4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump:

This is the best article I’ve seen yet about 4chan and its relationship to misogyny and Gamergate, while still highlighting the complex issues around the community it provides and not forgetting that the people in it are hurting and need an outlet. (I could’ve been one of those people too, if I was born ten years later.) The connection to Trump is a little weaker than the other blistering commentary in the essay, but i think it’s still entirely valid.

“Yiannopoulos rose to prominence via Gamergate. He is not a “technology” editor because he compares the chip architectures of competing graphics cards. Rather the “tech” here is code for the fact that his audience is the vast population of sad young men who have retreated to internet communities. Likewise the mainstream press sometimes describes him as troll as a way of capturing his vague association with 4chan. This term, too, is inaccurate. He is 4chan at its most earnest, after all these men have finally discovered their issue — the thing that unites them — their failure and powerlessness literally embodied (to them) by women.”

4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump:

This is the best article I’ve seen yet about 4chan and its relationship to misogyny and Gamergate, while still highlighting the complex issues around the community it provides and not forgetting that the people in it are hurting and need an outlet. (I could’ve been one of those people too, if I was born ten years later.) The connection to Trump is a little weaker than the other blistering commentary in the essay, but i think it’s still entirely valid.

“Yiannopoulos rose to prominence via Gamergate. He is not a “technology” editor because he compares the chip architectures of competing graphics cards. Rather the “tech” here is code for the fact that his audience is the vast population of sad young men who have retreated to internet communities. Likewise the mainstream press sometimes describes him as troll as a way of capturing his vague association with 4chan. This term, too, is inaccurate. He is 4chan at its most earnest, after all these men have finally discovered their issue — the thing that unites them — their failure and powerlessness literally embodied (to them) by women.”

If you do serious computer work on the road a lot, you owe it to yourself to get a portable computer setup that’s comfortable to use for the entire day, but is still lightweight enough to carry around. I’ve been looking for such a setup for a long time, and think I’ve finally found one. Here’s some recommendations.

Laptop Stand

You need a good laptop stand to elevate it to eye level, so that your neck doesn’t look down and start hurting. (Either that, or you need an imaginary highly-portable-yet-large monitor to carry with you. I’ve looked for one extensively, and can’t find one.)

The Wirecutter recommends the Roost Laptop Stand as the best portable solution, which I absolutely agree with. It’s very light (170g), collapses into a small 3 x 3 x 33cm beam, and has three height positions to accommodate for different desk heights. $75.

One other stand I like is the Pwr+ Portable Laptop-Table-Stand, which is still quite light, but takes up a lot more space collapsed. That said, it’s better for larger (e.g. gaming) laptops, frees up the desk space beneath it, and is a great option if you mostly take your laptop between one or two places (like work & home). $40.

Lap Tray/Pad

I personally use a tray that you can put on your lap, and put a wireless keyboard and trackpad on the tray, so you’re typing on your lap. This is for two reasons:

1. It’s fairly ergonomic, since your arms are guaranteed to be above the keyboard.

2. It means you can work at desks that are both very high or very low. You can put your laptop on the desk and adjust the laptop stand so it’s at eye-level for best ergonomics, and your keyboard can go your lap so it doesn’t have to match the desk height.

I’d recommend the Aidata LAP005, which has a retractable mouse tray so it can easily fit into most backpacks. $20. (The Logitech N315 is lighter and thinner, but that’s not available anymore.)

If you do find a desk that’s the correct height for typing at, then great, you don’t need a tray. However, the tray gives you a lot more flexibility, and I take one everywhere with me where I expect to work for more than a few hours now.

Input Devices

If you use a lap tray like I recommend above, you probably don’t want a mouse, since a mouse will slide down the tray unless your lap tray is perfectly horizontal. That means that you need to rely on the chair being height-adjustable. But hey, if you really like mouses, go ahead and get one, there are dozens of small mouses out there that are great.

Instead of a mouse, I’d recommend the Apple Magic Trackpad 2. It’s hands-down the best trackpad out there, and should work OK with non-Mac hardware too. I’d prefer something smaller (seriously, the thing could be half the size and I’d be happy) but there isn’t one. I don’t know what a good trackpad is on Windows, though I’m betting that the Logitechs are the best alternatives. $129.

