Misc

For years, cryptocurrency has been a big-ticket news item in the tech industry to the point where it bled into mainstream cultural awareness. Due to the “crypto winter” in December 2018 and more recent world developments, it has fallen off the radar for most people who may have been following crypto, even if only as a fringe interest. Crypto is an extremely volatile and speculative investment, and in a time when many of us don’t know if we are going back to our places of work soon, or if we will have places to work, it’s lost its luster. I have been interested and was very active in the crypto scene for a few years before it took a dive. Then COVID happened, and it became even less of an interest due to the risk, so I’m not here to sell you on throwing money at crypto… nope, wait, I totally am!

There has been a bit of media attention regarding contact tracing and some of the phone apps that are purported to aid in tracing COVID exposure and find possible cases. While at first glance, some may find these applications useful in determining where infected people may have contributed to spread (largely by not wearing masks), there is a definite cost to privacy that comes with usage of such “people tracking” applications. Let’s look at it in the simplest terms:

I have a love/hate relationship with social media.  I’d love to quit Facebook, but I need it for personal marketing purposes. Scrolling is mindless and endless. It’s been a practice to snap myself out of it, as I look at the larger picture: I don’t want my life to go to waste.

What I do love about it: connection and information.

Social media has heightened and mobilized the Black Lives Matter movement. It is filling our feeds (you must make an effort not to look). After the election in 2016, I was desperately seeking this abundance of information we see now. There are endless tools at our fingertips and access to videos that we would not have seen otherwise. Folks get to share their stories. Education is more easily accessible. We know more about where to donate and how to protest. It’s a platform to amplify voices so they can be heard.

What started off as our best attempt to stay at home and limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus has quickly become a stressful exercise in learning to be comfortable within our own comfy homes. For the majority of the white-collar population, the prospect of staying at home for a couple of weeks was a welcome reprieve from the obligations of interacting with the day-to-day people that encompassed venturing out in the wild; it was a break from the chronic stress that comes with commuting, the obligatory in-person interactions, and the hustle and bustle of what we have all become numb to.

Hello everyone! I hope you’re staying healthy. I’m guessing you’re either working from home, or will be soon. Thankfully technology is here to help you navigate this uncomfortable situation. Some of us are creatures of habit, and not going into the office simply doesn’t feel right. Here are some tips to stay productive as well as recommend technology that will make your job easier.

While we are all dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 virus, and in the face of conflicting information we receive on a daily basis, the most important steps we can all take is to remain calm, and limit interactions with others (I’m looking at you, San Francisco).

The measures we take right now have a direct effect on the number of deaths later. There’s no sugar-coating this. Limiting contact and interactions with people for a brief time now will have a dramatic effect on how long we limit social contact. The scene coming out of San Francisco is not only disheartening, but also alarming. A city that was placed under a shelter-in-place order saw many of its citizens out for jogs, walks, coffee — it is irresponsible to brush off such orders, and has the effect of increasing the negative impact of this pandemic, both to personal life and financial resources.

It is widely known that law-enforcement agencies use social media to identify suspects in crimes. A lot of us are aware of cases where a criminal creates a self-incriminating post, law-enforcement sees it, and shortly afterwards (SURPRISE!) makes an arrest.

Well, there’s an update to how social media is being used. The new development involves a startup by the name of Clearview AI, and their creation of databases filled with images and information scraped (I’ll define this later) from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other various websites and platforms.

If I could go back in time and read this before we moved into our new home, I would. If you’re looking to move, check out some of these hacks. It’ll save precious time and money (and waste, if you’re into that).

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I’m about the least political person you can meet. Growing up, my predominant source of information about current events in the United States government was probably Saturday Night Live, and later, the Daily Show. Now it’s predominantly friends and family who already have a pretty solid position as to where they stand on the spectrum of left to right. This may make me a “bad American,” or a cliché disillusioned millennial, but it’s the truth. Despite my general disinterest, there are still issues that occasionally pique my attention, even if only in that some controversies are so ridiculous that I feel compelled to learn how they came to be.

Recently I learned there has been a “War on Christmas” for quite some time. I even saw a commercial on YouTube that warned me of its dangers. I guess in the simplest of terms, it boils down to what you say to people during the December-ish time of year to express merriment. Most of us probably grew up saying “Merry Christmas!” and receiving the same exclamation in return. At least, I did. More recently, it has become commonplace to say, “Happy Holidays!” This difference may seem benign, but apparently replacing the former with the latter is an attack on the foundation of our very country.

The fear is that this shift in seasonal vocabulary is a slippery slope; that it will eventually lead to the removal of Christmas as a national holiday. Left wing pundits will say it’s simply a way of being more inclusive to the many cultures in this great nation. Some on the right may believe it’s a compromise that threatens the very foundation of our country, and a gross over-reach at an attempt to be politically correct. In fact, according to the YouTube guy, Dennis Prager, this attempt at including those that may not celebrate Christmas actually results in the exclusion of those that Americans who do celebrate Christmas.

I grew up in a very Roman Catholic family and have celebrated Christmas my entire life. I’ve never given it a second thought when someone wished me any celebration. And I think everyone could use some time off from the rat race – I’ll take any excuse I can get: Chinese New Year, Boxing Day, Hanukkah, Kwanza. Maybe the rule should be that whatever it is you celebrate, wish it onto others.