James Widman

@jameswidman.bsky.social

147 Followers 140 Following

People are supposed to help each other. It's the only job worth doing, and we could probably do it a lot more efficiently. he/him or they/them.

A screenshot of the typst "pricing" page, where a product called "typst Free" is listed alongside paid options. All of these products are essentially web-browser interfaces.
a screenshot of the only page of chapter 1 of _The TeXbook_, by Donald Knuth: Chapter 1: The Name ofthe Game English words like ‘technology’ stem from a Greek root beginning with the letters τϵχ...; and this same Greek word means art as well as technology. Hence the name TeX, which is an uppercase form of τϵχ. [alt-text note: on the printed page, the 'e' in 'TeX' is actually a capital 'E' that is the same size as an ordinary capital 'E', but it has been shifted downward, so that the top horizontal stroke of 'E' is aligned with the tops of lower-case letters.] Insiders pronounce the χ of TeX as a Greek chi, not as an ‘x’, so that TeX rhymes with the word blecchhh. It’s the ‘ch’ sound in Scottish words like *loch* or German words like *ach*; it’s a Spanish ‘j’ and a Russian ‘kh’. When you say it correctly to your computer, the terminal may become slightly moist. The purpose of this pronunciation exercise is to remind you that TeX is primarily concerned with high-quality technical manuscripts: Its emphasis is on art and technology, as in the underlying Greek word. If you merely want to produce a passably good document—something acceptable and basically read- able but not really beautiful—a simpler system will usually suffice. With TeX the goal is to produce the *finest* quality; this requires more attention to detail, but you will not find it much harder to go the extra distance, and you’ll be able to take special pride in the finished product.
post from @pookleblinky.bsky.social: Every day Mamdani comes out and is like "hey guys, I turned off the orphan-crushing machine. Literally just had to flip a switch. Took less than 5 minutes." After decades of dem leadership pissing and moaning and fundraising about how complex an issue it is and how difficult the process is etc Dem leadership for generations: no you fool, you infant. It is a process. It takes time and political capital and expertise, it's- Mamdani, dusting off his hands: fixed it Dem leadership: what do you mean you fixed it Mamdani: Just had to unplug it. Dem leadership: changing this is a difficult process, you fool. You rube. You utter infant. Give us between $5 and $50 Mamdani, wiping grease off his hands: So it turns out there's a switch on this machine that puts it into either orphan-shredding mode or free school lunch mode. Just had to flip it
a photograph of joe biden acting like a close personal friend of strom thurmond
screenshot in which a white "leftist" says, to a black immigrant, words to the effect of, "if i were in your shoes, and if i had framed this victory as a loss like you just did, i think i would just kill myself."
a screenshot of 'I', 'l', and '1' as rendered with Fira Code
an iteration on the "ZOHRAN for NEW YORK CITY" graphic design meme. This one reads: "ABOLISH the SENATE & PRESIDENCY"
quote from near the end of the linked article: > He [Ken Goodman] brought up the example of a child who comes to the word "horse" and says "pony" instead. His argument is that a child will still understand the meaning of the story because horse and pony are the same concept. I pressed him on this. First of all, a pony isn't the same thing as a horse. Second, don't you want to make sure that when a child is learning to read, he understands that /p/ /o/ /n/ /y/ says "pony"? And different letters say "horse"? He dismissed my question. "The purpose is not to learn words," he said. "The purpose is to make sense."
an iteration on the "ZOHRAN for NEW YORK CITY" graphic design meme. This one reads: "ABOLITION of THE SENATE & PRESIDENCY"
an iteration on the "ZOHRAN for NEW YORK CITY" graphic design meme. This one reads: "ABOLITION of THE SENATE & PRESIDENCY"
an iteration on the "ZOHRAN for NEW YORK CITY" graphic design meme. This one reads: "ABOLITION of THE SENATE & PRESIDENCY"
an iteration on the "ZOHRAN for NEW YORK CITY" graphic design meme. This one reads: "ABOLITION of THE SENATE & PRESIDENCY"
Yu-Gi-Oh meme: Someone plays a card against Yugi that reads, "don't speak ill of the dead." Yugi counters with a card that reads, "don't be a piece of shit while you're alive." This is presented as a devastating blow to the first player.
ISO 10646/Unicode entry for the character: U+2E3A TWO-EM DASH (also called an "omission dash")
screenshot of the entry for the Unicode character U+1F64F ("PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS"). It indicates two possible uses (not intended to indicate a complete list), which i'll quote here: "can indicate sorrow or regret" "can indicate pleading"
an instance of the new meme format, "Zohran Mamandi's Socialist Promises". it's a Fox-News infographic with a photo of Mamandi on the left, and instance-specific text on the right, which reads as follows: "REVIVE THE AUTOMAT WITH ASHRAE-241 COMPLIANCE"
a frame from _The Muppet Movie_ (1979), in which Kermit the Frog (investigative reporter for Sesame Street News) sings and plays a banjo while sitting on a log in a swamp.
screenshot of a browser window showing google image search results for the search terms: "2024 RNC 'mass deportation now'". almost every image in the list of results is of people at the 2024 Republican National Convention, holding copies of the same sign, which reads, "MASS DEPORTATION NOW".
the "pondering my orb" meme, but it says, "pondering my org" (as in "Org Mode")
the "i am spartacus" bit, but with "C Project Editor" instead of spartacus
a photo of joe biden being very close and friendly with strom thurmond
Thread of tweets from Jon Kung: “Japan doesn't live in 2050 South Korea doesn't live in 2050 China doesn't live in 2050 We just live in America and don't invest in our public infrastructure. No country is perfect but when it comes of infrastructure and social services ours happens to suck more than other developed nations. We have the happiest billionaires tho. It all stems from the idea that one segment of our population thinks another segment of the population doesn't deserve nice things. It comes in two flavors, racism and classism. They are very much connected. "Prosperity is earned, poverty is deserved." Americans really have no right to pass judgment on caste systems.”
the classic @dril tweet: > issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, 'gotta hand it to them.'
photo taken from the International Space Station. In the top quarter of the image, we see the sky. The sky is absolutely pitch-black. In the bottom three-quarters of the image, we see a side of the planet Earth that is fully illuminated by sunlight. Bits of the ISS are also visible, and also bathed in direct sunlight. We are in daylight. The image is zoomed in such that we are looking at only a very small portion of the earth, but we can see some curvature. Between the earth and the black sky, there is an extremely thin region of air. The air is blue. It's effectively a border between the Earth and the practically-infinite sky. We really should emphasize that the blue region (between the black sky and the Earth) is *shockingly* thin. It looks as thin as tissue paper. If you're over the age of 50, you might need to zoom in so that you can see the blue region.