Rolandt

Some links I think worth reading today.

• There used to be a German tribe of Hard Blogging Scientists, of which Jan Schmidt is one of the very few still blogging. In the anglo-saxon world some research groups have been at it for a long time and still are. The Cambridge University security research group since 2006. Their Princeton colleagues at the Center for Information Technology Policy are blogging since 2002.
• The FOSTER project has a whole range of resources to help scientists doe more Open Science. From ethics to data management and designing for reproducability
• A range of people involved in building the web as we now have it, apologize for how lots went wrong in 15 steps.
• Dark patterns are ways to design sites to make you do things, you really shouldn’t want to. Dark patterns to lull your sense of security with privacy deceptive design for instance. Dark patterns rob you of agency, making ethics by design key.
• Nadja Peek‘s 2016 PhD thesis from MIT, on Making Machines that Make (pdf) which includes a practical test to demonstrate the proposed method’s impact on (networked) agency
• A methodology for building the Internet of Things, by Tom Collins
• Bayou is an AI that will make software for you based on a basic description. It was trained with all the code available on GitHub, and is released as an open source tool. Today a paper on this will be presented at the Sixth International Conference on Learning Representations in Vancouver.
• A NESTA report (pdf) on the type of skills that will be in demand for different jobs in 2030. Very interesting read. (ht Stowe Boyd)

Don’t try to imitate major community programs without their resources.

Ideally, every community effort would have a full-time community manager with a six-figure budget to build and support their audience.

However, most people are juggling community around other tasks with limited financial support.

The temptation is to launch a platform, drive members to it, and start responding to questions. But without a decent amount of time and money, this probably isn’t the most effective approach. It sets high expectations, spreads resources thin, and requires a big, long-term, commitment.

An easier approach is to deliver a powerful community experience at regular intervals.

Instead of having an ongoing community you can’t fully support, focus on powerful community experiences you can deliver.

You can nurture a sense of community in many different ways:

• You can host monthly webinars with product experts where customers can join to ask questions.
• You can invite customers to join you at headquarters a couple of times a year.
• You can host weekly live twitter chats.
• You can solicit contributions of customers each month and publish the best advice and tips in a newsletter digest.
• You can create a podcast and invite contributions from members. You can encourage and promote the meetups of your members.
• Etc…

A hosted platform is just one of many approaches to foster a strong sense of community. It can deliver great results, but it’s both time and resource-intensive. If you have neither, take a different approach.

It’s always better to deliver a powerful community experience for a short amount of time than a mediocre experience for a long period of time. It’s easy to build upon a powerful community experience than a mediocre one.

On Margins episode 005 is up, featuring Jason Kottke, the creator of now 20 year old kottke.org. You can listen to the episode or read the full transcript here: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/005/. Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls I thought of Jason because I was thinking about non-“book” collections of text that could or should be books. I think there are many web properties that would benefit from being given immutable form, especially in the face of how brittle online archives tend to be.

This is so cool I just had to link to it.

I might even print one myself some day, since I have a Pi on my desk set up as an Arduino development environment and Docker build box.

The second founder, Jan Koum, of WhatsApp has left Facebook, apparently over differences in dealing with encryption and the sharing of data of WhatsApp. The other founder, Brian Acton, had already left Facebook last September, over similar issues. He donated $50 million to the non-profit Signal Foundation earlier this year, and stated he wanted to work on transparent, open-source development and uncompromising data protection. (Koum on the other hand said he was going to spend time on collecting Porsches….) Previously the European Union fined Facebook 110 million Euro for lying about matching up data of Whatsapp with Facebook profiles when Facebook acquired Whatsapp in 2014. Facebook at the time said it couldn’t match Whatsapp and Facebook accounts automatically, then 2 years later did precisely that, while the technology for it already existed in 2014 of which Facebook was aware. Facbeook says “errors made in its 2014 filings were not intentional” Another “we’re sorry, honestly” moment for Facebook in a 15 year long apology tour since even before its inception.

I have WhatsApp on my phone but never use it to initiate contact. Some in my network however don’t use any alternatives.

The gold standard for messaging apps is Signal by Open Whisper Systems. Other applications such as Whatsapp, FB Messenger or Skype have actually incorporated Signal’s encryption technology (it’s open after all), but in un-testable ways (they’re not open after all). Signal is available on your phone and as desktop app (paired with your phone). It does require you to disclose a phone number, which is a drawback. I prefer using Signal, but the uptake of Signal is slow in western countries.

Other possible apps using end-to-end encryption are:
Threema, a Switzerland based application, I also use but not with many contacts. Trust levels in the application are partly based on exchanging keys when meeting face to face, adding a non-tech layer. It also claims to not store metadata (anonymous use possible, no phone necessary, not logging who communicates with whom, contact lists and groups locally on your device etc). Yet, the app itself isn’t open for inspection.

Telegram (originating in Russia, but now banned for not handing over encryption keys to Russian authorities, and now also banned in Iran, where it has 40 million users, 25% of its global user population.) I don’t use Telegram, and don’t know many in my network who do.

Interestingly the rise in using encrypted messaging is very high in countries high on the corruption perception index. It also shows how slowly Signal is growing in other countries.

VPN tools will allow you to circumvent blocking of an app, by pretending to be in a different country. However VPN, which is a standard application in all businesses allowing remote access to employees, itself is banned in various countries (or only allowed from ‘approved’ VPN suppliers, basically meaning bans of a messaging app will still be enforced).

Want to message me? Use Signal. Use Threema if you don’t want to disclose a phone number.

When my friends and colleagues began working on the first Make the Breast Pump Not Suck hackathon in 2014 (http://www.kanarinka.com/project/mit-breast-pump-hackathon/), they were focused on the machine itself. The breast pump has evolved very little from its hospital origins, and it’s widely hated as loud, painful, hard to clean, ugly and awkward. The hackathon they organized did amazing work to design better breast pumps, but it also revealed a larger problem: It’s not just the breast pump that sucks – America’s family leave policy sucks, too.

The breast pump often becomes such a problem because mothers don’t have paid family leave and some need to get back to work immediately after giving birth. This puts parents in impossible positions – they want to do what’s right for their baby, but everything in American society is stacked to prevent them from caring for their child.

When the hackathon team reloaded and started working on the 2018 hackathon, we added a policy summit, focused on questions of paid family leave policy, a two-day discussion focused on issues of equitable design of policy and practical strategies for winning paid leave at federal, state or company by company levels.

