Kyle R. Conway

What storytellers do… is help shape our stories of how the world works; at their very best, they can empower our moral imagination to envision how the world could work better. ―Maria Popova The purpose of beautiful little things is to create an index of positivity. I often fail to recognize the happiness in my life as it occurs–and once it’s gone I may never remember it. In capturing and framing these fragments I expect to become more aware of these beautiful little things, for when moments are captured, shared, and replayed they change our perception of past and present. »

instead of hand-drawing the stripes I’ve matched them up with a digital tool after the original hand-drawn outline. not certain I like this (in fact―pretty certain I don’t) but it’s clear that I’m going to move somewhere here to progress. we’ll see what happens there. At any rate―behold something new.   »

This is a brick. »

This is an amazingly straightforward article about the power of computational thinking with massive data sets. The 280-Year-Old Algorithm Inside Google Trips - https://research.googleblog.com/2016/09/the-280-year-old-algorithm-inside.html »

This is a great two-point encapsulation of a point Techdirt has been making for a number of years. That the opportunity presented itself in such an interesting way is yet another reason to read Techdirt. I don’t believe that they set out to be the news but they certainly generate their fair share of stories simply by being so strongly who they are. I recently received one of their earlier shirts highlighting copyright removals of region restricted content on YouTube that I very much enjoy. »

I’m thinking about doing some tutorial-type things revolving around some of the free-software tools I use to create visual art. Predominantly I’d focus on inkscape (at least at the moment) since I’ve been enamored with vector graphics on that program for a while. I’m also interested in doing something for inkscape as it was a program I avoided for a long time and there was no reason for the delay. If I can assist anyone out there in picking it up faster the world would truly be a better place. »

This is a pretty amazing use of programming and personal data to create a custom keyboard layout for yourself. Great read. This scoring method is then evaluated on a collection of text that is representative of all text I’ve typed in the last five years, which produces a number representing the objective function. Specifically, I take all of my code, IMs, emails, and articles over that time period, remove any non-ASCII characters, and create a long word frequency list to be used in scoring layouts. »

http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2016/05/how-to-begin-a-personal-archiving-project/ Pretty great, low-key article about not losing your mind organizing things. I suspect this is easier when it’s not your stuff. Never really thought about how archivists archive and it’s interesting. Wish they’d addressed long-term digital storage formats. Would assume you’d use free software if possible. »

Just want to acknowledge the joy of this endeavor. A running documentation of your failures is a great idea that I fully support. »

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Getting back into digital visual art a bit. Here’s one from today. »

http://www.howardism.org/Technical/Emacs/orgmode-wordprocessor.html When I first saw one of his videos I was wondering how sick an effect was achieved, though I never asked–thanks to all who did for me. »

http://chromakode.com/post/18-years-in-8-hours »

http://rootco.de/2016-03-28-why-use-tumbleweed/ »

Amazing display of dedication due to circumstance. Go look. Impressive. »

Image Optimization-Quick Script http://blog.jdpfu.com/2016/03/24/image-optimization-quick-script »

I can’t recommend strongly enough that you take the time to read the entirety of APPLE INC.’S REPLY TO GOVERNMENT’S OPPOSITION TO APPLE INC.’S MOTION TO VACATE ORDER COMPELLING APPLE INC. TO ASSIST AGENTS IN SEARCH. Some gems below: The government attempts to rewrite history by portraying the [All Writs] Act as an all-powerful magic wand rather than the limited procedural tool it is. […] Thus, according to the government, short of kidnapping or breaking an express law, the courts can order private parties to do virtually anything the Justice Department and FBI can dream up. »

Politics is work of a kind that requires especially pure people, because it is especially easy to become morally tainted. https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/vl/notes/havel.html »

So it is for me and perhaps for you: The bare facts of surveillance capitalism necessarily arouse my indignation because they demean human dignity. The future of this narrative will depend upon the indignant scholars and journalists drawn to this frontier project, indignant elected officials and policy makers who understand that their authority originates in the foundational values of democratic communities, and indignant citizens who act in the knowledge that effectiveness without autonomy is not effective, dependency-induced compliance is no social contract, and freedom from uncertainty is no freedom. »

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