Rolandt

From a great set of advice on writing:

Creativity is inexhaustible. Experiment, play, throw away. Above all be confident enough about creativity to throw stuff out. If it isn’t working, don’t cut and paste – scrap it and begin again. – Jeanette Winterston

Remind yourself, every day, that you’re doing this to try to find something out about yourself, about the world, about words and how they fit together. Writing is investigation. Just keep seeking. – Naomi Alderman.

 

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  Stylistic clusters of Architecture images. Detail.

I’ve had my Reclaim Hosting package for a bit over a year now, and now really done anything with it, so I had a quick dabble tonight looking for a way of installing and running a simple Python Flask app.

Searching around, it seems that CPanel offers a way in to creating a Python application:

Seems I then get to choose a python version that will be installed into a virtualenv for the application. I also need to specify the name of a folder in which the application code will live and select the domain and path I want the application to live at:

Setting up the app generates a folder into which to put the code, along with a public folder (into which resources should go) and a passenger_wsgi.py file that is used by a piece of installed sysadmin voodoo magic (Phusion Passenger) to actually handle the deployment of the app. (An empty folder is also created in the public_html folder corresponding to the app’s URL path.)

Based on the Minimal Cyborg How to Deploy a Flask Python App for Cheap tutorial, passenger_wsgi.py needs to link to my app code.

Passenger is a web application server that provides a scriptable API for managing the running of web apps (Passenger/py documentation).

For runnin Pyhon apps, we  is used to launch the applicationif you change the wsgi file, I think yo

A flask app is normally called by running a command of the form python app.py on the commandline. In the case of a python application, the Passenger web application manager uses a passenger_wsgi.py file associated with the application to manage it. In the case of our simple Flask application, this corresponds to creating an object called application  that represents it. If we create an application in a file myapp.py, and create a variable application that refers to it, we can run it via the passenger_wsgi.py file by simply importing it: from myapp import application.

WSGI works by defining a callable object called application inside the WSGI file. This callable expects a request object, which the WSGI server provides; and returns a response object, which the WSGI server serializes and sends to the client.

Flask’s application object, created by a MyApp = Flask(__name__) call, is a valid WSGI callable object. So our WSGI file is as simple as importing the Flask application object (MyApp) from app.py, and calling it application.

But first we need to create the application – for our demo, we can do this using a single file in the app directory. First create the file:

then open it in the online editor:

Borrowing the Minimal Cyborg “Hello World” code:

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
application = app # our hosting requires application in passenger_wsgi

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return "This is Hello World!\n"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

I popped it into the myapp.py file and saved it.

(Alternatively, I could have written the code in an editor on my desktop and uploaded the files.)

We now need to edit the passenger_wsgi.py  file so that it loads in the app code and gets from it an object that the Passenger runner can work with. The simplest approach seemed to be to load in the file (from myapp) and get the variable pointing to the flask application from it (import application). I think that Passenger requires the object be made available in a variable called application?

That is, comment out the original contents of the file (just in case we want to crib from them later!) and import the application from the app file: from myapp import application.

So what happens if I now try to run the app?

Okay – it seemed to do something but threw an error – the flask package couldn’t be imported. Minimal Cyborg provides a hint again, specifically “make sure the packages you need are installed”. Back in the app config area, we can identify packages we want to add, and then update the virtualenv used for the app to install them.

And if we now try to run the app again:
Yeah!:-)

So now it seems I have a place I can pop some simple Python apps – like some simple Slack/slash command handlers, perhaps…

PS if you want to restart the application, I’m guessing all you have to do is click the Restart button in the appropriate Python app control panel.

When we added this project to the blog in February 2013 Onni had a number of projects on the go, including this scheme that didn’t take long to obtain approval as it wasn’t a rezoning. It’s nominally an artist live/work development containing a total of 209 units with a seven storey building facing E 1st Avenue containing 135 units and a six storey building facing Great Northern Way with 74 units.

Located on an oddly shaped site close to the future University campus that includes the new Emily Carr University buildings, it’s designed by GBL Architects and features a colourful courtyard (although the street façade was initially more restrained). Our picture of the model shown to the Urban Design Panel (on the right) shows the central space, and above, the finished article.

The industrial materials match many of the other buildings in the artist live/work area. The construction shows how far woodframe buildings have come – the upper five floors have lumber construction strong enough to support a rooftop with trees.

Introduction

At the last Austin Haskell meetup, we were talking about folds and lists, and there were a lot of questions about how foldr can work with “infinite” lists. I had written up some notes from our discussion, to answer any remaining questions and help solidify what we talked about, so I thought I’d go ahead and post it here for all the world to see.

It’s a beginner-ish meetup, so where I’m talking about lists, you can think of other data structures that could also be infinite, or very large, that you’d want to fold, and a lot of this will still apply. I made a note that you’ll see the Foldable typeclass in here, but if you’re not comfortable with that yet, then think of those data structures as lists. If you are, then think of them as any data structure that has a Foldable instance. This post does assume some prior understanding of recursion and a basic understanding of what folds are and how to use them on lists.

Different recursive strategies

Since lists can keep adding more list, we can use them for data of indefinite size; we can even construct infinite lists. Nonstrictness helps manage this, because we aren’t obligated to evaluate everything. However, some operations are more suitable to such lists than others are.

