Posted on February 16, 2019 in Links, Reflections, Roundup

The Roundup for February 1-15, 2019 Edition

Welcome to this edition of The Roundup! Enjoy the collection of interesting, informative, and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee or grab yourself a drink, find a comfortable place, and relax.

A few top of line thoughts concerning the iPad Pro 11” versus the iPad 9.7” (2017).

The weight increase on the iPad Pro is really noticeable and makes holding it aloft for long periods of time less pleasant;
FaceID is magical. It’s just amazing to have a device with it;
iPad Pro’s screen is terrific. Hands down, the best screen I’ve ever used on a device;
Apple Pencil is really amazing for taking notes with (side note: GoodNotes seems pretty good?) but it took me forever to figure out wtf was going on when I couldn’t use it on a recent trip. The issue? The nib wasn’t fully secured and there were no indicators to alert me to the problem;
iPad Pro’s speakers are so good that I don’t need to bring a separate portable speaker with me (which I’ve done while travelling for years). Massive win for a regular traveller;
Battery life is amazing, as is true of all new iOS devices, though I wonder how that will change over time…
New ‘SOS’ features — with no explanation when I was setting up the device — meant that it was initially a pain to take the device through a border checkpoint (pro tip: press power + volume up);
Once more: the screen is just amazing crazy good.

Do I recommend iPad Pro? Kinda sorta? If you do a lot of professional work on it or require a secure device and can’t live in ChromeOS (i.e. the Venn circles I live in) then it’s a terrific option. Otherwise…consider whether the 9.7″ (2018) iPad is better for your life (and pocketbook).

Inspiring Quotation

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

— Harold Whitman

Great Photography Shots

The top 25 photos posted to Flickr in 2018 are just absolutely stunning.

Music I’m Digging

DaniLeigh – The Plan // I’ve even listening to this album on repeat for days: the tracks alternate between melodic singing and stronger hip hop vibes. Tracks I’m particularly fond of include ‘The Plan’, Do It to Me’, ‘Blue Chips’, ‘Easy’, and (of course) the breakout track ‘Lil Bebe’.
Joy Crookes – Reminiscence (EP) // Crooke’s soft and husky voice powerfully communicates the emotions and experiences she has lived through and contemplated. Her experiences with relationships and social expectations — in particular, that she should change her life to accommodate a man — are both erudite and communicate both a willingness to engage in introspection while expressing self-confidence in who she is at the time of writing the respective songs.
Hauschka – A Different Forest // A piece of classical music that communities the experience of passing through nature, this newest album by Hauschka complements their broad and excellent body of work.

Neat Podcast Episodes

The Economist: It’s note easy: the Green New Deal // We might be approaching a time where the primary threat to human civilization — catastrophic climate change — is becoming a ‘real’ political issue. This episode of The Economist takes a look at the proposed Green New Deal in the United States of America and, to my listen, does a good job in assessing what’s been proposed thus far as likely more an affirmation of principle than a proposal of actions and activities.
The Sporkful: Dan Savage Recommends A Polyeaterous Lifestyle // I’ve always found Dan Savage’s advice to be blunt, direct, and helpful. His discussions on The Sporkful are no different. Though not novel, his suggestions about romantic days (i.e. sex, first, dinner second) just make good sense, and his thoughts on not badgering your partner to do things that you like but they don’t are similarly common sense and likely to enable partners to live independent and fulfilling lives.
The Sporkful: Why Roy Wood Jr. Sees Pros To Bad Service And Confederate Flags // Roy Wood Jr. is a comedian. He’s also African American, and tours the entirety of the United States of America. As a result, he’s often in states where his body is perceived as either threatening or as something to be harmed. His discussion of what it’s like to try and determine ‘Is this a white person who’s going to harass or try to kill me?’ served to, again, remind me about the structural racism that is built into society and needs to be remedied. Unrelated, it was interesting to hear him talk about the relationship he had with his father and how, in Wood Jr.’s own case, his own parenting approach is as much to behave contrary to how he was raised as anything else. I particularly liked his rationales for not seeking to bribe his child into forgiving past bad actions; the accountability he recognizes in parenting strikes me as helpful for developing productive and positive longer-term relationships in the child’s unfolding life.

