More blossoms
I find it shameful, particularly on Memorial Day, that there are persistent attacks on the reasons why so many made the supreme sacrifice. In the United States freedom is secured by a representative government through which the governed provide their consent by voting. After defending its citizens, the prime objective of our government should be to make it easy as possible for all citizens to provide their consent. In my opinion any act that has the intended purpose of preventing people from voting is an affront to all those who gave their lives in service their country.
Rhododendron
Finished reading: OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say? by Ben Sheehan 📚
Engadget, Android 12 Beta hands-on: A fresh look with few major changes for now
Summer not only means warm weather, it also means a new version of Android is evolving toward a fall release. As Leo Laporte has said, we reached peak smartphone several years ago, therefore each release seems to be just new makeup. New makeup sells, but does nothing to actuality change that which it covers.
Rumors are that the next major Google Pixel phone will use Google’s design of an ARM chip, so they can “me-too” with Apple and Microsoft. Will the new version of Android do anything that makes Google’s chip design stand out?
Om Malik, Weapons of mass (value) destruction
“Now, the botox-enhanced, rhinestone-wearing version of Ma Bell has announced that it will spin out WarnerMedia and merge it with Discover.”
That is some imagery!
Having read several reviews of the new M1 iPad Pros, I note that for probably the last five years the hardware has always been more capable than the software. It seems every new release I read, “this iPad is ridiculously fast and not designed for current applications but rather for future applications,” and yet do we ever see those future applications? Yet now many spend more than $1K on a fully loaded iPad.
I just want iPadOS to properly use external monitors by supporting extended displays and full resolutions.
What the ephemerality of the Web means for your hyperlinks
Of these deep links, 25 percent of all links were completely inaccessible. Linkrot became more common over time: 6 percent of links from 2018 had rotted, as compared to 43 percent of links from 2008 and 72 percent of links from 1998.
Nothing is permanent on the Internet, which causes me to wonder if that conditions one to also have a loose view about facts and truth.
It feels more like July outside rather than May, but I am enjoying sitting outdoors for the first time this year.
In the category of things not needed: pickle-flavored hard seltzer.
The C.D.C. guidelines are essentially implying that the risk that the vaccinated will transmit the virus to others, including their unvaccinated children, is so vanishingly low that it is not worth worrying about. But if that’s their position, they should state it clearly and explain it, not just say that “fully vaccinated people have a reduced risk of transmitting” the virus.
I trust Zeynep’s judgement on these matters because she seems to apply informed common sense. My gut says indoor mask mandates should be in place until mid June.
One of the worst things about the United States is how healthcare amd public health have become politicized. We are no longer capable of doing things simply because they are the right thing to do. Trump’s view of COVID through the political lense caused COVID to rapidly spread in the beginning, and I fear Biden’s apparent political view of COVID and vaccines will likely keep it around much longer, and long enough for new mutations that the vaccines might not protect against.
Seeking USB-C Dock For 4K Monitor
TL;DR USB-C Docks that include USB 3 data ports most likely do not support DisplayPort 4K at 60 Hz unless they support DisplayPort 1.4. A dock with a DisplayPort port and USB 2.1 probably can do 4K@60Hz.
I recently bought a BenQ 4K monitor and when I connected it to the USB-C dock that I had I found out that the dock could only support 4K at 30HZ, which is noticeably slow just when moving the mouse on the screen. Just about all the computer monitors we use support 60 Hz refresh rates.
Now, I was using my Pixelbook with the dock and I found that when I connect it to the monitor using a USB-C cable it can do 4K@60Hz, so I figured the dock was the limiting factor, which I confirmed on the manufacture’s web site. I then started to search for docks that say they can do 4K@60Hz and decided on the Anker PowerExpander.
As you probably imagine by now, I got the new dock yesterday and found it also is only doing 4K@30Hz, on the HDMI and DisplayPorts. Sigh. I tested the dock with another computer and it does 4K@60Hz, so I am back looking at the Pixelbook.
