Recent Articles

The DuckDuckGo blog:

Private browsing mode and being logged out of Google offered very little filter bubble protection. These tactics simply do not provide the anonymity most people expect. In fact, it’s simply not possible to use Google search and avoid its filter bubble.

Ultimately:

We often hear of confusion that private browsing mode enables anonymity on the web, but this finding demonstrates that Google tailors search results regardless of browsing mode. People should not be lulled into a false sense of security that so-called “incognito” mode makes them anonymous.

If the average person knew this, and accepted it, they’d shit a brick. The. Switch to DuckDuckGo which is far superior.

Gabe Weatherhead:

I’ve spent my entire career working with PDFs as reference material. I have thousands of documents and many, many notes. I feel like I spent my life doing it all wrong. LiquidText is an indispensable tool for any researcher or student.

Such a killer app. If I still worked in real estate it would have been a game changer.

Out today, I had it in pre-order myself on Apple Books. Really enjoyed the first novel in the series and have been looking forward to reading this one too.

Speaking of lifestyle changes, this post at Working Mother, has this tidbit that bothers me:

Instead of work and life outside of the office being two totally separate parts of our lives, Bezos envisions a more harmonic relationship between the two. In his world, work and life outside of work are reciprocal rather than competing, compartmentalized parts.

First, this coming from Bezos is fucking rich. Secondly, I think this is still not the right way to think about it. Work and ‘life’ should not be things that happen at set points during the day. I often told people when bringing them on in my last job, that I didn’t care when they work or for how long, just get the job done and do it well.

I told them that if that meant leaving for an hour mid-morning to grocery shop, and then working later, that’s great. Life shouldn’t be hard, as a “boss” I always felt it was asinine to make life harder by making someone be chained to set hours when they “have” to work.

Men’s Health has a follow up to that NYT post. From Michael Frederickson, M.D.:

It really has to be a lifestyle. Not “okay, I’ll sit all day (even though it’s really bad) and then I’ll try and make up for at another time.” Think about your lifestyle and how you can work around inactive periods.

Indeed.

Aaron E. Carroll:

But standing is not exercise. Many health groups recommend that people at work take frequent walking breaks. Replacing sitting with standing does not fulfill that recommendation and may even mislead people into thinking they’re doing enough activity.

Standing desks are “overrated” in the same way that any other health advice is: it’s not a panacea so stop treating it like one. That said, reading this article, I can’t help but think the advice is: change positions often. As a long time standing desk user I think you are far more likely to change positions often when standing than when sitting. Say, 100% more likely, as that’s quotable.

Wilneida Negrón:

By then, my experience working as a therapist, social worker, immigrant rights advocate, and social movement researcher had made me deeply skeptical of Mark Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things” ethos, which has defined Silicon Valley. While this mantra is credited with ushering in an era of incredible innovation–the products, platforms, and tools developed by “tech giants”–I saw how it reinforced the ways our social, economic, and political systems and institutions can privilege some groups over others, and reproduce bias and inequality.

Here’s something to think about: Apple has almost the inverse ethos as Facebook. Both Facebook and iPhone have massively transformed the world. Which has transformed it for better, which for worse?

I’m not sure there is a clear answer, however my gut says that Facebook is more net negative than iPhone. I wonder how much of that could have been avoided if more consideration was given while building out the Facebook, as was given when Apple built iPhone.

Speaking of All Day Ruckoff, I just picked up one of these new knit caps. Damn is it nice, and perhaps the warmest cap I’ve owned. I’ll be using this for my early morning rucks.