Good Reads

How the Slice Joint Made Pizza the Perfect New York City Food // Korsha Wilson has written a beautiful homage to New York pizza, and briefly extols on its history — with great black and white photos included! — and argues that the common love of the food truly binds New Yorkers together. I’d be lying if I said this was the most absolutely breathtaking writing, but it does capture the senses in the course of spinning a narrative.
European Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas Cooled Earth’s Climate // The sheer breadth of the harms incurred by the West’s genocide is staggering in human terms. But it’s also incredible that, as a result of land lying fallow, that nature was better able to absorb carbon dioxide and thus reduce the amount of heat trapped on Earth, to the effect of dropping global temperatures. Humanity’s ability to abuse itself while, also, inadvertently terraforming its environment is stunning.
Lagos, City of Hustle, Builds an Art ‘Ecosystem’ // The caliber of the art coming up in the emerging galleries in Lagos are absolutely stunning, though it strikes me as a shame that the revolution in the country’s art world is largely taking place in private instead of public galleries. However, the fact that artists seems to be responsible for the revival itself speaks well of the explosive talent in the community that will hopefully nurture itself as opposed to rely on public or private subsidies to find meanings or existence.
The Great Myth of Alberta Conservatism // Alberta is routinely cast as an ‘other’ in Canadian politics, by its own politicians as well as by commentators external to the province. A series of myths abound about the province which, largely, stem from perceptions emergent from populist conservatism. Jen Gerson seeks to recast some of these narratives; she recognizes that populism is largely enabled by a perception that Ottawa and the rest of Canada seeks the wealth of Alberta and, in general, regards Alberta as a sub-colonial aspect of Confederation. Her descriptions are useful for appreciating the contours of Albertan populism while, at the same time, indicative that the boom-and-bust province has clung to age-old grievances to the detriment of better relations with other provinces and the federal government. Moreover, it is challenging to believe the province is an actual ‘other’ as a Liberal federal government invests billions in a pipeline for the province’s exports and Albertan-based politicians led Canada for almost a decade. In this way, we see that the myths of Alberta may compose a political identity which fades somewhat when challenged with facts of the modern political era.
Can You Get Too Much Exercise? What the Heart Tells Us // As someone who regularly works out more or less everyday that I’m in my home city, I keep being told that it’s dangerous to work out so often. This article by the New York Times summarizes what we know: those who work out a lot tend to build up more plaque in their arteries than those who exercise less often. However, that plaque seemingly possesses different characteristics: it may tend to be denser and more stable and, as such, less likely to break off and lead to coronary distress.
Why Won’t You Love Me? // As someone who constantly grapples with a sense of abandonment by my biological father, this piece resonated deeply and strongly with me. My own father’s absence has taught me the value of simply showing up, though I wish it was through imitation of his behaviours as opposed to in contravention of them.
‘Shoplifters’ Director Pierces Japan’s Darker Side // The review of the movie, itself, is somewhat interesting. But where this article thrives is in examining the rationales and philosophy behind the movie. In particular, I was taken by Hirokazu Kore-eda’s comment that: “If you think of culture as something that transcends the state, then you understand that cultural grants don’t always coincide with the interests of the state.” This perfectly captures the difference of receiving money from a government versus from a state.
Doug Ford’s TTC subway upload and Margaret Thatcher’s cautionary tale // With more and more concerns being raised that the Ford government is going to steal away Toronto’s subway, this assessment of the ‘successes’ of doing so in London should be sobering. In short, Thatcher’s similar activities led to under financing, corruption, safety risks, worsened commute experiences, and higher costs. Perhaps this isn’t the model that Ontario and Toronto should be mimicking?
The Problem With Compromise // The idea that couples’ problems tend to stick around in 2/3 of cases belies the point that compromise isn’t necessarily what will help people navigate challenges together. I liked the proposal that, instead, persons in relationships need to accept differences and subsequently adapt in the face of them. This approach also seems remarkably healthier because it recognizes — vis-a-vis adaptation — that a deliberate act of change is required, but that change might not entail mutual modifications in action or behaviour in all cases. Finally, the idea that expressions of gratitude are central to successfully managing adaptation and acceptance over time resonates with my past experiences: it’s through acceptance and celebration of one’s partner that relationships can truly bloom in the face of interpersonal differences and challenges.
My Body Doesn’t Belong to You // This short personal essay is about the negative experiences the author has at the hands and voices of men, with the harassment purely arising because she is a woman. The narrative — to feeling like her body is hers as a child, and now only hers in seclusion from men and with her girlfriends, speaks loudly to the casual misogyny built into Western society, and also to the absolute need to structurally reform social relations. The lines that stuck, and likely will continue to stick, with me the most were: “I am 24, and my body makes life dangerous for me. My breasts, my hips, the way I walk. Any woman’s breasts, any woman’s hips, the way any woman walks.”

