{"generator":"Jekyll","link":[{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/feed.xml","rel":"self","type":"application\/atom+xml"}},{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","hreflang":"en"}}],"updated":"2025-12-18T00:20:42+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/feed.xml","subtitle":"Mostly The Lonely Howls Of Mike Baying His Ideological Purity At The Moon","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"entry":[{"title":"Agentic Windows","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025-11-11-agentic-windows","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Agentic Windows"}},"published":"2025-11-11T19:11:22+00:00","updated":"2025-11-11T19:11:22+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/agentic-windows","content":"

I ran across an article<\/a> today about a post on Twitter by Pavan Davuluri, who is the current head of Windows for Microsoft<\/a>. I just had to comment on it in long form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is this amazing comment?<\/p>\n

\nWindows is evolving into an agentic OS, connecting devices, cloud, and AI to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere. Join us at MSIgnite to see how frontier firms are transforming with Windows and what\u2019s next for the platform. We can\u2019t wait to show you!\n<\/blockquote>\n

My first instinct? This is great news for Apple<\/a> and Linux<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n

My second instinct? This is great news for Apple and Linux!<\/p>\n\n

OK, stepping back for a second here.<\/p>\n\n

In my mind, yes this is a great reason to give Microsoft and Windows the ole heave-ho. It\u2019s more than that though. Windows has retained its market position because it\u2019s annoying, but still mostly functional on a base level. It\u2019s like the Internet that way. As long as it\u2019s marginally workable and already there, people will use it because it\u2019s just more annoying to go out and replace it with something else. Microsoft has managed to get away with a great deal of enshittification<\/a> based on that alone. This could be a step too far though.<\/p>\n\n

Microsoft has already thrown in features like Recall<\/a>, which is something very few people wanted and was an absolute nightmare for personal privacy. It was received so badly that they pulled it back and then quietly put it back when no one was looking. This \u201cagentic\u201d Windows sounds even worse than that. As some of the comments spelled out unequivocally, no one wants this<\/em>. Microsoft is doing it anyway.<\/p>\n\n

I think we can all assume that this is not<\/em> going to work offline, or it\u2019s not going to work well offline. So, we\u2019re going to have a version of Windows where half the functions don\u2019t work without an Internet connection, full of ads, and chewing through processor and memory to give us slop we don\u2019t ask for? There are going to be people that keep using this, but I need to assume that this is going to push a lot more people past their limits.<\/p>\n\n

Zorin<\/a> recently capitalized on Microsoft discontinuing support for Windows 10 by releasing their newest version on the same day. It was a pretty solid strategy for them. A smart one. All Microsoft\u2019s moves to implement AI in virtually everything<\/em> is giving their competition more opportunities to pull users from Microsoft. Linux is an obvious choice since people can just put it on the computer they already own and be back up and working within hours. Given, this won\u2019t work for everybody, but for your average person walking the street who uses their computer for browsing and an occasional game or something, it\u2019ll be perfectly fine. Other people could just jump ship entirely and run over to Apple. That comes with it its own set of challenges, but you can walk into a store in most large cities and buy an Apple computer. That\u2019s going to give it a leg up on Linux unfortunately.<\/p>\n\n

All this \u201cagentic\u201d garbage could very well be Microsoft shooting itself in the foot. Probably both feet. It remains to be seen if it\u2019s enough to get people to leave the platform, but there are better and less stupid options out there. Maybe Microsoft will figure this out before that happens. Maybe not.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"category":{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},"summary":"I ran across an article today about a post on Twitter by Pavan Davuluri, who is the current head of Windows for Microsoft. I just had to comment on it in long form."},{"title":"Class Dismissed","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025-10-26-class-dismissed","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Class Dismissed"}},"published":"2025-10-26T12:10:26+00:00","updated":"2025-10-26T12:10:26+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/class-dismissed","content":"

It\u2019s done!!! I\u2019m so happy it\u2019s done!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, to be fair, it\u2019s been done for a week now, but I couldn\u2019t bring myself to write anything since then. Things didn\u2019t go poorly, but it was a lot of work for a 100 level class.<\/p>\n\n