We talked about why foldr can work with infinite lists but foldl doesn’t. The crux of the difference is in how they recurse:

foldr :: (a -> b -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
foldr f acc []     = acc
foldr f acc (x:xs) = f x (foldr f acc xs)

The f there represents the function that we’re folding over the list. With foldr the recursive call to “more foldr” is an argument to the function f.

But with foldl, the recursive call is not intermediated by any function:

foldl :: (b -> a -> b) -> b -> [a] -> b
foldl f acc []     =  acc
foldl f acc (x:xs) =  foldl f (f acc x) xs

Here f again represents the function we’re folding over the list, but we call foldl first, again and again, before we call that function f. It has to traverse all the way down the spine of the list, accumulating a giant pile of unevaluated stuff, before it can even apply the f function to any of the values. Because it’s left-associative, it does start applying the f (and the start or acc value) from the “head” of the list, but if it never finishes traversing the spine, it will never start applying that function.

But foldr applies the function to a value in the list (f x) before it calls itself to recurse further. That means that if you have a function that can return a final result after one application, you could stop evaluating the infinite list there.

Back when I was young and naive, I thought something like this might do it:

λ> let myProduct = foldr (*) 0
λ> myProduct [1..10]
0

Because I used a zero instead of 1 for the start value, shouldn’t it just know that the answer is going to be zero no matter how many items are in the list? Yeah, well, it doesn’t. And this might be a time when the fact that arithmetic operators are strict in both arguments is hurting, too, although I’m not sure. That will throw a nice stack overflow exception if you try to use it on an infinite list.

The other difference between the folds, and what the r and l in their names stands for is their associativity: foldr is right associative while foldl is left associative. This does affect how you write folding functions and how they evaluate, but it isn’t super important for the topic of why one will work on infinite lists but the other won’t.

(Syntax note: The range syntax [1..10] is a handy way to construct lists. That example will construct a list that starts at 1 and ends at 10. Underneath, it’s the same as the function enumFromTo 1 10. You can construct a list that will enumerate integers starting at 1 that will keep going forever because integers go to infinity and beyond: enumFrom 1 or [1..] will both produce such a list, but in this post, I’ve used the range syntax.)

Booleans to the rescue

So, to demonstrate this, you really need something that will really short-circuit, or stop evaluating, once it can determine the result. Conveniently, there are some boolean functions that do. For example, disjunctions only need to find one True before they know the whole thing will be True and they just stop evaluating once they do.

This will be the family of functions we’re working with here:

λ> :t or
or :: Foldable t => t Bool -> Bool
λ> or [True, False, True]
True

λ> :t (||)
(||) :: Bool -> Bool -> Bool
λ> True || False
True

λ> :t any
any :: Foldable t => (a -> Bool) -> t a -> Bool
λ> any (<3) [1..10]
True

If you’re not familiar with the Foldable typeclass, try not to worry about that and read those t variables as lists ([Bool], [a]).

Interestingly, these can return a True on an infinite list, but to return a False value, the list has to be finite:

λ> any (<3) [1..]
True
λ> any (<3) [5..]
^CInterrupted.

Right versus left

You can write your own any function using a fold. What we’ll do here to examine the difference between foldr and foldl is implement it twice (three times by the time this is over, probably), once with each:

anyR :: (a -> Bool) -> [a] -> Bool
anyR f = foldr (\x -> \y -> f x || y) False

anyL :: (a -> Bool) -> [a] -> Bool
anyL f = foldl (\x -> \y -> x || f y) False

I’m using the anonymous lambda syntax to pass values from the list we’re folding to the disjunction function. With a right fold, the (a -> Bool) function (called f here) has to be applied to the x, or left side of the disjunction. But with the left fold, it has to be applied to the y, or right side of the disjunction. In both cases, the other argument to the disjunctive function is the False we’re starting out with. You can see why if you look at the types of foldr and foldl:

foldr :: Foldable t => (a -> b -> b) -> b -> t a -> b
--                                      ^
foldl :: Foldable t => (b -> a -> b) -> b -> t a -> b
--                                      ^

The highlighted b in each type signature is the start value, or accumulator value. We need that for a couple of reasons: one is that we’re folding binary functions, so to apply the binary function to the first value in the list, it needs a second argument. It also serves as the default value so we don’t throw an exception for an empty list. It can serve other purposes as well, if there is some value you want added to the list or whatever, but it’s quite often some sort of identity value for whatever type of values you have in the list are, so that it doesn’t change the result of your function applications over the values of the list. It’s called the accumulator value sometimes, because in the next application of the function, the b won’t be your start value anymore; it will be the b that resulted from the first application of the function you’re folding over the list (the function that serves as the first argument to foldr or foldl itself). I’ll try to make this more clear in the examples.

anyR (<3) [1, 2, 3]
-- (<3) is the (a -> Bool) function we're folding over the list
-- the list desugars into a structure like this:
-- (1 : (2 : (3 : []))

It’s written with a right fold, so the first thing it will do is apply its (a -> Bool) function (called f in the implementation of anyR) to the first value in the list.

(I’m going to be writing out some steps to give a conception of how it evaluates. Please do not take this overly literally; the goal is to get the idea.)