What’s remarkable to me as a newcomer to this movement is the coherence of the ask. The panelists we heard from today were unified on what family leave should include:

• At least 12 weeks of paid leave
• Robust coverage – at least 2/3rds of salary, up to $4000 a month
• Universality – the benefit applies to everyone in the business, with no carve out for small employers. The same benefits apply to freelancers and self-employed people
• Portable, so people in the gig economy can take the benefit from one job to another
• Comprehensive – Family leave includes not just parental leave, but govers a wide range of issues. We need to care not just for new babies, but for aging parents or sick children
• Secure against retaliation – we need to overcome the danger that someone loses employment for taking family leave

There’s also widespread support for the idea that family medical leave needs to happen at the federal level, if only because we know that many states won’t opt to offer the benefit, and those states are ones whose citizens need this support the most. The differences are around tactics. Vicki Shabo of National Partnership for Women and Families is seeking support for the FAMILY act, Co-sponsored by Senator Gillibrand and Representative DeLaura. 32 bipartisan senators are now on board, as are 154 House members. The bill accomplishes most of the goals stated above and is funded through a small payroll tax on employees and employers (0.4%, split between the employer and employee) and administered through a new federal agency.

Sherry Leiwant of Better Balance pointed out that states are often the laboratories for policy experimentation where new ideas get worked through. She sees potential to build family leave around temporary disability insurance, which was instituted through payroll taxes in some states in the 1940s and 50s, but excluded pregnancy and childbirth until the late 1970s. But while TDIs give states a framework they could use to implement family leave, they aren’t universal, usually cutting out agricultural workers, seasonal workers and part time workers.

Some of the most exciting moves towards family leave policies have come from businesses. Erik Rettig of Small Business Majority points out that 85% of his member companies support paid family leave. Small businesses tend to be like families, he explains – they don’t want to lose employees that they have personal relationships with and have spent time training. But he notes that small businesses, individually, have little political power. As advocates, we should be targeting chambers of commerce, business leagues and other groups that can influence at scale.

Brianna Cayo Cotter of PL+US and Girshriela “Gigi” Green, OUR Walmart had the most powerful story about making change at scale through influencing corporations. Gigi explains that she and other Walmart associates began pushing the company for reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers as early as 2011. When she and colleagues learned that salaried managers were receiving 10 weeks paid maternity leave, and hourly associates were receiving none, she and colleagues started a petition campaign that ended up with more than 100,000 signatures.

Petitioning the company directly didn’t work. Gigi and Our Walmart, with support from PL+US, spoke in front of the Walmart shareholder meeting, addressing an audience of 15,000, demanding that the company implement fairer policies. Shortly after, Walmart agreed to offer equivalent benefits to full time associates, though they insisted that they made this decision without outside pressure.

The scale of this change is hard to overstate: Walmart is the largest employer of women in the world. The victory is far from complete. This isn’t true family leave, but maternity leave, and it doesn’t address part time workers who work full-time hours. But it’s an amazing step forward. Gigi chokes up talking about it, telling us that she’d worked with women whose children had died on Walmart properties because they had inadequate leave and support.

Brianna from PL+US believes that shareholders can be the most powerful voice for change within corporations. She’s begun working with a firm that invests hundreds of billions of dollars, and is using their leverage to push for change within the companies they support. “They’ve become very powerful activist voices, pushing for these rights within the companies they invest in.”

Today’s conversation pivots to tactics to reach these common goals. What campaigns, pressures and strategies will bring family leave to more Americans. Erik argues that we work best when we understand what businesses need, and how our asks are consistent with business priorities and processes. Brianna reminds us that businesses care about customers, investors and their board – pressure them and you can win. Gigi puts it simply: “I know what didn’t work. Going to them politely and asking for what was right didn’t work. It wasn’t until we petitioned and sooke out that change really happened.”

More to come, on the new strategies emerging from the policy summit, and new inventions from the hackathon.

Twice a year, Mozilla gathers employees, volunteers, and assorted hangers-on in a single place to have a week of planning, working, and socializing. Being as distributed an organization as we are, it’s a bit rare to get enough of us in a single place to generate the kind of cross-talk and beneficial synergistic happenstances that help us work smarter and move in more-or-less the same direction. These are our All Hands events.

They’re a Pretty Big Deal(tm).

So here you are, individual contributor or manager, staff or volunteer, veteran or first-timer. With all these Big Plans, what are we littler folk to do to not become overwhelmed?

I have some tips.

Before You Go

Set up a mail folder/label for relevant email: You’ll be getting some email with details about where you should be, what you should be doing, and when. Organizing these into one place is helpful for reference, so come up with a label (maybe “201807-sanfran” or “mozsf2” or “fogzilla” or something) and organize those emails as they come in.

Act on those emails immediately: If they contain instructions or an announcement that bookings or registration is now open… then do that thing right then. Do not file the email and forget. Do the thing while you are looking at that email. Only then should you file that email and get back to where you were in your brain. If you absolutely can’t just then (have to synchronize with family or what-have-you), put a calendar reminder in that repeats every weekday until you handle it.

Do not upgrade Nightly: You’re running Nightly, right? You’ll be travelling through a land of uncertain connectivity, and the last thing you want is to use it downloading a multi-MB Nightly update that might have accidentally disabled Captive Portal Detection. If it works, keep your Nightly build until you’re certain you have the bandwidth to download a new one. All else fails, keep it until you get back.

Make sure your laptop is in shape: My laptop is often neglected in favour of its Desktop comrade: updates may be pending, credentials may have expired, the source code checkouts might be weeks old, and there may have even been a new version of Mozilla Build released since the last time I tried to compile Firefox. With luck, while at an All Hands you won’t have to compile Gecko on a laptop in your hotel… but we make our own luck, we who are prepared. Prepare your laptop.

Prepare your family: If you don’t live alone, you’ll have non-mozilla prepwork to do. Spouse and kids or roomates and pets, there are lifeforms who normally expect to see you that won’t. Clear the family schedule for the week you’re gone, and do as much preparation ahead of time as you can. Laundry, meal planning, groceries, sitters, dog walkers, even lawn services are things you can arrange to lighten the load that your absence will place on those around you. Even if you’re bringing them with you.