This isn\u2019t my first run through college, but I don\u2019t remember things being this intense last time. I mean, it could have something to do with the fact that last time I was a full time student and this time I\u2019m a full time parent and I have a full time job in addition to all the school work. There\u2019s a lot more on my plate this time than was there was last time. Also, my grades are significantly better this time, so there\u2019s that. They say Cs get degrees, and that\u2019s true which I can verify from last time, but I guess I have a different impression of that philosophy than I did my first experience.<\/p>\n\n

Regardless, I\u2019ve moved on to my next class. Art. Photography.<\/p>\n\n

Again, it\u2019s a 100 level class, but this one makes me very nervous. I guess they all make me nervous on some level, but I\u2019m not what most people would call \u201ccreative\u201d or \u201cartistic,\u201d so this is definitely a stretch class for me. It\u2019s already more fun than the last one, and I do enjoy taking my camera out when I can. The hardest part about this (other than trying to pretend to be creative and artistic) is just finding the time to get out and take photos. The professor has a solid list of \u201cdo not take photographs of,\u201d which includes a pretty much everything I usually take pictures of, and he\u2019s very particular about the types of photos he wants taken. He seems very into urban candids. That\u2019s fine and all, but I don\u2019t live in a super urban area, and it\u2019s a pretty hefty drive to get one one. I have to do it when it doesn\u2019t directly conflict with my job and family stuff.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m probably exaggerating a little here. The class is a couple weeks in, and what I\u2019ve turned in I\u2019m doing well with. If you do the MikeOne\/MikeTwo I talked about in my last post<\/a>, MikeOne is happy, but MikeTwo knows we\u2019re not far enough into the class to have a passing grade even if I\u2019d gotten 100% of the currently available points. This is October and the class goes until the week before Christmas, so that\u2019s to be expected. Still, there\u2019s a lot of hard work remaining to get this done right, so no sitting back and relaxing for quite a while.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"category":{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},"summary":"It\u2019s done!!! I\u2019m so happy it\u2019s done!!"},{"title":"Getting Grades","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025-10-09-getting-grades","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Getting Grades"}},"published":"2025-10-09T11:10:44+00:00","updated":"2025-10-09T11:10:44+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/getting-grades","content":"

This second time through college has changed the way I think about grading. I\u2019m not sure if this is a universal thing, but my classes universally have been mapped from beginning to end before it\u2019s even started. There\u2019s a defined number of points. This has resulted in me considering my grade as a percentage of the whole right from the beginning. Instead of thinking about how I\u2019m doing in a class based on the percentage of points I\u2019ve gotten per assignment, I think about how I\u2019m doing in relation to the total available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean? Well, let\u2019s consider a hypothetical.<\/p>\n\n

Mike One is taking a class. Mike One is the first time I went through college. Mike One completes an assignment and gets 95 out of 100 points. Mike One thinks to himself, \u201cNice! I\u2019m getting an A!\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Mike Two is taking a class. Mike Two is the second time I went through college. Mike Two completes an assignment and gets 95 out of 100 points. Mike Two looks and sees the class has a total of 800 total points. Mike Two thinks to himself, \u201cOK, that\u2019s about an 12%. At this point, I\u2019m getting an F.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

I start to create milestones. At some point, I\u2019ve gotten enough points that I\u2019ll have a D in the class. Then a C. Then a B. Finally an A if I keep things rolling.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m not sure if this is a good approach, or even healthy, but until I\u2019ve accrued enough points in the class where I\u2019ll get a non-failing grade if I stop completely, I consider myself failing the class.<\/p>\n\n

Today I hit a milestone in one of my classes. It\u2019s an 8 week course, and I\u2019ve got a week and a half to go. I\u2019m getting a C. So far. An A or a B is still on the table. Just need to finish this thing off. I\u2019m so looking forward to it being done.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"category":{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},"summary":"This second time through college has changed the way I think about grading. I\u2019m not sure if this is a universal thing, but my classes universally have been mapped from beginning to end before it\u2019s even started. There\u2019s a defined number of points. This has resulted in me considering my grade as a percentage of the whole right from the beginning. Instead of thinking about how I\u2019m doing in a class based on the percentage of points I\u2019ve gotten per assignment, I think about how I\u2019m doing in relation to the total available."},{"title":"Obsidian for the Win","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025-09-25-obsidian-for-the-win","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Obsidian for the Win"}},"published":"2025-09-25T10:09:27+00:00","updated":"2025-09-25T10:09:27+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/obsidian-for-the-win","content":"

