These Boots

My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
~ Henry Rollins

Permaculture

Permaculture is an interesting subject I hadn’t heard of until a friend mentioned it. “Permaculture?” I asked. “Permaculture. Look it up,” he said. “Sir, yes Sir!” I said.

So I’m looking it up.

It is a process or system or theory of synergy around sustainable human settlements.

This is an interesting concept. How do you engineer an environment that is balanced for the cultivated crops, the forest, animal life, and human life?

Wrangle That Text

I’m taking a nice break for lunch today. The cafe has a baked potato…sounds good! And I’m going to read a bit. I just got Glenn Fleishman’s new book, “Take Control of BBEdit.”

Yes, I’m reading a book about a text editor. I’m a nerd…live with it! :-)

BBEdit is of course the wonderful text editor created by Rich Siegel and available over at Bare Bones Software. Of course, everyone knows about BBEdit and it’s long history, at least everyone who works on computers. And by computers, I mean Macs, of course.

“But BBEdit already has a 400+ page users manual. Just read that,” You say. True, but the users manual is 400+ pages! and great sections of it are geared toward html editing. There’s nothing wrong with that. After all, BBEdit got it’s start that way, and it is a leading html editor, but I use it for manipulating text, like this blog post. And as others have pointed out, it’s only $5 for the e-book version. Hard to beat.

Text Factories are a cool, relatively new feature, that I don’t have a lot of experience with. Glenn does a good job of explaining and giving some real world examples of their use.

Arguably BBEdit’s greatest strength is search, and the impressive multi-file built in grep search and replace. I’m a big fan of using TK as a place holder when I’m writing, and the BBEdit search result window and document pane make simple work of the ‘To Come’ items.

A good example from the book is one of the challenges for us old-timers, the dreaded double-space after a period. Here’s a quick find/replace[1]:

Find Replace Image

Much good stuff!

If you wrangle text for a hobby or a living, you need to look at BBEdit, and you should check out Take Control of BBEdit.

Enjoy!

---

1. Note the space after the \1  ↩

Facebook Is Making Me Ill

I’m really sick of Facebook. Apart from the couple of friends sharing interesting science articles and blog posts, there isn’t anything to keep me there. Conversations on Facebook are a) pointless, and b) impossible in any constructive fashion.

Perhaps it is the disassociate problem. People don’t physically see another person reading their vile comments, so they feel free to spew garbage at will, similar to road rage issues.

Everyone else on the road is an idiot.

Unlikely, and also unproductive. I know, the Lexus Bitches, and the douchebags in the black BMWs, are certain they are better and far more important than the rest of us, but even the sensible driver in the Hyundai gets a little sanctimonious behind the wheel.

Same on that website. Or at least, that’s my guess. And I find myself falling into the trap. Especially when it comes to the silly topics of religion and politics. Maybe I should delete my account. I really don’t get any value out of it, and the couple of folks I do want to keep up to date with have my email address.

Or maybe just a short facebook vacation. I’ll try ignoring it for a week and see if I really miss it or not. Chances are, I wont.

Steampunk Solar Watch

I'm not a big Steampunk reader, but some of the art catches my eye.

This watch concept is really interesting. It doesn't store energy in a battery, but uses a turbine of sorts to wind the spring.

Enjoy!