The 2021 Oscar Nominations, and What Should Have Made the List →
It seemed obvious that the absence of many big-budget movies this past year would clear the way for smaller films to earn nominations, and that turned out to be true.
I know of so few from this year’s list.
No! How can this be?! I’ve read only fifty-two per cent of this damn book?
No! How can this be?! That’s exactly me, reading.
Stop Defacing Quotes With Brackets! →
If the changes are not obvious, don’t use the quote; if they’re not necessary, don’t use the brackets. The goal is to present the quotation as directly as possible.
Our moral evaluations of the main big actions that influence our world today, and that built our world from past worlds, are still up for grabs.
The New York Times Sells Envy →
[E]nvy and ingratitude sell, so Manjoo gets to misrepresent data, twist facts, and sow resentment in the paper of record.
You’ve been through a lot this year and it looks like you need the perfect place to let your frustrations out. Somewhere big, vast and untouched. (…) Record your scream and we’ll release it in Iceland’s beautiful, wide-open spaces.
What unique idea that!
[T]here isn’t, today, an equivalent of the SGI Indy, or the Sun SPARCstation, or the DEC Alpha, or any of the other professional workstations. The only thing that’s on offer is more of the same user experience, only slightly faster. That’s why computers are so boring these days.
Google Photos Just Made the Case for Breaking Up Big Tech→
Now that Google has lured more than 1 billion users to the service, making it an integral part of their digital lives (not to mention a huge hassle to switch , that original selling point is gone.
It’s that part emphasized that worries me - there’s no easy way to switch away from Google Photos. No APIs. No sync. Nothing.
I don’t care, or understand enough about the US anti-competitive laws. But what I do understand is that staying invested in only Google’s offering is becoming more risky with each passing year.
An updated daily front page of The New York Times as artwork on your wall →
Every morning, I wake up to a fresh edition of the Times on my wall. I find it wonderful to hover for a bit with a cup of coffee, scanning the headlines or reading an article. Mission accomplished and I am one satisfied news junkie.
Such a wonderful project that even I would love to replicate. There’s a lot of potential. Fascinating!
On Motivation and Writing Prompts →
Prompts don’t “force” us to be creative: they give us an excuse to practice, to play with our tools, and, if we’re lucky, to make discoveries we might not otherwise have made.
I agree with Robert - prompts are to get you practice writing.
I am not too convinced with this reverse toonification experiment of Pixar characters - every result’s too close to uncanny valley for my comfort. Especially the eyes, they look terrible wrong. The larger, rounder eyes look good only on toons.
The problem is that most of us have come to accept micro-stresses as just a normal part of a day. We hardly acknowledge them, but cumulatively they are wearing us down. And what’s worse is that the sources of these micro-stresses are often the people — in and out of work — with whom we are closest.
The point is that these micro-stresses are all routinely part of our day and we hardly stop to consider how they are affecting us, but they add up. They may arise as momentary challenges, but the impact of dealing with them can linger for hours or days.
Harward Business Review
I know the burn out caused by the micro-stresses. It is pretty common especially with enterprise roles. However when you look at the possible relationships that can lead to such frictions, it is only natural that the causes can be, many a times, way closer to home.
A really insightful look at the problem and possible ways to mitigate them.
The absence of audio recording technology makes “when” a tough question to answer. But there are some theories as to “why.”
Matt Soniak at Mental Floss
Give me liberty or give me death? In response, the Pandemic leans forward with a big grin full of rotting teeth. Why not both? Go out! Have some fun. You’ve been cooped up too long. You deserve this.
To all who hear me, you deserve something far better than a fun holiday weekend. You deserve a long and happy life. Tell the Pandemic to get bent. Stay close to home, and cheer our nation’s beginning from your backyard or living room.
I wish more people world around listened to Cheri Baker. I do not stay in the USA. But even when peeking from outside, the attitude of "I live my life on my terms, the world be damn" is pretty clearly evident among Americans.
xkcd, as always, gets it bang on why I dislike the smart computers of today correcting and reminding me continuously. And now they also start second guessing what I might say next. I cringe every time that happens.
In line with the last update on Blot experiment, setting up webmentions. I think I will go with something simple to begin with.
★ Liked “Juul & its House of Smoke & Horrors” by Om Malik
“And is it an ethical business?,” asks Crunchbase. “We can’t answer the latter question here as we’re not equipped for it.” Yes, you are!
★ Liked “How to close all Safari tabs at once on iPhone and iPad”
All you have to do is long-press the tab button when looking at any Safari page […]
Just long press. Everywhere.
★ Liked “No, you probably don’t have a book in you”
Every story is not a book.
★ Liked “Departing Facebook Security Officer’s Memo: ‘We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides’”
“We need to build a user experience that conveys honesty and respect, not one optimized to get people to click yes to giving us more access,” Stamos wrote. “We need to intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we are using it to serve people.”
“We need to listen to people (including internally) when they tell us a feature is creepy or point out a negative impact we are having in the world,” the note continued. “We need to deprioritize short-term growth and revenue and to explain to Wall Street why that is ok. We need to be willing to pick sides when there are clear moral or humanitarian issues. And we need to be open, honest and transparent about our challenges and what we are doing to fix them.”
What needs to be done has always been clear. Anyway I think it is good that it is on paper (again). Wish someone worked on it too.
I find it fascinating that Bill Gates does not have a feed with full contents of his notes. I wish he was more open now, at least with his notes.
★ Liked “How to improve Twitter in 2018” by Dave Winer
Make a commitment to developers and make it irreversible. What exactly this means is subject to negotiation. But no one company can do what a medium does. As great a company as Twitter might be, its not something companies were meant to do, imho.
★ Liked “Fascism These Days” by Brent Simmons
What if agents in the Secret Service or FBI begin quietly talking to bloggers or tweeters who express an anti-Trump point of view? No law needed. No take-down notice. It’s just agents doing their jobs.
Would you keep blogging after having a quiet meeting with a couple armed men who — politely and calmly — explain that they’re just checking to make sure you’re not a threat to national security?
Would you even tell anyone about the meeting?
★ Liked “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Debt to Me”
My debt was the result, in equal measure, of a chain of rotten luck and a system that is an abject failure by design. […] Like many well-meaning but misguided baby boomers, neither of my parents received an elite education but they nevertheless believed that an expensive school was not a materialistic waste of money; it was the key to a better life than the one they had. They continued to put faith in this falsehood even after a previously unimaginable financial loss, and so we continued spending money that we didn’t have—money that banks kept giving to us.
May be a devisive opinion, but student loan debt is a curse on our society. A person shouldn’t be indebted in attempt to kick start his life.
Throughout my whole life (one I controlled), I have attempted to not be under any sort of unavoidable debt. If that meant me not having or doing a thing that I want to, so be it. I know not all may share this perspective, may be not all can “afford” the life without a form of debt (ironical, but practical), I have been thankful that I was able to put my life on track without falling behind the world around.
The problem, I think, runs deeper than blame. The foundational myth of an entire generation of Americans was the false promise that education was priceless—that its value was above or beyond its cost. College was not a right or a privilege but an inevitability on the way to a meaningful adulthood. What an irony that the decisions I made about college when I was seventeen have derailed such a goal.
Perfect!
