Russia’s invasion of Ukraine causes trouble for Big Tech players. Kara and Scott discuss its effects on moderation, monetization, and cybersecurity with journalist Nicole Perlroth. Plus, the CDC says most of the country can go maskless, and Elon Musk has more trouble with the SEC.
How Big Tech is Responding to Russia, with guest Nicole Perlroth — Pivot — Overcast
Good discussion about cybersecurity and the whole Ukraine/Russia fiasco. Hopefully we don’t go all nuclear winter but who knows.
It’s been snowing here the last couple of days. Today we woke up to a few inches of new snow so I had to get the snow blower repaired. I broke the impeller which is the piece that throws the snow into the chute and blows it off your driveway.
It is also the piece that is in the middle of the entire assembly. To replace it you pretty much have to completely disassemble the blower part of the snow blower. At first this seemed like a monumental task. Then I googled and found this excellent tutorial:
“We’re moving into a world now where leaders have to be so aware of every employee individually, what they need and how they work best,” Ms. Katsoudas said. “So there isn’t a one-size-fits-all with work.”
— Read on www.wsj.com/articles/tech-companies-reopen-their-offices-facebook-google-11646365155
Good article that covers some practical aspects of remote work. I cannot imagine ever working in an office again. I don’t see the benefit. In person meetings a couple of times a year? Sure but it’s gotta be compelling and organized to the gills.
Scripting News: Evolution in software
— Read on scripting.com/2022/03/04/134033.html
Interesting thoughts on why we have a major disconnect in software tools for the web. When the web took off in the 90’s it was based on Unix tools since that’s where all the networking came from to make the web and internet work.
Since then we’ve been trying to shoehorn GUI into networking. We’ve got things like cPanel which try to let you do Networking things from a user friendly interface. The problem is that it just confuses things. You are much better off learning the command line tools which are what the devs use to build everything.
The problem with the command line is that it’s not what we have been taught to use for computing. The Mac and Windows gave us tools that mimic the real world. Directories are called folders. We work in windows. These add complexity to already complex systems and allow users to remain ignorant and lazy.
Evolution doesn’t go backwards. Learn the command line.
One thing we designed our home to have is a large south facing steep roof. This gives us a perfect platform to install solar panels. The initial plan is to have them tied to the grid to offset our electrical usage. This saves us all of the money we pay for power and helps reduce the need for coal powered electrical generation.
Today the solar installation crew showed up and got to work. They got all of the roof racking installed and most of the inverter and electrical wiring. On Monday they will be back to complete the panel install.
Once that is done we have to wait a week for the state inspector to approve the install. Then the electric company will come by to check everything is connected to the grid correctly. Then we will be live.
We use Slack at Kinsta and one of the things I enjoy about Slack is the use of Emojis as reactions. Not everything posted in Slack needs a typed response, at least not from everyone in the company. Emoji reactions allow you to respond without creating a notification that the poster then needs to review. Instead they can glance at reactions to their posts in Mentions & reactions view.
There are a lot of emojis in Slack and you can add as many as you want. These are great and allow you to react with a wide variety of reactions that communicate nuance and personality. However there are times where nuance and personality are not needed. Instead I need to give a strong affirmative reaction and that is where the 👍emoji is my workhorse.
The 👍transcends language and emotion. It shows approval and support for whatever was posted. If someone reacts with the 👍there is no doubt as to what they mean. There are other emojis for other occasions that do the same and maybe someday I will talk about those too.
Kate bought us an essential oil diffuser a few years ago and I have been hooked on having nice smells around the house ever since. The best part was that Kate took care of making all that stuff happen. Now that my office is in the basement I have to fend for myself and figure out what oils to have in my diffuser.
I ordered one diffuser with oils but had to send that back for 2 reasons: First the power connector to the diffuser was not plugging in well and the power would switch off often. Second the oils that it came with were not good. They smelled like over the top soaps and I had to shut if down after a few minutes.
I then got the same diffuser we have upstairs which came with better smelling oils. I understand that there are a variety of levels of quality when it comes to essential oils. Maybe someday I will invest time and research into finding the best oils, but for now if they smell nice I am all set. I do not apply any of these oils to my skin.
After some limited Googling I found the list below for office/work specific options. It is interesting to see how different scents and blends can change my mood. I really enjoy having some type of citrus in the mornings to wake me up and smile. Anytime things might be intense at work I take a deep breath and somehow the energizing brings a sense of calmness. I am enjoying #5 in the list below at the moment.
Last year I bought our first HomePod Mini and our adventure into building a smart home began. The HomePod mini works as a hub for Apple’s HomeKit smart home system. Basically the HomePod mini works as an always on computer for the various smart devices to connect to.
One of the first smart devices we purchased was this smart switch from Meross. It’s an inexpensive device that connects to the HomePod via Wi-Fi. The advantage of adding a smart switch is that you are able to control it via your phone or Siri in various ways. For the most part they work great and we have 5 in our house at the moment.
One issue that has come up is that the switch will lose connection to the network. When this happens the small status light on the switch starts flashing to let you know it is not connected. Re-connecting this specific switch requires you to enter an 8 digit code.
Unfortunately the manufacturer has placed this code on the switch underneath the switch cover. If the switch is by itself removing the cover only requires unscrewing 2 screws. If the switch is located with other switches the number of screws increases by 2 for each switch. Removing the cover in those cases can be considered to be a pain in the ass.
After having to do this a couple of times I realized I could just take a photo of the switches without the cover and then have the codes always available. I then created a photo album titled ‘Smart Home’ so that we can reference if we need to reconnect any of them.
There are more expensive smart switches that have a separate hub and supposedly have less issue with disconnecting from the network. So far the disconnect issues have been very minor and adding a hub to the network is less than ideal for me. It is still early days for our smart home experiment so this may change.
I started watching Severance last week on Apple TV and I am hooked. The photography, set design, and lighting are great. But the story and acting are what make the show worth watching.
The show opens to a woman laying on a conference table in a windowless room. It’s a jarring scene and eventually the episode loops back to it from another perspective. Disorientation is a strong theme in the series.
We learn that these characters are employees of a company where they have agreed to have their work memories severed from their non-work memories. The reason why this is done is not clear as of episode 2. The third episode came out today and I’m looking forward to learning more.
The employees are all grown adults but when they undergo the severance procedure their work memories start from almost nothing. They understand English and how to use a computer but they have no idea of who they are on the outside, aka their outies. They work underground and come and go to work at staggered times to avoid their other selves from meeting each other.
The story is very original and so far very well done. Ben Stiller’s production company is making it and Ben directs multiple episodes. On this mornings Pivot podcast they interviewed him about the show. Episodes are released on Friday’s like all the streamers are doing now.
