Cowboy Who?

So you’re minding your own business, and you find that Web sites and services are all failing due to certificate errors:

outlook.office365.com

Information you exchange with this site cannot be viewed or changed by others. However, there is a problem with the site’s security certificate.

︎	The security certificate was issued by a company you have not chosen to trust. View the certificate to determine whether you want to trust the certifying authority.
︎	The security certificate date is valid.
︎	The name on the security certificate is invalid or does not match the name of the site.

Do you want to proceed?

And then if you’re the sort of nerd who actually looks at the certificate, you get something like this:

Who is “US”? Is the United States government trying to hack my connection? (And if so, why would they admit to it right in their certificate identification?)¹

Or is “US” the guy to whom all my base are belong?²

While it’s true that you are undergoing a man-in-the-middle attack, there’s a good chance that this attack is not malicious. If you are using a public WiFi connection, say in a coffee shop or hotel, then check whether you are trapped in the captive portal.

Open a Web browser and go to a plain http Web site (not https). You’ll probably see a message from the provider of the public WiFi connection asking you to agree to the terms of service or enter subscriber information.

Once you get past that, go back to the Web site or service you were originally interested in, and it should work better now.

Bonus chatter: So what’s up with the “US”?

My guess is that whoever generated the certificate for the captive portal went through some “Make me a certificate” wizard and left all the fields blank. The wizard defaulted to “Country = US”, and since that’s the only thing that was filled in, that’s the only information in the certificate.

Related reading: How does Windows decide whether your computer has limited or full Internet access?

Some follow-up notes on how Windows decides whether your computer has Internet access.

The idea behind probing the Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) endpoint is that the system wants to know whether access to “random” Web sites will succeed, and it checks this by accessing the NCSI endpoint, which is a “random” Web site. If the access to the NCSI endpoint fails, then access to other “random” Web sites will probably also fail.³

Yes, this can be hacked by setting up a weird WiFi network. But who cares? All that’ll happen is that the user on your network gets the wrong connectivity icon (either being told that they have full connectivity when they don’t, or vice versa), and they’ll try to connect to some Web site, and they’ll get an error, and now you have a support problem when they complain that your WiFi is broken.

Yes, this can be fooled by uncommon network configurations. But that means that connections to random Web sites are probably also going to fail, seeing as there’s nothing particularly special about the NCSI endpoint. A user who opens a Web browser is probably not going to be able to browse the Internet.

An important detail is that the NCSI endpoint uses http, not https. If the endpoint had been https, then the captive portal’s interruption would break the secure connection (which is what we experienced above), whereas on http, the captive portal can inject a redirect to their sign-in page.

You can configure the NCSI probes via Group Policy. You can read more on the page I linked to in the original post.

This technique for detecting basic Internet access is common across all major operating systems. Windows isn’t doing anything particular sneaky here.

¹ That’s one of the things I don’t get about the conspiracy theorists who look for clues like this. If you assume that there’s some deep, highly-organized, hyper-competent conspiracy afoot, why also assume that this highly-organized conspiracy is not just inept at keeping secrets, but is openly bragging out in public? The first rule of Fight Club is “you do not talk about Fight Club.” The second rule of Fight Club is “YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.”

² Yes, I use ridiculously old memes. I’m slow to pick up on these things.

³ In Windows 10, the name of the endpoint changed from msftncsi to msftconnecttest, presumably to make the purpose of the access more obvious in security and audit logs. Nobody will understand that NCSI stands for Network Connectivity Status Indicator. (They’ll probably confuse it with the Naval Crime Investigative Service.)

The post Trouble connecting to Web sites and services because of certificate errors? Check if you’re being held captive appeared first on The Old New Thing.

Northeastern University in Boston faces criticism after students discovered heat-monitoring devices installed under their desks to secretly track desk usage without students’ knowledge or consent. What do you think?

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This post, update: my new coworker keeps staring at my breasts , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

Remember the letter-writer whose new coworker kept staring at her breasts? Here’s the update.

Thank you again for publishing my letter and for your advice. It was especially great to see just how exhausted you and the commentariat were with having to even consider any of that crap, again, for the thousandth time. Feeling that collective exasperated sigh behind my back made it much easier to act.

I did at first try to ask the staring coworker rather pointedly, was there something wrong with my badge? He gave me a surprised, uncomprehending look in response and said no, no, nothing was wrong. That encounter seemed to help briefly, but in a couple of days the effect disappeared.

I next tried pointedly crossing arms across my chest and, separately, asking what it was he kept looking at. Both attempts elicited the same exact reaction as the badge try.

A day or two after my last attempt to save him the face, I finally had enough. I said, “Name, you can’t keep staring at me like this. This area (and I showed the area with my hands) is completely off limits when you talk to women.” I was tired and not feeling well that day, so it came out in a pretty harsh tone. The guy was very taken aback, he just sat there staring at me (at my face this time hah), frozen and speechless. After a minute or so of him not saying anything at all, I left the room.

He approached me later that day, in a couple hours after my outburst, very cautiously. He said he hoped I understood he never meant to stare “like that,” that it was just how his eyes were, whether he looked at men or women. He said it was considered impolite in his country of origin to look people in the eyes for long stretches, which is why he made it a habit to rest his eyes elsewhere.

Now some of that I felt was true, as I said in my original post, I had a feeling all the way through that he didn’t REALLY mean to stare at the chest. However, the part about looking at men the same way was not true at all, with them he would look at their ears, the wall behind them, that sort of things, instead of their chests (yes I had studied this aspect carefully before acting, sigh). Still, I told him that I believed him and even soothed his ego a bit by saying how much I valued his contribution to the lab. But stressed that he still had to change his eye habits, however innocently meant, around women.

