Oh, it's already being recorded.
Great.
So, hi, Alfred.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Thank you.
It's a bit dark outside.
I understand it's morning for most of you.
Yes, well, not for me.
I'm also in Europe, and I can tell you it's going to get dark pretty damn quickly.
So, thank you so much for your talk.
I didn't get to ask you the question before, but do you have access to the pads and the
questions?
I do have access to it.
I'll just open it up.
I'm not sure Sasha had given it to me, no.
Sorry, what was the question?
Could you post a link to it in the chat?
I can give you a link.
You can press.
I'm pretty much getting the chat, so it should appear on the left, but in the meantime, if
you want, I can just ask you the question, and you can maybe, whilst you do the little
thing to open the pad, we can actually start answering one of the questions.
Do you mind if I read you one?
Yeah, go ahead.
Sure.
So the first question that we had was, it'd be interesting if you explained why WeChat
is a necessity for you.
Outside China, most people have no reason to use it at all.
So can you actually give up on this?
My utility for WeChat is basically, I've got to have calls every morning, so my manager
has to use the tool.
He's not a huge fan of it either.
It's company policy, and there's plenty of sharing that has to go through that.
So it's kind of all, since it's the tool that's used by most companies in China, it's kind
of a tool that you have to work around.
Now, most people know this.
WeChat is a privacy nightmare, and as I touched on during my talk, it's also just a nightmare
in general to work around.
It's interesting to try and find ways to work around it or to minimize its impact on my
life as much as possible.
So strictly speaking, I don't need to use it, obviously.
Functions that it has can be used by other software, but yeah, that's most of it.
Okay, great.
Also, I'm really sorry.
Apparently, my audio seems to be crackling a little bit.
I will address this as soon as we're finished with this talk, but there isn't all that much
I can do right now.
So sorry, people.
You'll have to deal with it for a little while.
Okay, so next question.
There's a question that is actually dear to my heart.
I've looked at CRD.er for collaborative real-time editing.
Do you actually know what it is?
I hadn't looked at it, no.
For me, collaborative is less important because most of my work is just like versions.
So I have a version of a script that I send off to my editor, and we don't work on it
together.
So that's kind of been less of an important part for my workflow, but it is interesting.
I'll have to take a look at it.
It used to be a bigger part of my workflow when I was a student.
So it's definitely interesting to look into, but unfortunately, I don't have much to say
about it.
Yeah, but you're fine.
The reason is that I hope I don't have too much now.
Alfred, can you tell me, am I cutting off a lot when I'm talking?
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
I thought it was my internet connection, but it's not great.
You know what?
What we'll do for the moment is that we'll stick to the audio simply.
Can you still hear me right now?
Yeah, I can hear you a little bit better.
Okay, sure.
I'll put up my webcam like this.
You know what?
We just care about you, so you'll have to be solid on the scene.
The reason I was asking you about CRDT, is it better now?
Can you just confirm the audio is better?
Yeah, the audio is much better.
Cool, thank you.
I'm so happy to hear this.
The reason we're mentioning CRDT is that it's actually pretty great.
A lot of people think about collaborative editing, and they tend to think about Google Doc
or any kind of proprietary solution, but CRDT is kind of broaching the gap
to what you can do with multiple people using Emacs.
Now, I'm talking about this because I've worked with Shantan Hong,
who is the mentor of CRDT, and we've worked a little bit on it,
and they are still infuriating problems with it, especially making it secure
and all this jazzy nonsense.
But I do recommend looking into it because it would make it much easier to work with other people.
All right, now that I am not lagging anymore, do you have the pad in front of you?
I do.
Do you want me to answer questions directly?
Yes, that might be best.
I kind of like to work with the little hells in the background to make sure that I can...
All right, I'll leave you to it.
I'll answer the question about org-mode files and sharing, which I've encountered.
I've kind of had a whole issue starting out with, well, I've started working with org-mode files,
and now I've got to figure out what do I do with them.
So my first instinct was I'll just share the org-mode file directly,
which as some people might have figured out, if they've tried, is not very successful with normal people.
I've also tried exporting it to docx or to ODT, but that's problematic because you have, well,
plenty of standards in ODT which don't transfer well.
So for example, by default, the ODT kind of adopts, what's it called, a latex-like structure.
So it's like 1.1.1, which isn't optimal for writing and sharing documents, at least in the way that I write them.
So what I've settled for is for now just not sharing the org directly.
