Essays
- Agree on what is the problem
- Agree that the problem needs to be fixed
- Understand that the solution to every problem (healthcare) is not a hammer called capitalism
- Agree on fundamental principles
Drafts or Ulysses?
One thing I find frustrating about iOS are the number of apps that all seem to do the exact same thing. How do you decide on one over the other? An example is Drafts and Ulysses, both are good markdown editors but Drafts supports more automation. Last summer I was looking for a new editor and Ulysses came highly recommended, so I bought it, but then the company switched to a subscription model and that turned me off, I decided to not buy in to the subscription.
Then I learned about Drafts, and so I went and downloaded it and have used it to write some blog posts. To date I have mostly used it to write long posts for one site that only has a “basic” web-based editor. Of course, Drafts has now been recently upgraded and it too has a subscription model.
To me, it doesn’t make sense to have Ulysses and Drafts on my iPad, Drafts seems to able to do the job good enough. However, so far I have not seen an Action for sending text to Wordpress, which I find a bit surprising. Does anyone know of such an Action? The one in the Drafts directory appears to require components not part of Wordpress.com.
Micro Blogging versus Social Networks
You might think it too fine a point, but I think any blogging product requires the ability to edit what one has written. To me, editing is a fundamental difference between blogging and social networks because blogging is about permanence where as the social network timeline/newsfeed is a black hole.
To me, what makes micro blogging different from social networks like Twitter is the permance I describe above, and therefore editing should be a fundamental requirement for all micro blogging apps.
Gmail versus Inbox
Google has released the new version of Gmail, which I am checking out. I have been using, and like, Inbox mostly because how quickly I can use it to triage email. By triage I mean browse for messages I want to read and then quickly archiving all the remaining messages. No other app, including Gmail provides as easy a way to archive a group of messages.
The downside of Inbox is that it is very JavaScript heavy and therefore the web app performance can suffer. Another downside is that the app versions don’t look as good on larger screens such as on my 10.5 iPad Pro in landscape.
So, I am considering using Gmail on large screens and Inbox on small screens. However to decide that, I need to use the new Gmail for a while.
Boycotts and Free Speech
What, if any, relationship is there between free speech and cable TV, and in particular news or opinion shows on cable TV? Cable TV is not the public square nor is it public airwaves, it is corporate owned and exists for the purposes of making money. The primary method for making money is advertising.
If people opt to make note of the advertisers and decide to not purchase products from those advertisers, which is known as boycotting their products, I don’t see how in any way that infringes on a person’s free speech rights. At most it infringes on that person’s ability to make money on cable TV.
Furthermore, free speech is a protection for citizens from government. If cable TV is not part of the government, then frankly I am not clear on what free speech rights apply to anything on cable TV. Claims about being “fair and balanced” is marketing and not statements of facts nor rights.
There Is No Such Thing As Health Insurance
Twenty states have filed suit against the federal government basically because there is no business model in healthcare insurance. Before we can fix problems we have to:
Fundamentally, the business model for insurance is based on the premise that a company pays out less money than it takes in through people buying insurance. Property insurance works because it is possible that people who pay for it never need to file a claim through their life time. Likewise auto insurance works because there are people who never have to file a claim over a lifetime of driving.
In context, there really is no such thing as health insurance because every health care transaction is paid by the “health insurance” companies and just about everyone has one or more healthcare transactions per year. In other words, how does a “health insurance” company make money? If auto insurance was like healthcare, ever time one took their car in for an oil change or a tire rotation they would file an auto insurance claim.
Basically, we have to stop thinking that there is a capitalistic solution to the cost of health care. Just about all other countries around the world came to this realization and did something about it. We in the United States have drunk the capitalistic koolaid so much that we have forgotten our own history and just run around trying to hammer away every single problem.
Carnival In Da Moonlight
Michigan Tech’s annual Winter Carnival is in progress, with the snow statue competition completing this morning. I attended Tech from 1984-89 and have good Carny memories. The number of hours students put in to building these statues is incredible and the results are fantastic. Check out the photos!
