Rolandt

Just over seven years ago I joined Automattic, and I said this back then:

They treat their employees the same way I try to treat the end users of my software. As a developer, I’ve tried to provide a great experience to those who use my software. As a company, Automattic tries to provide a great experience to those who work there. People stick with you when you provide a great experience.

Seven years later, I still feel this way. Among the benefits they provide is a three-month paid sabbatical after being with them for five years, and today is my first day of sabbatical (I delayed mine a couple years for personal reasons).

Of course, when I planned my sabbatical I had no idea it would be during a pandemic. My incredible wife and I had big plans to travel during my time off, but we have vulnerable parents so we’re not taking any chances and are staying put.

I really have no idea what I’ll do, but one thing I want to do is blog more often. It’s been almost three years since my last post, which is pretty ridiculous for someone working with the company running WordPress.com!

• I subscribe to a number of email newsletters
• I subscribe to hundreds of RSS channels
• I follow Twitter, Mastodon and LinkedIn (not Facebook, because media is manipulated on Facebook)
• I listen to podcasts while cycling or commuting

• media and journalism
• philosophy
• computer technology
• education (learning, inference and discovery)

• travel
• photography
• cycling
• video games

• It may be motivated by my work (as a researcher at NRC I currently have projects related to VR, Data Literacy, Ethics, etc)
• It may be motivated by something I'm responding to -- if something I read tweaks my interests, I will very often follow up with a search for key terms
• I follow links in articles, to see what the author is reading and quoting
• Sometimes, I'm just curious (that's how I've learned about things like Stirling engines, bikepacking, etc.)
• If there's something I don't understand, I look it up. I am not content with not understanding.

• evidence of similarities, rules, patterns, regularities
• patterns of meaning, truth, valuation
• uses and applications of things, affordances
• influences of frames, contexts, environments
• cognitive applications, such as explanation, inference, definitions
• patterns of change, including cycles, exponential change, tipping points

• where have I heard this before (ie., this topic, this form of reasoning, this kind of thing)?
• what counts as evidence for the author - who (or what) else weighs evidence this way?
• what could I do with this? what could I (or someone else) apply it to?
• what does the author take for granted?
• how is the author reasoning - what are the premises or assumptions?
• what sort of trend, movement or directionality can I discern?

• working with software - eg., I enjoy going onto sites like CSS-tricks are trying out some of the coding techniques
• exploring and photographing - wherever I am, I get out, and look closely at the environment through the camera lens
• correspondence - like this email - which will end up as a blog post
• help and how-to guides - trying to fill a need, and help people by writing down and sharing what I know how to do

I was asked, "do you have any advice on how to come up with blog post ideas?" This is my response, talking about the sources I use to get ideas and the framework I use to convert what I read and see to interesting and useful (I hope!) blog posts.

On an errand, we felt the need to be outside near the sea. The closest opportunity was CRAB Park (see here). We hadn’t planned on visiting a homeless encampment but did that too. I seriously recommend the experience. Also I got pleasant pictures to accompany the story.

CRAB is the nearest green waterfront to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside which means some of the people you see have been considerably damaged by what we call “civilization”, and show it. it’s also real close to the Port of Vancouver, third-largest in North America and biggest in Canada (only 29^th in the world). Thus these views:

Some parts of the port seem remarkably ad-hoc.

Homelessness

I saw a cluster of tents in an adjoining parking lot. In Vancouver that means homeless people, which is a little scary to a nice-neighborhood greybeard like me even without Covid-19 maybe lurking where you’re not looking. But this one had a fire burning and signs on display. Feeling an open-for-visitors vibe, I wandered in.

The signs said “reconciliation is dead”. The fire was cedar, an Indigenous woman by it explaining the issues around unceded territory to a typically-Vancouver White/Asian couple.

A tiny dog ran up to me, eager for a sniff at my hand. After we’d made friends a nice lady came up, tucked the dog into her shirt, and told me a whole lot about what was going on. She started by saying I could make an offering at their fire with tobacco, which was provided, so I did. The cedar-and-tobacco smoke smelt great. Here’s the bench by the fire.

I wish I’d asked her name. I make no claim to a deeper understanding than anyone reading this, so I’m just going to enumerate what I heard as I listened.

1. Sometime in 2019 the BC government transferred the homeless file from a social-services ministry to the law-and-order ministry, and this has not been helpful.