I wanted to be able to do that through GitHub or GitLab, but it's a bit too much of a hassle to ask people to create an account there.
And I've just created some export profiles for my ODT documents, which sorts out that problem
and allows me to just share that through that and kind of bypass org-mode files for now.
So unfortunately, I kind of am not able to stay 100% org.
My plan on the long term is to have it go up on a website, so kind of make a work wiki,
which will allow me to link back to some research documents in the script.
So that's the long term plan, and that'll be built with org-mode documents, so with OX Hugo and all that kind of thing.
But yeah, that's most of it.
Pandoc for incoming and outgoing docs, repeating conversions.
So I do use Pandoc for outgoing docs, as I just said.
I found some issues with document quality.
So as I said, layouts are kind of wonky, but that's possible to work through if you go into the settings
and adjust basically to how you want it to look like.
And for incoming docs, so that's a bit more of a hassle.
My plan for this talk was to have it a bit more ready, but I've got this integration for org-ic,
org-apple-pages documents, that kind of thing.
So that's often the documents that I get from my colleagues, and I found a way to transfer them into org documents.
I did that kind of quickly, so I don't think I'm quite ready to share exactly how it went,
but I'm planning on doing some documentation around that.
But yeah, basically the gist of it is, I don't find it a huge issue.
I do use other tools other than just Pandoc to complement that, because otherwise, yes, I wouldn't be able to use that for incoming and outgoing docs,
and I'd have to copy and paste that. Yes?
Sorry, I mispress my talking to production button. Don't mind me.
No worries.
Begin on Emacs again. Welcome. Yeah, that's an issue I've got as well.
Let's take your time.
So Alfred, what we're probably going to do soon is that, as we've probably told you in the opening remarks, we will be letting people in.
So right now we are in the room with Alfred on BBB, BigBlueButton, and we have now opened the session so that people can join and ask questions with their voice rather than having to type them out.
And we have about 10 more minutes until we need to move on to the next talk.
So normally, if you go to the talk page or all the areas that Sasha pointed out earlier, you should be able to find the link to the room and join us to ask questions directly to Alfred.
And Alfred, in the meantime, I don't think we have any more questions for now.
You have the questions about beginning on Emacs that is now finished, if you want to take this one in the meantime.
Yeah. And so the comments and all that, I'll go through the notes again once I've got a bit more time.
It's been a bit of a hectic day and put some more references in.
So what was your moment when you started to work in Emacs instead of config editing?
Interesting. So basically, as I hinted at in my talk, I did spend a lot of time this summer just editing my configs.
And I kind of had the click, the moment where, oh, I really need to stop doing just that after I had editing, well, text editing workflow that I was happy with.
So I think it's possible to just jump into doing Emacs without editing the config at all.
That's not the way that I work.
But I think that, yeah, being able to not be too frustrated in like figuring out how to take notes, like the Space NMT in Doom Emacs,
just creating an org capture templates or using an org capture templates and realizing, all right, I can just, any config idea that I have,
I can put off to later and continue focusing on this work that I have right in front of me.
I think that was kind of a moment where I realized, all right, I don't need to edit this config all day.
And I like to edit my config for like a whole month, but obviously that's not quite feasible.
I mean, working on a month on your config, you know, some of us have been working on our config for the better part of the last 30 years or 10 years or 20 years, depending on your age.
So do not worry, you will find the time to work on your config.
Emacs is just about editing your config.
So before you continue, I just want to let people know.
So we have opened up the question and answer room and now people can join and ask questions.
But I see for now, we mostly have people wanting to listen in, but that's also because as soon as we'll need to move the stream to the next talk,
you'll still be able to join the BBB room and it will still be open.
So that if you want to ask questions to Alfred off stream, be careful, it will still be recorded and still be posted on the website afterwards.
Well, you can do so.
And as long as Alfred is available, he can answer your questions.
And otherwise, if you don't want to join, you can still type your questions in a pad and I'm sure we'll find the time maybe after Christmas or whenever we are all a little more available to answer all the questions that we have.
All right. So sorry, Alfred, you can go now again.
OK, so I've seen I've seen the latest question from Vidianos.
So why is Emacs recommended for journalism?
It's actually an interesting question because that's that's what I had asked myself when I just started.
And I wouldn't say it's recommended. Obviously, it's it's like just as Emacs isn't recommended to anyone in particular because you have you have to really figure out, oh, this is for me.
