diff --git a/blog/20070502-robot-behaviors-python.html b/blog/20070502-robot-behaviors-python.html index b7de3f9..4001e92 100644 --- a/blog/20070502-robot-behaviors-python.html +++ b/blog/20070502-robot-behaviors-python.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -204,7 +225,7 @@
diff --git a/blog/20070522-emacs-tips.html b/blog/20070522-emacs-tips.html index fdbf1bc..8c62c09 100644 --- a/blog/20070522-emacs-tips.html +++ b/blog/20070522-emacs-tips.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -69,7 +90,7 @@
diff --git a/blog/20070522-gnokii-tips.html b/blog/20070522-gnokii-tips.html index 9650026..1537310 100644 --- a/blog/20070522-gnokii-tips.html +++ b/blog/20070522-gnokii-tips.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -69,7 +90,7 @@ VLC seems to be able to play .3gp files, but the audio doesn’
diff --git a/blog/20070522-latex-tips.html b/blog/20070522-latex-tips.html index 524b507..9c88da4 100644 --- a/blog/20070522-latex-tips.html +++ b/blog/20070522-latex-tips.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -66,7 +87,7 @@ PJQNOS+CMSY10 Type 1 yes yes no 12 0
diff --git a/blog/20070807-vim-tips.html b/blog/20070807-vim-tips.html index 4bee19c..ff66af5 100644 --- a/blog/20070807-vim-tips.html +++ b/blog/20070807-vim-tips.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -52,7 +73,7 @@
diff --git a/blog/20190403-update.html b/blog/20190403-update.html index 637eaba..b90435c 100644 --- a/blog/20190403-update.html +++ b/blog/20190403-update.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -79,7 +100,7 @@
diff --git a/blog/20200209-sneak.html b/blog/20200209-sneak.html index 87d6bfa..5e1af0b 100644 --- a/blog/20200209-sneak.html +++ b/blog/20200209-sneak.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -53,7 +74,7 @@
diff --git a/blog/20210721-downvotes-considered-harmful.html b/blog/20210721-downvotes-considered-harmful.html index 44f2ec7..769da3c 100644 --- a/blog/20210721-downvotes-considered-harmful.html +++ b/blog/20210721-downvotes-considered-harmful.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -84,7 +105,7 @@
diff --git a/blog/20221107-goodbye-twitter.html b/blog/20221107-goodbye-twitter.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e94a3b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/20221107-goodbye-twitter.html @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ + + + + + + + + + + +Goodbye Twitter, Hello Blog! | Colin McMillen + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+ + +
+

Goodbye Twitter, Hello Blog!

+

Posted 2022-11-07.

+

It’s quickly become clear that the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk means the end of the site as I’ve known it since 2008. Instead I’m going to collect all the stuff I would have tweeted about & post it to this blog roughly once a week. If you have an RSS reader you can follow along there. I’ve also created a subreddit where I’ll link to each post, so that folks can follow via Reddit if they prefer, and also comment on what I’ve written. I’d also appreciate comments over email!

+

My goal is to post fewer things, more thoughtfully, to a smaller audience for a while, and see how that goes.

+

Deleting your Twitter responsibly

+

I’d figured Elon Musk’s “free speech idealism” was code for a slow regression back to a Nazi-sympathetic swamp of toxicity, but I hadn’t quite expected him to immediately light user trust on fire. Musk seems to be determined to squeeze every drop of revenue from the site in order to make up for his foolhardy acquisition, so I think it’s only a matter of time before he starts selling user data to third-party companies.

+

So instead of just deleting my Twitter account wholesale, I’ve downloaded my Twitter archive and set up TweetDeleter to delete almost all my data, including Tweets, Retweets, and Likes. Right now I have it set up to automatically delete anything older than 2 days old. I expect that after a month passes I’ll be posting to Twitter a lot less (if at all) and will just manually remove old content then.

+

I’m intending to keep my Twitter account registered and to occasionally log in, rather than deleting it entirely. That way I can maintain a pointer to this blog in my bio, and not have to worry about someone impersonating me if Twitter someday decides to reap & reissue old usernames.

+

For a more nuanced approach to deleting your Twitter content than “burning all of it as quickly as possible”, consider this 2021 thread from Ryan North.

+

How’s your blog work?

+

This site is authored with Markdown. I have a short Python script that converts the entire thing to static HTML, so I can still author posts in my favorite text editor (Sublime Text 3) or even draft things on-the-go with a Markdown app like Joplin. This means I’m not reliant on anyone else’s fancy GUI editor, and also means it’s pretty future-proof in case I ever do want to move my content to another site for some reason.

+

Why not Substack / Medium (etc)?