2. The encampments have inclusion levels depending, among other things, on their tolerance for alcohol or other intoxicants. I didn’t learn the level of the one I was at.

3. A couple of rope-thin white guys were breaking up skinny pieces of metal. It seemed like hard work but they were cracking jokes. I don’t know what they were doing with them.

4. People die in these communities, but rarely. An occasional overdose and recently a 51-year old who went to sleep and didn’t wake up. “People without a home have a life expectancy roughly half of people who do”, she pointed out.

5. There are a lot of indigenous people here, but also a lot who aren’t.

6. A guy walked up smiling with a bunch of plastic on a dolly and told her “Three tarps, they wanted sixty bucks and I had seventy, so I threw in an extra ten. Now you owe me $10.” She said “I’ll take care of it.” Still smiling: “S’ok, you don’t need to.”

7. The provincial government is trying to get the homeless out of tents and into hotels. But they want to take the 65-plus and otherwise-vulnerable first. Then, they need an actual legal name; but suppose you have mental-health and/or legal issues (for both reasons, you might not be in a position to offer that kind of name) and/or you aren’t 65 yet? Well, you’re probably in a tent at CRAB park or equivalent.

8. I couldn’t help but be conscious of the big black SUV labeled “Port of Vancouver Police” (I may have the wording wrong) at the far end of the parking lot, a silhouette visible in the front seat. Since the port is well-known to be gang-infested, you have to worry about what their cops are like.

9. Some of the people have dementia (not always age-related). They do the best they can.

10. There were canvas rain-covers set up with cases of fresh-water bottles available and other stuff I didn’t check out. The Portland Hotel Society helps out, I gather, as do other community members. I think I’m going to have to visit and drop some things off. But if it’s like most distressed-community situations, money is most helpful.

Walking away

Suddenly one of Vancouver’s biggest problems had moved out of the “abstract” category in my mind. I found I had trouble speaking because I didn’t know how to process the input.

I could still take pictures though, where the park met the port.

If you’re a photographer, or just want to get closer to the edge of your comfort zone and meet people who could use your help, I strongly recommend a visit to CRAB park.

In this episode, we’re talking about how as an industry, tech should strive for equitable design, and how you can harness your privilege to help create diversity, with Aubrey Blanche, director of global head of equitable design and impact at Culture Amp, and Founder and CEO of The Mathpath. Aubrey talks about how the term “diversity and inclusion” might not be as actionable as you might think, how “culture fit” may not be the thing you actually want, and how we should all be using our individual privileges to help other marginalized groups.

Show Links

• AWS Insiders (sponsor)
• Culture Amp
• The MathPath
• HTML
• Python (programming language)
• R (programming language)
• Plantir
• Meritocracy
• Diversity and Inclusion (DNI)
• Atlassian
• Atlassian: How to start a learning circle with your colleagues
• Culture fit
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
• Textio
• Diversity in tech too often means ‘hiring white women.’ We need to move beyond that.
• How white women in tech can harness their privilege to help create diversity
• The Diana Initiative
• Intersectionality
• Culture Amp: Diversity & Inclusion Survey
• The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table

Aubrey Blanche

Aubrey Blanche is The Mathpath and Director of Equitable Design & Impact at Culture Amp, and startup investor and advisor. In all her work, she partners with organizations to design equitable talent processes and programs, products that create fairness and inclusion, and helps individuals reach their potential as allies to build a better world.

Stephen Downes describes his routine for exploring and learning, and the role of his blog in that. Useful description to feed my own thoughts on my routines w.r.t. digital gardening.

Almost all of what I do is in response to something I see, read or hear. So I read and gather information widely. Second,... I go on deeper dives. Third, I link things together. Fourth, I create. Finally, sharing freely. Society - and your success - is based on giving, not taking.

Our quest to make voice calls better continues! Today, we’ll show you how to enhance your own audio using a dynamic duo of our apps, for the benefit of others listening on your calls. No matter what type of microphone you’re using with your Mac, it can be helped by running its audio through some software effects.

To do this, Audio Hijack is used to refine audio by aplying effects, after which Loopback routes that modified audio to your calling app of choice.

To walk through this in more detail, we’ve just posted another new article in our Knowledge Base, entitled “Enhancing microphone input with audio effects”. Read all about it, then try out Audio Hijack and Loopback for yourself. The other people on your calls will thank you!

