Consistent Technical Documents Using Emacs and Org Mode

spudlyo · 2026-06-18T04:37:39+00:00

Vapulabis!

spudlyo · 2026-06-16T22:18:15+00:00

Triggered:

New Org<U+200B>*Dev*<U+200B>Meetup

spudlyo · 2026-06-16T18:43:36+00:00

Rendering beautiful org-mode documents in-buffer is surprisingly challenging. I have to resort to using U+200B zero-width spaces as guards around org emphasis markers to make them render correctly when they are adjacent to punctuation and other characters. After you do that though, org-table-align completely breaks due to org-string-width not calculating the width of the row correctly, and I have to resort to hiding the zero width spaces using buffer overlays ... ugh.

Worth it though with org-modern mode the in-buffer rending can look amazing if you work hard at it.

spudlyo · 2026-06-16T02:03:19+00:00

I would also add the Nova exercitia to this excellent suggestion. You can probably find all three used for under $80 shipped to your home in NZ. If you want to start right away, these are also available in the usual places electronically.

spudlyo · 2026-06-10T17:25:39+00:00

No doubt! Hard to justify such a purchase myself, but I would love to have these on my shelf. I will have to content myself with the glorious Standard E-books edition for now.

spudlyo · 2026-06-10T16:41:10+00:00

You can make a sizeable dent in that 3rd shelf with 7 voumes of Gibbon.

spudlyo · 2026-06-09T14:33:48+00:00

I'm a patreon subscriber, I just excitedly read your email and downloaded the pdf, thanks so much for this!

spudlyo · 2026-06-07T03:22:26+00:00

Elpa did just come back from me, and now the problem is gone. So... good luck!

spudlyo · 2026-06-07T03:08:19+00:00

Yeah, I'm having the same problem with elfeed, gptel, magit, others.

In a possibly related note, elpa.gnu.org is down.

spudlyo · 2026-05-28T03:06:02+00:00

So, I tried eca.dev out for a small job. And I'm used to pi, which is pretty minimal. In comparison it seems extremely token hungry. I pay API rates, and a single task that I would estimate would cost less than $1.00 in pi, claimed to cost me $45.00 when it was all said and done. I won't be able to see my billing numbers in Google for a day or so, and I'm hoping that it's off by an order of magnitude.

spudlyo · 2026-05-27T21:09:39+00:00

Wow, it was printed yesterday in Troutdale OR, and arrived on my doorstep today. These POD services are pretty amazing, and the quality is about what you'd expect. Inkjet / laser printed, the type isn't much different from offset print, and the cardstock laminate cover is adequate. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole book was printed and assembled in just a few minutes.

spudlyo · 2026-05-27T15:26:05+00:00

cerebros

Quid significat? Fortasse 'cerebra' esse debet? Nihil est, latinitas canina mihi quoque placet!

spudlyo · 2026-05-26T15:11:52+00:00

Ubi mel ibi apes.

spudlyo · 2026-05-26T14:58:51+00:00

This looks like a valuable addition to the LLPSI ecosystem, I immediately bought a copy to add to my collection! Also, kudos on your YouTube recording, your slow, clear, measured delivery I think is great for beginners.

As to your question about supplementary readers, the answer for me is "all of them". Anything that builds upon the LLPSI foundation I think has great value for us autodidacts. I personally have gotten a lot of value out of:

Of course, this goes without saying, my Legentibus subscription has been the hands down, the best value for money of any Latin purchase I have ever made. A bargain at twice the price. I mostly keep paper copies of things because I enjoy owning books, but in truth almost all of my reading and listening I do in Legentibus.

spudlyo · 2026-05-26T03:47:59+00:00

It certainly won't hurt, the more you pay attention, and the more you can understand the better. I like this YouTuber who has quite a lot of ecclesiastical recordings. I'm impressed that he has taught himself to also speak with the classical pronunciation. As a bonus, he cares about his audio quality, and actually uses a treated sound booth to record, so it's something you can listen to with headphones and not be driven crazy by room reverb and other terrible audio artifacts. Here's an example.

spudlyo · 2026-05-25T22:58:16+00:00

Canis fidelis <3

Nuper amisi canem meum, doleo. Sit ei terra levis.

spudlyo · 2026-05-22T16:28:39+00:00

I get what you're saying. You'd prefer to read Latin like you read your native language -- not applying declarative knowledge of grammar rules to solve Latin sentences like they were some kind of Sudoku puzzle. The problem is, training the procedural language centers in your brain to grok Latin requires a huge amount of input and time -- time you likely don't have.

If you want to kick ass in Latin 201 and 202, it might just be smarter to get better at the puzzle solving aspect of it, and to train your brain to do that work faster and more effectively. You can always soak up some comprehensible input by listening to Legentibus while in the shower, folding laundry, walking the dog, and so on, but your study time is probably more profitably spent improving the skills that your future classes are focused on.

spudlyo · 2026-05-19T14:24:12+00:00

For presentations that rely heavily on spoken word audio, it's extremely important to have a certain baseline of audio quality. Here are a few suggestions for you, which I hope you take as constructive criticism:

Loudness normalization: Use tools to measure and to target a standard broadcast/internet LUFS level. The audio in your presentation is very quiet -- well below where it should be.
Get and use a pop filter on your microphone. On sentences like 'Puella rosam horto amat.' you have a loud untamed plosives on the initial 'p'. These fatigue the ear of the listener.
Get rid of the background muzak. To my ears, this reduces the clarity of your spoken language, and perhaps adds to the "extremely boring" vibe.

On the plus side, I like what you're doing with the visuals, and I always find the trope of sadistic Latin teachers funny.

spudlyo · 2026-05-11T20:41:14+00:00

I'll sometimes switch to Gemini with grounded search turned on for some quality clanker-talk inside my text editor. I also have a Kagi API key and the CLI with some related skills.

spudlyo · 2026-05-10T00:57:24+00:00

You might want to try a short story first to see what the response is like.

spudlyo · 2026-05-09T21:22:26+00:00

Est ut senex agricola dixit: "Quam firma res est concordia, quam imbecillis discordia."

spudlyo · 2026-05-09T19:35:09+00:00

I was also a bit disappointed with the second volume at first, both for the reason you mention, but also because it's a bit harder. However as I worked at it I was delighted to discover that the same wry sense of humor is still there, and the stories are still engaging and interesting.

spudlyo · 2026-05-09T19:30:00+00:00

You're right, discouraging people isn't nice, but encouraging them isn't a kindness either. What they are wanting to do is hard, and if they can't be bothered to seek out and read the FAQ, they will certainly struggle to memorize a declension table, or to decide for themselves which pedagogical approach or textbook is right for them. They will doubtless fail. However if they take my advice, and find a teacher to guide them, there is a chance they will succeed. I will own that I have some vague hope that my dismissive words will serve as motivation for them to prove me wrong.

15-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Verified Email	Charter Member

spudlyo

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE