Resource Scarcity doesn’t make sense on the web. Artificially creating it here serves no other purpose than to charge money for things that could easily have been free for all.
...
This is a world where anything can easily be copied a million times and distributed around the globe in a second. If that were possible in the real world, we’d call it Utopia.

It’s increasingly difficult to buy a non-smart TV, so your only options are to never connect it to the internet (impossible on a Samsung), use router level DNS blocking (until the TVs start using encrypted DNS) or connect something like an Apple TV and use that exclusively.

Despite the new gatekeepers' best efforts, the old Internet never completely disappeared. Personal websites created by individuals that have always been the meat of the old Internet are still around. They are still about exploration, innovation, fun, and all the rest.

Building stuff on the internet is fun. No lie.

1. Tagged with
2. blogging
3. internet

• I added a proper favicon to my blog and Tanzawa. It's something I've thought about for a while but delayed doing because "doing it right" requires making heaps of files in different sizes. But then I saw a blog post by Adam about how to add a favicon to Django and it included a svg example. Using svg for my favicon means I forgo Safari support for now, but it would let me generate the icon from site settings . And since the code samples were plug and play, I decided to do it. Yay favicon.
• We took Leo to the big park nearby to practice his cycling. We're still practicing the push start, but he's getting really good. He navigated through people, barricades, and dogs without hitting any of them. He's gaining for confidence too as he told me not to run after him. The best part, at least for me, was that he got to experience the joy of cycling while watching his favorite trains roll by.
• Omicron has officially found its way into Leo's pre-school with a couple of kids getting diagnosed with it. We have no idea which class (or multiple classes?) the people infected with it are in, so we have no idea of our potential exposure. With how transmissible this variant is, my assumption that it doesn't matter who had it or which grade and we'll probably be testing positive in a week or so. Hopefully not, though. 
  
  For now school is closed for half a week, but I expect for that to be extended. The hardest part of the extensions/sudden closures is that winter vacation never ends. Each morning he wakes up and asks if he has to go to school, and if he does, he starts crying. This happened after summer break too, but after a week of school, he got into the routine and it wasn't an issue. This time we can't get back into the routine.
• Since we're going to be staying home a lot more again, I caved and bought a Switch to play with Leo. I'm a bit conflicted about my decision. On one hand, almost 4 feels early to be playing video games. On the other hand, I seem to recall playing NES/playing on my 8088 and I turned out fine (or at least I think I did). It's not like he'll be playing by himself – we'll always play together. It's probably fine. 
  
  I picked up Mario Kart and Minecraft. Minecraft is probably too hard for his age, but it's similar to his Legos in that he can build stuff. Mario Kart's auto accelerate and steering assist is brilliant for young and old alike.
• I started leading part of a new global team, the first of its kind, at work. While I can't talk about the details of what we're building, it is exciting to be shaping and developing new core functionality that the rest of the company will depend on.
• I switched my electric from Octopus' initial offering (no longer available) to their new 100% renewable Green Octopus plan. While I liked being on a fixed tariff (where the price of each kWh doesn't change with usage), supporting renewables with my wallet, in even a small way, felt like the right thing to do. Especially when you consider the average kWh in Japan costing 500g~ of carbon. Compare this with the UK where it's closer to 10g of carbon/kWh... Green Octopus is also currently cheaper than Standard Octopus, which won't always be the case.

• I made a lot of good progress on Tanzawa this week, releasing 3 big features.
  
  First, and most apparent, is support for themes. In my release celebration post I decided to adopt the Platinum theme on my blog temporarily. But the platinum theme is growing on me. I may keep it active for longer than a couple of days.
  
  Second, I added support for rel-me. I closed this ticket exactly 364 days after creating it. rel-me support will allow new Tanzawa users who haven't already registered their domain with IndieWeb services like Brid.gy, to prove that their domain and the Twitter/GitHub profile are indeed, the same person.
  
  Lastly, I added settings to allow you to change the site icon (⛰) and to paste a custom HTML snippet in the footer. The footer snippet is mostly because I got sick of git stashing each time I did a deploy with changes to the base_public.html file. You'll notice my icon is now Mt. Fuji as a) I always post photos of it on my twitter and b) it's purple-ish like the platinum theme.
• I also made some more contributions to the indeweb-utils library. The library is starting to take shape, too and get a solid foundation. It's also fun helping other developers write better Python.
• My composting bag came in and I started adding our food scraps to it each night. The suggested amount (up to 300 - 400g / day) easily fits everything we produce in a day. The experience of composting vs tossing it in the bin is much better too. No more basket in corner of the sink with a wet/sometimes slimey bottom and then smelling it when I open the trash can while I wait for burnable day.
• Belated Christmas presents arrived from my mom. Leo scored this cool spinning top that lights up when it spins. More than that, it has a handle and release system to help you get the perfect spin. You put in the handle, wind it 2 or 3 rotations, press the button to release it.
  
  It's funny he got the spinning top as the day prior, he brought back a Japanese Koma for a top spinning contest they'll be having at school. Using this top requires a bit if finesse and practice to get really going. Naturally he prefers the easy one with lights. Such an American. 🤣
• I've been keeping on my running schedule. Setting my goal for 2-days a week (achievable) vs 3-days a week (achievable sometimes) seems like it was the right decision.