Microsoft officially started rolling out the Windows 10 May 2020 Update — also known as version 2004 — last week, but some people still don’t have access to it yet.

There are quite a few reasons why you may have issues with the update. For one, Microsoft said in its announcement about the update that it would take a more measured approach to version 2004. That means making users request the update from the Settings app instead of just pushing it automatically. It also means Microsoft will slowly ramp up the rollout, so some users may not get it until later.

However, the measured approach also means Microsoft will block the update for some users if they’re aware of compatibility issues. The Verge reports that the Redmond, Seattle-based software giant has a list of 10 issues it’s investigating with the update. Nine of those resulted in ‘compatibility holds’ that prevent users from installing the Windows 10 May 2020 Update via the Windows Update software in the Settings app.

Further, one of those issues affects always-on, always-connected devices like the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3. That issue causes unexpected errors and reboots.

Windows Update will warn users about compatibility issues

Microsoft is also working to clearly communicate to users why their computer may not have the update. Over the weekend, it added a warning message to Windows Update that lets people know if their device is incompatible with update 2004. However, in some cases, a computer just hasn’t received the rollout at all.

In my case, a custom-built desktop PC received the 2004 update within a few days of release without issue. However, a Lenovo ThinkBook 13s and a Surface Go 2 have not received the update. Neither of those devices display the new warning message either, which indicates the rollout hasn’t even reached them yet.

The Verge says Microsoft blocks update 2004 on devices with apps or games that use ‘GameInput Redistributable.’ It’s not clear which games use this, but it does warn that software using it may lose mouse input in the May 2020 Update.

Despite all this, there is a way to apply the Windows 10 May 2020 Update if you want. Microsoft’s update assistant tool can apply the update, and also reportedly bypasses blocks Microsoft put on incompatible systems. Of course, if you’ve received one of those compatibility warnings from Windows Update, you probably shouldn’t install version 2004. You’ll also want to hold off if you rely on your computer for work or other important tasks since if the update does break something, you may find yourself stuck without a working computer during COVID-19.

Source: Microsoft Via: The Verge

The post Microsoft blocking Windows 10 May 2020 Update on some devices appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Apple is ending support for the mid-2012 15-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display eight years after its release.

The report comes from documents obtained by MacRumors that state on June 30th, 2020, Apple is marking the computer as “Obsolete” worldwide. This means it can no longer be repaired by Apple technicians and that the company won’t stock parts for it anymore.

Apple has been rolling back its support of the ageing MacBook since 2018 when it established a ‘Vintage’ repair program that was reliant on if parts were available or not. Now, it’s being taken off the vintage list and listed as obsolete.

This doesn’t mean that third-party computer repair stores will stop fixing the computer, just Apple. You could even try to follow a guide online to try and fix the computer yourself but be warned that depending on what you need to do, it could be quite complicated.

While I’m not sure, there’s probably still a lot of people with the 2012 15-inch MacBook Pro, but if you have one and are thinking of getting a battery replacement or something from Apple, you’ll need to do it before June 30th.

Source: MacRumors 

The post Apple to end repairs for mid-2012 Retina MacBook Pro appeared first on MobileSyrup.

The striping is on the asphalt like a new suit of well-cut clothes: It makes the Richards Bike Lane look smart.  This is the street engineer as designer and tailor.

What’s different about this one over Dunsmiur and Hornby?

Trees.

Imagine cycling on the Hornby Bike Lane past Robson Square … two rows of trees to one side, a gothic frame for the sidewalk.

Now imagine cycling with trees on both sides.

Voila, Richards.

You might’ve tried baking bread recently.

Did you head to The Fresh Loaf or Breadtopia to ask questions and get started?

Did you look for any community to help?

Probably not. You didn’t know those communities existed and you didn’t really have any questions to ask even if you did. If you’re like most people, you typed the kind of bread you wanted to bake into a search engine and followed a recipe.

But I bet you shared photos of your loaf once it was done.

The motivation to participate with others isn’t driven by fear of making a mistake (and thus asking for help), but taking pride in what you created and seeing reactions from others.

