William Denton

Librarian, artist and licensed private investigator.

Most posts delete after six months.

#emacs #fieldrecording #orgmode #rstats #toronto #yorku
#nobot #nobots

"It was not called the Net of a Million Lies for nothing."

Public Key

npub133yl9v6t2npns9l7wm5wje2al3snn7xd8c3jx34rxhyz983ggqds3hf5ht

NIP-05 Address

wdenton@cosocial-ca.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsgcj0jkd94fseczll8d68fv4wlccfelrxnugerg63ntjpznc5yqxcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6ur4vgh8wetvd3hhyer9wghxuet5qrtr2u

Publishing to

nos.lol

nostr-pub.wellorder.net

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub133yl9v6t2npns9l7wm5wje2al3snn7xd8c3jx34rxhyz983ggqds3hf5ht

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-25 20:46:01 UTC

Scriptus, the Toronto pen show, was today. Lots of great vendors with a wonderful variety of pens and ink and stationery, but it was uncomfortably crowded right from the start. Every aisle is jammed. By noon there was a lineup out on the street. I wish they'd expand to two days.
#FountainPens #Scriptus

2026-09-03 14:18:45 UTC

For Canadians: Anyone know why Interac is cancelling scheduled e-transfers? I can't find any mention of this on Interac's site.
My credit union said: "Effective October 2026, Interac will be discontinuing its future-dated and recurring e-Transfer payment options. While we explored ways to maintain these features, they will no longer be available in online banking or the mobile app due to Interac's decision to discontinue the service."
#Interac

2026-06-14 13:57:29 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…tkx6 Look for "digital audio players" or "portable media players." There are some inexpensive ones and some that are very, very pricy. I recently got a Fiio JM21, which is not cheap, but it's a great device. Fiio makes cheaper ones, too.

2026-04-24 01:15:12 UTC

Post about a climate crisis display I did in the library where I work, inspired by Andreas Malm's How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021).
https://www.miskatonic.org/2026/04/23/climate-crisis-display/
I give away zines by @nprofile…eexk, @nprofile…4hfr and @nprofile…gaxe. Thank you all!
#YorkU #anthropocene #zines

2025-11-05 04:04:23 UTC

The Tor Project announced its annual State of the Onion event, done in two parts, the first on 12 November and the second on 10 December.
I've watched them for the last few years and they are great. Informative, well-prepared reports about impressive projects, all very much grounded in what is happening on and to the internet right now.
#Tor #TorProject
https://blog.torproject.org/state-of-the-onion-2025/

2025-10-14 14:43:57 UTC

"woman smiling at laptop"
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/115/373/050/108/794/995/original/039d798050a9c94e.png

2025-09-30 16:23:10 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v7mw Notes and annotations are very powerful. You can mark up PDFs or EPUBs, grab text or images, then pull it out into a note and bring the note into your word processor.
And check out tags. If collections organize things in a hierarchy, tags can let you slice across collections horizontally. You can use them for stages in a workflow (to_read, to_print, to_review) or other things.
Both good when working in a group, too. Enjoy!

2025-06-16 18:38:53 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…f3e5 To sue or to use!?

2025-06-02 15:25:45 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vj86 "But that would be like going to the gym and asking a robot to lift weights for you." That's a good one.

2025-05-28 22:51:04 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hujc sABBAth!

2025-03-26 02:34:11 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…qz4x That reminded me of Alfred North Whitehead's definition of art: "Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment in recognition of the pattern." A biographer of Elgar put it as: "Art is the imposition of form on experience."
https://www.miskatonic.org/2025/03/18/art/

2025-03-22 01:15:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…q54u Thanks for this. I noticed he had no Wikipedia article, so I started one. I hope some people who know his work and have a little time can strengthen it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Golumbia

2025-03-17 04:06:56 UTC

BBC Radio 3 Sunday Feature: "Afterwords: Pauline Oliveros"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028t48
#PaulineOliveros

2025-02-25 02:05:22 UTC

This is a blast of delight: a brass band playing Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No. 1." They go full tilt, and it really works.
#ErikSatie
https://gayeriksatie.bandcamp.com/track/gnossienne-no-1-live-at-b16-what-cheer-bridgade

2025-02-22 18:26:00 UTC

https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/114/048/942/641/394/626/original/549556b467892642.jpg

2025-02-06 18:04:00 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xm42 That's strange. You're in Zotero 7? Right-click on the PDF, "Move item to Trash," and it moves the parent item (and PDF) to trash, not the PDF only? I don't know why that would happen, I'm sorry to say. For me it moves just the PDF.

