Jack Baty
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Hi, I’m Jack šŸ‘‹

Director of Unspecified Services.
Amateur photographer, blogger, and curious nerd.
Welcome to my blog about everything, since 2000.

Creating Hugo posts using hpost (from Mike Hall)

Creating a new blog post for Hugo couldn’t be simpler. One simply creates a new Markdown file in the correct folder, making sure it contains the proper YAML front matter, and…OK, it’s not that simple. Normally I use a small lisp function in Emacs for creating posts, but that doesn’t help me on days that I don’t feel like using Emacs1. Another option would be to use the built-in hugo commands, but for some reason I never think of that. Probably because it requires that I cd to the right place and tell it what to name the file. ...

July 18, 2025
Light pole and sky with clouds

Friday, July 18, 2025

Don’t you wish I had only one blog? I do.

Clear 57.0 | Low 54.7, High 77.5

Tim Minchin - Confirmation Bias

If he’s a bit manic for you, here’s part of the transcript that I’ve reformatted a bit: ...if you're a progressive, don't do this. Don't go on to the internet and go, "Hey fellow progressives, like maybe we should consider having, you know, a little - just just chill out a bit and have a bit of humility and realise that not everyone's had the opportunity to read the books we've read and not everyone's, you know, learned the lessons that you've learned. Maybe we should apply the Principle of Charity and not assume that anyone who disagrees with us has a nefarious intent and try and hear the best version of the argument, not the worst. And maybe we just need to-" They go, ā€œDon’t you police my tone, you straight white male! Check your privilege!ā€ ...

July 17, 2025

Org-mouse Emacs package

org-mouseĀ is a built-in package for Org mode that lets one do some handy things using the mouse in Org files. Things like checking checkboxes and toggling subtrees. (use-package org-mouse :after org) Or just (require 'org-mouse) Clicking in [ ] Do this thing to complete it is easier than navigating to the line and hitting C-c C-c for each item. There’s no shame in using a mouse, even in Emacs. I sometimes prefer to sit back, grab the mouse, and click things. ...

July 17, 2025
People in chairs, eating, at a reception. 1960s.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

I’m editing this in (Neo)Vim because I feel like living in normal Vim bindings for a minute, without the grief I cause myself trying to use evil-mode in Emacs.

Overcast 64.0 | Low 62.6, High 73.4

Why do I keep trying Obsidian?

I know I won’t like Obsidian this time, either. Yet, I keep trying.

July 16, 2025

Glass.photo Series

What if I used Glass for my film roll posts, instead?

July 14, 2025
Street sign reading Road Ends in front of trees

Monday, July 14, 2025

Firing up a new daily note every morning used to be a regular thing for me. Lately, it just gives me blank page anxiety. It’s possible that an ā€œI don’t feel much like bloggingā€ phase is starting. I know this because I don’t feel much like blogging. I have a doctor’s appointment today. Just a scheduled follow-up, but there’s a lot of pre-appointment guilt happening. My blood pressure is a little higher than we’d like, so in our last meeting I suggested that instead of upping my meds, that I eat healthier and exercise more. I’ve done neither of those, so my BP will still be too high and he’ll have to tsk-tsk me and prescribe something stronger. I hate having to take medications, but it’s my own damn fault. ...

Mist 60.1 | Low 61.3, High 89.1
Children's blocks on carpet

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Reverting my blogging changes

Partly cloudy 73.9 | Low 74.1, High 88.0
Screenshot of TUI

A little TUI for updating exif data in photos

I like to have Make and Model information available in film scans, and use exiftool for this. I have a lisp function in Emacs that does this, but sometimes I’d like to do it from a terminal instead. So I asked Claude for help. The result was camera-exif-tui. It’s a tiny Go app that launches a TUI that allows me to select a make/model and a folder full of image files. It calls exiftool and updates the images with the selected camera info. ...

July 8, 2025
Double exposure self portrait

Duplication

Here are some (probably) unnecessary things I’ve been doing.

July 4, 2025

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Just seeing if this thing still works.

Cloudy 72.0 | Low 60.6, High 91.9
Diagram of computer layout

My updated computer setup

The new M4 MacBook Air arrived, and it changed how I have things set up around here.

June 29, 2025

One Computer

It seems I’ve finally actually ā€œReduced & Simplifiedā€ something.

June 20, 2025

Importing Org Journal to Day One

I wanted a different view into my org-journal history, so I imported it into Day One Plain text is great, but has limits. I’ve been journaling in plain text (.org) withĀ org-journalsince 2018. It’s just a bunch of .org files in a folder. It’s great, and, you know, future-proof. Before Org-Journal, I usedĀ Day OneĀ for journaling as far back as 2011. Day One is pretty, powerful, and available everywhere. There are ā€œon this dayā€ and ā€œtodayā€ features that I find useful. It integrates smoothly with the Photos app, and it stamps entries with the current location and weather conditions. Add fast sync on all devices with end-to-end encryption, and it makes for a darn nice journaling setup. ...

June 15, 2025

I'm about to do it again

Baty.net is going to move back to Ghost, I think. Y’all will I’m sure get a chuckle out of it and I’m happy for you. :) I’ve noticed that when running both Ghost and Hugo blogs, when I want to post something, my default is to reach for Ghost. It’s just easier overall. Plus, I can have that sweet, sweet @jack@baty.net Fediverse handle that I loved but didn’t want tied to my blogging platform. ...

June 12, 2025

Hard Mode and status

Joan Westenberg, in The Cult of Hard Mode: Why Simplicity Offends Tech Elites: …hard mode is where status lives. This is exactly what I’ve been thinking about lately. It hurts to hear it out loud. Read the article, but here are a few quotes that reminded me how far down the complexity rabbit holes I’ve traveled. And under it all is the same impulse: make it harder than it needs to be, so I can feel smarter than I am. ...

June 12, 2025
Black and white photo of sleeping dog

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Daily notes. What are they for? I guess it’s like having a legal pad open on my desk, where I can write whatever I’m thinking about at any time. The problem for you, dear reader, is that you’re subjected to all of it. I feel a little guilty about that. Not guilty enough to stop doing it, of course. I am a different person every day. Too different.

Mist 54.1 | Low 56.7, High 85.1
Black and white film photo of Rolleiflex and Hasselblad on desk

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

If there are ā€œNotesā€ listed under this post, it means the thing I’ve been working on here is…working, I guess. (Update, they’re missing from the RSS feed. I’ll work on that later.) Trusting your own judgement on ā€˜AI’ is a huge risk: Something seemingly working is not evidence of it working. (Long, but worth reading). I dunno, seems to me that if it’s working, it’s working, but I suppose that’s his point. One can argue that AI is bad for the environment, or bad for artists, or stealing, and you’d have a point. But when you argue that ā€œWell, it doesn’t actually work. It can’t think!ā€ then that’s where we part company. Even though I agree with a lot of the article, it’s the kind of thing someone writes when they really really don’t wan’t something to be true. I swear I’m going to stop commenting on all this nonsense and go back to the super-cool homeopathic software I co-wrote (aka ā€œvibe-codedā€) today. You know, the one that’s working. I don’t need to prove anything to you. ...

Partly cloudy 66.9 | Low 50.0, High 73.9

My app deletion fiasco

When a simple app ā€œcleanupā€ on my Mac Mini went way WAY too far.

June 9, 2025
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