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59 Twitter is Too Simple- Twitter is Just Right

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Twitter is one of those things that’s really hard to explain due to it’s sheer simplicity. It’s a website that allows you to answer the “what are you doing question”. That is the initial phase. When you’re new to twitter you’ll be confused because you know no one therefore the codes and conventions are blurred. You may tweet once or twice a day and that’s enough. Over time you will look at what other people are doing and that’s when you move to phase two of twitter use.

When I first started using twitter I had no idea how to use it. i thought that it was a storm of 140 character postings that are completely unrelated. Some refer to it as microblogging but it’s not a blog. instead it’s a great tool for entrepreneur for two key reasons. The first is brevity. Anything you say must be summarised to 140 characters. As a result you’re efficient. The second factor is the interaction between twitter users.

If you take a look at my profile and my twitter block then you’ll see the ten most recent tweets in my public feed and what everyone within my circle are talking about. As a result of this you’re entering a communal environment. Out of those I’m following on twitter I know from ten to twenty of them, occasionaly meeting a few of them two or more times. As a result I know what they’re doing and they know what I’m doing as well.

Each one of us is in charge of a number of projects we find of interest. I’m a recent graduate therefore I tweet about one set of things. Loudmouthman and Documentally both tweet about other things that are related to their activities. Links help to get all of this information and work distributed to the right people. Most of those on twitter have at least one website and quite a few profiles on a variety of other websites. We’re embracing what’s called web 2.0 by many people.

It seems to be the tool of choice for entrepreneur to keep up to date with what everyone else is doing at the time. Just take a look and you’ll see this for yourself.

Twitter is a great tool for it’s brevity and it brings together a great number of content creators who are having a conversation across borders and timezones. It’s boundless in that it can be viewed from the mobile phone to the Itouch to the computer. It’s versatile and quick and I’m going to continue using it for many months to come.

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Threads and the Fediverse
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Threads and the Fediverse

Byrichard

A few weeks ago I was completely opposed to Threads being connected and accepted by the Fediverse because I hated the idea of 100 million users flooding a social network with 10 million users. Now that threads has imploded I feel differently.

Now that Threads is the same size as the Frediverse, or at least closer to being the same size, the impact of the two joining up would be diminished. Now is the time when, theoretically, the impact of Threads and the Fediverse merging would be less dramatic.

Still Unwanted

[caption id="attachment_10494" align="alignnone" width="300"]A human looking a Threads, with the Fediverse visible behind. A human looking a Threads, with the Fediverse visible behind.[/caption]

Although the Fediverse and Threads could merge, and be on equal footing, for now, I still don’t want it. Facebook users have a different social media ethic than the Fediverse does. I don’t want to see posts by utilitarians, rather than human beings. I want human connections, not marketers.

The Algorithm

[caption id="attachment_10492" align="alignnone" width="300"]Threads and the Fediverse where the Fediverse is the milky way Threads and the Fediverse where the Fediverse is the milky way[/caption]

Algorithms use machine learning to read posts, assess them, and decide how to share them. The Fediverse is about sharing, and re-sharing, in chronological order. How could Threads read toots, notes, articles and more, without breaching privacy rules?

For now the Fediverse behaves according to who we follow, and what the people we follow share. With algorithms machine learning would make those decisions, destroying the chronological order of things

The question is “how can Facebook adapt to be compatible with the Fediverse?”. In theory it can’t because we’re talking about two different philosophies. One where chronology and follows are king, and the other where algorithms dictate what people see, feel and buy.

A Different Age

[caption id="attachment_10495" align="alignnone" width="300"]A hand holding threads with the Fediverse behind it A hand holding threads with the Fediverse behind it[/caption]

Although I really liked the old Twitter, and social media landscape, when it was unprofitable, that reality has vanished and now we are in the age of Influencers, clickbait, social media as addiction, and more. That’s why the thing that fascinates me the most now, is using WordPress and ClassicPress to play with the Fediverse. When they play nicely together I will be able to blog, and converse from my blog posts, without spending too much time in the Fediverse.

And Finally

Threads Posts get more likes for brands than on Twitter which illustrates why Threads is not interesting for human beings. Social media, for me, is about sharing and caring, rather than utilitarian apathy.

To summarise: Threads is a network for brands to market to people, whilst the Fedivere exists for people to converse, share, and collaborate. If the utilitarianism of Threads comes to the Fediverse, then the Fediverse will lose some of its allure.