((<3) 1) || y : ...
-- this `y` would be the result (True or False) of
-- applying (<3) to the next value in the list
-- and so on to the end of the list

... ((<3) 3) || False : []
-- this False here is our start value that we provided
-- because this operator needs two Bool inputs

With the right fold, it would call more of the fold (the recursive call) next, and eventually the start value (False here) would show up as the right (or second) input to the final binary function. But we’ll never get that far this time because || doesn’t need any more information to return a final result of True. The first value is less than 3 so it already knows the final result has to be true, because that’s how the Boolean truth tables crumble.

So, with anyR, nothing bad will happen if you use this on an infinite list because it has an immediate way to return a True:

λ> anyR (<3) [1..]
True

Well, what about our anyL written with a left fold? On a finite list, it works fine:

λ> anyL (<3) [1, 2, 3]
True

But it is evaluating differently. I’m going to do the same not-literal illustration of what’s going on under the surface to give you an idea of what’s happening. It’s left-associative so the starting False value will this time be the first argument to the disjunction with the first value:

False || ((<3) 1) : ...

... y || ((<3) 3) : []

Remember it’s got to keep calling the foldl part first, before it does any applications of the function. That means it must traverse the whole length of the spine. That is why, typically, you don’t use foldl that much – that can get pretty costly even when the data structure is merely very large but not infinite.

Since we have those two versions of any written, we can see the difference in their handling of infinitely large lists:

λ> anyR (<3) [1..]
True
λ> anyL (<3) [1..]
^CInterrupted.

The difference here is that anyR has a mechanism to stop traversing the whole spine: the intermediary function that can short-circuit the rest of the evaluation. Because anyL is written with a left fold, it has no way to stop traversing the spine; it can’t evaluate anything until the recursive calls to itself, the spine traversal, reaches the end of the list.

foldl PRIME tho

There is a strict type of left fold, foldl' in the Data.List module that can be used over large lists because it forces evaluation of its function applications as it goes along instead of allowing all the thunks (thunks are placeholders for unevaluated stuff) to accumulate. That can spare you some memory, and I’ve listed some references at the end of this post that give more information about thunks and evaluation and space leaks with regard to fold evaluations. But I want to point out here that this still will not work with infinite lists:

λ> let anyL' f = foldl' (\x -> \y -> x || f y) False
λ> anyL' (<3) [1..10]
True
λ> anyL' (<3) [1..]
^CInterrupted.

It will force evaluation of thunks as it goes along, but it still can’t stop itself from traversing over the entire spine of the list – and since that never ends, neither will this fold.

Further reading:

All About a Fold This is slides from a conference talk, but I think they’re thorough enough that you can get a good idea of how folds work from them, even without hearing the talk itself (although I’m hoping there will be a video of that up at some point, too).

These next two go into more detail about how folds evaluate. I believe that if you could understand this blog post, you can understand either of these.

How Lazy Evaluation Works in Haskell This one even has nice diagrams!

Foldr Foldl Foldl’

Mural by Patch Whiskey. Images courtesy POW! WOW!

The mini art Mecca of Worcester, Massachussets got bombed with a slew of new murals last week, thanks to POW! WOW! Worldwide. The city's walls have been swallowed up by a deconstructed ode to 90s cartoons by Patch Wiskey, an inspired snake charmer by Sabek, and fantastically jazzy fox by Spencer Keeton Cunningham. Not all of the 15 new works POW! WOW!'s brand new Worcester arm delivered are larger-than-life full wall spreads. In fact, some of our favorites include a hyperrealistic smiley balloon about the size of a human by the London-based Fanakapan and oil painter Dan Witz's sneaky scuba diver stationed in one building's window. 

Mexican street artist Marka 27, whose work brings the aesthetics of indiginous peoples into worldwide communities, says, "I hope that POW! WOW! Worcester inspires the rest of Massachusetts to allow more opportunities for public street art and I'm confident that this project will bring positive attention to Worcester and its community the same way it has for towns like Richmond, VA and Wynwood in Miami.”

The artists hail from eight different countries, and seven of the participants are local Massachusetts artists. They painted murals on local buildings for 10 days, during which POW! WOW! also organized kid-created mobile art installations, a show at Nine Dot Gallery, a pop-up show in downtown Worcester, an art-themed fundraiser to benefit the Main Idea youth charity, and more. Check out the art that made all this possible, below:

Mural by Sabek

Mural by Above

Mural by Askew

Mural by Fanakapan

Mural by Spencer Keeton Cunningham

Mural by Dan Witz

Mural by Marka 27

Mural by Morgan Blair

Mural by Rustam Qbic

Mural by Jon Allen and Sophy Tuttle

Learn more about POW! WOW! Worcester on the official website.

Related:

A Sneak Preview of Norway's Massive Street Art Festival

Street Artist Literally Makes Streets Art

[NSFW] The Graffiti Artist Who Painted a Naked Eric Andre Mural...Naked

Panel selection from Civil War II: Choosing Sides. Screencap via

It’s time for another session in our favorite comic mini-masterclass, Strip Panel Naked. The web series, hosted by Hass Otsmane-Elhaou, takes a weekly deep dive into what makes a comic book tick, including the writing, artwork, color, spacing, subtext, and more. Last week, comic artist Declan Shalvey talked about the importance of real estate in a page of a comic, and really got into the power of a clever and economical use of space within the panels. This week, Shalvey’s back focusing all his attention on explaining a single page he created in his recent Marvel comic Civil War II: Choosing Sides.

