1,249 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. So look for this blog to become something like Cory Doctorow’s Memex Method, a commonplace book as a public database — though I prefer to call it the Mathom-house Method. There will be more posts here, I think. But for heaven’s sake if you don’t like, or don’t agree with, or otherwise disapprove of something I quote, don’t send me an email about it.

      I always thought that Alan Jacobs blogging practice was a method of commonplacing and digital publishing all rolled up into one. Nice to see him lay out some of his thinking and method here.

    1. Typewriter Basics: Carriage Locks by [[Sarah Everett]] of [[Just My Typewriter]]

      Sarah describes having a common spacebar issue when repairing a typewriter, bending the spacebar down which causes the machine not to work/advance as a result when it's put back into the typewriter shell.

      Sarah also shows some type bar benders, but doesn't demonstrate how she (or her father) used them to do the repair.

  2. Oct 2024
    1. Any ordinary light machineoil will do, but regular typewriter or spermoil is best. Apply it sparingly—as much aswill cling to the end of a toothpick will do—and wipe off all excess.

      toothpick as a typewriter tool

    1. Royal Quiet DeLuxe Typewriter Complete Total Body Removal by [[The HotRod Typewriter Co.]]

      Gerren uses a Weaver gunsmith screwdriver set for most of his screwdriver needs. [5:00]

      On the newer QDLs two of the screws for removing the rear plate are accessible from the top underneath the carriage instead of all on the rear.

      The screws for the front body plate can be loosened and don't need to be fully removed to take the body plate off of the machine.

    1. emust bewareofacertaincrazeforcollectingwhich sometimestakespossessionofthosewhomakenotes.Theywanttohaveafullnotebookorfilingcabinet;theyareinahurrytoputsomethingintheemptyspaces,andtheyaccumulatepassagesasotherpeoplefillstamp and postcard albums.Thatisadeplorablepractice;itisasortofchild-ishness,andrisksbecomingamania. Orderisanecessity, butitmustserveus,notweit.Toin-dulge obstinatelyinaccumulatingandcompletingistoturn one’smindaway from producingandeyen from learning; excessive attentiontoclassifi-cation interferes withuse;nowinthisconnectioneverything mustbesubordinatedtothegoodofthework.

      If you collect everything, you collect nothing.

    1. he English education does notencourage learners to think. They are generally told toreproduce the ideas of others, and, unless the questioncomes straight out of the Text-book, they often findthemselves quite unable to answer it.

      This statement follows the broad thesis that imitation is far easier than innovation.

    1. https://www.amsterdamtypewriter.com/en-us/products/typewriter-care-kit-diy

      Amsterdam Typewriter's kit contains all the following essentials:<br /> * Brass wire brush (for cleaning the typeface) * Natural bristled brush (general cleaning purposes) * Microfiber cotton cloth (for polishing, gentle to paint) * New ribbon (black, red or black or purple color) * 3 compact cotton tissues (disposable, soak in cleaner or mild soap solution to clean typewriter) * Alcohol spray for cleaning (removes ink, oxidation, stains, surface rust) * Deodorizing spray (for disinfection and removing odor from cases and felt lining) * 10 Special cotton buds with long reach (do not leave cotton strings behind) * Our miracle polishing paste (wonderfully revives paint, also polishes on metal, paint, glass, fiberglass, plastic) * Leather rolling pouch for carrying * Comfy cotton bag for storage * Checklist for cleaning * Copy of manual with tips on cleaning of your typewriter and detailed steps

    1. Beyond the cards mentioned above, you should also capture any hard-to-classify thoughts, questions, and areas for further inquiry on separate cards. Regularly go through these to make sure that you are covering everything and that you don’t forget something.I consider these insurance cards because they won’t get lost in some notebook or scrap of paper, or email to oneself.

      Julius Reizen in reviewing over Umberto Eco's index card system in How to Write a Thesis, defines his own "insurance card" as one which contains "hard-to-classify thoughts, questions, and areas for further inquiry". These he would keep together so that they don't otherwise get lost in the variety of other locations one might keep them

      These might be akin to Ahrens' "fleeting notes" but are ones which may not easily or even immediately be converted in to "permanent notes" for one's zettelkasten. However, given their mission critical importance, they may be some of the most important cards in one's repository.

      link this to - idea of centralizing one's note taking practice to a single location

      Is this idea in Eco's book and Reizen is the one that gives it a name since some of the other categories have names? (examples: bibliographic index cards, reading index cards (aka literature notes), cards for themes, author index cards, quote index cards, idea index cards, connection cards). Were these "officially" named and categorized by Eco?

      May be worthwhile to create a grid of these naming systems and uses amongst some of the broader note taking methods. Where are they similar, where do they differ?


      Multi-search tools that have full access to multiple trusted data stores (ostensibly personal ones across notebooks, hard drives, social media services, etc.) could potentially solve the problem of needing to remember where you noted something.

      Currently, in the social media space especially, this is not a realized service.

  3. Sep 2024
    1. They open up new possibilities for building a decentralised social Semantic Web of Knowledge.

      QUERY What are the 20204 tools that have caught up with the vision

    1. What do you mean with Zettelkasten ratchet? I am too unfamiliar with the word ratchet to really understand the meaning.[9:46 AM] Or if someone else has an idea and can help me out

      The additional "hidden context" is that the rachet/gear seen in many of these diagrams is usually attached to a radial spring (or some other device) which, as it is wound, stores energy which is later used by the bigger device in which the rachet and pawl are encased. Examples include the stem of watches, which when wound, store energy which the watch later uses to run as it counts the seconds. Another example is the mainspring of a typewriter which is attached to a ratchet/pawl set up; when you push the carriage to the right, the spring gets wound up and stores energy which is slowly expended by the escapement a space or a letter at a time as you type. In the zettelkasten analogy, the box and numbered cards placed in it act as the pawl (the wedge that prevents backward movement), as you add more and more information, you're storing/building up "potential energy" in small bits. This "stored energy" can be spent at a later time by allowing you to more easily write an article, paper, book, etc. In some sense, the zettelkasten (as most tools do) allows you a "mechanical advantage" in the writing process over trying to remember everything you've ever read and then relying on your ability to spit it all back out in a well-ordered manner.


