James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 13/07/2026To be fair though, Angela's original post in this thread was a reference to the "typst Free" webui, not to the open-source part. And possibly, most typst users might be hooked on the webui, and thus could have the rug pulled out from under them. For them, the open-source argument may be moot. 110
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 23/03/2026this post from pookleblinky is now at the top of my list of things to recall whenever someone questions a candidate's "experience": 3388
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 18/02/2026but also, Kelly teaming up with Hawley just reminds me of this: 100
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 27/01/2026Uh, hey, white people? Especially white people who consider themselves "leftist" or "antifascist"? Don't ever fuckin' do this*. Ever. If you do this, you are part of the problem. [*] see red circled part of image 200
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 11/12/2025but also, lower case 'L' should have a little curve at the top & bottom. E.g. here's upper-case 'i', lower-case 'L', and arabic numeral one rendered with the Fira Code typeface: fonts.google.com/specimen/Fir... 010
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 11/11/2025TIL this viewpoint has dominated basic literacy education in the u.s. since the late 1980's: 101
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 01/07/2025yes; attached is the entry from ISO 10646:2014* which includes an example glyph (in which both hands belong to the same person) as well as possible uses. [*] it's been a while since i downloaded the Unicode standard; i should probably fix that... 110
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 18/06/2025the non-evil mirror of jordan peterson has been with us for decades. 020
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 12/06/2025right-wing americans *clearly* hate brown immigrants. *Obviously*. i mean look at this: www.google.com/search?q=202... at the same time, immigrants are part of america. this means that right-wingers hate america. qed. 101
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 05/02/2025times when democrats should have seen who biden is, and then nominated someone else: - january 2024, after he sent would-be covid relief funds to the police; - in the 1980's, when he championed an anti-drug bill that targeted black neighborhoods much more than white neighborhoods; - the 1970's? 110
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 06/01/2025tbh i'm not sure it makes sense to refer to the united states as a "developed nation". we have, at best, some of the components of a developed nation. 100
James Widman @jameswidman.bsky.social · 26/11/2024the phrase "blue sky", meaning "unconstrained by practicalities" is a little odd, because if the sky looks blue from wherever you are, then you're definitely very, very, *very* close to the ground. 010
![quote from near the end of the linked article:
> He [Ken Goodman] brought up the example of a child who comes to the word "horse" and says "pony" instead. His argument is that a child will still understand the meaning of the story because horse and pony are the same concept.
I pressed him on this. First of all, a pony isn't the same thing as a horse. Second, don't you want to make sure that when a child is learning to read, he understands that /p/ /o/ /n/ /y/ says "pony"? And different letters say "horse"?
He dismissed my question.
"The purpose is not to learn words," he said. "The purpose is to make sense."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:f7qgvss3n6aymjhrsofvfwao/bafkreihjewojd7pjlkyf3ebchmdou6zk6q4dfhbynj5audnlypyafykdxa)
![a screenshot of the only page of chapter 1 of _The TeXbook_, by Donald Knuth:
Chapter 1: The Name ofthe Game
English words like ‘technology’ stem from a Greek root beginning with the letters τϵχ...; and this same Greek word means art as well as technology. Hence the name TeX, which is an uppercase form of τϵχ.
[alt-text note: on the printed page, the 'e' in 'TeX' is actually a capital 'E' that is the same size as an ordinary capital 'E', but it has been shifted downward, so that the top horizontal stroke of 'E' is aligned with the tops of lower-case letters.]
Insiders pronounce the χ of TeX as a Greek chi, not as an ‘x’, so that TeX rhymes with the word blecchhh. It’s the ‘ch’ sound in Scottish words like *loch* or German words like *ach*; it’s a Spanish ‘j’ and a Russian ‘kh’. When you say it correctly to your computer, the terminal may become slightly moist.
The purpose of this pronunciation exercise is to remind you that TeX is primarily concerned with high-quality technical manuscripts: Its emphasis is on art and technology, as in the underlying Greek word. If you merely want to produce a passably good document—something acceptable and basically read- able but not really beautiful—a simpler system will usually suffice. With TeX the goal is to produce the *finest* quality; this requires more attention to detail, but you will not find it much harder to go the extra distance, and you’ll be able to take special pride in the finished product.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:f7qgvss3n6aymjhrsofvfwao/bafkreih2b4da6j334lyz74xxxjcn3bgcdgwp7a4pbks3gf3b5qtkwh5aai)
