North’s standard sales pitch is that you should think of an elevator the way you think of a car. He named his business accordingly—Chuxingyi Dianti Gongsi, or the Travel Easy Elevator Company. The first time he took me to a project site, in the fall of 2019, we visited a twelve-story building in downtown Fuling. The city’s urban population has tripled since I lived there, with some of the growth coming from the resettlement of migrants during the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which inundated many low-lying settlements in the early two-thousands. Back then, construction tended to be rushed and of poor quality, and it wasn’t unusual for a tall building to have no elevator. North told me that the twelve-story structure dated to that era.

“In those days, elevators and cars were basically the same,” he said. “People didn’t have either. But now pretty much everybody has a car. It’s a basic tool for transportation. And elevators should still be the same—if you have a car, then you should also have an elevator.”

The building had the characteristic look of millennial Chinese construction: aging concrete, small windows, cramped balconies with rusted railings. But a gleaming new glass-and-metal elevator shaft had been attached along one side of the building’s exterior, like a splint to a wounded limb. North and I entered the shaft at the ground floor, and he inserted a key into the elevator’s console. A set of speakers in the ceiling started playing “Going Home,” by Kenny G. In most of North’s elevators, “Going Home” runs on an endless loop. He once told me that the song makes people feel good about returning to their apartments.

He pushed the button for the top floor. “You need a key to use the elevator,” he said. “Just like driving a car.” He explained that this was necessary because each resident had contributed a different amount toward the construction. The price got higher with each floor, so every key was programmed to take the elevator only to the resident’s landing. It was like owning a car, if your car always went to the same destination while playing the same song by Kenny G.

North mentioned that a twelfth-floor resident had refused to pay, so she had to keep trudging up the stairs. I asked if anybody ever opted out and then secretly acquired a key from a neighbor.

“It’s not common, but I’ve had it happen,” North said. He took out his phone, opened an app, and showed a live video feed: North and me, viewed from above. I looked behind us and saw a surveillance camera. “I can watch any of my elevators with this app,” North said. He switched the feed to an elevator across town. On the screen, the doors opened and a woman entered. Believing herself to be alone and unobserved, the woman faced the elevator’s mirror, leaned close, and began working intently on her makeup. Kenny’s sax played while North and I watched the woman fix her face. “See?” North said. “If anybody uses the elevator illegally, it’s easy to check. That video stays up for seven days.”

– China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class

atoi and Trillions of Whales

Where is Webb?

https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

I love photography because being able to afford expensive equipment makes up for my lack of skill. – https://www.instagram.com/p/CYEPT6Ir4nm/

I worked so hard, but nothing I made belonged to me. – When Williamsburg Was on the Wrong Side of the River

@lain @p @lebronjames75

Delta vs Omicron

@natecull when my nexus 5x died, i didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a pixel. i bought a nokia 6.1+ largely because of the android one support: years of monthly security updates and two android updates. i didn’t want to deal with a custom ui, either. over time, i replaced all the dying phones at home with nokias: 6.2, 3.2, 7.2.

unfortunately, their android one support has dropped off in 2021. my 7.2 is still on android 10; they started to roll out 11 six weeks ago, but didn’t do it worldwide. their high end nokia 9 won’t get it at all! (they’ve offered some payment/discount to customers.)

if you can find it, your best option is a pixel 4a. it’s a couple of years old, but they still make them, and they’re supported until late 2023.

typing emoji in emacs 29: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2lHLRT4nlk

in summary:

• emoji-list (C-x 8 e l)
• emoji-insert (C-x 8 e i)
• emoji-describe (C-x 8 e d)
• emoji-search (C-x 8 e s)
• emoji-recent (C-x 8 e r)

There’s a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil cats. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost kittens. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/solarbreeze69/3108088164/

psql custom format backups, single-user instance:

     98M Jul 31  2020 pleroma_dev-2020-07
    120M Aug 31  2020 pleroma_dev-2020-08
    140M Sep 30  2020 pleroma_dev-2020-09
    164M Oct 31  2020 pleroma_dev-2020-10
    185M Nov 30  2020 pleroma_dev-2020-11
    208M Dec 31  2020 pleroma_dev-2020-12
    229M Jan 31  2021 pleroma_dev-2021-01
    249M Feb 28  2021 pleroma_dev-2021-02
    270M Mar 31  2021 pleroma_dev-2021-03
    296M Apr 30  2021 pleroma_dev-2021-04
    254M May 31  2021 pleroma_dev-2021-05
    271M Jun 30 03:00 pleroma_dev-2021-06
    291M Jul 31 03:01 pleroma_dev-2021-07
    313M Aug 31 03:01 pleroma_dev-2021-08
    330M Sep 30 03:00 pleroma_dev-2021-09
    352M Oct 31 03:01 pleroma_dev-2021-10
    374M Nov 30 03:01 pleroma_dev-2021-11

“how to innoy people”

@apetresc it’s not ideal, but another way:

(define test-depths '(199 200 208 210 200 207 240 269 260 263))

(define (reduce fn ls acc)
  (if (null? ls)
    acc
    (reduce fn (cdr ls) (fn (car ls) acc))))

(define (inner-loop depth acc)
  (if (> depth (car acc))
    (list depth (+ (cadr acc) 1))
    (list depth (cadr acc))))

(define (part-1)
  (cadr (reduce inner-loop test-depths (list (car test-depths) 0)))

hopefully the formatting will work…