I took my Series 0 Apple Watch off of the charger at 8:00 this morning. It is now almost 8 hours later and it still has 83% battery left. It’s three and a half years old or so.
What sort of witchcraft is this?!?
Monthly Archives: March 2018
Westworld Season 2 — Official Trailer
I can’t take the wait anymore! This has to be one of the best shows ever created.
Growth at Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection in 2016 Memo and Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed →
Ryan Mac, Charlie Warzel, and Alex Kantrowitz published Andrew Bosworth’s (a Facebook VP) memo from 2016 on Buzzfeed:
Andrew Bosworth
June 18, 2016
The Ugly
We talk about the good and the bad of our work often. I want to talk about the ugly.
We connect people.
That can be good if they make it positive. Maybe someone finds love. Maybe it even saves the life of someone on the brink of suicide.
So we connect more people.
That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.
And still we connect people.
The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.
That isn’t something we are doing for ourselves. Or for our stock price (ha!). It is literally just what we do. We connect people. Period.
That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it.
The natural state of the world is not connected. It is not unified. It is fragmented by borders, languages, and increasingly by different products. The best products don’t win. The ones everyone use win.
I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this. Most of us have the luxury of working in the warm glow of building products consumers love. But make no mistake, growth tactics are how we got here. If you joined the company because it is doing great work, that’s why we get to do that great work. We do have great products but we still wouldn’t be half our size without pushing the envelope on growth. Nothing makes Facebook as valuable as having your friends on it, and no product decisions have gotten as many friends on as the ones made in growth. Not photo tagging. Not news feed. Not messenger. Nothing.
In almost all of our work, we have to answer hard questions about what we believe. We have to justify the metrics and make sure they aren’t losing out on a bigger picture. But connecting people. That’s our imperative. Because that’s what we do. We connect people.
In the meantime, Mark Zuckerberg responded, and I don’t believe a single word of what he said. This is a conversation he had, when he was 19:
Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuck: Just ask.
Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend’s Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuck: People just submitted it.
Zuck: I don’t know why.
Zuck: They “trust me”
Zuck: Dumb fucks.
There are no words to communicate my disgust with this “company”. Facebook should never have become the monstrosity it now is. We shouldn’t have allowed it.
I forced a restart on my Series 0, because it appeared to be non-responsive. It spent a minute or three on the Apple logo, then asked me for my password, and is now displaying the Apple logo again.
I don’t mind that the Watch is slow — it still works fine for gathering Health data — but the update process is extremely frustrating.
Update
It took another 5 minutes or so, but finally restarted.
My HomePod needed 5 minutes to update to iOS 11.3. My Series 0 Apple Watch is at over 5 hours now, and the end is nowhere in sight.
At this point, I’m tempted to try to force it to restart — it appears to be doing nothing.
Dictionary-Makers Found the First Known Use of “Mansplain” →
Thu-Huong Ha, for Quartz:
The team of lexicographers charged with adding new words to the historical dictionary recorded the first documented use of “mansplain” in August 2008. In an exchange between two bloggers on Livejournal, electricwitch, a then-22-year-old fan of Bowie and Bollywood based in the Netherlands, accused count-vronsky, who has since deactivated their account, of mansplaining.
I think I first heard this term on Twitter, quite recently, probably near the end of 2017. A guy — naturally — was being an ass towards a woman. He continued being even more of an ass, when someone accused him of “mansplaining”.
You know what @instagram, why don’t you just add a chronological feed option? Screw algorithms — you have no clue what I want to see and in what order. The past few months have proven that many times over. So many, in fact, that I barely use your product anymore and I’m considering deleting my account.
I started deleting all of Facebook content today, using a script. After all my data is erased, which I have no clue how long it will take, I will proceed to delete my account.
Instagram and WhatsApp will be next. Sadly.
#deleteFacebook →
John Biggs:
Facebook is using us. It is actively giving away our information. It is creating an echo chamber in the name of connection. It surfaces the divisive and destroys the real reason we began using social media in the first place – human connection.
It is a cancer.
I had to restart the HomePod today, because it wouldn’t play any music. Talking to Siri, asking her to play something, resulted in an “OK”, followed by silence.
I unplugged it from power and after plugging it back in, it now appears to function correctly. Just like Windows 3.1, back when I was a bit younger.
Hey Siri, Set the HomePod’s Volume
I discovered an interesting tidbit regarding setting the HomePod’s volume:
- The buttons on top of the HomePod change the volume in 5% increments on each tap.
- The voice command “Hey Siri, louder / quieter”, “Hey Siri, increase / decrease the volume”, etc. changes the volume in 10% increments.
Also, Siri really shouldn’t need to hear the “Hey” in “Hey Siri” every single time I need something from her.
“Siri, just do it.”
My iCloud Music Library is f*cked. Apple has been on it since yesterday and so far I’ve been on the phone for about four hours. Should get another call soon. The problem is that changes don’t sync between my devices and my HomePod is unable to play the music I purchased in the iTunes Store.
My Mom passed away exactly three years ago. Hope she’s in a better place.
🥃
#fuckCancer
RIP Stephen Hawking →
Stephen Hawking – who died aged 76 – battled motor neurone disease to become one of the most respected and best-known scientists of his age.
Today, we all lost a truly great person.
When I learned about Stephen Hawking’s passing on the radio today, I asked Siri how old he was. She answered:
Stephen Hawking died today at age 76.
I was of course saddened by the news of his death, but I was also surprised that Siri got the answer.
80 Percent of Mass Shooters Showed No Interest in Video Games →
Anna Werner:
President Trump met with video game industry representatives Thursday, after saying last month violent video games may play a role in mass shootings. The president met with parents like Melissa Henson.
