Wednesday, May 24, 2023
I have an expanse of blank white wall behind my desk, which always bugs me when I see myself on Zoom calls. This has been a stone in my shoe for three years since videoconferencing became commonplace. I’m jealous when I see other people have excellent backgrounds for their Zoom calls. A friend suggested I just get a couple of guitars and put them behind me. “But I don’t play guitar,” I said.
I wrote: Red Hat secures the software supply chain. Red Hat unveils Trusted Software Supply Chain, which tracks where open-source components come from and whether they are trustworthy to “provide customers with the added assurance that the bits they are deploying are safe and secure.”
Oracle’s Larry Ellison gears up to spend millions to back Tim Scott’s 2024 run. Of interest to my Oracle pals.
From what I saw working there two years, the culture within Oracle is extremely progressive. Inclusive, good benefits, supports environmental causes.
On the other hand, Larry Ellison himself is very conservative. He supported Trump and now this.
An odd juxtaposition.
Ray Stevenson Dead: ‘Punisher: War Zone,’ ‘RRR’ Actor Was 58. I’m sad to hear it. To me, he’ll always be Titus Pullo, the lovable cuddly murderous psychopath from “Rome.”
I can proofread my article or generate a cool Midjourney image to accompany said article. Gee, tough decision. Do I want kale or chocolate cake?
If the Apple VR/AR headset debuts, and it’s as described in leaks, it’s going to be the biggest flop in Apple’s history and one of the greatest tech flops ever.
Nobody’s interested in wearing a Batman mask all day.
Monday, May 22, 2023
Mimestream is a native Mac app for accessing Gmail. It gives you Gmail’s advanced capabilities, including Priority Inbox, categories, and labels, in an app that looks and works like a native Mac app. The alternatives to Mimestream are Gmail’s web interface, which I find cluttered, or native Mac mail apps, which look and work like Mac apps should but don’t give you all of Gmail’s capabilities. Mimestream has been in beta and free to use for years.
Daring Fireball notes that the first version of many Apple products is historically overpriced and underfeatured. That’s how Apple works. They grab the affluent early adopters first, and then over the years the price goes down and capabilities improve. Example: The Apple Watch.
So if the Apple headset is overpriced and underfeatured, that’s no reason to declare it dead on arrival.
Surprisingly insightful art observations from “The Simpsons."
I’m looking forward to listening to the State of Micro.blog presentation with @jean @manton and @vincent on my walk this afternoon.
Sunday, May 21, 2023
Pizza is my favorite food. We have pizza once a week. There have been times in my life when I have had it more often than that. I have had great pizza and I have had good pizza. I love the pizza they served on Fridays in the school cafeteria when I was a little kid. I loved riding my bike up Larkfield Road with my friends, and getting a slice of pizza at the place on that road.
Walking with the dog the other day, I saw a big snake on the path. 5-7 feet long and fat. This was a couple of days after seeing a coyote walking down the street. I guess we live in Jumanji now.
What if we had a political party that represented working people? All working people. Everybody. All races, ethnicities, genders, sexes, and religions. White, Christian, Black, Jewish, Muslim, agnostics, atheists, men, women, trans, and nonbinary.
Am I too old to use the word “banger?”
There’s been a lot of ink spilled on the Trump transformation of the GOP, but Dems’ transformation from a party representing labor to a party representing McKinsey consultants is less well understood.
— Cory
Banger link roundup today: Medieval people didn’t drown cats; they LOVED cats. AI hype is a scam to allow bosses to “fire all our asses and replace us with shell-scripts.” And more.