History
Friday, July 28th, 2017 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livI don't normally care whether people read my links or not, but I would very much like it if as wide an audience as possible saw sovay's post I was anticipating the total destruction of Polish Jewry, about visiting an exhibition of photos from the Lodz ghetto. The subject matter is the Holocaust / Shoah.
I don't know my family history as well as Sovay does. All my great-grandparents were in England by 1900, so none of my close relatives were directly involved. I'm in a similar position that I'm pretty sure there are third etc cousins of mine who should exist but don't. The people who should have been their ancestors might be in the photos; there probably were people related to me among those murdered in Poland, no idea if they were in Lodz specifically.
Whichever Nazi it was that claimed 'a million deaths is a statistic', the scale matters in a different way. That is, one person murdered because of who they are is already too many, but once you get into the millions, everybody is affected. Every Jewish person with any European connections at all might, it's probably best to assume they do, have missing relatives. Every part of history since 1930 is marked by that mass murder.
Anyway. I have more to say but I'm not sure I want to say it on a public post, and you're better reading the linked post anyway.
sovay's post I was anticipating the total destruction of Polish Jewry, about visiting an exhibition of photos from the Lodz ghetto. The subject matter is the Holocaust / Shoah. I don't know my family history as well as Sovay does. All my great-grandparents were in England by 1900, so none of my close relatives were directly involved. I'm in a similar position that I'm pretty sure there are third etc cousins of mine who should exist but don't. The people who should have been their ancestors might be in the photos; there probably were people related to me among those murdered in Poland, no idea if they were in Lodz specifically.
Whichever Nazi it was that claimed 'a million deaths is a statistic', the scale matters in a different way. That is, one person murdered because of who they are is already too many, but once you get into the millions, everybody is affected. Every Jewish person with any European connections at all might, it's probably best to assume they do, have missing relatives. Every part of history since 1930 is marked by that mass murder.
Anyway. I have more to say but I'm not sure I want to say it on a public post, and you're better reading the linked post anyway.
Zero-Day Vulnerabilities against Windows in the NSA Tools Released by the Shadow Brokers
Friday, July 28th, 2017 11:16 am![[syndicated profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bruce_schneier_feedIn April, the Shadow Brokers -- presumably Russia -- released a batch of Windows exploits from what is presumably the NSA. Included in that release were eight different Windows vulnerabilities. Given a presumed theft date of the data as sometime between 2012 and 2013 -- based on timestamps of the documents and the limited Windows 8 support of the tools:
- Three were already patched by Microsoft. That is, they were not zero days, and could only be used against unpatched targets. They are EMERALDTHREAD, EDUCATEDSCHOLAR, and ECLIPSEDWING.
- One was discovered to have been used in the wild and patched in 2014: ESKIMOROLL.
- Four were only patched when the NSA informed Microsoft about them in early 2017: ETERNALBLUE, ETERNALSYNERGY, ETERNALROMANCE, and ETERNALCHAMPION.
So of the five serious zero-day vulnerabilities against Windows in the NSA's pocket, four were never independently discovered. This isn't new news, but I haven't seen this summary before.
Daily Happiness
Friday, July 28th, 2017 01:25 amtorachan1. I slept like ten hours and was only interrupted by cats a little bit.
2. Had a nice day off. Got a lot of translation stuff done.
3. I just found out this iOS game I really love, Oceanhorn, is out for the Switch! I've kind of been wanting to play it again, and the Switch controls can't help but be better than the touchscreen ones, so I'm pretty excited about that.
4. Just checked Facebook one last time before bed and saw that the ACA repeal bill didn't pass, thank fuck.
5. Carla managed to snap a shot of Chloe yawning. So cute!
2. Had a nice day off. Got a lot of translation stuff done.
3. I just found out this iOS game I really love, Oceanhorn, is out for the Switch! I've kind of been wanting to play it again, and the Switch controls can't help but be better than the touchscreen ones, so I'm pretty excited about that.
4. Just checked Facebook one last time before bed and saw that the ACA repeal bill didn't pass, thank fuck.
5. Carla managed to snap a shot of Chloe yawning. So cute!
(no subject)
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 08:06 pmechanI got asked by my former boss whether I had carpul tunnel. [Moved departments, still works w/ the company.] My wrist was sore so I had a brace on it. That happens, occasionally, has for over a decade. I use a brace for a few weeks when my wrist is sufficiently sort and tired and achy that it makes the hassle of using the brace worth it by comparison. I said I don't know if I do (and honestly, 'carpel tunnel' gets overused for any tech-related wrist RSI) and I haven't bothered seeing a doctor about it because finding a doctor for RSI is a crap-shoot and the only real 'treatment' is surgery and I don't want that. I know I have crap posture when using a computer, practically everyone I know does to some degree or another. All my hobbies are either on a computer or working with my hands. I'm concerned, of course I am, worried even. But a refresher dig through the literature turned up nothing new in the last decade, just the usual advice about having super-square posture for all body parts, as though the only focus anyone has while sitting at a computer is aligning everything for easier typing. I'm starting to seriously consider picking up a split keyboard (or two, one for home & one for work), since having the brace on the right wrist leads to more torquing the left wrist and making it ache too and there's no way to interpret that as good. But will this delay the inevitable until after android upgrades or death makes it irrelevant, I dunno.