The guy was very, very careful where he looked the rest of the time I worked with him, which was about 3-4 more months, so the lesson did stick. Unfortunately our relationship never recovered – he started avoiding talking with me in general, and when he did have to talk to me, his attitude reminded me of a snake charmer approaching a particularly dangerous reptile. If I stayed at that lab, this would be a very difficult thing to work through. Fortunately, for reasons completely unrelated to the staring guy, I am now happily at a great new job across the globe.

Thank you again Alison, and thank you all who commented, it is so great to have this amazing place to talk through even the hairiest of issues.

Installation view of “Philip Guston Now” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The most perceptive character in a play is the fool, because the man who wishes to seem simple cannot possibly be a simpleton.
-Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra from Don Quixote

Philip Guston “Untitled”

The work of Philip Guston, beloved by so many artists I personally know, myself included, can be a tough sell to the public at large. There are manifold reasons for this and all of them are pretty interesting. Somehow, more than any other painter of the twentieth century, Guston pokes and prods all the right and relevant nerves, in a unique and poignant way. His trajectory, on its face, is that of the wandering hero — his battles sought out in the spirit of creative integrity. I think it’s deeper, though, this ability to expose in the audience something they didn’t realize was latent in themselves. His paintings can unnerve the viewer and initiate them into a new way of looking at art and themselves.

Now, a magnificent retrospective of the artist’s career at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, is carefully curated with the help of Guston’s daughter, Musa Mayer, and the love and admiration for the work comes through. Now tells the story of one man’s journey into his own labyrinth of personal demons, cultural pariahs, and existential turmoil. If it is catharsis Guston deals in, it may be an acquired taste, but one that’s savory beyond description for those acolytes of his shambolic universe. 

Installation view of “Philip Guston Now” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Conventional wisdom has it that Philip Guston is an important figure in the history of modern art due to his capricious nature coupled with his courage to put, with abandon, all his eggs in his very clunky and oddly shaped basket. He is categorized as a painter practicing during the halcyon days of abstract expressionism à la Greenberg, soaring with eagles like de Kooning. Prior to this, Guston was an accomplished and, more importantly, self-taught artist working in a social realist style mixed with hues of Surrealism. After suffering a personal tragedy (the suicide of his father when he was just eleven), Guston excelled at creating urban scenes of youth, contorting with fluid abandon and ripe with personal and political conscience.

Philip Guston, “Gladiators,” 1940, oil and pencil on canvas, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift of Edward R. Broida. © Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth / photograph © The Museum of Modern Art, licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY

Some of the work from this period on display in the exhibition recalls various masters — I see Ensor and Di Chirico especially, all conveyed with a mood more heartfelt than memetic. It is as though one can sense the internal drive for Guston didn’t merely lie in the desire to become a great painter, although by this time, he certainly was. The work gives insight, rather, into his motivations, understood and parlayed into the language of social realism/figurativism as being a smart fit. He knew that specific visual language was a tool he needed for that particular content. In other words, you can tell he wasn’t looking for a style — he was looking for clarity of expression. The modernist notion of the avant-garde as being paramount to value is not present in Guston’s work at this time.

Philip Guston, “Summer,” 1954, oil on canvas, Collection of Marguerite and Robert Hoffman. © Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth

This period evolved into many different phases dealing with various guises of abstraction and depiction, until Guston arrived at his demarcation from any figurative representation or figure/ground relationship at all. Many canvases did not survive the cutting room floor, but several examples of his ‘abstract impressionism’ phase are on display in the show. They are fluid in flesh tones and moments of rhythmic mark-making, all set in impasto lushness. The borders of the paintings are usually left raw, creating a sense of amorphous intervention. You can immediately recognize these paintings; it is evident that this artist had arrived at a unique and relevant voice, and he was celebrated as such at this time in his life. This particular avenue of painting also fit lock and key with the day’s modernist edict of non-objective abstraction as the pinnacle of taste.

Installation view of “Philip Guston Now” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Then comes the infamous 1970 Marlborough Gallery exhibition. Seemingly at his zenith, and with one show, Guston became the cat that dragged something untoward into the kitchen. Suddenly and without notice, the artist presents a body of work that retains the painterly sumptuousness of his nonobjective surfaces from just a few years earlier, work that inspired Life magazine to celebrate the artist, yet also digs up the figurative language of his past in a manner that decrees more jester than reverence. All of sudden, here are clunky lines and muted viscera all schlepped up on the canvas, seemingly with no more reverence than a stubbed out cigarette. This new work challenged the art world establishment where it hurt. It must have been shocking to see in person; I would give a lot to have been a fly on the wall during that opening. I wonder how I would have reacted. I’m pretty sure I would have hated them, like all the other critical voices, unable to see the forest for the trees.

But this is only the narrative as it’s been spun. It lets us feel like we understand his career in some sort of chronological fashion, which allows us to take the later work seriously and also lets us claim to marvel at how beautiful it is. That’s off course, and the artist knew it from the get go. Yes, Guston retained a sensibility in his use of paint and color, hard won during his long and searching tenure as an artist, but it would be ridiculous to maintain that his goal was to create beautiful paintings in his later phase.