If you’re not a big fan of trackpads, the Logitech M570 has been my favourite trackball for years. The only downside is that it’s not Bluetooth, and has a (tiny) USB adapter that needs to be plugged in. $25.

And, of course, when I finally find a small mobile portable keyboard that I like, it gets discontinued: the Microsoft Sculpt Mobile Keyboard. (You can still get it today, though the prices vary a lot since it’s not produced anymore.) It’s Bluetooth, has an on/off switch (see below for why that’s good), and feels great. If you use it with a Mac, you probably want Karabiner Elements so that you can remap the left Windows key and right Ctrl key to be Option keys.

Other portable keyboards that I’ve tried are:

• The Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard, which is the Sculpt Mobile’s bigger cousin. This is my primary keyboard for work and home; I use the Sculpt Mobile when I travel. The bigger version is still quite portable though, and I used to carry it around a lot until I found the Sculpt Mobile. The only downsides to the keyboard are (1) no on/off switch (see below), (2) needs a (small) USB adapter, so it takes up a valuable USB port. $75.

• Goldtouch Go!2 Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard. Tried it; didn’t like it. The key layout was substantially different enough that it required some re-learning. Splitting the keyboard in half is cool, but that means that a desk is also required; it doesn’t fit on a lap tray.

• Kinesis Freestyle2 Blue. Different feel from the Goldtouch Go!2 (better travel distance), but otherwise it’s more-or-less the same.

• The MeshWe Bluefin, a little tray for the old Apple Magic Trackpad & Bluetooth Keyboard that connects both of them. I really liked this thing, and it was great since it also served as a tray, so I didn’t need to bring a separate tray along. It has two problems: (1) the Magic Trackpad 2 definitely feels better than the old Magic Trackpad to me, and (2) since the old trackpad & keyboard doesn’t have on/off switches, you have to take the battery out before transporting it. Also, I really do think that ergonomic keyboards are better, even things like the Sculpt Mobile that really don’t seem very different. Your arms can relax a bit more and don’t get so crammed into the middle of your body. The iSkelter Magic Trackpad Station looks similar to the Bluefin for the new Magic Trackpad & Keyboard, but it’s too big for my tastes since it doesn’t collapse.

One thing about whatever input devices you use: try to make sure that they have an On/Off switch, so you can switch them off easily before putting them in your backpack. Otherwise you need to take the batteries out of them before packing them up, which is a small hassle.

Also, unless you really need a number pad, get a keyboard without one. They’re ergonomically superior, and smaller too. The Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard (above) is great since it offers a number pad that’s separate from the main keyboard for the times where you want one.

USB Hub

I love this 3-port flexible USB 2.0 hub (Cables To Go #27402). Hubs are always annoying since they’re so rigid: the extra flexibility that this thing gives you is great. Yep, it’s USB 2 only and not USB 3, and of course it can’t properly power high-current devices like iPads, but it works great for almost everything else.

Extra Screen?

I’m personally quite happy working with just a 15" MacBook Pro screen, and find it large enough to do serious work on. I’ve tinkered with an extra screen and didn’t think it was worth the additional hassle. However, if you really want an extra screen, I’d recommend using an iPad or iPad Mini with Duet Display to drive it, which works well, and an iPad monitor mount like the Sidecar, which allows you to attach it to the side of your Mac.

I’ve also tried various portable USB-powered monitors like the ASUS MB168B+, but found that the EzLink drivers for them on a Mac were basically terrible. They also lacked a monitor mount, so you need to figure out how to elevate it to the same level as your Mac screen. Duet Display with an iPad seems better.

If you do serious computer work on the road a lot, you owe it to yourself to get a portable computer setup that’s comfortable to use for the entire day, but is still lightweight enough to carry around. I’ve been looking for such a setup for a long time, and think I’ve finally found one. Here’s some recommendations.

Laptop Stand

You need a good laptop stand to elevate it to eye level, so that your neck doesn’t look down and start hurting. (Either that, or you need an imaginary highly-portable-yet-large monitor to carry with you. I’ve looked for one extensively, and can’t find one.)