I\u2019ve been getting more and more into using Obsidian lately, and it\u2019s really simplified my note taking. Since I\u2019m also using Jekyll for my web site, I figured I might be able to use Obsidian to simplify that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My blog writing setup is pretty sparse. I\u2019m using Jekyll and Netlify to host out of a GitHub repository. I\u2019ve gone through various iterations on how to upload posts. I had a fancy little frontend that Kev<\/a> created for me for a while. That was fine. Then I manually created stuff at the command line. That was also fine. For the most part, the most annoying issue with any of this has been the frontmatter.<\/p>\n\n

Frontmatter is always an issue for me. I always forget what things are supposed to be, so I end up copying a previous post and removing all the stuff in there and then updating it\u2019s frontmatter to be what I want for the new post and then creating the new post. It works, but it sucks. I\u2019ve created \u201cblank\u201d files that had the front matter in them in a general sense and then updated from that, but I always seemed to forget to copy it and I overwrote it a couple times with posts and it was just not working for me.<\/p>\n\n

For a while now, I\u2019ve just been directly entering the blog posts into GitHub. I literally just create a new file in the web interface and type everything out. This works, but again I always forget to copy the frontmatter from another post before I begin, so I end up opening another tab and blah blah blah. You know where this is going. Of course, none of this is really hard<\/em> per se, but it\u2019s annoying.<\/p>\n\n

Enter Obsidian.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019ve been using Obsidian for notes for a while now. Since I\u2019ve gotten to the point that I type out my notes in markdown even in apps that don\u2019t support markdown, Obsidian feels very natural for me. I mean, you can type out your stuff like you would in a normal word processor if you want. You don\u2019t have<\/em> to do it in markdown, but why would you want to do that? Since Obsidian and Jekyll both use markdown, I\u2019d even started typing my blog posts out first in Obsidian and then just copy and pasting them into GitHub for publication. This works great, except for that stupid frontmatter.<\/p>\n\n

Of course, and I think this is a well established fact at this point, I\u2019m a moron. Templates exist in Obsidian. Frontmatter is supported in Obsidian. You can even do really fancy stuff like automatically inserting time and date stamps into your frontmatter.<\/p>\n\n

How have I not done this before???<\/p>\n\n

I created a template. It\u2019s got all the relevant frontmatter already in it. The date and time is automatically inserted into the frontmatter. I can literally just start typing. The only thing I have to update now is the blog title and the permalink (since it\u2019s based on the blog title). This is making things much easier for me.<\/p>\n\n

At this point, I\u2019m still manually copying these posts directly into GitHub. That\u2019s still a rub. It\u2019s annoying, but really it\u2019s just a copy and paste at this point. Still, I\u2019m seeing a GitHub plugin in that list. Is that the next step in my Obsidian journey? In theory, it could take the last really stupid part out of my current workflow. It might just be my next experiment.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"summary":"I\u2019ve been getting more and more into using Obsidian lately, and it\u2019s really simplified my note taking. Since I\u2019m also using Jekyll for my web site, I figured I might be able to use Obsidian to simplify that too."},{"title":"Palate Cleanse","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025-09-24-palate-cleanse","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Palate Cleanse"}},"published":"2025-09-24T01:00:00+00:00","updated":"2025-09-24T01:00:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/palate-cleanse","content":"

Contrary to how it might seem, I\u2019ve been writing quite a bit lately. I just haven\u2019t been writing here. I\u2019m taking a break from that writing to do some writing here because I need a bit of a palate cleanse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some might remember that I mentioned that I\u2019m back in class this fall, and I\u2019m taking an English class. I\u2019m not going to delve into details as to the why<\/em> I\u2019m taking a freshman English course, suffice to say that I am. I\u2019ve elected to compress my schedule down to eight weeks instead of the standard sixteen just so I can get this thing over and done, but that means multiple writing assignments per week.<\/p>\n\n

