Difference between revisions of "Blog/July 2018/Jul 6th"

Revision as of 08:30, 13 July 2018

July 13th

This week was our first “normal” one in quite some time. So there’s not a lot to report, thankfully.

Esther’s boss and co-workers were extremely relieved to have her return to the office. Apparently, things “get done” when she’s there, and not so much, otherwise. So she was very busy working on a month-plus backlog. She deserves a raise!

Sarah started a studio-photography course, which will run for about three months. At the least, she’ll hone skills she wants to have to pursue her ultimate goal (no, I won’t tell you what that is just yet).

I had a successful week, bringing my active client’s project to a good conclusion. Now I’m in the interstices between paid projects: this client is having internal discussions how to proceed, while another one is waiting for funding. A third one made unreasonable demands of my time, so they’ve been dropped.

All of which is to the benefit of 8th: I made very substantial progress this week, towards the next version. Working on supporting “Wear OS”, which is what Android’s “wearable devices OS” is called (yes, it’s basically the same as Android, but not exactly). Fixed a number of bugs found by my diligent users, and added some things. All good.

Esther and I made an effort to get the house more organized. Once Mom’s shipment arrived, it was apparent that the house is much smaller than Mom had thought (my warnings to the contrary notwithstanding). So my Better Half and I rearranged a number of things and got a bit more room. It’s like one of those Chinese puzzles.

In other news:

One of the better headlines: US puts fierce squeeze on breastfeeding…
The history of “gender theory”. Down with the Patriarchy!
Amazingly, in an entire article entitled Can the Middle East solve its water problem?, the world-class technological strides made by Israel are not mentioned (though it shows up in the graphs). Curious…
An interesting (and civil) talk between a famous atheist and an orthodox Jew
The knife police are coming (in Britain).
The Japanese have apparently found a near infinite trove of “rare-earth elements”. China is concerned: it’s one of the few things they have a near-monopoly on. “Rare-earths” are used in a lot of high-tech devices, so yeah

It’s one thing for the social-media giants to be censorious. They’re private companies, after all; they can do whatever they want, within the boundaries of the law. But it’s another thing entirely for them to interpose their views in your private conversations. Since Facebook acquired WhatsApp, there have been a number of disturbing developments — all to do with substantial weakening of WhatsApp’s security and privacy. This is not good.

I’ve said before, but it bears repeating: use Signal instead of WhatsApp, if you actually care about privacy. Stay away from Facebook (I’ve stopped using it on a regular basis, so please just send me email if you want to message me. Or use Signal (or WhatsApp). I don’t check Facebook regularly any more, and I will be avoiding it in future.

Guests this week include my nephew and his wife and child. All of us will enjoy:
homemade ḥalla, some kind of meat, a soup?, various salatim, and some pastries.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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Prev: Jul 13th

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 In other news:
 * One of the better headlines: [https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/07/us-puts-fierce-squeeze-on-breastfeeding-policy-shocking-health-officials/ US puts fierce squeeze on breastfeeding…]
-* The [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBr0qWE0X5I history of “gender theory”]
+* The [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBr0qWE0X5I history of “gender theory”]. Down with the Patriarchy!
 * Amazingly, in an entire article entitled [https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/middleeast/middle-east-water/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Most+Recent%29 Can the Middle East solve its water problem?], the world-class technological strides made by Israel are not mentioned (though it shows up in the graphs).  Curious…
 * An interesting (and civil) talk between [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdUC8nRVyYY a famous atheist and an orthodox Jew]
@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 * The Japanese have apparently found a [https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/11/national/japan-team-maps-semi-infinite-trove-rare-earth-elements/#.W0g0tdhLjOS near infinite trove] of “rare-earth elements”.  China is concerned: it’s one of the few things they have a near-monopoly on.  “Rare-earths” are used in a ''lot'' of high-tech devices, so yeah
+It’s one thing for the social-media giants [https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/reddit-ceo-tells-user-we-are-not-the-thought-police-then-suspends-that-user/ to be censorious].  They’re private companies, after all; they can do whatever they want, within the boundaries of the law.  But it’s another thing entirely for them to [https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/07/10/2318258/in-a-bid-to-curtail-spread-of-misinformation-facebooks-whatsapp-now-tells-users-when-a-message-has-been-forwarded interpose their views in your private conversations].  Since Facebook acquired WhatsApp, there have been a number of disturbing developments — all to do with substantial weakening of WhatsApp’s security and privacy.  This is not good.
+I’ve said before, but it bears repeating: [https://www.signal.org/ use Signal] instead of WhatsApp, if you actually care about privacy.  Stay away from Facebook (I’ve stopped using it on a regular basis, so please [mailto:ron@ronware.org just send me email] if you want to message me.  Or use Signal (or WhatsApp).  I don’t check Facebook regularly any more, and I will be avoiding it in future.

Difference between revisions of "Blog/July 2018/Jul 6th"

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Revision as of 08:30, 13 July 2018