      reply to Muhammed Ali at https://discord.com/channels/992400632390615070/992400632776507447/1286577013439594497

      continuation of https://hypothes.is/a/GTPIPnYiEe-GTUu4YcdeAQ

  4. Aug 2024
    1. I have it too, and I'm not a fan. it only contains imperial bits. So you can't use it on any brand from the European mainland, that have metric screws. They break when you over torque them, instead of the screw. That's good with very old machines. What is bad us that they only provide one of the smallest bit which is most prone to breaking. And also I have many typewriters with even thinner slots on the slotted screws. the bit holder is very fat, making it very difficult to use in narrow spaces. And typewriters have a lot of those. You're better off with a gunsmithing set from Wheeler or Weaver. This is the one I ended up buying: https://www.weaveroptics.com/gunsmithing-tools/driver-and-hammer-sets/multi-bit-tool-kit/WV-849718.html

      via u/Private_Bonkers

      the cons of the Chapman 0623 screwdriver set for typewriter repair

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixedink

      MixedInk was a startup that provided web-based, collaborative writing software enabling large groups of people to create text that expresses a collective opinion, such as a mission statement, editorial, political platform, open letter or product review.

    1. Virtual Hermans - Lucas Dul

      Lucas Dul does an overview of affordable and available tools for typewriter repair as well as more advanced

      Basic Tools

      • screwdriver sets
        • Carpenter screwdrivers (come to a point) the point can slip and causecam out screws
        • Hollow ground - provide the most amount of torque and prevent cam-out problems (also called gunsmith He uses the 0623 Chapman set (the number is the date of international typewriter day) The large tip can be problematic
        • long reach screwdriver
        • magnetic screwdriver
        • tempered stainless steel ruler (as a screwdriver, especially
        • microdrivers (usually used for eyeglasses or electronics)
      • spring hooks (push/pull)
        • Fixture from an embroidery set with length for getting length
        • grab hooks
      • pliers
        • standard needle nose pliers
        • 45-90 degree pliers (he uses more often)
        • wire cutters (for modifying springs in machines and modifying links in machines)
        • parallel draw pieces (with heavy duty cutters)
      • Mechanics' wrench set
        • prefer cast ones
        • socket screwdrivers (fixed hex screwdriver) expecially for shift adjustment on the Royal Ps
        • Chapman's has a mini rachet 1/4" socket in it's 0623 set
      • Forceps especially a long pair for IBM Selectrics (via Duane Jensen)
      • Tweezers
      • Blowtorches
        • alcohol torches (for heating and bending metal)
        • soldering, brazing, and heat shrinking
        • small butane torch (cigarette lighter use)
      • Oilers with needlepoint applicator (he uses sewing machine oil)
        • One can use the surface tension of the oil to place a dot on the tip of a scewdriver (flat head) and then place the dot within a machine with reasonable precision
      • MIG Pliers - have cutouts for taking rubber off of old feedrollers (otherwise these pliers are used for welding); he describes it as the nutcracker of the typewriter world
      • strap wrench (especially for removing platen knobs to prevent damage)
      • knife (butter knife)
        • razor blade for trimming rubber (otherwise too thin for other applications)
      • flashlight (simple is fine)
      • marker (Sharpie)
        • marking orientation of removed parts (washes off with alcohol)
      • hammer
      • retainer clip pliers (especially for IBMs, Brothers, Swintecs) with spare e- and c-clips (some have thumbscrews for minimizing damage to clips) openers are more useful than "closers"
      • Bristol wrenches - looks like Allen Keys, but with star cross section for bristol locks in IBM machines
      • Hand crank (for IBM Selectrics) thread into the operational cam shaft

      Intermediate Tools

      • segment bearing rod (good for removing individual typebars)
      • drinking straw for ball bearings on royal portables and S-C portables and flat tops staggered 1/2" ball bearings with orbital gear (star-shaped) - snip opposite sides to insert orbital ring and ball bearing for holding and placement in typewriter
      • carpenter's pencil for marking

      Advanced/Specialty tools

      • t-bender for forming metal (exp. thin pieces)
      • 9 jaw pliers for bending typebars
      • peening pliers (for manipulating and stretching materials)
      • wheel benders (he doesn't use often)
      • eyelete tool for putting eyelets in typewritter ribbon
      • files (small/cheap) widen gaps inside of type guides when necessary or thinning out tight pieces

      Very specialized

      • Type slug solder jig or solder guide
      • keyring pliers ($400 and above to purchase)
      • multimeter for checking circuit components on electric models. Primarily using Ohm setting to see if current is passing through parts, otherwise they're broken.

      Honorable mentions

      • center punch for drilling points and new screws
      • dental mirror for looking into machines
      • spring gauge to set 2lbs for desktop and 1lb for portables

      Q&A

      air compressors are useful for cleaning

      Don't damage screws on older machines.

      US used imperial screws until 1940/50s and machines after are all metric.

      3 dessert island tools<br /> - screwdrivers, pliers, spring hook

    1. Tools of the typewriter trade by [[Retrotype]]

      Excellent overview of many of the basic tools for typewriter repair. Didn't have the strongest grasp of all the tools' specific names, but good enough for describing their general use cases.

      Example of a typewriter toolset including a case made for telephone company repair, but which works with typewriters.