Feedback On The OmniFocus Roadmap
A couple of thoughts about OmniFocus after reading Omni’s roadmap for 2018. As an iOS user but not a Mac OS user, I have long heard about OmniFocus and how great it is but never tried it out. A few weeks ago I discovered I could install the iOS version and try it out for free for two weeks, which I did and frankly, it didn’t seem much better than Todoist or 2Do.
My main requirement is multi-platform support because while use an iPad as my primary personal computer, I also use Android smartphones and Windows notebook computers. The inability to get to info in OmniFocus from Windows has been a show stopper, and web access, which is on the roadmap, will help, however I am concerned about the “minimalist” plan.
A simple way that Omni could solve this problem is by syncing with Toodledo. While there is a Toodledo iOS app, it is not very efficient so I use 2Do on my iPad that syncs my data with Toodledo. The benefit is that there are Toodledo apps for other platforms, and the Toodledo web app is one of the most advanced web apps that I use.
I am also surprised that OmniFocus doesn’t use an outliner for editing projects and tasks, given the existence of OmniOutliner, which I do use.
I’ll keep a watch out for the next release of OmniFocus and probably check it out.
Capitalism <> Democracy
The American Dream is Over. This is the Age of the European Dream.
One might not agree with the entire premise of the above article, but I think there is something to the point being made that we wrongly think markets/capitalism is the solution to every problem in our country. In fact, one can make the argument that capitalism is the root of much that is wrong in our country.
For example, the reality is capitalism (read revenue and profits) is the true reason why the NRA agressively opposes any gun control; the NRA’s corporate supporters make a lot of money off the sale of guns and ammunition and logically do not want any of that money to be at risk. Just like capitalism drove the tobacco industry to ignore studies showing smoking causes cancer.
For a long time I have been saying that we tend to confuse capitalism with democracy. I think this is reflected most prominently by the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling that says corporate spending on politics is a form of free speech, and thus corporations have a right to free speech.
Corporations are a construct of capitalism, they are not in themselves men or women of any race. In otherwords, corporations are not citizens.
Citizens United may be the worst SCOTUS ruling of my lifetime. Worse, it is reflects a flawed understanding that frankly skews society in favor of corporations and the oligarchs that profit from them.
Hanselminutes: Raspberry Pi clusters and Serverless
This entry is coming from Feedbin, does this get posted to my blog or just added to the Timeline? Update: So, this did end up on the blog, interesting. I wonder if the same thing happens with Evergreen?
Yet Again Focusing On The Wrong Thing
The lesson to be learned from the false missile alert in Hawaii is not how someone screwed up, a bad communication plan, nor bad UI design. The lesson that should be learned is that the possibility of a nuclear strick on the United States is much more plausible today that it has since the cold war. We appear to be nearing Cuban Missile Crisis territory with incompetent leadership in the government.
The Continuing Search For The Perfect Todo App
It’s the beginning of the year and therefore the time for my yearly ritual of trying to find a to-do (task management) app that I like and think that I will use. I am again finding myself with Toodledo, mostly because it has more filtering features that other apps and because it has a robust web app. However, Toodledo does not have a robust iOS app.
The Toodledo iOS app does the job but doesn’t have the best UI. However, I have found that 2Do syns with Toodledo so I am giving that a try. At worst I can toggle between the two apps because they sync with the same data.
Unfortunately, 2Do does not sync Toodledo’s statuses, so if I want the same functionality I need to create tags rather that statuses.
Psion Is Trying To Make A Comeback
I am interested to see how well received Psion’s Android clamshell device will be at CES. Psion is a blast from the past, at it’s height it was competing with Palm and Windows CE with its own operating system, and now it will be running Android. If it is priced around $300, I might be interested in buying one.
And it’s British, so there is that.
The Storyline For Today's GLi Championship
Later today Michigan Tech will play Bowling Green in the championship game of the 53rd Great Lakes Invitational hockey tournament. It is the first GLi at the new Little Caesars’s Arena and is hosted by Michigan Tech.
Either of the potential opponents for Tech in the championship presented interesting story lines. Had Michigan won Tech would be facing their former coach, Mel Pearson, who just left his Alma mater to become Michigan’s head coach. Tech’s return to college hockey prominence started when Pearson took the helm.
