skoo.bz

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac:

Trump emphasized that the government is “helping Apple all of the time on trade and so many other issues.” Despite this, Apple refuses to break encryption for iPhones used “by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements,” Trump says.

I have a few thoughts on this:

1. I’m not at all surprised Trump or AG Barr don’t understand encryption, either with how it works or why it’s important to have, and more importantly, why it’s dangerous to put a backdoor on an operating system. Worse, I’ll never expect them to care about any of this.
2. I also understand Trump is speaking to his flock. I would guess much of that flock doesn’t understand any of this nor care to either.
3. Dispute this bullshit rhetoric from the administration, the federal government can crack these phones if they choose to. They’re simply acting clueless about it to pigeonhole Apple into building backdoors into their OS… again, a bad idea.

All of this makes me want to bang my head against my desk. Every time it comes up, I hope it ends quietly and goes away. I have enough personal information on my devices that I don’t want it to be “child’s play” for it to be cracked. That needs to be at least something of a challenge. I think that’s something that applies to everyone.

Torry Threadcraft, writing for Okayplayer:

The Miles Davis documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool will make its television debut on PBS on February 25. On the preceding Friday, Columbia Records will release the film’s official soundtrack. The label calls the collection an “essential playlist for seasoned fans and new listeners alike.”

I look forward to both of these projects.

I can relax this year. After the last two years of wondering if Edgar Martinez would get in as his eligibility ran up, the Mariners will have to wait a few years before Ichiro becomes eligible, and even then, he’ll probably be a first-ballot player. The Braves don’t have any pressure issues either, despite a couple of players from the 14-year division run eligible. So with that, here’s who I’d pick this year.

• Derek Jeter - I hate the Yankees, much like most non-Yankee fans. Still, I’ve always respected Jeter. He gave everything every day. He was consistent. He’s everything you would ask for in a major league ballplayer. He also had a career .310 BA and a 58.7 WAR. He’s probably the only sure-fire guy in this class.
• Barry Bonds - I know, I know. He did PEDs. I understand where many wouldn’t vote this guy in for that reason alone. But, even if you take his career before 2000 when many assume he was clean, he was still a nine-time all-star, a three-time MVP, and a seven-time Silver Slugger award winner. He simply dominated the 90s. Simply put, you cannot tell the story of baseball from the early 90s through the 2000s without mentioning Barry Bonds.
• Roger Clemens - Just like Bonds, if you take his career before 2000, you still have a Hall of Fame-caliber resume. With just that he would be a seven-time all-star, a five-time Cy Young Award winner, a four-time wins leader, 6 time ERA leader, a five-time AL strikeout leader, and he’s a member of the MLB All-Century Team. He should be in the Hall.
• Andruw Jones - Only Ken Griffey Jr. was a better defensive center fielder than Andrew Jones in their respective era. There was rarely a time when a ball was hit to centerfield that I didn’t believe Jones wasn’t going to catch it. If he had a chance, he was there. Those fielding skills won him ten consecutive Gold Gloves. Hitting wise, it took him a little while to really get going, then he tailed off hard once he left the Braves. While in Atlanta, he was typically in the middle of a lineup that included Chipper Jones & Fred McGriff, among others. He was a threat as a Brave.
• Larry Walker - Sure, he was aided by Coors Field, but Walker hit on the road also. His numbers are on par with a majority of hall of famers. Put Walker in.

I have my doubts if this will be the actual class this year. But, if you’re asking me, this is who I’m going with.

As much as I appreciate Apple releasing this Experiments series, I know I’m not the only one cringing at the entire thing being in portrait orientation.

Sarah Newey, writing for The Telegraph:

Australia’s deadly fires have been fuelled by a combination of extreme heat, prolonged drought and strong winds.

The country is in the grip of a heatwave, with record-breaking temperatures over the last three months. In mid-December the nation saw the hottest day in history - the average temperature was 41.9 degrees Celsius.

Australia has a wildfire season in much the same way the western US does, but climate change is making it worse this time.

experts say that the changing climate is key to understanding the ferocity of this years blazes - hotter, drier conditions are making the country’s fire season longer and much more dangerous.

And Australia’s climate is definitely changing. According to the country’s Bureau of Meteorology, temperatures have already risen by more than one degrees Celsius since 1920 - with much of the increase taking place since 1950.

The Telegraph notes Australia has a poor record in tackling climate change. Australia is the world’s largest coal producer and the coal lobby has huge sway over government officials. That sounds familiar.

In 2007, Bushfire CRC and The Australian Bureau of Meteorology published a warning for the future, noting the likelihood of increased and more extreme brushfires:

The number of ‘very high’ fire danger days generally increases 2-13% by 2020 for the low scenarios and 10-30% for the high scenarios. By 2050, the range is much broader, generally 5-23% for the low scenarios and 20-100% for the high scenarios.

The number of ‘extreme’ fire danger days generally increases 5-25% by 2020 for the low scenarios and 15-65% for the high scenarios. By 2050, the increases are generally 10-50% for the low scenarios and 100-300% for the high scenarios.

And here we are.

Dieter Bohn brought up this article he authored back in 2013 & I agree it still holds up now. Writing for The Verge:

RSS is built so deeply into the bones of so many websites and web services that we take it for granted. Your Tumblrs and your YouTube users and your Flickr friends and your favorite websites and blogs all usually offer RSS, automatically, with very little effort from their developers. It matters for the web that websites have a structured way to send their data out to apps and to other websites. Many of the apps that are suggested as a viable replacement for Google Reader — Flipboard comes to mind — pull just as much from RSS as they do from social feeds. More importantly, they pull from RSS freely, but they pull from Facebook and Twitter only because those companies let them.

RSS is a big part of my news flow. I receive stories from sources I choose, in chronological order, and without being filtered out by an algorithm.

If RSS interests you, I’ll leave you with a few suggestions.

In many cases, I still find it useful to use a service. If you don’t mind paying $5/mo., check out Feedbin. It offers a ton of flexibility, from tagging feeds to filtering out keywords (I didn’t have to see any Royal Wedding articles for example). You can even follow Twitter accounts on Feedbin, which will include full articles if a link is provided. But, I understand free is still the right price for a lot of people. If that’s you, check out Feedly for a true RSS experience, or Flipboard which also pulls from RSS feeds. With this in mind, a couple of apps are starting to use iCloud syncing for feeds, which I’ll mention in a minute.

You can read your feeds from a browser on either desktop or mobile, but I still find an app is the best way to go. My personal current favorite on both Mac and iOS is Reeder 4. It has a great layout and typography and behaves the same on both platforms. It also allows for iCloud syncing of articles if you don’t want to use a service.

A few other apps I’ll suggest include:

• Unread on iOS
• NetNewsWire on iOS and Mac (has future plans for iCloud syncing)
• Fiery Feeds

I’ve always felt like RSS is a better way to consume news over a social media silo. Hopefully, I’ve encouraged a few people to look into RSS a little more.

Name: Apple Spice Gose
Style: Gose
Brewer: Crane - Raytown, MO
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: -
Rating: 4.2/5
Notes: It’s basically apple crisp in a glass.

Name: 40th Hoppy Anniversary Ale
Style: American IPA
Brewer: Sierra Nevada - Chico, CA
ABV: 6%
IBU: 65
Rating: 3.8/5
Notes: Nothing terribly exciting. A little on the dank side, but not at all overpowering.