While You’re There

Do not fear missing out: You will not be able to attend both Boardgame Night and your team dinner. There will be karaoke parties you won’t get to, or be invited to. This is fine. This is expected. This is unavoidable when you have so many people disorganizing so many things simultaneously. So don’t fret about it. Prioritize.

Say no: Speaking of prioritizing: prioritize for yourself. You may very well be operating as a Level 100 You for hours at a time. So many people to talk to, so many talks and social events to organize, deliver, and attend… No. You don’t have to stay the entire length of the party. You don’t even have to go. If you feel yourself fading, get out while you have the strength. Regroup. Find a quiet corner or go to sleep early… At my first All Hands, I napped on both Wednesday and Thursday. And I wasn’t even in a different timezone. It really helped.

Wash your hands: Lots. Before meals. After meals. You’ll be talking, working, eating, and otherwise hanging out with a thousand of your closest coworkers. It’s probably your best bet for not catching mozflu, and it’s definitely your best bet to not transmit it.

After You’re Back

Consider taking a day: Generally speaking you’ll be flying back on Saturday and returning to work on Monday. Depending on distance to travel, available flight times, and cancellations, this may result in only a few hours between stumbling through your door and stumbling back to work. Consider booking that Monday off (or, honestly, if your trip back was heinous, don’t even book it off. Just take it. Get some sleep. Work can wait until Tuesday.)

Check in: If you live with family, you haven’t seen them for a week. Even if you brought them with you, you’ve been in meetings and talks and stuff most hours. Check in with them. Get up to speed on what’s been happening in their lives while you’ve been away.

Get excited for the next one: Even immediately back from an All Hands, it’s still only six months to the next one. Take stock of what you liked and what you didn’t like about this one. Rest up, and try not to get impatient :)

:chutten

(( Great minds think alike, because Seburo recently wrote a Wiki article covering even more excellent tips for All Hands events. Check that out, too! ))

A good few years ago now, on one of my more-or-less quadrennial swings through Tokyo, I met a hugely enthusiastic graphic designer and educator by the name of Ian Lynam, who teaches design at the Temple University campus there. (If his name doesn’t happen to ring any bells, you’re surely familiar with his work, as co-founder of the splendid néojaponisme.)

Ian and I have kept fitfully in touch ever since — I’m afraid he’s a far more diligent correspondent than I — and not so long ago he asked if he could interview me for “Perpetual Beta,” the blog for one of the other programs he’s affiliated with. (Dude gets around.) Of course I agreed, and was rewarded with a brace of really refreshing questions — I mean, how many times can you find something fresh and insightful to say about a topic as played-out as the smart city? It was a total pleasure to talk, instead, earliest literary influences, the subtly explosive little discographies in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, my complicated love for the alternative social infrastructure of the late 1970s, and so on. Anyway, here’s the interview; I hope you dig it.

Speaking of swings-through-town, I’m going to be in Tallinn and Helsinki the first week of June, for back-to-back events with Housing Europe and the University of Helsinki. Join me for those events, or give a shout if you’re simply up for vodka shots, loud metal and sauna.

Paolo Mioni, CSS-Tricks, May 03, 2018

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As you've been following OLDaily you've probably noticed I've been having some glitches with my email newsletters lately. It's all a result of a transition to a new PLE-based version of gRSShopper, and fixing the email has moved to the top of my list of priorities. One longstanding thing I'd like to fix is responsive emails, so it's really easy to read them on computer or on the phone. Here are some of the options I've been considering. Or I might just update my own CSS. Those are the sorts of choiuces facing designers today, and programming has become more and more a case of selecting and applying frameworks.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

We set out to do a standard Wirecutter guide to the best antivirus app, so we spent months researching products, reading reports from independent testing labs and institutions, and consulting experts on safe computing. And after all that, we learned that most people should neither pay for a traditional antivirus suite, such as McAfee, Norton, or Kaspersky, nor use free programs like Avira, Avast, or AVG. The “best antivirus” for most people to buy, it turns out, is not a traditional antivirus package.

Information security experts told us that the built-in Windows Defender is good-enough antivirus for most Windows PC owners, and that both Mac and Windows users should consider using Malwarebytes Premium, an anti-malware program that augments both operating systems’ built-in protections. These options provide reliable protection without slowing your computer significantly, installing unwanted add-ons, or harassing you about upgrades.

After interviewing information security experts and experienced online-security journalists, we learned no single app can protect you from an ever-changing array of new malware. The best protection consists of setting up and maintaining layers of security on your devices: keeping your operating system, browsers, and software updated, paying for decent but not overbearing virus and malware protection, installing browser extensions for Web privacy and security, and getting into smart security habits.

These tips aren’t just for the tech-averse, or those starting over after a malware event—this guide is for everyone who uses a computer. The Wirecutter editors and writers working on this guide realized which layers they had neglected in their own setups. Sometimes the person who is confident in their setup—too confident—still ends up clicking the wrong link, or downloading the wrong PDF, and infecting their system with malware.

First layer: Keeping your OS, browser, and other software up to date

Computers, browsers, and important apps receive updates more frequently now than in the late-1990s/early-2000s heyday of viruses, and the updates are often automatic and hard to avoid. That’s a good thing—don’t delay these updates, because they often contain important security fixes.

Operating systems

Windows 10 automatically installs updates, unless you go to some lengths to delay them. MacOS can install system updates automatically, and even automatically applies updates to apps you’ve downloaded through the official App Store. Chromebooks automatically update when you restart them (so you have to shut them down sometimes, instead of just putting them to sleep by closing them).¹ If you haven’t updated to the latest version of your OS—particularly if you’re still on Windows 7 or 8 and haven’t updated to Windows 10—you should do so as soon as possible.

It’s frustrating to turn on your computer to do something and then wait while a large, slow update installs, and it’s annoying when that update breaks a driver or messes up your software, as sometimes happens. But system updates are usually smaller, faster, and less disruptive than the big overnight-download updates that came to earlier Windows and Mac versions, and they’re important for keeping your computer secure.

Browsers

Most major Web browsers update automatically: Google’s Chrome browser and Mozilla Firefox automatically download updates and install them the next time you launch the browser. But if you tend to leave huge collections of tabs open for days, you should restart when you see an available update and allow the browser to restore your tabs (or close them and be free). Microsoft’s Edge browser updates along with Windows updates, and Safari receives updates through Apple’s App Store. Extensions installed in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge also update automatically.