Pearson’s last game as Tech’s head coach was the 2017 WCHA championship game in which the Huskies beat Bowling Green to take the Broadmore Trophy and the NCAA tourney bid. What better way for the Falcons to gain revenge for that loss than by beating Tech in their tournament in the new arena and carry home the MacInnes Cup, named for legendary Tech coach John MacInnes?
Android On Tablets Is Dead, Long Live Android On Tablets
Google has stopped selling the Pixel C, and there is no replacement Android tablet in the Google Store. Consequently, you will now see articles about the demise of Android on tablets and/or how bad Android has been for tablets.
Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Forgive The Debts Of Others
He died for our debts, not our sins
If we think deeply about the consequences of debt you see meaning. Holding debt over a person is to have power over that person. The person in debt therefore is more or less a slave to the person (or thing) that has power over them. One of the earliest themes of what Jesus did for us was to set us free.
As we in the United Stated look more and more like the Ferengie every day, it may be helpful to replace the word “sin” with “debt” more often.
Setting Up Pi Zero
I got a Raspberry Pi Zero W for Christmas that I am setting up, and so far not having much luck getting the OS to install. I think the file transfer is taking too long. I am regretting following the instructions literally, meaning I installed the Pi Zero in the case and there isn’t an easy way to remove the micro SD card without removing them Zero entirely.
Looks like I will have to remove the Zero and flash the card with a complete build on a PC. I hope that I can get the Zero out of he case without breaking it.
Day One Journal
Day One Journal is now available for Android, and now I have a decision to make. Before Day One changed to a yearly subscription, I had purchased a version and therfore I am grandfathered in a plan that enables me to sync across iOS devices, but that will not support Android. So, is it worth $25 per year to have access to my journal from my Android smartphone?
SSH Apps On iPad
What is the best ssh app to use on an iPad? Right now I use Termius, but it does this thing where it doesn’t scroll properly as the screen fills up so I have to do some dragging around to re-align the display. I also am turned off by the $29/year subscription cost and there are some premium features I wouldn’t mind having. It is, however, the most recently updated app in the store.
WebSSH Pro and Prompt 2 are two other alternatives that appear at the top of a Google search.
Amazon Lockers
I got an email from Amazon telling me that I can use an Amazon Locker to receive items shipped to me. There is a Whole Foods near me that has a locker, so I can select it as a delivery location. How do I use it?
Apparently, when something I ordered is delivered to the locker, I will get an email with a six digit code that I then use at the locker location to retrieve my package. I have three days to pick up the package otherwise it will be returned for refund. Perhaps best of all, lockers can be used as a drop off location for returns.
Given the rise in people having deliveries stolen, I can see these lockers becoming useful for valuable items being shipped for which you may not be hope to sign for.
The NFL Continues To Reward Violent Hits
Despite scientific research and Congressional hearings, the NFL is still not serious about the safety of its players due to concussions. In fact, the current NFL rules rewards teams of players who inflict a concussion.
The latest example occurred during the Packers and Panthers game on December 17. During the game Panther Thomas Davis launched into Davante Adams resulting in Adams being removed for the game due to the obvious helmet-on-helmet hit. A personal foul was called on Davis, but he remained in the game while the Packers lost one of their most important players.
Players who may be concussed must be removed from play until doctors confirm it is ok for him to return. In this case, the right thing happened while that has not always been the case. However, how is it that the player causing the injury, unnecessarily, is still allowed to play?
Treating concussions is important but equally important is preventing concussions from happening in the first place, and that will not happen without immediate and significant enforcement on the field. All direct hits to the head should result in an immediate ejection, and this rule should be enforced not only by on field officials but also by replay. At a minimum the NFL ought to have a booth review, as is the case with the NCAA, but I favor the booth being able to eject such players at any time.
The bottom line is that the current approach of only reviewing and penalizing such plays after the game is over is not sufficient in deterring such hits and violates the spirit of the game. The life time health of the players demands extreme action. If the NFL is unable to police itself then Congress must step in with regulation. Right now it appears profits are outweighing safety.