Manu Chao At Paléo
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Manu Chao At Paléo

Byrichard

The Manu Chao Concert

Manu Chao was on the Grande Scène at Paléo last night. His concert lasted for an energetic two hours. He kept saying”Vous êtes Fou, Paléo”. He gave a lot of energy and so did the audience. For two hours he jumped around, for two hours the audience jumped around too. The sea of faces and people were impressive. In the distance you could see pac-man and a few ghosts bobbing up and down with the music.

Online sharing has evolved

While I was at this year’s Paléo two things were different. The first is that we now have unlimited data plans. When I was last at a Paléo Manu Chao concert we had limited data plans and it was a geeky thing to share to stream the event. Today you see that many people are sharing the event with their facebook friends. The other difference is that we are now capturing Paléo souvenirs in 4K and sharing panoramas with our friends.

Panoramas

When you take panoramas and share them to facebook the image pans as you pan the mobile phone. I tried creating panoramas during a few of the concerts. The image above was created with an Iphone SE and the inbuilt panorama function. It works well as long as you’re lucky enough not to have sudden changes in light.

I like panoramas because you’re in control. You can pan the camera to see what you want to see. It’s also a means by which to get context.

Affinity Photo Panorama

Affinity Photo is a photo editing software that I bought when it was on promotion. It has a panorama function to stitch multiple images together. During one concert I took a series of pictures looking up and down. When I got home I used the panorama function and this is the result.

The Mindful Shave

The Mindful Shave

Byrichard

For two weeks or so I have been using a safety razor rather than the usual electric shaver, or conventional three to four blade shavers. In the process I have had to become more attentive to what I am doing. 


The Usual Shave


With an electric razor you turn it on and you shave, until you’re happy that it’s done. With a wet shave with plastic razors you wet your face, get some shaving foam on your face and shave. Both of these are fast, and easy. You’re just doing something that you have done for years, or even decades. 


The Safety Razor Method


With the safety razor shave things change. With the safety razor you are gently guiding a razor blade along your face. For it to be effective you need to wet, and even moisten your face. You need to make sure that, not only is your face covered in shaving soap, but that the face is wet enough for the hairs. to soften. 


It doesn’t stop there. You also have to pull your face to be taught, to be more effective, and to prevent blade bounce, because blade bounce can result in nicks and cuts. You need to be focused and attentive when you’re shaving with a safety razor because a mistake will result in a little cut. 


Minor Cuts and Scrapes


In my experience the cuts and nicks are minor and stop bleeding almost instantly. Psychologically though, it is frightening, to guide a razor blade along one’s face, even if it is a safety razor. 


It’s that fear and potential danger that makes shaving with a safety rewarding so rewarding. It’s because of that need for absolute focus, and methodical approach, that shaving the old fashioned way feels like pampering, rather than a chore. 


I tried two razors. 


I have two safety razors. I bought the first one, and used it two or three times, but the blade felt too exposed and it scared me, so I bought a second one. The second one feels like it exposes less depth of the blade to my face. My rational is that if it can’t dig as deeply into my skin, if I make a mistake, it is safer. 


The razor that scared me is the Pandoo. The one that I feel more comfortable using is the Wilkinson safety razor. I feel more comfortable with it. 


Softened Skin, and a Light Touch


From the paragraph above you’d think “Why the bell would you shave with something so dangerous?” and the answer is that you don’t. Everything about safety razor shaving is about minimising risk. It’s about spending a minute getting the face wet, applying shaving soap and shaving within 30 seconds, before reapplying shaving soap. It’s about having a blade that is not more than five shaves old. It’s about caressing your face with the safety razor, rather than scraping your face. It’s about having a light touch. Although a safety razor sounds brutal it forces you to be gentle and attentive, to treat shaving as an intimate, rather than a mechanical experience. 


The Result


Shaving with a safety razor leaves the skin feeling smooth. For the duration of the shave you are focused, and in the moment. It forces you to be attentive and to be present. It also feels good. 


And Finally


People speak about using safety razors to reduce on plastic waste and on saving money. I think that these are good reasons to swap but I think that shaving with a safety razor is about appreciating yourself enough to give yourself a high quality shave. Shaving with a safety razor is an experience, rather than a chore. I enjoy the process. With electric razors and normal razors I didn’t. With those it felt like a daily chore, rather than mastering an art. 

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Day 61 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – World Community Grids Pandemic work units.