Cool Things

“Roll High Or Die” spinning enamel pin // A d20 spinning enamel pin? So nerdy.
WANDRD Travel Journal Notebook // This looks like a really cool product for people who use paper to organize and record their travels. I particularly like how it’s divided into long, medium, and short-term adventures, and the miscellaneous travel aids included in the book.
One Breath Around The World // This is a stunning short video, where you are taken throughout the oceans over the course of a single breath and experience them in their freedom and wonders. Without a doubt its one of the best artistic pieces I’ve seen so far this year.

Posted on February 1, 2019February 1, 2019 in Links, Roundup

The Roundup for January 21-31, 2018 Edition

Inspiring Quotation

“To create one’s world … takes courage.”

— Georgia O’Keeffe

Great Photography Shots

I really appreciated the very different natures of the three shots, below, which were compiled by Mobiography as part of the 15 Superb Smartphone Photos of Urban Life challenge.

(‘Sunsets and silhouettes‘ by @tanvi2016)

Music I’m Digging

I’ve been listening to a bunch of different playlists over the past few weeks, with my favourites being:

Apple Music – The New Atlanta // There are some amazing artists coming out of Atlanta, with 21 Savage, 6LACK, and Takeoff probably being amongst my favourites at the moment.
Apple Music – The New New York // Part of the reason I wanted to listen to this list was because Atlanta is being seen as where a lot of the freshest talent is coming from; I wanted to be able to compare between the two cities and the new artists emerging out of them. If I’m honest, I’m preferring the New York playlist with artists like Thutmose, Princess Nokia, 6ix9ine, HoodCelebrityy, amongst others.
Jasmine Jones – 🍽 // I’ve been listening to a lot of Jasmine Jones’ playlists, with her playlist for dinner parties being a really nice background playlist with interesting and cool tracks that I haven’t ever found on an equivalent playlist. Really though, all of Jones’ playlists are worth checking out!
Songs I Liked in January 2019 // I didn’t actually favourite a huge number of new songs this month, which was actually a bit shocking when I ran my script. Still, I really do like the few tracks that did get a like!

Neat Podcast Episodes

Backstory – Nixon Beyond Watergate: A History of the Presidency Before the Scandal // I really didn’t know much about Nixon other than the scandal and so, as an example, had no idea that it was under his presidency that a lot of the United States’ environmental regulation began in force. Nor was I really aware of just how effective a political communicator he had been prior to the scandal itself. If you’re interested in filling in some historical blank spots then this is a good listen.
99% Invisible – Gathering the Magic // I played Magic: The Gathering periodically during high school and university but always got out because I saw that it would demand a regular monetary investment to have the ‘best’ cards. That said, it was a lot of fun when I played. This episode goes through all of the challenges in putting together a game that is card-based and yet has a significant storyline behind it. Moreover, it talks about the politics of adding progressive cards, such as characters with non-CIS sexualities. That said, I think that the discussion of the game that fails to account for the financial rationale for putting out new decks on a regular basis papers over the fact that this is a game built to print money, and has for a long time. A more holistic accounting would have touched on the relationship between that business model and the progressive nature of that game itself (at least as presented by the persons interviewed in the episode).

