Lots of excitement. Many possibilities.

Like most of the other things which humans are excited about, such as health and sickness, age and youth, or war and peace, it is, from the point of view of the spiritual life, mainly raw material.

• C.S. Lewis

Life will go on, and the silent, ever-advancing, but most consequential part of our lives will still be most worthy of our notice. What am I doing with my own life and my own soul?

What is a reporter's job?

What is a reporter's job? A reporter's job is to fact check the government by talking to the people. What is she doing? She's fact checking the people by talking to the government.

Yes, I'm coding a power ballad again.

Could it be that you're the one who's wrong this time?!

Toto, Pamela

The existence of this record is a loving warning to stop the cycle of self destruction and come to the Father who wants to bless us.

Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One — yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

Helaman 12:2

Captain Moroni, of the Nephite army, is a perfect example of manly virtue.

And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;

Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.

Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.

Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

Alma 48:11-13, 17

Some starting tips when I next set up a document in Affinity Publisher for Ingram Spark.

• The first page in an Ingram Book prints on right side.
• Inside the front cover, there's one heavy paper page before that, blank on both sides.
• In Affinity, you can an organize as spreads, but printer wants non-facing pages.
• If organizing as spreads, unless the first page is on its own (on the right, outside a full spread), the inner and outer margin of the page will be backward from how it's printed (inner will really be outside when printed).
• If organized as spreads, I can change to export to pages at export time. Choose All Pages instead of All Spreads

Here's to a single digital proof and a successful print!

I just had my first bug. Thank goodness it wasn't fatal to my program.

Where did bugs come from? Apparently Thomas Edison named a technical error a bug. In 1947, Grace Hopper found a moth in her computer, creating an error because it was blocking an electrical contact.

Now, in the cold of winter, a little spider has tried to make it into the warmth of my integrated circuits. Thankfully it only made it onto the keyboard. When I opened up the lid, "a bug!" It was a fatal bug, or at least a dead bug. Ms. Hopper and I are now bug mates.

Taste leads to design.

The better a coper you are, the less good a programming designer you are. Because the whole art of designing a programming language is in partly being physically ill in using some programming language that you decide is ugly.

Alan Kay

To the greatest American who ever lived.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life: Pious, just humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting.

His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well spent life. Such was the man America has lost. Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.

Representative Henry Lee, previously a Major General under Washington, delivering Washington's eulogy in 1799.

HP locks its printers down so you can't use generic ink cartridges at a better price. It's a travesty! I despise this practice.

From a recent printer model's description:

Includes HP+ for up to 12 free months of Instant Ink and an extended 2-year HP warranty. This printer is intended to work only with cartridges that have new or reused HP electronic circuitry, and it uses dynamic security measures to block cartridges using modified or non-HP circuitry. Periodic firmware updates will maintain the effectiveness of these measures and block cartridges that previously worked. Reused HP electronic circuitry enables the use of reused, remanufactured, and refilled cartridges.

At least they're saying it out loud. I have had mixed results with generic cartridges in an HP printer for several years. But HP printer business models seem to be getting worse in other ways too. Ink subscriptions that lock your printer remotely when lapsed. Give me a break.

I just bought an Epson Ecotank. (My HP Officejet 8610 stopped working. There's apparently a "problem with the ink system". Hehe, yeah...) Here's hoping that the consumer-friendly idea of squirting ink into a bottle for your printer can't be ruined by some greedy businessman working toward this year's bonus-unlocking KPIs.

Update: 20 Jan 2024

HP just sounds worse and worse... CEO Enrique Lores:

When we identify cartridges that are violating our IP, we stop the printers from work\[ing\].

Every time a customer buys a printer, it's an investment for us. We are investing in that customer, and if that customer doesn't print enough or doesn't use our supplies, it's a bad investment.

This is a mindset that does not care about the customer. It cares about the bottom line. These guys and so many subscription model businesses these days. Infuriating.

In the linked interview, he talks like he's looking out for the customer; like HP remotely disabling your printer is better than you gumming up your printer with bad ink or installing a virus through a cartridge! No way! Let the customer have some autonomy and responsibility to buy bad ink! And take the stupid chips out of your cartridges and remove the attack vector for viruses. You can't put computer viruses in ink!

It's not better that you hold the printer hostage until the customer pays up to buy your overpriced ink.

Update: 3 Mar 2024

HP is taking it to the next level: Now you rent your printer on the HP all-in plan. Sick.

$7/mo for 20 pages printed a month. $36/mo for 700 pages. Pay for higher plans to get better printers. Never.