A smart community builder would recognise this and create a Fenty-Style community where members can submit their loaf (with a recipe). Others could vote on it, learn from it, and adapt it. You would have a loaf of the week as voted by members etc..You could even name new recipes after members who created them etc…

It’s far easier to copy other communities than to step back and really see what motivates people to participate in the topic. Consider, however, if the motivation to participate isn’t driven by fear and frustration but by pride and a need for self-comparison.

Happy baking.

This will be a short one. This is one of many periods in recent history when important things are happening and it’s silly to write about programming. Your attention is better spent elsewhere, right now.

Things happened. I read MBS and Bird by Bird (great!) and Trick Mirror and Brotopia (less great!). I wrote Second Guessing the Modern Web and everyone agreed with me so much that I’m a little nervous.

An update to my November 2018 Recently where I expressed concern that Sans Forgetica, a font “scientifically designed to help you remember,” didn’t have any verifiable scientific evidence for its claims. I feared that it would be hyped and included in software and used by desperate students and then we’d discover that it didn’t work.

That appears to be the case. The first peer-reviewed study was published in mid-April and indicates that the font has a neutral or negative effect on memory.

Furthermore, adoption of these fonts could have more serious ramifications. After all, if students put their study materials into Sans Forgetica in the mistaken belief that the feeling of difficulty created is benefitting them, they might forego other, effective study techniques. Instead, we should encourage learners to rely on the robust, theoretically-grounded techniques developed by scientists working at the forefront of cognitive psychology and education, that really do enhance learning.

RMIT’s own research hasn’t been published. This wasn’t a case of journalists overstating the results of a preprint article to the chagrin of researchers. RMIT actively promoted Sans Forgetica with the help of an ad agency, and with the language of science.

Anyway, there are bigger issues right now. 👋 Stay safe out there.

The Chippewa Rail Trail is a trail that will eventually extend from Hamilton to Caledonia. I passed the entrance to this trail on another ride, but finally got around to exploring it recently.

Here is the start at the southwest corner of the intersection of Dartnall and Stone Church in Hamilton.

Just a little further along is the actual start of the trail.

Be careful at the intersection with Rymal Rd. There can be a lot of traffic, and there is no particular accommodation to cross the road.

The trail itself is nicely graded, almost dead flat, and also straight as an arrow for about 15 km.

Crossing into Haldimand County at Haldibrook Road, the signage becomes more fancy.

This map show that the trail still does not go all the way to Caledonia.

Unfortunately, after about 3 km past this point, the trail comes to an end.

I was hoping from this Google street view from May 2018 that the construction had advanced past this point.

However, after 200 m, this is what you see. This is a glimpse of what the rail right of way might have looked like without enhancement.

I turned back at this point. Anyway, any day out on a bike is a good day.

mkalus shared this story from Price Tags.

The striping is on the asphalt like a new suit of well-cut clothes: It makes the Richards Bike Lane look smart.  This is the street engineer as designer and tailor.

What’s different about this one over Dunsmiur and Hornby?

Trees.

Imagine cycling on the Hornby Bike Lane past Robson Square … two rows of trees to one side, a gothic frame for the sidewalk.

Now imagine cycling with trees on both sides.

Voila, Richards.

Another week of lock down and the death toll in the UK as I write is 38,376. One of the highest in the world.  I am still very angry about the whole Dominic Cummings lockdown rule breaking fiasco I alluded to last week.  

A week certainly is a long time in politics. Neither Cummings or the UK Prime Minister have had the decency to apologise for the quite extraordinary tales of lockdown breaches.  The level that the whole UK cabinet have gone to defend Cummings is quite extraordinary.

This article by Guardian columnist Zoe Williams  really summed up my frustration – particularly her description of “hysterical emotional response”. As she so succinctly put it:

“there is so much wrongdoing, so much plain nonsense, that we circle it endlessly, castigate it relentlessly, but we can’t see our way past the authority of those responsible, and can’t see any way of acting on our anger.”

Let’s hope it in the long term it will hurt them as much as their actions this week have dismayed and hurt the UK population.

This week saw the start of the  beginnings of easing of lockdown here in Scotland as we moved into Phase 1 of the Scottish Government’s roadmap. This means we can go out a bit more and, more importantly see friends and family outside, but still within our local areas. I’ll have to wait a bit longer to see my family as they don’t live locally. However, I’m willing do that as long as we can try to keep the spread of the virus under control.

