Clawing for Attention

I understand the need for every app, especially the news ones, to claw for attention. I think the worst offenders do so and have sponsored/suggested ads peppered in through their content.

The Yahoo! Newsroom app is the worst of all the ones I have. Once I open it, I think I get 20-25 notifications within two or three days of news it believes I want to look at. Some of it is just the Yahoo! content, a good deal being videos. I’ve never been a fan of video news. Television news is fine, but video news in general has been iffy for me. Newsy has been an exception, though I haven’t quite given them as much attention as I had in the past.

Another offender is LinkedIn. They don’t do notifications quite as often, but they like to randomly have their badge light up just so anal-retentive people like me who want it gone can open the app. That then starts the cycle, because once one opens the app, more notifications come in. Pinterest too.

But it’s all free, so I really shouldn’t complain, right? Or turn off the notifications and badges? But then I might miss something.

Craigslist Moves

Pretty much every apartment except the one I’m soon about to vacate after three years and two months I’d located, prospected, and signed leases for because of Craigslist.

Craigslist, while I can’t say I’ve been on it much lately, had been a big part of my life in my twenties. Sometimes it would be idle browsing, sometimes for job searches, and sometimes it would be for apartments.

Having decided I was going to not renew my lease this time around, I’d first went via Apartment Ratings (since that’s how I’d found where I am currently). Not finding ones that jumped out at me pretty readily, I went to old reliable Craigslist.

And now I’m moving. Oh, the 21st century.

iOS 11, Day 1

I’ve never been an early adopter of most things, often either letting other try it so see how it’s worked for them, or just that I’ve not gotten around to something/couldn’t afford to time or money-wise.

iOS releases, since I’ve had an iPhone, have been the rare exception to that. Probably my favorite iteration is still iOS 6, but here I have five full versions later.

I’d gotten home and downloaded it directly via my phone while the backup was processing; the entire download took about 20 minutes. That’s mounds more admirable than a few versions ago, where it had taken about 3 hours (it may have been the first version they’d introduced over-the-air updates).

I’m getting used to some of the revisions they’d done, such as accessing notifications on the lock screen, and the look of the play screen. I don’t like what they’d done to the Podcasts app, which essentially stopped the ability to play podcasts automatically in the order they appear without having to add each to a “Play Next” queue. I’d readopted Stitcher Radio partly because of this, even though I have to sacrifice a few local news outlets’ feeds to do it.

I have yet to try the Screen Recording feature, though I think that may be trouble for some people in the future (even though I’d like to believe most apps to what this would be relevant might either have some kind of notification or lockdown for it. I have yet to try that, though.

Since I’m working on a 6 Plus, it’s naturally a little slow at first, and it will be since this is probably the second-lowest tier of Apple phone still in support. It’s okay; I’m not in any particular rush for a new phone, so long as it does what I need it to do.

I’m glad they’d worked on the on-device Library portion of the TV app, because its bugginess in iOS 10 was bothering the fuck out of me. They’d also re-enabled landscape views, for which I’m thankful. The disintegration of the Facebook/Twitter apps from the core is slightly surprising, but they’d also done that with iOS 7 from iOS 6 (the accessibility of both for status updates immediately as a widget in iOS 6 was another thing I’d liked.

Let’s see what else I discover as the days and weeks go by, since it seems this version they’d catered more to the iPad than iPhone anyway…

To Post or Not?

So, I was reading a few Fox News articles that grabbed my attention, and meant to post them to my Flipboard… except for some interesting verbiage…

Now, the first was via the Apple News app, and then the second was the view from Safari. The only notable difference was that in Apple News, the ads were for, basically, Fox News products that had Apple syndication (an Apple Podcasts-based podcast, for instance). The web page view in Safari had a notable amount of "sponsored" ads, but they seemed to consolidate them at the article's end primarily. The Fox News app, though, seemed to split them up, and there was no apparent sign of the verbiage (which I took to mean one can share it elsewhere).

The answer may lie in Terms and Conditions… or as they put it, Terms of Use. I suppose that links are fine. It's when the actual content goes anywhere else, that's when one cannot do anything. It's interesting, though, that it includes archiving an article. One cannot archive a copy of an article at all according to the Terms of Use (so things like shenanigans that may occur within an article that they decide to delete and "web activists" who have copies of it to debate the shenanigans might be in the wrong).

Terms of Use/Terms and Conditions are fun… 😑

Genetic Modification

GMO.

It is, for some people, a curse word/phrase.