Installation view of “Philip Guston Now” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

On a very basic level, Guston’s later work can be described as “outsider art.” The term was coined in 1972, but the art brut movement has roots with the French painter Jean Dubuffet from the 1940s. Yet, there is at least a very un-naive and intentional placement of visual obstacles, signs, and symbols that in and of themselves can be viewed as ominous, nefarious even, and the manner in which they’re delivered is full of import. This is the key, as I understand it, to unlocking what is going on in Guston’s transformation as a practitioner of high-art to a “stumblebum,” as he was derisively referred to at the time. If you deny the stumblebumness of Guston, as can so often happen when art professionals speak of this work, if you stand in front of one of those clunkers from his later years and try to describe it in terms anything like sublime, you are sorely missing the point.

Philip Guston, “The Ladder,” 1978, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, gift of Edward R. Broida. © Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Plenty of contemporary artists work in styles that are meant to challenge our notions of beauty. It is commonplace now. Not so much then. While this is important, what’s more crucial is the fact that Guston chose to use loaded symbols in a naïve manner because he was gunning for results only specific juxtaposition could yield. It is at that junction that the work exceeds where so many others fail. By way of contrast, let’s imagine the work of Cy Twombly, whose paintings can be exceedingly cryptic and whose paint application can be described as scribbly, child-like, whatever. Birds of a feather? I think not. It is inconceivable that a whisky bottle, or a boot, or any whiff of banality at all could show up on Twombly’s surface — he never leaves the realm of the cerebral, no matter how loose or immediate his mark-making. Guston, by allowing for the inclusion of the banality into the language of his paintings, avoids this pitfall. To achieve this, he had to leave the realm of high modernism. He knew the best place he had to mine was his own life, rife with turmoil, both generational and personal. So much has been written about his Jewish heritage, his ancestors’ fleeing pogroms, his father’s suicide, his penchant for personal vices. I would argue all of this is always present in all of his work, from the early figurative murals to his nonobjective phase, but most clearly in his later years. 

What I get from Guston is a clear voice describing humanity itself. We are creatures that have evolved into a head space that is capable of reason and introspection, with absolutely no idea of why we are what we are. If modern art was once heralded as a surrogate for anachronistic religion, Guston’s trajectory through that ruse was about as cutting edge as can be imagined. Clear away the poppycock and we are left with an existence too often defined in terms of conflict. Klansmen (or any other boogeymen) are stand-ins for all of us, as Guston knows. In The Studio, from 1968, the artist paints himself as a Klansman, sitting in front of an easel, painting a Klansman. This is his way of suggesting, “Hey, this is you, too. These paintings are your life, too.” I never once felt even close to that looking at Twombly. 

Installation view of “Philip Guston Now” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

As mentioned above, Guston’s trade is catharsis. I think other artists know this instinctively when they look at his work. It is hard to make a good painting, and it’s even harder to know what the hell to paint in the first place. Somehow Guston figured out both and touched a nerve that continues to vibrate. Now displays beautifully just how powerful his strategy turned out to be. So much of what I like to think of as Guston’s mature work is, indeed, not beautiful, but it sure isn’t ugly either. It’s a mirror held up so that America of the twentieth century could get a good gander at all its blemishes. It’s a personal love letter from the artist that says, “I went looking for real value in my art and this is what I found,” full stop. In that, it is priceless. 

Philip Guston Now is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston until Jan 16th, 2023. 

The post Review: “Philip Guston Now” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston appeared first on Glasstire.

Sunday morning, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced via social media it would be closed until further notice. Later in the day, the museum posted an update that it had received a threat related to both its building and parking garage, but that it would open at 2 pm.

The Dallas Museum of Art. Image courtesy of Dallas Museum of Art

While the DMA did not specifically mention a bomb threat in its social media communications, WFAA and the Dallas Morning News both reported that the Dallas Police Department (DPD) confirmed a person called the museum with a bomb threat at approximately 8:30 am on Sunday, December 4. The building was evacuated and the DPD was alerted. DPD’s explosive ordinance team responded to the situation. After searching the building, they did not find a credible threat and the museum reopened to the public just three hours later than its usual 11 am Sunday opening time. 

In its social media post, the DMA stated, “As always, the safety of our guests and staff is our top priority. While we hate to see threats like this occur, we are thankful for the brave men and women of Dallas Police Department and DMA staff who stepped into action on behalf of our community.”

This threat comes on the heels of the recent revelation that DMA security was not aware of an intruder who destroyed approximately $5 million of art when he broke into the museum in June. While initial reports stated that a DMA security guard was alerted to Brian Hernandez’s presence in the museum by a motion sensor, the Dallas Morning News has reported that 911 calls revealed that Mr. Hernandez called the police himself. Following the 911 call, Dallas Police dispatch called to notify DMA security. Mr. Hernandez had already been in the museum for about 20 minutes, had roamed three levels of the building, and had damaged artwork.

Weeks after the June break-in, the DMA made a public statement which offered thoughts on the incident and plans for the future. The statement said, in part:

“This experience has prompted us to further review and assess our security measures and facilities in an effort to better deter and mitigate similar situations moving forward. We take very seriously the duty we have to our patrons, supporters, and the city of Dallas at large to be responsible stewards of the invaluable art in our care… we are moving forward to hire a third-party security consultant to ensure our security measures exceed best practice standards.”

Since that time, no further information about the museum’s actions to adjust its security procedures has been made public.

The post Dallas Museum of Art Reopens After Receiving Bomb Threat appeared first on Glasstire.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

In January, Colorado police officers confined a 77-year-old grandmother named Ruby Johnson for hours in a squad car without even offering a glass of water during a time when she was due to take her daily medications—why?

