Some images from a recent trip to Sweden
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A Walk To Los Molinos from Javea
This walk takes you from the Port of Javea up to the lighthouse near San Antonio before continuing along the top towards Los Molinos. These are old grain mills. They used wind power to grind grain for several centuries before being taken out of action as modernisation arrived.
The walk takes you along the port before you start to climb. As you walk along the port you will see a number of cats, either being lazy, or playing. You will then start to climb. The first few metres require some bigger steps but after that you will find that it gets easier. There is a good view over the port at several moments. You also get a good view of the sea.
On this walk I could hear the bees and other insects buzzing. You can also see that many young trees are coming up. Many of them were destroyed by a fire a few years ago. In a few more years this will be a walk in the shade, once more.
A year or two ago, we did this walk. We came across the old kiln. Due to rain and nature recovering though, the kiln is hidden once again. I don’t remember if I have the GPS coordinates for the kiln. Nature will help keep it hidden and safe.
I tracked this walk with the CASIO GBD-200 and the Apple watch with the Steps app. The casio gave a good track although it did not track altitude and heart rate. The Steps app, with an outdoor walk, was crap. It didn’t track heart rate for some reason which makes it crap. The Apple Fitness app says that I didn’t burn my daily calorie goal today, as a result.
And Finally
This walk is quite easy, for those used to walking over rough terrain but it does come with seasonal difficulty variability. As soon as the weather gets warmer walking with enough water is important. You are exposed for at least an hour or three, dependent on how fast you walk. In 35°c heat you will cook. In 19°c you will feel comfortable. Consider this, before trying the walk.
ClassicPress and the Fediverse – Not Quite Ready
Yesterday I experimented with migrating my blog from WordPress to ClassicPress to see whether ClassicPress plays nicely with the fediverse. It does but there is room for improvement.
If you want instructions on how to migrate from wordpress you can find the instructions here. Summarised, you download the switch to ClassicPress plugin, you run it, it checks that you’re ready to migrate, you fix what needs to be fixed, and when ClassicPress sees that you’re ready it will allow you to start the migration. The migration takes a second or two. It felt almost instant in my case. You know it has succeeded because you see the “ClassicPress” message at the bottom of the admin section.
Wanting to Quit WordPress
I want to dump WordPress for two main reasons. The first is that it has become bloated and slow. It offers an enormous amount of functionality, but at the cost of speed, and efficiency. The second reason is that it uses React and I am deeply opposed to anything developed by Facebook. Instead of connecting single people, it reminds single people of their isolation. It gets caught playing with emotions, and facilitating genocide, and never, ever apologises. By using React WordPress is closer to Facebook than I would like.
How Well ClassicPress plays with the Fediverse
If you want to write a blog post, and for it to show up on the fediverse via the Activity Plugin then it’s ready and work well. As soon as you post from ClassicPress it shows up in the fediverse streams. If that’s what you want to do then it works seamlessly.
Comments Unseen
With WordPress if someone comments to a post on the fediverse then it shows up in the wordpress comments section. With ClassicPress the comments are only visible on the fediverse. The quick fix to this, is to write a comment in wordpress that shows up on the fediverse. At this point communication is two way.
Why This Matters
If you’re writing blog posts, and people comment on the fediverse, but you can’t see the comments, then you won’t know to thank, ignore or react. You will be posting into a vacuum with no dialogue taking place. By having two way commenting we have a way of having the blog as an integral part of the fediverse, and vice versa. Now that I know what’s possible I don’t want to go back.
The Side Track
Aside from experimenting with ClassicPress I also noticed that there are plugins that allow you to provide a summary of content headings at the top of the page, as well as a markdown parser or two to choose from. The final one was an estimated reading time. The last one isn’t that intereting, but it’s a curiousity worth knowing about.
And Finally
When I can get the exchange of comments to be from the Fediverse to my blog, and vice versa withput having to comment first I will be happy because then it will be seamless and I will be able to dump WordPress and focus on ClassicPress.
Via Ferrata de Tière
In the valley close to Champéry there is a via ferrata. Via Ferrata are routes passing on rock faces thanks to the help of metal pedals, hand and foot pedals and bridges. On this Via Ferrata you climb up vertically and horizontally depending on the moment. Some obstacles are easier to get past than others but overall it’s good fun.
One of the things you should take the time to watch, especially on a rainy day is the way the water erupts out of the rock. The first waterfall reacts to what the second waterfall higher up spews out. It’s fun to watch how much power this water has.