See, here\u2019s the thing. I like writing. It\u2019s fun. It lets me take the ideas that are banging around between my ears and put them out into the world. That helps me quiet the noise in my head. I won\u2019t claim to be particularly good at it, but being a crap writer doesn\u2019t take the enjoyment out of it. The problem I\u2019m running into is writing on a schedule about a topic I couldn\u2019t care less about takes the joy out of writing. It\u2019s like taking a nice, juicy orange and putting it into a juicer. When you\u2019re done squeezing every last drop of goodness out of that orange, you throw away the juice and keep the dried and crushed remnants. That\u2019s what my writing feels like right now.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m halfway through this class, and I only have maybe six or seven more papers to write. I\u2019m also starting another class in five days: Photography. I\u2019m hoping that class doesn\u2019t do for photography what English has done for my writing. I enjoy taking pictures. It\u2019s fun, and if I can capture even a fraction of the beauty in the world and preserve it in a photo to share with others, I consider that a success.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m looking forward to being done with this class. I was hoping to write more on this blog, but after this class I\u2019m think I\u2019m going to need to step away from the keyboard for a while just to try to cram some of that juice back into the orange. Sadly, I was really hoping this class would inspire me to write more and maybe even get back into the habit of writing regularly. Now, I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to happen. At least not for a while.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"summary":"Contrary to how it might seem, I\u2019ve been writing quite a bit lately. I just haven\u2019t been writing here. I\u2019m taking a break from that writing to do some writing here because I need a bit of a palate cleanse."},{"title":"Results of 100 Days To Offload, Again","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025-08-21-results-of-100-days-again","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Results of 100 Days To Offload, Again"}},"published":"2025-08-21T01:00:00+00:00","updated":"2025-08-21T01:00:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/100-days-again-results","content":"

On the 8th of August, 2024 I was challenged<\/a> to complete the 100 Days To Offload<\/a>. This is a challenge I\u2019ve successfully completed before<\/a>, but have failed even more. This new challenge came with an even tighter timeline, to complete it by the end of the calendar year. So, how did it go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Badly. It went badly.<\/p>\n\n

By the end of the calendar year, I\u2019d completed 31 out of the 100 posts I was hoping to complete. You don\u2019t have to be good at math to understand that\u2019s not close. So, it\u2019s hard to call this anything other than what it is, and that\u2019s abject failure. Still, the 100 Days to Offload challenge is for a full year, not the 4 months specified in this new challenge, so that was still a possibility. So, how did that<\/em> go?<\/p>\n\n

Badly. It went badly.<\/p>\n\n

By August 16th, 2025 I\u2019d completed a whopping 46 out of the 100 posts I needed to make to complete the challenge.<\/p>\n\n

So, in the first 138 days, I completed 31 posts. That\u2019s one post every 4 to 5 days or so. Not great. I wouldn\u2019t have completed the 100 Days at that rate if I\u2019d kept that pace. In the next 227 days, I completed only 15 more posts, which is about one post every 15 days or so. That\u2019s approximately 2 posts per month, which would have given me a total of 24 posts in a year. I did manage to beat that number, thankfully.<\/p>\n\n

So, what\u2019s the excuse here? I mean, writing a blurb every 3 or 4 days shouldn\u2019t be that hard, right? It\u2019s not like this needs to be War and Peace. Just a quick little something about something.<\/p>\n\n

I think the biggest issue for me is that my desire to write comes in waves. Sometimes I have things I want to talk about, and other times I won\u2019t even post on Fosstodon<\/a> for days at a time. Also, I\u2019ve traditionally written mostly about technology, which is a field I\u2019ve felt particularly burnt out on<\/a> lately. Once upon a time, I\u2019d track the news for the latest and greatest stuff. These days most of my tech is years old and I dread even running updates.<\/p>\n\n

What else could I write about then?<\/p>\n\n

Well, I have a family and I have a job. I could write about that stuff, I just don\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n\n

For the privacy of my wife and kids, I don\u2019t like to get too much into discussing them. I\u2019m happily married, and I have kids that don\u2019t seem to completely hate me at this point, and that\u2019s usually where I\u2019ll draw the line.<\/p>\n\n

I could write about my job I suppose, but there\u2019s quite a bit of crossover between my job and technology since I work in a technology based job. The previously mentioned burn out comes into play here. There\u2019s also the fact that I work in a field where privacy is a huge factor and there\u2019s a lot of concern about corporate secrets. I\u2019m contractually not supposed to mention a lot of what I do or who I do it for, so that would only make writing about the job in a field I\u2019m burnt out on more complicated and annoying for everybody.<\/p>\n\n

