2023-12-04 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, kbin, programming.dev, lemmy, communick.news, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

Analyzing my Emacs time over the last 11 years or so

| emacs, quantified, time

My EmacsConf presentation will stream in a few hours, and someone's probably going to ask where I find the time for all of this. =) So I dug through my time logs (a custom system I wrote in 2012 with Ruby on Rails; has an Emacs interface, of course) and came up with this table of hours I logged in my Discretionary - Productive - Emacs category over the past 11 years.

Data for Emacs hours by month by year
Year Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Total
2012         0.7 19.4 2.7 1.9 1.2 0 0 8.6 34
2013 0.7 12.5 38.5 18.5 10.0 6.0 1.2 5.2 0 0.1 3.2 0.4 96
2014 2.0 3.4 18.8 39.7 45.4 15.3 2.6 0.6 2.0 7.4 5.9 15.4 158
2015 16.6 37.4 7.4 9.0 2.3 3.3 3.2 20.0 9.6 6.3 26.5 18.2 160
2016 8.6 4.6 3.7 3.7 4.2 2.9 1.4 2.9 2.7 2.2 4.3 2.4 44
2017 3.7 2.7 3.2 3.2 3.0 2.0 5.2 2.8 0 0.9 3.4 3.8 34
2018 2.9 3.3 1.9 2.2 3.9 3.3 0.9 1.4 1.5 1.8 2.3 3.0 28
2019 2.2 10.7 2.6 2.3 13.7 6.8 7.1 3.6 13.3 16.1 16.7 2.0 97
2020 3.3 0.5 3.0 .2 10.0 6.3 5.2 5.0 5.0 32.9 61.7 49.0 182
2021 53.7 47.1 44.7 25.5 18.1 11.5 8.3 11.9 9.5 66.0 138.1 66.6 501
2022 13.5 13.4 3.1 3.9 7.0 4.5 4.2 5.1 45.4 157.5 146.6 95.3 500
2023 23.4 15.9 16.2 11.2 4.4 11.5 6.5 13.3 36.6 86.6 93.2   319

Notes:

  • Data collection in this system started in 2012.
  • Some months look like they have under-collected data, that's fine.
  • Big spike in 2022 was when we decided to go with two tracks for EmacsConf, so I needed to figure out all the infrastructure.
  • I started doing Emacs News in 2016, which is maybe 0.5 - 1.5 hours a week.
  • EmacsConf restarted in 2019 with an online conference. I've been handling speaker/volunteer coordination, captioning, publishing, and automation/infrastructure.

I can visualize this as a heatmap with:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
df = pd.DataFrame(time_data[1:], columns=time_data[0]).drop('Total', axis=1).set_index('Year')
df = df.apply(pd.to_numeric)
plt.title("sachac's Emacs hours by month and year")
plot = sns.heatmap(df, annot=True, cmap='crest', fmt='.0f')
fig = plot.get_figure()
fig.savefig('emacs-time.png')
emacs-time.png

Yes, I do actually sleep

Overall balance of activities
Activity Jan 2023 Feb 2023 Mar 2023 Apr 2023 May 2023 Jun 2023 Jul 2023 Aug 2023 Sep 2023 Oct 2023 Nov 2023 Total
A- 39.0% 47.5% 44.4% 44.2% 44.1% 44.4% 41.8% 40.5% 33.2% 33.3% 34.3% 40.6%
Business 1.3% 0.5% 3.5% 1.9% 3.8% 2.8% 3.5% 7.0% 8.8% 1.9% 1.7% 3.3%
Discretionary > 10.8% 3.9% 4.5% 6.0% 6.6% 8.3% 6.9% 6.2% 8.8% 14.5% 16.1% 8.4%
Personal > 10.1% 10.2% 11.7% 10.4% 9.3% 8.8% 9.9% 8.4% 9.4% 10.6% 11.9% 10.0%
Sleep 34.6% 35.4% 32.9% 34.9% 33.4% 32.1% 34.1% 34.7% 33.9% 35.7% 33.4% 34.1%
Unpaid work > 4.3% 2.5% 3.0% 2.8% 2.9% 3.6% 3.9% 3.3% 5.9% 4.0% 2.6% 3.5%