Important apps

Some apps bug you incessantly about tiny updates, while others never let you know about important fixes. If you use a program often, and especially if it connects to the Web (and most of them do), enable any “check for update” options in its settings. If you use a large collection of desktop apps, you should automate updating with Ninite Updater ($10 per year) or SUMo Pro (€15 per year).

Second layer: Windows Defender

“If you have an up-to-date operating system, like Windows 10 or (macOS) High Sierra, there is no reason for a consumer to install any additional antivirus,” said Rich Mogull, CEO and analyst at independent security research firm Securosis. “Operating systems have come an extremely long way since the days of Windows XP and rampant infections.”

As we detail in our guide to antivirus programs, Windows Defender is good enough for most people using Windows. It receives regular updates from a dedicated security team, it doesn’t monopolize resources, it doesn’t bug you about upgrades or install unwanted programs, and the company behind it, Microsoft, would have a lot to lose if its built-in security app were to do something underhanded.

In Windows 10, Defender is set up to update itself automatically, run in the background, and bug you only if it hasn’t been able to do a systemwide scan in a long while because you’ve been busy. Don’t disable it, and don’t stop its updates.

Apple’s built-in protections are good enough that Mac owners don’t need an all-in-one security suite like Norton or McAfee either, especially if they stick to good security habits, such as downloading apps from the App Store whenever possible. Even so, they’re not fail-proof—it’s still a good idea to add an anti-malware layer that doesn’t slow your system as much or pester you to upgrade.

Third layer: Malwarebytes Premium

All viruses are a kind of malware, but malware includes a lot more than just viruses. The security experts we interviewed recommended that most people install Malwarebytes Premium on Windows and macOS. A real-time scanning tool that runs without interruptions, Malwarebytes is affordable, and it scans your system diligently without hogging resources. Rather than relying on a list of known bad software, it looks for any app or process exhibiting scummy behavior. It has some overlap with Windows Defender in what it protects against, but that’s smart—much malware is written to work around the security built into the most common operating systems.

Fourth layer: Helper apps

Once you’ve fortified your computer with an up-to-date operating system, browser, and antivirus and/or anti-malware apps, you should work to keep the things you do on your computer private, and to keep your accounts and sensitive data protected with strong tools. Here are our recommendations, from staff and experts, of the best additions to your security scheme:

uBlock Origin (Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari): Install this ad blocker and privacy tool for your browser, and the only thing you have to do is occasionally turn it off on sites that won’t work with its restrictions and whitelist sites you want to receive full advertising revenue. Meanwhile, it quietly blocks known tracking cookies that follow you from site to site and build an unnamed but revealing profile of you. It also blocks the worst-behaved ads, like the kind that pop up false alerts about your system being infected. We also like the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Privacy Badger, which blocks the cookies it notices tracking you as you browse, rather than maintaining a list of known offenders like traditional ad blockers do.

Make sure to install a verified, trustworthy ad blocker from the original maker of that extension, such as from our links above. Fake, malware-installing ad blockers are common, and these similarly named impostors may insert their own ads or track you.

HTTPS Everywhere: While many sites (including Wirecutter and the site of The New York Times, our parent company) have shifted toward using an encrypted connection by default, too many sites offer it only as an option. This extension forces as many sites as possible to encrypt the page and ensure your browsing is a more private affair. With HTTPS enabled, the owner of the Wi-Fi you’re using, the network administrator at work, and your Internet service provider can see only that you’re on eff.org, for instance, not eff.org/jobs.

Password manager: Using the same password, or slight variations of it, leaves you vulnerable to identity theft and privacy violations. Use a password manager like LastPass to make all of your passwords longer, random, and more secure.

VPN: A virtual private network encrypts all the traffic between your computer and a VPN server, which means nobody can monitor or modify your browsing, messaging, or other traffic. VPNs are most useful when you’re connecting to untrusted or unsecure Wi-Fi networks, such as at coffee shops, hotels, or other public places where someone could be snooping, and they can also reduce the amount of data that large websites and services can collect about your online behavior, as detailed in our guide to VPNs. We recommend an annual subscription to IVPN, or for a more affordable (but less beginner-friendly) option, an annual subscription to TorGuard.

Fifth layer: Good habits

Having a finely tuned car with the latest safety features isn’t as important as having good driving habits. Similarly, the decisions you make while using your devices are the last thing you should address after setting up a secure system but are no less important. Based on our research and on experts’ advice, here’s what we recommend:

• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on everything you can: Two-factor authentication adds a second check after your password entry when you’re logging in to accounts, so even someone who gets your password can’t automatically gain access to your important accounts. Usually 2FA consists of a code texted to you or, even better, generated on an app like Google Authenticator (iOS, Android) or Authy. Sometimes it’s a button prompt on a phone app, as with a Google account. Enable 2FA on your accounts at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and Slack; on your password manager (LastPass or 1Password); and anywhere else you can. Your banks and medical accounts should offer two-factor authentication, and you should use it.
• Encrypt your devices: Encrypting the storage on your laptop, tablet, or phone protects against other people viewing or copying your personal data (even without your password) should your device get lost or stolen. The Smarter Living section of The New York Times (parent company of Wirecutter) has a guide to encrypting your Windows or Mac computer, and Chromebooks are encrypted by default. Modern iOS and Android devices are also encrypted by default if you’re using a screen lock—you can check if your Android device is encrypted by going to Settings, Security & location, Encryption & credentials (this path may differ slightly on different manufacturers’ phones). If your Android device has a microSD card, you’ll have to enable encryption for that external storage manually.
• Use strong passcodes or biometric locks: If your device offers a way to lock it with your fingerprint or face, use that as the primary unlocking method, in addition to a strong backup password or passcode. Avoid swiping patterns and easily guessed four-digit PINs, especially on touchscreen devices where your recent finger taps could be visible.
• Get your software from official app stores: Whenever possible, avoid downloading software from websites you found on Google. Instead, get that software, or something similar, in the Microsoft Store, the Mac or iOS App Store, Android’s Google Play, the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, Safari Extensions, or Extensions for Microsoft Edge. Numerous experts recommended this step as a significant shield against installing malware, and a way to ensure your apps get updates when security vulnerabilities arise. Official app stores aren’t foolproof, but they are much safer than websites you find through search.
• Pay for software that’s regularly updated: If you need software that isn’t in an app store, look for apps that are frequently updated. That usually means software you pay for—when people pay for software, the author has incentive to maintain it, update it, and not seek payment through underhanded means, like search hijacking or the sale of customer data.
• Don’t download free things you know cost money: Software cracks, free MP3s, illegal live streams, video files with cryptic file names—you’re paying for these things somehow, and often it’s by opening up access to your computer or your browsing habits.
• Treat links and files in email and social media as guilty until proven innocent: If you weren’t expecting an email or a direct message—even if it appears to be from someone you know and trust—be particularly cautious about clicking its links or opening its files. Hover over links in emails and on social networks, and look at your browser’s status bar to see where they actually go. If it’s a shortened link, use GetLinkInfo.com to see what it expands to. No site should ever ask you, in an email or a direct message, to enter your existing password to deal with an account or security issue. If you’re ever uncertain, just the slightest bit, about whether a link or an email is really from the site it claims to be from, head directly to the site to deal with the issue instead of clicking the link in the message.
• Back up your computer: If you follow the above advice, you’re unlikely to get ransomware—malware that encrypts important files on your computer and then offers to sell you the encryption key so you can get them back—but no security is flawless. Everyone should back up their data, and here’s our step-by-step guide to backing up your computer. If your machine is infected, you can remove the ransomware, restore your files, and go about your day without worrying about how to get Bitcoin to a dark-web address.