2025-02-06 17:21:27 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xm42 No, you'll need to use your system tools to sort the Zotero storage folder by size, then look them up in Zotero with a search.
This is more recent from the forums: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/475807
#zotero

2025-02-05 19:01:25 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fynq "Did you hear about Clive? He ---"
"Who?"
"Clive, he subscribed to---"
"Who?"
"I'm telling you, it's Clive, he's got---"
"Sorry, that was my owls. What's this about Clive?"

2025-01-15 01:03:29 UTC

- reply

Seems like it didn't, so I made "How to install Zotero 7 on Windows," a six minute video that shows how to download and install it and set up connectors in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Complete details:
https://www.miskatonic.org/2025/01/14/zotero-windows/
It's a bit rough, but I want it next week, not perfect.
#zotero

2025-01-08 03:25:58 UTC

I made a list of fifty-two recordings of Terry Riley's "In C" (1964) that I know are available on Bandcamp. Additions welcome if you know of any I've missed, or that get added in the future.
https://www.miskatonic.org/inc/
#TerryRiley #InC #bandcamp

2025-01-04 19:48:34 UTC

I'm listening again to The Great Eastern, "Newfoundland's cultural magazine," the radio masterpiece from the late 90s. To make it easier to get the shows I made an RSS feed you can pop into your podcast program.
This is outstanding comedy and satire done with a completely straight face.
https://www.miskatonic.org/2025/01/04/great-eastern/
(And @nprofile…ur2t won a "What's That Noise from Newfoundland?" contest!)
#TheGreatEastern

2024-12-12 21:07:57 UTC

Is there a set of short videos showing how to install Zotero 7 and make sure it works, for Windows and Macs, on all big browsers? I see some old videos on YouTube and library guides, but I'm hoping for something current that shows: download, install, add connector, make sure it's visible in the location bar, run Zotero, say yes as needed, back to browser, add a page, there you go, all in about two minutes. Does that exist?
#Zotero #libraries

2024-11-19 21:35:36 UTC

Good #WomenInStem Wikipedia editing session at #YorkUniversity today. Good turnout and a record number of edits made, I think.
Student wandered by, mildly curious. I said she could have a cookie, which led to her asking what was up; pretty soon three librarians were saying how they could help with her data viz needs and improve research visibility for her PhD work.
Classic librarian helpfulness, but also: working with students in any way matters in unexpected ways.

2024-11-14 23:40:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…z29q I like dark mode sometimes, but I don't want it on OSM maps. Please give me an easy way in the web site to choose whether it's on or off.
#OpenStreetMap

2024-10-26 15:46:02 UTC

Cool morning, warm sun, hot jazz with @nprofile…7jj3 and @nprofile…dz8q on banjo. This was on "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," I think. There was a good crowd all around and everyone was digging it. (And a father was getting his toddler to clap on the 2 and the 4.)
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/113/374/498/713/721/210/original/9c9de921eea5126c.jpg

2024-08-13 15:33:39 UTC

I knew it would happen one day.
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/955/439/041/805/177/original/80ca5deefd581d20.png

2024-07-04 14:42:22 UTC

- reply

@npub1typ…c8hh A wonderful word, that for me always conjures up an image of George Formby.
#GeorgeFormby

2024-06-25 02:02:17 UTC

Some notes on installing #GrapheneOS, which is working marvellously for me and I highly recommend.
https://www.miskatonic.org/2024/06/24/grapheneos/
Thanks to @npub1mnp…932u for her video, and to Michael Bazzell and #IntelTechniques for the book on mobile phones.

2024-06-01 00:33:03 UTC

Is there a good modern way of getting #rstats working on Android, in the #termux environment, in order to run scripts? I'd like to have the #tidyverse on my phone.
All I see points to one person named its-pointless who set up a package repository five years ago, but I'm hoping for something more current and reliable.
Python and Ruby are available as packages. Has anyone here tried it?

2024-05-29 03:32:38 UTC

I burst out laughing when I got to the end of "Why pythons are a low-carbon-emissions food" in Linkfest #20 by @npub1typ…c8hh
https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-20/
https://media.cosocial.ca/media_attachments/files/112/522/268/301/114/487/original/1e4a94ba965aa4f1.png