The Economist: Boeing’s misplaced strategy on the 737 MAX
The number of idle, new MAXes piling up has grown to 400.
What a disaster of an idea this plane has turned out to be.
The Economist: Boeing’s misplaced strategy on the 737 MAX
The number of idle, new MAXes piling up has grown to 400.
What a disaster of an idea this plane has turned out to be.
With recent talk on micro.blog about trying to find international voices, I’ve added the Australian flag 🇦🇺 to my profile blurb. Maybe that will help.
Finished Firewatch last night. I’m besotted with Delilah. 🕹
Aussie micro bloggers make yourself known to @prologic ro be added to his dedicated page
Hi @davewoodx - awesome to find you on micro.blog. Thanks for your support via Twitter with TV Tune Up. I endorse your app for effective TV calibration.
After a couple of years of using Fiery Feeds, I bought the latest version of Reeder, which used to be my go to for RSS. It’s not nearly as full-featured but it’s nice.
Daring Fireball: Time’s 2019 Person of the Year: Greta Thunberg
Thunberg really riles up conservatives.
I was doorknocked by JWs yesterday. They slammed Thunberg, arguing Psalm 37 says we have been given Earth for all time. So apparently we can fuck it up without concern.
My employer has reduced password age to 45 days - due to cybersecurity insurances policies. I contest that short password durations are worse for security. Better to have a long passphrase and be done with it.
Daring Fireball: The Information: ‘Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market’
“There’s no easy ability to ID a user.”
I’m a happy Safari user, falling back to Firefox if required. I avoid Chrome.
I connected my HomePod to my Apple TV. The audio quality for television shows is impressive.
Float, the Pixar short film on Disney+, tugs all the heartstrings.
It was a blast participating in the Micro Monday podcast. @macgenie was a great host who kept the conversation flowing.
Bluey is the greatest kids television show ever made. This article explores the production side of making an animated show.
I’ve been trawling through some old text files of mine. I came across a note from 2012 that I initially thought was my own, but now recognise it as the work of Shawn Blanc.
Shawn’s post highlights issues relating to working from home. He references a podcast that I used to enjoy listening to — the Home Work podcast, hosted by Aaron Mahnke and Dave Caolo1 . I can’t find an active link for the podcast. It was last hosted by 5by5. Since the podcast ended Aaron Mahnke has gone on to fame and fortune with Lore and Dave Caolo has moved on to other projects.
Leveraging the notes posted by Shawn Blanc, I see that the podcast noted working from home as thus:
Working from home isn’t always about notebooks, apps and office furniture. Much of it happens in the head, between fighting distraction, staying focused and keeping things organised. In this episode, Aaron and Dave chat about leaving work at work (even when it’s in your home) and doing a mind-sweep to keep things clear.
This is a challenge worth remembering, particularly now in 2019 when ubiquitous networking and powerful mobile devices makes it so easy to do work not only from home, but from anywhere at anytime. There is a clear risk of dedicating too much time to work because it’s possible. Yet this doesn’t make it the right choice. We really need to protect our leisure time.
Day 30 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available.
You thought religion was a dangerous topic? No, I’ve left the really dangerous one until last. Today, let’s talk politics.
I’ve been interested in politics since I was 12 or 13 years old. Perhaps influenced by my conservative parents, and having grown up in an Australia where for the length of my memory Labor had been in government, I felt Labor were taking it all for granted.
I determined that Labor were not for me. The Australian economy was in recession and it felt that our family had been forgotten.
Time moved on and I began to take a different outlook on life. I realised that our family was living on the margins in low-income outer suburbia.
I did well enough at school that I was able to attend university. This was a foundation for self-improvement and growth. It helped me begin to see there was a broader world beyond that in which I had grown up.
I came to see that were it not for the efforts of the Labor Party to make university education affordable for everybody irrespective of their family situation, societal status or upbringing, I would never have been able to afford to go to university, even if I was clever enough. I also saw the people who were involved in the Liberal Party - and I knew they were nothing like me. My suburban story was foreign to them.
The Labor Party, on the other hand, was full of people that I could relate to, who had similar stories to mine.
My involvement in the Labor Party accelerated when I met my future wife, Hannah, who happened to be the daughter of Kim Beazley. He was the Leader of the Labor Party in Australia’s national parliament at the time. It’s not good for romance if you vote against your girlfriend’s father!
Ironically, I didn’t meet Hannah through any political connection or event. We met in a nightclub. Those were the days!
That was in 1999. Since then I’ve been involved in politics in ways and to degrees that my childhood self could never have imagined.
I’ve worked on campaigns, I’ve door-knocked, I’ve called voters. I’ve twice supported my wife as a candidate at State and Federal elections. Unfortunately she was not victorious, despite running excellent campaigns and being generally well-regarded. The big swings that are needed to change a seat in politics simply didn’t eventuate.
It is easy to get caught up in the game of politics. When that happens to me, I think back on my own story. I believe the purpose of politics is to help communities, and enable people to have a fair and equal opportunity to become the best version of themselves. It’s about allowing kids like me living in poor suburbs have a chance to get an education. For me, an education unlocked employment opportunities and life improvements that I would not have ever imagined. It also helped the nation, because being qualified to get higher paying jobs I’ve been able to pay a lot more income tax than I otherwise would have.
