Link. Cook is the McConnell of tech.
Monthly Archives: May 2021
Last Week on My Mac: How it took 6 months for M1 Macs to work properly.
Link. Howard is focused on boot disks, but our M1 Air has only recently become somewhat reliable. Apple has gotten very good at controlling their reviewers.
“On many days, Biden then summons his brain trust, including Klain and top advisers Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, Bruce Reed, Steve Ricchetti and Cedric L. Richmond”
Link. Lots of fun and quirky details. He is who he seems to be.
COVID’s gifts: a flurry of RNA vaccines in development.
Link. Science.
“Sparta was – if you will permit the comparison – an ancient North Korea. An over-militarized, paranoid state which was able only to protect its own systems of internal brutality and which added only oppression to the sum of the human experience.”
Link. Myth of Sparta not nothing.
“Google continued collecting location data even when users turned off various location-sharing settings, made popular privacy settings harder to find, and even pressured LG and other phone makers into hiding settings precisely because users liked them.”
Link. Don’t be evil.
“Part II of our seven part look at Sparta (I, III, IV, V, VI, VII).”
Link. One of the worst of human societies. A cautionary tale.
Guide to vaccinating the reluctant and disadvantaged.
Link.
RSA’s 2011 “air gap” that wasn’t: “But in fact, Leetham says, one server on RSA’s internet-connected network was linked, through a firewall that allowed no other connections, to the seed warehouse on the manufacturing side”
Link. An egregious fail.
Capture One – MacInTouch – $300
Link. “The software is currently on sale for 40% off via code MAY-SAVE-40.”
Luc Montagnier: portrait of a complete crackpot — with a Nobel prize on the side.
Link. He’s an absolute raving loon — and an anti-vaxxer, autism bulshitter, and homeopath. There are no words for his nano-assembly by RF theory. I want an MRI of his brain.
Therapy: Myth Vs. Fact (Onion)
Link. I suspect therapists would say funny but also true.
xkcd 2012: The history and partisan composition of the House and Senate throughout history
Link. We are due for a 2022 update.
Trailbot: MN Trail Updates App with Push Notifications
Link. A new must have app for MN dirt riders. Replaces older MORC app.
Apps for mapping out bike rides
Link. I’m using MapMyRide free together with Google Maps. MMR uses GMaps but doesn’t shos sites and landmarks.
“Biden, the key political strategists who advise Biden and almost the entire Democratic congressional caucus simply stopped believing Republicans would ever vote for major Democratic bills”
Link. Not stupid.
“a select committee could issue subpoenas”
Link. House can also subpoena but executive can’t.
WHO panel produces COVID-19 pandemic chronology
Link. A key reference.
“security unit in the Commerce Department turned into a rogue counterintelligence operation over the past few years”
Link. More clear and concise than everything I read.
“15 percent think the “Satan-worshipping pedophiles” conspiracy theory has merit”
Link. I subscribe to the Russian slow encephalopathy virus lab escape Zombie theory. Makes sense of America 2021.
Venmo’s Public Transactions and Friend Lists
Link. Insane by design.
“Is there a brand of TV that you can safely allow to connect to the internet?”
Link. Obviously no. Soon they will stop working unless connected weekly. The modern TV is spyware made physical.
Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory
Link. A research tool but i like the subscales. Useful in management.
Next U.S. Cities to Receive Apple Maps Cycling Directions?
Link. All of mainland China?! They have been taking forever to expand in US.
Activity Monitor: CPU
Link. Great reference.
Tweaks for Twitter 1.0
Link. “In addition to cleaning out lots of extraneous elements, it expands “t.co” URLs and makes the full page scrollable.”
Google AMP is dead.
Link. “starting in June 2021, you won’t get any [ranking] benefit from using AMP”. A week ago Google announced RSS tech for web subscription.
BeBelkin Soundform Connect: “new adapter that turns any traditional stereo speaker into an AirPlay 2-enabled speaker.”
Link. AirPort Express did this. Similar Price. Miss it.
iOS updates can lead to unexpected data loss.
Link. Apps stop working, you can’t go back, it is hard to get at the data.
A portrait of depression
Link. Not what I thought, and I *treat* depression. I think it’s true however.
Russian antivax attack on France.
Link. Why are they doing this? At some point it is an act of war.
Siri & Glimstad, NY antivax law firm.
Link. Smart people will do fine, but some less gifted will die because of them. Thirty years ago they’d have been a tobacco firm.
M1 Macs running Big Sur 11.4 support external disks fully
Link. Happy surprise.
Big Sur: “doubt I’ve ever had an uptime of more than 5 days, whereas prior to Catalina it was probably measured in weeks or months.”
Link. It’s a long, long, LONG bug list. I treasure my Mojave.
Second-Generation Siri Remote: “I’ve long suspected that no one in Apple leadership lives with young children, and the omission of Find My support doesn’t disabuse me of that notion.”
Link. iOS Parental Controls/Restrictions/Screen Time proved that theory long ago.
Apple TV: buy 32 GB Apple TV 4K for $179
Link. What we’ll buy.
“people probably hate inflation because of upward nominal wage rigidity”
Link. I lived through 70s in Quebec. I remember a lot of unemployment as well.
“Unexpectedly is a Mac application that lets you browse and visualize the reports from crashes that happened on your Mac”
Link. Might help “Crashy” our M1 Air.
Reversing Oldness by killing the senescent cells.
Link. More for more kids than me I think.
“For decades, the U.S. government has rejected international efforts to attach a monitoring mechanism to the Biological Weapons Convention”
Link. Not the most encouraging article.
“Abandoned by skiers, hated on by skateboarders, and mocked throughout pop culture, rollerblading in North America went underground.”
Link. Apparently I am a fruitbooter so gay by association. I’ll take that. (I think changing asphalt tech is what killed inline.)
“When the 1918 pandemic swept through the world, it apparently completely replaced whatever flu existed before.”
Link. Uh… what? How?!
“Apple Music, which uses AAC, and iPhones, which support AAC. If you use these two things along with a wireless speaker or headphones that also support AAC, Bluetooth will not impact the sound quality.”
Link. You don’t want to stream MP3 to most Bluetooth speakers. That surprised me.
Restoring light perception by transforming retinal glial cells into light sensors by optogenetics.
Link. 3rd millenium stuff.
Autonomous vehicles recede.
Link. A year-round MN urban AV will have the right to vote. Driving a car safely challenges the limits of the human brain. The jet/bird comparison doesn’t work.
“White conservative farmers and ranchers from Florida, Texas and the Midwest quickly sued to block the program”
Link. White farmers know very little history.
“the number of 18-year-olds in South Korea has fallen from about 900,000 in 1992 to 500,000 today.”
Link. “ Germany’s fertility rate recently increased to 1.54, up from 1.3 in 2006”
LA restores police budget it cut last year.
Link. Activists need a plan B.
The Arizona Ninja audit described.
Link. They seem as sincere as most low level cult members are.
“Accumulate 100 band pull-aparts throughout the day. Do it 4-6 days per week.”
Link. I’m putting a band in my work bag.