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My love/hate relationship with twitter turns Ten
I have been active on the World Wide Web for two decades, two thirds of my life. Half of that time has been spent as a twitter  user. I was among the first to use the service and I saw it go from being a curiousity to being the most popular conversation tool around. When twitter was young the iPhone was in it’s infancy and data plans did not exist. As a result it was SMS based. The SMS idea was short lived as it ended up costing the twitter founders too much.
Twitter owes an immense debt of gratitude to Apple, the iPhone and the shift towards mobile data plans somewhere other than Finland. When we were Twitter infants, when we were discovering the network and thinking of how to use it we were stuck at a computer and dependent on wifi and power sockets. If we left the house we missed on the conversation. Twitter at the time was a compelling network, especially since I was lucky enough to live in London during the golden age of Twitter.
Twitter is a fantastic and compelling social network that has the wrong people affecting its feature. Marketers, public relations professionals, investors and other groups are too busy trying to push content to people rather than attract people.
Yesterday afternoon I came across the term “Organic Social media” in relation to Instagram’s shift from a reverse chronological timeline to an algorithm driven timeline. A shift in the definition of social media has taken place. A decade ago social media implied that people were sharing content and commenting on it. They were making statements and friends and colleagues would comment conversationally. Marketers et al have destroyed the conversation and shifted everything towards an “I am the best so look at me” fed by likes, comments, shares and other tricks.
As Twitter turns ten years old I grow curious about the future of friendships and online conversations. I question whether social media landscapes will become as unfriendly to introverts as bars in the physical world. Will social media become the place where the most conventionally appealing individuals thrive?
The Lost Art of Silent Material Cutting
For years now the noise in this village has been frustrating me. It is the noise of industrial cutting. The noise of an angle grinder on metal, of a circular saw on bricks, stone and wood. It is the constant wail of a circular saw cutting into something, every few seconds, or minutes, for hours at a time, for months at a time.
It is the reason for which, instead of opening windows I turn on a fan and swelter in summer. It is the reason for which I don’t open the window and close it at night. It is the reason for which I have gone from having windows open the entire time there is daylight, to keeping them closed.
Industrial Noise In Rural Settings
People idealise and romanticise the idea of repairing one’s own tractors, cars and more. People idealise doing one’s own carpentry, rather than calling professionals. I don’t.
I don’t idealise people who redo the decking for their swimming pool and other things because they’re using industrial machines in a village settings. This is not the noise of centuries gone by. This is not the sound of a manual saw cutting through wood. This is not the physical fitness training of cutting wood, and repairing a deck. This is industrial noise, in a private garden. Modern tools have made the process of home repair industrial, acoustically. This is a shame because the old fashioned way of doing things was quiet, considerate of neighbours.
When I Made Noise
A few years ago I was told off for making noise for using a machine to sand wood on the partition between two properties, before putting fresh varnish on the wood. I had made noise for two days. When I made noise I was told off after two days. In the village where I live now noise pollution is constant.
Part of the noise came from the building of one or two new buildings, for two years or so. More noise pollution came from a farmer doing maintenance work on farm equipment. The third was a repair shop making noise. The last source of noise was the rebuilding of a roof.
Years of Noise Pollution
The result is years of noise pollution, on a daily basis for years. The result is that the windows stay closed during sweltering summers. The result is that I am cooking in a 26°c appartment when the Outside Air Temperature is just 16°c.
The Privacy of Silence
People worry about web privacy. They worry about other privacies. They never consider the privacy of silence, the privacy of keeping windows open without being harassed with noise pollution. I miss the intimacy of silence. I miss being able to open windows in the morning, and closing them before sunset.
Adaptation
Noise pollution has forced me to adapt to living in a sweltering apartment without open windows. If I open the windows I am constantly distracted by the noise of industrial cutting. I have had to grow used to being too warm for months at a time.
Sweltering
I used to love the heat. When you’re in the top floor of an apartment, unable to open windows due to noise pollution you’re stuck with adapting to heat. Walking in the noon day sun on a 37°c day is refreshing, after spending time in an apartment where the windows are closed, due to noise pollution.
I don’t use the fan for cooling, because it’s worthless for that. I use it as white noise machine, so that I can focus on tasks, and achieve my goals. Until I lived in this apartment I never understood the value of white noise machines. Now I do.
And Finally
One of the easiest solutions is to go for my daily walk when people start to be too noisy. That’s why I go for a walk at the time I do go for a walk. I found that this was the time at which the noise pollution annoyed me most. Switzerland might have been quiet back in the day, but no longer.