I have since learned from this article that the problem is that USB-C docks need to support data transfer as well as display and that decreases the number of lanes that are available for display at high refresh rates to two, whereas 4K@60Hz needs all four lanes. When you connect the Pixelbook to a monitor with a USB-C cable it can use all four of the cable’s communication lanes to enable it to handle 4K@60Hz.
Anker’s site says 4K on DisplayPort requires DisplayPort 1.4 and I have found that the Pixelbook only supports DisplayPort 1.2. As the article I found explains, DisplayPort 1.4 only needs two lanes for 4K@60Hz because it has an additional high bit rate mode and compression, which is why the Anker hub I have can do 4K@60Hz while also providing USB 3.1 data transfers. The problem is that the computer, hub, and monitor all need to support DisplayPort 1.4 for this all to work, and the Pixelbook does not.
The lesson from this experience is that connecting to high resolution monitors at high refresh rates via a hub is more complicated than simply using a cable because it requires understanding the technical capabilities of the computer, hub, and monitor. You may have to dig to find out whether a computer, and a Chromebook in particular, supports DisplayPort 1.4. Thunderbolt 3 also supports 4K@60Hz and fast data transfers but is not yet available in Chromebooks and Thunderbolt 3 docks are more expensive than USB-C docks.
I think my experience that I’ve written about here explains why Google recently announced the addition of docks to their “Works With Chromebook” program. If Google were to announced a new Pixelbook this summer that had DisplayPort 1.4 support (or Thunderbolt 3) it would be helpful to know exactly which Docks can do 4K@60Hz.
As for my current situation, even though this new Anker dock cannot provide 4K@60Hz with my Pixelbook, it has more display ports to drive multiple monitors and has more data ports than the hub it replaced, so I still have an upgrade over the dock I was using previously. However, had I known what I now know prior to purchasing this Anker dock, I probably would have bought this Cable Matters dock instead as I could live with USB 2.1. For now I using the slightly lower 2560 x 1600 resolution at 60Hz rather than 4K, but if I really want 4K I can connect directly to the monitor via one USB-C port and use the dock on the other for power and the additional ports.
Michigan Lifts Mask Requirement For Fully Vaccinated Residents | Patch
In Michigan, if you are fully vaccinated, you are not required to wear a mask. How does a restaurant or store know whether or not a person is fully vaccinated? Most likely people will just stop wearing masks and those who opt to wear them will become stigmatized.
And we are not yet at 50% of people fully vaccinated. We may be ok for the summer, but when the cold weather hits and people start congregating in poorly ventilated indoor locations, there will be outbreaks, and then, what will happen?
Keep in mind, mask wearing is never really been about personal protection against infection, it’s been about preventing spread by people who do not yet know they are infected from spreading it.
The story about the invention of Post-It Notes is a legend, so I want to acknowledge the passing of Spencer Silver, inventor of the adhesive used for Post-It Notes.
I think that in the article The Memex Method Cory Doctorow provides an explanation that I could use for why I blog. While when I write something here in a manner that is legible to anyone, I know that my real “audience” is myself. The most useful feature is the On This Day link above that collects and displays prior years entries on this site, which I look at each day to recollect what was meaningful to me in past years.
My writing since 1999 has accessible on the web, although not all in one spot, which may be a mistake on my part.
CDC Says Fully Vaccinated People Can Stop Wearing Masks Indoors : NPR So fully vaccinated people are not carriers of the virus and thus cannot spread it to others? I yet to see any clarification on this matter.
Roam is not an outliner, even though it has outlining features in it’s editor. Roam is a Personal Knowledge Management tool built around linking, either pages or blocks, (paragraphs if you will) to each other. In this way Roam is more like wiki than an outliner.
Said differently, Roam is to an outliner as the Windows File Explorer is to an outliner.
The little boy in me wants the Starsky and Hutch car! Child of the 70s!!
I was curious, so I created this simple one page blog using Little Outliner.