I have already found being among more people, even in the supermarket or the park to be quite unsettling and anxiety inducing. There really is so much we don’t know about this virus and how it works, and what effect it will have on all our mental health in the longer term.

Meanwhile the we see more of the beginning of the end for casual staff in universities, whilst more attention is given to technological solutions to ensure the ‘new normal’ is as much like the ‘old normal’ as possible. This article of the student experience of online proctored exams I found quite terrifying. Yet I suspect that some of leaders who will cut staff will invest in software like this as “the solution”, instead of taking the opportunity to work with staff and students to develop forms of assessment that don’t require this level of privacy invasion, and that are much more authentic, caring and appropriate for our context.

Meanwhile my working week has been relatively online meeting free and I have been able to concentrate on reviews and writing for clients. My term as Chair of ALT is coming to an end, and I had one of my last catch ups with Maren Deepwell and Martin Hawksey to prepare for the (now online) AGM in June.  I’ll write more about that in separate post. Much as I have enjoyed being part of the leadership and governance of ALT, it is time for me to move on.

I also had a series of lovely catch ups with former and current work colleagues, including one with Mia Zamora. We had hoped to catch up during the OER conference but obviously with it going online that didn’t happen. So it was lovely to catch up and chat about a whole range of things. Once again I am so thankful for my PLN and the wonderful, inspiring, open and kind people in it. 

Until next week, dear reader, stay safe.

No, I haven’t caught that particular bug and am not baking bread at home. In fact, that couldn’t be further from my immediate concerns right now, since after spending a week cooped up in my office with 28C inside and with another bout of allergies (which made it doubly hard to breathe, let alone work).

Getting air conditioning (which I’ve long resisted due to my allergies) is on the cards, but, like everything else these days, will take much longer than usual.

Closing the blinds sort of helps, but having a moving, talking bag of lukewarm water sitting all day near multiple monitors and Intel CPUs packed in trendy industrial designs fit for well-cooled offices definitely doesn’t.

So my mind has been turning again towards cooler computers, thin clients and the impact near-constant remote meetings is having, since right now it is pretty much impossible for me to use anything that can’t do video calls, which currently means (for most purposes) an i5 or better, and none of the ones I have is fanless, cool, quiet or all of them at once.

Having sat through a meeting in near darkness breathing like a half-parboiled beached porpoise while my secondary laptop - which I had literally fired up just for the call, to see if my Surface Pro’s fans relented - slowly warmed up to curling tong temperatures (good thing I have resisted wearing shorts until now) reminded me why I spend most summers working on an iPad.

And I can’t really sit with a laptop anyplace else in the house except the bathrooms, because there are usually four independent calls going on at any one time and there is also a very distinct echo…

Good thing that apparently next week is going to be marginally cooler.

The post Swapping my GPU gave a bigger performance boost than expected appeared first on MobileSyrup.

This started (and was on time for) the week before Memorial Day for release that weekend, but it didn’t ship. The life diversion beasts seam to have come in the way.

This was the first week that furlough Friday came into effect, so have essentially an “4 day week of 8 hour days”, as if workdays are that short. So I’ve gone from a week of: Monday followed by three Tuesdays and then a Friday; to Monday followed by two Tuesdays and a Friday (on a calendar stated Thursday), which this being now a 4 day weekend a 3 Saturday and one Sunday (on a calendar stated Monday) weekend. The shortened week turned into a week with some of the longest days I’ve had for a while with a 14 hour day Monday, a 12 of Tuesday (the real Tuesday, or the first of them if thinking in Covid week time) that I initially thought was 9 hours, 10 hour Wednesday (second Tuesday, for those playing in Covid time at home), and 9 hour Thursday (well Friday in Covid adjusted time, or as others call them all, “Blursday”).

I’ve been trying to sort out if I was going to work a bit on the long weekend, start digging back on reading, tackle some of my long put off personal tech such as converting this website back to https or some other digging into updating some of my productivity practices.

Since this a double week edition (edition? Heh, well I just hit the “post” button (or whatever I’ve clicked since 2001 when I rebuilt this)).

This second week had me baffled with what day it was and the hyper rhythm of the week prior was mired in a sludge of timing being off. But, on the work front a lot of positive movement happened, which was really good. We are about a third of the way through what I’m working on and the next chunk over the next few months will be one of the more challenging from the perspective of pulling it all together. Getting the next piece right and worked through the foundations properly will set up whether it has long term success.

