This post covers the week ending Dec 4 and the week ending Dec 11, since it was a bit of a rush leading up to EmacsConf.

• EmacsConf 2024 went well, hooray! Here are some of my journal entries over the past two weeks:
  • I worked on the BigBlueButton server some more. I used Spookfox to automate Firefox from Emacs Lisp so that I could add moderator codes to all the BBB rooms. That way, speakers can let themselves in if needed, since we might be understaffed. (Might need to ask the mailing list if anyone wants to volunteer to host, which is mostly reading out questions and making conversation.) I also updated the Tampermonkey script so that the user in the VNC session will be able to join the web conference automatically.
  • I added shell scripts to copy the BBB redirect files so that I can easily do that by hand in case I don't get the automation sorted out again over the next week.
  • Livestreaming to Toobnix seems to be iffy at the moment, so I'll just focus on 480p and YouTube. I'll probably end up manually copying and pasting the stream keys for each event, so I've added them to the shift checklists to make that easier for myself.
  • I confirmed crontab and publishing still worked, and I processed some last-minute submissions. I also sent the check-in emails and fixed my email delivery verification.

  • 2024-12-08T00:40:59.681Z

    #emacsconf day 1 wasn't 100% smooth, but it was 100% fun, and people rerouted around all of the tech hiccups. I think we've figured out the color issue (needed to update mpv from 0.35 to 0.38), I updated my scripts to take the video files from the cache directory instead of other directories that I forgot to update, updated the checklist to have the right URLs, enabled case-fold-search on the other Emacs, and added random package mentions to the countdown screen. I forgot to let zaeph know I edited one of the videos, so next time I should flag that somehow. I'm not 100% sure about our BBB setup; a couple of people's computers crashed. On the plus side, this year, sooo many people helped out with captions and quality checks. Improving little by little! :D The important stuff got done: people got to see things and chat with other people!

  • The second day of EmacsConf went pretty well! We managed to handle a couple of last-minute uploads.
  • I processed the EmacsConf Q&As to add chapter indices and correct a number of misrecognized words. I also copied comments from of IRC and YouTube.
  • I modified the VTT separator regexp for subed.el.

  • swapping roles 2024-12-08T02:34:12.554Z

    I had a lot of fun watching Leo Vivier, Corwin Brust, and FlowyCoder fluidly swap roles as needed during #emacsconf . It was like professional jugglers dancing, one tossing a ball up in the air, the other shifting into place to catch it, the third getting the next ones lined up so things keep moving smoothly.

  • I dropped by Lispy Gopher Show again to chat about Emacs, Emacs Lisp, and EmacsConf with screwtape.

    • 2024-12-11T16:41:12.384Z

    @screwtape I imagine it could be useful to have a smart radio object that could tell someone how many minutes until your next show and where to listen to it (saves us from UTC conversions); do the same for other anonradio shows; search for a keyword in your archives (even just the descriptions); and maybe even allow other people to contribute a note that can be reviewed and included in the archive description for an episode

  • Q&A update 2024-12-12T14:48:25.451Z

    Yay, I've copied the rest of the comments from IRC and YouTube to the #EmacsConf talk pages, so speakers will be able to review them in one go. I've also copied some sections out of the transcripts for quick answers. I might send the speakers the thanks email with the discussion and main talk video links, but without links to the Q&A videos yet.
    
    BigBlueButton audio mixing was as usual a bit of a challenge, with some participants quiet and some participants louder. BBB saves only mixed audio. It would be nice to see if I can get separate audio recordings next year by configuring https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton/issues/12302 , but that sounds a little complicated. Instead of taking over the task of messing with the audio in the current recordings (which I tend to flub because I don't have the patience for it :) ), I can leave space for other people to do things. Instead, I can focus on the other tasks I've been procrastinating. :)

• Life:
  • A- felt that the Outschool club was worth keeping because she likes the people.
  • We all practised shinny at High Park. Nice! A- and I worked on our stops once it was time to move over to the leisure skate area. We've also skated even though there was a light drizzle.
  • W- enjoyed helping out with the Bike Brigade.
  • A+'s CCAT scores qualified her for the next step in the TDSB gifted identification process. I've been trying to figure out what this could look like for us. There's probably no gifted program for virtual school, so it might look much like what we've already got. We've been talking about how to adapt to systems that are designed for other people. At the moment, it seems to work better for her if I sit with her during boring parts of class and help her explore things like coding with Python (or help her get her homework out of the way), so I don't have much focused time myself. It's important to us that she feels good about learning and that she learns how to work with/around systems, so spending that time is worthwhile. It just means that I have to be strategic about what I do.

• Reflection on writing style - 2024-11-18T00:44:18.080Z

  I notice that I have a lot more fun writing tiny workflow tweaks (mostly #Emacs ) and sharing them on my blog versus, say, insightful reflections developed over a longer period of time. I think it's the payoff of being able to enjoy those tweaks. Sometimes abstract thoughts help me come to realizations that I can then try to use to change my concrete behaviours, but it's a lot less straightforward.