      • Shore A durometer gauge
      • nylon fishing/picture hanging wire spec to 25kg (for drawband replacement)
      • thick waxed string/yarn for repairing fishing nets (for drawbands)
      • nitrile gloves (to prevent staining, issues with mineral spirits, and other caustic chemicals)
      • XPower pressure blower for blowing out dust/dirt and mineral spirits. (smaller than an air compressor)
      • nail grooming set with tweezers, picks, etc. (not technically necessary, but sometimes useful)
      • dental tools (for use as spring hooks)
      • Renaissance micro-crystalline wax (non-corrosive, made for British Museum, good on marble, wood, leather, etc. Good on bare metal for treating previously rusted metal. (It's recommended to use an abrasive polish for improving the shine of glossy paint however)
      • Pouch and set of precision screwdrivers (he only uses the flatheads though the set includes other) Prefer hollow ground tips which are squared off rather than wedges.
      • Chapman bit set of screwdrivers (with hollow ground tips) He prefers these for hard to remove screws. Issue that it's a bit thicker at the tip.
      • Liquid wrench penetrating oil for helping to loosen screws (he likes this better than WD-40)
      • brash wire brushes
      • steel wire brushes (uses less frequently as they're more abrasive)
      • pouch of precision wrenches (imperial and metric) his are bladed, Moody tools wrenches (mfg.) prefer the thinnest tips
      • microfiber cloths
      • jig for soldering typeslugs on typearms
      • pouch with various typewriter specific pliers:
        • 3 prong pliers (total of 9 prongs) for making bends/forming typebars (especially making bends in the middle of bars rather than the end.;
        • peening bend pliers;
        • bending pliers for sideways bends esp. with thinner typebars;
        • vertical adjustment pliers (with rollers) not good for making adjustments of 3mm or more;
        • forming pliers with screws on the end to rotate heads for bending, peening and cutting;
        • peening pliers (bending by metal displacement)
      • Magnetized screwdrivers
      • forceps
      • screw grabber (active capture)
      • spring hooks (push/pull)
      • nylon brushes for dusting
      • needle nose pliers
      • t-bender with slotted head for forming metal
      • small bottles for mineral spirits and sewing machine oil. They have small metal tips for precision application.
    1. This manual suggest using a knitting needle with a bent tip to assist as both a spring hook for pulling springs as well as for pulling drawbands back through typewriter carriages.

    1. “Man is a Tool-using Animal (Handthierendes Thier). Weakin himself, and of small stature, he stands on a basis, at mostfor the flattest-soled, of some half square-foot, insecurelyenough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very windsupplant him. Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals are acrushing load for him; the Steer of the meadow tosses himaloft, like a waste rag. Nevertheless he can use Tools, candevise Tools: with these the granite mountain melts intolight dust before him; he kneads glowing iron, as if it weresoft paste; seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire hisunwearying steeds. Nowhere do you find him without Tools;without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.”

      often shortened to:

      Man is a Tool-using Animal... Nowhere do you find him without Tools; without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.”

      Link to:<br /> - Thoreau https://hypothes.is/a/vooPrPkwEe2r_4MIb6tlFw - Culkin https://hypothes.is/a/6Znx6MiMEeu3ljcVBsKNOw

    Tags

    Annotators

    1. Typewriter Tool Kit from the DOLLAR TREE by [[Just My Typewriter]]

      Overview of cheap tools for typewriters available at Dollar Tree and similar dollar stores.

      • microfiber cloths
      • q-tips
      • LA's Totally Awesome cleaner
      • Silly Putty
      • toothbrushes
      • allen wrenches
      • wire bristle brushes
      • hook and pick kit
      • screwdrivers and sets
      • extendable mini mirror
      • rubber gloves
      • flashlights
      • magnets to hold screws
  5. Jul 2024
    1. Does anyone here use a purpose made typewriter desk? How do you like it? Alternatively, has anyone tried one and found it wasn't for them?

      I've used the small typewriter tables with drop sides and wheels before. I appreciate their small size and ability to move around. I'm actively looking for a new one at the moment. (I sold the original 20 years ago when downsizing during a move between apartments and prior to restarting my collection.)

      I currently use a dual pedestal desk and and usually have my typewriters on the pull out writing drawers. This drops the typewriter an inch and makes one's typing position (27" off the floor) much more comfortable than having the typewriter higher up 29-31" for most modern desks and tables.

      I have tested a pedestal desk with a spring-loaded typewriter platform that moves up and out of the desk after opening a door. This was an excellent experience, and if I find another, I will surely purchase it. The tough part is that they take up a lot of space as the internal desk space is given entirely to hiding the typewriter when not in use. They're definitely great if you have a heavy 30+ pound standard typewriter that's not so mobile.

      The third type are wooden desks with two desk height levels. One for traditional desk work and a second lower one as the typewriter platform. The lower height is obviously much more ergonomic for typing for long periods. On most of these desks, the inset typewriter space is most often given completely over for the typewriter to be there permanently. If your plan is to only have a typewriter, then jump, but their use is more difficult if you're sharing that space with a computer and need to move the two back and forth regularly. Additionally, the wooden desks have either permanent cut outs or can be flipped over to hide the cutout and make the entire desk space flush when the typewriter isn't in use. You'll have to use your own gut to decide which of these two might be best for you. I recently saw a reasonable version of a convertible wooden desk at https://abqtypers.substack.com/p/convertible-typewriter-desk

      I find these pop up pretty regularly in the $200-500 range. Often owners don't want them because they don't use typewriters, and they don't move easily, so they're likely to come down in price pretty quickly/easily.

    1. Sometimes the most important thing about a tool is not that it accomplishes its purpose—like every other typewriter will—, but how much you enjoy using it.<br /> —Lucas Dul, in The IBM Personal Typewriter and the Selectric 1 - IBMs Two Smallest Typewriters, timestamp 10:28

    1. What are the must have tools for a maintenance of a typewriter, some tools you recommend, some that make maintenance a little bit easier

      reply to u/riatai69 at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1e3c0zy/tools_for_a_deep_maintenance/

      You can do a tremendous amount with just a few things:

      • thin Philips screwdriver with a small magnet to hold/catch screws
      • small adjustable wrench
      • bottle of Simple Green (or other mild cleaner)
      • can of mineral spirits (naphtha, paint thinner, varnish remover, PB B'laster etc.) with a standard/cheap restaurant refillable ketchup/mustard squeeze bottle
      • Toothbrush (and/or brass bristle brush)
      • canned air
      • a piece of string (useful for reattaching some pieces without more specialized tools, and particularly for reattaching springs)
      • light machine oil (gun or sewing machine) for very lightly oiling your carriage rails
      • YouTube for watching lots of typewriter repair videos