What about phones?

Almost everything we’ve written above about computers applies to modern smartphones as well, but you should especially focus on keeping your apps updated, using strong biometric logins and passcodes, sticking to official app stores, avoiding suspicious links, and setting up accounts with two-factor authentication and strong passwords stored in a password manager.

As for keeping your phone updated and secure, that’s trickier, at least for Android phones. Manufacturers are bad at updating Android phones, even their expensive “flagship” models. Although Google updates its own apps frequently, independent of manufacturers, operating system upgrades and security updates don’t reach most Android phones. The exceptions are Google’s own phones: the high-end Pixel phones, and the more affordable Android One models. These phones receive regular security updates, and should get operating system upgrades for three years.

Apple does a lot better at getting updates out to iPhone owners, even iPhones that are four to five years old. That said, if your iPhone is no longer receiving iOS updates, or if important apps are showing notifications that they’re no longer supported on your OS version, it’s time to upgrade.

Atari’s anticipated retro revival VCS console is set to be available for pre-order on May 30th, according to the project’s Indiegogo page.

There are also a few limited time offers that are part of the Indiegogo, including a collector’s edition that features Atari’s iconic wood panel front, as well as a ‘Onyx’ black version. Pre-orders for the console start at $199 USD (which comes to roughly $255 CAD) and launch on May 30th.

Strangely, neither of these packages include a controller, with the announcement on the VCS’ Indiegogo page reading that “other packages will include the Classic Joystick and Modern Controller.”

Atari has confirmed that the VCS supports 4K output, HDR, dual-band Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 and even Bluetooth 5. The system is also set to be powered by an AMD processor, though it’s unclear exactly what one. It’s likely that the console features a Tegra processor of some sort.

That said, Atari still remains tight lipped regarding what games will actually be available on the system. We know that the system is set to come pre-loaded with Atari Vault, a 100-plus game collection of classic Atari games like Asteroids, Centipede and Missile Command. The company has also stated in the past that the system will feature “a full range of popular modern titles,” though it’s unclear what those games actually are.

No developer — or even Atari itself for that matter — has discussed what original games are coming to the console.

To be clear, the Atari of 2018 is not the Atari you may or may not have grown up loving. The company has changed hands multiple times since the 80s and is in many ways just a nostalgic brand name at this point.

While pre-orders for the VCS launch on may 30th, the console isn’t set to actually release until some point in 2019.

I can’t wait to play Frogger in 4K.

Source: Indiegogo

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mkalus shared this story from Fefes Blog.

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Benutzt hier jemand ein Auto von VW oder Audi?

A Dutch cyber-security firm has discovered that in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems deployed with some car models from the Volkswagen Group are vulnerable to remote hacking.

Dazu sollte man sagen, dass das das offensichtlichste Einfallstor ist. Das ist das, wo man als Security-Forscher losforschen würde. Es ist mir unbegreiflich, dass Autobauer diesen Scheiß nicht ordentlich wegisolieren vom Rest des Systems. Das ist als würde man den Benzintank oben offen lassen, weil, äh, was kann da schon passieren!1!!

Streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu boast fairly impressive libraries, but they’re by no means the largest, nor do they have the premium content that still makes cable networks relevant today. SelectTV, by contrast, boasts the world’s largest entertainment library, filled with TV shows, movies, radio stations, and content from top networks, all in one central, intuitive interface. One-year subscriptions are on sale today for nearly 40% off the usual price.

With a subscription to SelectTV, you can watch more than 300,000 TV episodes, 200,000 movies, 50,000 radio stations, and more on all of your devices. SelectTV boasts more than 2,000 curated channels, with latest episodes from top networks, as well as classic TV from the last 50 years, and it unifies your entertainment by combining all your subscriptions into one centralized guide.

Plus, those who sign up can also enjoy nine free months of combined Free Trials of premium services including HBONow, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, CBS All-Access, SlingTV, and Amazon Prime Video.

Now, you can sign up for a 1-year subscription to SelectTV for $24 CAD [$19 USD].

 

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It is with great pleasure that we can announce the release of the full digital version of The DAM Book 3.0. In the nine years since the last version was published, our use of visual media has become marked by increasing connectivity – between images, people, data, applications and web services. The new book helps you understand this connectivity and how to evaluate which tools are right for you.

The change in covers between TDB2 and TDB3 help to illustrate the differences between the versions. In 2009, it was fine to think about collection management as “a big ball of my stuff.” In our connected world, that’s not enough. Your image collection will connect to other people, images, services, applications, ideas and information. You will also probably have additional satellite collections on other devices or services. And, yes, like Tinkertoys, these connections often plug into each other in standardized ways. 

In the new book, I’ve laid out the elements of the connected media ecosystem. We’re seeing connection and integration in  all aspects of the way we make and use images. Connectivity is often born into an image at the moment of capture, and increases as your images move through the lifecycle. Almost everything that hosts or touches your images has some type of connection.

