I certainly get the argument, but using something like hugo or gatsby or jekyll when you want to avoid the "churn" also seems like a perfectly valid solution.
The author addresses this pretty well. Because you can embed whatever you want, static site generators aren't really static. In particular, Jekyll blogs and what not still pretty commonly include comment sections.
Of course, pdfs aren't necessarily static, either, but that is why Lab6 is choosing to use pdf/a, an actually static format intended specifically for long-term archiving of immutable files. This way you can sign the file and guarantee it stays the same forever and everyone's copy is identical.
I'm kind of surprised at the response to this. The author seems well aware of how terrible pdf is as a format and this isn't some treatise of why we should want to use it. It's an unfortunate compromise that, given the requirements they're aiming to meet, of generating a file that supports rich formatting and hyperlink embedding, but which can guarantee immutability and long-term archiving directly in the spec, pdf/a is all there is, so in spite of being a terrible format with a lot of shortcomings, it's what they're using.
Why don't they just use a static subset of HTML? You don't have to include comments sections, just like you don't have to include 3D CAD models and videos in your PDFs (yes you can do both of those, in theory anyway).
> The author addresses this pretty well. Because you can embed whatever you want, static site generators aren't really static. In particular, Jekyll blogs and what not still pretty commonly include comment sections.
But just like you can choose to use PDF/A, you can also choose to have a completely static and self-contained (e.g. using data URLs for images) HTML page.
Nobody is requiring you to use PDF/A. No mainline browser (that I'm aware of) requires it.
So what is being solved? When I click on a PDF on the web, I don't know if it's using PDF/A, I don't know if it's embedding or linking its fonts. So it's the same situation, nothing has changed.
Telling people to use PDF/A when most clients do not enforce it and when there's no indication to users before they click on a link whether or not the link is following the spec -- it is exactly the same as telling them to use a subset of HTML; the author is doing the same thing they complain about.
You can't just say that PDF/A exists. That's not enough, how will you get people to restrict themselves to that format when 99% of their users will never notice the difference and no client is enforcing it?
The only thing I like about PDF compared to HTML is that with PDF, I know for a fact that no web requests are made in the background. That means no fingerprinting, no analytics etc.
With HTML, I have to trust that some random entity does what they state in their privacy policy, and they regularly don't. Sure, I can disable JS, but then 95% of the web doesn't work anymore.
Other than that PDF is quite clearly a less accessible format.
That's not the PDF spec is it? That is a spec for Adobe Acrobat, which is not allowed to make any web requests thanks to my application firewall (Little Snitch).
Pretty sure a PDF opened in the browser can't run any JS, but not completely sure. So you're right: I don't really know it for a fact. Poor choice of words.
The spec is ISO 32000, and it’s expensive and closed, so difficult to reference. But according to Wikipedia at least, JavaScript is normative in it. No idea if SOAP / Web Services is part of it though.
Are you sure? I was under the impression that PDFs can reference web resources, and this is why there are more stringent standards for archiving (PDF/A and friends)
> With HTML, I have to trust that some random entity does what they state in their privacy policy, and they regularly don't. Sure, I can disable JS, but then 95% of the web doesn't work anymore.
If you only allow PDF, then 99.9999% of the web doesn't work anymore.
I'm all for getting sites to be static, but PDF doesn't fix that because the problem has never been the technology used to build the site.
When I click a link you mean? Definitely true, but that way they only have access to my IP and user agent, which is still better than all the WebGL, Font library, display calibration settings, mouse movement etc. that they use otherwise.
I often use Tor, although I'm pretty sure that even then, a good analytics lib can see it's me based on scroll behaviour, mouse movement, time of day, and of course what I browse.
I would have used that 3/4 times during the last year in a big EU city: we do consulting, and one of our customer is adamant their data cannot go on the public cloud. So they have their own data center, and some file sharing utility. Problem is, you need to go through their VPN, that is super slow, and their sharing utility closes connections after a while.
Result: transferring 30/40 GiB of data is painful, and we often go to their office to retrieve the data instead of using the Internet. In an ideal world, I wouldn't need a service like the one you suggest, but since a lot of our customers seems to be in the Stone Age, I would probably use it.
I have friends who do regular SSD file transfers. Mostly between different countries but sometimes in the same city.
They just use regular messaging services and simple of the shelf encryption software with out of bound key transfer (I.e email...).
Hardware encryption (and platform for key sharing and booking deliveries) could certainly be useful, but I’m not sure about the transport port. I feel like outsourcing it to normal transporters is more reasonable
It's a social act, one has to roll it, pass it, i've even met people who had some superstitions and strong beliefs about the correct way of consuming a joint (weed in general) :P
> Permaculture is a set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience.
Not parent, but like i said in the thread above, if i were you, i would start with the ancients.
Every fundamental topic that later philosophers discuss is there, and discourse is much simpler.
For full comperhension, some googling of greek terms is required, but it's not that big of a deal in the age of /r/philosophy and communities like that. Also, feel free to hit me up if you have any detailed questions :)
This. Perhaps i'm biased, since i'm supposed to graduate from philosophy department this year, but i do think that reading ancient philosophy (Plato & Aristotle are the most representative example of what was going on there) is the best way to think better -- and get in touch with origins of European culture.
My recommendations, apart from "Sophist" (which is a difficult, very technical dialogue regarding problems with platos theory of ideas) would be "Nicomachean Ethics" (Joe Sachs' translation), "Philebus", "Phaedrus", and of course "The Republic", Platos' magnum opus.
I would start with Philebus. It is considered a pretty late dialogue, so problems with theory of ideals are considered (and musical metaphors play a prominent role). Also, its topic is worthy; Socrates & Protarchus discuss a role that pleasure and reason play in furhishing a good life.
Steve Losh in his already-classic CL blog post [^1] suggests either Vlime or Slimv, quote:
„If you’re like me and already have Vim burned too deeply into your fingers to ever get it out, I’d recommend Vim with Vlime. It will give you 80% of the experience you’ll get with Emacs.”
If you want 100% of SLIME goodness without sacrificing vim, try spacemacs [^2]. I switched about two years ago and am very happy.
I'm in the process of switching after many years of using vim, and it’s been incredible so far. Spacemacs really is like vim, only with way more features out of the box, and way better discoverability, so it's really quick to get up to speed.
I have not heard before about evil-collection. I have thought about having a custom setup, but my .spacemacs has grown a bit, so it's going to be a major work. I will try it at some point, just to check my elisp-fu
Most people, when they're sure they have this amazing one in a million idea want to make it happen and grow a company really big really fast. And for that, you need VCs to supply truckloads of cash to burn through. This comes with a non-obvious price though.
Check out the essay if you haven't read it, it's really good.