      If you want to go higher end and do a lot more

      • a set of spring hooks with push/pull ends
      • full set of small wrenches
      • more custom screw drivers
      • a nice thick felt pad (approx 15" x 15" x 1/2"+ for having a place to sit your typewriter on without scratching it up)
      • a small lazy susan big enough to set your typewriter on to more easily manipulate it
      • air compressor (to replace your canned air)
      • bins and trays for storing typewriter parts and screws while you're taking them apart and putting back together
      • a set up for spraying down/washing out typewriters (DIY ideas include paint roller trays or plastic milk crates as a base and plastic bins for catching the run off)
      • wiping cloths or similar cloth rags for wiping things down

      If you want to go crazy

      • Keyring pliers
      • set up for respooling ribbon from 330+ yard spools
      • The Manual Typewriter Repair Bible https://typewriterrepairbible.com/ as well as various other repair manuals and all the tools listed within them.
      • storage shelving for 100+ typewriters
      • a small collection of machines for parting out
      • an 800+ square foot workshop space
      • a publisher for you book about typewriters

      When you're really ready for full-on insanity

    1. https://once.com/writebook

      Writebook<br /> Instantly publish your own books on the web for free, no publisher required.

      ᔥ[[Evan Hildreth]] in Downloaded 37Signals’ Writebook at 2024-07-04 (accessed:: 2024-07-04 08:29 AM)

      Downloaded 37Signals’ Writebook because free. I might try to run it locally as a Scrivener replacement, but I’m bristling at the thought of running a full Rails app on the server for what should be static files.

    1. The Early History of Counting is a great article focusing on how long humanity has been offloading its brain, which makes me feel way less awkward about taking so many notes and using fancy tools like calculators and LLMs. Ancient philosophers like Socrates complained about books making people lazy because of not doing oral memorization anymore, which solved into people complaining about computers. Stone Age cavemen probably complained about people offloading their number sense onto tally sticks.

      makes me think of tools that extend parts of ourselves. terms like "second brain" or "pkms"

    1. Type Shop, Ep. 15: The Ultimate Keyring Toolset Guide by [[Typewriter Chicago]]

      Charles Gu's new keyring pliers for about $500 for a set are as good as if not better than vintage tools. In particular the new rubber pieces seem to help protect from breaking the original glass key tops which will then require replacement.

  6. Jun 2024
  7. May 2024
    1. A few cautionsinstructors would be wise to keep in mind

      list of cautions for external tool adoption

    2. As with portfolios, brainstorming tools requirechoice and agency of students and are typically intrinsicallymotivating.

      Padlet - brainstorming tools

    3. Portfolio assignments are excellent vehicles for activelearning. The ability to select and create content allows plentyof room for student agency and fosters intrinsic motivation.

      Portfolios - way for active learning

    1. Even with keyring pliers and the skill to use them, the blackout paper method is a lengthy one.

      Keyring pliers are used to remove the metal rings off of both circular and tombstone glass typewriter keys so that the legends can be replaced or even covered over with black paper circles for teaching or learning typing. They take some practice and skill to use, but speed up the replacement of legends significantly.

    1. He eschewed computers, often writing by fountain pen in his beloved notebooks.“Keyboards have always intimidated me,” he told The Paris Review in 2003.“A pen is a much more primitive instrument,” he said. “You feel that the words are coming out of your body, and then you dig the words into the page. Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.”He would then turn to his vintage Olympia typewriter to type his handwritten manuscripts. He immortalized the trusty machine in his 2002 book “The Story of My Typewriter,” with illustrations by the painter Sam Messer.

      digging the words into the page sounds adjacent to Seamus Heaney's "Digging" which analogizes writing to digging: https://hypothes.is/a/J-z8OgfQEe-0adtJyXyb3g

      There's something here which suggests pens, typewriters, keyboards, etc. as direct extended mind objects as tools for thought. A sense of rumination and expulsion simultaneously.

  8. Apr 2024
    1. Laptops are ideal forwhen I research and write at the sametime, or when I work on several storiesat once, going back and forth amongwindows. But for everything else, Iseek a departure from my primaryworld. It’s a different type of writing,so I need a different tool.
    1. Confusion about what it means toown a book leads people to a falsereverence for paper, binding, and type—a respect for the physical thing—thecraft of the printer rather than thegenius of the author.

      This sort of worship of objects extends to those who overbuy notebooks (or other stationery). It's nice to "own" them, but it's even more valuable to write your thoughts in them and use them as the tools they were meant to be.

      cross-reference: https://hypothes.is/a/sSgxLMGoEe6j8ccyyMeDTw

    1. Make those judgments for your communities, instance by instance, not by network or software. Those sledgehammers are too big and unweildy.

      or even person by person...

  9. Mar 2024
  10. betula.mycorrhiza.wiki betula.mycorrhiza.wiki
    1. https://betula.mycorrhiza.wiki/

      Betula is a free federated self-hosted single-user bookmarking software for the independent web. Use it to organize references or maintain a linklog.

    1. By having a longer historical view, it actually tends to extend our time horizons in both directions. So, by thinking more about the past, it sets us up to think more about a long-term future and to challenge ourselves to think more expansively and ambitiously about what might come by having the sense of a wider aperture to think about rather than just thinking about the here and now or what’s coming out in the next cycle.
    1. when I finish reading an article, I'm excited to go to Tinderbox and play with what I've just learned. And that is just rare. Normally that sort of work is is tedium and it doesn't feel that way.

      not all tools are fun and each may be different for different people

  11. Feb 2024
    1. For digital tools themain concern has been with developing software that enables the accessing, manipulation, andtransformation of these digital archives for the use of scholars, particularly in the fields of Englishand History, with the emphasis on augmenting scholarly work through larger dataset analysis,sometimes called “distant reading”

      Enfoque Herramientas Digitales. En cambio, con las Herramientas Digitales se evidencia esa interactividad entre datos, visualizaciones, mapeo, colecciones no estáticas.