  Also, I notice that I prefer to write with a curious, exploratory tone instead of an authoritative one, which is probably also related to my focus on "I" rather than "you". Kinda like: here's what I'm experimenting with, sharing in case it's helpful (and also because I want to be able to find it again), everyone's different and that's awesome, curious about what works for you. :) I'm glad other people can pull off being authoritative/persuasive, though.

  23+ years #blogging and still learning more!

• Sketchnote blogs - 2024-11-17T18:19:47.826Z

  I'm surprised by how few active blogs I could find about #sketchnotes (or had a category feed for sketchnotes). It's mostly rohdesign and Verbal to Visual, I think. Sketchnote Army still comes out with episodes, but the posts themselves don't seem to be very visual, so people have to click through to the person's website. I guess a lot of people are on Instagram, but that doesn't seem to support RSS any more, and I'm not really keen on scrolling through that. Ah well!

• dark mode sketch filter - 2024-11-14T13:41:01.165Z

  I tweaked my dark-mode sketch CSS rule thanks to stefanvdwalt's comment. Now I've got

    @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
    .sketch-full img, .gallery img, .left-doodle, .right-doodle,
    .center-doodle { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg) brightness(150%)
    contrast(0.9); }
    }
  

  Updated: https://sachachua.com/blog/2024/11/using-a-coloured-template-on-my-supernote-a5x/

• Researched BBB hosting options and compared the costs with self-hosting on Linode.
• Checked the shell scripts to make sure that hosts can start the videos by using shortcuts.

I used to write weekly reviews. Nudged by Doing weeknotes, I want to get back to doing them. I'm still figuring out how I'd like to put these notes together as part of a weekly review process picking up some stuff from my blog posts, toots, Org inbox, and journal entries. That way, I can revisit fleeting notes and flesh them out a little more, notice and celebrate progress, and radiate intent.

Do I want to leave it on Wednesdays (chosen for its alliteration with weblog, with no particular deep thought about it) or go back to Fridays like before? Wednesdays might be a good idea, actually, since I might still be able to schedule some tasks for Thursday and Friday.

Anyway, over the last seven days:

• EmacsConf:
  • Improved the Makefile we use in EmacsConf so that it detects the prefixes from the original files in the directory and builds various intermediate files (reencoded.webm, opus, vtt, normalized opus, main.webm).
  • While the kiddo was at an extracurricular activity, I listened to talks for the upcoming EmacsConf and annotated transcript PDFs so that I can edit the captions later. It was very enjoyable and something I could do with gloves on, which was great because the weather's getting pretty cool. I'm looking forward to using pdf view to flip through the exported annotations in Emacs. Yay! (toot)
  • Processed lots of talks and captions.
  • Wrote some code to skim the starts of subtitles to check the timing.
  • Got Icecast, OBS, and Emacs set up for the upcoming conference, and I disabled screenlock in our i3 config.
  • Still haven't been able to fix bbb.emacsverse.org. I've asked Corwin to look into Galene. I think meet.jit.si might not be solid enough for us (potentially throttling issues like several years ago).
• Other Emacs stuff:
  • Wrote a function for storing a link to a blog post from the Org subtree for it. (my-org-store-blog-post-link in Linking to blog posts).
  • Experimented with moving lines around for fixing the text conversion of sketches, but I think it feels like more work than just retyping.
  • Figured out that I needed to set :comments no on the Org source block that had ;; lexical-binding: t on it. (toot)
  • Used org-html-htmlize-generate-css to export CSS from Modus Vivendi to use as my dark-mode colours
• Other tech:
  • Tweaked my blockquote speech bubble to let me have left-pointing or bottom-pointing ones depending on CSS class. Tweaked dark-mode colours, too.
  • Ordered two micro:bit boards. Also tried turtle programming with Python.
  • Shared the coloured dot grid template I use on my Supernote A5X.
  • Thought about webpage margins and sticky navigation.
• Life:
  • Read Tiny Habits and made sketchnotes. I also listened to a podcast on The Feel-Good Method of Productivity, which touched on some of the same points about joy and celebration. (toot)
  • A thought as things become more tangled: Here are some of the things I am working on learning as I grow up: how to navigate uncertainty with curiosity, how to use conflicts to figure out priorities, how to face regrets with acceptance, and how to transform grief into an even fiercer love.
  • Parent-teacher interview and progress report: A+ is doing well. No exemption from synchronous learning this year. Oh well. We'll just have to figure out how to work with the system for now, or decide when it's not working well enough for A+.

• Emacs:
  • Woohoo! I got undercover, coverage, and buttercup working together for subed. I also changed subed to use the major-mode specifier for the generic methods.
  • I added the BBB questions for the Turbo Bindat talk, and I checked if I missed any other BBB chats.
  • Yay, Indium still worked! I could interactively debug my eleventy Javascript, which was a great help.
• Other:
  • We made cat beds out of cardboard boxes, fabric, and foam.

