I’ve lived in Michigan all of my life, the last 30+ years in southeast Michigan, and I can’t remember a summer with so many thunderstorms. It seems like since July we have had storms several days each week, many with high winds and lots of rain to blow down trees, take out power lines, and cause flooding. Last night there were near constant storms from midnight to 7 AM.
Summer in Michigan. Even with 85% humidity it’s not too bad sitting in the shade if there is a nice breeze.
Yesterday we went to the beach in Port Huron, Michigan. Living in Michigan all my life means I’ve never been more than an hour away from a Great Lake. You know a Great Lake by the fact you only see water and some times really big boats.
The most important civics lesson, most important history lesson, and the most important sociology lesson about the United States is that the United States is only 245 years old. In comparison to the World, we are two years old. In comparison to the Universe, we have just been conceived. Not acknowledging our youth, thinking we know it all, that we are “great” is our downfall. It is our undoing, and nothing is permanent.
Something Was Going On In Japan
The summer Olympic are nearly done and I really didn’t watch it much. I think a big part of the problem was the time difference and the Internet providing the results. What I will remember from these Olympics, however, is how dangerous is gymnastics. Too much was written about Simone Biles’ “mental health” in a way suggesting what she was experiencing was “just” emotions. The problem was much more dire, the alignment of brain and body so that she lands on her feet and not her head.
Humans are not cats. Search for why cats land on their feet. If you ever had vertigo or just got dizzy, imagine that disorientation while spinning upside down ten feet in the air.
Currently reading: In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World by Pádraig Ó Tuama 📚
Dave Winer is contemplating how to support tools for thought on small screen devices like smartphones.
The lesson learned since Personal Digital Assistants and later smartphones first appeared is that screen size matters. Small screen, defined as less than seven inches, use case is different from large screen size, a fact that Microsoft was unwilling to embrace.
For me, tools for thought on small screens should be optimized for the following use cases:
- Data capture via the Operating System’s sharing functionality so that I can easily and quickly capture information from other applications. One of the main reasons why I continue using Evernote is that it supports capturing information via mobile OS sharing functions and browser web clipping.
- Fast and easy search to retrieve information that I store in my tools for thought. Again, I find Evernote does a good job here not only by an included search function but also via shortcuts that enable me to quickly retrieve information.
- I don’t often write on my smartphone. If the tool supports the OS sharing functionality then any app could be used for input and then sent in to the tool for thought, which is the model that Drafts is optimized for on iOS. If the app is for writing then a blank page is easiest for input, any type of outlining structure is difficult to manage on a small screen.
Mother Earth is providing glorious weather in Michigan to start the month of August.
My reaction to the Google Pixel 6 news today is simple, I can’t imagine spending nearly or north of $1,000 for a smartphone. I’ve not had a single performance issue with the $349 Pixel 4a that I am currently using.
The big question Google is facing is, does the smartphone market have room for a third luxury, high priced, smartphone? Seems to me that people who buy for status buy iPhones or Samsung and I am not convinced they are going to choose Pixel 6 over either.
The good news is that the vaccines have definitely decreased the rate of death due to COVID in the United States. The bad news is that the Delta variant is more contagious.
We need to change the focus on COVID from death rates to other measures that show the impact of the continuing spread. COVID still can have significant impacts even when ti doesn’t kill you, and we need to put the focus on that. Too many still think COVID is nothing more than a cold, or at worst case the flu.
I’ve observed this before and I will write it again, the trend of COVID cases in my county right now looks nearly identical to the trend last year at this time. We have the vaccine right now but we also are outdoors more. My expectation is that due to the Delta variant and the vaccination rate, the trend will look nearly the same for the rest of the year.
And here is what to worry about… what will the variant after Delta be like?
The attempted insurrection on the United States on January 6, 2021 was predicted on this date last year.
I’ve been wondering what to call this new era of Chicago Cubs baseball. I shall dub thee the post World Series era, but I hope it’s shorter than 108 years.
I am feeling really conflicted, so fortunate to live to see the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 2016 and now seeing the players who made that possible being traded away. I wonder whether those players fully understand the I impact they have had. Literally generations of Cub fans never lived to see them win it all, but Bryant and Rizzo made it happen for me.
I am a life long fan of the Chicago Cubs and I’ve seen my favorite players leave them before, but seeing Rizzo going to the Yankees and expecting Bryant to be gone too hurts. Of course the image of them making the final out in the greatest game ever played will always be seared in my memories.
I think that Google and Samsung are planning Wear OS 3 to launch exclusively on Samsung watches. The question is, will it be available for other watches before the Christmas shopping season? The answer might be no.
The last time I bought a notebook PC was three years ago. Microsoft’s Windows 11 announcement has me thinking about my next notebook. I want one that can run Windows 11. I’ve also been attracted to the new M1 Macbooks but right now it doesn’t look like they will run Win 11, even virtualized.
As I drove home yesterday I drove past Groves High School where I saw signs of support for Annie Lazor, 2020 Olympian competing in the 200-meter breaststroke in Tokyo.
Dave has a feature on Scripting News that he calls tagging, which is basically a reference to all the writing on his site that includes that tag. It’s a similar concept to how Roam, Logseq, and Obsidian use what I call wiki links that not only link to an internal page but also show all places where that page is referenced.
The problem for me is that Dave is using an editing construct in a published form. In my opinion in a published HTML page, a hyperlink is a hyperlink is a hyperlink. Wiki does have the concept of providing an indicator to show a hyperlink is to an external site.
The problem is I find these additional “indicators' intrusive to reading the page. The underline commonly associated to hyperlinks on web pages is the least intrusive to my reading content.
If it were me, I would keep the appearance of the linsk the same in the HTML, but I would open external links to a new browser tab or page while keeping internal links on the page one is in, if it is even important to the reader to understand the difference between an internal and external link.