      "Se centra en el desarrollo de Software que permiten el acceso, la manipulación y la transformación, particularmente en los campos de inglés e historia".

    2. digital archives and digital tools.

      Dos enfoques: Archivos Digitales y Herramientas Digitales.

    1. Zenkit Suite

      • Zenkit ToDo (interested in)

      also has: Zen Hypernotes (knowledge, notes & Wiki)* interesting ZenProjects zenForms (forms & surveys) ZenChat Base (all-in-one collaboration platform)

    1. https://kumu.io/

      Make sense of your messy world. Kumu makes it easy to organize complex data into relationship maps that are beautiful to look at and a pleasure to use.

      tagline:

      The art of mapping is to create a context in which others can think.


      Tool mentioned on [[2022-06-02]] by Jerry Michalski during [[Friends of the Link]] meeting.

    1. As Thoreau said, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us”;and this is what we must fight, in our time. The question is, indeed,Which is to be master? Will we survive our technologies?

      another variation of Thoreau on tools... source?

      It's Walden. (see: https://hypothes.is/a/b10mJsGoEe6rgteMdxbwKQ)

      Joy may have more profitably quoted the earlier Walden piece from p.41: "But lo! men have become the tools of their tools."

      There also seems to be the idea of our slow evolution into cybernetic or Borg-like beings hiding not only in Joy's argument, but in Thoreau's. If we integrate so closely with our tools, where do they stop and we end and vice versa?

      Compare this with the infamous problem of the ship of Theseus.

    1. We do not ride on the railroad; it rides uponus. Did you ever think what those sleepers are thatunderlie the railroad ? Each one is a man, an Irish¬man, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, andthey are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothlyover them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you.And every few years a new lot is laid down and runover; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on arail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon.

      p100

      This fits into the same sort of framing as Thoreau's earlier quote "men have become the tools of their tools." (p41)

      see: https://hypothes.is/a/vooPrPkwEe2r_4MIb6tlFw

    2. But lo!men have become the tools of their tools. The manwho independently plucked the fruits when he was hun¬gry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a treefor shelter, a housekeeper.

      p41

      This quote is fascinating when one realizes that the Thoreau family business was manufacturing pencils at John Thoreau & Co., one of the first major pencil companies in the United States. Thoreau's father was the titular John and Henry David worked in the factory and improved upon the hardness of their graphite. https://hypothes.is/a/sm7LUpazEe2tTq_GhGiVIg

      One might also then say that the man who manufactured pencils naturally should become a writer!


      This quote also bears some interesting resemblance to quotes about tools which shape us by Winston Churchill and John M. Culkin see: https://hypothes.is/a/6Znx6MiMEeu3ljcVBsKNOw

  12. Jan 2024
  13. spectrogram.sciencemusic.org spectrogram.sciencemusic.org
    1. Great tool mention in the video "NMC Learning at Home: Spectrograms & Your Voice". Found it while looking for objective measurements to distinguish falsetto and head voice.

    1. The goal of Quartz is to make hosting your own public digital garden free and simple. You don’t even need your own website. Quartz does all of that for you and gives your own little corner of the internet. https://github.com/jackyzha0/quartz

      Quartz runs on top of Hugo so all notes are written in Markdown .

    1. But if we are downloaded into our technology, what are the chancesthat we will thereafter be ourselves or even human?

      reminiscent of the quote:

      Life imitates art. We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us.<br /> —John M. Culkin, “A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan” (The Saturday Review, March 1967) (Culkin was a friend and colleague of Marshall McLuhan)<br /> (see: https://hypothes.is/a/6Znx6MiMEeu3ljcVBsKNOw)

      or the earlier version:

      But lo! men have become the tools of their tools. The man who independently plucked the fruits when he was hungry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a tree for shelter, a housekeeper.<br /> —Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p41 <br /> (see: https://hypothes.is/a/vooPrPkwEe2r_4MIb6tlFw)

    1. https://vimeo.com/905326134/0a2a7388eb

      While ostensibly about apps for note taking, Dan Allosso gives a good thumbnail sketch of his background.

      Fascinatingly he feels he needs to justify doing videos on note taking process as a historian, which is a platform from which many note taking and research process (and historiography) related books have stemmed. (ie, historically, Dan has a better platform for doing this than most in the tools for thought space.)

    1. Hiya - I'm just curious about how people use Obsidian in academia. I guess you could say I'm looking for examples of what it's used for (e.g. to take short notes or to link ideas) and in what kind of systems may guide people's vaults (e.g. Zettelkasten). I'm also just keen on connecting with other PhD candidates through these blogs. No one at my uni that I know of is currently using Obsidian for academic work

      Reply to Couscous at https://discord.com/channels/686053708261228577/722584061087842365/1197392837952684052


      A quick survey of currently active academics, teachers, and researchers who are blogging about note taking practices and zettelkasten-based methods.

      Individuals

      Dan Allosso is a history professor at Bemidji State University who has used Obsidian in his courses in the past. He frequently writes about related topics on his Substack channels. One can also find related videos about reading, writing, and research process as well as zettelkasten on his YouTube channel. In addition to this, Dan has a book on note taking and writing which focuses on using a card index or zettelkasten centric process.

      Shawn Graham has both a blog as well as a prior course on the history of the internet using Obsidian. In the course materials he has compiled significant details and suggestions for setting up an Obsidian vault for students interested in using the tool.

      Kathleen Fitzpatrick has a significant blog which covers a variety of topics centered around her work and research. Her current course Peculiar Genres of Academic Writing (2024) focuses on writing, note taking (including Zettelkasten) and encourages students to try out Obsidian, which she's been using herself. A syllabus for an earlier version of the course includes some big name bloggers in academia whose sites might serve as examples of academic writing in the public. The syllabus also includes a section on being an academic blogger and creating platform as a public intellectual.

      Morganeua is a Ph.D. candidate who has a fairly popular YouTube channel on note taking within the academic setting (broadly using Obsidian, though she does touch on other tools from time to time).