I've not really cared whether something has, or is, a genetically modified product/organism, I suppose partly, because I'm a science fiction fan. Between the Augments, the Denobulans, and just seeing all the kinds of things that we have done with genes already that have made human lives more comfortable, I haven't seen what.

Besides the Augments. They're something wrong, at least in their tyranny. And Linnea of Stargate SG-1. She's kind of evil. And Hathor too. Yes, those are examples of when we don't watch ourselves with the progress we seek to make.

Alas.

The bananas we eat are Cavendish, which did not exist in nature. We made them that way in efforts of genetic engineering (though, because it's botany, we don't really think about it that way). I hear all kinds of things about "frankenfish" (though, like the origins of "corrective rape", this too is something I've not actively gone researching just yet) and how people hate the thought of them. I do think of that term as a charged buzzword people use to engender automatic despise of the idea (like Obamacare).

We genetically engineer viruses and bacteria to produce vaccines, mass-produce silk, and try to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes. These are all so we can be comfortable, or not die... Hell, we're all [eyeroll] living longer partly because of these things.

Is it more correct for genetic engineering to happen over millennia that to artificially give it a boost? Gregor Mendel kind of did that with his experiments.

My moderation wants to keep it in check, and I suppose after thinking about how moderate I am and how I want things in check, perhaps I'm leaning towards labeling. But people shouldn't care that it is a GMO, because there are plenty of things that are without the labeling anyway.

Developments

I was on Facebook looking at the "On This Day" feature, and one of the posts included a comment my sister had made asking about the name of a song I'd put in the background of a collage video I'd posted today seven years ago.

My response at the time was I'd no idea because I'd gotten it from an iPod that, maddeningly and aggravatingly, didn't have the name or artist of the song in its IME. Somewhere along the line years later I'd discovered it, but it wasn't until today I'd realized anyone else was actually looking for this information.

So, I'd written my sister via Facebook Messenger and informed her. Since she's probably at Bible Study, I probably won't get a response until later.

Still, though, going from a child who'd not grown up with a computer nor watching television, to someone who has a pretty powerful and versatile computer in a holster at his hip; who comes home and sits in front of a computer that has access to (more or less) more than a lifetime's worth of information, video, images, and music; who can turn on a *networked* television and watch entire movies at a whim... This is something.

It's exciting being in the intermediate generation who saw these things come into daily life and who put them into daily use, as well as a little frustrating sometimes being the in the generation who has to coach the previous generation who's still trying, in some cases, to figure out how to turn these contraptions on.

It's another mention of the hilarity at how in high school I'd written journal entries of how I didn't think I'd ever be able to make electronic journal entries, or how I'd never get a phone with a camera because I already have a perfectly good camera.

How things develop...

Mashable: Instagram just announced two new types of Stories so you can watch forever

Instagram just announced two new types of Stories so you can watch forever
Get ready to see a lot more Instagram Stories. Read the full story | Shared from Apple News

Why I Chose... an iPhone

My first iPhone was an iPhone 3GS, which I'd bought at the Dadeland Mall Apple Store in the late summer of 2009 after work.

It was a somewhat impulsive purchase, my having gone through a few phones (the one I'd liked most being the Trēo 800w, RIP) and not liking how the application ecosystem just wasn't being friendly to anything but an iPhone. I was a heavy Yahoo! user, and they were really hyping and promoting their iPhone(-exclusive) app; I wanted it.

So, I went and got it, porting my phone number over to it and a very helpful, nerdish, attractive guy helped me to activate it. This was back when one had to go to a store to do so or it would take forever. Another reason I'd wanted to go that route was Sprint, at the time, as considering Wimax as their 4G upgrade and everyone else was going LTE. AT&T, as well, was the only game in town for the iPhone, so more incentive.

My boss, especially, was envious for weeks at my phone. He'd kept saying he wanted an iPhone, but ended up getting a Samsung Instinct and porting it to Metro PCS like one of my other co-workers.

I still have AT&T and their grandfathered-in unlimited data package.

I'd adored my 3GS, which I'd called Mars. When I moved to Georgia, I remember watching the end-of-days movie 2012 on it, streaming it via an Israeli video aggregation site (and, I think, having a multi-ten gigabyte data usage metric that month, too).

In 2011, I got my 4S, ordering it the same day they were having online sales. I'd gotten it by Fed-Ex several weeks later, and that became my favorite. Even though I love my 6 Plus now, I think I loved most that the 4S had the solidity and heft of my Trēo 800w. I think I'd enjoyed it most with iOS 6, with its inbuilt Twitter and Facebook widgets on the notifications slider.