Nobody told Johnson what was going on when she opened her front door to a SWAT team assembled on her lawn. Much later, she found out about a stolen truck—reportedly with six guns and an iPhone stashed inside—wrongly believed to be parked in her garage based on no evidence other than her home being located within a wide blue circle drawn by a “Find My” iPhone app. Now she’s suing a Denver cop for conducting what she believes was an illegal search of her home based on what her legal team describes as either an intentionally or recklessly defective application for a search warrant that was “wholly devoid of probable cause.” Because of the allegedly improper raid, the retired US Postal Service worker had to “endure an unreasonable search and seizure, unlawful police confinement, and severe physical and emotional distress.”

“This illegal search has destroyed Ms. Johnson’s sense of safety and security in the home that has been her castle for 40 years,” Johnson’s complaint reads.

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SAN FRANCISCO—Updating the payment system to make sermonizing to service workers more efficient, a new Square feature released Tuesday allows customers to tip with Bible quotes. “We are proud to announce that the tipping experience is now more easier than ever with the addition of Bible passages,” said CEO Jack…

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The Lady Gaga connection was a coincidence, authorities have said. The motive was the value of the French bulldogs, and detectives do not believe the thieves knew the dogs belonged to the musician.

(Image credit: U.S. Marshals Service/AP)

This post, my boss is infesting our office with fruit flies, my work funds the office BBQs, and more , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

I’m on vacation. Here are some past letters that I’m making new again, rather than leaving them to wilt in the archives.

1. My boss is infesting our office with fruit flies

I work for a corporation with locations in 63 different cities in the U.S., but I am part of a two-person department. My office and my boss’s office are next to each other, with a door between them, but we do each have our own entrance door.

Our offices have become ground zero for a fruit fly infestation! He likes to have apples, grapes, bananas, etc. at his desk for snacks … which means there are usually a few apples or bananas on a shelf in his office. And remnants in his trash can.

I believe these are the source of the fruit flies, especially since they seem to appear nowhere else aside from our offices. It is 8:30 a.m., I have been at work for only an hour, and have so far killed 7 fruit flies. While I do keep snacks in my storage area, I do not keep fresh fruit or juices.

How can I handle this situation with a boss who is already an avid over sharer with a history of becoming defensive whenever I have tried to politely remove myself from his personal stories (such as health issues for himself or his wife, family tales, whining and griping about tasks assigned from above) and general negativity towards learning new skills or tasks?

Step one is always to politely point the problem out to the other person.

In this case, that would sound like this: “Bob, I’ve noticed we’re getting an infestation of fruit flies. I think they’re being attracted by the fruit on your desk and in the trash.”

Then, if your boss isn’t the type to figure out how to resolve problems of his own making, you can add a suggestion of what to do: “I think it would help to keep the fruit locked in a drawer and to throw away any leftovers down the hall.”

That’s really the only way to handle this. I understand the hope that there’s some easier option than just being straightforward, particularly with someone with a track record of defensiveness. But with any annoying behavior that you want someone to stop — whether it’s loud gum-chewing, radio blasting, or taking all calls on speaker phone — you’ve got to just say it. Say it nicely, of course — you don’t need to accuse him of being a filthy slob — but you do need to say it if you want the problem to go away.

— 2014

Read an update to this letter here.

2. My boss is advertising my job because I got sick before some pre-approved vacation time

A few months ago, I decided to make a big career move and change industries. I have been at my new job as an administrative assistant for just over two months. When I was offered this position, I made sure to notify my new boss of two upcoming trips that would require time off. When I officially accepted the job, my new boss had me write the two sets of dates on the calendar and wrote “approved” next to them. The Friday before my two days off (I was taking off Monday/Tuesday for an out-of-town wedding) I came down with a bad bug. I came into work feeling a little off, and slowly got worse as the morning went on. Due to my coughing and sneezing, my colleagues requested that I go home to ensure they did not catch my bug. After speaking with my boss, I was released for the day to go get well. Before I left, I reminded my boss that I would be out Monday and Tuesday and looked forward to seeing him Wednesday.

When I returned to work on Wednesday, I found a sent email (everyone in my office shares one email account) from my boss to our advertising partner asking to place an ad in the paper for an office admin (my job). I asked my colleagues if we were expanding the size of the staff and they said that due to my being sick and then taking two days of for my vacation, my boss didn’t feel like I was dedicated and was going to start looking “just in case.” I haven’t spoken to my boss because he is now out of town for the week. I have no idea how to address this situation when he returns. I am a good employee, I don’t have attendance issues, I didn’t ask to be sent home sick and he approved my vacation time almost three months ago when I was initially offered the position. My other already approved trip is for two weeks next month and I am worried for my job security. What is the best course of action here?

That is … not normal. Your boss decided to start looking “just in case” because you got sick and also had pre-scheduled vacation time? The only way this makes even a little sense is if you had already been out a lot in these first two months, which could give him reason to worry about your reliability. But since you noted that’s not the case, have there been any other signs that your boss is unreasonable or prone to leaping to wrong conclusions?

In any case, yes, talk to your boss as soon as he returns. Say something like this: “Do you have concerns about my reliability or commitment to the job? I hope I’ve shown a strong work ethic since I started, and I was alarmed to hear you’re advertising my position in case I don’t work out. Did I do something to cause that?” If he implies it’s a lot of time to miss when you’re new to the job, you can say, “When you offered me the job, I had two trips already scheduled, and I made sure to confirm with you that those would be okay before accepting the offer. And of course I couldn’t control the timing of when I got ill — and it was coworkers who asked me to go home so they didn’t get sick. Other than that, I haven’t missed any days. I take reliability very seriously. But I also have the two weeks off next month that you okayed when you offered me the position. I don’t want that to cause you to start looking for someone else to do my job.”

