Don't Panic

Thoughts Out Loud

In an early (season 1, I think) episode of Parks and Recreation, Andy Dwyer (played by Chris Pratt) hears someone utter the words “eagle-eyed tiger” while describing something unrelated and immediately calls out “Eagle-Eyed Tiger, new band name, I call it!” Andy is well known for coming up with names for possible bands, and the phrase “New Band Name, I Call It!” has become a staple around me and my associates whenever something cool sounding is said.

Therefore, in this first round of #NewBandNameICallIt, I submit the following 13 band names that I heard or thought of randomly and sounded cool enough to call them.

  1. Distant Gorilla
  2. Rumbler
  3. Finger Guns
  4. Pizza Direction
  5. Mouth Base
  6. Bird-shirted Hustle-baby
  7. Time-out Resort
  8. Pancake Whale
  9. Nothing Rhymes with Limerick
  10. Sext Raccoon
  11. Scottish Con Artist
  12. Bespoke Paranoia
  13. Saw'd-Off Shot Glass

I deeply enjoy Inspirational Skeletor, and I think others might, also:

Lately, I've been getting really into APIs.

I like that I'm learning a language commuters can use to talk to each other under the right conditions.

I branched out from creating my Android API into doing it through curl in bash. Then (as one does, I suppose) kinda fell into python.

I'd already been playing around a lot with json as a data structure, so the transition felt tailor-made. And while I was sifting through concepts, I stumbled across sqlite3, which fit naturally.

It's also been forcing me to work my git skills with my self-hosted Forgejo.

Before I'd realized it, I'd been building all those desirable skills for a while.

And it's fun.

The Silent Hero stands ever vigilant, stalwart and stoic, seeking not reward nor recognition.

He offers benefaction at no price, great deeds does he do; for they must be done and he is right to do them.

Fortitude, courage, and bravery are his armor. Dependability, virtue, and altruism his nourishment.

He harbors no resentment, sets his sights on no recompense. Duty is his driving force, conviction his mantra.

He bears no thoughts of respite, rest, or reprieve. His only goal; to be of use.

Loyal to the last, a paragon of nobility. His like may be ineffable.

Honor and glory to the warrior, who earned his legacy. Songs shall be sung ever more.

I've been playing around with ways to send remote commands to my Android device and I've come up with something that resembles an API if you cobble it together with just a few steps.

The Concept

It takes two apps and a small bit of configuration.

First, send an http request to the ntfy service. The companion app on the Android device listens for and receives updates from that service. These updates trigger an Android [Intent]().

Next, use Tasker to monitor all intents on the device and react to them if they meet certain parameters. So long as the original request contains those parameters, trigger a response with a custom action.

The Breakdown

Read up on how to create ntfy messages for yourself and subscribe to a topic.

Download Tasker* and create a new profile with the Event type, adding io.heckel.ntfy.MESSAGE_RECEIVED as the action and leaving the rest as is. The profile will prompt you to create a task.

*Note on the download link: That link is to get the APK and install it yourself if you're savvy enough.

I am normally loathe to recommend the Google Play Store, but that is where the developer works primarily, and downloading their official version will prevent certain advanced functionality from breaking and allow you to bundle all kinds of other stuff the developer builds.

In the task, you can run any actions you want. The only thing you have to add is a filter on any parameters you included in the ntfy http request, whose names match the resulting Tasker parameters:

  • %topic
  • %title
  • %message
  • %tags

This will prevent your task from being triggered by any ntfy message received according to the intent.

Summary

And that's it! It's an http request to ntfy which triggers a Tasker action if the device is configured properly.

Use case ideas

  • Turn all volume settings to maximum so you can ping/locate device.
  • Send an SMS when your device isn't near you.
  • Open a URL in the device browser for later.
  • Remotely take pictures.
  • Have device report back status indicators, such as battery level, current WiFi network, etc...

Take a look at some of these vacation ideas and put them in order from most desirable to least desirable. You can click here to do it interactively if you want.

At the very least, if you brush your eyes up and down just to see what's on the list, you'll see a few you like and a few you wouldn't.

And if you actually read it you might even find some you'd love to do, and some you'd never do.

  • Winter Wonderland Skiing Adventure in the Swiss Alps
  • Summer Beach Relaxation in Tropical Hawaiian Paradise
  • Autumn Hiking in the Vibrant New England Foliage
  • Cultural City Break in Historic European Capitals
  • Wildlife Safari Expedition in the African Savannah
  • Food and Wine Tasting Tour in Italy
  • Adventure Camping in the Grand Canyon
  • Luxury Spa Retreat in the Maldives
  • Scenic Road Trip Along the Pacific Coast Highway
  • Eco-Friendly Jungle Lodge Stay in Costa Rica
  • Family Fun at Disney World in Orlando
  • Surfing and Yoga Retreat in Bali
  • Cruising the Mediterranean on a Luxury Yacht
  • Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
  • Urban Exploration in Tokyo's Neon Districts
  • Romantic Getaway in the French Countryside
  • Golfing and Whiskey Tasting in Scotland
  • Desert Hot Air Balloon Ride in Arizona
  • Cycling Tour Through the French Wine Country
  • Northern Lights Expedition in Iceland

I bet there'd be a lot of people who'd order the list differently, no? Because we all have things that just speak to us, right?

And I bet there'd be a few people who told you that you were crazy for liking a particular idea, just as you might judge someone for the things they prefer.

None of that would feel very good, would it? After all, they're just vacation preferences. How ridiculous would it be to judge or hate or restrict someone for their ideal vacation? After all, it's just how they like to feel good, right?

Now replace Vacation Idea with Sexual Orientation/Identification.

I've been thinking about all that I've learned from video games. As with many trades, skills, or hobbies, video games are great teachers of many important skills, virtues, and perspectives.

Being a Gamer requires a certain tenacity and persistence in the face of adversity. One struggles against challenges and obstacles where success on the first attempt is not common. This breeds an acceptance of failure and an understanding of consequences, but more importantly it cultivates a resilience to “giving up” and a mindset focused on critical thinking and problem solving.

Gamers must also be flexible and think quick on their feet. They learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome. They need to understand the causality of their actions and perceive a wide array of outcomes.

As the player is often cast as the hero archetype (predominately where strong story development is involved), there are important lessons in morality, the intrinsic value of helping others, championing beliefs, and discerning good from evil. Often, one learns virtues like nobility, honor, trust, respect, empathy/sympathy, and kindness.

Gaming also necessitates the development of a wide variety of skills, such as navigation, spacial reasoning, economics and resource management, teamwork, communication, pattern recognition, memory, and creativity, to name but a few.

There are talents nurtured by the element of the sport of gaming itself: hand-eye coordination, reflexes, endurance, and perseverance. One usually learns to grasp a wide variety of complex rules and conditions, and understands multiple nuances.

The lessons I've received and the skills I've built from Gaming have made me successful in many arenas, such as education, the workforce, projects and hobbies, relationships, and even parenting.

Not everyone has the same experience, but I've deeply valued mine.

If video games have taught me anything, it's that if you encounter enemies then you're going the right way.

In The Good Place, Janet is a non-dimensional being of unlimited power and omniscience, tempered only by a set of guidelines that dictate her operational parameters to serve specific functions. She professes at several points throughout the serious that she “literally knows everything.”

So...

That would mean that Janet knows the future.

Hear me out.

Per Newtonian mechanics, if we were to know the velocity, charge, orientation, direction, and all other aspects of each atom and subatomic particle, presuming an ability to correctly and quickly collect, process, and calculate that data, we could determine all of the infinite interactions that can and will occur in order to accurately predict the future.

The breakdown comes from quantum mechanics, where Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle says that we cannot know more than one attribute of a particle at a given time.

But Janet blows all that right out of the water because she “literally knows everything” and has the omnipotent power to consume and solve all that data.

The show further represents time as a single-line-drawn, closed loop on a two dimensional plane that looks something like the signature of a person named “Jeremy Bearmiy.” Janet indicates knowledge of specific events at exact points on this “line” on multiple occasions.

This means not only that events as we perceive them in “time” are limited to a specific scope, but that Janet has already seen them all, “past,” “present,” and “future.”

So she has already existed at all points in “time” while having the power to know everything, and she is capable of measuring anything and everything instantaneously in order to arrive at an accurate prediction of what will happen at any of those points.

Tada.

I don't like mail.

Well, I don't like 2 of the 3 kinds of mail.

The kind I like is packages I've intentionally ordered. Who doesn't love being shipped a box of their late-night-impulse shopping?

Then there's correspondence from people I know and with whom want to regularly (or at least occasionally) converse. 100% of the people in this category know how to reach me digitally, know I prefer it, and prefer it themselves.

And then there's everything else, which is almost never good news anyway and, really, could've been done digitally almost every the time. It's so bad I have a mini anxiety attack just walking to the mail box. Oh crap, what's it gonna be today?

The !packages & !correspondence category breaks down into three sub-categories: Bills, Tax, and Legal Stuff; Reminders and Things You Don't Need To Deal With Right Away; and Spam/Junk/Ads. It's always one of those three, and actually there's sometimes some overlap.

I have never gotten correspondence in my mailbox that couldn't have been emailed to me or managed as a phone call, and I'm including birthday cards from grandparents in there.

I've never gotten something in my mailbox that I needed to act on or know about immediately except a notification that I forgot to pay a utility bill, and by the time I got it they'd already emailed me, shown me a notification on the website and in the app, called me, and texted me, so I was well aware.

Unless it's legal proceedings which can only be delivered via printed out, stamped mail (because of some stupid rule), I don't need it in my mailbox. Everything else is a waste.

And speaking of waste, let's talk about all the trees that are dying for this shit. And all the pollution from logistics delivering it. Right? In a digital age, why are will still mailing so much? Put every package on a train and put every document in an email and you're done. It's not that hard.

Privacy.com is a service that allows you to link your bank account to digital debit cards you can generate to protect yourself from illicit use and maintain a measure of privacy and anonymity.

How does Privacy work?

I wrote a wiki page about it, but their support article really puts it nicely:

Privacy Virtual Cards can be used to make purchases in the same way as a physical card, but without the anxiety that comes with giving out your actual card’s information knowing that it’s only a matter of time until the next data breach.

Every virtual card is connected to your bank account but comes with a unique, 16-digit card number, CVV, and expiration.

Privacy Cards come with all kinds of additional protections to help shut down fraudulent transactions before they even happen:

  • Pause a virtual card between purchases to make sure fraudulent transactions can’t sneak through.
  • Set a spending limit so you can control exactly how much and how frequently a virtual card can be used.
  • Close a card and rest easy knowing that even if a fraudster got your Privacy Virtual Card’s information, they couldn’t do anything with it.
  • All Privacy Cards lock to the first merchant they are used with to protect your card details from being improperly obtained.
  • Create one-time use cards that close after the first purchase is made, rendering them useless to hackers.

Privacy connects to your bank and we directly debit your funding source for transactions as you make them.

It's just this really amazing service and I encourage everyone to try it.