In Civil War II: Choosing Sides, all the Marvel characters are at each other’s throats again, and Nick Fury is out to steal some secrets. When he encounters Black Widow, the two face off and slug it out in the dark while Fury waits for the documents he’s stealing to complete their download. In one pivotal page, the two crash against each other again and again, as a status bar slowly ticks toward 100 percent.

Panel selection from Civil War II: Choosing Sides. Screencap via

As the tension rises, the images zoom in further and further until it’s hard to see what’s going on. “It’s not about showing a very clear fight,” Shalvey explains in the video, “it’s about building tension. So I try to abstract it more until we get to that last panel.” Shalvey talks about the various decisions that went into perfecting this page, and through this conversation there’s plenty to be learned about proper and adventurous comic creation.

Watch the entire video, which includes Shalvey’s creative process, and his collaboration with famed color artist Jordie Bellaire, below:

To see more, visit the Strip Panel Naked YouTube page, and check out its Patreon page to support the series.

Related:

Get a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Comic Illustration From the Industry

Everything in Its Right Place: Comic Book Panel Blocking 101

Catherine Cheney, Devex, Sept 21, 2016

I can't say I greet Zuckerberg's investments with enthusiasm. I personally feel they should fund education the way the rest of us do, by paying taxes and letting allocation be driven by social (and accountable) priorities. Their intent with CZI is to correct some of what they feel are government errors, focusing on graduation rates and introducing mastery learning into learning environments. Their funding "include BYJU’ s, an India-based company that helps students learn math and science on their own, and Andela, a Nigeria-based company that trains top tier tech talent from across the African continent and pairs them with companies in need of skilled developers." Looks like 'picking winners' to me - isn't that also something business thinks government shouldn't do? Via Ann Isabel Paraguay.

There is an interesting number floating around in various whitepapers and articles on IoT: NB-IoT supports 50.000 devices per sector per cell. So where does that number come from and is it realistic?

The number results from the system design and simulations with a huge number of assumed parameters in 3GPP TR 45.820. For Narrowband-IOT, Chapter 7.3.6 is the place to look for the capacity evaluation. For the 50.000 devices per sector per cell the following main parameters were used:

A single 200 kHz carrier with 5 uplink transmissions per hour of a single IP packet in each transmission with 20 bytes of user data (105 bytes including all overhead).

Yes, that sounds very little but a lot can be encoded in 20 bytes 5 times an hour. Taken together with a lot of parameters to describe the network setup, network access, uplink grants, downlink assignments, and radio conditions the simulation shows that 50.000 devices per sector are feasible with a single 200 kHz carrier.So let’s do a quick verification of that number via a totally different approach: A 200 kHz NB-IOT channel transfers 12 signals on the frequency axis and 14 signals in the time axis per millisecond. Let’s be optimistic and assume most uplink transmissions are QPSK modulated, which would be 12*14*2 bits/ms * 1000 1/2 = 336.000 bit/s. Reference signals, synchronization signals and other overhead such as system information broadcasts and redundancy need to be subtracted. 50.000 devices sending 105 bytes 5 times an hour produce 26.250.000 bytes of data per hour or, divided by 60 minutes, 60 seconds and multiplied 8 bits to the byte 58.333 bits/s. In other words, the amount of data fits well into the raw channel even if all other overhead mentioned above is added. Another interesting number is how often a random access request will occur with 50.000 devices in a sector communicating 5 times an hour. Multiplying the number of devices with 5 attempts an hour and dividing it by 60 minutes, 60 seconds there will be 70 RACH attempts per second, or one every 14 milliseconds. Again, that sounds manageable.
So yes, 50.000 devices per sector transferring only very little data seem to be possible even with only a single 200 kHz bearer.

First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given. Usually two opposite kinds of advice are given simultaneously by two organized bodies of men; this is called politics. The skill required for this kind of work is not knowledge of the subjects as to which advice is given, but knowledge of the art of persuasive speaking and writing, i.e. of advertising.

Throughout Europe, though not in America, there is a third class of men, more respected than either of the classes of workers. There are men who, through ownership of land, are able to make others pay for the privilege of being allowed to exist and to work. These landowners are idle, and I might therefore be expected to praise them. Unfortunately, their idleness is only rendered possible by the industry of others; indeed their desire for comfortable idleness is historically the source of the whole gospel of work. The last thing they have ever wished is that others should follow their example.

From the beginning of civilization until the Industrial Revolution, a man could, as a rule, produce by hard work little more than was required for the subsistence of himself and his family, although his wife worked at least as hard as he did, and his children added their labor as soon as they were old enough to do so. The small surplus above bare necessaries was not left to those who produced it, but was appropriated by warriors and priests. In times of famine there was no surplus; the warriors and priests, however, still secured as much as at other times, with the result that many of the workers died of hunger. This system persisted in Russia until 1917 [1], and still persists in the East; in England, in spite of the Industrial Revolution, it remained in full force throughout the Napoleonic wars, and until a hundred years ago, when the new class of manufacturers acquired power. In America, the system came to an end with the Revolution, except in the South, where it persisted until the Civil War. A system which lasted so long and ended so recently has naturally left a profound impress upon men’s thoughts and opinions. Much that we take for granted about the desirability of work is derived from this system, and, being pre-industrial, is not adapted to the modern world. Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.