It’s hard to know how this is going to go — did he just forget that time was pre-approved? Is this a misunderstanding of some sort? Or is he wildly unfair and unreasonable? But having this conversation will get you a lot more data so you can figure out how to proceed.

— 2017

3. My coworkers rely on my work to fund our barbecues

I work for a smallish company, but we have two office locations. My office location also has a warehouse, which I run. Two years ago, the boss of my office came up with the idea of an office barbecue in the summer for everyone, which my boss paid for with the company card. He said it was for office morale.

The first year was great, and we had several that summer. Last year, not so much: we only had two barbecues. The first was because a coworker was leaving, and the boss once again paid for it. After several weeks, the boss approached me and said that the next barbecue won’t happen until I scrap the old batteries in the warehouse for money. He said that the money from the scrapped batteries would go towards the cost of the barbecue. Which I did, but I was only able to get up enough money for one barbecue last summer.

My concern is that he will have the same expectation of me this year too. It takes me a year to get up enough batteries to scrap for money and this is a minuscule portion of my overall job.

Several of my coworkers know that this was the case last year and are already hinting. It is causing a great deal of worry and stress for me because whether or not all my coworkers get this summertime treat depends on how well I recover these batteries. I am also worried about how to this will impact my relationship with coworkers because they could begrudge me not working harder. I have toyed with the idea of putting my own money towards the barbecues but I really cannot afford to. I would like to speak to my boss, but he is rarely available or present. Is this an unfair expectation to put on me or am I being silly?

It’s not inherently unreasonable to say “we’ll use the money from scrapping batteries to fund summer barbecues, so how many we do depends on how much money that produces.” But yeah, it’s not really fair to frame it as “whether or not we have barbecues hinges on how well Jane handles the batteries.”

Don’t put your own money toward the barbecues in an attempt to relieve the pressure! Just be straightforward with your coworkers: “I only have a limited amount of time to spend on scrapping the batteries and I have a bunch of higher priorities I need to deal with first, so I can’t make any promises.”

You should also say a version of that to your boss: “I only have a limited amount of time to spend on scrapping the batteries and most of my time needs to go to X and Y, so I want to make sure you know that the batteries might not be a good solution for funding the barbecues. Last year I barely scraped together enough for one so if we want more than that, we’ll need a different solution.”

— 2017

4. Will I be judged for using two spaces after a period?

I have always used two spaces after sentence ending punctuation. I know the norm is now to use only one, but habits are hard to break. I have read several articles recently that say this can make you look old and outdated, like a relic from the typewriter era.

What is your take? Personally, I am in my late 20s and am otherwise extremely confident with my work/email writing style. Do you think anyone is judging this minute detail? I would be interested to hear what your readers have to say about it.

No one is judging you on it because so many people still do it, but it’s outdated and if you’re someone who cares about such details, you should train yourself out of it.

(And because I’m bracing for an outcry: It’s true that lots of us, including me, were taught to put two spaces after a period in our seventh grade typing classes. But the practice came from typewriters, which used monospaced type, meaning that each letter took up the same amount of space. Double spaces after a period were used to give a visual pause so you could see that the sentence had ended. Now that we have computers with proportional fonts, a single space after a period is the rule and has been for a while. Change with the times! More here.)

– 2015

5. Behind the scenes of Ask a Manager

As an IT professional, I’ve been supremely impressed with how well your site seems to be organized. You frequently link to previous advice in the context of answering a question, keep up with updates from previous questions, and recommend relevant other answers at the end of some posts. Could you pull back the curtain a little bit about how you keep things organized? Do you have staff/editors who do some of this for you? Do you have algorithms built into your site that help out? It’s all fascinating to me, and I think other readers would appreciate knowing more about how much work goes into producing the amount of content that you publish every week.

(This is a new question, not one from the archives, just because I felt like including it.)

I have the help of an excellent tech person for keeping everything working, fixing things when they break, and building new technical features (all of which has become increasingly complicated as the site has grown and traffic has increased), which involves MySQL, PHP, nginx, Apache, and other things I don’t understand. The “you may also like” list of related posts at the end of every column is automatically generated by WordPress, although I have the ability to choose what appears there if I want.

Beyond that, it’s just me. I used to have an encyclopedic memory for every post I’d ever written, which made it easy to link to previous relevant stuff, but that abandoned me several thousand posts ago (there are now 13,000+ posts in the archives and I regularly find things I forgot I wrote).

Talking about how the site functions behind the scenes is endlessly interesting to me, so if there’s interest in a Q&A on it, I’d be glad to do one soon — let me know in the comments if so!

Elon Musk announced that he expects to start human trials of the Neuralink brain chip. Here’s what The Onion knows about this project.

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Today is a very complicated day for a generation of comedy fans. Kirstie Alley, of "Cheers," the "Look Who's Talking" trilogy, and "Veronica's Closet" fame, has died of cancer at the age of 71. With a career spanning over four decades, Alley was a seminal comedic figure and trailblazer for women in comedy. She was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1995 for her contributions to film and television, and her willingness to discuss the systemic mistreatment of fat actresses made her an inspiration to countless women ... until she became a spokesperson for quack weight loss regimes. Unfortunately, she also became one of the most problematic figures in Hollywood due to her conspiracy-theory-motivated presence on social media and absolutely abhorrent treatment of those who didn't share her alt-right political beliefs. The passing of the two-time Emmy-winning actor and "Dancing with the Stars" runner-up was announced by her children on Twitter.

pic.twitter.com/g4nAItrR5x

— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) December 6, 2022

"We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce, and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered," the statement says. "She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead. As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother."