Good Reads

The Route of a Text Message // I’ve never come across a simultaneously so-comprehensive and so-amusing explanation of a contemporary technology. Scott’s breakdown of every single element of typing a SMS message is remarkable; if only there were more such breakdowns, perhaps more social scientists would realize the importance of how policies and laws can affect protocols and code for good or ill.
Amazon Knows What You Buy. And It’s Building a Big Ad Business From It. // I had no idea how sophisticated Amazon’s advertising systems were, and that they were leveraging information given to the company, like type of car you own, purchases you make, size and composition of your family, and so on, to help third-parties target ads. This is yet another case of a company exploiting data in non-transparent ways that are, frankly, just creepy.
The Secret to Getting Top-Secret Secrets // Fagone’s article is somewhat mis-titled; it’s really a story about Jason Leopold, a journalist who’s been using the USA’s FOIA process to extract secret documents from the government to subsequently report on them. And the story of Leopold’s journalist and personal history is really, really interesting: he’s managed to turn his addictive personality from that which was destructive (e.g. drugs, alcohol) to positive (e.g. requesting documents from the government). Fagone effectively showcases the depths of Leopold’s character and, in the process, also raises baseline questions of why more journalists aren’t using Leopold’s method more rigorously given its successes.
Your Company’s Promotion Process is Broken // Mannan’s piece is a must-read for anyone who needs their regular reminder that gender and cultural backgrounds are factors managers absolutely must take into consideration when they’re evaluating employee performance. I found her honesty in presenting her own experiences, as well as how a manager productively engaged with her to improve how she wrote her own self-assessments, was refreshing and provided a good number of practical things to watch for when actually evaluating employees’ self-assessments.
The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson’s Archives // When I visited President Johnson’s ranch last year I’d never really known much about him. And, to be fair, I still know little about him. However, Caro’s article on his experiences in going through the president’s archives is deeply revealing of the limitations of other authors’ biographies of the president and the sheer amount of work Caro does in excavating the truth of his subjects. It’s a stunning article in just the process of Caro’s work, to say nothing of the actual insight he has in conducting interviews and gaining the trust of interview subjects.
The Sloth’s Busy Inner Life and Where Sloths Find These Branches, Their Family Trees Expand // These pair of articles from the NY Times’ science section are really, really interesting insofar as they explain why sloths in South and Central America risk the dangerous trip down from their trees to defecate (reason: to foster moths, which ultimately live and die in the sloth’s fur to facilitate the growth of moss that the sloth eats from its fur) and how trees in cacao plantations are helpful to facilitate survival of sloth populations. It’s incredible to realize how intricate these animals’ ecosystem has become and, also, worrying to realize how delicate these ecosystems really are.
8 Tips For Incredible Urban Photography On iPhone // This is a terrific guide for thinking about how to see an urban environment and, also, how to compose and edit the shots that you take with your iPhone or any other camera that you happen to have with you. There’s lots of good guides like this, but it was the comprehensive nature of this piece that made me really like it.
I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible. // Using a customized VPN, Hill attempted to block any access to Amazon products and realized that while avoiding Amazon retail is challenging, but possible, it is almost impossible to avoid using the company’s Internet infrastructure. In the process, she disclosed in a clear and transparent way just how broad Amazon’s power has become, and that the company arguably operates as a quasi-monopoly in today’s digital economy.

Cool Things

The Wave // This is an absolutely stunning piece of architecture!
Mongolian Heavy Metal with Traditional Instruments and Throat Singing // This is so far outside of what I normally listen to it’s not funny, but it’s also unlike anything I’ve ever heard or seen before.
Mathematical and Puzzle Fonts/Typefaces // These are almost all a bit silly, but I can imagine some of them would be fun for sending semi-secret messages to friends or creating puzzles for people to figure out.

Posted on January 21, 2019 in Aside

2019.1.21

One of the things I enjoy most about academia is the emphasis on intellectual freedom even when expressing such freedom might be seen as problematic for the University’s commercial interests. Case in point: I was quoted in an article raising concerns that some universities’ contractual agreements to automatically transfer certain 5G telecommunications patents to foreign companies (based on research funded by the same companies) could be disadvantageous to domestic national security. One of the universities that is caught up in the issue is the one employing me. Despite my statements potentially being disadvantageous to my own university’s interests there are no rebukes but, instead, praise for being involved with national issues. If only all employers could be so similarly open-minded!