The Wirecutter recommends the Roost Laptop Stand as the best portable solution, which I absolutely agree with. It’s very light (170g), collapses into a small 3 x 3 x 33cm beam, and has three height positions to accommodate for different desk heights. $75.

One other stand I like is the Pwr+ Portable Laptop-Table-Stand, which is still quite light, but takes up a lot more space collapsed. That said, it’s better for larger (e.g. gaming) laptops, frees up the desk space beneath it, and is a great option if you mostly take your laptop between one or two places (like work & home). $40.

Lap Tray/Pad

I personally use a tray that you can put on your lap, and put a wireless keyboard and trackpad on the tray, so you’re typing on your lap. This is for two reasons:

1. It’s fairly ergonomic, since your arms are guaranteed to be above the keyboard.

2. It means you can work at desks that are both very high or very low. You can put your laptop on the desk and adjust the laptop stand so it’s at eye-level for best ergonomics, and your keyboard can go your lap so it doesn’t have to match the desk height.

I’d recommend the Aidata LAP005, which has a retractable mouse tray so it can easily fit into most backpacks. $20. (The Logitech N315 is lighter and thinner, but that’s not available anymore.)

If you do find a desk that’s the correct height for typing at, then great, you don’t need a tray. However, the tray gives you a lot more flexibility, and I take one everywhere with me where I expect to work for more than a few hours now.

Input Devices

If you use a lap tray like I recommend above, you probably don’t want a mouse, since a mouse will slide down the tray unless your lap tray is perfectly horizontal. That means that you need to rely on the chair being height-adjustable. But hey, if you really like mouses, go ahead and get one, there are dozens of small mouses out there that are great.

Instead of a mouse, I’d recommend the Apple Magic Trackpad 2. It’s hands-down the best trackpad out there, and should work OK with non-Mac hardware too. I’d prefer something smaller (seriously, the thing could be half the size and I’d be happy) but there isn’t one. I don’t know what a good trackpad is on Windows, though I’m betting that the Logitechs are the best alternatives. $129.

If you’re not a big fan of trackpads, the Logitech M570 has been my favourite trackball for years. The only downside is that it’s not Bluetooth, and has a (tiny) USB adapter that needs to be plugged in. $25.

And, of course, when I finally find a small mobile portable keyboard that I like, it gets discontinued: the Microsoft Sculpt Mobile Keyboard. (You can still get it today, though the prices vary a lot since it’s not produced anymore.) It’s Bluetooth, has an on/off switch (see below for why that’s good), and feels great. If you use it with a Mac, you probably want Karabiner Elements so that you can remap the left Windows key and right Ctrl key to be Option keys.

Other portable keyboards that I’ve tried are:

• The Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard, which is the Sculpt Mobile’s bigger cousin. This is my primary keyboard for work and home; I use the Sculpt Mobile when I travel. The bigger version is still quite portable though, and I used to carry it around a lot until I found the Sculpt Mobile. The only downsides to the keyboard are (1) no on/off switch (see below), (2) needs a (small) USB adapter, so it takes up a valuable USB port. $75.

• Goldtouch Go!2 Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard. Tried it; didn’t like it. The key layout was substantially different enough that it required some re-learning. Splitting the keyboard in half is cool, but that means that a desk is also required; it doesn’t fit on a lap tray.

• Kinesis Freestyle2 Blue. Different feel from the Goldtouch Go!2 (better travel distance), but otherwise it’s more-or-less the same.

• The MeshWe Bluefin, a little tray for the old Apple Magic Trackpad & Bluetooth Keyboard that connects both of them. I really liked this thing, and it was great since it also served as a tray, so I didn’t need to bring a separate tray along. It has two problems: (1) the Magic Trackpad 2 definitely feels better than the old Magic Trackpad to me, and (2) since the old trackpad & keyboard doesn’t have on/off switches, you have to take the battery out before transporting it. Also, I really do think that ergonomic keyboards are better, even things like the Sculpt Mobile that really don’t seem very different. Your arms can relax a bit more and don’t get so crammed into the middle of your body. The iSkelter Magic Trackpad Station looks similar to the Bluefin for the new Magic Trackpad & Keyboard, but it’s too big for my tastes since it doesn’t collapse.

