message for world Jewry: More than two-thirds (67%) of Israeli Jews support joint efforts between Israel and world Jewry for freedom of marriage in Israel.

Electric bikes, and the uneven distribution of tech

electic bikes

Funny how these are so crazy popular here and in Europe, whereas on my recent trip to Washington and Virginia, I didn’t see even one.  Also, on my last check, the new generation of electric bicycles hadn’t yet reached India – apparently not even in Auroville, which once led the way with electric vehicles.

Despite appearances, the technological map is still very uneven.  What’s popular in one place is relatively unknown in another.  I first noticed this a few years ago.  Five years ago in Delhi, huge capacity usb thumb drives were available – it’s true that they used some sort of compression technology that depended on MS windows.  But I hadn’t seen these anywhere else.

So long, Twitter

I deactivated my personal Twitter account two or three weeks ago because I did not like the direction the company seems to be moving in. I suppose I didn’t want to become angry with a company whose service I have often found to be rewarding and useful, and wished to part on amicable terms.

I enjoyed Twitter more than Facebook or Google+, whose accounts I’ve kept.  But as a rule do not participate much in those networks.  For now, besides WordPress, GNU Social is where I put stuff.  I’m thinking to set up either a personal instance of GNU Social, or a Friendica or Red instance, on my new Raspberry Pi.

installed Debian Linux

Installed Debian Testing (Jessie) Linux on my Dell Vostro V130.  This is the first time I am trying a “plain vanilla” Debian distribution.  I found that everything works before adding Debian’s non-free sources, so this means essentially that the only thing that is non-free about this laptop is the Bios.  I’m not so strict personally, and I did eventually install the non-free repositories and additional software.  I need things like Flash and Skype in order to work.

I find Debian Testing to be quite polished – as much as Ubuntu 14.4, which exists along-side it on another partition.  I installed the Gnome 3 desktop.  Unfortunately this is not quite as fast on my Intel i3 / 4 GB RAM machine as Ubuntu’s Unity interface, not to speak of XFCE or the even more lightweight desktops.  However it is serviceable.  I think Gnome 3 is more elegant than Unity, though I know some people still despise it. I’m a little tired of that aging Windows 95 look and the Mac knock-offs.  I might try replacing Nautilus with PCMan, for greater speed.

I came around to this installation after working quite hard to find a Puppy Linux style RAM distribution that I can use on both my laptop and Netbook.  Puppy itself is a shade too clumsy for permanent use, but it’s still the best distribution of its kind.  I will be leaving Puppy Slacko on my netbook.  I treated the latter to a new battery during my recent state-side visit, as well as an antireflective screen protector.  I installed the latter rather clumsily, but it beats staring at my own reflection.