A bit of CSS

n.t.s./reminder to use this CSS bit from Monica D. the next time I make something.

* {box-sizing: border-box}
[hidden] {display: none !important}
[disabled] {pointer-events:none; opacity: 0.3}
.horizontal {display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: space-between}
.vertical {display: flex; flex-direction: column}
.center {justify-content: center; align-items: center}
.flex {flex: 1}
html {
  --spacing-xs: 8px;
  --spacing: 24px;
  --spacing-s: 12px;
  --spacing-m: 36px;
}

Ubuntu audio-out picker

Another little note-to-self that might help a web search. Ubuntu 20.04 (and previous, I gather) has no quick way to switch audio outputs (e.g., speakers to headphones.) You have to drill 3 layers down into settings. Irritating!

There are tons of Gnome shell extensions that purport to fix this but none of them could see any outputs other than the built-in speaker on Mac mini. (Yes.)

But wait! This one did!

That's it, that's the post. Use that extension. I tried to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review but I'm locked out of whatever account you must have, to leave a review... because of course.

[UPDATE: An hour later I've realized I linked to one of the crummy ones, not the good one. Fixed.]

Apple Trade-In Program

I couldn't possibly have less faith in a trade-in program than I do in this Phobio company's scheme.

Right from the imprimatur of the apple.com domain, I'm linked to a seriously dodgy experience. They sent an email with a link. I clicked the link and they sent a box. I did the required resetting (a separate post I won't get around to) and dropped the box off at FedEx. Whereupon they sent me an email saying they were going to send me a box.

Only after my machine is gone into the FedEx whirlygig do I think, "I should research this company." google google Oy. Apple does business with this crew?

Girding for battle...

gaming spotify?

This kicks off my Release Radar, this week. A track called "Save a Life" by "Rachel Blocklgth" (not a typo?) and, allegedly, Midnight Oil. I play old Oils albums sometimes, so, sure.

But this track is an instrumental, no reason to think that's them, playing. The copyright is just "Rachel Blocklgth" who is, other than this track's appearance on Spotify and YouTube, totally un-google-able.

Feels like a con, but I can't figure out what that con is, other than just trying to collect spins? Is it worth it? How did she sneak Midnight Oil's name into the mix?

On declaring a sudden meritocracy

I started following Derek Lowe's pharma-industry blog In The Pipeline a few months before the pandemic kicked in. I don't remember how I first found it; someone on MetaFilter or similar must've linked to it. I don't know anything about chemistry but I liked his writing. (This is the same reason I follow "Money Stuff" @ Bloomberg. A mostly bewildering subject, made bleakly humorous by Matt Levine.)

He's had a lot of interesting opinion about the current virus and insight into various tests and trials -- this is his field of expertise, after all -- but I didn't expect a concise 3-sentence statement neatly explaining the civilization-sized issue of racism/sexism and the problem with just declaring "that's over, we're a meritocracy starting... NOW."

Out here in [the real] world, minorities of many kinds and women in general have had a raw deal – not only in chemistry or in the other physical sciences, although most definitely there – and it’s impossible to act as if this can suddenly vanish with no one hereafter paying attention to such categories. I actually think meritocracy is an excellent thing, but if you just declare “meritocracy in place” as of this moment, you preserve an existing order that has treated a lot of people like second-class citizens and second-class scientists. Worse, it’s an order that has, over the many years, forced many of them unwillingly into those second ranks because the first ranks were closed off to them.

Commute Replacer™

Some podcast talk the last few weeks about people who actually miss their daily commute. Or, if they're not "missing" it exactly, they're having trouble replacing some of the small things that a commute enabled -- a liminal space, a hype-up between home and work, a decompression zone between work and home, a chance to catch up on podcasts (listenership seems to be down, apparently?), a chance to scream at the top of one's lungs for a while...

Obvious solution, for those with a basement or 2-story home... buy yourself an old sit-down arcade cabinet and retrofit it to resemble your preferred vehicle interior, then tuck the whole thing under the stairs, behind a door. Steering wheel, cupholder/console to the side, a dock for your phone somewhere in front, a pre-recorded video of your commute (or whatever!) on the screen.

Get your coffee and briefcase, walk over to the closet under the stairs, and climb in for 20 minutes. It's something less than an isolation-chamber, but does enough to divide work from home. (Maybe. I dunno.)