So, if I\u2019m not writing about my family, and I\u2019m not writing about my job, and I\u2019m not writing about technology, what do I write about?<\/p>\n\n

I think the answer is obvious at this point: I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n

I suppose I could write about school. For those who don\u2019t know, I\u2019m an approximately 50 year old college student. Next week I start the oh so exciting class of English 101. Seriously. Maybe I\u2019ll regail you with tales of nouns and verbs and dangling participles? For some reason I don\u2019t see that happening.<\/p>\n\n

Another class I have coming up is I\u2019m going to be taking a photography course. I require some humanities credits, and I like taking pictures. I\u2019m what most people with cameras would refer to as a \u201crank amateur\u201d (heavy on the \u201crank\u201d), but I enjoy doing it. Maybe that\u2019ll be enough to kick off a blog post or two. I guess we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n

OK, time to wrap things up before I meander further from the point. 100 Days to Offload? Failed. Super failed. Excuse excuse excuse. Moving on. If you made it this far, thanks for reading.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"summary":"On the 8th of August, 2024 I was challenged to complete the 100 Days To Offload. This is a challenge I\u2019ve successfully completed before, but have failed even more. This new challenge came with an even tighter timeline, to complete it by the end of the calendar year. So, how did it go?"},{"title":"Book Report - The Ministry of Time","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025\/07\/15\/book-report-ministry-of-time.html","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Book Report - The Ministry of Time"}},"published":"2025-07-15T01:00:00+00:00","updated":"2025-07-15T01:00:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/2025\/07\/15\/book-report-ministry-of-time","content":"

I just finished Kaliane Bradley\u2019s<\/a> The Ministry of Time<\/a>. It was definitely not my usual reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/p>\n

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she\u2019ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering \u201cexpats\u201d from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible\u2014for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

\n\nShe is tasked with working as a \u201cbridge\u201d: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as \u201c1847\u201d or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin\u2019s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he\u2019s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as \u201cwashing machines,\u201d \u201cSpotify,\u201d and \u201cthe collapse of the British Empire.\u201d But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

\n\nOver the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry\u2019s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how\u2014and whether she believes\u2014what she does next can change the future.

\n\nAn exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley\u2019s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.<\/blockquote>\n\n

I got hooked into reading this book because I\u2019m a fan of Science Fiction, and I do enjoy a good time travel story. I don\u2019t remember where I heard about it, but I\u2019d never read any of the author\u2019s work before. I was unsure what to expect, but I really enjoyed it for the most part.<\/p>\n\n

Most of the reading I do doesn\u2019t tend to be particularly advanced. My vocabulary is probably about average and I rarely have to look up any words in my usual fare. This book wasn\u2019t an exception though there were a few places I had to figure out meanings based on contex.<\/p>\n\n

This book was not<\/em> an action book. For the most part, it focused on a relationship between two people and the people who surround those individuals to a lesser extent. The SciFi aspects of the story were more background and less relevant in the day to day, which usually took place in a home. Not a home on a space ship or anything like that. Just a house in a quiet neighborhood near London.<\/p>\n\n

Despite not being something I\u2019d usually read, I found I really enjoyed myself. For some reason I took some time getting going, but after I made it about a third of the way in I burned through the rest of it in a day. I\u2019d recomend this book to people who enjoy a book that doesn\u2019t require a fight every other page.<\/p>\n\n

Day 46 of the #100DaysToOffload Series.<\/p>","author":{"name":"Mike Stone"},"summary":"I just finished Kaliane Bradley\u2019s The Ministry of Time. It was definitely not my usual reading."},{"title":"Reading of the Day","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/20250525-daily-reading","rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","title":"Reading of the Day"}},"published":"2025-05-25T01:00:00+00:00","updated":"2025-05-25T01:00:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/mikestone.me\/daily-reading","content":"

Reading list for May 25th, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are articles I read today. The appearance of an article in this list does not mean I endorse it\u2019s content or support it\u2019s source or author. It\u2019s just something I read. Take it with a grain of salt. It\u2019s not in any particular order other than the order I put them into this list. That includes chronological order. These are things I read today, not necessarily things that were written today. Check dates if you decide to read something from this list.<\/p>\n\n

Today\u2019s Reading:<\/p>\n\n