Governments and politicians are servants of the people. When this responsibility is forgotten the system breaks down. When Paul Keating was in charge and the recession was in full swing, I looked at the situation around me and felt forgotten. When I look around now I feel that many, many more are forgotten. That needs to be brought to their attention. If it is, then perhaps they will elect to have a government that will be an effective servant who acts in their best interests.
Microblogvember: Over the past 30 days I have been able to integrate the Microblogvember prompts from @macgenie into my daily blogging routine. These micro posts run in parallel with my longer Blogvember posts.
Day 29 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available.
My life has always been connected to religion and it has played a formative role in my upbringing.
Baptised Anglican, and the son of an Anglican minister, I remember sitting through interminably boring sermons and church services that seemed to go forever. I also remember visiting the church with my Mom and sitting on her lap and steering our car through the parking lot while she dealt with the pedals.
Then our family transitioned away from Anglicanism towards a Pentecostal approach to religion, and we attended an Assemblies of God church. My memories of that church was that it was more interesting than the Anglican Church. Looking back, I think it drifted further towards the charismatic ‘modern’ approach to Pentecostalism. This was a long time ago, and I was growing through my teen years, so I can’t confirm if that is an accurate assessment - but it is my memory.
At this point I drifted away from organised religion.
Later I married a Catholic girl, so I have become familiar with the yin to the Anglican’s yang. I actually don’t mind the Catholic service - except for all the random sitting and standing, and then some kneeling for good measure. I always just copy the person next to me. Of course, both the Anglicans and Catholics strike fear into the heart of all introverts with their ‘peace be with you’ bit. Really, must we?
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had two work meetings divert into topics of religion and churches. This doesn’t worry me at all. What I find interesting is that Australia is a secular country, and rarely in my working life has religion ever come up in a work context before.
At this time our country is being led by a Prime Minister who declares his faith. What I find unfortunate is that this faith is tied to the Hillsong church business. I cannot abide this organisation. Their ‘prosperity doctrine’ has worked for their founders who have become obscenely rich, and (I believe) powerful behind the scenes despite having no formalised legitimacy. The Hillsong business spreads a message that deviates far from the original word and intention of Jesus. Cherry picking gospel and turning church into a rock concert doesn’t seem the answer to me.
Now they have the ear of our Prime Minister; and I’m sure they tell their followers that is further evidence of the truth of their mission. I’m not so believing.
Religion has forever played a part in keeping civilisation in order. It has provided guidelines for appropriate lifestyles when there has been no governance system or rule of law to steer societies.
Religion has been an enabler of great deeds. Religion has been a driving force for wars and hatred.
There is no doubt it is a complex issue. We will either get all the answers at our death, or we won’t.
Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2019 SaaS Deals Harmonizely is 50% off your first payment. It’s a good WhenWorks alternative. @macgenie
I took advantage of Apple’s Black Friday deals to buy a new Apple TV 4K. Then discovered I was only on the Netflix “HD” plan - not the “UHD” plan so had to give them more money. Meanwhile, Apple TV+ and Disney+ offer UHD by default for less than the basic Netflix plan! 📺
Microblogvember: 29 days into the challenge; 1 day to go. Fantastic!
Day 28 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available.
I hope my children have a good future. Challenges confront them large and small.
Some of my immediate hopes include:
Any prior generation to mine could probably stop there. Yet now I feel like our kids are faced with an existential crisis, the likes of which we have never battled before. I fear that the world they grow up in will be damaged and impacted by anthropogenic global warming, that will bring down all sorts of issues. In this sense, I hope:
It’s a worrying world. Some of my hopes for my children I can influence through effective parenting. Others are completely outside of my direct control. All I have is hope.
Microblogvember: Prices of property in Perth went through the roof a few years ago as we experienced a ‘mining boom’. They’ve settled down again now but houses are still way more expensive relative to income than they were a few decades prior.
I’m falling down the rabbit hole of encrypted internet services. First Keybase for messaging, then Standard Notes for notes and now Tresorit for file storage and secure sharing.
Day 27 of Blogvember. A full list of prompts for the month is available.
I get frustrated when I lose something basic, like keys, glasses or my wallet. I have a designated ‘home location’ for these items. Despite that, they still seem to have a tendency to disappear from time to time.
It is the most frustrating kind of loss, because I know they have to be around somewhere. But that somewhere could be anywhere. The loss usually seems to occur when I’m in a rush to get out of the house. Murphy’s Law, hard at work.
Apple’s ‘Find My’ service is great for lost devices. Also great for lost spouses - it’s not stalking when you’re married! Unfortunately this service doesn’t work for keys and wallets. I’ve been tempted to buy some tiles, but I’m never feeling the pain of the loss when I’ve considered buying them, so I put it off.
I’m interested in the rumours about Apple developing a similar tile tracking device. Since I’m already all-in with Apple devices I imagine these would have great integration with everything else in the house. It might even make losing things fun, because no doubt it would integrate with the Find My app and probably make some gentle pinging noise to help me locate the item.
Losing things will always be annoying but if we can get some cool tech gadgets to offset that, then I’m all for it.
I literally finished writing this post, got up to put my bag away, and realised my wallet was missing. I found it, but not before suffering a mild anxiety attack. So frustrating,
Microblogvember: I may not be rich but at least I have my health. (Glass half full, glass half full…!)