L. Rhodes @lrhodes@merveilles.town

#introduction: I'm primarily a writer, as well as an incorrigible reader. Much of what I've written can be found at http://lrhodes.net if you're curious. On Merveilles, I also discuss history, philosophy, and a few other humanities-oriented topics.

If I'm being honest, part of what fascinates me about e-ink is the premise of building a computer display on the model of the Etch-A-Sketch.

So far, so good. Just trying to figure out how it fits into my reading patterns. I'm rearranging some things to make it easier to push longform online writing to the e-reader. I still prefer print books, so I don't intend to use it for most of the booklength works I want to read, but I do occasionally come across free e-books, and I'm working on access to a few library ebook collections for otherwise hard-to-find books.

Nearly 5 months later, I finally settled on a Kobo Clara, in case anyone was wondering.

New Safdie brothers short: https://vimeo.com/382811408 #theCinema

What I'm looking for is a social media platform with an e-paper-first design philosophy.

Anyway.

Think of STREAMING as a delivery mode.

AFAIK, it's the primary mode of the current model used by all social media platforms, but it's not necessarily the only mode possible.

Another possible mode is one in which messages arrive periodically and in bundles. Call that DIGEST.

Digest has the potential benefit of being less addictive, and thus less resource intensive.

It also opens up design possibilities that don't work will in streaming, since digest presentation need not be linear.

For example:

Once upon a time, I was a Google Reader user. When it shuttered, I spent some time trying out different alternatives.

What I finally settled on was a self-hosted reader that I could access from a few different devices. But my current setup only updates my feeds four times a day, which means it only makes sense to check for new items when I know it's been updated vs. the perpetual temptation of checking Google Reader for new articles. Which changes how I approach RSS in general.

In many ways, Mastodon's design philosophy is built in opposition to previous, commercial social media platforms, but one significant way in which its design converges with them is the timeline — a continuous, real-time stream of updates.

But streaming is built for compulsion, and with that comes increasing energy consumption. So how might we build for sociability without the negative effects associated with streaming?

This Low Tech Mag piece has me thinking: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/can-the-internet-run-on-renewable-energy.html

What form might a non-streaming social media system take?

Experimented with using a pencil for a sustained writing. Corrections are easier, of course, but maintaining the constant pressure needed is murder on the hands. Maybe a softer lead?

Been considering another update to my site, in which I scrap the static site generator altogether and just start uploading html files directly.

"For many years even Kant scholarship has ignored the fact that Kant is not only a self-declared idealist but also a self-declared realist. In a way, this is surprising, all the more since Kant introduces the concept 'realism' to philosophy."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11229-019-02502-4

@neauoire @rek Is there a feed for Grim Grains? I don't see one listed on the site or in the code.