Excursions avatar

Excursions

I listened to a couple of microcasts today and I get the lure now. It is easier to share quick thoughts via audio than a written words. And I attempted to record couple of notes in Voice Memo. Yep. I think I may make it work.

★ 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.

Podcasts Is a Costly Medium Even for Listeners

I hate podcasts, because the medium is demanding. It demands so much time from me, demands focused attention to follow along. I wish I didn’t find them so damn useful to keep giving in to the medium’s demands.

But to do so, I have to alter my regular habits to accommodate podcasts in the daily routine. Time that was consumed by music for majority part of my life is taken over by podcasts now. If I have even a minute free, earphones are plugged and I continue what I was listening to. There are times when I question whether the medium actually deserves so much of attention from me.

So every now and then I look and relook at my subscribed podcasts list to decide which podcasts earn their place. I relook at my habits to see what I can change to make this manageable.

  • If there is a podcast which I hardly listen to, it’s unsubscribed.
  • If there is one whose last episodes I hardly remember, it’s unsubscribed.
  • I rarely stay subscribed to podcasts that might talk about the same sets of topics (that means very few tech podcasts).
  • I do not want news from the podcasts, I want views, perspectives.
  • None with daily episodes. Rather I prefer podcasts that are spread across the week. So if I find that there are multiple (more than 3) podcasts delivering episodes on the same day, few are simply unsubscribed.
  • I always listen at 1.2x speed. “Trim Silence” mode is always on in PocketCasts. I do not care of the lost fidelity. I recently tried to let the silence stay on and I felt everyone was deliberately being a slow speaker.
  • There is a big reason I use PocketCasts. Overcast is a loved app amongst the tech community and I tried hard to use it. But it just doesn’t respect data usages limits. It either allows to download all episodes every time or not notify about a new episode at all. I, on the other hand, want to look at the episode, read what it’s about and then decide whether to download. PocketCasts’ a lot more flexible.
  • I like if the podcasts, especially long ones, do chapters. It’s easier to skip over the topics I just have no interests in.
  • I listen to ad reads if they aren’t robotic, if the host believes in the product. That’s least I can do to contribute for their efforts.

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.

I realised today that Feedbin also supports following Twitter feeds and Podcasts. How usable is this? It really makes me curious, may be it can become one place where I catch up with all the stuff? Any one does that?

This week’s episode of Twit was really fun. Lively debates on varied topic, with logical point of views from smart people. It’s rare that a tech podcast does not regurgitate perspectives on same superficial tech updates.

★ 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?