In what must be one of the weirdest flexes ever, I can proudly say that I
keep my own email server. And like everyone who keeps their own e-mail server
can attest, GMail is always annoyingly difficult to work with.
The last version of this problem is that GMail stopped receiving my email
because I didn't have a PTR record, an error that's annoyingly difficult to
debug for two reasons: because the record is not really called "PTR", making
it slightly difficult to figure out what they want for me,
and because I know I've had one for years.
Long story short, the problem was that my server started using IPv6 and the
outgoing address was not matching the IPv4 PTR record I had.
So I solved the way these problems are always solved:
I turned off IPv6 and everything works again.
I can't remember who gave me this advice for the first time, but I can confirm
that it works.
Now, if only I could manage to identify why Apache is not redirecting the
LetsEncrypt challenges properly...
Edit: This post is best read when listening to
Future Boy's "Computer Shop".
Warning: NSFW language!
As I mentioned a long time ago
I am using Pelican for publishing
my blog. I recently did an upgrade which broke the syntax highlighting, and
I thought I should take a short time to explain how to fix it because
I couldn't find a solution anywhere.
The problem: it used to be the case that you could write your code like this
and it would do what you'd expect:
```
:::python
print('Hello world')
```
But since some version this syntax is no longer valid, resulting in a plainly
visible syntax identifier and the wrong colors being used in the highlighting:
:::python
print('Hello world')
The solution is simple: change to the other style for writing code in Markdown,
like so (note the leading spaces):
:::python
print('Hello world')
And that solves the issue.
I shouldn't forget to mention that this change forced me to re-indent all of my
code samples: the reason I was using the triple backquotes format was because it
lets me indent at the 0-th column, while the new syntax forces me to indent
everything with four leading spaces. And you know what happens with Python
code when you accidentally miss four spaces, i.e., one indentation? It breaks
in marvelous and unexpected ways!
Ensuring that every single line of code was properly re-indented was not a
fun task, but a necessary one nonetheless.
Which brings me to my final point. I thought I was used to the whole
"indentation has meaning" thing, but I have to say: only after using Rust
at the end of last year
and going back to braces to delimit code blocks did I realize how much I've
missed them.
Remember this post where I complained
that the music industry won't take my money? Well, it's that time of year again.
As you may remember from following me on Mastodon,
I bought an Alexa, set it up in Spanish, and almost went insane
due to how bad it was. So I did what every normal person would do in this case
and I gifted to my mom.
This Alexa slept in an Argentinean drawer for a long time, until one day I
finally convinced my family to stop worrying about breaking it.
Today it works mostly as a voice-activated music player for my nieces.
We have established before that I am an idiot, and
because I'm an idiot I decided to set up Spotify (with a family plan) instead
of Apple Music. I already have a rocky situation with Spotify,
which is why I am not shocked at all to learn that, just like Amazon and Warner
before them, Spotify will not take my money:
- I cannot pay for my mom's plan because my card is German and the account is
not. And the device's IP is obviously in Argentina.
- I cannot use an Argentinean credit card, because I don't have one.
- I cannot use the other available methods because they require me to
physically go to a store in another continent.
- I cannot pay with a gift card - even suggesting this as a possible feature
will get your request closed without review.
- I can try to set the account to a German one, but as the tech support
representative would put it, "you can give it a try, however that is
something we are unable to guarantee that will work". Also, I fear this
may cause Alexa to start speaking in German, and my mom won't be amused by
that.
So once again I am trying to give a company money -- no, scratch that: I
am trying to give a company money THAT'S WORTH MORE THAN THE MONEY THEY WANT
(Argentinean pesos are not super hot right now), and yet they won't listen to
reason. The Spotify forums are full of threads
where the best answer you'll get is a "Community Legend" saying that
it sucks to be you.
The most likely end of this story is that I'll wire some money over
Western Union and one of my relatives will go to a store to pay the bill.
My time will be wasted, I'll lose some money in the exchange, my relative's
time will be also wasted, and Spotify will receive money in a currency that's
devaluating at a 10% monthly rate.
Great job, Spotify.
I originally envisioned this post as a two-part brain dump, but then I realized
that the type of people interested in libraries are also the type of people who
aren't bothered by long text. So this post will be longer than usual.
Now that we are almost a quarter into the 21st century it is perhaps time to
have the talk: what do we do with our public libraries?
I'd like to start by pointing out that I love libraries. I love the feeling of
being surrounded by books, picking one of them at random and reading a couple
pages -- sometimes I put the book back after a few seconds, and sometimes I rush
to the nearest chair and remain there until it's dark outside. Having said that,
I also realize that I'm only focusing on what libraries are instead of what
they could be.
Part I: books
Physical books are awesome: paper is relatively inexpensive, lasts a long time,
doesn't hurt your eyes, can survive some natural disasters, requires no
electricity, an can be easily recycled if a book is really bad. Having said
that, paper is also heavy, flammable, and duplicating its content takes work.
