Author: Marc Weidenbaum

Agency & Gadgetry

Now emerging

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Continuing to really dig my Xteink X4 ereader, a tiny eink device that easily fits in a shirt pocket, where mine has now semi-permanently taken refuge. I outfitted the gadget’s sleep screen with the central image from the American edition of William Gibson’s 2020 novel, Agency. Doing so was simple: You just make a 480 x 800 bitmap file and pop it on the memory card. Because the CrossPoint Reader alternate firmware provides wifi access for file transfer, doing so was all the more easy. As for the image itself, I’ve always loved the ingenious way this book’s designer drew attention to how a simple load sigil can signify emergence, especially when combined with the out-of-focus face. Even though you know it’s just a still image, the circle with the arrow suggests motion — or better yet, a software glitch that has resulted in a frozen state. Now reproduced in low resolution here on this cheap digital device, the image has a sense of actual software. This little Xteink ereader is unique at the moment (there’s also an X3, which is smaller but requires an idiosyncratic charging cable, circumstances at odds with the ease of the X4), and it suggests a new category, one in which things can be purpose-built using limited chips, older generation screens, and modestly scoped firmware — and then be hacked after the fact as the GitHub set demands.

Scratch Pad: Cyberpunk, Deadloch, Audiograms

From the past week

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I tag on what books I may have finished reading. Knowing I’ll revisit my social media posts, I’ve found, serves as a positive and mellowing influence on my online activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.

First full week back from my New York trip, and I barely posted anything.

▰ Nothing is quite as cyberpunk as mundane cyberpunk. Today I saw power and/or data cables dangling out from under the seat up a motorcycle, from the flap of an elementary school student’s backpack, and in the rear pocket of the jeans worn by someone on a stroll. Then level up to advertisements in GitHub pull requests, work slowed due to AI outages, and RAM shortages. “RAM Shortage,” in 1987, would have been the title of this story. Now we’re just living in it.

▰ No one makes me laugh as hard these days as Madeleine Sami’s Eddie Redcliffe in the TV series Deadloch. No one even comes close.

▰ Acquaintances send pictures. Friends send municipal field recordings.

▰ I guess there’s a chance that the new Westerlies album, on which they perform music by Bill Frisell, won’t be one of my favorites of the year at the end of the year, but such an outcome seems unlikely.

▰ This week I finished reading one novel (Hum by Helen Phillips) and one graphic novel (Cat Mask Boy by Linus Liu).

Radio Emissions

Qs and an A

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

I for one would like to know what the heck this sign is about. The phrase “radio frequency emissions” is pretty tantalizing on its own. The preceding “all” is next level — like, versus what? Is there a different sign that stipulates a subset of signals? And what made this situation an “emergency”? Was something being disrupted? How were the offending emissions first noticed, identified, and triangulated? I would really like to know. (Also, my phone took this photo from about 25 feet away through a windshield, and the sign is barely the size of an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper, and this is only the top third of the sign. Kind of amazing.)

And I got an informative response via Threads.

Disquiet Junto Project 0745: Double Down

The Assignment: Do something you do too much even more.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.

Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the llllllll.co discussion thread.

Disquiet Junto Project 0745: Double Down
The Assignment: Do something you do too much even more.

Step 1: Think about something in your music that you feel like you do too often.

Step 2: Make a piece of music in which you double down on what you focused on in Step 1. Own it. Turn a crutch into a superpower.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0745” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0745-double-down/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. Maybe twice as long as usual? Or half your normal length?

Deadline: Monday, April 13, 2026, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

About: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).

Please Include When Posting Your Track:

More on the 745th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Double Down — The Assignment: Do something you do too much even more — disquiet.com/0745.