A lot of the work is talking the complicated and complex and making it more simple to understand and using that as a foundation to bring more people along, but also get the tough decisions understood and in front of the right people with their understanding to bring their expertise and needed framing from their domain. The downside (always) of making things more simple is having people believe it is that simple, but not grasping the complications and complexity under that need attending to properly.

On the personal side this week had me utterly stumped and hurt with injustice of George Floyd’s death. These hurt. They hurt deep down to the fabric of the core that stems for basic humanity. During the week I pushed it aside, but this weekend as work wound down on Friday it really sunk in.

Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can�t handle iPhone photos is an example of an organization failing to do the basic tests and fixing problems, but then failing more with their response.

Microsoft�s New Fluid Office Document Is Google Docs on Steroids is something I’m keeping an eye on.

A New York Times piece about what is on bookshelves behind people as they are interviewed on tv. It is about one book, “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York” by Robert Caro. The piece is really good and dives into why it is behind so many people and the meta value of it in view.

Another piece in the New York Times pulled me in, Brooklyn, Before It Was a Global Brand: Walk Its History. It is a wonderful pieces (on the long side for some) that gives the history and and background of common areas. The last year or so I’ve been going up to Brooklyn to work and been really fascinated by it and this fills in some of the background I’ve been hoping to track down one day. One of my friends has done that for me, when I’ve caught up with him in Brooklyn across the years.

A few weeks ago I was in a discussion with folks in one of the back channels about the economics of the new food delivery services. I repeatedly hear from shop owners and restauranteurs that they often are losing money on each delivery. I brought this up, partly because I hadn’t had / found the time to dig into what this means. But one of the folks in the group shared this gem by Rajan Roy in Margins, Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage. This hit on target on so many different levels and now I’m wanting to dig even deeper.

Along the lines of the above, the Washington Post picked up on this in their piece Restaurants are barely surviving. Delivery apps will kill them..

I my “to read” stack got another addition with [Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast’s book Figure It Out: Getting from Information to Understanding)[https://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/figure-it-out/] ariving. Two favorite people and minds I miss and haven’t run across in person for far too long. This is a book I’ve been waiting on for quite sometime. From my perspective this may be the conversations I’ve been missing with them.

About a decade or more ago I was talking with a friend about a book of his that was coming out that had a quote / quip or two of mine in it and saying I was really looking forward to his book. His comment to me about his book was, “This book isn’t for you, as you know everything in it already. But, I would hope it is worthy of you blessing and sharing with others.” This brought clarity to many books I have, as they are about the conversations and deep dives with many of the authors over the years. But, a good chunk of the books I pick-up are to dig deeper and push at the edges of the domains I read in and work to understand so to find unknown areas to dig.

I stumbled into a custom Tidal playlist that was triggered by Danny Wilson’s “Mary’s Prayer” and includes Prefab Sprout, The Style Council, Propaganda, Haircut 100, Wang Chung, Blue Nile and so much more. The night I listened to this was a quite rainy evening and I had the balcony doors open and could hear the occasional car sloshing by and it took me right back to the mid to late 80s in England and France listening to this music on walkman or radio over sloshing car noises. So many memories tied up into all of this, it was wonderful.

The Verge podcast seems to be running interview podcasts along with their weekly Vergecast. This week was Nilay Patel’s interview / chat with Stewart Butterfield on The Vergecast. Stewart is one of those people I miss talking with and interacting with. Stewart doesn’t approach things like most others, but there are similarities with a handful of others I also miss that we all regularly interacted, but we each went our own directions and got absorbed there.

Leading up to the long weekend there really wasn’t much play as the work front had sets of issues that needed sorting and digging. The long weekend didn’t provide as much play as I thought it may (nor as much reading) but a bit of MLB the Show and Death Stranding was played on Monday.

I’m deeply realizing I need to get outside more for walks, hikes, and perhaps finally get my bike out of storage.