Weekly Reading
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 07:30 pmtorachanWhat are you currently reading?
I started as in opened the file on my phone, but did not actually read any of Hollow City, the sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
I am also still in progress on The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory, though I don't think I read any this last week at all.
What did you recently finish reading?
I finished the aforementioned Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children a few days ago. Overall I really liked it.
I also read Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? As opposed to Fun Home, which is a pretty straightforward memoir about her relationship with her father, this wanders a lot, with probably as much time spent talking about her time in therapy and her readings of various famous psychologists, as well as her wondering how to write this book that she's writing, as there is stuff about her interactions with her mother. But it works really well and I enjoyed it a lot.
I read the first volume of Urasawa Naoki's Billy Bat the night before last. I had been putting off reading it until it was complete, because with this sort of suspenseful story, I knew I didn't want to have to wait between releases. And then the series ended and I loaded it all on my ipad and didn't read it because I don't know why. But now I finally started and it's just as suspenseful as I knew it would be. In fact, I stayed up way too late reading the first volume because I kept telling myself I'd stop with the next chapter and then couldn't!
What do you think you'll read next?
More Billy Bat for sure. Also I definitely plan to get started on A Wrinkle in Time soon, since it is a library book and I can't let it sit forever (though at least as an older book it's four weeks instead of two; but I imagine with people wanting to read it because of the upcoming movie, copies might be more in demand than they normally would be and I can't count on being able to renew it if I don't finish before the due date).
I started as in opened the file on my phone, but did not actually read any of Hollow City, the sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
I am also still in progress on The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory, though I don't think I read any this last week at all.
What did you recently finish reading?
I finished the aforementioned Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children a few days ago. Overall I really liked it.
I also read Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? As opposed to Fun Home, which is a pretty straightforward memoir about her relationship with her father, this wanders a lot, with probably as much time spent talking about her time in therapy and her readings of various famous psychologists, as well as her wondering how to write this book that she's writing, as there is stuff about her interactions with her mother. But it works really well and I enjoyed it a lot.
I read the first volume of Urasawa Naoki's Billy Bat the night before last. I had been putting off reading it until it was complete, because with this sort of suspenseful story, I knew I didn't want to have to wait between releases. And then the series ended and I loaded it all on my ipad and didn't read it because I don't know why. But now I finally started and it's just as suspenseful as I knew it would be. In fact, I stayed up way too late reading the first volume because I kept telling myself I'd stop with the next chapter and then couldn't!
What do you think you'll read next?
More Billy Bat for sure. Also I definitely plan to get started on A Wrinkle in Time soon, since it is a library book and I can't let it sit forever (though at least as an older book it's four weeks instead of two; but I imagine with people wanting to read it because of the upcoming movie, copies might be more in demand than they normally would be and I can't count on being able to renew it if I don't finish before the due date).
Pod Save America
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 09:21 pmlaceblade posting in ![[site community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_community_promoThree former aides to President Obama — Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor — started a media empire they named "Crooked Media," a hat-tip to Donald Trump. Their flagship podcast is Pod Save America, a freewheeling conversation about politics, the press, and the challenges posed by the Trump presidency.
Hang out at![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
podsaveamerica to discuss this podcasts and others by Crooked Media - Pod Save the People, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, and With Friends Like These.
In this community, we'll have discussion posts about each podcast. Talk about the guests, the conversations, whatever grievances were aired during the ads (lol). We'll also have posts about targeted activism. For example, during Resistance Recesses, you can discuss in the comments if/what you did. (The podcasts themselves frequently suggest specific action items for listeners.)
Listen to all of the podcasts, or just 1 or 2. No pressure.
Hang out at
podsaveamerica to discuss this podcasts and others by Crooked Media - Pod Save the People, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, and With Friends Like These.In this community, we'll have discussion posts about each podcast. Talk about the guests, the conversations, whatever grievances were aired during the ads (lol). We'll also have posts about targeted activism. For example, during Resistance Recesses, you can discuss in the comments if/what you did. (The podcasts themselves frequently suggest specific action items for listeners.)
Listen to all of the podcasts, or just 1 or 2. No pressure.
Ysabetwordsmith on a Certain Cinematic Universe
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 08:57 pmgingicat posting in metaquotesThe characters I liked best? The bad guys. They were hard-working citizens who got screwed out of jobs that were legally contracted as theirs. So they decided to do something else, by selling alien equipment.
Context contains spoilers for a movie currently in theatres.
Context contains spoilers for a movie currently in theatres.
