Based on this Hacker News submission, see below for how long you have been iddle. You move your mouse, it stops the counter. Don’t. Even. Breathe! (kidding, kidding, breathe, damn it! 😅)
You have been idle for 000 seconds.
interesting techBased on this Hacker News submission, see below for how long you have been iddle. You move your mouse, it stops the counter. Don’t. Even. Breathe! (kidding, kidding, breathe, damn it! 😅)
You have been idle for 000 seconds.
interesting techThis is good news. I can’t help thinking of my father, as he could have benefitted from a device like this.
apple health tech“Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device, Hearing Aid Feature, intended to be used with compatible versions of the Apple AirPods Pro headphones. Once installed and customized to the user’s hearing needs, the Hearing Aid Feature enables compatible versions of the AirPods Pro to serve as an OTC hearing aid, intended to amplify sounds for individuals 18 years or older with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment.”
Every single person in the United States—with the exception of those that were born, say, a month ago (and it’s only a matter of time)—has had their PII data leaked. Between the many breaches, everyone, and I mean everyone is exposed, and should have their credit frozen. Those Change Healthcare letters we are getting are part of this. But before those, there was AT&T, T-Mobile, the many banks, the many others. An almost endless list. Did I say you are exposed? Because you are!
finances rants tech“Face with bags under eyes” is the Emoji I didn’t know I needed, and can’t wait to abuse the bejesus out of it once arrives. Though not Emoji, Apple is going to take this to the next level on iOS 18. I am all for rich, international, ways to communicate!
apple techI am facing a small dilemma. I don’t feel I have the energy, nor the content, to share my attention across different places. I have a “blog”, to which I write once, or twice a year. I have these notes, which I used to use more often. I also have an ActivityPub server (aka Mastodon, or Fediverse), and a BlueSky PDS (Personal Data Server).
I really need to downsize. What to “cut off” first?
life tech thoughtsSo that I can remember to create a Gist with this later. Useful if you run GoToSocial, have moved to it from another service, and want to keep your initial Fediverse or ActivityPub “joined date”.
# Find the user ID.
select id, created_at from accounts where username = 'username_here'
# Use newly found user ID to update the "created_at" field.
update accounts set created_at = '2016-10-04 21:27:33+00:00' where id = 'user_id_here';
I have never brought Phanpy (a delightfully opinionated, minimalistic, Mastodon client) to Notes before, so here it goes its first appearance. It is lovely. The way it does threading is really good, and the “Catch-up” feature is marvelous.
If you use Mastodon, or a Mastodon API compatible server, give Phanpy a try. I promise you will not be disappointed.
social techNow, this is some promise!
apple security techWhen we launch Private Cloud Compute, we’ll take the extraordinary step of making software images of every production build of PCC publicly available for security research. This promise, too, is an enforceable guarantee: user devices will be willing to send data only to PCC nodes that can cryptographically attest to running publicly listed software. We want to ensure that security and privacy researchers can inspect Private Cloud Compute software, verify its functionality, and help identify issues — just like they can with Apple devices.
Oh boy, some people sure are something. Yet, this could be just the preamble of what’s to come, maybe.
rants social techBefore phoning the number, Gaudreau did a search in Facebook Messenger to find out whether it was legitimate.
The answer he got in Messenger from the “Meta AI” artificial intelligence search tool was that the phone number he found, 1-844-457-0520, was “indeed a legitimate Facebook support number.”
“I awoke one night in Quito, Ecuador, this year and came up with a way to save a chip or two from the Apple II, and a trivial way to have the 2 grays of the Apple II be different (light gray and dark gray) but it’s 38 years too late. It did give me a good smile, since I know how hard it is to improve on that design.”
— Woz thinks of an Apple II improvement over 35 years later
Now, that’s truly something, eh? Just as Steve Jobs was, Steve Wozniak sure is an interesting fellow.
apple interesting techIf you want to quickly test your disk speed on Linux (might work on macOS, but not 100% sure) simply do:
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=1G count=7 status=progress ; rm -f test
Decently happy with my results: 7516192768 bytes (7.5 GB, 7.0 GiB) copied, 5.10763 s, 1.5 GB/s. I figure, though, that’s expected on an NVMe M.2 SSD.
tech unix“As he rode the train back to Yokosuka, he watched his fellow passengers absorbed in their phones. ‘We completed the job’, he thought with satisfaction, ‘and they have no idea’.”