And now I have an iPhone 6 Plus, which I've enjoyed for almost three years now.

We'll see what comes next.

Users are fleeing LiveJournal over Russian owners' hidden anti-LGBTQ terms

Users are fleeing LiveJournal over Russian owners' hidden anti-LGBTQ terms

From Gay Rights, a Flipboard topic

Remember LiveJournal, the online blogging service popular with fanfiction users during the early 2000s? Well, LiveJournal…

Read it on Flipboard

Read it on dailydot.com

Wow, I didn't even think about it like that…

I'd logged into the mobile LiveJournal app a few days ago and the new Terms of Service translation popped up. They'd made sure to note it was not legally binding (only the original Russian would be). I'd read it, because it now being fully Russian, I wondered if there would be anything overtly talking about gay things... Naturally, not, because who says things like that in legal documents most of the time?

Actually some, yes, but only when they don't want to be completely obscure about it.

So, I'd not really thought about it until I'd seen this article, and I suppose they might have a point. I want to justify it somewhat, saying I'm safe because I have a Friends-Only journal, but that isn't the point. People can't express themselves as they'd like.

Every website has its rules. Tumblr has a no pornographic video rule, and I think it's partly because people were/are using it as a giant, free file sharing service for, among other things, "copyrighted" "amateur" gay pornography.

Yes, I use scare quotes. I have a certain opinion about that too.

Back to my first-thought sort-of-defending-them. I'm not sure what I really want to do. That LiveJournal has been there through some of my most tumultuous life moments, and it's been a repository for a lot of my stories, even if I'm the only one of my friends who's still be regularly contributing to it.

Literally, the only people on my feed are Keith R.A. DeCandido, and me. A Japanese learners' community had a post a couple days ago, and that had surprised me. I'll have to see what comes.

Replication

I'm not a Snapchat user. I'd tried it for all of three seconds and I thought it was silly, so I'd deleted the app (though I still, technically, have the account).

So, when Instagram brought Stories to their network, I was fine with it because it didn't duplicate functions, I could still use Instagram, and it was something of added value (most of the time). It still didn't have as many bells and whistles as Snapchat does, from what I've gleaned, but it's been relatively okay.

And the. Facebook Messenger came out with a stories interface (calling it "My Day"). And then WhatsApp. And now the main Facebook app itself!

 

Facebook just can't quit!

I understand there may be people who use only one of the four apps (though more than likely it's at least two). If you're in iOS and want to use the Messenger feature of Facebook, I believe they're still forcing you to use Messenger (though sideline reading just now, I've just discovered one can actually use it on its own, and that it's an Android thing, too) if you want to chat with your Facebook friends.

As a person who has all four apps, though, it's just plain annoying! I just want one, ubiquitous app! I remember I'd felt kind of fuming when Google decided they were going to spur Photos and Hangouts out of Google+. So, I have a bunch of apps when I used to have just one go-to app.

I don't like it.

BBC News: 'Justin Bieber impostor' on 931 child sex-related charges

'Justin Bieber impostor' on 931 child sex-related charges

The man posed as the singer online to gain explicit material from children, Australian police say.

Noooooo…

Seriously, this is probably the most amazing thing I've seen or heard this week.

Predation is something some people pride themselves on. "Oh, I'm an Alpha Male", even though they're really just annoying, boorish, and often ill-mannered. They pride themselves on getting the one-up on someone, or feel they can do whatever they please. I've seen posts of guys online who seem like predators, and they feel they're invincible, that no one else's feelings matter than their own satisfaction.

Then this guy decides to use the identity of another to further his goals.

It's… unfortunately a sadder side of humanity.

Apple says it fixed the unexpected iPhone 6/6s shutdown issue for some users - BGR

http://bgr.com/2017/02/24/iphone-6s-battery-shutdown-issue/

Some iPhones out there keep shutting down unexpectedly, even when there’s enough battery left. Apple has made few official comments on the matter since the problems started plaguing various devices including the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6. The company kicked off a limited battery replacement program for the iPhone 6s, without including older devices in it. 

Oh, my gosh! Finally! Well, it hasn't been quite as much the bother lately since, it seems, the OS update had remedied some of the strife, but it had been a bother.

For a while, my phone would get to 30% power and then suddenly shut down. Sometimes I would tap repeatedly at the screen, or rub it back and forth against my clothes for a couple minutes and then it would come back on, but this seemed such a "ghetto" way of trying to get my phone back.