The past month or two I’ve been trying to sort out the value of Roam, which many productivity types around YouTube and blogs have been discussing and raving about, but it negatively hits some of my must have for note taking and organization. Roam is outline focussed, but can go long, but to keep track of nested hierarchy it has grey dashed lines to show / hint at the nested layers, but I find it quite distracting. My favorite outlining tool is OmniGroup’s OmniGraffle which handles this far more elegantly and keeps the focus. The other is its export offering which lacks OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language). Yep, an outlining tool that doesn’t use OPML as an import nor export offering is utterly bizarre. There are many insanely good reasons to use OPML for outlines and a means to transfer or integrate with workflows, but the top one for me is keeping the nested hierarchies. Roam currently is an island that doesn’t interconnect well with other productivity services and doesn’t work well in outline centric or tangential workflows. Roam’s biggest advantage is the internal linking

I have somewhat similar feeling for similar reasons for Notion, which I use a little bit, but keep from working in it heavily due to import, exports, and integrations.

The ware for May 2020 is shown below.

The unreadable marking on the big IC on the right (U26) is: 6417750R, SH-4 F240V, R 0740, BJ14742.

Thanks to Adrian (@adistuder) for sharing this really interesting and well-photographed ware!

mkalus shared this story from Das Kraftfuttermischwerk.

Eme Street Art in Gedenken an George Floyd im Mauerpark Berlin.

Im Berliner Mauerpark ist zum Gedenken an George Floyd dieses Graffiti entstanden. Schaut es Euch an. #b3005 #ICantBreath #icantbreathe #GeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #SayHisName pic.twitter.com/nR9dxWfBpX

— PM Cheung (@pm_cheung) May 30, 2020

mkalus shared this story from bellingcat.

Bellingcat has identified and collected multiple instances of US law enforcement deliberately targeting journalists during the protests against the killing of George Floyd.

The arrest of a CNN crew in Minneapolis while broadcasting live on air on May 29th was a shocking event, especially in a country with such strong protections on freedom of speech. However as of the time of writing we have identified at least 50 separate incidents where journalists have been attacked by law enforcement.

In these examples journalists have been shot with rubber bullets, targeted with stun grenades, tear gassed, physically attacked, pepper sprayed and arrested.

Although in some incidents it is possible the journalists were hit or affected accidentally, in the majority of the cases we have recorded the journalists are clearly identifiable as press, and it is clear that they are being deliberately targeted. This pattern of violence against journalists is replicated in several cities, but appears most intense in Minneapolis.

A selection of these incidents can be found below. 

Incident 1, May 29: CNN crew arrested in Minneapolis

In the most famous example of violence against the press so far during these protests, a CNN film crew were arrested as they broadcast live on air. There was no legitimate reason for their arrest and they were released about an hour later.

Incident 2, May 29: Wave 3 news crew deliberately targeted with rubber bullets in Louisville, Kentucky

Yet again, a news crew from NBC affiliate Wave 3 broadcasting live on air were deliberately targeted by police firing rubber bullets from a range of a few meters. This crew were very clearly journalists.

Incident 6, May 30: Swedish and Norwegian journalists targeted with rubber bullets in Minneapolis

Injury sustained by Nina Svanberg

Swedish and Norwegian journalists who were clearly identifiable as journalists were targeted and hit by rubber bullets. One of the journalists stated:

“I wore two cameras, a press card around my neck, and a helmet and a gas mask. We took pictures and behaved in a different way to the protesters”

Incident 8, May 30: photo-journalist blinded in left eye by less lethal round in Minneapolis

Photo-journalist Linda Tirado was hit in the left eye by a less lethal round while covering events in Minneapolis. She later found out she had been permanently blinded.

Incident 11, May 30: CBS news crew targeted by rubber bullets in Minneapolis

Video posted by Michael George.

A CBS news crew, who were clearly identifiable as journalists, were targeted by rubber bullets. Their sound engineer was hit.

Injury to CBS sound engineer

Incident 12, May 30: group of journalists targeted by less lethal rounds by Minnesota state patrol in Minneapolis

A group of a dozen or so journalists were targeted at close range despite identifying themselves as journalists, as described in the video above. Molly Hennessy-Fiske was struck on the leg by a less lethal round.

Injuries sustained by Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Incident 13, May 30: journalist pepper sprayed in the face while being physically detained by police in Minneapolis

Despite clearly identifying himself as press and holding his press card up throughout the incident, Michael Adams was physically detained on the ground and then pepper sprayed.

Incident 14, May 30: Australian News crew detained, handcuffed and searched before being released in Minneapolis

Tim Arvier and his crew as they were being detained.

