Congratulations to Notepad++ for 21 Years and Counting

Saw an interesting link today to a blog post proclaiming that Notepad++ has been existence for 21 years now:

 

 

https://learnhub.top/celebrating-21-years-of-notepad-the-legendary-journey-of-our-favorite-text-editor/

Having used it as my primary text editor for nearly a decade (i.e. starting roughly sometime around 2005-ish, and no later than 2006, until roughly 2014-ish), it has certainly been an invaluable tool for me personally.

 

Among other things:

* It was the text editor I used to code most of my Blender work (notably doing the 2.5 Animato refactor, and initial implementation of Grease Pencil)

* It was also the text editor I used for all my undergrad, and a big chunk of my honours project work (with Geany on Linux doing the rest of the heavy-lifting when I was using the department Linux machines)

 

Wishlist for My Ultimate Photo Management + Editing Tool

Now that my project schedule is freeing up again (and most importantly, I'm finally free of my various university contracts / commitments over the past few years, with the rather onerous IP provisions those came with), my attention has again been turning towards what sorts of projects I may want to start working on in my free time going forwards.

 

The key operative principle though for any such projects I now take on is this:

From now on, any passion-projects I dedicate my free time to (and with full force) will necessarily only be ones that I fully control + own. Unfortunately, experience and hindsight have taught me that merely having something be open source (but still part of someone else's platform / hosted by some other funding org) is ultimately not the answer I once believed it to be.

Note: This is also NOT a firm commitment to actually embarking on building all of these things. But rather, just some open-air brainstorming, hoping that someone will build it all for me (and then not put it behind a hideous subscription-based paywall). Heck, maybe the mere act of brainstorming these designs then releasing them as blueprints to hopefully inspire a whole ecosystem of interfaces should be the actual project!

Enough framing boilerplate. Let's get down to the original topic for today's ramblings:

What my ideal "next-gen" photo management + editing tool solution should look like, were I to go through the effort to set one up.

[Trip Report] Sydney 2024

This is an abridged version of a more detailed post I'd been preparing (and subsequently never got around to finishing). As with the Wellington one, I might come back to attach some photos to it at some point, but the aim is to just get quick and dirty up so I have some notes on it. So without further ado, here is the "abridged" version

So back in July this year, we headed over to Sydney for a week - mainly to attend a cousin's wedding, but also to do some sightseeing. Oh, and it was our first overseas trip in 5 years (i.e. the previous was pre-pandemic in June 2019, and as it happens, was also for a family gathering in Sydney).