Notes:

  • `A-` is my top-level category for child-care

Sleep over the years:

Sleep percentage
Year Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
2013 36.0% 34.9% 37.0% 36.5% 32.5% 35.8% 37.4% 43.1% 37.9% 36.9% 37.8% 34.5%
2014 36.4% 38.2% 37.0% 36.7% 35.0% 37.6% 37.8% 34.7% 36.1% 34.3% 41.3% 37.4%
2015 35.5% 35.3% 38.5% 35.0% 35.1% 39.7% 36.9% 40.1% 40.3% 37.4% 37.8% 41.4%
2016 35.5% 35.3% 38.5% 35.0% 35.1% 39.7% 36.9% 40.1% 40.3% 37.4% 37.8% 41.4%
2017 38.2% 35.9% 34.3% 35.1% 33.0% 30.8% 32.6% 27.2% 26.5% 32.8% 34.0% 29.6%
2018 29.7% 33.4% 32.8% 32.5% 31.0% 29.3% 35.1% 33.0% 37.7% 36.9% 29.3% 34.0%
2019 33.2% 34.7% 35.3% 35.6% 33.9% 30.4% 32.0% 32.9% 35.7% 34.6% 33.1% 34.4%
2020 32.8% 34.7% 37.9% 32.2% 32.8% 30.3% 31.5% 30.1% 32.4% 31.8% 28.9% 33.1%
2021 28.6% 30.1% 34.6% 33.3% 31.6% 31.8% 36.1% 33.6% 35.1% 34.7% 32.5% 32.4%
2022 35.5% 35.6% 38.5% 37.2% 38.1% 38.4% 36.5% 38.1% 35.3% 32.0% 30.1% 27.8%
2023 34.6% 35.4% 32.9% 34.9% 33.4% 32.1% 34.1% 34.7% 33.9% 35.7% 33.4% 35.2%
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
df = pd.DataFrame(data[1:], columns=data[0]).set_index('Year')
df = df.applymap(lambda x: float(x.strip('%'))*24/100.0)
plt.title("sachac's sleep hours per day by month and year")
plot = sns.heatmap(df, annot=True, cmap='crest', fmt='.1f')
fig = plot.get_figure()
fig.savefig('sleep-time.png')
sleep-time.png

The kiddo was born in 2016. You can see how much less sleep I've been getting since then. =)

2023-11-27 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, kbin, programming.dev, lemmy, communick.news, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

2023-11-20 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, kbin, programming.dev, lemmy, communick.news, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

2023-11-13 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, kbin, programming.dev, lemmy, communick.news, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

EmacsConf 2023 status update: stuff is happening!

| emacs, emacsconf

EmacsConf 2023 is less than a month away. Speakers have been uploading videos, captioning volunteers have been editing away, and I thiiiiink I've gotten most of the infrastructure dusted off. Exciting!

Here's where we are with regard to talk status:

Graphical view of the schedule Schedule for Saturday Saturday 9:00- 9:10 Saturday opening remarks sat-open 9:10- 9:20 An Org-Mode based text adventure game for learning the basics of Emacs, inside Emacs, written in Emacs Lisp adventure 9:30- 9:50 Authoring and presenting university courses with Emacs and a full libre software stack uni 10:05-10:25 Teaching computer and data science with literate programming tools teaching 10:40-10:50 Who needs Excel? Managing your students qualifications with org-table table 11:05-11:15 Taming things with Org Mode taming 11:30-11:50 one.el: the static site generator for Emacs Lisp Programmers one 1:00- 1:10 Emacs turbo-charges my writing writing 1:25- 1:35 Why Nabokov would use Org-Mode if he were writing today nabokov 1:50- 2:10 Collaborative data processing and documenting using org-babel collab 2:20- 2:40 How I play TTRPGs in Emacs solo 2:55- 3:15 Org-Mode workflow: informal reference tracking ref 3:25- 3:35 (Un)entangling projects and repos unentangling 3:45- 3:55 Emacs development updates devel 4:10- 4:50 Emacs core development: how it works core 5:05- 5:15 Saturday closing remarks sat-close 10:00-10:10 MatplotLLM, iterative natural language data visualization in org-babel matplotllm 10:20-10:40 Improving access to AI-assisted literate programming with voice control voice 10:55-11:15 LLM clients in Emacs, functionality and standardization llm 1:00- 1:20 Improving compiler diagnostics with Overlays overlay 1:35- 1:45 Editor Integrated REPL Driven Development for all languages eval 2:00- 2:40 REPLs in strange places: Lua, LaTeX, LPeg, LPegRex, TikZ repl 2:50- 3:30 Literate Documentation with Emacs and Org Mode doc 3:45- 4:05 EmacsConf.org: How we use Org Mode and TRAMP to organize and run a multi-track conference emacsconf 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM 12 PM 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM Schedule for Sunday Sunday 9:00- 9:05 Sunday opening remarks sun-open 9:05- 9:25 Top 10 ways Hyperbole amps up Emacs hyperamp 9:40-10:00 Using Koutline for stream of thought journaling koutline 10:10-10:20 Parallel Text Replacement: Does P = NP? parallel 10:35-10:45 Eat and Eat powered Eshell, fast featureful terminal inside Emacs eat 11:00-11:20 The browser in a buffer poltys 11:35-11:55 Speedcubing in Emacs cubing 1:00- 1:40 Emacs MultiMedia System (EMMS) emms 1:55- 2:25 Programming at 200 wpm steno 2:35- 2:45 Mentoring VS-Coders as an Emacsian (or How to show not tell people about the wonders of Emacs) mentor 3:10- 3:50 Emacs saves the Web web 4:05- 4:25 Sharing Emacs is Caring Emacs: Emacs education and why I embraced video sharing 4:40- 4:50 Sunday closing remarks sun-close 10:00-10:20 Bringing joy to Scheme programming scheme 10:35-10:55 GNU Emacs: A World of Possibilities world 11:10-11:20 A modern Emacs look-and-feel without pain flat 11:35-11:55 The Emacsen family, the design of an Emacs and the importance of Lisp emacsen 1:00- 1:20 emacs-gc-stats: Does garbage collection actually slow down Emacs? gc 1:35- 2:15 hyperdrive.el: Peer-to-peer filesystem in Emacs hyperdrive 2:30- 2:40 Writing a language server in OCaml for Emacs, fun, and profit lspocaml 2:55- 3:15 What I learned by writing test cases for GNU Hyperbole test 3:30- 4:10 Windows into Freedom windows 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM 12 PM 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM

Waiting for 26 talks (~550 minutes) out of 42 total. Talks received so far:

  • TO_ASSIGN (waiting for captioning volunteers) - 8 talk(s), 150 minutes: adventure (05:58), matplotllm (09:34), teaching (19:27), nabokov (09:51), collab (19:16), doc (42:45), scheme (21:01), emacsen (18:28)
  • TO_CAPTION - 2 talk(s), 21 minutes: eval (09:35), mentor (10:44)
  • TO_STREAM - 6 talk(s), 124 minutes: llm (20:26), writing (08:53), ref (15:04), emacsconf (15:05), world (22:20), emms (38:38)

Speakers have been really nice about keeping in touch, so I'm not too stressed about gaps in the schedule. Captioning volunteers have been chugging through the talks and OpenAI Whisper's gotten a bit better at spelling things, so that's terrific too. It's so exciting!

zaeph and bandali will probably host the general track and the development track respectively. They've done it for a number of years now, so it'll probably be fine even if we don't have a dry run all together since they've got limited availability. (And we can take on new volunteers if people want to help read questions!)

My stress level is pretty manageable at this point. I can even spend evenings playing video games with the kiddo and weekends going on little bike adventures, so that's awesome. I'm still a little worried about tech hiccups, but we'll probably be able to figure things out.

Next steps are:

  • keep processing videos and captions
  • make the intro videos available so that speakers can correct my pronunciation of their names
  • smoothen out and document the process for last-minute submissions
  • test everything again

It's happening!

2023-11-06 Emacs news

| emacs, emacs-news

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Hacker News, communick.news, lobste.rs, kbin, programming.dev, lemmy, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!