Steve Holden's Blog

Near Real-Time Tracking

You can find out what I'm up to in near real-time via Facebook (sholden) and Instagram (@sholden).

Maybe more on BlueSky (@sdholden.bsky.social).

Less on X/Twitter (@sholden).

While I am not currently as engaged as I have been in the past, these AztecMedia.net produced sites are still out there: Chvrches Fan Podcast (@chvrchespodcast), ThePodCraft Beer Show (@thepodcraft, @techguysteve, Untapped, @techguysteven); Tech News Radio (@technewsradio), Air Gapped Networks (@airgapnet), Jersey Boys Podcast, and Veteran Stories.

... Updated: November 16, 2024 ...

Ideas & Freedom Matter

I recently learned that one of the authors of The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living -- Ryan Holiday -- had his Naval Academy lecture cancelled:

For the last five years, I've been reading this book as part of my daily morning devotion practice (MORE INFO).

I am so sorry this happened. 

Ideas matter. Freedom matters. Freedom of speech matters.  Critical thinking matters. Learning matters. 

Sticking your head in the sand is stupid.

Banning books is a sign of weakness and fear.

While you can't watch the planned talk, here is the video of the talk that Ryan recorded later:

TIP - Google Search Without AI Results

Google recently created a new search option that provides no AI results.

Here is the basic link:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14

The key part of the link above is the addition of &udm=14.

You will get a search result related to what %s is if you click the above link.

So you could change this to whatever you want, like (weather):

https://www.google.com/search?q=weather&udm=14

Anything you put in the search box will inherit the &udm=14 tag, and your search results on that page will continue to exclude AI results.

 

TIP - EPUB format for Kindle

The last couple of days, I've encountered several situations where I wanted to quickly send content to my Kindle Paperwhite via the Amazon send to Kindle email service.

They support several formats (PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTM, HTML, PNG, GIF, JPG, JPEG, BMP, EPUB).

One piece of content I update weekly in Obsidian is in MD file format.

I converted that content to a graphic, to text, to PDF, and then to EPUB.  

I found the EPUB to be the best for me.

The conversion was simple: I cut and pasted the content in Obsidian to an open document in Google Docs and then "Download" (from the File menu) the EPUB version.

Once downloaded, I use Google Gmail to attach the EPUB to an email to my personalized Kindle email address.

20 Helpful Verification Tools for Journalists

This article offers a wealth of valuable resources, including "20 Helpful Verification Tools for Journalists."

 

 

What If FEMA Didn't Exist?

A thoughtful and well-researched analysis of the question: What if FEMA* didn't exist?

*FEMA = Federal Emergency Management Agency:

• Official Site
• Wikipedia

Tip - Taxes & National Debt Podcast

This Freakanomics podcast, "Ten Myths About the U.S. Tax System," is worth listening to if you want some great background on the current state of our National Debt and some suggestions on fixing tax policies.

 

1st Amendment Under Attack

Brian Krebs's article "How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack" is thoughtful and well-documented.

Can You Develop & Sell A 100% American Made Product?

The Search Engine podcast does a great job tackling this topic in the episode "The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber."

I ordered one and will post a review and photos once I get it.

Music Geekdom

One of my favorite podcasts - Sound Explorer - has a new thing they are doing with interviewing music geeks called Key Change.

The first version was with Sophie Thatcher, and the second was with Hanif Abdurraqib on The Clash.

As a big fan of The Clash, I enjoyed that podcast. The podcast with Sophie was also definitely worth listening to.

You can learn more about Hanif Aburraqib via:

• His 1968-2005  Playlist
• Lost Notes: 1980s
• Object of Sound Podcast

 

Truths vs. Lies

Mike Cosper (director at CT Media) recently pointed out in his podcast "The Bulletin - Gimme Some Truth" a paraphrase of this Kevin Williams quote -- "It takes 400 words to correct one stupid sentence."

A "lie" requires much "truth" to refute it.

And who has time for that? Especially when the lies per post on X or Truth Social are tens per hour. [Tracking Elon Posts - Tweets]

And if all people want to do is fight, bicker, and shout down each other, what is the point?

This is a key part of this podcast, "DOGE and the Mystery of the State Department Teslas" by Search Engine.

More news on the "Flood The Zone" strategy is going on.