Interesting reading titled “The Cloud Under the Sea”. It was difficult to navigate on my Linux laptop (Chrome, Firefox, and Edge all struggled with it), but worth it.
interesting japan techAn email from AT&T, with “Important Information” on the subject:
“We’re contacting you regarding the security of your data. After a thorough assessment, AT&T has determined that some of your personal information was compromised…”
No kidding, Sherlock! Some as in my name, phone number, address, and social security number (this one is key). Some?! Oh, but I must rest assured that “AT&T takes these issues very seriously”. As if! 😤
rants security techIt happened again. Yes, again. Companies which we must trust to receive their services let us down, mishandling, and keeping our private information insecurely. They get breached, and criminals sell the information to anyone willing to pay.
A credit freeze has been placed for Kim and I on the three credit bureaus. Ugh!
finances rants techA ★★½ for iCloud for Windows is one and a half stars too many. It truly is rubbish. Is that on purpose, Apple? 😒
apple techI have been struggling for days to build an ISO image that will auto-install Ubuntu workstation. Canonical’s way is to install server, then add ubuntu-desktop (and other packages needed/wanted), then remove ubuntu-server, and ubuntu-minimal-server. That’s mind boggling to me. That’s nuts.
I have used Journal. I want to use it more. As soon as more simple formatting (bulleted and numbered lists, links, and blockquotes) are added it will become my go to diary, 100% of the time.
I recently discovered that bold, italics, and underlined formatting is available on selection menu. 🎉
apple techRenting weaknotes.com because I am a sucker, and like to waste a few dollars every once in a while. Currently redirecting to Notes, but might do something else with it later on.
random techOn Keys.pub, I knew it. I emailed Gabriel early 2022 when I saw the project slowing down. I just can’t describe how easy, and clean, and streamlined the app is (yes, it works like it did on its best days).
BEGIN SALTPACK SIGNED MESSAGE. kXR7VktZdyH7rvq v5weRa0zkDCU2lW iMkdfIdqh3M2CpZ m9XIcrqT60yyh90 6ZjZBnea32okiLQ DDoeC9rTPTnIP8a JR9OieJF8tUzb5D AnXAhpm64p4eWNQ wgToLoxtGksKfsj L6trUfotLUwhrQ2 sGs9ZxkAqwRSlqx S2tUNq27ZxjiKVT k65tuXtGnef1rax dRZOp0EL4BFN2rX rOBUKDnUMhpRJXx LnurairmqvNgyz1 FQqblgToiEtKTde 9kNRqN2wpU7HDpp N9NuVSYxyrtJRja VFwpzEPEjFYl058 w7ecu0kz3uDS2by iRNWdP3uPGeekfo xJ1eSKkMe44jXF7 8L. END SALTPACK SIGNED MESSAGE.
On Keys.pub:
“Unfortunately, this project is not currently being worked on. I may revisit this in the future, if you would like to sponsor development or hire me please reach out at gabriel@keys.pub.”
So sad. I really wanted to place all my eggs on this basket, I had started to. Back to the reliable gpg for now.
We must set, and use, and enforce, Azimov’s “Three Laws of Robotic” on the now called AI:
The new Teams client is having spell checking issues under Windows. Of all things, check spelling is broken. As someone at work wrote “It’s amazing how a technology that has been around for like 30 years and is in pretty much every tech product seems to have gone from bad to non-existent in the latest version of Teams.”
rants tech workWas too busy—or too lazy—to drop a note on new year’s evening. I have been using iOS Journal, which now holds some notes I would have dropped here otherwise. Journal has bugs, and it isn’t great, but I am betting on it getting better.
It is already 2 January 2024, but not too late to wish you all a happy new year!
apple life tech