A book's physicality is both its blessing and its curse. The New York Society
Library acquires 4800 books a year, meaning
that they also need a plan for getting rid of
4800 books a year. What happens to those books is a touchy subject. History is
full of brilliant artists who didn't get recognized during their time, but
90% of all books are crap.
How to strike a balance between both extremes is a full-time job.
I am a fan of physical books. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't consider
that maybe I like them just because that's what I grew up with, the same
way my dad's coworkers rejected computers because a calculator was all they
ever needed. And I am willing to bet that, about a hundred years
ago, someone somewhere must have rejected cars for being cold and boring in
comparison to the horse they brushed and cuddled every day.
It isn't hard to imagine a library without physical books. You would simply show
up to the reception desk, pick a tablet (or bring your own), sit in one of the
multiple available couches (with all the books gone, there's plenty room for
them), and browse the virtual catalog. No need for queues, no book needs ever
be thrown away, and you could even do it from the comfort of your house.
(Note that "don't throw anything away" sounds suspiciously similar to hoarding,
but we won't get into that today)
But this is where I worry: why stop there? If you can check out books from
anywhere, why even have a building? Just make it a webpage that everyone can
access. All you need to do is add Digital Restrictions
Management (DRM) and
you no longer need to worry about people making unauthorized copies and/or lending
your books to non-members. It is also a very convenient way of getting rid of
problematic books: one simple command and voilĂ !, the book is gone from every
library in the country. And as a plus, you
don't need to fight anymore with those pesky librarians who refuse to hand over
library records
without a court order.
Which touches on an important point: that if you were to invent the concept of a
library today, you would be labeled a pirate and sued.
A library is an inconvenient institution: it is not run for profit,
it facilitates copyrighted material, and it provides access to dangerous ideas
to anyone.
If I were me, I would be scared of tinkering with such an important institution
and risk breaking it forever.
Part II: activities
Whenever I think about what an ideal library would look like, I always come back
to the same example: the Vancouver Public Library.
If all you had was a VPL card and time, you could learn music theory, learn how
to play an instrument (which you can borrow on the fourth floor),
record a podcast with your progress in the recording booths,
design an album cover in their computers (don't know how? there's a book for
that), and eventually release your album.
Not many other institution offer this much knowledge for free.
The VPL (and others like this, such as the Cologne
Library)
go straight to the core of a different concept of library: not a
place to store books, but rather a place to explore ideas. And while in theory
you could also do that with a virtual library, I wouldn't discount the power of
moving your physical body somewhere. Once you are inside the library, a part of
you knows that you are there with a purpose.
No one I know associates libraries with activities, but they definitely
associate them with the idea of a safe, quiet place to study.
Which is, once again, a blessing and a curse: the space you need for your
activities is space you take away from the books. And just as important for this
discussion, it is space: if you have tried to rent even a moderately sized
empty room you'll know that it doesn't come cheap.
Perhaps I am conflating too many ideas. Perhaps the world doesn't needs a
library-makerspace-coworking space. And yet, the idea of a Library as a
"Temple of knowledge" is all my nerd brain ever wanted.
Part III: the Metaverse and Zoom meetings
This is the part where Mark Zuckerberg shows up and says "something something
THE METAVERSE". And he could have a point: if you are not at least intrigued
by the idea of reading a (virtual) book while sitting (virtually) in the
Library of Babel
you need to catch up.
But until the day comes when we all wear Metaglasses (R) all the time,
we could take about their little sibling the smartphone.
Have you tried working in a library in the past months?
I have, and I tell you, it's a challenge.
This was not a problem 4 years ago, when all I needed was fast
internet and power for my notebook. But in a post-pandemic world where everyone
and their dog want to rope me into Zoom meetings this is no longer enough:
meetings require sound-proof cabins in short notice, and they are very scarce.
The Staatsbibliothek Berlins has six such cabins for all of their members
(split into 4 and 2 between its two buildings) and trust me,
they are not even close to enough.
And so, the only people who can currently accept a phone call in a library are
Olympic sprinters who can run down four flight of stairs in less time than it
takes for a call to go to voicemail (ask me how I know this!).
I imagine libraries will eventually adapt - if anything, those six cabins
in the StaaBi did come from somewhere. But again, each one of those cabins
takes away space from "regular" book readers, who may argue that libraries
are not WeWork and that I should go somewhere else.
Conclusion
I believe books will still be an integral part of our daily lives way into the
22nd century and further. Sure, eventually all new books will be digitized and
nothing will be lost ever again, but the value of holding a book in
your hands cannot be matched. And in a time when sharing is no longer caring,
I am not counting on any better replacement coming anytime soon.
I love my local library - I like the small ones, I like the big ones, and I
definitely like the VPL. And precisely because I like them I can't stop
wondering whether I'm the old guy who complains about cars while brushing his
horse. But what does the future of the library look like? Is it in the comfort
of my home? Is it in my pocket? Is it inside incredibly expensive VR glasses?
Or is the future of my library the exact same place where it was the last couple
hundred years?
Sure, sometimes one of them catches fire, but doesn't everything?
And it's not like we can't just rebuild them.
Lucky for us, manuscripts don't burn.