Byrichard

World Community Grids OpenPandemic work units are now ready. With your laptop or desktop, you can help find a cure for COVID-19.



As a World Community Grid volunteer, you download a secure software program to your computer. And when your computer is not using its full computing power, it will automatically run a simulated experiment in the background which will help predict the effectiveness of a particular chemical compound as a possible treatment for COVID-19.

Research: 
OpenPandemics – COVID-19: Project Overview


Downloading and installing the software and creating an account is quick and easy. Once you have done this, and once the application is running your laptop or desktop will help in the effort. It costs us little effort and we can still use the computer as usual.



The idea is not a new one. My laptops and desktops have been contributing to such efforts for decades now. I was introduced to this concept back in the late 90s to early 20th century. My first glimpse of this was the Seti@Home research project back in 2002.


With Grid computing, you don’t need to purchase or develop supercomputers. Instead, you rely on a networked cluster of computers to work together to process data. Instead of requesting and waiting for slots to become available on supercomputers scientists have access to thousands of machines to help them work through the data. Every work unit is worked on by at least two or more computers and verified.



World Community Grid has 650,000 individual contributers and 460 organisations helping in the effort. They have contributed to 31 research projects to date. This has resulted in 35 peer reviewed papers.


A graphic representation of the candidate being evaluated.


Over the years my computers have contributed 356 days of computing power. They have generated over a million points for mapping cancer markers. They have contributed to the Microbiome Immunity Project, FightAIDS@Home Phase 2, OpenZika, Outsmart Ebola Together, Genome Comparison, Help Defeat Cancer, Fight Aids@Home, and Smash Childhood Cancer.


My contributions so far.





Although Folding@Home gave people the power to help in the search to beat COVID-19 sooner I prefer the World Community Grid application because it runs in the background without me hearing the fans running. When you’re using a laptop that you want to keep using for years this is important.


I will leave you with this short video.





See you tomorrow.

I Want to Dump WordPress for Laravel
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I Want to Dump WordPress for Laravel

Byrichard

For at least a year I have been annoyed with WordPress, not because it went from the classic editor to Guthenburg but because it now uses React and I hate the idea of using React because it was a FaceBook project. I don’t trust Facebook and I don’t want to use anything related to them.


I don’t want to use FaceBook because it reminds me of the life I don’t have, Instagram because it switched from being a network of friends to a network of spam, WhatsApp because it’s owned and controlled by FaceBook so privacy is at risk, and finally React because it is part of the FaceBook universe.


I was tempted by the Occulus Quest a few years ago but I didn’t buy it, because it would ingest me into the world of Facebook. If Facebook, now Meta, was caught being unethical and immoral, and said sorry, and did something to fix the situation, then I would rethink how I feel about the company. The reality is that when they’re caught being immoral they just wait until we forget about it. That’s not how a social network should be, especially one that experimented with making us feel negative, and was caught helping with spreading disinformation to the right people to get Brexit to succeed, and Trump to be elected.


But What About PHP?


I know that some of you will ask “But if you refuse to use React, why don’t you feel the same way about PHP? PHP was developed in part by Facebook years ago, but it came of age when I didn’t have a negative opinion of Facebook yet. I don’t want to use React because I don’t want to make it easier for Facebook to have a monopoly on the World Wide Web.


I also feel happier learning to use technology where I am not competing with everyone else. I still studied Vanilla JavaScript via several courses and understand how most functionality works, even if I can’t write the code from scratch without help.


Back in 2004 and earlier I was playing with every framework I could find, installing it, seeing what I could do, and then moving on. I found WordPress and my learning reached a plateau. During the pandemic I started to study how CSS and other technologies worked until I found that PHP and Laravel feel intuitive compared to other technologies. I wanted to use Angular but I got stuck, so I learned Vanilla JavasScript, then Python, and then PHP, and finally laravel. With PHP and Laravel I got things to work without struggling.


I did get stuck with Laravel, with permissions, which is why I studied “Let’s Learn Laravel: A Guided Path for Beginners. I am at section 15, “Deploying To A VPS”. After that the course will be done. I still want to follow courses on how to make Laravel secure. My goal is to make my website a showcase of my understanding of Laravel.


And Finally


Although replacing WordPress with Laravel would be a fun goal to achieve I think that the first step is to turn the static part of my website into a dynamic one. Once that is achieved then I can see whether I want to migrate my WordPress blog to Laravel, or keep things as they are. Security wise it makes sense to stick with WordPress, until I know more.

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