Paul Crowley

Trying to read this since there seems to be a bit of an FB exodus going on, but it seems I can't "like" your posts. I would like to "like" them. I don't really have something to say, I just want to say "hello, I am your friend, and I actually read your thing, and it is indeed amusing/sad/commendable/surprising/infuriating just as you say" I guess Dreamwidth has basically not changed in the last decade or so?

(if you agree but have nothing in particular to add, please feel free to reply "like")

I manage my personal TODO list with Zendone, while at work I use Google Inbox. For the most part, Zendone is the more sophisticated and capable tool, but there's one thing Inbox has that I dearly miss from Zendone: a snooze button. In Inbox I send an email, then I snooze the conversation for a few days. If I don't get a reply, I can decide what to do when the conversation pops back into my inbox.

In Zendone, I can set dates on items, but it treats them like deadlines. Snooze is the opposite of a deadline: it's not the latest it needs to be done by, it's the earliest it can be done by. What I need is for them to be invisible until their date comes up.

Does anything apart from Inbox support snoozing items?

Update: Zendone say the feature is coming in version 2.0, which has been in the works for a year now.

It's time I bought one or more new small glowing rectangles. All of mine are ancient; my contract expires in less than a fortnight and I just got a bonus at work.  I'm definitely going to stick with Android devices. But apart from that, I'm totally at sea on what to buy or how many! Your advice gratefully received.

I use them to:

• check Twitter, Facebook and RSS
• look things up online
• read books (that rectangle doesn't currently glow)
• read PDFs of scientific papers, books etc
• make voice memos
• look at maps
• make journey plans
• check bus arrival times
• occasionally take photos
• from time to time even make and receive voice calls.

I'd like to use them also to make Skype calls.

One thing I can't work out is whether to buy one device or two. What fits comfortably in a pocket is too small for reading PDFs and smaller than I'd like for many of the other jobs. But with my current collection of ageing devices, I've found setting up a WiFi hotspot every time I want to get one of the other devices online on the move is a right pain; it's slow and cumbersome, and you have to remember to turn it off or you're wondering why your Internet is so slow when you get home, or why it's not working on the Tube platform.  I don't really want the expense of two SIM cards and contracts to go with them if I can help it either!

If such a thing existed, I'd almost be tempted by a 7" phone, but it wouldn't fit in my pocket at all, and though my bag is with me everywhere it's often too far away to have my phone in.  I just tried some PDFs on my slightly broken Galaxy Note 1, and the maths PDF is fine but the philosophy one is awful, very hard to read - in part simply due to the double spacing.

For the price of, say, the Galaxy Note 3, I could get something like a top-of-the-range Nexus 7 and a smaller but fairly high-spec phone.

What should I buy? Thanks!

I bought this wall bracket for this TV. I want to attach it to a brick wall. I'm a bit disturbed by how close together the top and bottom wall fixings are - it seems like it will work hard to pull the top fixings out of the wall. I find myself wanting to somehow attach vertical strips of metal with holes in to the bracket at either end making an H shape, and use the holes at the top and bottom of each strip to attach to the wall. Is this a crazy idea? Where online can I get such a strip of metal, and how would I go about it? Or should I just rawlplug it into the brick wall and not worry about it?

A comment on this post reminds me that I meant to say something about this and never did. I made this post about the Old Testament God a few months ago. It was a copy of a comment from an ongoing discussion between a current believer in the Jewish religion and various former believers. In context, therefore, the focus on problems with Judaism specifically made lots of sense. However, when I yanked it out of context and posted it here, it sounded like something very different, and set lots of people's antisemitism alarms off. It was a mistake for me not to see what a difference taking it out of context would make and I apologise!

In the afternoon of Thursday 19th July, I'll be boarding a plane that will ultimately take me to SFO airport. I'll be attending the Center for Modern Rationality minicamp, then staying in the Bay Area with the marvellous shevek for at least some of the time until my flight back in the afternoon of Sunday 5th August. EEEEEEEEEE!

Three days after I return to the UK, I leave for BiCon. I'll be spending two of those days in the office. So I'm going to have to have everything totally lined up for BiCon before I go!

Todo:

• Renew passport
• Sort out forms for the visa waiver program
• Book post-flight hotel
• Travel insurance
• Order a credit card
• Book for BiCon
• Plan what I'm wearing for BiCon - find it all now
• Book hair dye, haircut, leg wax, eyebrow threading appointments before trip
• Add hold luggage to my flights - do I need to do anything here? Email says "Baggage is 1PC + 7Kg (Hand Baggage)" but Delta's page on checked baggage seems to indicate I get one free 23kg bag...
• WHAT HAVE I FORGOTTEN???

I never post, so here's a rant written in IM I want to preserve. Edited somewhat.

here's how it seems to me
there's an argument for the singularity that goes like this
"A, B, C, D, and E all seem likely"
"E says that A + B + C + D = Singularity"
and then people say "No, the singularity is rubbish"
and we say "do you disagree with A, B, C, D, or E?"
and they say "You're all a bunch of wild-eyed dreamers"
and we say "Err, so is that C you disagree with?"
and they say "It's religion for geeks, man!"
and we say "Err, but..."
and ... they just DON'T FUCKING ENGAGE AT ALL.
That's why I keep pointing at http://ciphergoth.dreamwidth.org/357313.html
it takes the contrapositive, and says "If not singularity, then either ¬A or ¬B or ¬C or ¬D or ¬E"
No-one said "oh wait, you forgot F"
but none of ¬A or ¬B or ¬C or ¬D or ¬E got a lot of support.

I am willing to accept that this misrepresents singularity critics horribly - you certainly don't all call us names for example! But I hope the broad form of my frustration is clear and if I'm confused I hope it makes it easier for you to clear up my confusion :-)

The time is coming for lovelybug to get a new Android mobile phone. My feeling is that it should be at least the same resolution as my HTC Desire (ie 480x800), and should be able to be a USB host - ie it should be possible to connect things like digital cameras to it and copy off the photos. Apart from that the most important consideration is cost, though a better battery life would be nice.

Any recommendations? Should we get a phone with a contract, or buy the phone separately and get eg this £10/month deal from 3?

Thanks!

Update: damn, very sorry to hear the USB host thing isn't going to work :-(

Newspapers everywhere are finding it progressively harder to make any money, and their future is in doubt. Lots of people have opinions on what should happen next, or what newspapers should do. I'm interested in a different question here - leaving aside all normative discussion of what we might like or not like, what do people think is actually going to happen?