One thing about whatever input devices you use: try to make sure that they have an On/Off switch, so you can switch them off easily before putting them in your backpack. Otherwise you need to take the batteries out of them before packing them up, which is a small hassle.

Also, unless you really need a number pad, get a keyboard without one. They’re ergonomically superior, and smaller too. The Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard (above) is great since it offers a number pad that’s separate from the main keyboard for the times where you want one.

USB Hub

I love this 3-port flexible USB 2.0 hub (Cables To Go #27402). Hubs are always annoying since they’re so rigid: the extra flexibility that this thing gives you is great. Yep, it’s USB 2 only and not USB 3, and of course it can’t properly power high-current devices like iPads, but it works great for almost everything else.

Extra Screen?

I’m personally quite happy working with just a 15" MacBook Pro screen, and find it large enough to do serious work on. I’ve tinkered with an extra screen and didn’t think it was worth the additional hassle. However, if you really want an extra screen, I’d recommend using an iPad or iPad Mini with Duet Display to drive it, which works well, and an iPad monitor mount like the Sidecar, which allows you to attach it to the side of your Mac.

I’ve also tried various portable USB-powered monitors like the ASUS MB168B+, but found that the EzLink drivers for them on a Mac were basically terrible. They also lacked a monitor mount, so you need to figure out how to elevate it to the same level as your Mac screen. Duet Display with an iPad seems better.

I’ve stayed away from social media for the past few years. It wasn’t an active decision; I was just fortunate to have gotten caught up in a happy, wonderful life, and spent time offline instead of online. I also generally prefer to listen rather than talk, and wrote even less since writing takes time. (I knew what my opinions are; I wanted to learn what other people’s opinions were, so I could expand my knowledge and improve.) I’ve also typically taken an Asian approach to letting things slide: if someone says something that I don’t quite agree with, I just nod, smile, move on and avoid the unnecessary drama. (Why make my life harder, after all?)

This US election changes all that. I realised that the attitude I hold is selfish: I’m not doing the same favour to my friends and workmates that they do for me, by staying silent instead of participating in discussion and muting my opinions. And the next time someone makes a comment that’s even slightly or inadvertently sexist or racist, I’ll start arguing back. When the political talk gets fiery, I’ll make an effort to join in and offer alternative viewpoints instead of simply listening and absorbing. This is 2016, and the misconceptions and bias just has to stop.

This election has made professional, successful, capable women, from bright college students to officers of Fortune 500 companies, place dozens of Post-It notes on bathroom mirrors in their workplace to give them encouragement because they are truly afraid and scared. Never mind the black, LGBT, Latino and other communities who have been terrified for so long and will probably face deeper systematized persecution. If you voted for Trump, please understand that many of your fellow Americans are legitimately afraid, and you are the most powerful voice to renounce the hatred and intolerance that have arisen due to Trump’s presidential election. And if we, the self-styled progressives, understand that the vast majority of Muslims are not fundamentalist terrorists and that the vast majority of black people with hoodies aren’t dangerous, then we must give the same courtesy, respect and open-mindedness to Trump voters, who are the absolute equal to any progressive. We must believe that to our core.

Many talk about diversity, and it’s true that it leads to better outcomes, but not as many understand that it is hard, and it takes a staggering amount of effort to get two people screaming at each other to empathise, see each other’s viewpoints, and work together. That’s what we have to work toward.

I know many don’t share my opinion, but I looked up to Hillary Clinton, and still do. Maybe it’s true that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would have won if they were the nominee, but they weren’t, and Ms. Clinton was the one who threw herself out into the public eye and endured the incredible demands of a presidential campaign. I personally saw her inspire close friends and family to reach further and strive higher, and I am immensely grateful for her influence on people I love. Thank you Hillary, and I hope we see another woman presidential nominee before long with your dedication, fight and courage. I hope that all our efforts to fight for inclusion, tolerance and diversity does justice to everything you were campaigning for in 2016, and I know that I, at least, am changing myself to try to make a difference.

I’ve stayed away from social media for the past few years. It wasn’t an active decision; I was just fortunate to have gotten caught up in a happy, wonderful life, and spent time offline instead of online. I also generally prefer to listen rather than talk, and wrote even less since writing takes time. (I knew what my opinions are; I wanted to learn what other people’s opinions were, so I could expand my knowledge and improve.) I’ve also typically taken an Asian approach to letting things slide: if someone says something that I don’t quite agree with, I just nod, smile, move on and avoid the unnecessary drama. (Why make my life harder, after all?)

