Month: April 2019

And you can also execute SQL in org babel and get the results back in your current buffer. This could be really really useful for those times when I have to hunt around in the DB to figure out some issue with the data, and I want to keep a journal of how I figured something out.
Oh heck. There is (obviously..) an interactive SQL mode in Emacs. Can’t believe I didn’t know about this until now and have been fluffing about with the basic mysql shell.
‘Computers did not need to reinforce existing management hierarchies and procedures; instead, they could bring about structural transformation within a company and help it form new communications channels, generate and exchange information dynamically. …. [Beer’s] focus was not on creating more advanced machines but rather on using existing technologies to develop more advanced systems of organisation.’ — Cybernetic Revolutionaries
I really like this tech policy from Incarcerated Workers (h/t @clayton@social.coop). Pragmatic but striving to improve. Any other examples of good tech policies?

‘We must employ a divest/invest strategy to the technology we use if we are to combat surveillance capitalism and build radical infrastructure that reflects our vision of the world.’

‘When a technology does not meet one of these criteria we will organize to help raise a project to that standard. When we need to use corporate technology, we use it strategically and subversively – always on the lookout for alternatives.’

https://incarceratedworkers.org/resources/iwoc-technology-policy

The "sensible course for the manager is not to try to change the system’s internal behaviour… but to change its structure – so that its natural systemic behavior becomes different."

Good advice, Stafford Beer, good advice…

According to loco2.com I would be saving 145.8 kg of CO2 by taking the train over flying. Average CO2 per year of a Briton seems to be around 10000 kg. So around 1%? Hmm it’s all back of the envelope calculations but was kind of hoping for more bang for my buck there. If only rail was subsidised like air travel is.