As Complicated As She Was Comedic

Kirstie Alley's memory is two-fold: as both a celebrated figure in comedy and a peddler of dangerous political conspiracies. She is the ultimate personification of needing to hold multiple truths at the same time, understanding her brilliant contributions to women characters in sitcoms while simultaneously not allowing her groundbreaking efforts to excuse her unacceptable treatment of others. Her performances in films like "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and "It Takes Two" are seminal for a generation of millennials, with many still using her character Diane Barrows' analogy of "can't-eat, can't-sleep, reach-for-the-stars, over-the-fence, World Series kind of stuff," to describe the sensation of falling in love.

It was her turn as Rebecca Howe in "Cheers," however, that completely changed the game. Introduced after Shelley Long left the series to focus on films, Alley played Rebecca as the "lovable loser" with a hard exterior, putting on a façade of being tough-as-nails while in reality, being totally neurotic and ridiculously clumsy. She portrayed the character with a relatable authenticity that she'd repeat as Mollie Ubriacco in the "Look Who's Talking" trilogy, with an absolutely electric on-screen chemistry with John Travolta. And for an entire generation of science fiction fans, she will be remembered for her memorable role as a Vulcan Starfleet officer in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."

But this does not erase her history of treating people terribly on Twitter, hurling insults, and giving a platform to hateful ideologies. It's very clear that Kirstie Alley was someone looking for answers on a perpetual path of soul-searching, and I can only hope that before she left this mortal plane, she managed to find some semblance of tranquility. May her lemurs also find good, loving homes in the wake of her passing.

You had a good go at it, Kirstie. Thanks for your input.

Read this next: Every Cheers Season Ranked Worst To Best

The post Kirstie Alley, Star of Cheers, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and More Has Died at 71 appeared first on /Film.

Alley died of cancer that was only recently discovered, her children True and Lillie Parker said in a post on Twitter. The Emmy-winning actress was known for roles including Rebecca Howe on Cheers.

(Image credit: Evan Agostini/Invision)

“The newly published ‘Twitter Files,’ touted as a bombshell report revealing the inner workings of the platform’s content moderation practices, showed the 2020 Biden presidential campaign asked Twitter to remove… nude photos and videos of the president’s son that had been leaked after he allegedly left his laptop at a Delaware repair shop.” — Business Insider

I’ve taken a peek at a few of the Hunter Biden porn pics the GOP desperately wants me to see, and as the moral compass of this country, I’ll ask the obvious question on everyone’s minds: Are there more?

Because there’s the one pic where he looks sad and in need of love, and another with him in the bathtub looking like Mark Ruffalo but somehow even more pensive and rough. There’s the one of him getting a foot job, and one of him having a threesome in a mirrored room, and oh my, is it getting hot in here? Can someone open a window?

Anyway, all I’m saying is if Roger Stone has any more of these filthy photos, he should get in touch with my book club.

I admit the resurgence of these photos was a bit surprising, considering the midterm elections are over. By now, Republicans and the media are usually back to ignoring us suburban ladies. This is a good thing because I’m super busy with housework, carpooling, and hiding that Elf on the Shelf every fucking morning. I don’t have the time to get hot and bothered over porn pics. And by “hot and bothered,” I don’t mean how Javanka and their Saudi and China billions got me hot, of course. That was more like a rage-stroke heat. I’m talking about the thinking-about-Hunter-obsessively-during-my-scented-oil-bath kind of bothered I am now.

Republicans must have worked overtime to ensure we suburban white women embedded these sordid photos into our collective brains, and Hunter’s sweaty, tortured, three-day-stubble look pretty much ensured they’d succeed. He reminds me of Colin Farrell in The Beguiled, though Meghan from book club says he looks more like Chris Hemsworth in Spiderhead. Either way, those Hunter porn images are running in my head on an endless loop. So great job, GOP!

Come to think of it, didn’t they try to get us housewives to pay attention to these smutty photos back in 2020? I guess we were too busy choosing between the worst human being on earth and Joe Biden. But now, thanks to Elon, Matt Taibbi, and James Woods, the association between Joe and his son Hunter is firmly established in our collective consciousness. I can’t even think about the president and his accomplishments without wondering where Hunter is, what he might be doing, and if the love of a good, passionate yet stable and mild-mannered woman with heated seats in her Honda Odyssey might be just the thing to save him.

Look, I get why the GOP is trotting out this scandal now, seeing as how their party leader is hosting Nazis, stealing classified documents, and talking about terminating the Constitution. I mean, the president’s son used to take drugs, which is a huge thing, and also just like millions of other Americans who are struggling with addiction. And to make this scandal even more damning, Joe Biden is on record as being a loving father, poignantly telling his wayward son how much he loves him. So for sure this whole episode is going to make us think twice about our president, and also three or four hundred times about sad, beautiful Hunter.

Well, these Christmas cookies aren’t going to bake themselves, so I’d better get back to my suburban women’s work. But know this: If Joe Biden does run for president in 2024, I will remember the images of Hunter Biden that the Republicans worked so hard to get into the public record. They will stay with me for a long time. When I next cast my vote, I will absolutely be taking these steamy, sexy Hunter porn pics into consideration, and I might even reflect on how they mean jack shit in the grand scheme of American politics and how I’m beyond tired of the GOP trying to manipulate me away from what really matters. And then I’ll get the scented oils ready for a nice, hot bath.

This post, updates: the terrible uniform policy, the acne, and more , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are three updates from past letter-writers.

1. Our uniform policy is ludicrous and pisses me off constantly

After I went to Bob and explained that the stipend is insufficient, there are very few options for women and even fewer for large women, I went through the options on the uniform website myself and sent the admin links to several shirts that were available but not offered at our company. She added them to our offerings. I tried to order them and they were out of stock, not in my size…all kinds of issues. So I finally just decided that I won’t be following the uniform policy, or enforcing it with my direct reports, until the issues are truly corrected. Other female managers, for their own reasons, have done the same. Bob isn’t the best at follow-through, so no one is saying anything at the moment. Just yesterday, though, someone told me that our new director is keen to force us into not only uniforms, but shirts that are all the same color, every day. This depresses me more than I can say. But it seems like it is a ways off, so I plan to fight that battle when it gets here.

When my original post was published, I got several comments saying I was being classist or a snob. I’m truly sorry I came across that way. I sat down to write my letter just after another failed attempt to fix the problem, and I was angry. Being told what to wear is extremely triggering for me for personal reasons, but I also felt like no one was listening to the very real concerns about the unfairness and weirdness of the policy. I admit it was a rant, and I wish I would have handled myself better. I really appreciate the many supportive comments and Alison’s advice! They empowered me to know this is worth pushing back on, and I’m going to keep doing that.

2. Should I tell my boss about a personal situation that might affect my work?

I’m happy to say my situation turned out really well! I did talk to my boss, and he was as supportive and sympathetic as I could have hoped. We agreed on no new projects for awhile while I was dealing with the home situation, and to keep him in the loop if things escalated in a scary way or I felt like I needed more resources from the company. He’d check in periodically, although never in an overbearing way, but otherwise treated me normally.

I’m glad I was honest with my boss and HR, in part because, as it happened, the *solution* to the personal drama (I know some folks were wondering, so: it was a set of really, REALLY toxic roommates; going into detail would be wildly off-topic, but it was baaaaaaaad) was also its own source of stress for a few months even once they were on their way out the door (literally)—I bought the house I’d been renting for several years! It’s a happy outcome, but anybody who’s been through that process anytime recently probably has an idea how stressful and time-consuming it is, even without the house-hunting aspect. Anyway, it’s all over now, my mental health has DRAMATICALLY improved, and while, per my boss and co-workers, they didn’t see a dip in my performance, knowing that they were aware I had big things happened in my personal life made me feel like I’d have grace there if I needed it. My company is a great place to work, and I’m grateful for it. This past year would have been so much harder if I was working somewhere with a less supportive culture.

(I’m also glad I shared with my boss, because the first time we happened to talk after closing, he asked me how I was enjoying being a land baron now.)

3. Could my acne be keeping me from getting a job? (first update here; second update here; third update here)

I no longer work in either education or the completely different field I was shifting to with my update in 2018. Interestingly enough, I ended up working for a dermatologist for two years, and the treatment I got while working there knocked out the root cause of my acne. Now it’s just maintenance care to keep it from returning, and my face is no longer in physical pain from breakouts. Covid kicked me around career-wise for a while, but I think the dust has finally settled and I’ve found myself a good place to be.

You took my question seriously all those years ago, acknowledging that the acne could be making me look younger but also giving me other ways to make sure I read as my age, and I’ve always appreciated it. So many people in my life minimized how awful it made me feel by saying it was just a cosmetic thing, but the AAM community all had nothing but kind things to say to a young 25 year old who was ashamed of her face. I’ll never forget the commenter who actually reached out to me to send me money for medication that I couldn’t afford back then. (I’m keeping them anonymous in case they wished for it to be, but I’ve never forgotten their name.) So many of you wanted to help out too – I was blown away by the generosity and I still am, five years later! I’ve always loved the AAM community, and I will forever treasure how kind everyone was to me during what was a pretty rough period of my career. Thank you, all of you!

This post, updates: my coworker’s a jerk to me because she’s pregnant, and more , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past. Here are three updates from past letter-writers.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

1. Should my coworker be allowed to be a jerk to me because she’s pregnant?

Maria ended up going on leave a day after the article came out. My manager told Maria that I was busy on the floor and would not be able to respond to her emails. I never forwarded the email to my boss but I do have them saved if it starts happening again.

The months that Maria was gone were bliss. I was not afraid to check my email anymore, and things could be done without a micromanager off site. I ended up really flourishing while she was gone. I got compliments on how I was handling things from my manager, the person covering for Maria, and more importantly our boss. In that time, I decided when Maria came back I was only going to include her things that she needed to know, instead of before where she wanted to be included in everything.

Maria is back, and I have even gotten a simple thank you email, which I had never received from her before. Maria even gave me compliments through my manager. Unfortunately, Maria is now picking on a different coworker so I do not think she has changed too much.

2. When I ask for a raise, my company asks what more I’m willing to take on to justify it (#2 at the link)

I actually went to talk to my boss about a different issue and during that talk, my boss told me I was getting a promotion, a new title, made salaried instead of hourly, and getting about a 50% pay raise! I’m also supposed to talk to them about salary every other year going forward as they “didn’t realize” I hadn’t gotten a raise in so long. I’ve actually scheduled that salary talk as reminder on my calendar so I don’t forget and feel much more confident about approaching them now for a raise.

I haven’t gotten all the details on the new job yet but we’re supposed to meet to go over the full description “soon.” The pay increase is already in effect. I’m a little nervous because I haven’t heard what’s coming off my desk from my current job, if we’re blending the old and new or what. I’m already working 9-11 hours a day trying to keep up with my current job. We’ll see how the meeting goes, but a HUGE financial worry is off my shoulders!

