Just a glance down the Twitter timeline and it fills one with rage. There’s just too much negativity on display. And a big source for that are likes and retweets and replies. But, deleting Facebook account was a lot easier. I had no use of that - can’t say that for Twitter.
Apple finally blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps. The ties between the two companies drop to an all time low. Facebook considers this as a critical issue. However they should have seen this coming. They can’t expect a pass just because they are a major player.
Bluetooth headphones suck big time if used for listening to any form of music. They are good only for podcasts/audiobooks or calls. Videos are more terrible. I carry an extra pair of wired headphones, just in case. I empathise with all those who cursed “courageous” Apple.
There’s a planned change in how DNS responds to queries from non-complaint systems and it can potentially affect your domain availability. You can do a quick check at DNS Flag Day if you own any domains.
Apparently, Hover DNS systems I use aren’t fully ready. Interesting.
Diary and Journals
Derek Sivers wrote a wonderful piece on the benefits he has realized via his diaries and journals. He talks about why he likes keeping his daily diary.
We so often make big decisions in life based on predictions of how we think we’ll feel in the future, or what we’ll want. Your past self is your best indicator of how you actually felt in similar situations. So it helps to have an accurate picture of your past.
It was especially fascinating looking at the list of topics he keeps a journal about. A great, great inspiration for any one looking out for what to journal about. He puts down a prime example.
I especially like my “Regrets” journal. Whenever I do something I regret, I write it down there, noting why I regret it, what I wish I would have done instead, and how I hope to prevent this in the future.
Derek has given me so much to ponder on. I have bookmarked this, I may reference this every time I question my resolve to journal more. Even outside of a journal, I think this is a great suggestion to write everything.
Ask yourself questions, then question your answers.
To be frank, it was when I read his account that I got to know that diary and journal are not the same. Apparently, diary is for an account of one’s daily activities while journal is for more comprehensive thoughts on specific topics. Some may say that’s minutiae, but it’s good to know.
I intend to stop publishing the weekly digest from this week onward, at least in its current form. It was turning out to be an effort against a post I wasn’t going for initially.
Surprisingly (or not may be), I was dearly missing the system-wide emojis from Mac as I switched to Windows — before I realized, of course, they are available. I need to spend some time finding everything about the platform I have decided to move to now.
I understand the argument of this GDPR article on Verge, but, as a developer, I also believe that the data these companies hold on you is very complicated to be presented in any form which isn’t a bit messy. You’ll need a reference to parse the data, which should be acceptable.
What do you do with your old electronic devices? I find this decision especially tricky with laptops and tablets. They may be unusable for me, but I know for a fact that there would be a section that will find these to be useful.
I never like to sell them — for some reason, the trade makes me uncomfortable. I am seriously considering donating them to someone less fortunate.
I am making conscious efforts to avoid the fillers in my writing, and whenever possible in my talking too. I have realised I use them a lot and the prose sounds significantly clearer without them.
None of unnecessary “I think”, “so”, “I guess” etc going ahead.