In a world where no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day, every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving, however excellent his pictures may be. Young writers will not be obliged to draw attention to themselves by sensational pot-boilers, with a view to acquiring the economic independence needed for monumental works, for which, when the time at last comes, they will have lost the taste and capacity. Men who, in their professional work, have become interested in some phase of economics or government, will be able to develop their ideas without the academic detachment that makes the work of university economists often seem lacking in reality. Medical men will have the time to learn about the progress of medicine, teachers will not be exasperatedly struggling to teach by routine methods things which they learnt in their youth, which may, in the interval, have been proved to be untrue.

Above all, there will be happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness, and dyspepsia. The work exacted will be enough to make leisure delightful, but not enough to produce exhaustion. Since men will not be tired in their spare time, they will not demand only such amusements as are passive and vapid. At least one per cent will probably devote the time not spent in professional work to pursuits of some public importance, and, since they will not depend upon these pursuits for their livelihood, their originality will be unhampered, and there will be no need to conform to the standards set by elderly pundits. But it is not only in these exceptional cases that the advantages of leisure will appear. Ordinary men and women, having the opportunity of a happy life, will become more kindly and less persecuting and less inclined to view others with suspicion. The taste for war will die out, partly for this reason, and partly because it will involve long and severe work for all. Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle. Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish forever.

Apple posted three advertisements to YouTube, one featuring the Apple Watch Series 2, and two showcasing the iPhone 7.

The Apple Watch Series 2 ad, titled Go Time, highlights the Watch’s fitness features and water resistance. Backed by Sinnerman, a classic song by Nina Simone, the ad begins at dawn showing a swimmer getting ready for an early morning workout. The swimmer adjusts his goggles and pulls his hand out of the water to start a workout on the Apple Watch. Through a series of quick cuts, the ad shows other people involved in all sorts of activities, including yoga, running, jumping into a pool, biking through a rainstorm, dancing, and sprinting out of the subway. In between each activity are clips showing off features of the Watch like the Activity app, Messages, notifications, the Workouts app, and the Breathe app, which is new to watchOS 3.

Morning Ride starts with a man looking out into a thunderstorm while checking Apple’s Weather app on an iPhone 7. AC/DC’s Thunderstruck starts playing in the background as he gets ready for his morning bicycle ride despite the rain. He mounts his iPhone to the handlebars of his bike, starts a tracking app, and prepares to take off into the rain. The thirty-second spot ends with the lines ‘the water-resistant iPhone 7’ followed by ‘practically magic.’

Midnight highlights the iPhone 7 Plus in Jet Black. The ad follows a young man as he skateboards around a city in the middle of the night taking photos with his iPhone. Backed by In A Black Out by Hamilton Leithauser, he takes videos as he passes through sprinklers, showing off the water resistance of the phone, captures moths flying around a single light bulb, and photographs a deer that wanders into a gas station. The ad concludes with the young man on a hill overlooking the lights of the city and ends with the tag line ‘low-light camera on iPhone 7’ followed by ‘practically magic.’

Each of the three ads does a good job focusing on the personal side of the new features of Apple Watch Series 2 and the iPhone 7. The ads don’t focus on specs; instead they emphasize how the advancements of each device expand their utility in everyday scenarios.

You can watch each of the ads after the break.

Go Time

Morning Ride

Midnight

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anthropolos:

Languages in proportion.

Find more anthropology/archaeology here. 

As its done in the past, iFixit has taken the latest smartphone, in this case Apple’s new controversial iPhone 7 smartphone and given it the teardown treatment.

When it comes to the internal construction of the iPhone 7, the most notable addition is all the waterproofing features Apple has integrated into the design of its new phone.

More generous use of adhesive and gaskets — the company laid the foundation for a water-resistant smartphone when it shipped the iPhone 6s — help give the iPhone 7 an IP67 certification.

As for the missing headphone jack, Apple has used the extra space to incorporate a larger Taptic engine and a plastic component that is a barometric vent. The latter is used to capture more accurate pressure readings, allowing the iPhone 7 to recognize when its owner walks up a flight of stairs, for instance.

The website was also able to confirm the iPhone 7 Plus features a higher capacity battery. Compared to the 2,750 mAh power cell found in the iPhone 6s Plus, the iPhone 7 has a 2,900 mAh power cell.

After it completed the teardown, iFixit gave the new iPhone 7 a seven out of 10 repairability score. While the new waterproofing measures help protect the device against environmental damage, the adhesive needed to seal it against dust and water can become a pain if the user actually needs to open their phone to replace a component.

Similarly, replacing the screen is made more difficult with the addition of more adhesive. The battery, however, remains one of the easier components to replace; good thing, too, because more often than not, that’s the component most users will need to replace. Moreover, the digital home button takes away a component that’s easy to break.

Check out the full breakdown on the iFixit website.

Since my Lumia 920 changed into a smartcamera, I've scoured the web for a panacea. Unfortunately, neither a soft or hard reset made any difference. So, after less than three weeks with my Lumia, I initiated contact with Nokia to arrange a repair. To Nokia's credit, their Technical Support Centre made doing so fast and easy. Unfortunately, it will be another two weeks before I have it returned. The wait, however, isn't the problem. What worries me is that this experience has made me lose confidence in Nokia's ability to deliver on hardware, and it will take time for this confidence to be restored.

