Heading 1

Read the article on Wired here …. (Paywall)

It’s not yet ready for prime time .. but still ….

So, using Visual Studio Code, I wrote a plain ol’ comment describing the first step I needed done:

write a function that opens a pdf document and returns the text 
 For about four seconds, nothing happened. Then Copilot wrote this: 
 def pdf_to_text(filename): 
pdf = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(open(filename, “rb”)) 
text = “” 
for i in range(pdf.getNumPages()): 
text += pdf.getPage(i).extractText() 
return text

”With this method, it is possible to achieve as many as 2 to 3 tasks in a single day, so long as you live alone and nobody else tries to contact you.

If at any point during the Puttanesca Method (so-called because there are more olives in it than in the Pomodoro) someone tries to contact you – whether by text, by phone call, by email, by saying your name quietly in the next room, whatever — cease all work at once and go directly back to bed.

Read It All

I just got my iPad out with its Magic Keyboard and started to work. I was reminded how I like the focus of just a single app, no multiple windows, just lock-in on what you are doing - no distractions - lovely and really makes sense - but - BUT … that screen sure does feel tiny.

And then I pulled the keyboard off and just starred at that giant piece of glass.

My goodness - the screen is enormous!!!

If I share an article to Drafts from NetNewswire, something like this appears in my draft

https://web3isgoinggreat.com/single/2022-02-25-0

If I first open the item in the browser … the full info, created in Markdown appears in my draft, like this.

Nelson Mandela’s paintings from prison to be sold as NFTs – Web3 Is Going Just Great

Anyone know if I can get the full Markdown direct from the feed rather than needing to go to the browser first?

In another life I worked for Oracle in the UK and thence onto the US. When I first met my boss to be, the UK offices were in Richmond. By the time I had joined, they had moved to Chertsey. Within a couple of years we had moved to Bracknell and around year 6 (by which time I was in San Francisco), Reading became their home.

Trying to find some picture of the buildings for a different reason and came across this.

Just a couple of examples. Click through for the mess that it was.

How sad.

The Cherstey offices were always my favorites and home to good friends and good people working on so many things including Oracle’s FIRST applications - delivered through C.A.S.E. Who knew it had fallen into such disrepair? The photos seem to date back to 2015 … but looks like they are no more - and an elderly care home is now there. I wonder if there any residents today that worked in those office back then?

It was long enough ago.

This post originated as a comment in another thread, but it made me think more - again - about how language is constantly being twisted to operate against people.

I wrote

“Language is powerful - funny how we use the term ‘right to work’ state - rather than ‘union busting’ state ….

and

It’s like how we used to have data warehouses - but now we have data ‘lakes’ and ‘mountains’ that we keep in ‘farms’ - so that we can ‘harvest’ information … it’s all so wonderfully natural - and nothing to worry about …

What say you?

Stone Age culture in the Orkney islands

When I was eight years old, we took a family trip to the Orkney islands off the north coast of Scotland. I don’t know why we went there particularly, but it was amazing. I almost don’t want to go back because it might break the spell the place has cast over my life.

I was 18 when I did that journey (sans family)

Never been back - despite it being amazing. Not really thought about it before - but I think subconsciously Doug has drawn out my reasoning.

In case you hadn’t noticed - I am in a bit of a catch up mode.

This for example is a set of links that clearly at one time all connected in my head, but for the life of me - I can’t see that now. That said - I am pretty sure that all of them date back to January 2021.

Work

Tom Evslin - Who’s Pocketing the Profit - I think we know!

Josh Bersiin - The Crusade For Employee Experience: How Did We Get Here? - I find it telling that ‘Employee Experience’ is so far behind ‘Customer Experience’ - just in case you had any doubt where Corporate priorities lie.

Free Speech

Benedict Evans - Speech and Publishing

Beyond Platforms: Private Censorship, Parler, and the Stack | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Robin Rendle - Hijack

Apple and Chips

Stratechery - Intel Problems

… Truly horrible.

So when I read Google Slides is actually Hilarious … sadly on Medium (oh the irony - the ignominy of publishing your Google Slides takedown on Medium!), it needed to be shared.

With Commentary

I have long had no truck for the Google Office Suite … so was delighted to discover this piece and realize that I am not alone and neatly summarizes the challenges of using that excuse of a piece of software.

PowerPoint is bad enough - but it’s only when you try Google slides that you truly understand how great it really is (no snark - truth),

As an Apple user I have used the Apple iWork suite for more than years. Back in the day I used to have PowerPoint installed so I could create in Keynote, export to PowerPoint and then fix the few oddities that occur when you run such a routine.

These days I don’t even have MS office installed. All three apps export ‘nicely’ to MS and thence onto Google should somebody on the planet decide that what the deck needs is some ‘Google magic’.

Of course everyone loves Google because you can share and co edit … personally I get that in the doc world … but a decent presentation should not be designed</> put together by committee.

Seriously - STOP.

Ok ok … if you must and you want to share and co develop a deck and are a Mac user - have you tried Keynote? They offer the app - for free - on the web. You can share your presentation and anyone with the link and creds can now edit.

Is that experience rock solid? Well it’s not perfect - but it’s a whole lot better than wrestling with Google crap.