3. Moving to a post-science career (#6 at the link)

It’s been a full decade and I thought readers might enjoy an update from a long-ago submission.

Long story short: I did end up leaving science. It did take me longer than anticipated to make a full pivot into my new field – one of the riskier things I’ve ever done. However, now my only regret is that I didn’t leave sooner. I read my letter to you and was saddened at the state I was in when writing it. Best to avoid being driven to despair.

My new field is a lot more volatile nowadays, but I’m also a whole lot happier. I’m grateful I was able to find a completely different path for myself.

Thanks for publishing my letter ten years ago and the good resource you’ve been to the AAM community since.

Bob Dylan has apologized for an “error in judgment,” after it emerged that he used a machine to autograph special $599 copies of his new book that had been advertised as “hand signed.” What do you think?

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The USDA reported over 50 million birds have died amid a record-breaking outbreak of avian flu in the United States, affecting flocks in 46 states and surpassing a previous high set in 2015. What do you think?

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This post, update: how do I write a peer review for my horrible coworker? , was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.

There will be more posts than usual this week, so keep checking back throughout the day.

Remember the letter-writer wondering how to write a peer review for a horrible coworker? The coworker, Mike, was yelling at customers and colleagues, sulked when asked to stop shouting, was angry with 20% of customers, left work in the middle of the day without saying anything, and refused to work with returning patients who he doesn’t like. Their manager, Chad, was doing very little. The first update was here, and here’s the latest.

After my coworker was napping at his desk again, I took a photo of it and sent it to my boss. (Note from Alison: I also received this photo.) I mentioned that I didn’t say anything like, “Wake up, Mike!” because we had a patient in the shop, but I had enough time to get up from my desk, go to the area where purses are kept, sit back down, pull out my phone, and take a photo, all without waking him. I asked for Chad’s advice on how to deal with Mike sleeping on the floor, while the rest of us were helping patients. I did include a photo to Chad, because I knew he wouldn’t believe me about Mike sleeping at his desk unless I had photographic proof.

My manager Chad wrote to Lana and me:

“Hello,

I talked with Mike regarding his dozing at work. I know that he has ongoing struggles with mental health and sleep apnea. I asked him what would be a respectful way to approach him or acknowledge that he needs to either take a walk or go splash some water in his face to wake up. I suggested a playful code word to prompt for him to take an action.

Just say “Jedi Mike”

I know it seems silly, but it’s a way to engage him without calling him out in front of patients and staff. I hope that this will be helpful in supporting the three of you working together.

Thank you,
Chad”

I wish I was making this up. Sometimes I laugh out loud that my manager thinks this is a real solution.

That was on September 30. In the 5 weeks since then, there have been three times where I should have said, “Jedi Mike,” because Mike was sleeping at his desk, but I couldn’t bring myself to say that out loud at work.

I haven’t yet figured out a way to say, “Jedi Mike” in casual conversation while working with a patient. “I think you will love the taste of our new oatmeal blend. Jedi Mike.” “In my experience, this new teapot lid fits Jedi Mike perfectly.”

I usually roll with the punches (when an old man asks me to marry him in front of his adult daughter; when a child vomits in the middle of the floor; when the drawer of my desk falls off while working with a patient) but I haven’t figured out a professional way to say “Jedi” at work. If anyone else knows how to say “Jedi Mike” in conversation and you don’t work at Disney, please let me know.

I have really taken advantage of the health benefits here at my job. But I am also actively looking for a new job. Today I had my second interview with someone else.

I will update either after I’m happily at a new job, or I become a Sith Lord.

Update to the update:

I wrote you in the meantime because I found out I was being paid $4-8 less/hour than my peers. Multiple talks with both Chad and HR were frustratingly ineffective and demoralizing. I had 5 interviews over a 7 week period. One of the jobs offers a state pension and a guaranteed 5% raise each year. (Remember that my 3.5% raise was dependent on Mike liking me?) The hiring manager reached out almost 2 months after I applied and asked if I was still interested.

I had read all your advice about negotiating salary, and I listed to your podcast. I practiced saying out loud to my dog, “Any chance you could go up to X+5%?” And when the HR person for StateJob offered me the job (which is $4.50/hour more than I am currently making), I asked, “Would you be willing to pay $6 more?” I also calmly stated that even though they wanted me to start on December 19, I had dental work scheduled for January 13, and my current dental plan paid more than new StateJob dental did. So with your advice, I negotiated $1.50 more an hour (a 23% raise from what I am making now! and 7% more than the original offer) and a later start date that allows me to maximize my dental coverage. New StateJob will be hard, rewarding work, and I’m excited about my new professional competent coworker, and I know I can make a difference. I never would have negotiated for myself without your invaluable website, and even though you personally did not get that raise for me, I felt the encouragement of the entire commentariat and knew that you and all your readers would be supporting me in advocating for myself.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Favorite Mormon Recipes
Meats Edition Including Seafoods and Poultry
2000 Favorite Recipes
Montgomery Second Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
1966

Submitter: While weeding the cookbook section, I spied this sad spiral bound book being held together with a prayer. There is one thing I hate about cookbooks and that is a lack of pictures. In the case of this book- there were about 4 black and white photos in total for all 380+ pages. Incidentally there were no secret Jello recipes from Joseph Smith.

Holly: The Frankfurter-Kraut Noodle Ring, pictured below, reminds me of a dish my Polish family makes called haluski. We don’t Jello mold it, though. Missed opportunity.

The post Mormon Meat appeared first on Awful Library Books.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
I just feel the humans shouldn't have been mean to our wise benevolent AI masters is all.