This US election changes all that. I realised that the attitude I hold is selfish: I’m not doing the same favour to my friends and workmates that they do for me, by staying silent instead of participating in discussion and muting my opinions. And the next time someone makes a comment that’s even slightly or inadvertently sexist or racist, I’ll start arguing back. When the political talk gets fiery, I’ll make an effort to join in and offer alternative viewpoints instead of simply listening and absorbing. This is 2016, and the misconceptions and bias just has to stop.

This election has made professional, successful, capable women, from bright college students to officers of Fortune 500 companies, place dozens of Post-It notes on bathroom mirrors in their workplace to give them encouragement because they are truly afraid and scared. Never mind the black, LGBT, Latino and other communities who have been terrified for so long and will probably face deeper systematized persecution. If you voted for Trump, please understand that many of your fellow Americans are legitimately afraid, and you are the most powerful voice to renounce the hatred and intolerance that have arisen due to Trump’s presidential election. And if we, the self-styled progressives, understand that the vast majority of Muslims are not fundamentalist terrorists and that the vast majority of black people with hoodies aren’t dangerous, then we must give the same courtesy, respect and open-mindedness to Trump voters, who are the absolute equal to any progressive. We must believe that to our core.

Many talk about diversity, and it’s true that it leads to better outcomes, but not as many understand that it is hard, and it takes a staggering amount of effort to get two people screaming at each other to empathise, see each other’s viewpoints, and work together. That’s what we have to work toward.

I know many don’t share my opinion, but I looked up to Hillary Clinton, and still do. Maybe it’s true that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would have won if they were the nominee, but they weren’t, and Ms. Clinton was the one who threw herself out into the public eye and endured the incredible demands of a presidential campaign. I personally saw her inspire close friends and family to reach further and strive higher, and I am immensely grateful for her influence on people I love. Thank you Hillary, and I hope we see another woman presidential nominee before long with your dedication, fight and courage. I hope that all our efforts to fight for inclusion, tolerance and diversity does justice to everything you were campaigning for in 2016, and I know that I, at least, am changing myself to try to make a difference.

Apollo software engineer Margaret Hamilton receives Presidential Medal of Freedom:

It’s so fantastic to see two of the most influential women programmers achieve the highest civilian award given out by the US. Their achievements can hopefully inspire the women in our next generation that they can code just as much as any man.

(I also love it how Bill Gates is looking on in the background oh this photo with a massive smile on his face.)

Apollo software engineer Margaret Hamilton receives Presidential Medal of Freedom:

It’s so fantastic to see two of the most influential women programmers achieve the highest civilian award given out by the US. Their achievements can hopefully inspire the women in our next generation that they can code just as much as any man.

(I also love it how Bill Gates is looking on in the background oh this photo with a massive smile on his face.)

yudai/gotty:

Renders the output of any terminal command as an HTTP server, so other people can easily see. Also works with tmux so that you can display an existing tmux session.

yudai/gotty:

Renders the output of any terminal command as an HTTP server, so other people can easily see. Also works with tmux so that you can display an existing tmux session.

For the RapidWeaver users out there, I’ve updated my antique Markup plugin to work with RapidWeaver 5 (slow clap). It also now lives on GitHub, like all the other cool open-source projects published after about 1970. (BitBucket is so 1969.)

As an aside, ohmigosh, there still isn’t anything out there that’s as good as RapidWeaver for building websites. I wanted to redo my site, and looked into a bunch of RapidWeaver alternatives, especially Web apps. Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger and all that are great for just blogs, but useless for building anything more than a blog. Online site-builders like Squarespace, Weebly, and Virb are either way too dumbed down, too complex, have the most boring themes, or more likely, are all of the above. Despite RapidWeaver still being compiled for ppc and i386 only (it’s not a 64-bit app yet), and using the Objective-C 1.0 runtime (my Markup plugin uses +[NSObject poseAsClass:]!), it is still the best thing going for building sites. Amazing.