Customized calendars are one of the most popular items the Photolab has to offer. And why not? Their merits—specifically their customizability and their immense sentimental value, especially as gifts but even for oneself—have been covered frequently in past Photoblog posts like these.
However, since the last post about them the Photolab has rolled out its magical new website and in-store kiosks, making their creation easier and even more customizable than ever before. And if you doubt this claim for even a moment, I invite you to read at your leisure the demonstration that follows—

How to create a customized photo calendar
using the Photolab in-store kiosk:

Begin by selecting Creative Orders, and then Agree to the Terms & Conditions on the next screen.

Then choose where you want to get your photos from. This time, I chose to log in and access the ones I’ve uploaded to my Photolab account.

Next I select Calendars from the Products page.

On the Calendar page you can choose your calendar type, your binding…you can even choose a single page or a desktop. I’ve selected the traditional style of calendar, because I happen to be a traditional guy.

In fact, I went even more traditional and selected the standard 8.5×11” calendar. As you can see, I’ve got nine styles available in this size to choose from.

From the menu on the left I can also choose to start my calendar in October, November or December, or I can just choose the full 2017 calendar year.

You can place your photos manually one-by-one, or you can select the autofill option. Usually when I post a demo like this, I choose the manual option so I can take you through it; but since I’ve gone that route so often, this time I’m going with autofill—you know, just to balance things out a bit.

When you select autofill, it pre-loads photos from your album into the calendar template, and then you can proceed to edit them.

From the top left of the screen you can choose your layout; you can also select whether you want to edit the calendar in page view, spread view or as a grid of thumbnails.

Not only can you edit or add text to your photos, but you can also add and edit text in each of the individual date boxes on each page, for every month. Now you can give Grandma’s birthday the same official recognition as a national holiday!

Once you’re finished with all your tweaks and edits, you can save the project to your account or add it to your shopping cart. As you can see, volume discounts are clearly pointed out. Then choose your shipping or in-store pickup preferences, and you’re done!

But the helpful advice doesn’t end there, dear readers! One thing the Photoblog hasn’t addressed much is the fact that however you want to make your Photolab calendar, great photos will make it that much better—except what do you do if you happen to have a dearth of quality photos? The solution is in this month’s companion post, which contains a helpful way to keep some handy DIY photography tips right close by whenever those perfect photo-ops present themselves.

Everybody’s all upset that Apple took the headphone jack out of the iPhone 7. “Why would they do that? How are we supposed to listen to music? This is just a ploy to sell wireless earbuds!”

Well, a lot of that reaction is coming in before the facts are. First fact: The headphone jack may look tiny on the outside. But on the inside, this 52-year-old technology requires a relatively huge box to receive the plug. Phone makers can’t stand that thing. It’s in the way of making the battery bigger. It’s in the way of putting in a better camera, or nicer speakers. All the phone makers want to ditch the jack — and Apple’s actually the third smartphone maker to do it.

Second fact: Apple’s trying to make the transition easy. In the box with the phone, you get a new set of earbuds that plug into the charging jack. Also in the box with the phone, you get this adapter that lets you plug in any headphones. They can just stay on the headphone cable. You can buy another one for 9 bucks.

Of course, if you were an alien observing our species, you’d wonder why we’re still fooling with wires at all. Everything else has gone wireless. There are plenty of wireless Bluetooth earbuds, or you can buy Apple’s own ones, the AirPods. They’re 160 bucks, they’re amazing, they pair instantly, they recharge right from their case — and they’re optional.

If you like the wires, you get the wires for free.

The only penalty for using wires is that you can’t charge the phone and plug in headphones simultaneously. At least without another adapter.

But the question is not, “Would you rather have a smartphone with a headphone jack or without?” The right question is, “Would you rather have a headphone jack — and give up the things that Apple put in its place? Like a bigger battery that lasts 2 hours longer. And a camera stabilizer that eliminates blurry shots. And stereo speakers.”

When you frame the question that way — well, you may still be annoyed. But at least now you have all the facts. Now you get it.

Earlier this week, security researchers published reports that Firefox and Tor Browser were vulnerable to “man-in-the-middle” (MITM) attacks under special circumstances. Firefox automatically updates installed add-ons over an HTTPS connection. As a backup protection measure against mis-issued certificates, we also “pin” Mozilla’s web site certificates, so that even if an attacker manages to get an unauthorized certificate for our update site, they will not be able to tamper with add-on updates.

Due to flaws in the process we used to update “Preloaded Public Key Pinning” in our releases, the pinning for add-on updates became ineffective for Firefox release 48 starting September 10, 2016 and ESR 45.3.0 on September 3, 2016. As of those dates, an attacker who was able to get a mis-issued certificate for a Mozilla Web site could cause any user on a network they controlled to receive malicious updates for add-ons they had installed.

Users who have not installed any add-ons are not affected. However, Tor Browser contains add-ons and therefore all Tor Browser users are potentially vulnerable. We are not presently aware of any evidence that such malicious certificates exist in the wild and obtaining one would require hacking or compelling a Certificate Authority. However, this might still be a concern for Tor users who are trying to stay safe from state-sponsored attacks. The Tor Project released a security update to their browser early on Friday; Mozilla is releasing a fix for Firefox on Tuesday, September 20.