+

Many people have moved to tools like Substack & Medium for writing longer-form articles. I’ve definitely considered those sites as well, but it’s hard to be sure that they won’t also go “boom” due to reasons entirely outside my control sometime in the next few years. There’s already something like a 15-year-long gap in my online presence due to Google+ and Twitter melting down in various ways. I’d feel like a bit of a sucker to be relying on anyone other than myself to host my content, at this point.

+

Why not Mastodon?

+

Mastodon seems like the most obvious choice as a Twitter replacement, but I’m not actually sure that I want a Twitter replacement. As I said up top, I’m gonna try posting fewer things, more thoughtfully. A new app that lets me rapidly tap out hot takes isn’t exactly a good way of supporting that.

+

I might eventually make a Mastodon account to follow other folks who’ve departed Twitter, so I’m not counting out the idea entirely. :)

+

Comments?

+

Chime in on this article’s Reddit thread or send me an email.

+
+
+ + +
+ + + diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..698e7a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ + + + + + + + + + + +Colin McMillen's Blog + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+ + +
+

mcmillen’s blog

+

Don’t forget to follow with your favorite RSS reader!

+

Goodbye Twitter, Hello Blog! (2022-11-07)

+

It’s quickly become clear that the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk means the end of the site as I’ve known it since 2008. Instead I’m going to collect all the stuff I would have tweeted about & post it to this blog roughly once a week. If you have an RSS reader you can follow along there. I’ve also created a subreddit where I’ll link to each post, so that folks can follow via Reddit if they prefer, and also comment on what I’ve written. I’d also appreciate comments over email! My goal is to post fewer things, more thoughtfully, to a smaller audience for a while, and see how that goes.

+

Downvotes & Dislikes Considered Harmful (2021-07-21)

+

If you’re letting users rank content, you probably don’t need and don’t want downvotes. Here’s why. (This post inspired by news that Twitter is considering adding “Dislikes” to Tweets.)

+

A new year & a sneaky new project (2020-02-09)

+

I can’t believe it’s here so quickly, but: today marks a year since my last day at Google. That seemed like a good occasion to dust off this newsletter & let you know what I’ve been up to: making a videogame! I’m working on a stealth-based 2D platformer where you don’t have to kill anyone unless you want to. It’ll be possible to get through every level by sneaking and misdirection, but it’ll require you to be careful and tactical to do so… and of course if that doesn’t work out, you can always draw your swords and go in fighting! So far I’ve given it “Sneak” as a codename, but that’s definitely a placeholder until I can flesh out more of the world.

+

My first paper in 10 years?! (2019-04-03)

+

It’s been nearly two months since my last day at Google, so I guess I should finally make use of this newsletter :) I wrote a paper which was published on April 1st as part of SIGBOVIK 2019: “93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs”. In this paper, I answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: is it possible to smear paint on the wall without creating valid Perl?

+

93% of Paint Splatters are Valid Perl Programs (2019-04-01)

+

TLDR: read the paper and view the gallery of pretty Perl programs. In this paper, we aim to answer a long-standing open problem in the programming languages community: is it possible to smear paint on the wall without creating valid Perl?

+
+
+ + +
+ + + diff --git a/drafts/test.html b/drafts/test.html index 58126d8..1a1e225 100644 --- a/drafts/test.html +++ b/drafts/test.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -182,7 +203,7 @@ vim config.yml
diff --git a/feed.atom b/feed.atom index dfc9ff8..e0b1a50 100644 --- a/feed.atom +++ b/feed.atom @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Colin McMillen's Blog - 2021-07-21T20:53:40-04:00 + 2022-11-07T15:10:00-04:00 Colin McMillen @@ -487,4 +487,33 @@ PJQNOS+CMSY10 Type 1 yes yes no 12 0 2021-07-21T12:00:00-04:00 + + Goodbye Twitter, Hello Blog! + https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/20221107-goodbye-twitter.html + + + Goodbye Twitter, Hello Blog! +

Posted 2022-11-07.

+

It’s quickly become clear that the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk means the end of the site as I’ve known it since 2008. Instead I’m going to collect all the stuff I would have tweeted about & post it to this blog roughly once a week. If you have an RSS reader you can follow along there. I’ve also created a subreddit where I’ll link to each post, so that folks can follow via Reddit if they prefer, and also comment on what I’ve written. I’d also appreciate comments over email!

+

My goal is to post fewer things, more thoughtfully, to a smaller audience for a while, and see how that goes.

+

Deleting your Twitter responsibly

+

I’d figured Elon Musk’s “free speech idealism” was code for a slow regression back to a Nazi-sympathetic swamp of toxicity, but I hadn’t quite expected him to immediately light user trust on fire. Musk seems to be determined to squeeze every drop of revenue from the site in order to make up for his foolhardy acquisition, so I think it’s only a matter of time before he starts selling user data to third-party companies.

