A Trip to the Virtual Attic
When the world feels like it’s falling apart around you, it feels good to solve little problems that are completely under your control. And that’s what I’ve been doing this past week. This was originally posted at Multo.
I migrated ninazumel.com away from WordPress to a more appropriate host (Github Pages); I merged the old Win-Vector sites (there were two of them, self-hosted) into a single sleek new site – ironically, now WordPress hosted. And I reconstructed a very old and neglected site, mzlabs.com, and set it up here (The address mzlabs.com should still reach it).
All this virtual housekeeping turned up some old writing of mine, and of John’s, that I think is worth revisiting again. So here’s a little (non ghost-related) reading list for you, if you are in the mood:
On Writing Technical Articles for the Nonspecialist – my philosophy on what good technical writing should be.
I Write, Therefore I Think – on the relationship between writing and thinking. I think this is my favorite of anything I’ve ever written.
On Balance – I’ve always hated the phrase “work/life balance”; here’s a little bit about why. Also, Buckaroo Banzai, just because.
What’s Wrong with a Low(er)-Stress Job? – my other pet peeve: the worship of stress as a signifier of worthiness/productivity.
Design, Problem-Solving, and Good Taste – what’s “good taste” is usually subjective; but sometimes, as I argue here, it’s not.
And here are some nice articles from John:
Star Wars: It’s a Good Life – I don’t think John is the only one who has espoused this “Episode IV as a Twilight Zone episode” theory, but it was the first time I had heard it. I love it.
Gerty: a character in Duncan Jones’s Moon – A comparison of the Gerty character from the film Moon to the other great cinematic Artificial Intelligences.
Good Stationery as a Tool of Thought – a bit of a companion piece to I Write, Therefore I Think. Also, a peek at his pen and notebook collection.
Also, check out some images from The Genetic Art Project, an old algorithmic art project that produced, among other things, the featured image of the new Win Vector site.
Here are two organizations I donated to this week. Perhaps you may want to donate to them, too.