The new world of cloud and mobile workflow are impacting every part of the way we manage and make use of images. File formats, storage, backup and metadata are evolving to incorporate these new capabilities. I’ve rewritten the book from the ground-up so that connectivity is built in to each topic.

Of course, connectivity is not the only change that has come to digital media over the last nine years. The use and importance of photography has expanded dramatically, and anyone who wants to understand how visual media works can find important context in this book.

The post The DAM Book 3.0 released appeared first on The DAM Book.

I find myself frequently returning to this Atlantic photo essay on the Chinese bike share companies flooding the streets with bikes. It’s strangely beautiful.

Over the past few years, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to develop artistic mastery in facilitation/hosting practice. It’s an important topic to me because I teach this work, and it’s not always easy to design deep learning when people are expecting to become instantly good at facilitation after a single workshop.

The Art of Hosting is a practice founded on tools, rooted in theory. It takes time to understand and integrate this practice and become masterful at it. I often draw parallels between learning the practice and development of mastery in the arts.

Today I was sharing my experience in a kind of cheeky way with some other Art of Hosting stewards, and I wrote the following, which seems helpful:

 

The 14 steps of the artist’s journey to mastery (based on the last 30 years of my experience)

1. Cultivate the desire to create beauty
2. Discover a medium for doing so
3. Seek the teachers who can teach you how to use the tools of your medium faithfully
4. Use the tools faithfully to make simple things.
5. Ask why things work and why they don’t
6. With that knowledge, modify your tools to do what needs to be done beyond simplicity.
7. Discover the limitations of your tools.
8. Become a tool maker
9. Take on apprentices and teach them to use the tools faithfully to make simple things
10. Take on apprentices and help them reflect on why they are succeeding and failing.
11. I don’t know…I haven’t got there yet
12. Unimaginable to me, but I see it.
13. Wow.
14. The unrealized ideal master that I aspire to become, should I be given more than one lifetime to do so.

Along the way, be aware of the following:

• self-doubt
• errors at different scales
• mistakes and regret
• joy and surprise
• the desire of others to learn from you
• the feeling that you have nothing to offer them
• times of steep learning and times of long periods of integration
• waxing and waning of inspiration
• Rule 6a applies at all times (an inside joke: Rule 6a is “Don’t take yourself too f*cking seriously)

April was easy. The usual challenge was to close the Move ring every day. The special challenge was to close all three rings every day, which I do anyway. Who makes up these challenges? We will see whether May brings another impossible one that is broken by the one day off error.

Update: Got the exact same challenge for May, just with 31 days, because … :-)

Out for a walk after dinner, hoping for a monster sunset.  But found this instead.

On September 3, 1967, a nation-wide change occurred in Sweden that you may not have heard about, one that informs how road congestion charges and the Vision Zero philosophy were developed in that country.

On that day fifty years ago, every Swedish driver and cyclist changed from driving on the left side of the road to the right side. As the BBC reports, “the day was officially known as Högertrafikomläggningen (right-hand traffic diversion) or simply Dagen H (H-Day). Its mission was to put Sweden on the same path as the rest of its continental European neighbours, most of which had long followed the global trend to drive cars on the right.”

Using planned logistics and an education campaign,  every city and town had to repaint road markings, replan the locations of bus stops and lights, and reconfigure intersections, bikeways and one direction streets. Cities such as Stockholm, Malmö and Helsingborg used the “right side drive” campaign to increase buses by retiring tram lines, and started the conversation about traffic safety.

Signage had to be changed across Sweden, with the military assisting with that task. To facilitate the signage switch, all traffic except for emergency and essential services was banned. (From 1950 to 1966, fatal road crashes had increased over 100 per cent, to 1,313 in 1966.)

Remarkably, the change to driving on the right side of the road went pretty smoothly.
While “H-Day” was on a Sunday, only minor accidents occurred on the first Monday going back to work, and there were no fatalities.

As the changes caused Swedes to drive a bit more cautiously, traffic deaths decreased by nearly 18 per cent, and injuries were reduced by 11 per cent. “Investment in the planning and logistics” was credited for making the difference, as well as communication initiatives designed to educate the public and get them to comprehend the change.

Billboards, and even milk cartons, carried information on the change. “There was even a theme tune to accompany the switch, reaching number five on the Swedish hit parade.” 

Thirty years later, in 1997, Sweden commenced an international project to work towards Vision Zero, accepting no fatalities on their public roads. The statistics are fascinating — Sweden has one of the lowest road death statistics, with “270 people dying in 2016, compared to 1,313 in 1966, the year before Dagen H.”  

By prioritizing walking, cycling and transit, Sweden is already operating self-driving transit buses in Stockholm and planning for the impact of autonomous vehicles. They are also forecasting a future where few people in Sweden will need to drive at all, with an abundance of active transportation and transit alternatives.

An intensive public process and the exchange of ideas and information is seen as key to this transition to driverless options, increased use of transit, and technological change.

YouTube provides this Universal Newsreel coverage of the 1967 switch to the right side of the road.

PM Trudeau and Amazon officials have announced the future of Vancouver’s old Post Office today. With thanks to CTV News.

Amazon to build 416,000 sq. ft. office space for another 3,000 corporate hi-tech jobs.  Completion in 2022. This will eventually bring the Amazon work force to 5,000 in Vancouver.  Detail HERE from QuadReal Property Group.

Amazon will occupy 35 per cent of The Post’s 1.13 million square feet. This new arrangement extends the deep relationship the two companies enjoy in Toronto, Calgary and greater Vancouver. Upon completion in mid-2023, 7,000 people will make The Post their home for working, collaborating and creating.

Background HERE and HERE from earlier Price Tags posts, including former plans that may now be defunct, modified or otherwise in flux.

With commentary from Frances Bula.

There has been a very valuable discussion on Twitter from Ms. Sinenomine about the use of the term “Walkability”.

She is well worth a follow, and presents a stalwart and stark view of how the language we use focuses away from the root of accessibility and universal acceptance. She states the obvious: we need to do better at ensuring that the most vulnerable have the same access and social equity to sidewalk pavements and public spaces, and we must start doing that now.

Here is part of her post, presented below.

Earlier this week I was tagged on tweet related to an urban planning trend about designing for ‘walkable’ or ‘walkability.’ I replied, I don’t walk so it doesn’t apply to me.

If my friend calls me up and asks if I want to go for a walk I don’t yell “I DON’T WALK!” into the phone and hang up. I say “Oh Lord yes I need to get off Twitter, let’s go!” (If I’m well) My friend is not designing public space. My friend is not an urban planner.