Blog posts

• Monthly review: December 2021
• Weekly review: Week ending December 31, 2021
• Weekly review: Week ending December 24, 2021
• 2022-01-03 Emacs news
• Coverage reporting in Emacs with Buttercup, Undercover, Coverage, and a Makefile
• Defining generic and mode-specific Emacs Lisp functions with cl-defmethod

• I learned how to use Krita to make a simple animation.
• I tried out Krita's recorder. I like that it can record the whole drawing at full resolution.
• I ordered 16GB of memory for my laptop, since I'm likely to hang on to this one for at least another year.
• I think I've finished the patch for adjusting subtitle overlaps.
• I learned how to use xdescribe in Buttercup to disable lots of tests at once.
• I added cropping to compile-media.

Blog posts

• 2021-12-27 Emacs news

Sketches

• 2021-12-27a Planning for time with A- #parenting.png

• EmacsConf:
  • I uploaded the answer videos that actually compressed to smaller files.
  • I tagged some talks on the EmacsConf wiki.
• Emacs:
  • I wrote some code to make it easier to write about sketches.
  • I updated compile-media to handle temporary files, and I changed subed-record to use it.
  • I tried lachesis for splitting text into subtitles, but I couldn't get it to make a model and the repository didn't have prebuilt models. I made a tiny minor mode that let me use my tablet stylus to split lines, which worked out really well. I tinkered with my workflow for generating videos.
  • I added other output formats to waveform so that I could get timestamps as seconds.
  • I wrote functions to insert a blog post URL or link.
• Cubing:
  • It looks like I'm averaging a little less than a minute on the 3x3 Rubik's cube now (Ao5: 57.01), so I upgraded to a DaYan TengYun V2 M. Feels nice.
  • I learned how to solve a Megaminx. Now I can do the beginner's method mostly without a guide!
  • We built a LEGO Mindstorms robot that could solve a Rubik's cube by following the instructions on mindcuber.com. A- enjoyed racing against it.
• Other:
  • I cleared some backlog and then declared email bankruptcy, which was actually pretty reasonable. If there was anything super-important, someone would have contacted me again. I'm getting better at not worrying about missing out.
  • I experimented with recording a screencast, but decided that the audio was too disorganized. Maybe when I have a way of easily shuffling things around…
  • I wrote a script to toggle recording with a keyboard shortcut.
  • I automated adding my IP address to the IP-based protection.

Blog posts

Look at that! Lots more writing!

• 2021-12-20 Emacs news
• Avoiding automatic data type conversion in Microsoft Excel and Pandas
• Re-encoding the EmacsConf videos with FFmpeg and GNU Parallel
• Toggle screen recording with AutoKey and vokoscreenNG
• Making the most of the moment
• Reflecting on wasted effort
• Why I Love Emacs - from Bob Oliver

Sketches

• 2021-12-19 Waste.jpg
• 2021-12-20a Making the most of the moment #planning #kaizen.jpg

• Writing:
  • I dusted off my workflow for including sketches in my blog posts. I also figured out how to sort my 11ty blog posts by time. I just needed iso8601-formatted times in my date field.
  • I experimented with recording a quick sketch explanation on my phone and then using the autogenerated transcript as the basis for a blog post. Recording took about 2 minutes, with some more time for editing. Not too bad, especially if I improve my workflow for editing autorecognized text.
  • I made an ikiwiki template for chapter markers.
  • I reflected on computer upgrade possibilities and decided to stick with the status quo.
  • I reflected on Emacs community maintenance.
• Coding:
  • I wrote a home automation script to turn off lights and restore motion-sensor automations.
  • I installed aeneas on the VPS and experimented with using it to align my text with an audio file. Its times seem to agree with Google Recorder's timestamps. I wonder if I can use this (possibly with lachesis) to simplify video creation and captioning.
  • I started working on derived modes for subed.el.
• Parenting:
  • We rebuilt the ball pump GBC module.
  • We cleared our book backlog at the library and borrowed a whole bunch more books. A- liked the Sir Cumference series and the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess series.

Blog posts

• Thinking about Emacs community maintenance
• Adding little nudges to help on the EmacsConf wiki
• Putting off laptop upgrade again
• 2021-12-13 Emacs news
• EmacsConf backstage: chapter markers

Sketches

• 2021-12-12 Parts leading towards EmacsConf 2022.jpg
• 2021-12-12a EmacsConf 2020 2021 2022.jpg
• 2021-12-12c Refocusing #planning.jpg
• 2021-12-13a Revisiting laptop question.jpg
• 2021-12-13b Coordinating captions.jpg
• 2021-12-14a Writing workflow.jpg
• 2021-12-14b Making the most of my discretionary time #planning.jpg
• 2021-12-14c Services on my VPS #tech.jpg
• 2021-12-14d Phone, laptop, VPS #tech.jpg
• 2021-12-15 Emacs community maintenance #emacs.png