But I think it's yeah.
Sorry, sorry, sorry. Is my button not working again? I will, I will chastise myself.
So I think it's.
Gotta get back into it. And it's valuable for journalism in the sense that there are plenty of tools that are used for scientific research, which are also used for journalism research.
And in the sense that Emacs is kind of tailored through big tags, through big latex, through like Orgrom and Orgrom Noter, that kind of thing.
And it's it's very easy to transfer these skills into journalism.
And because you're just researching topics and you're transcribing interviews, you're like going through data and trying to figure out, all right, this is the part that's that's valuable.
This is like something that I'm going to research. And for me, Orgrom is kind of a game changer because it allows me to just.
Set my set my thoughts aside, just create a create a Rome link and know that I'm going to I'm going to get back to it.
And so I think it's recommended in that sense, because otherwise I'd just be writing in in a Google Drive document.
And just be spending all my days working on stuff that's not exactly related.
But obviously, for people who have a bit more self-control than I do, it's probably a bit easier and less less necessary.
But it's so good to hear this. Sorry for the interruption, but it's so good to hear that Orgrom actually manages to.
People manage to use Orgrom to, you know, give some more life to their notes.
It's just not a scribbled notes in one of your book that you never open again.
It's the fact that it's just a file and that you can link it very easily to the rest of your files.
It makes it really easily accessible to not forget about it and to try to refine it later on into something more valuable.
Be it an article, be it a research paper or stuff like this.
So, yeah, I'm very pleased to hear that Orgrom is being put to such use.
And we'll hear plenty more about Orgrom and Zettelkasten as usual ever since there was the boom in 2020 about Orgrom stuff and Zettelkasten stuff.
So don't worry about it. And if you're tired about it, well, sorry, you can go watch that or something.
Yeah, no, I think that when I realized how to use Orgrom was also kind of a moment that made me want to stay to stay there.
Like I had shown it on the on the talk, but my my documentary ideas page is basically just like chock full of ideas of stuff that I have thought about for five minutes and just stuff there.
And no, but I can I can create like stumble on the link at some point and work on it.
So it's yeah, it's very valuable. I think it's something that we even outside of Emacs, we should probably be a bit more conscious of of using these kinds of tools and promoting promoting that kind of association and kind of linking.
Even outside of the confines of Orgrom as much as as there are confines, I suppose.
I think people are already complaining that there's too much Orgrom being talked about. So before we start, well, going outside of Emacs, you know, there are plenty of tools as well outside of Emacs tools, which are also floss, which allow you to have similar workflows.
But I believe really that tools within Emacs are within the entire stack of Emacs with the philosophy of Emacs that allows so much different modes to be developed on top of it, which is amazing.
Before we continue, I kind of want to check the clock because we will need to get started on the next talk eventually.
We do have a lot of people joining on BBB and thank you. Hi, everyone. You are probably hearing me twice, once in BBB and once on the stream.
So don't forget to pause the stream if you are hearing my voice in doubles.
We will need to move at 45, so in five minutes, to the next talk. And until then, until then, it is very French of me to say then and not then.
We can take a couple more questions then, Alfred, if you want.
Absolutely.
So yeah, open the questions to people joining in on the mic. And if there's nothing, I'm happy to chat around or to wait.
Sure. Do we have any other questions on the panel? I think you've been pretty thorough and thank you so much for taking the time to answer this.
One of the reasons that we wanted to have two tracks this year is to be able to spend a little more time with Spukers because it was really heart wrenching last year to have so many talks going one after the other.
We barely had the time to talk. And this year, it's a more of a leisurely paced stream.
And yeah, it feels like I can take my time. I'm not running constantly out of breath.
It's still the beginning. OK, I still was extremely stressed whenever we need to press the start stream button, you know, all kinds of fire starts spawning left and right.
But if we don't have any more questions, well, maybe we can just go on a little break and reconvene in four minutes because I don't see people on BBB having their mic open.
So, Alfred, you're more than welcome to stay in the room.
What we are probably going to do now is go on a little bit of a break. So we're going to try to put something on the screen.
There's just been a question from Corwin. So are you closing out the room?
Oh, no, no, no. We probably will. Well, OK, let me just read Corwin's question.
Yes, you do have a question for Corwin, but we're not going to close the room.
We're going to leave it open as long as you want to stay. You can stay five to ten minutes. Maybe people might show up. But otherwise.