To help users who have not updated Firefox recently, we have also enabled Public Key Pinning Extension for HTTP (HPKP) on the add-on update servers. Firefox will refresh its pins during its daily add-on update check and users will be protected from attack after that point.

The post Update on add-on pinning vulnerability appeared first on Mozilla Security Blog.

In almost every way that matters, Kobo and Kindle’s latest premium e-reader offerings stand in stark contrast to each other.

The Oasis is pricey while the Aura One is budget-friendly. The Oasis is small while the Aura One is big. The Oasis is about premium aesthetic design changes while the Aura One is about practical — not flashy — feature additions. So in a battle of extreme contrasts, can either one be ideal? I spent time with both to find out.

Kindle Oasis specs

• Display: 6-inch 300 ppi Paperwhite Carta E Ink
• Size: 143 mm x 122 mm x 3.4-8.5 mm. Cover: 144 mm x 125 mm x 1.9-4.6 mm
• Weight: Wifi version: 131 grams. Wifi + 3G version: 133 grams. Cover: 107 grams
• Storage: 4GB
• Processor: 1GHz CPU
• RAM: Unknown
• 3G connectivity: HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS; utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via Roger’s 3G high-speed data network in Canada and partner networks outside of Canada.
• Price: $399.99 Wifi version, $499.99 Wifi + 3G version
• Battery life: Promises up to 8 weeks

Kobo Aura One specs

• Display: 7.8-inch 300 ppi Carta E Ink
• Size: 195.1 x 138.5 x 6.9 mm
• Weight: 230 grams
• Storage: 8GB
• Processor: NXP Solo Lite iMX6
• RAM: 512MB
• 3G connectivity: None
• Price: $249.99
• Battery life: Promises up to one month

Design

The most immediately striking difference between these two e-readers is visual. Where the Kindle Oasis made an effort to be the thinnest, smallest device available, the Kobo Aura One went the opposite route and debuted the only 7.8-inch premium E-Ink display on the market, apparently at the behest of its customer testing group.

Kobo says the group was asking for a device that would show more words per page — like a real book. Because of that, the e-reader is sized at 195.1 x 138.5 x 6.9 mm and weighs in at a bulky 230 grams. By specs alone, I was initially unsure my small-handed self would enjoy the Aura One, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it feels much lighter than it is on paper.

Additionally, I really enjoyed the fact that the display was more ‘book-like’ with much more words per page than the competition. I had never before identified this as an issue with e-reading, but now that I’ve experienced the luxury of less page turns, I’d prefer not to go back to pressing the screen every two paragraphs, as I’m compelled to on the Oasis.

However, the Oasis, with its focus on premium design, features a much better mechanism for page turning. Rather than fumbling with a touch screen, you’re able to click forward and back with two slim buttons set intuitively by your thumb that work for either left or right-handed users with a simple flip of the device. The Aura One is touch-only.

It also doesn’t have any equivalent to the Oasis’ flashy leather second-battery case, which clips on magnetically, protecting the front of the screen. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the Oasis’ case and overall appearance is a major draw for the expensive device — as I noted in my previous review, it’s the e-reader equivalent of pulling up to work in a ’69 Mustang.

That being said, the Kobo Aura One is no slouch either. It’s textured back, which features expanding circles of dots (consider yourself warned, trypophobes), brings to mind the raked sand of a zen garden, and its little blue button is a cute accent.

On paper, the Oasis should be lighter, but considering you’re most likely to use the Wi-Fi plus 3G version decked out with the included case, it actually sits at 240 grams most of the time, 10 grams over the Aura One. Without the case, however, it’s 99 grams lighter than the Aura One.

As for size, the Aura One’s bulk didn’t bother me, especially considering its slimness, and that went even more so for those with larger hands. While the Oasis sans case definitely feels better, I’m willing to sacrifice that for a better display size on my eyes.

Display

One of the most touted elements of the Aura One is the automatic blue-light reduction feature built in to its display. The idea behind it is interesting — sleep researchers say that viewing devices with blue light right before bed ‘activates’ you and affects your ability to get to sleep.

In practice, however, I only know of one particularly light sleeper in my life that is bothered by this issue, and the red spectrum light that the device substitutes in takes a while to get used to. Still, it adds value to a certain demographic, however small, and can be manually turned off if it bothers you.

Other than that, the two displays are very similar in quality. Both feature a Carta E Ink touchscreen with 300 ppi resolution, and both looked crisp and defined.

Performance

Under the hood, Amazon told us only that the Oasis features 1GHz CPU and 4GB of storage, while Rakuten Kobo provided slightly more information, stating that the Aura one has a Solo Lite iMX6 1GHz processor from NXP with 512MB of RAM and 8GB of storage. Both configurations led to a decent performance speed, with negligible difference between the two.

In terms of touch-screen performance, however, I found that the Aura One’s screen was a little less responsive than I would’ve liked, particularly around the edges. I didn’t have this issue with the Oasis, but then again, I mainly used its tactile buttons.

Battery

It’s hard to fairly judge the two devices across this metric, as I didn’t have the Aura One for multiple charge cycles as I did for the Oasis. It promises a one-month battery life, and I will note that it seemed to be on course to meet that target during my three weeks with the device.