 

~~~ 

BTW, Crowdstrike happened while we were there, which made for an interesting experience.

  * It was surreal walking around the bustling waterfront at twilight:

          * Just before leaving the hotel after a nap, I'd seen the headlines, and started hearing all the bad news filtering in... But then, out the window I'd seen the stunning sunset, so wanted to dash outside to photograph it from the waterfront (knowing that I wouldn't get another chance to do so during the rest of my stay). So, there I was at the waterfront, wondering how things were going to pan out (i.e. it was still a developing story at that point, with lots of doom and gloom news spooling up at that point in time).  

          * It was quite a spectacular sunset (though sadly missed the best part of it by the time I'd gotten outside after waiting for the slow lifts), with a piano-busker playing "The Pachelbell  (AKA RIP Cellists)" (funny/timely since we were going to a wedding the next day), while watching the crowds of people (a mix of tourists + locals) just going about their business blissfully unaware/ignorant of all that chaos unfolding around the world, while also looking up at all those office towers with lights on feeling for all the IT guys there (and also back home) who now had a terrible fire on their hands

   * It's funny that only days earlier (Tuesday to be precise), I'd only just learned about the existence of Crowdstrike. And that was because my office workstation was running slow that day (and had been for a few days), when launching any new processes, prompting me to investigate what was happening (i..e I thought was only MsPaint, but it soon turned out to be everything, including opening new tabs!). 

         * At the time, I'd chalked it up to me not applying some Windows updates yet, which I assumed would get applied while I was away. But since I was heading away the next day, I decided to leave it alone. Little did I know.... the first time I'm out of the country in a few years, this thing then proceeds to knock out everyone's IT systems. 

         * Who knows... could I have helped the world avert this thing if I'd sounded the alarm that it was acting weird at few days earlier???

[Trip Report] Wellington 2024

At the start of this month, we headed up to Wellington for our semi-annual pilgrimage up north to check out the World of Wearable Arts show, get our coconut buns fix (since we don't have *any* dim sum places offering them here in Christchurch), and fit in another tour of the usual sights (i.e. Te Papa, waterfront, Lambton Quay, Old Bank Arcade, etc.)

In the interests of getting this post up (since heck, it's nearly the end of the month now, and also I haven't even finished working through my Sydney ones, or the MtCook ones from earlier in the year), I will likely end up making separate posts for some of the highlights below if/when I ever get around to finishing editing the photos (almost done, but not for some sets), uploading them, and curating them in a blog-post. Otherwise, I may just link to the relevant albums, since that's easier...

 

NOTE: This post will likely be updated with images in due course as I get them processed + uploaded. But the text comes first, so I can tick this off my personal todo-list (not that posting these really matters)

Musings About Topical Issues - 39th Week of 2024

Here's a roundup of musings on various issues that came up this week...

(NOTE: Most of these I'm just harvesting from my Mastodon feed, and reposting here for easier archival for my own sake)

Winter of Misery - The End is Near!

Yay!  Today officially marks the "end" of winter 2024 here - a season that unfortunately will be remembered as one of misery and lots of sickness...

 

What's Your Number? Multi-National People You Know

Was just having an interesting discussion with someone about how many people from different countries / nationalities we each knew - either from working with them directly, VS just knowing them / being acquainted. Having made a few passes at this, it turns out I know a hell of a lot than I'd realised (i.e. I suspect I'm probably a fair bit more "international" than I realised...)

 

Totals:

* Current Workplace in NZ (Currently) = 9 10

* Current Workplace (Previously / On Top of Current Total) = 3

* Previous Workplaces in NZ (Combined) = 13

* Blender (In Person) = 9

* Blender (Online that I've Interacted With... IIRC) = 18

* Other FOSS Work = 3

* During School Days = 21

* Total Unique =  Approx  25-30   (will carefully re-count later)

So, what are your numbers?

Mozart's "Magic Flute" Opera - Papageno - YouTube Rabbithole

For anyone who needs a bit of a cheer-up on this grey rainy day, here's a bunch of clips of a fun duet from a Mozart opera. 😍

1) The clip that started this rabbit hole, featuring (Huw Montague Rendall & Elisabeth Boudreault) 

This was the first time I'd ever heard this piece. I really loved the energy of the performers and the chemistry they had. (Also have to say that Elisabeth's little dance there at the end was quite cute LOL ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP9V7_fevgQ

2) Trying to find out what this song was about / the context for it, I came across this next clip from The Royal Opera (feat. Christina Gansch and Roderick Williams). 

This one had subtitles, and between these + the staging (i.e. all those kids), the meaning of the song suddenly all made sense (besides bringing back memories of the portrayal of Mozart in Amadeus) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q0ZDZB-AnM

3) From a comment on that one, I learned that the following is apparently a famous performance by Detlef Roth and Gaële Le Roi.

The key highlights of this were seeing the matching costumes along with a bit more of the context leading up to this scene, along with watching the actors' snuggly expressions as they performed the scene. Personally though, I thought the soprano's singing in this one sounded a bit "soft" compared to the others, and didn't really like it that much TBH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87UE2GC5db0

4) This final one (a "children's version" from 25 Feb 2024 in Vienna apparently, featuring Rolando Villazon and unknown soprano) takes the cake!