      Chris Aldrich is independent research who does work at the intersection of intellectual history and note taking methods and practices. He's got an active website along with a large collection of note taking, zettelkasten, commonplace books, and sense-making related articles. His practice is a hybrid one using both analog and digital methods including Obsidian and Hypothes.is.

      Bob Doto is a teacher and independent researcher who focuses on Luhmann-artig zettelkasten practice and writing. He uses Obsidian and also operates a private Discord server focused on general Zettelkasten practice.

      Manfred Kuehn, a professor of philosophy at Boston University, had an influential blog on note taking practices and culture from 2007 to 2018 on Blogspot. While he's taken the site down, the majority of his work there can be found on the Internet Archive.

      Andy Matuschak is an independent researcher who is working at the intersection of learning, knowledge management, reading and related topics. He's got a Patreon, YouTube Channel and a public wiki.

      Broader community-based efforts

      Here are some tool-specific as well as tool-agnostic web-based fora, chat rooms, etc. which are focused on academic-related note taking and will have a variety of people to follow and interact with.

      Obsidian runs a large and diverse Discord server. In addition to many others, they have channels for #Academia and #Academic-tools as well as #Knowledge-management and #zettelkasten.

      Tinderbox hosts regular meetups (see their forum for details on upcoming events and how to join). While their events are often product-focused (ways to use it, Q&A, etc.), frequently they've got invited speakers who talk about their work, processes, and methods of working. Past recorded sessions can be found on YouTube. While this is tool-specific, much of what is discussed in their meetups can broadly be applied to any tool set. Because Tinderbox has been around since the early 00s and heavily focused on academic use, the majority of participants in the community are highly tech literate academics whose age skews to the over 40 set.

      A variety of Zettelkasten practitioners including several current and retired academicians using a variety of platforms can be found at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/.

      Boris Mann and others held Tools for Thought meetups which had been regularly held through 2023. They may have some interesting archived material for perusal on both theory, practice, and a wide variety of tools.

      Others?

      I've tried to quickly tip out my own zettelkasten on this topic with a focus on larger repositories of active publicly available web-based material. Surely there is a much wider variety of people and resources not listed here, but it should be a reasonable primer for beginners. Feel free to reply with additional suggestions and resources of which you may be aware.

    1. This is why choosing an external system that forces us todeliberate practice and confronts us as much as possible with ourlack of understanding or not-yet-learned information is such a smartmove.

      Choosing an external system for knowledge keeping and production forces the learner into a deliberate practice and confronts them with their lack of understanding. This is a large part of the underlying value not only of the zettelkasten, but of the use of a commonplace book which Benjamin Franklin was getting at when recommending that one "read with a pen in your hand". The external system also creates a modality shift from reading to writing by way of thinking which further underlines the value.

      What other building blocks are present in addition to: - modality shift - deliberate practice - confrontation of lack of understanding

      Are there other systems that do all of these as well as others simultaneously?


      link to Franklin quote: https://hypothes.is/a/HZeDKI3YEeyj9GcNWKX4iA

    1. https://streetpass.social/

      StreetPass, a browser extension that leverages rel="me" for compiling a list of potential mastodon accounts to follow as you visit websites.

    1. It doens't take into account the mental labour of actually assigning each card a numeric alpha address.

      I appreciate that he takes a moment to acknowledge that this step of assigning numbers and arranging is work. Many gloss over this.

      The work put in up front ideally pays off later.

  14. Dec 2023
    1. this is why i spend so much 00:45:58 time inside people's minds and talking about psychology and social psychology that that it's a kind of human stupidity or or hubris uh lack of moral compass 00:46:09 incapacity to see the world as other people see it that that we need to address and so in the book that's why i spent a lot of time providing people with some basic tools so they can for instance understand 00:46:21 other people's worldviews better
      • for:Deep Humanity - worldviews, worldview - tools
    1. we have to be very careful when we respond to climate change we're not exacerbating the other ones that are there and 00:12:34 ideally we want to try and respond to all of these challenges at the same time and there are a lot of crossovers between them but there are also real risks that sometimes you you solve one thing and cause another now in contemporary Society we have been very 00:12:47 good at reductionist thinking of of silos of thinking one bit and then causing another problem elsewhere we we don't have that opportunity anymore we have to start to think of these issues at a system level
      • for: progress trap - Kevin Anderson

      • validation: SRG mapping tool, Indyweb

    1. I don't use private personal wikis, so my interpretation is: Zettelkasten is the private work space, personal wiki is a form of publication. Maybe not polished for publishing, but edited and redacted where needed, so I can trust that I can be stupid in my Zettelkasten without anyone noticing.

      reply to ctietze at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/15201/#Comment_15201

      I can be stupid in my [private] Zettelkasten without anyone noticing.

      I too have a private space exactly for this purpose. On the other hand, writing and publishing in public spaces forces me to do some additional thinking/polishing work that I might not otherwise, and that often provides some spectacular results as well as useful feedback for improvement over time.

    1. A GNU Emacs major mode for convenient plain text markup — and much more. Org mode is for keeping notes, maintaining to-do lists, planning projects, authoring documents, computational notebooks, literate programming and more — in a fast and effective plain text system.

      A note taking tool discussed by [[Bastien Guerry]] at I Annotate 2021.

  15. Nov 2023
    1. https://myboogieboard.com/<br /> A groups of portable writing boards with an associated app.

      A sleeker version of Rocketbook notebooks, but with only one "page". A modern day version of the wax tablet.

    1. Protolyst <br /> https://protolyst.org/

      • Freemium model
      • Focus on group collaboration over individual use

      You can export Pages in your workspace as PDFs with more export formats to be added in the future (I did see one other snippet that indicated .csv format export, but it doesn't appear to have .md support to dovetail with all the other tools which use this as a baseline)

      Found ᔥDr. Maddy in the description from Want a Simplified Zettelkasten? For Beginners

    1. An interesting looking Obsidian/Zotero plugin

      Ton Zijlstra (@ton@m.tzyl.eu) on Nov 01, 2023, 04:15

      @richardcarter @geffrey I 2nd Richard here, prefer to keep them separate. I currently use https://zotlit.aidenlx.top/ as a plugin in both Zotero and Obsidian to handle the copying of annotations into Obsidian, rather than copy/pasting by hand. Outside of Zotero I also use hypothes.is for annotations that I grab into Obsidian through the h. API.