I can’t believe I have to explain why the word matters a great deal in one situation and not in the least in another but…it’s 2018 and so apparently I do.

As a disabled person my accessibility needs either aren’t considered, are an afterthought, or I am stuck with someone else’s idea of what will work for me which not only doesn’t but who’ll then become angry & insist that it MUST because they understand my body better than I do.  The professions involved in designing our physical environment & architecture epitomize all three of the worst of those things.

Let’s assume no ill intent. Let’s assume no actual desire to exclude.
Let’s assume that inaccessibility in design today mainly happens because
‘I didn’t think about that.’
‘We changed it at the last minute.’
‘I didn’t think that small adjustment would matter.’
‘The budget was tight & we had to cut somewhere.’
‘We couldn’t make it work…’ So first of all – insisting that the word accessible be added or ‘walkable’ be replaced with a more inclusive word means that when they fail on accessibility, it is put front and centre. It’s not ‘among our priorities will be’ It is a requirement.

‏It also works as a reminder we exist and our design needs exist. For most of the last century we weren’t a part of the community & the community was not designed for us to be there. Disabled people were institutionalized. Designing for us wasn’t a consideration.

What passes for accessibility today may very well be considered out of date tomorrow.
One of the things that irritates me with planners, civil engineers, designers is they’ll tell me ‘We know how to make things accessible’

Really?
It’s all solved? Nothing to be improved?

But here’s the funny thing. I can push them on this because I am a wheelchair user. I can say simply, I can’t walk – and it’s true and it’s hard to argue with me that the word sounds strange ‘Hey there wheelchair user, come see the walkable neighbourhood we designed’

The truth is it’s not just about wheelchair users.

Before I was a wheelchair user I used a walker. I could get places I currently can’t but I felt less comfortable being out than I do know. The timing of the lights left me in the street when crossing.

I worried – really worried – about being knocked by someone’s bag or brushed too hard by someone passing on those not wide enough for people of different widths with different belongings, devices…to move at different speeds. It would not have taken much to knock me over.

But it’s not even just people who are unsteady – like I was – and using walkers – or wheelchair users.

Physical space is not just what’s beneath us. It’s what’s around us.
What in our physical space is welcoming or barrier to other disabled people.
It’s generally recognized that accessibility of design *should* (in theory) consider wheelchair users and people with mobility disabilities, blind and Deaf community needs. Less common- people with intellectual disabilities, ND folks, people with mental health disabilities.

I truly believe whatever they think they mean – or whatever a few exceptional ones may generally mean – the word walkable means, ‘people who are pretty much like me’ When your profession has been part of the systematic exclusion of an entire demographic & you genuinely want to make that shift to full inclusion – you don’t put it in the fine print…

You hire a sky writer, you drive around with a speaker on the roof of your car (or handlebar of your bike). You knock on doors. You hand out posters. You set up tables at the mall. You bring in interpreters. You make accessible videos – saying
WELCOME. WE WANT TO DO BETTER.

You can make your goal designing better communities for people who already are not excluded from the community – or you can make your goal designing communities that welcome everyone including those who have been and are most excluded.

The latter will necessarily give you the former. But the former will not necessarily lead to the latter – and in fact is unlikely. You can make your goal designing better communities for people who already are not excluded from the community – or you can make your goal designing communities that welcome everyone including those who have been and are most excluded.

Oh one last thing – while you’re all here. Still waiting for a building to be built where the non-disabled have to enter around back next to the garbage bin & only disabled people can use the main entrance.

When that happens, maybe we can talk about how we mean you too.”

Those hoping that Apple will reveal a new MacBook Air at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) may be in for some disappointment.

According to a new report from Digitimes, Apple’s often-rumoured and still yet-to-be-revealed 13-inch MacBook Air refresh with retina display, won’t be revealed at this year’s WWDC.

The report specifically states that Apple has pushed back the assembly of the new laptop to third quarter of 2018, which indicates it likely won’t arrive until the end of this year. Supply chain partners are stockpiling parts until Apple gives the manufacturing go-ahead, says Digitimes.

Digitimes describes the upcoming laptop as a new MacBook Air, though it’s possible Apple could rebrand the laptop at launch. Other information indicates the new Air will feature an Intel notebook processor and retina display.

It’s unclear if the new Air will feature only USB-C, or a mix of USB-A and USB-C ports. Apple’s new line of Pro and MacBook devices have been heavily criticized for only featuring USB-C ports.

At last year’s WWDC, Apple refreshed its line-up of laptops and the iMac with an internal spec bump. It’s expected we’ll get our first look at new version of Apple’s various operating systems at this year’s WWDC, including iOS 12, macOS 10.14, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12.

We’ll be on the ground at this year’s WWDC bringing you all the news directly from the conference floor.

Source: Digitimes

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U.S.-based e-commerce giant Amazon has announced that it will expand its Vancouver presence by launching a 416,000-square foot development centre in British Columbia’s largest city.

Amazon plans on expanding into the QuadReal The Post redevelopment — at 349 West Georgia Street — once the project opens in 2022.

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Amazon announcing plans to expand into a site on Dunsmuir Street in 2020.

According to an April 30th, 2018 media release, the company believes that its West Georgia Street offices will create 3,000 additional jobs in the city. The company believes that it will bring roughly 5,000 jobs to Vancouver across all of its planned developments.

“Our vibrant cities, which are home to some of the best talent in the world, are poised to attract premier investment that creates the jobs of tomorrow,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the same April release. “Canadians share your passion for invention and your commitment to excellence – and that’s why we are excited to see Amazon grow here in Vancouver”

Amazon currently employs 1,000 people in Vancouver and approximately 6,000 people in Canada.

“Vancouver is home to an incredibly talented and diverse workforce, and these thousands of new employees will invent on behalf of our customers worldwide,” said Alexandre Gagnon, vice president of Amazon Canada and Mexico, in the same April release.

Source: Amazon

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In the coming months, Google plans to make it easier for Android users to consume and discover new podcasts.

In an interview with Pacific Content, Zack Reneau-Wedeen, a product manager at the search giant, said “Our team’s mission is to help double the amount of podcast listening in the world over the next couple years.” Reneau-Wedeen went on to detail how Google plans to achieve that lofty goal.