Anyway, Markup plugin, go get it.

For the RapidWeaver users out there, I’ve updated my antique Markup plugin to work with RapidWeaver 5 (slow clap). It also now lives on GitHub, like all the other cool open-source projects published after about 1970. (BitBucket is so 1969.)

As an aside, ohmigosh, there still isn’t anything out there that’s as good as RapidWeaver for building websites. I wanted to redo my site, and looked into a bunch of RapidWeaver alternatives, especially Web apps. Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger and all that are great for just blogs, but useless for building anything more than a blog. Online site-builders like Squarespace, Weebly, and Virb are either way too dumbed down, too complex, have the most boring themes, or more likely, are all of the above. Despite RapidWeaver still being compiled for ppc and i386 only (it’s not a 64-bit app yet), and using the Objective-C 1.0 runtime (my Markup plugin uses +[NSObject poseAsClass:]!), it is still the best thing going for building sites. Amazing.

Anyway, Markup plugin, go get it.

For the RapidWeaver users out there, I’ve updated my antique Markup plugin to work with RapidWeaver 5 (slow clap). It also now lives on GitHub, like all the other cool open-source projects published after about 1970. (BitBucket is so 1969.)

As an aside, ohmigosh, there still isn’t anything out there that’s as good as RapidWeaver for building websites. I wanted to redo my site, and looked into a bunch of RapidWeaver alternatives, especially Web apps. Tumblr, Wordpress, Blogger and all that are great for just blogs, but useless for building anything more than a blog. Online site-builders like Squarespace, Weebly, and Virb are either way too dumbed down, too complex, have the most boring themes, or more likely, are all of the above. Despite RapidWeaver still being compiled for ppc and i386 only (it’s not a 64-bit app yet), and using the Objective-C 1.0 runtime (my Markup plugin uses +[NSObject poseAsClass:]!), it is still the best thing going for building sites. Amazing.

Anyway, Markup plugin, go get it.

Bartender: Show & Hide Menu Bar Items:

I’m Commander Shepard, and Bartender is my favourite new Mac application.

Bartender: Show & Hide Menu Bar Items:

I’m Commander Shepard, and Bartender is my favourite new Mac application.

ANSI art in the Browser:

I’m so building my next home page with this.

ANSI art in the Browser:

I’m so building my next home page with this.

If you’re talking to serial ports on OS X and just want to see the output, good ol’ cat is quite a nice little tool (yay for Terminal scrollback). In Linux, setting the baud rate persists across opens and closes of the serial port. In traditional Unix—including OS X—it does not. So if you run the traditional stty -f /dev/cu.usbserial-* speed 38400 command to set the baud rate to 38400, you’ll find that it immediately resets back to 9600, because stty opens the port, sets the baud rate, and then closes it, so the OS resets it back to the default.

So, what you want to do is:

exec 3<> /dev/cu.usbserial-*  # attach file descriptor 3 to serial port
stty -f /dev/cu.usbserial-* speed 38400  # set serial port to 38400
cat <&3  # run cat with stdin redirected from file descriptor 3

This pleases the oldskool Unix shell hacker in me.

If you’re talking to serial ports on OS X and just want to see the output, good ol’ cat is quite a nice little tool (yay for Terminal scrollback). In Linux, setting the baud rate persists across opens and closes of the serial port. In traditional Unix—including OS X—it does not. So if you run the traditional stty -f /dev/cu.usbserial-* speed 38400 command to set the baud rate to 38400, you’ll find that it immediately resets back to 9600, because stty opens the port, sets the baud rate, and then closes it, so the OS resets it back to the default.

So, what you want to do is:

exec 3<> /dev/cu.usbserial-*  # attach file descriptor 3 to serial port
stty -f /dev/cu.usbserial-* speed 38400  # set serial port to 38400
cat <&3  # run cat with stdin redirected from file descriptor 3

This pleases the oldskool Unix shell hacker in me.

GNU Make & .ONESHELL:

If you’re still unfortunate enough to be using GNU Make, the .ONESHELL special target can be quite useful:

.ONESHELL: If .ONESHELL is mentioned as a target, then when a target is built all lines of the recipe will be given to a single invocation of the shell rather than each line being invoked separately (see Recipe Execution).