    1. Good tools for thought should be more than just substitutions for tools or methods one had before.

      In fact, any tool or technology, if valuable, should allow for the leverage of extension and transformation, otherwise is it really a tool?

    2. Do digital note taking tools extend the ranges of affordances versus their analog counterparts with respect to the SAMR model?

      On the augmentation front, they allow one to capture things faster, but may do so at the loss of understanding due to the lack of active learning (versus passive as the tool may be robbing them of the interaction with the material).

      There may be some workflow modification, but it's modest at best. Is it measurably better?

      I'm unaware of anyone talking about technological redefinition of digital note taking affordances, though some of the surface level AI-related things may emerge here.

      In some sense, I still think that the ease of remapping and rearranging/linking/relinking/outlining ideas in digital spaces doesn't exist, so digital note taking tools aren't doing very well even at the root substitution level.

      I suspect that some people weren't exposed to the general process of good note taking and their subsequent use for linking, developing, and then creating and as a result of learning this, they're attributing their advances to the digital nature of their tools rather than the original analog process which was always there and isn't necessarily improved measurably by the digital modality.

  16. Oct 2023
    1. Jacobs, Alan. “The Garden and the Stream.” Digital magazine. The New Atlantis (blog), May 4, 2018. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/text-patterns/the-garden-and-stream.

    2. Links are made by readers as well as writers. A stunning thing that we forget, but the link here is not part of the author’s intent, but of the reader’s analysis. The majority of links in the memex are made by readers, not writers. On the world wide web of course, only an author gets to determine links. And links inside the document say that there can only be one set of associations for the document, at least going forward.

      So much to unpack here...

      What is the full list of types of links?

      There are (associative) links created by the author (of an HTML document) as well as associative (and sometimes unwritten) mental links which may be suggested by either the context of a piece and the author's memory.

      There are the links made by the reader as they think or actively analyze the piece they're reading. They may make these explicit in their own note taking or even more strongly explicit with tools like Hypothes.is which make these links visible to others.

      tacit/explicit<br /> suggested mentally / directly written or made<br /> made by writer / made by reader<br /> others?

      lay these out in a grid by type, creator, modality (paper, online, written/spoken and read/heard, other)

    3. Links are associative. This is a huge deal. Links are there not only as a quick way to get to source material. They aren’t a way to say, hey here’s the interesting thing of the day. They remind you of the questions you need to ask, of the connections that aren’t immediately evident.

      links can be used for search

      links remind you of questions you need to ask

      links can suggest other future potential links of which one isn't yet aware or which haven't fully manifested, this is some of the "magic" of the zettelkasten—it creates easy potential for future links not yet manifest.

    4. Let’s look at some of the attributes of the memex. Your machine is a library not a publication device. You have copies of documents is there that you control directly, that you can annotate, change, add links to, summarize, and this is because the memex is a tool to think with, not a tool to publish with.

      Alan Jacobs argues that the Memex is not a tool to publish with and is thus fundamentally different from the World Wide Web.

      Did Vannevar Bush suggest the Memex for writing or potentially publishing? [Open question to check] Would it have been presumed to have been for publishing if he suggests that it was for annotating, changing, linking and summarizing? Aren't these actions tantamount to publishing, even if they're just for oneself?

      Wouldn't academics have built the one functionality in as a precursor to the other?

    5. “A tool to think with, not a tool to publish with” — this seems to me essential. I feel that I spend a lot of time trying to think with tools meant for publishing.

      Which tools for thought and tools for publishing overlap? Which diverge?

      Overlap: Obsidian<br /> card indexes<br /> Microsoft Excel

      Publishing Only<br /> Microsoft word

      Thinking Only: <br /> ...

    6. “A tool to think with, not a tool to publish with” — this seems to me essential. I feel that I spend a lot of time trying to think with tools meant for publishing.
    1. For instance, think of using a drill to drive in screws instead of using a screwdriver. The former makes work go faster and smoother.

      Maybe this is pedantic, but a drill is not actually the right tool for driving screws, a screw gun is. Drills are powerful tools that can be used for driving screws faster, but IMO not smoother.

      https://www.hunker.com/13413968/what-is-the-difference-between-a-drill-a-screw-gun

    2. While helpful at times, these distinctions fail to acknowledge that the quality of the internal tooling and even the technical infrastructure can profoundly impact your customers. The tools you build for your colleagues affect the customer experience and their relationship with your company and its products.

      I wish more companies understood this, especially the part about technical infrastructure. Stability is customer-facing!

    1. other “paper tools,” 3 such as cardboard boxes, file folders, andenvelopes—the book demonstrates that Fontane produced his prosefi ction, feuilleton essays, and other contributions to the press in acreative process that was the exact opposite of his self- staging as theinspired mouthpiece of the muses. Deliberate at every step, heassembled his texts from pre- mediated sources with scissors and glue,in an extraordinarily inorganic, radically intertextual, and completelyconscious manner.
    2. This coinage goes back to Ursula Klein and describes writing media that have anepistemic impact. See her essay “Paper Tools in Experimental Cultures: TheCase of Berzelian Formulas,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 32( 2001 ): 265–312.

      differences in paper tools vs. paper machines?

  17. Sep 2023
    1. Starting a blog .t3_16v8tfq._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #9b9b9b; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #989898; } Hey everyone- I’m still trying to wrap my head on how to organize this.I have my antinet growing and I want to start a blog with the use of one of my notes as a springboard.Do I9 votesWork on the blog and store the index cards after the note that I’m drawing inspiration fromCreate a new blog section in my antinet and place them thereStore them in wherever and create an hub note that points to them

      reply to u/RobThomasBouchard at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/16v8tfq/starting_a_blog/

      The answer is:<br /> D: Start a "blog" where you post your notes as status updates and interlink them a bit. When you've got enough, you organize them into a mini thesis and write a longer article/blog post about it.