Then I'd seen another BGR report that actually shed light on the situation, and that had inflamed me. "You mean, it wasn't just cold weather?!"

At the very least, if they're ready to replace my battery and it's going to be new, this should be a plus for me until things roll around again for me to get another phone! That could be their ploy, too. It's not like the phones will be of much good two years from now, maybe, aside from browsing some things and using some legacy apps that might be completely outmoded by the next few iOS iterations.

Stitcher Down

Sometimes it takes not having one thing to shed light on another.

I remember back when Apple first debrided their podcasts from the main iTunes app and made the separate Podcasts app.

I was a little miffed. This was back when I'd had my iPhone 3GS with limited screen space, and so one extra app would mean I would more than likely have to get rid of another app so everything would be even (I'm also very OCD in some things).

I did like its design, though, because it had this recorder reel theme under the hood that struck me as quirky and likable. The social media aspects of it, though, weren't what I was expecting. This is because I was already using Stitcher.

I'd decided to start using Stitcher on April 10, 2010 shortly after I'd moved to Georgia. This app did streaming podcasts, which meant that with my limited storage capacity (and unlimited data plan), I didn't have to worry about much and still could enjoy podcasts and my voracious appetite (especially) for news.

Sticher added more features as they went on, and so I'd put the Podcasts app to the side because it didn't do streaming of podcasts especially well under enhanced 3G conditions. I'd known Apple kept adding little things to the Podcasts app as they'd updated iOS, but I'd still not paid it an incredible amount of attention.

Then the last few days came.

Stitcher has been down for an unknown maintenance they've been doing, and to satiate my podcast thirst I've been playing around with the latest iteration of the Podcasts app on my iPhone 6 Plus (which by now ships with the Podcasts app inbuilt to iOS), and it's been pretty all right, actually. Aside from the insanely long links that occur when you want to share a podcast to social media, it's been pretty nice.

As I play around with it more, I wonder about Stitcher. I mean, I've had almost 6 years with it now, and the history function is certainly one thing I like,

Now I wait to see what Stitcher is doing with themselves.

The Digital ID "Revolution"

Estonia will hand out digital ID cards to non-residents
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/29/estonia-digital-id-for-non-residents/?ncid=rss_truncated

Every time I hear about Estonia and it's forwardness with basically all things technology and the government, it actually doesn't frighten me. I've been a person who's said "I have nothing to hide". There are things I don't talk about openly, yes, but for things especially regarding government laws and rules, I just don't play.

I've talked about/ranted about people not obeying traffic rules, and things like that in what people may call "government overreach" I see as perhaps people just not wanting the government to catch them doing what they should not be.

This is, at least, some of the time.

I'm actually thinking about getting a one of these digital IDs, partly for the sake of being a giant nerd, and partly just to make the point people make out "privacy" to be so much more of a big deal than it really should be.

Nine More Airports To Get Body Scanners

The Associated Press - March 5, 2010: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124362553&sc=17&f=1001

This country is way too prudish. Every time there's something that makes just a few people just *a little bit* uncomfortable, people light their flames and say "it's a privacy invasion". People need to see the entire framework: there are people who care nothing for anyone. The only things on their minds are getting a body count and using that body count to spread fear, distrust and discord.

How many times do people have to worry about the TSA perving off their bodies?! The machines have no storage capabilities, you're not identifiable, and there's only the faintest hint of mammary outline. No one will see your vag, your labia, or whether you'd forgone getting a bikini wax. No one will see that you decided just this once have gone (or even that you always go) commando just for thrills.

Get a clue.

A Cellphone That Is Made With the Environment in Mind

NYTimes.com: "Hundreds of millions of cellphones containing toxic chemicals are discarded each year, and many end up in landfills. If you want your technology company to do its part for the environment, the new Motorola W233 Renew is one place to start."

Now, if they can make one that's technologically advanced and environmentally friendly, I'd be totally sold.

Solar-Powered Watches by Tocs: Never Wind Again

TreeHugger: I never really thought about it before, but I want one.

Product for Sustainable Living: The USB Cell

Scientific American Slideshow: This, I want. Chalk me up for four, please. Christmas gifting, anyone?

10 best ideas for greening your home that you've never heard of

DVICE: I agree with most of these, though the toilet set might be a little over-done. Conservation is part of the key, right?

Ovary transplant baby 'a miracle'

BBC NEWS Health: The world's just getting to be a more interesting place, the amount of technology and breakthroughs we're going through. Now, if we can just nip greed in the bud and start doing things because they're actually good for people and not because they're more profit-producing, we'd be set.