+

So instead of just deleting my Twitter account wholesale, I’ve downloaded my Twitter archive and set up TweetDeleter to delete almost all my data, including Tweets, Retweets, and Likes. Right now I have it set up to automatically delete anything older than 2 days old. I expect that after a month passes I’ll be posting to Twitter a lot less (if at all) and will just manually remove old content then.

+

I’m intending to keep my Twitter account registered and to occasionally log in, rather than deleting it entirely. That way I can maintain a pointer to this blog in my bio, and not have to worry about someone impersonating me if Twitter someday decides to reap & reissue old usernames.

+

For a more nuanced approach to deleting your Twitter content than “burning all of it as quickly as possible”, consider this 2021 thread from Ryan North.

+

How’s your blog work?

+

This site is authored with Markdown. I have a short Python script that converts the entire thing to static HTML, so I can still author posts in my favorite text editor (Sublime Text 3) or even draft things on-the-go with a Markdown app like Joplin. This means I’m not reliant on anyone else’s fancy GUI editor, and also means it’s pretty future-proof in case I ever do want to move my content to another site for some reason.

+

Why not Substack / Medium (etc)?

+

Many people have moved to tools like Substack & Medium for writing longer-form articles. I’ve definitely considered those sites as well, but it’s hard to be sure that they won’t also go “boom” due to reasons entirely outside my control sometime in the next few years. There’s already something like a 15-year-long gap in my online presence due to Google+ and Twitter melting down in various ways. I’d feel like a bit of a sucker to be relying on anyone other than myself to host my content, at this point.

+

Why not Mastodon?

+

Mastodon seems like the most obvious choice as a Twitter replacement, but I’m not actually sure that I want a Twitter replacement. As I said up top, I’m gonna try posting fewer things, more thoughtfully. A new app that lets me rapidly tap out hot takes isn’t exactly a good way of supporting that.

+

I might eventually make a Mastodon account to follow other folks who’ve departed Twitter, so I’m not counting out the idea entirely. :)

+

Comments?

+

Chime in on this article’s Reddit thread or send me an email.

+ ]]> + + 2022-11-07T12:00:00-04:00 + + diff --git a/index.html b/index.html index 01faeaa..d3d85c9 100644 --- a/index.html +++ b/index.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -42,31 +63,17 @@ Previously at Google, reCAPTCHA, & Carnegie Mellon.

@mcmillen @mcmillen

email colin at mcmillen dot dev

-

Git git.mcmillen.dev

-

For more details, check my resumé & publications.

- + +

Check out my blog, resumé, & publications.

Latest Updates

-

Sign up for updates via my email newsletter or your favorite RSS reader.

+

Sign up for updates via your favorite RSS reader.

Videogames

-

Currently playing: Persona 5, Monster Hunter Rise, & Slipways.
+

Currently playing: Death Stranding, Triangle Strategy, and Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Sometimes I stream on Twitch!

Twitch FamiColin

Steam FamiColin

@@ -103,9 +110,6 @@ Sometimes I stream on Twitch!

I proposed to my spouse in obfuscated Perl, which got illustrated in PHD Comics.

-

Recent Photo

-

Park At Dusk

-

Park at dusk, 2021-06-05 from my #dailyphoto thread on Twitter.

News Articles

A selection of news articles & books in which I’ve been featured or quoted:

    @@ -190,7 +194,7 @@ Sometimes I stream on Twitch!

diff --git a/publications.html b/publications.html index 259224a..87f369f 100644 --- a/publications.html +++ b/publications.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -102,7 +123,7 @@ Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, M
diff --git a/resume.html b/resume.html index 4b76aaf..c95821a 100644 --- a/resume.html +++ b/resume.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -57,7 +78,7 @@ September 1999 – May 2003

diff --git a/sigbovik/index.html b/sigbovik/index.html index d3d3323..e2bd3a0 100644 --- a/sigbovik/index.html +++ b/sigbovik/index.html @@ -22,7 +22,28 @@ - + + +
@@ -61,7 +82,7 @@
diff --git a/sitemap.txt b/sitemap.txt index 5e2ef79..fee63f9 100644 --- a/sitemap.txt +++ b/sitemap.txt @@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/20070807-vim-tips.html https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/20190403-update.html https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/20200209-sneak.html https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/20210721-downvotes-considered-harmful.html +https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/20221107-goodbye-twitter.html +https://www.mcmillen.dev/blog/index.html https://www.mcmillen.dev/index.html https://www.mcmillen.dev/language_checklist.html https://www.mcmillen.dev/papers/Drenner-2002-ICRA-final.pdf