Posted on January 20, 2019January 19, 2019 in Links, Photography, Roundup

The Roundup for January 14-20, 2019 Edition

I live a pretty minimalist lifestyle — I try to be super careful about new purchases and to not own more than I need — but it’s been a few months since I’ve done a purge. So over the past week I’ve gone through almost all of my clothing, cupboards, and drawers, and quickly and easily found four (small) bags of things to either recycle, donate, or sell. I still feel like I need to get rid of some additional things or, if not dispose of them, at least more tightly organize some of my spaces to dispense with any clutter in my closed storage spaces. I find that even organizing the ‘hidden’ spaces in my home — such as closed drawers that only I open — provides me with a sense of relief; it’s not sufficient that things outwardly appear organized and tidy, it’s important that even that which no one sees has the exact same properties. Sorta like how Steve Jobs demanded that his factories were organized by design principles and the insides of the early Apple IIs were meant as works of silicon-art…

Inspiring Quotation

“Either we all live in a decent world, or nobody does.”

― George Orwell

Great Photography Shots

As is increasingly common — in part because I keep spending time looking at just how much you can get out of smartphone cameras, and even those which are years old! — I was struck by these black and white mobiography images. It’s really impressive how well the small sensors on smartphones, even those as old as the iPhone 6 and 6s, work when placed in ideal lighting situations.

‘Favorite building in Los Angeles‘ by @mjhmalibu

Music I’m Digging

Jrd. – Growth // I’ve been listening to this album some through the week and been really enjoying its downtempo beat; it’s been great for quietly reading or cooking. If I have one complaint, it’s that many of the tracks seem too short – just as they start to find their full on-grove, the track is over and it’s on to the next one.

Neat Podcast Episodes

99% Invisible – Atomic Tattoos // I was struck by how during the Cold War, Americans were specifically taught to engage in resiliency preparation in the case of an Atomic attack. This podcast starts by examining why certain people had their blood type tattooed on their rib cage, but then proceeds with a broader assessment of resilience and questions whether Western nations are anywhere near as resilient, today, as they believed they were in the 1950s-1970s.
Hurry Slowly – Creativity vs Efficiency // I appreciated how, in this episode, the host explores how efficiency actually can act as a barrier to creativity. The manifold numbers of hinderances in life and creation can actually fuel the creative process itself and, as such, creatives needs to reflect on whether they really, truly, want to become ‘efficient’ and if so, why and for what specific benefits.

Good Reads

California’s Monarch Butterflies Hit ‘Potentially Catastrophic’ Record Low // It’s hard to imagine that in a few decades the only place we might see monarch butterflies is in butterfly conservatories and augmented reality representations.
The Rise and Demise of RSS // This is a tremendous summary of the history of the RSS protocol and the reasons behind why it was forked multiple times. I don’t know that I agree with the concluding assessment — that RSS is falling increasingly out of use — insofar as it still powers a lot of the backend of the Internet, unbeknownst to many Internet users. Moreover, as companies such as Feedly grow and attract subscribers I expect that people will use RSS more and more, even if they don’t know their reading is being powered by RSS feeds. Still, it has to be admitted that outside of a relatively tech-literate audience the protocol itself is largely unknown. Less evident, however, is whether knowing about the protocol matters so long as it remains in use.
If we stopped upgrading fossil-fuel-using tech, we’d hit our climate goals // While there isn’t any possibility that the world will generally swap its infrastructure to green technologies in the near future, this study (depressingly) shows how much of a difference would be made should we adopt green infrastructure now versus by 2030. Do it now, and we would likely limit limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial times; do it by 2030, and most of the simulations put us on the wrong side of 1.5°C but below 2.0°C.

Cool Things

The Homebrewery // This is a pretty cool latex installation that enables a dungeon master to robustly produce documents that looks and feel very similar to official Wizards of the Coast publications.
The Confessions Game // I’m a big fan of these kinds of ‘games’, which are really facilitated conversation starters that bypass trivial talking. This looks like it would encourage some pretty intense discussions amongst friends and partners.

