Notes

Short content: a microblog of status updates or short notes
I’m continually astounded by Matthias Pfefferle’s (or I might alternately tag: @pfefferle) excellent work with the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress! It’s simply brilliant that my IndieWeb powered WordPress website can act much like a standalone version of Mastodon and reasonably federate with other platforms that use the ActivityPub protocol.

You can follow me at @chrisaldrich@boffosocko.com and apparently read my 8,000+ posts via Mastodon and other platforms.

While the plugin doesn’t support everything (yet) and doesn’t compete with Mastodon, Friendi.ca, or GNU.social, it extends WordPress with some reasonably solid fediverse features. I can’t wait to see how it continues to grow and add additional functionality.

Managed to get a talk proposal together for WordCamp Santa Clarita on the topic of IndieWeb and WordPress (geared toward a general audience). I also submitted an idea for a lightning talk on the relatively new Micropub spec from the W3C and how it can be used in conjunction with WordPress to quickly and easily post a variety of different content types to the platform.

I can’t wait to attend this new camp just North of Los Angeles!

📖 Read pages 27-54 of 251 of The Demon in the Machine by Paul Davies

📖 Read pages 27-54 of 251 of The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Finally Solving the Mystery of Life by Paul Davies

Photo of the book The Demon in the Machine by Paul Davies sitting on a wooden table. The cover is primarily the title in a large font superimposed on a wireframe of a bird in which the wireframe is meant to look like nodes in a newtowrk

📖 Read pages 1-26 of 251 of The Demon in the Machine by Paul Davies

📖 Read pages 1-26 of 251 of The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Finally Solving the Mystery of Life by Paul Davies

He seems to have a reasonable opening history here. He references several researchers I’m familiar with and trust at least.

Photo of the book The Demon in the Machine by Paul Davies sitting on a wooden table. The cover is primarily the title in a large font superimposed on a wireframe of a bird in which the wireframe is meant to look like nodes in a newtowrk

The more I see, read, and hear about the vagaries of social media; the constant failings and foibles of Facebook, the trolling dumpster fire that is Twitter, the ills of Instagram; the spread of dark patterns; and the unchecked rise of surveillance capitalism, and weapons of math destruction the more I think that the underlying ideas focusing on people and humanity within the IndieWeb movement are its core strength.

Perhaps we need to create a new renaissance of humanism for the 21st century? Maybe we call it digital humanism to create some intense focus, but the emphasis should be completely on the people side.

Naturally there’s a lot more that they–and we all–need to do to improve our lives. Let’s band together to create better people-centric, ethical solutions.

📖 49% done reading A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman

📖 49% done reading A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman

The age bracket of these sophomores/juniors in high school seems a bit older than some of Korman’s other books and characters, but is interestingly sophisticated. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it as much, but it’s starting to grow on me. Their fudging on the poetry assignment is becoming increasingly entertaining. I can feel the proverbial pot beginning to boil the frogs and can’t wait to see when they jump out of the soup.

📖 38% done reading A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman

📖 38% done reading A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman

Not quite as sharp as most of Korman’s other plots, but also in a slightly different area and still interesting.