Weekly Rundown Week 7 2018

Newsworthy

• Facebook is pushing a VPN it owns to collect user information

Seriously, Delete your facebook account if you still use one or at the very least reduce your use of the platform.

• Apple Unicode Punter

Drop any apple device with some unicode, this is the second time this has happened in recent memory.

• After 4th DWI, man argues legal limit discriminates against alcoholics – Not cool police men, not cool.
• Salon to ad blockers: Can we use your browser to mine cryptocurrency?Â

Terrible “news” sites response to adblockers being “can we transparently use your computer to mine if you don’t want to view advertisements? This may be the first time that this has been reported but it will not be the last time. Reminder to use uBlock Origin or uMatrix

• People are walking into glass at the new Apple headquarters

Apple spent 5 Billion on a new HQ but looks like they have had 2 cases of “minor cuts but did not appear to require hospitalization”. Another interesting idea is that California has law in place that they could be breaking in order to keep the “spaceship” campus aesthetics.

• Cryptocurrency mining is hampering the search for alien life

Is it really though? This is tied in with stories that have been linked in previous weeks in regards to GPU shortages, the Search For Extraterrestrial Life (SETI) researchers state that they want to expand operations but can’t because they can’t buy graphics cards due to the market. This is the barrier to entry? It doesn’t seem like this would be a barrier to entry for anyone doing serious research, it is a good headline though.

• Xerox engineers say Chicago crime rate fell after printer jams fixed

Coincidence?

Worth a Read

• About those threats – Njalla blog regarding threats providing the highest level of banter (archive link)

Videos

• DefunctlandÂ

This is more of a youtube channel but I have watched around 80% of the total content uploaded by this channel. The engineering that goes into theme park rides that are just lost to time is incredible. Very interesting and well researched content.

• If Young Metro Don’t Trust You…
• San Clemente City Council – Paul Walker Statue

Tools that I am enjoying

• I got IFTTT to work with Telegram to post a daily hydration reminder to a channel that I admin (unfortunate that this is a thing), I saw a library for python => Telegram which could be of use.
• I am still enjoying Toby The Tab Manager but currently Papaly also offers a great bookmark management solution.

Tunes

• Rod Stewart – Young Turks (Official Video)
• My Favourite Game – The Cardigans
• The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done