As for the Oasis, its battery life was one of it’s biggest marketing points, promising up to eight weeks due to the addition of its second battery. Unfortunately, it fell far short in my experience. After a full-charge, the device would last just two weeks. For reference, I was using the device for about two hours daily at mid-level brightness with Wi-Fi and 3G on. With those same settings for my Kindle Paperwhite, I was able to get approximately a full month out of the device.

After asking Amazon about the issue, they recommended I turn off Wi-Fi and turn down the brightness on the Oasis, but didn’t offer an explanation.

Durability

Despite being called the Oasis, Kindle’s most recent premium e-reader is not waterproof, while Kobo’s Aura One is IPX8 certified, meaning it’s safe in up to two meters of water for up to 60 minutes, a feat achieved by nano-coating the internals of the device to allow for open ports.

A pro for the Oasis, however, is that it comes with its screen-protecting case, which the Auara One does not. One of its branded SleepCovers will run you $49.99.

Pricing

For many, however, the debate between the Aura One and the Kindle Oasis will come down to the devices’ respective prices: $249.99 for the Aura One, and $499.99 for the Oasis (Wi-Fi-only version is $399.99). Impressively, Amazon’s device is over double the price of the Aura One, which itself is regarded by some as itself being overpriced.

However, the numbers so far for the Aura One seem to show that $230 is the sweet spot for a premium device, with stock shortages affecting the company throughout September due to unexpectedly high demand. While no numbers have been released concerning the Oasis when it comes to shipments, there don’t seem to have been any such significant shortages.

Ecosystem

Regardless of the device version, another constant debate between Kobo and Kindle is its book ecosystem.

Many worry that Kobo’s book offerings are not as extensive as what Amazon can offer — and that’s absolutely true — but countering that is the fact that you can side-load and read more types of files on the Kobo than you can on the Kindle.

While Amazon only allows for its own e-book formats (AZW, AZW3), you can read a variety of formats for books, documents and visual novels on Kobo’s e-readers (EPUB, PDF, JPEG, HTML, RTF, TIFF, CBZ, CBR and PNG, amongst others).

Additionally, Kobo takes the edge when it comes to library lending, as its Japanese parent company Rakuten recently purchased Overdrive, a global content distribution service that powers the e-book borrowing systems of many Canadian libraries. Overdrive’s technology has now been integrated into the Aura One to facilitate a super-simple check-out process for the Aura One, while the company refrains from offering Kindle lending at all here in Canada.

The Kobo is also integrated with Pocket, an application that allows you to save articles that you find while browsing for later perusal. To use it, readers simply have to install the app to their web browser and/or phone. Then when they save an article, they can later find it on their e-reader, as long it has Wi-Fi to download the content.

In that respect, Kindle’s Whispernet 3G is a blessing. While having trouble connecting the Aura One to hotel Wi-Fi (an issue I’m told was known and resolved), I was able to quickly and easily download books from my Oasis with no hassle.

And the winner is…

It’s Kindle’s easy user experience (as evidenced by Whispernet, among other things) that leads to an inevitable analogy between iOS and Android, with Kindle falling squarely into the role of Apple.

The Oasis is beautiful, thoughtfully designed, walled-in and pricey. The Aura One is durable, boundary-pushing, open and inexpensive.

As with Android and iOS, there’s certainly an argument for both, but ultimately I have to give my recommendation to the Aura One.

I was won over by the larger screen along with its slim and comfortable design, and the IPX8 rating and customizable red-spectrum lighting feature were the icing on top. At $250 it’s an extravagant treat, but one that I would consider nonetheless.

I will note that I still love the Kindle Oasis for its handsome and unique design, but its value proposition wasn’t clear when it launched at $500, and now with the launch of the Aura One, it’s only become less convincing.

In the match-up between Kobo and Kindle’s latest premium devices, the smaller, Canadian-headquartered company manages to take the win.

mkalus shared this story from Free Range Kids.

Our Moral Judgement Influences How Dangerous We Believe The Situation Is

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We’re looking for the mom who let her kid play at the park!

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Video of the man who confronted the mom who let her baby wait in the car a short while.

Ortwin Gentz, one of the developers behind Where To, has noticed that the majority of iMessage apps and sticker packs in the top charts seem to be paid ones. He collected some numbers from the iMessage App Store and concluded:

The distribution of business models is even more interesting. In contrast to the iOS App Store where freemium titles dominate the top-grossing charts, the overwhelming revenue in the iMessage App Store comes from paid titles. This reminds me of the early days of the App Store where In App Purchase wasn’t even available.

Probably the #1 reason for this is the lack of IAP in no-code sticker packs. These sticker packs consist only of the actual artwork and are easy to create for designers who don’t want to code.

Currently, basic sticker packs – the ones that only require dropping a bunch of image files into Xcode – can't offer In-App Purchases. As soon as Apple offers an integrated solution to bring In-App Purchases to iMessage sticker packs without writing code, I have no doubt we'll see the iMessage App Store follow the "Free with In-App Purchases" model of the iOS App Store.

Unless Apple is deliberately pushing artists towards paid packs because they do not want to repeat what happened with the App Store? The perception of sticker packs right now reminds me of the early days of the App Store – that good work is worth paying for.

→ Source: futuretap.com