To start, the company promises its search engine will treat podcasts as “first-class citizens” moving forward. In practice, this means Google will generate rich snippets for popular podcasts. These snippets will allow Search users to listen to podcasts directly inside of the company’s search engine. They’ll also be able to subscribe, as well as browse recent episodes and recommendations, all without leaving Google.

At the moment, this feature is hit-and-miss. For some even extremely popular podcasts like the New York Times‘ The Daily podcast, Google doesn’t generate a dashboard.

Additionally, the company plans to make it easier to continue playback between devices. At the end of April, Pacific Content published a report that said Google had updated Assistant to allow it to keep track of playback between devices. In the future, Pacific Content says the company plans to add this functionality across “every surface” users interact with Google    

Lastly, Google plans to launch new features that leverage the company’s speech and language expertise. Pacific Content says it will detail those enhancements in the coming days.

If there’s one takeaway from the interview, it’s that Android will likely include a first-party podcasts app at some point in the future.

Despite its larger userbase, the majority of frequent podcast listeners use an iPhone to listen to their favourite podcasts. Reneau-Wedeen attributes some of that imbalance to the fact that iOS ships with a first-party podcast app, which helps make it easier for new users to start enjoying the medium.

“The fact that when you open up an iPhone, it has a podcast app and your iPhone-having friends probably have been listening to podcasts plays a big role,” said Reneau-Wedeen. “So we want to create an environment on Android where it’s just as easy to get started, and it’s actually the best experience possible for discovering and listening to podcasts.”

The interesting thing here is that Google already has something of native podcast app. Using Search, Android users can create a shortcut to a web app that allows them to manage their podcast subscriptions, as well as a discover new podcasts. It’s likely we’ll see Google build out this web app into a fully featured Android app.

Source: Pacific Content

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mkalus shared this story from Ulysses Blog.

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We’re going full steam ahead with Ulysses 13. So, what can you expect? During the coming weeks, we’re going to reveal more and more details of the new features in the forthcoming release.

Ulysses adds color to your world!

At least a little bit: from the next version, you’ll be able to assign colors to your keywords. We’ll let you choose between the colors of the spectrum, and light grey. The new color will be applied automatically to all occurrences of a keyword in your library.

Wall Street has major jitters when it comes to Apple's upcoming earnings release. Sentiment has decidedly swung toward the negative as questions swirl around iPhone X demand. Despite the dramatic downturn in expectations, Apple's stock price has held up remarkably well. While many eyes will be on iPhone sales tomorrow, my suspicion is that the data point won't have as much influence as consensus assumes. Instead, Apple's capital return update has the potential to be the major takeaway from 2Q18 earnings.  

The following table contains my Apple 2Q18 estimates. The ingredients are in place for Apple to report a slight EPS beat to consensus although 3Q18 revenue guidance will likely come in below consensus. 

My full perspective and commentary behind these estimates are available to Above Avalon subscribers. (Become a subscriber to access my full 5,000-word Apple 2Q18 earnings preview available here. To sign up, visit the subscription page.)

Items Worth Watching

Here are the five variables worth watching when Apple releases earnings on Tuesday: 

iPhone Channel Inventory. Given prior management commentary, iPhone unit sell-through growth and iPhone average selling price don't represent the major wildcards for 2Q18 earnings. Instead, the big unknown is found with iPhone channel inventory. A significant channel inventory drawdown will result in Apple reporting iPhone unit sales closer to 50M units. Vice versa, a relatively minor decline in iPhone channel inventory may lead to Apple reporting iPhone sales slightly ahead of my 52M unit expectation. 

iPad ASP. The days of dramatic iPad unit sales declines are over. Accordingly, instead of unit sales, average selling price (ASP) stands to provide much more information regarding the latest iPad trends. A weaker-than-expected iPad ASP may support the view that the 9.7-inch iPad at the low end of the line is likely gaining momentum at the expense of the higher-end iPad Pro options.

Other Products. Apple's "Other Products" category has the sales momentum. The line item includes various products such as Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, Beats headphones, iPod touch, and Apple-branded and third-party accessories. 

3Q18 Guidance. Apple's 3Q18 revenue guidance will likely provide a few clues as to how iPhone demand has been trending. One complicating factor when it comes to revenue guidance is that Apple's non-iPhone part of the business is seeing major momentum. iPhone weakness will be partially offset by strength in Other Products and Services. 

Capital Return. Apple will announce changes to its capital return program. My expectations are for a $100 billion increase to share buyback authorization and a 20% increase to the quarterly cash dividend. Management commentary regarding timing associated with share repurchases will be closely monitored. 

2Q18 Expectation Meters

Each quarter, I publish expectation meters ahead of Apple's earnings release. Expectation meters turn single-point financial estimates into more useful ranges that aid in judging Apple's quarterly performance.

In each expectation meter, the grey shaded area is my expectation range. A result that falls within this range signifies that the product or variable being measured is performing as expected. A result in the green shaded area denotes strong performance and likely leads me to raise my assumptions and estimates going forward. Vice-versa, a result in the red shaded area has the opposite effect and leads me to reduce my assumptions. 

I am publishing three expectations meters this quarter: iPhone unit sales, Other Products, and 3Q18 guidance. 

My iPhone unit sales expectation range stretches from 50M to 54M iPhones. iPhone unit sales within this range would be labeled as expected. If Apple reports iPhone sales greater than 54M units, results would best be described as strong. A sub-50M iPhone result would lead me to reassess my sales expectations going forward. 

For "Other Products," revenue that exceeds $4 billion would support the view that Apple Watch and AirPods were strong sellers during the quarter. HomePod sales will also likely contribute to the year-over-year growth in revenue.  

Revenue guidance that exceeds $50 billion would likely be viewed positively while revenue closer to $45B would be viewed negatively. It is likely that Apple's 3Q18 revenue guidance will reflect a year-over-year revenue increase. The increase is due to momentum in Services and Other Products.

Above Avalon subscribers have access to my full 5,000-word Apple 2Q18 earnings preview (four parts):

1. Setting the Stage
2. iPhone Estimates
3. iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Services Estimates
4. Revenue, EPS, Capital Return, 3Q18 Guidance

Subscribers will also receive my exclusive earnings reaction emails containing all of my thoughts and observations on Apple's 2Q18 earnings report and conference call. To read my Apple earnings preview and receive my earnings reaction notes, sign up at the subscription page.