Month: December 2022

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Not So Happy New Year for Me

I added the “P” with sharpie after the test results showed to make sure we didn’t accidently mix up my test with the test my sister was taking right after me. She tested negative but my result is preventing her from attending a long anticipated party with older friends this year 😦

I’m 63, in good health, and have had my 5 shots (initial 2 plus 3 boosters). My symptoms are very mild, minor sore throat and half degree fever. So there is a very high probability that I’ll recover fine on my own. I am now wearing a KN95 mask whenever I leave my bedroom and home office.

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Heat Doesn’t Rise

“Heat rises” is a fairly common phrase but anyone who has ever soldered knows it’s false. Heat flows from hot areas to less hot areas.

“Hot air rises” is better than the shorter phrase because this is most often the case here on planet earth. However it is not always correct, if the surrounding air is also hot there is no movement.

The most accurate phrase to express this idea is, “heated air rises”. But that doesn’t roll off the tongue well, most people will never learn soldering, and when the surrounding air is the same temperature who cares, so “heat rises” will have to do. 🙂

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Mastodon Showed Promise but I Gave Up

Back when Twitter first appeared on the net I’d only been blogging for half a year and I just couldn’t see the point in micro-blogging. Other than quick links or short jokes, I could see nothing worthwhile in texting to a global audience with a 140 character limit. When they doubled the post size in 2017 I thought it’s closer to a useful limit but not close enough for me to bother with.

Over the years it became very clear to me that Twitter was really just a place for the various left, right and center outrage brigades to organize and whine about things regardless of the facts. I also saw it was the most effective vehicle for spreading misinformation ever to appear on the net. This was do to its reach by being the favorite place for celebrities, journalists, and those who uncritically regurgitate their knee jerk, facts/reality be damned, outrage of the day.

With the recent renewed interest in micro-blogging via Mastodon on the Fediverse I thought I’d finally give it a try. I was pretty sure I could squeeze a few useful thoughts or tips in the 512 character limit.

At first it went well, I helped out a young blind man who wanted to get into electronics via Arduino. I provided reality based facts to counter some common tech myths, got a couple interesting leads on subjects of interest, and enjoyed quite a few jokes and cat pictures.

Then the proverbial shit hit the fan. An outrage brigade of conspiracy theory nuts and all police are evil bigots started ruining my experience. They flooded the feeds with their anti-reality whining. After 6 hours or so things started to show signs of improvement due to some reality based thinkers chiming in to counter the craziest of the outrage brigades.

This morning things got worse because now the outrage brigades were being encouraged by journalists like Jeff Jarvis and tech celebrities like Simon Phipps and Padre SJ. While they did not go along with the bigoted stereotype (AFAIK), they started whining because an organization did not coddle the conspiracy nuts and bigots, then horror of horrors blocked them. I could have sworn that was promoted as one of the big benefits of the Fediverse over Twitter, easy blocking of other people to improve your own experience.

I called it quits and deleted my account because the signal to noise ratio fell below a useful level even with me spending too much time muting or unfollowing all the bigots, conspiracy promoters, and pro-coddling people.

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Review Geek’s Wise Response to the Wyze and eufy Security Failings with their Cameras

The article’s closing is spot on:

And frankly, every company is “one bad day” away from the same situation. It all depends on how they handle disclosure. For now, in all transparency, I can only tell you that I own Wyze cameras, and they are still plugged in. I know the risks, and I’m willing to take them.

But that’s not the same thing as recommending them to anyone else. No recommendation should start with, “this is a good option, but first, you should know some things.” And that would be a requirement. The only safe bet you can take is to not place security cameras in your home at all.

Emphasis mine, Source: Why Review Geek Can’t Recommend Wyze or eufy Cameras Anymore – Review Geek

Go read the whole thing if you’re interest in a great summary of the details. Another great article from Josh Hendrickson, Editor in Chief of Review Geek.