Journal shanen's Journal: Journalistic history and purposes 18
But first, a word from our sponsor, the department of weird new thoughts.
How about a continuity-of-time digital clock font to emphasize that digital time is really as fluid as analog? The initial idea started with the idea of 4:59 becoming 5:00 by moving the 5 from the center to the left, but the basic idea would be to preserve as many digits as possible and then mutate the others smoothly into the next value. All within a second? Or maybe relative time with slower movements on the left side?
But just because we could have a technology, does that mean we should want it or use it? I already thought it was crazy that my watch had downloadable faces--but then I found one that I like much more than the factory default.
And now a meta-intrusion: Strong negative reaction from negative people counts as positive feedback? But how can you tell if a negative person is actually reacting negatively or purely mindlessly? The empty mind will always be empty and the negative mind negative.
So now to the main theme, which is more thoughts about journals I have kept over the years and the purposes to which I have put them. This mostly provoked by the realization that I've been using my cloud-resident calendar for a lot of journalistic purposes. But for the purposes described in this Willpower Doesn't Work book I'm increasingly skeptical that a journal is the correct tool for my purposes, even if it works for that author... But I've used so many forms of journals and done so many journal-like activities over the years... Another example that comes to mind was a period of blogging before blogs existed. That involved manually editing the structure of the website (which lived in a separate JavaScript file) as new entries were created. Also a number of journal-style writings on various later systems, even including a couple of blogs. From that perspective maybe the interesting feature is that Slashdot probably has the most "negative atmosphere" of any website that I've used more than briefly or sporadically.
Where was I going with this? I feel like I had something planned on the purposes side, but I've been wandering around too much since I started writing this... Of course that actually counts against Slashdot, given the lack of safety for drafts.
And also the need for an entry comment... (Score:2)
Also counting against Slashdot is the need for a comment like this to access journal entries with replies later on?
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And the lack of spelling check in the Subject.
Corrected, but how did I overlook that mess?
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And the lack of spelling check in the Subject.
:-) layout.spellcheckDefault:2
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:1)
Z^-1
This is how the bot responds to a helping hand (Score:1)
Isn't that a shame?
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^-2
Typo in headline: Journal-a-listic (Score:1)
That 'a' should be removed.
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Even worse than that, but at least Slashdot journals can be edited, so I fixed it (and then noticed your comment).
A Stopped Digital Clock (Score:2)
is never right.
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I wish I could give you a funny mod for that one.
But I'm curious what caused you to notice the journal in the first place? Can't recall ever noticing your handle before, and I'm usually scanning Slashdot for Funny comments.
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It was on the front page. Was feeling funny. Posted it. No harm No foul :)
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Eh? Why would it appear on anyone's front page? Some sort of prank? There is an option to "publicize" journal entries, but I didn't pick it. Or is it an opt-out option?
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Not true, mine flashed 12:00 for over ten years
wut (Score:2)
"The initial idea started with the idea of 4:59 becoming 5:00 by moving the 5 from the center to the left, but the basic idea would be to preserve as many digits as possible and then mutate the others smoothly into the next value."
This is as pointless an idea as I have ever heard.
What's the benefit? This would only matter if you were looking at your clock at the exact moment the hour changed, or 1/3600th of each hour.
Sorry, this just seems silly to me. In my entire life (60+ years) I've never been bothered
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Is the change from "4:59" to "5:00" really that jarring?
Just like the prices, always 99.99, never a hundred bucks, and if you order now, you can get two for just 139.95!
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Well, basically I agree regarding weird fonts, but there are LOTS of weird ones out there and I like playing with weird ideas. When you look at an analogue watch you can see how continuous time is (unless it has one of those herky jerky second hands), but digital clocks give you the wrong idea that time really is discrete.
Probably also influenced by The Anatomy of Type by Stephen Coles. Beautiful book showing lots of weird details about 100 fonts. Each font has a double-page spread with some representativ
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Thanks for letting me know about it that book, I love the science and art of fonts and I'll probably get it. ($45 though, ouch, lol)
I've collected so many font packages over the years that I couldn't guess at how many I have.
I see he also wrote one named, "The Geometry of Type: The Anatomy of 100 Essential Typefaces", so I'll probably get that too.
I've always had a thing for typography, fonts, and signage. Probably the most obscure fetish in the world. :)
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I could never afford to support my habit. I stumbled across it at a fairly local library.
But let me fire up my metasearch engine for libraries... That was the only one of his books in English in about 20 libraries, but there's a book about Shrek by a Stephen Cole. I'll pass.