      Examples: - https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich?q=tag%3A%22thought%20spaces%22 and - https://indieweb.org/commonplace_book#The_IndieWeb_site_as_a_Commonplace_book

      tl;dr: Use your website like a public, online zettelkasten. 🕸️🗃️

    1. The ability toretain the child's view of the world, with at the same time amature understanding of what it means to retain it, is extremelyrare-and a person who has these qualities is likely to be ableto contribute something really important to our thinking.

      Curiosity as a tool for thought.

    1. in 2018 you know it was around four percent of papers were based on Foundation models in 2020 90 were and 00:27:13 that number has continued to shoot up into 2023 and at the same time in the non-human domain it's essentially been zero and actually it went up in 2022 because we've 00:27:25 published the first one and the goal here is hey if we can make these kinds of large-scale models for the rest of nature then we should expect a kind of broad scale 00:27:38 acceleration
      • for: accelerating foundation models in non-human communication, non-human communication - anthropogenic impacts, species extinction - AI communication tools, conservation - AI communication tools

      • comment

        • imagine the empathy we can realize to help slow down climate change and species extinction by communicating and listening to the feedback from other species about what they think of our species impacts on their world!
    1. Creating a "signpost user interface" can help to uncover directions to take in digital contexts as out of sight is out of mind. Having things sit in your way within one's note taking workflow can remind them to either link things, or move in particular directions for discovering new avenues of thought.

      Example: it would be interesting if Jerry's The Brain would have links directly to material in Flancian's Agora to remind him to search or find relevant material there. This could help with combinatorial creativity with inputs from others, though it needs to be narrow so as not to result in rabbit holes which draw away attention.

      Link to: https://hypothes.is/a/iQvo7l1zEe6dZ5_9d9rrVw

  18. Aug 2023
    1. Whereas ChatGPT may be a bullshitter, Claude can be a co-reader whose output specifically references and works to make “meaning” in response to another author’s words.

      "Reading with an artificial intelligence" seems like a fascinating way to participate in the Great Conversation.

    2. Nonetheless, Claude is first AI tool that has really made me pause and think. Because, I’ve got to admit, Claude is a useful tool to think with—especially if I’m thinking about, and then writing about, another text.
    1. Purple is a small suite of quickly hacked tools inspired by Doug Engelbart's attempt to bootstrap the addressing features of his Augment system onto HTML pages. Its purpose is simple: produce HTML documents that can be addressed at the paragraph level. It does this by automatically creating name anchors with static and hierarchical addresses at the beginning of each text node, and by displaying these addresses as links at the end of each text node.    1A  (02)

      Purple is a suite of tools from 2001 that allow one to create numbered addresses/anchors at the paragraph level of a digital document.


      Link: Dave Winer's site still has support for purple numbers.

    1. Here’s a child node. It could be a comment on the thought -- an aside, a critique, whatever. It could be something which goes under the heading.

      Lone child nodes cry out for siblings.

      When I was in middle school a teacher told me only to put a sub-bullet point in an outline only if it wasn't an orphan (if you had one sub-point it should have at least one sibling, otherwise don't include it). This was miserable advice because it ended trains of thought which might otherwise grow into something.

      On the other hand it could be better framed that if you have only one child, you should brainstorm to come up with others.

    2. I could continue a thread anywhere, rather than always picking it up at the end. I could sketch out where I expected things to go, with an outline, rather than keeping all the points I wanted to hit in my head as I wrote. If I got stuck on something, I could write about how I was stuck nested underneath whatever paragraph I was currently writing, but then collapse the meta-thoughts to be invisible later -- so the overall narrative doesn’t feel interrupted.

      Notes about what you don't know (open questions), empty outline slots, red links as [[wikilinks]], and other "holes" in tools for thought provide a bookmark for where one may have quit exploring, but are an explicit breadcrumb for picking up that line of thought and continuing it at a future time.

      Linear writing in one's notebooks, books they're reading, and other places doesn't always provide an explicit space which invites the reader or writer to fill them in. One has to train themselves to annotate in the margins to have a conversation with the text. Until one sees these empty spaces as inviting spaces they can be invisible to the eye.

    3. When I was learning to write in my teens, it seemed to me that paper was a prison. Four walls, right? And the ideas were constantly trying to escape. What is a parenthesis but an idea trying to escape? What is a footnote but an idea that tried -- that jumped off the cliff? Because paper enforces single sequence -- and there’s no room for digression -- it imposes a particular kind of order in the very nature of the structure.-- Ted Nelson, demonstration of Xanadu space
    1. i was rewatching adventure time and they randomly referenced twine in a throwaway gag. 10/10 show.

    Tags

    Annotators

    URL

    1. cool compilation of tools. got me to think about the best ways to record my internet journey.

    1. Recently we recommended that OCLC declare OCLC Control Numbers (OCN) as dedicated to the public domain. We wanted to make it clear to the community of users that they could share and use the number for any purpose and without any restrictions. Making that declaration would be consistent with our application of an open license for our own releases of data for re-use and would end the needless elimination of the number from bibliographic datasets that are at the foundation of the library and community interactions. I’m pleased to say that this recommendation got unanimous support and my colleague Richard Wallis spoke about this declaration during his linked data session during the recent IFLA conference. The declaration now appears on the WCRR web page and from the page describing OCNs and their use.

      OCLC Control Numbers are in the public domain

      An updated link for the "page describing OCNs and their use" says:

      The OCLC Control Number is a unique, sequentially assigned number associated with a record in WorldCat. The number is included in a WorldCat record when the record is created. The OCLC Control Number enables successful implementation and use of many OCLC products and services, including WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Navigator. OCLC encourages the use of the OCLC Control Number in any appropriate library application, where it can be treated as if it is in the public domain.