Tim Arvier, a journalist working for 9 News Australia was detained and searched by Minneapolis police. They were then released.

Incident 18, May 30: journalists rushed and arrested by NYPD in New York

Tweet from Huffington Post

Journalist Christopher Mathias at the Huffington Post was arrested by the NYPD in New York. As reported by Phoebe Barghouty, he was credentialed and complying. His press pass appears to be clearly visible around his neck.

Arrest of Christopher Mathias as photographed by Phoebe Leila Barghouty

Incident 20, May 30: MSNBC film crew targeted with less lethal rounds

Despite clearly being identifiable as journalists, Ali Velshi and his crew were targeted and hit by less lethal rounds.

Conclusion

This selection of incidents demonstrates that law enforcement across multiple cities, but especially in Minneapolis, are knowingly and deliberately targeting journalists with less lethal munitions, arrests and other forms of violence.

This is a selection of the most egregious examples of violence against journalists. Many others can be seen in this thread by the author. Even as this article is being written multiple incidents of similar behaviour are being sent to us. If you have seen law enforcement deliberately targeting journalists, or experienced it yourself, please contact the author through his Twitter or at nick[@]bellingcat.com.

Considering the role of journalists to keep society informed about current events, as well as the strong constitutional protections of a free press in the United States, these actions by law enforcement represent an attack on the freedom of the press.

Journalists should be free to do their jobs without fear of violence or arrest, wherever it may be.

This article has been updated to reflect the number of incidents collected. 

The post US Law Enforcement Are Deliberately Targeting Journalists During George Floyd Protests appeared first on bellingcat.

Zoom has detailed plans to improve encryption for video calls made on its platform by paying customers and schools, but not for its free users.

The company’s security consultant Alex Stamos told Reuters that the plan is subject to change and that a combination of technological and safety factors were considered.

“At the same time that Zoom is trying to improve security, they are also significantly upgrading their trust and safety. The CEO is looking at different arguments. The current plan is paid customers plus enterprise accounts where the company knows who they are” Stamos said.

It’s important to note that the improved encryption plans do not involve end-to-end encryption, which would mean that only the participants on the call can see and hear what’s happening. Stamos says that if Zoom added end-to-end encryption, then people wouldn’t be able to call into meetings through a phone line.

Stamos also notes that if Zoom added full encryption, then the service’s safety team would not be able enter meetings to tackle abuse in real time.

Zoom is currently being investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is examining the company’s previous claims about encryption that were considered to be exaggerated or false.

The video conferencing service has gained millions of users around the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly because people can join meetings without having to register.

In April, Zoom vowed to address and fix several issues that had come to the surface. The company promised to be more transparent with its practices, and said that its resources would now focus on safety and privacy issues.

Source: Reuters

The post Zoom plans to offer strong encryption for its paying users appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Last week we announced a package manager preview for Windows. Our goal is to provide a great product to our customers and community where everyone can contribute and receive recognition. The last thing that we want to do is alienate anyone in the process. That is why we are building it on GitHub in the open where everyone can contribute. Over the past couple of days we’ve listened and learned from our community and clearly we did not live up to this goal. More specifically, we failed to live up to this with Keivan and AppGet. This was the last thing that we wanted.

The desire to use GitHub as the basis for our package manager germinated as a way to lean into how developers are building their apps. GitHub allows us to have an open repository and a way to integrate with DevOps pipelines for app publishing etc.

This GitHub based approach led us to AppGet and Keivan. We talked with Keivan last summer about potential opportunities to work together to deliver the Windows Package Manager. During those conversations we were impressed with Keivan’s insights into the package management world on Windows and with his desire for there to be a great package management experience on Windows.

There are a number of qualities in AppGet that really helped us get to a better product direction for WinGet:

• No scripts during install – something that we completely agreed with and don’t allow with MSIX
• Rich manifest definition within GitHub – the power of being open combined with rich declarative meta data about the app is so important to meet goal #1
• Support all types of Windows applications installers
• Seamless updates for applications in the repository

I want to take this opportunity to thank Keivan for his thoughtful approach to AppGet and working with us. We will be open sourcing our service code into our our WinGet repository on GitHub so that we can work together with Keivan and others to enable a better WinGet repository listing service.

The post winget install learning appeared first on Windows Command Line.