A combine harvester unloading Sunflower seeds
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With A view of the Mont Blanc

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

I’m afraid to open the veluxes because of the threat of finding yet another large spider. I don’t mind having to dispose of it, but I hate the idea of having one walking around without me knowing. A great alternative to open windows is to go for your daily walk. You’re far from neighbours, from smokers, from metalworking and more. You are free to daydream. Today the Mont Blanc was clearly visible. The image is at max zoom with an iphone 8+.

A view of the Mont Blanc, as seen from Vaud

Yesterday and today the harvesters are out collecting corn and sunflowers. I captured a harvester as it dumped sunflower seeds into a trailer before moving on to finish the field. It is a shame to miss it at work.

A combine harvester unloading Sunflower seeds
A combine harvester unloading Sunflower seeds

What I Am In The Process Of Learning

Today I got a step closer to being able to control WordPress more proficiently than I can at the moment. With hierarchies related to taxonomies via specialist post creation. Coding your own post types and your own taxonomies gives you enormous control over what you can do with WordPress. I have projects. I know how I want to use this newly acquired knowledge.

This website will be overhauled. The static part will be moved into the CMS, and the CMS will behave, as the old website did, but with ease of new post creation and more. The challenge is in updating to new technologies, and using this process as a learning and consolidation phase, as I did with CSS and other technologies over the years and decades.

I don’t feel comfortable writing about my trials and tribulations on Linkedin because it feels as though you need to be at your peak, rather than as a between achievements point. With the blog, I can document the learning curve, and the progress I make as I work towards acquiring new skills, in my efforts to build a different career path than the things I have done so far. I also have a project to work on in my free time, aside from the website. The second project is ambitious, and useful. You will learn more, as I get ready to reveal more.

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Twitter X-Roads – Twitter Crossroad

Twitter X-Roads – Twitter Crossroad

Byrichard

With the change in name from Twitter to X, and with the destruction of a recognisable brand mentioned in tens of thousands of podcasts, podcasts, episodes and millions of web pages I was curious to see how Twitter was, with the new logo. It took more than 24 hours to change the favicon, and whilst x.com does redirect to Twitter, it does not do anything else than redirect to Twitter.com. You can’t see your x posts there.


A Twitter X Roads – Twitter at a Cross Roads


I was web disaster tourism yesterday and today. I was going over to Twitter to gawk, and stare, at the app formerly known as Twitter, being disfigured to please the ego of a billionaire. One of the things that surprises me is that people are still using Twitter. I stopped months ago, by now, and I don’t miss it. The community that I was going for either left, before Musk, or after he transformed the site. I noticed that at least one website called it the Zombie network.


Social Networks Without Ads


When you get used to the Fediverse, you get used to timelines without ads. You get used to timelines without algorithms choosing what you do or do not see. You see things as they are posted, and in conversation order. Without ads life is nicer.


A few days ago I noticed that a fediverse instance raised two thirds more than it needed to break even. This is good news for that instance as this means it can expand, if and when required, and it can continue for two more years, if not.


And Finally


I am happy I gave up on Twitter weeks ago, because if I had not I would find current developments depressing. Instead I’m looking out of curiousity, and I’m surprised to see that people are still using Twitter, despite the high probability that the site we loved to hate, is on borrowed time. I’m just a web disaster tourist, looking at the site, before it is left for the way back machine to remember.

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Dirty Gold War screening at the Graduate Institute.

Byrichard

I went to watch Dirty Gold War at the Graduate Institute at lunch time today. The film is interesting because it makes you think about the environmental impact of gold mining. We’re familiar with the stories of gold mines in South Africa. We’re familiar with the stories of the gold rush. We don’t often think of the environmental impact of Gold mining in rain forests in Latin America. This documentary introduces the topic well.

It brings our attention to the fact that when people buy luxury products like gold watches, bracelets and other objects they are buying objects that have no environmental or ethical credentials. It leads us to question when the luxury industries will be accountable to such considerations.

Mobile Phones, laptops, televisions and other devices all contain traces of gold. If that gold is sourced from environmentally unfriendly sources then we are contributing to the destruction of the rainforests and the poisoning of ecosystems. Fairphone and other companies with such goals benefit from such documentaries because we are shown why their goals are so important. It contextualises their mission and their reason for being. It also helps to put pressure on all electronics manufacturers to do more to reduce their impact on the environment.

Dirty Gold is a topic that does not get much attention. As I reach the conclusion of this blog post I find that Dirty gold points to a music album rather than gold mining. We need to raise awareness of this topic. People are wearing wedding wings, luxury products and using electronic devices that are in part for the degradation of the environment. As awareness of these issues grows so companies like Apple, Sony and others should work to ensure a clean product line, from raw material in the ground to the finished product.

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Scotland’s Roman Wall – Tweet

Byrichard

When I started writing about the Roman civilisation in the summer of 1996 content was still new on the web. Wikipedia didn’t exist and we still relied on books and encyclopedias. We still had to visit ruins and more. Today the web has matured to such an extent that you can find tweets about the Roman civilisation every day. This means that history is not updated when books or newspaper articles come out. It is updated on a weekly, or even hourly basis. The beauty of tweets, as opposed to blog posts or articles, is that you can share snippets of information, as you get them.


https://twitter.com/RomanScotland/status/1491544826772344838

La Via Ferrata Farinet
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La Via Ferrata Farinet

Byrichard

Plaque describing Farinet
Plaque describing Farinet


For a week or two in April the weather was nice but since then the weather has been bad. We had new snow, high winds and rain. Yesterday rain was announced yet again for parts of Switzerland but luckily only clouds were announced for Saillon where the Via Farinetta is. I expected it to be cold and grey but practicable.


We had moments of sunshine and the weather was even pleasant. As a result of all the rain and snow the waterfalls were full of water, to the point of growing with water and spraying the first part of the Via Ferrata.


A large volume of water filling the waterfall
A large volume of water filling the waterfall


As this Via Ferrata is in a gorge communicating with the people you are climbing with requires speaking loudly. Now is a good time to see the waterfalls and gorge when they are nicely filled with water.


As I have written about this via Ferrata before I will not go on. What is interesting is that there are now four or five Via Ferrata groups, of which three for those living between Switzerland and France. You have the Via Ferrata Suisse Romand Group, the Via Ferrata Geneve/Annemasse group, the Via Ferrata de France group and the Via Ferrata d’Europe group.


This is excellent because it means that we are now a community of hundreds of enthusiasts connected by Facebook groups and this can be extended to Whatsapp groups. It means that if you have a desire to climb you can suggest a time and place and people can say “yes” or stay silent. ;-). Sometimes they say “nope, some of us have jobs” but not to me as I haven’t asked to do things during the week.


What’s more, this community is not English speaking “expats”. It is made up of locals and migrants. For years social media was about having conversations online but not being able to meet in person unless one caught the train, plane or went on a road trip. Facebook and other social networks have now reached critical mass, at last. This means that we can say “I want to climb” and then you do.


It makes meeting people possible once again. So far I’ve met two new people via the Via Ferrata group and I want to meet many more. It’s nice to be part of a nice big, open community once again. This summer I expect to participate in a few activities with these groups, as soon as the mediocre weather gives way to nice weather.

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