So just reading Corwin's questions because it's not in a pad yet, I think.
So do you use any fancy solutions for annotating text onto particular video timestamps?
Well, I don't use it yet, but it's planned.
So I've started a Reddit thread and Sasha has been helpful with answering that one.
But my plan is to work with subtitle editing at some points and to introduce.
Wait, annotate. I might have misunderstood the question. Oh, sorry.
I'm looking for the question as well. So don't worry if you're lost, I'm also lost.
Annotation text. If it's possible to get a clarification for what you mean by annotation text, is that like text effects or is that subtitles?
I think it was mostly about you were talking about notes taking. I think annotation in that sense on the videos would be you have a video and you're trying to take note on this video.
Like either you have the timestamp on the side or you overlay something. But I think it's mostly about taking notes on videos.
OK, yeah. So for now, I'm creating a new link between every video or podcast that I listen to,
but I but I remember to do so and creating just an org room, an org room documents for every for every for every new episode or every new video.
But I am definitely going to have to take some time and figure out a process in which I can link together RSS feeds or L feed as well to to be able to annotate that and link it up with my other text notes.
So nothing fancy yet, but that is planned. So stick around till next year and I might have something for you.
And we will love to have you back.
Yeah, it's thanks. Thanks so much for organizing this. It's it's great to have to have these questions.
Yeah, well, thank you so much, Alfred. It was you know, you had nothing to do with it, but you were the first speaker to come. And even though, you know, having a prereq makes it that much less stressful to be facing the crowd,
you still had to take the first questions from the crowd. And thank you so much because you did it brilliantly and you answered so many questions considering.
So, Alfred, you're going to probably stay in a room a little while. I don't see a lot of people joining quite yet.
I don't think people are, I think most of the questions have already been addressed on the pad, but you can stick around in two minutes and we'll be with you shortly to help you close the room.
But right now, what we're going to do is we're going to take, well, we're not going to take any break.
We're just going to move straight into the next talk. Do bear with us because it's a it's a fine machinery.
And if something flashes on the screen, bear with us. It will be live pretty soon.
OK, it's apparently live. Bye bye. Take care.
OK, so we are now off the stream. We are playing the next prereq. Thank you so much, Alfred, and sorry for the intermittent microphone tuning in.
It was basically my push to talk button with production that is misbehaving a little bit.
It's working so well that I'm actually if I keep talking whilst I'm releasing the button, I'm talking to you, which is really weird and really confusing.
OK, you know, it's always it's always rough with new audio setups going live with them at the same time as you're discovering them.
It's always an interesting, interesting, especially since it's only one aspect of the stuff we're doing.
You know, we're doing so much stuff on the side as well. OK, I'm going to have to get going.
I don't see I don't see any people joining on BBB, so you can stick around a little while.
Corwin might be back in about two to three minutes to help you close the room.
But otherwise, you can just leave if no one shows up in two minutes. OK. All right.
Thanks so much. And thank you so much.
Merci and see you next time. All right, guys, if you have any questions, this is the last the last the last moment.
To launch launch a question, if you're if you don't want to be recorded, I'm happy to I'm happy to take a question off off air or something.
I don't know. I don't know if the chats. Oh, Max. Yes.
When I get stuck with the next problem.
For non-tech people, do you mean non-technical minded like I'm.
I'm trying to figure out. Oh, great.
Well, typically, typically, I try and just research on on.
On Stack Overflow or other platforms where you can share code and share problems, but I typically don't go into too much like non-tech places for EMAX problems.
I have other problems. So, for example, research problems and that kind of thing.
And I'm not sure I answered the core of your question.
The.
Oh, all right. Yes.
Yeah, I mean, I do, I do have other other communities that I joined in, but I try to talk talk about these issues with that aren't that aren't EMAX.
But obviously, it's difficult to talk about EMAX problems with non EMAX users.
So, yeah, that's that's the whole the whole issue with it being so complicated to get started is that you can you can say you can say all you want about how great it is.
But people people aren't always keen to spend three months of their life trying to learn it, which fair enough.
All right. Well, I hope I answered the I answered your questions to the as much as I could, I'll get back to the to the note documents.
And at some point in the coming week and putting in some more notes about about the stuff you guys were interested in.
And, yeah, well thanks for thanks for asking questions thanks for being here and hopefully, hopefully see you next time in the EMAX Conf.
You are currently the only person in this conference.
Okay.
You