From: nospam@example.net   
      
   On Fri, 12 Apr 2024, oldernow wrote:   
      
   >> You are strong with the force!   
   >   
   > Well, you know, me and my Lua light sabre.. we go back!   
      
   Lua is interesting. I looked briefly into it many years ago, and it did   
   look nice, small and compact, but for some reason it never stuck.   
      
   Reminds me of a colleague I had about 9 years ago, and his end station   
   was the ancient language Rexx. Never heard of, but he picked it up, and   
   used it happily for an entire career in enterprise storage to script   
   health checks and other consulting engagements, so he had an impressive   
   library of scripts which automated an enormous amount of manual labour.   
   So the saless guys would sell an 8 hour "health check" service, and he'd   
   go out to a customer, run his script for 5 minutes, and script would   
   then analyze, print reports, pdfs, suggest various tweaks etc. and at   
   the end of the day, he would present the report which looked like at   
   least 8 hours of manual labour.   
      
   The power of the script!   
      
   > Gosh, I can still remember enjoying it immensely in   
   > Perl days.   
   >   
   >  obeisance to shell redirection and piping>   
      
   I did toy with perl for about 6 months or so and I remember being very   
   pleased with the documentation.   
      
   >> Ahh, got it. Yes, I have the same philosophy. Letting   
   >> dry out is the small death! See... isn't _this_ what   
   >> alt.philosophy should be about? Someone thinking hard and   
   >> deep about dishes?   
   >   
   > Of course, and not *just* because one's dishes philosophy   
   > is *far* more telling than astrology....   
      
   I wonder if it could be applied more broadly? Can you imagine Biden and   
   Trump doing the dishes live on TV, and that then being used to judge who   
   is most fit to be president?   
      
   I think perhaps that society would benefit greatly, because then there   
   would be no debate, and the entire US population could then unite behind   
   the person who performed best at doing the dishes.   
      
   It seems to me a much better test of the ability to lead the nation,   
   than those boring debates. ;)   
      
   >> This should not come as a surprise by now... but singing to   
   >> the choire! ;) I do cook on special occasions or if she had   
   >> a rough day. She then has a free choice of: 1. General Tsos   
   >> chicken, 2. apple pie or 3. bread. ;) That's my repertoire!   
   >   
   > For me it goes like this: if it ain't leftovers, it ain't   
   > happening.   
   >   
   >> We have one, but unless we're having a bigger family get   
   >> together, it is never used.   
   >   
   > I wish we were mostly in said minimalist mode. But my wife   
   > never knew a dish/utensil she didn't want to drag into   
   > the production, as it were. I get way more into "how can   
   > I use this spoon just once for several purposes in this   
   > current food-prep operation without sullying/contaminating   
   > something that I don't want to?" than actual food outcomes.   
   > It's almost as though most of the flavor in what I prepare   
   > comes from lowness of dish/utensil usage count when I'm   
   > done. I mean, it's amazing how good a zero dish/utensil   
   > count raw cardboard recipe can taste....   
      
   Interesting!   
      
   >>> You'd be wasting your time writing about Christianity   
   >>> given your obvious practical wisdom prowess! ;-)   
   >>   
   >> I should write a book! ;)   
   >   
   > Ack... but then you'd be in the throes of the great   
   > European shipping debacle! ;-)   
      
   True.   
      
   >>> Ever try the "Vimium" extension in a browser? (FWIW,   
   >>> the Lagrange browser I mentioned in a previous post has   
   >>> something akin to it built in)   
   >>   
   >> I have, but for some reason it didn't stick, so I'm using   
   >> the regular key bindings while browsing. Strange how such   
   >> obvious things sometimes don't stick, so I should probably   
   >> give it another go and make it stick this time.   
   >   
   > I still forget about it, and it's been years. But I think   
   > that's because I occasionally feel I've been kidding myself   
   > about its time/effort saving, i.e. more wanting to believe   
   > it's accomplishing that than actually accomplishing that.   
   >   
   > I suppose I'd have to figure out how to enable some kind of   
   > keystroke counter, and test the with/without Vimium paths.   
   >   
   >    
      
   I thought about going a bit Taylorist on myself as well. I try to keep   
   in mind where I spend the most of my time, of there are repetitive   
   keystrokes and if things are taking more time than they should, but it,   
   like so many things, is the victim of diminishing returns. My invoiceing   
   script for instance, is fairly automated as long as my consultants send   
   me .csv files, but you can integrate it (I think) with the bank,   
   integrate it to send automatic emails, you can add currency conversion   
   etc. etc. I'm not quite there, and I do have some manual checks, like   
   sending out the invoices where I like to do it manually to double check   
   if there are any problems there, but ideally, if I had a programmer who   
   would work for me full time, I could easily double the size of the   
   script and integrate it more and more. As it is, I think it's around 800   
   lines or so, and integrated with the tectonic latex bundle.   
      
   >> Yes, this is a very common yin and yang thing with   
   >> brilliant technologists. My small company is based on   
   >> the fact that I help with the selling, and the brilliant   
   >> guys do the doing, and I take a percentage to fund the   
   >> selling. Everyone is happy and everyone wins! =)   
   >   
   > I'm impressed. I mean, not as much as with your dish   
   > washing efficiency and/or food-prep avoidance... but   
   > still! :-)   
      
   Thank you, but in terms of my company I'm still believing it is mostly   
   luck and perhaps a little bit of skill. I feel so incredibly lucky to   
   be able to work the way I do, with the people I work with. I hope to be   
   able to do it for as long as I find it interesting and stimulating, but   
   I definitely do not take it for granted. So by not taking it for   
   granted, I consider every single day the business does run, as a gift.   
   =)   
      
   >> You should get a roadie! Isn't that what they do? Lug your   
   >> things around, find you women and groupies and sort out   
   >> your M&M so only color X are in your changing room?   
   >   
   > You know, that's not out of the realm of possibility, although   
   > it would have to be a grandchild to be affordable relative to   
   > our means. But I can imagine a couple of them possibly getting   
   > a real kick out of that involvement.   
      
   That would be a nice family business! =)   
      
   >    
   >   
   > But then I remember that involving others is almost always   
   > begging for unnecessary, incredibly difficult-to-see-in-   
   > advance trouble whose magnitude is always greater than   
   > whatever trouble was trying to be solved.   
      
   Ahh... but just apply the stick and the carrot and all will be fine. ;)   
      
   > For example, not to pick on my wife again because I   
   > love her dearly :-) , but I'm perpetually astounded   
   > how few people understand that words like 'this',   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)