I love the staging of this - particularly how it's this really fun + playful setting within a gigantic opera theatre (seriously... look at all the tiers of seating/boxes in this thing) that looks like it was put on specifically to expose kids to classical works in a much more intimate and less intimidating setting. 

Also this one comes with a lot more context, along with the matching costumes, and everything...

All in all - I thought this was just  SO. MUCH. FUN! 😍

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaldPP44oas

My Second/Third Ever Aurora Sighting

Wow! I was finally rewarded again tonight after multiple attempts over the past few nights (and multiple ones earlier in the evening - when others had been reporting lots of successful sightings)... but to no avail until this last-ditch attempt for the night.

More highlights from this show just after midnight here in suburban Christchurch on the night of the 12/13th August 2024 can be found in the following album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aligorith/albums/72177720319476435/

Tip: Getting Threaded Conversations Working Consistently Across Your Desktop Outlook Mailbox

Here are some notes on how I've got Outlook set up to make my work mailbox a bit more manageable. Most of these things are probably officially documented "somewhere", but it's nice having a quick guide for getting a setup that seems more sane (for anyone coming from Gmail)

 

This post comes about because, while I had this working in my Inbox, I found that this was not the case for my other folders once I moved threads there. Hence my search for answers. 

Short Instructions  - For Enabling Threading on "Other" Folders (see image above):

1) Go to one of the affected folders
2) Go to "View" tab on Ribbon
3) Enable "Show as Conversations"
4) In the confirmation prompt, click "All Folders" (vs just "This Folder")

I suspect I'll have to go in and redo this for any new folders I add at some point in the future. But at least this gets all the current ones working nicely.

Bonus Tip:  Fixing the need to triple-click on the annoying little triangles to collapse threads

Make sure you've got that "Always Expand Selected Conversations" thing from that menu selected, which fixes that problem (it seems).

Oh, and you need to do that per-folder... unfortunately, this case doesn't show the handy "change for all folders" popup.

Autocorrect Rant

One of my pet peeves about how auto-correct works on my phone is this:

Having to fix and refix and refix something where "it knew better" and kept correcting what I enter, despite either:

1) Repeatedly deleting the "fix" it applied + immediately retyping what I had originally typed

2) Explicitly choosing "option 1" (left-word - i.e. the thing I typed), over "option 2" (i.e. its default auto-correct solution)

This is especially annoying when it happens multiple times within a few 5-10 minutes, when I'm typing + re-correcting the same sequence of characters again and again!

Solution:

The solution is really quite simple IMO - An explicit user override for a particular sequence of characters (or an immediate delete + retype of the same thing) should be a strong hint that they do not want that sequence autocorrected again in the next 5-10 minutes. If they keep doing this over a longer period, then that sequence should *never* get auto-corrected to whatever the system decides ever again.

*That* is the sort of "smart" behaviour that people really want from their tech, not the "lie-generating plagiarism machines" that are all the rage right now as the Big Tech titans once again battle to win the latest "first to build the 'Next iPhone' Monopoly game"

Thoughts About "AI" (Winter 2024 Edition) - AKA: No, I do NOT want to have to "talk" to your "chatbot"

I briefly interrupt coverage of my Music Visualisation Project to cover a brief rant about the topical "AI" issues that are all the rage right now.

 

My current position on all this "AI" hype is:

1) TBH, I bloody HATE all this "me too" bandwagon jumping crap that's going around at the moment, and hope it all blows over sooner rather than later - just like "Crypto" and "NFT's" and "Metaverse" fads before it did. The sooner the better!

See also this "supremely on the point" blog post ;) -  https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/

 

2) The UX of all these "AI" tools is fundamentally flawed:  i.e.  

     "I do NOT want to have to fucking 'talk' to your bloody 'chatbot' to do stuff!"

 

3) The majority of all this "AI" hype is all being poured into all the wrong directions: 

    "We should be focussing our efforts on helping people do what they cannot do otherwise (i.e. augmenting human abilities),  NOT trying to replace them  (i.e. destructive misery causing)"

    That there is perhaps the best way to sum up the ethical line / standard I use to decide what I spend time working on. I'm only interested in working on stuff that betters humanity's ability to do stuff they otherwise wouldn't be able to do without the technology. Other stuff (e.g. ad networks, DRM, fintech, killer robots, facial recognition, tracking + surveillance tech, making people/industries/etc. "redundant", etc.) I refuse to work on  (and really, anything I am not interested in, I do a categorically *awful* job at...)

 

4)  In that light, will I work on or play with AI stuff at some point?

     Short Answer:  If AI is the right tool for the job, I will consider it.

     Operative word: "right tool"

     So far, none of the problems I have been working on have required reaching into that toolset, so I haven't bothered to really delve too deeply into it. But if the opportunity arises where AI presents a better solution than we can achieve otherwise, I will consider it then.

     Prime Example:  With some of the image generation + editing tech out there now, we finally have the a set of powerful tools for fixing a whole bunch of previously prohibitively difficult-to-fix problems, giving us the ability to do spot fixes for defects that would've previously ruined many images / videos. In that sense, these user-guided "repair" tools are precisely the "powerful magic fix-it tools"  that we've all dreamed of having all these years, and so, by my previously stated principles, they may well be the right tool for the job in those cases. But using these tools to construct entire fabrications from scratch, trained off everyone's data (however ill-gotten)? Nope - that's pretty much something that should not be done!