Joar Alexander Pablo von Arndt
This is the site of Joar von Arndt. I write about a variety of topics, from coverage of gnu Emacs web browsing, to graphic design and critiques of industrial policy. You can subscribe here. If you enjoy anything written here (or disagree with me) feel free to tell me about it.
My own personal favorites are the following:
Taiwan Treats
Writing this, I have arrived at the island of Formosa, the adopted home of the Republic of China (中華民國) as well as that of the people of Taiwan. I intent to stay here during the fall term, as I complete part of my studies abroad. Last year, while I was visiting the prc, I was tasked to photograph everything I ate while I was away. This was a wonderful idea, and one that I wish to adapt to my longer stay away.
Continue ReadingSecurity Studies for Individuals
Studying at the Swedish Defence University gives you an odd way of thinking, where everything can be modelled through the lenses of nuclear strategy, international relations (ir), and the tactics employed in various contemporary and historical conflicts. These are also not only subjects for the lecture hall and library, but for the lunch room and nights out on the town. Such topics are of course interesting for their own sake, but they also reveal something about how to deal with conflict more broadly — as one force diametrically opposed to the interests of the other.
Continue ReadingAutomatically Find PGP Keys in Mu4e
I have found a peculiar delight in encryption, and particularly in
using pgp-based asymmetric cryptography. This is especially useful for
securing email communications, but doing so requires remembering to
run M-x mml-secure-sign or mml-secure-encrypt in Mail Utilities For
Emacs (Mu4e) before sending the message. For this reason I have been
wanting to write a quick method that automatically adds signing
capabilities and encryption only when the recipient has a public
key. Thankfully, I did not have to do so because of Nicolas
Cavigneaux’s recent post Sign Always, Encrypt When Possible where he
showcases his functions for doing exactly that. It prompted me to tweak
it slightly, and to add the functionality to automatically discover
public keys that I have yet to import.
The Kramer-Peterman Duality
The concept of fomo has always alluded me. Part of the reason is a persistent need for eccentricity, for growing against the grain. That is not to say that I am persistently rebellious, but that there is a natural aversion to doing things “the way everyone else does it”.
Continue ReadingThe Nature of Art
Art has always been one of the most central aspects of human lives. It is not unique to the human experience, but it has become more important to humans than perhaps no other species on the planet. The history of Art is one of a continuous crisis and need to reïnvent itself, and as such our current age is no different. The contemporary crisis is one partly caused by the emergence of Large Language Models (llms) and their ability to quickly generate enormous quantities of visual imagery, but it is also caused by a more long-running trend of digital life and of its consequences.
Continue ReadingAll is Right With the World
Post-scarcity is here. And with it has the life without meaningful political action. The consequences of this can not be understated, although they have somehow been with us for quite some time, paling in comparison to the ever-growing predictions of science fiction. What shape does this world take, what are the forces governing its structure, and how will it continue to grow?
Continue Reading