This is the site of Joar Alexander Pablo 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.
My own personal favorites are the following:
The Qualities of the Totalitarian State
The spirit of the age that we currently finds ourselves in is one of rapid change (and often times decline) in the economic, political, and technological order of the world. Compared to the nineteenth century (and in many regards even the twentieth), when living standards where many times more squalid than today, there was then a sense of progressiveness, of growth and change that — as long as channelled in the correct direction — would be transformed into a new and wonderful world. That spirit does not exist today. Instead we have the idea that we are “sliding” back into the darkest depths of mankind’s history and that we will — posed with some certainty if not clarity — see the return of fascism and of the oppression of the state.
Continue ReadingMaking Beautiful Documents in LaTeX
As a political science student, writing is a daily activity. And like any serious writer who cares about their writing, I care about the presentation and look of my documents. This has evolved, particularly recently, into an interest in typography — the art of formatting and shaping text. The source of this interest was originally my discovery of GNU Emacs’ ability to convert org-mode documents into \(\LaTeX\) ones back in high–school and even today this is still the basis of my process. It was accelerated by my increasing tinkering with this very website, having to design its appearance largely from the ground up.
Continue ReadingOn Text
Text, as a system of recording symbolic representation for communication across time and space, is likely one of the most important inventions of mankind — second only the the symbolic representations themselves made possible by language. The general text, opposed to the specific form of writing, is useful primarily because it is a survivable and storable form of information that above anything else functions as lossy compression. These qualities make working with text more powerful than most other human inventions.
Continue ReadingA Beginner Guide to Diplomacy
Diplomacy is a game about conquering Europe as one of the main belligerents of the first world war. While it may on a first glance somewhat resemble Risk, the two are very different; most notably by the complete lack of random chance as well as by the fact that turns are all made simultaneously (the consequences of which will soon be made apparent). Keep in mind however that the true game of Diplomacy is played not on the map, but in the social interactions and minds of your fellow players. You will of course need to know how to navigate the map so as to figure out what possibilities you have (and to avoid being tricked).
Continue ReadingHandwritten notes in Emacs using Xournal++
My girlfriend recently bought a Framework 12 laptop1 with a correspoding stylus and, influenced by my ravings about the power of GNU Emacs, wants to take handwritten digital notes on it for her engineering and mathematics classes and then organise them in org-mode. I see a younger version of myself clearly in her, and of course want to help her attain the vision she has for her own Emacs system. At the same time I am a strong believer in that you should not try and learn Emacs, but that it should be molded to your own personal desires. For that reason I try to act in merely an advisory capacity, while helping whenever she asks.
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