Posted on January 17, 2019 in Aside

2019.1.17

Nothing quite like starting the day by refreshing a password that was apparently compromised, and then trying to determine where/how the operators might have obtained the login credentials in the first place. Still, props to Google’s AI systems for detecting the aberrant login attempt and blocking it, as well as for password managers which make having unique login credentials for every service so easy to manage/replace.

Posted on January 15, 2019January 14, 2019 in Review

Review of the Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Zetter’s book engages in a heroic effort to summarize, describe, and explain the significance of the NSA’s and Israel’s first ‘cyber weapon’, named Stuxnet. This piece of malware was used to disrupt the production of nuclear material in Iran as part of broader covert efforts to delimit the country’s ability to construct a nuclear weapon.

Multiple versions of Stuxnet were created, as were a series of complementary or derivative malware species with names such as Duqu and Flame. In all cases the malware was unusually sophisticated and relied on chains of exploits or novel techniques that advanced certain capabilities from academic theory to implementable practice. The reliance on zero-day vulnerabilities, or those for which no patches are available, combined with deliberate efforts to subvert the Windows Update system as well as use fraudulently signed digital certificates, bear the hallmarks of developers being willing to compromise global security for the sake of a specific American-Israeli malware campaign. In effect, the decision to leave the world’s computers vulnerable to the exploits used in the creation of Stuxnet demonstrate that offence was prioritized over defence by the respective governments and their signals intelligence agencies which authored the malware.

The book regales the reader with any number of politically sensitive tidbits of information: the CIA was responsible for providing some information on Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the IAEA, Russian antivirus researchers were monitored by Israeli (and perhaps other nations’) spies, historically the CIA and renown physicists planted false stories in Nature, the formal recognition as cyberspace as the fifth domain of battle in 2010 was merely formal recognition of work that had been ongoing for a decade prior, the shift to a wildly propagating version of Stuxnet likely followed after close access operations were no longer possible and the flagrancy of the propagation was likely an error, amongst many other bits of information.

Zetter spends a significant amount of time unpacking the ways in which the United States government determines if a vulnerability should be secretly retained for government use as part of a vulnerabilities equities process. Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security who were quoted in the book noted that they had never received information from the National Security Agency of a vulnerability and, moreover, that in cases where the Agency was already exploiting a reported vulnerability it was unlikely that disclosure would happen after entering the vulnerability into the equities process. As noted by any number of people in the course of the book, the failure by the United States (and other Western governments) to clearly explain their vulnerabilities disclosure processes, or the manners in which they would respond to a cyber attack, leaves unsettled the norms of digital security as well as leaves unanswered the norms and policies concerning when (and how) a state will respond to cyber attacks. To date these issues remain as murky as when the book was published in 2014.

The Countdown to Zero Day, in many respects, serves to collate a large volume of information that has otherwise existed in the public sphere. It draws in interviews, past technical and policy reports, and a vast quantity of news reports. But more than just collating materials it also explains the meanings of them, draws links between them that had not previously been made in such clear or straightforward fashions, and explains the broader implications of the United States’ and Israel’s actions. Further, the details of the book render (more) transparent how anti-virus companies and malware researchers conduct their work, as well as the threats to that work in an era when a piece of malware could be used by a criminal enterprise or a major nation-state actor with a habit of proactively working to silence researchers. The book remains an important landmark in the history of security journalism, cybersecurity, and the politics of cybersecurity. I would heartily recommend it to a layperson and expert alike.

Posted on January 14, 2019 in Quotations

Between 2002 and 2009, the [Industrial Control System Cyber Emergency Response Team] conducted more than 100 site assessments across multiple industries–oil and natural gas, chemical, and water–and found more than 38,000 vulnerabilities. These included critical systems that were accessible over the internet, default vendor passwords that operators had never bothered to change or hard-coded passwords that couldn’t be changed, outdated software patches, and a lack of standard protections such as firewalls and intrusion-detection systems.

But despite the best efforts of the test-bed and site-assessment researchers, they were battling decades of industry intertia–vendors took months and years to patch vulnerabilities that government researchers found in their systems, and owners of crucial infrastructure were only willing to make cosmetic changes to their systems and networks, resisting more extensive ones.

– Kim Zetter, Countdown to Zero-Day