Articles, journal entries, short stories and essays – they all end up here, in my blog.
I recently announced a new project by yours truly, called Switch to iPad. If you’ve been with me for some time, you know I’m an avid iPad user. It’s my favorite computing device, and I rely on it for great many things.
But not all of them, at least not yet.
The first two issues of Switch to iPad has been sent to subscribers, both free for all. The first issue, asking the question wether you’re ready to switch to iPad, clocked in at 1,500 words, whereas the second – covering picking the right iPad – was 1,900 words.
The third issue is due on Tuesday, and it’s another long one: the first draft is 1,900 words. Issue 3 is only for paying subscribers though, so you might want to consider subscribing? Pretty please?
Either way, I’m happy with the Switch to iPad project thus far, and I’m looking forward to keeping at this for quite some time.
From an older (February, 20190) piece in The Atlantic, about kids finding out that their parents has been sharing their life on social media since their inception:
For several months, Cara has been working up the courage to approach her mom about what she saw on Instagram. Not long ago, the 11-year-old—who, like all the other kids in this story, is referred to by a pseudonym—discovered that her mom had been posting photos of her, without prior approval, for much of her life. “I’ve wanted to bring it up. It’s weird seeing myself up there, and sometimes there’s pics I don’t like of myself,” she said.
Every parent I know does this. They do it out of pride of their child, family, or just because they want to share their life (mostly the good parts) on social media, just like everyone else. It’s just as fake as most other things that go up there, filtered by choice and design, but it leaves a mark for a human being that’s not yet a person, and hasn’t made the choice. That’s a tricky disposition, if you ask me. By all means share, but do it privately, in groups through secure channels.
File this one under how is this news, or maybe arbitrary number that makes headlines because someone said so, but still:
Under the strictest set of assumptions – where, as on Earth, life forms between 4.5bn and 5.5bn years after star formation – there are likely between four and 211 civilisations in the Milky Way today capable of communicating with others, with 36 the most likely figure. But Conselice noted that this figure is conservative, not least as it is based on how long our own civilisation has been sending out signals into space – a period of just 100 years so far.
Want to chat with said alien civilizations? Then we’d look at 6,120 years for a reply… Yeah, technology’s not really there yet.
I’m launching a newsletter early August. It’s called Switch to iPad, and it’s about, well:
Switch to iPad is a journey to going iPad only. That is to say, getting rid of all those pesky (I kid!) Macs and PCs, and relying on the magic piece of glass that is the iPad as my primary (big) computing device. Together we’ll figure out how to work from an iPad, try out all the gadgets that help us along the way, and find the best apps and methods for a better computing life.
Read more about it here, and sign up. There’ll be free letters, but there’s also a paid tier with the standard premium newsletter fare of $5/month or $50/year.
More on this soon. I’m excited!
If you saw Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and more tweet bitcoin scams recently, you saw the result of a social engineering hack targeting verified Twitter accounts primarily. Vice has the full story.
“We used a rep that literally done all the work for us,” one of the sources told Motherboard. The second source added they paid the Twitter insider. Motherboard granted the sources anonymity to speak candidly about a security incident. A Twitter spokesperson told Motherboard that the company is still investigating whether the employee hijacked the accounts themselves or gave hackers access to the tool.
I’m amazed and horrified that the scam worked, collecting over $100,000 worth of bitcoin. Please be more careful, and don’t trust so easily, okay?
Things could’ve been worse though. What if a hack like this was used to spread disinformation, rather than just grab cash from gullible suckers that thinks Elon Musk can magically duplicate bitcoins for free? Come election time, get ready to not trust anything, verified badge or not.
The Facebook SDK is crashing a bunch of iOS apps today, including popular ones such as Spotify and Pinterest. Luckily you can do something about it, by enabling a VPN or a firewall app that blocks the sneaky code that tries to talk to Facebook. The Verge swears by Lockdown Apps, a free firewall for iOS, so if you’re having issues, give it a go. The VPN costs money, but there’s a trial. It’s likely Zenmate – which I like – will get the job done too, although I haven’t tried any of these for this particular problem as I’ve yet to experience it.