Cottage Computer Programming (1984)
atariarchives.org
atariarchives.org
This is a view I hold but very rarely hear expressed in my day to day working environment where committees of people from various organisations work together to agree or disagree on plans that are always proposed by one, or very few, individuals. The majority, even in a committee environment, are superfluous from the perspective of productivity, though not from the perspective of governance.
Whereas I tend to find that if any state of the art is moved forward in a large sweep, usually an individual ends up being given a larger amount of credit than a collective.
This is probably a cognitive bias, I am sure I and a person with an opposing view could trade exhaustive counter examples.
Also I think certain toolsets suit individuals better than collectives and the collective toolsets are in vogue at the moment. Thinking LISP or C versus JAVA or ++C.
A critical observation. It's much easier for our minds to simplify down to one name, one face.
Who landed on the Moon? Armstrong, of course. Nevermind the countless astronauts, engineers, mathematicians, and physicists who put him there.
It's not something to be upset about, but good to remember when you hear stories about how one man did this or that.
I guess it is fair enough that at some point we try to put a label or handle on a string of achievement. But clearly it can't be attributed at that level.
My memories of the 80s and 90s was that programming was something frequently done in a suburban, or sometimes even rural, setting. Since then, there's been a move towards seeing technology as an urban phenomenon (and a resurgence of urbanism in general). I do wonder if these trends are related.
These people can work together through their individual pursuits. But how to accomplish that successfully?
"In 1988 Lutus cast off his lines and began what was to become a four-year solo circumnavigation of the world in a small sailboat. More recently, Lutus has divided his time between writing articles on diverse topics and exploring the wilder regions of Alaska to photograph grizzly bears."
To have an idea of this home habits, have a look at the notes written for caretakers of his home while he is away: https://joeyh.name/blog/entry/notes_for_a_caretaker/
Consider brushing the cat, with the folding saw, on the left-side porch steps, every other day. Hairballs..
What? He brushes his cat with a saw? I haven't ever had a cat, but that sounds af it might make the cat somewhat upset. Or perhaps the saw is fantastically dull? Interesting. :)
I live much the same way for the same reasons and this:
> drain water from trays of salt underneath the pantry shelves, and run the fan.
is going to be a game changer.
The salt probably would not dissolve entirely, so you could strain it. Some dissolved salt would be lost each time. You could also cook/boil off the water, but that would require a lot of energy for an off-the-grid cabin.
Yes.
> without a lot of salt.
25 & 50 pound bags are fairly common to buy and store.
> You could also cook/boil off the water, but that would require a lot of energy for an off-the-grid cabin.
Or moved outside into the sunshine under glass to evaporate.
A large mistake I used to often make was trying to design self contained solutions. Keeping modularity in mind, and moving things about during the day solves a huge range of problems.
A cast off sliding glass door makes an excellent alternative to herbicides - just lay it down on the grass. It also aids in heating water, drying clothes, meat, herbs - what have you.
Propane gas appliances such as refrigerators and freezers are common 'off the grid'.
As one would 'fork' off a code base (e.g. before systemd), the same can be done with farm / self sufficient technology. Check out _Farm Tools_, by Michael Partridge.
Everything I did when I moved to a rural area was wrong because I was using a late 20th century mindset. The late 1800's had tremendously better ways of doing things.
Try thinking of the Amish as late adopters, instead of being backward. Some of the things they do, such as converting electrical tools to use compressed air, will give some great insights.
Wonderful.
It's an odd juxtaposition -- I love technology. I just dislike what comes with it.
There does seem to have been a bit of a reaction to that. Partly, it might be down to the difficulty of providing fast networks in remote places. But there does seem to be a resurgence of urbanism at the moment.
I hope your plans go well!
Most of the recent technology is pretty weak compared to 100 years ago. This is what my cordless drill looks like: imgur.com/ZWCcuyr.jpg.
As I mentioned elsewhere here, I did _everything_ wrong when I moved rural. Much of ESR's Art of Unix Programming is a blueprint for self sufficient living if you squint a bit.
Begin collecting pre-WWII farm tools ASAP. Sell most everything you currently own before you move - it's worse than useless.
Understand something - at some point you will become angry about how you used to live. It's okay. At some point you won't be able to visit a city without feeling a deep pity for the people living there. That's okay too. You may reach the point where you know you can't return to city living, because the people are crazy. They will feel the same way about you by that time. By then, there's no going back. You will have learned the difference between civilization and domestication.
Good luck.
We both work remotely and can live where we want. We've recently experimented in living in more "out there" places, but in the end we're moving back to civilization because we want our Japanese/Mexican/Indian/Vietnamese...
Not sure what the answer is for this problem. We can both cook but even sourcing the ingredients for a lot of non-American food is nearly impossible in even a second tier city.
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.php
This was the first app I used when I was about 18 learning HTML...and my first real understanding of free software with his "Care Ware" philosophy: