Arrived yesterday:

• Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World by Christopher de Hamel.

Arrived today:

• The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke.
• The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke.
• Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary by Geoffrey Cain.

I’d never really thought about it, but this from Mat Duggan is absolutely true for me:

[O]ne big monitor is a a different experience entirely compared to 2 smaller monitors. I don’t use the two monitors as one large unbroken screen, I tend to use one of them for “less important static content” like a ToDo list or my work chat tool and my email and then the “primary” monitor for my terminal/tmux/browser which is how I do all my actual work. But windows “belong” to one or they “belong” to another. Grudin found in 2001 that people use a second monitor exactly this way, where focal work on one, peripheral glances on the other. Twenty-five years ago. The OS still doesn’t know which monitor is doing one role and which the other.

The whole thing is about his ideal UI, and I haven’t done more than skim it, but it definitely seems interesting.

I downloaded Mars Edit, and am writing this post in it. It was—under documented, let’s say—as to how to set it up with TextPattern. But one forum post later, it’s actually very simple:

1. Enable the XML-RPC server within TextPattern (Admin > Preferences)
2. For the blog settings in Mars Edit, choose the MetaWeblog API and system name “Other.”
3. For the API Endpoint URL use https://www.example.com/rpc/
4. For “Blog ID” use “articles” (or another section slug)

Now to find a desktop client for Linux as well.

Update: Better to set Mars Edit to use “plain text” in its editor rather than “rich text”—the latter being just HTML—since TextPattern is expecting Textile input.

Update #2: I had to re-save this post from the web interface to make the formatting work. This is looking more and more like a bad idea.

Entergy is my power company. Periodically, I get emails from them in the form of a net promoter score question, that is, how likely would I be to recommend them to someone else. This drives me bonkers.

The thing is, where I am, they have a monopoly. There is no one else from whom I can buy power. So would I recommend them? As opposed to what? Not having electricity?

(And no, I probably wouldn’t recommend them.)

A 50/50 mix of russet and Yukon Gold potatoes works very well—but really just use whatever you have.

Ingredients

• 5 lb. potatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• kosher salt, to taste
• coarse black pepper, to taste
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped, green parts only

Directions

In a large stock pot, put the potatoes and enough water to cover by an inch. Bring to a rolling boil, and cook 10-12 minutes, or until a knife easily pierces through a large piece.

Meanwhile, in a separate pot, heat cream, garlic, cream cheese, butter, salt, and pepper until warm, with cream cheese melted.

Drain potatoes and return to pot. Return to heat briefly to evaporate any remaining moisture. Remove from heat, and add cream mixture and green onions. Mash thoroughly, incorporating cream mixture. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if desired. Serve promptly.