The personal website of Alex Weber
Mostly links from around the web, presented with quotes and commentary. Sometimes I write long-form pieces too.
Today in NOPE NOPE NOPE:
A home inspection in November 2014 uncovered no signs of snakes, the Brookses have said. But the weather began to warm in April and rat snakes wintering in the walls began to stir, according to the lawsuit. The smallest snakes were hatchlings, and the largest was 7 feet, they have said.
Source: Annapolis ‘snake house’ trial: Live rat snake may be entered as evidence – Capital Gazette
Here’s a very important list: new #Emoji in Android 6.0.1, compiled by Ars Technica!
Keep clicking for the full list of new and changed emoji, according to unicode.org. How ’bout that new poop emoji?
There’s also a small tweak to tablet navigation and the return of a DND mode.
Source: Android 6.0.1 adds a ton of new emoji, and we’ve got the full list | Ars Technica
Thoughtful article about giving gifts. TL;DR:
“the only true gifts are time and attention”
Source: Don’t fret about what to buy, because the best gifts take time and attention | bit·of·news
This example just goes to show: what’s simple is often better than what’s complex!
The next potential replacement — the Long Range Strike Bomber, which has yet to be designed — is decades away, so the B-52 is expected to keep flying until at least 2040. By then, taking one into combat will be the equivalent of flying a World War I biplane during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Source: After 60 Years, B-52s Still Dominate U.S. Fleet – The New York Times
An interesting perspective on Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs)… bring the costs down, and you reduce need for unnecessary data retention.
“Right now the big government agencies, they spend so much on these cameras that they want to catch the bad guys, but they want to get a ton of value out of them,” he said. … “they think that we want to save this data. That’s kind of dangerous. Whereas if the price of these cameras was 10 times cheaper, that need [for long-term retention] isn’t there. I think you don’t even need retention if you have adequate coverage.”
Source: New software watches for license plates, turning you into Little Brother | Ars Technica
Here’s a choice quote that I think gets to the heart of the matter. Click through for more context.
The big lie of micro libraries is that they snap together like Lego blocks, making them easy to swap out later.
The truth is that, because they were not designed to work together, microlibraries require lots of glue code to make them talk to one another correctly. That glue code becomes app code, it’s usually written hastily under a tight deadline, and is rarely documented.
Rather than being like Legos you snap together, it’s more like you’ve built a house out of plastic bricks that you’ve cemented together
“It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.”
— William of Occam, originator of “Occam’s Razor”
Australia: the land of OMG WTF NOPE NOPE NOPE
From The Guardian’s coverage:
A 1.5m long goanna gave a man a fright when it scaled the outside of [Eric Holland’s] home. … “I saw movement as I came out of the shed and I had a look and thought, bloody hell what is this thing? When I recovered from the shock I went inside and got a camera.”
Goannas are often found in eastern Australia but generally live in the bush. They are typically wary of humans but are considered potentially dangerous on account of their bite. This one, thought to be a lace monitor goanna, hasn’t been spotted since it scampered away.
A spokesman for the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage said the lace monitor could grow up to two metres in length and weigh up to 20kg.
Source: Giant lizard gives Australian man a fright – then a photo op | World news | The Guardian
Sigh… SourceForge continues it’s descent. Be careful if use FileZilla when you upgrade! People are reporting that there are still safe download links on the project website.
There is indeed malware bundled with the SourceForge FileZilla installer, AVG is doing a pretty good job of warning you. You can prevent the malware from being installed in the installer, but you have to pay very close attention, and many users have reported that the malware is being installed anyway.
Source: virus found in filezilla download. – FileZilla Forums
“Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.”
—Henry Miller
Source: Bit of News Daily Digest 🐚