(no subject)
Friday, July 28th, 2017 01:47 ampauamma posting in capslock_dreamwidthHTTPS://TWITTER.COM/VOLE_FACTS/STATUS/
(UNCAPSLOCKED URL IN LINK TARGET FOR YOUR CLICKING CONVENIENCE)
(UNCAPSLOCKED URL IN LINK TARGET FOR YOUR CLICKING CONVENIENCE)
∞ Can Apple grow a forest
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 10:41 pmloopinsight_feedLisa Jackson, Apple’s lead on Environment work, and a group of colleagues went out to dinner one night. They ate, drank, and came up with a plan to ensure almost 1 million acres of forests are responsibly managed by 2020.
This is what I love about Apple—they aren’t just about getting products out to consumers, they think about everything along the way, including the impact they have on the environment.
Cheers, Lisa Jackson!
Apple store approved for Carnegie Library
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 10:37 pmloopinsight_feedApple has finalized terms with Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia, to lease a portion of the Carnegie Library at at Mount Vernon Square, described as a newly transformed convention and entertainment district in downtown Washington D.C.
That is going to be a beautiful store.
Goodbye iPod, and thanks for all the tunes
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 08:52 pmloopinsight_feedPoor one out for the iPod. I get why they are no longer “needed” in Apple’s lineup but they will always have a soft spot in my gadget-loving heart.
There’s a genius street artist running loose in New York, and let’s hope nobody catches him
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 08:01 pmloopinsight_feedThis street art is absolutely brilliant.
Video Footage From One of the Open Workspaces in Apple Park
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 07:43 pmdaringfireball_feedReally does seem like a different vibe from the Infinite Loop campus.
Some engineers are getting their own offices, but they don’t seem so great either.
Michael Sippey Joins Medium as Head of Product
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 07:29 pmend of the line for the iPod
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 01:48 pmkareilahttp://www.businessinsider.com/apple-
This makes me really sad. Apple will still sell you an iPod Touch, which is basically a phoneless iPhone with a starting price of $199, but the days of Apple-branded MP3 players are pretty much done.
I own both the current (now discontinued) models and use them in my car. I still own a bunch of the older models, too, including an iPod Touch which is too old to upgrade past iOS 8. It's been my least favorite iPod.
I doubt the article's hypothesis about lack of Bluetooth support is accurate. The iPod nano does Bluetooth just fine. More likely, Apple just didn't want to keep financing development on the non-iOS software the cheaper iPods use, and iTunes support for same.
I guess I'll do my usual thing of keeping one of my Macs running an older version of iTunes until it burns out or something better comes along.
Meanwhile, I'm getting closer and closer to finally getting an iPhone. Since I last complained about it, my Android phone had a spell of a few weeks where it would spontaneously reboot with no warning, even in the middle of a phone call. Then when we were on vacation a couple of months ago, there was an episode where it told me I had no signal when I was separated from my family, and I ended up walking halfway across the theme park trying to reacquire signal until it occurred to me that the phone was being stupid and I should reboot it. Then a few weeks after that, it started mysteriously eating battery life until Robby reminded me, once again, to shut up and reboot.
At this point I'm tired of fighting with it. I don't expect to be entirely happy with an iPhone either, but at least it will have new and different problems that might be less frustrating. I've only had to reboot a misbehaving iPad two or three times in the six or seven years now that I've owned one. Not two or three times a year - two or three times ever.
Edit: And I just saw where Starbucks is closing all the Teavana stores. Why are you taking away all my coping mechanisms? *shakes fist impotently*
This makes me really sad. Apple will still sell you an iPod Touch, which is basically a phoneless iPhone with a starting price of $199, but the days of Apple-branded MP3 players are pretty much done.
I own both the current (now discontinued) models and use them in my car. I still own a bunch of the older models, too, including an iPod Touch which is too old to upgrade past iOS 8. It's been my least favorite iPod.
I doubt the article's hypothesis about lack of Bluetooth support is accurate. The iPod nano does Bluetooth just fine. More likely, Apple just didn't want to keep financing development on the non-iOS software the cheaper iPods use, and iTunes support for same.
I guess I'll do my usual thing of keeping one of my Macs running an older version of iTunes until it burns out or something better comes along.
Meanwhile, I'm getting closer and closer to finally getting an iPhone. Since I last complained about it, my Android phone had a spell of a few weeks where it would spontaneously reboot with no warning, even in the middle of a phone call. Then when we were on vacation a couple of months ago, there was an episode where it told me I had no signal when I was separated from my family, and I ended up walking halfway across the theme park trying to reacquire signal until it occurred to me that the phone was being stupid and I should reboot it. Then a few weeks after that, it started mysteriously eating battery life until Robby reminded me, once again, to shut up and reboot.
At this point I'm tired of fighting with it. I don't expect to be entirely happy with an iPhone either, but at least it will have new and different problems that might be less frustrating. I've only had to reboot a misbehaving iPad two or three times in the six or seven years now that I've owned one. Not two or three times a year - two or three times ever.
Edit: And I just saw where Starbucks is closing all the Teavana stores. Why are you taking away all my coping mechanisms? *shakes fist impotently*