“The kind of messages and images that they are putting in their minds, I think they’re nightly dress rehearsals for huge acts of violence,” she said.
But psychologist Patrick Markey’s research shows 80 percent of mass shooters did not show an interest in violent video games.
Personally, I have never been inclined to go kill someone because of a game, despite playing Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, CS:GO, PUBG, and various other FPS shoot-em-ups since I was a kid, but I’m sure this potentially could be dangerous for a handful of people. Then again, people who have trouble understanding right from wrong probably don’t need a computer game to get triggered into doing something bad.
A Currency Miner in Calendar 2 for Mac →
Dan Goodin, for Ars Technica:
The app is Calendar 2, a scheduling app that aims to include more features than the Calendar app that Apple bundles with macOS. In recent days, Calendar 2 developer Qbix endowed it with code that mines the digital coin known as Monero. The xmr-stack miner isn’t supposed to run unless users specifically approve it in a dialog that says the mining will be in exchange for turning on a set of premium features. If users approve the arrangement, the miner will then run. Users can bypass this default action by selecting an option to keep the premium features turned off or to pay a fee to turn on the premium features.
I believe Apple is currently not commenting on the issue until they establish a policy — they jumped the gun often enough in the past few years. Ultimately, these will probably get banned, since they degrade the iOS and Mac experience, which is what Apple cares about — I’d be surprised if they didn’t. There will be a handful of users who knowingly accept this sort of “subscription”, but most will think the app is running their battery and complain. Oh, and then there’s the matter of Apple’s 30% cut…
iPhone X/8 Wireless Charging Will Wear Out the Battery Faster Than Cable Charging →
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, on ZDNet:
The issue is that when the iPhone is being charged using a cable, the phone is being powered by the cord (there is some load on the battery, but it’s minimal), but when using wireless charging, the battery is what’s powering the iPhone, with the wireless charger only being used to top up the battery. This means that by switching from a cable to a wireless charger, my battery isn’t getting a break, and in turn, this is making me go through recharge cycles at an even faster rate.
This is an interesting fact, but I’m pretty sure the impact is minimal, especially considering that most of the new iPhone X users use their phones more often now, because of all the new stuff, which could account for the increased battery cycles. I know I use mine more often — I was so bored with the iPhone 6-7 form factor than I just reached for my iPad whenever possible.
The truth is that wireless charging is more convenient at times and I just don’t want to sacrifice that for a few more charge cycles. A replacement battery is cheap enough, that I’ll just get that when I need to.
The Original Siri App Compared to Siri Today →
Nick Heer, on Pixel Envy:
What’s clear to me is that the Siri of eight years ago was, in some circumstances, more capable than the Siri of today. That could simply be because the demo video was created in Silicon Valley, and things tend to perform better there than almost anywhere else. But it’s been eight years since that was created, and over seven since Siri was integrated into the iPhone. One would think that it should be at least as capable as it was when Apple bought it.
I’m currently playing around with Siri a lot more than I used to and I find it baffling that after so many years, she still can’t do so many things which seem natural and obvious. Examples attached: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Basically, I expect so much more of her today, that she feels stupider than back in 2011, when she launched on the iPhone 4S.
So… I Got a HomePod
I said I wouldn’t get the iPhone X, but I did. That was an exception since the deal I got on it was too good to pass up and I ended up paying less than for a new iPhone 8. I did not expect to get as good a deal on the HomePod. To be quite frank, it wasn’t even close percentage-wise to the aforementioned one, but I still went for it, figuring I could sell it on if didn’t satisfy my needs.
It hasn’t blown me away so far, but it’s only been an hour or so, so here’s keeping my fingers crossed.
DIY HomeKit with Raspberry Pi and Xiaomi Robot Vacuum →
Markus Rudel, on his blog, got inspired by my Raspberry Pi and Homebridge article, and decided to set up his Xiaomi Robot Vacuum to work with HomeKit:
I own a Xiaomi Robot Vacuum. This robot can be controlled by the Xiaomi app, however, I don’t like it very much. The idea is to control this robot over HomeKit. To use HomeKit, I use an old Raspberry Pi 1B. The software will be HomeBridge.
While adding your vacuum to your HomeKit setup might not seem as if it makes any sense, since there are little to no benefits from being able to just turn it on or off, it most probably could be automated, e.g. setup to clean the house when everyone leaves it. My cousin has one of these and since he doesn’t have a strict schedule for when he’s at home or away, he’s constantly frustrated by the fact that the vacuum turns on when he doesn’t want it to. Automating this would make most of his problems go away.
ASUS ZenFone 5 — Designed to Look Like an iPhone X →
Ian Cutress, for AnandTech:
Today ASUS is launching a smartphone that is designed, according to the speaker at our prebriefing, to make it look like the user is holding an iPhone X. The new ASUS ZenFone 5, part of the ZenFone 5 family, comes with a notch. Apparently this is what the company says that its customers want: the ability to look as if you have an iPhone X, but have something else.
Am I in a dream? I really need to take the blue pill.
P.S. Yes, I’m behind on my RSS.
Why Michael Lynch Quit Google to Work for Himself →
Michael Lynch:
For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present.
Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that.
Fascinating read.
Using a Raspberry Pi Zero W to Add a Camera and a Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 to HomeKit via Homebridge
I recently purchased a Xiaomi Air Purifier 2, to avoid having dirty air in my apartment. Unfortunately, this product does not integrate with HomeKit. I am generally averse to having my “connected” home accessible from the internet, but I did want to use the HomeKit automation features. Setting this whole thing up just for one air purifier did seem like a lot of hassle, until I found out (from Steven Troughton-Smith) that you can get a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a camera module, which also works under HomeKit. Two-in-one? No need to ask me twice.