With all the Zoom meetings in our house now, I’ve created a Siri Shortcut, “On Air" that turns one of our smart lamps red. No more accidental interruptions!

Will Coronavirus Change Society Forever?

Will our giant monuments to mass transportation soon appear as white elephants dedicated to the god of hubris? Gigantic airports, ocean ports for cruise liners, and all the planes, trains, ships and automobiles that use them - will they all become stranded assets slowly losing the war against entropy? Will our stadiums and shopping centres, designed to pack people into shared experiences, point to an irrelevant way of life? Will our next generation of people wonder what it was like to have global experiences be the norm, and consider the way we would gather en masse to watch sport and entertainment a strange and incomprehensible way of life?

Continue reading →

Today I’m partaking in another great Easter tradition: the giant yard cleanup and other assorted handyman jobs.

Good morning. Third morning of backyard tenting, our Easter holiday experience in a time of COVID-19. I can report the birds in our neighbourhood are loud.

It’s not Easter without camping. Our COVID-19 response has been to set up in the backyard. David cooks the best marshmallows even though he doesn’t like eating them. So sit near him!

My plan to upgrade my webcam from the iMac camera to a digital camera was foiled by both my cameras being too old to support a clean signal sent via HDMI. Seems I’m stuck with the rubbish webcam.

I had to pay $138 for 454g of ant killer today - and that’s not even COVID-19 pricing! Research indicated that it was the only stuff likely to work for this particular type of critter. Early signs are positive.

It’s nice to look at my calendar for tomorrow and see that while I have three client calls, all of them are people I know well enough at this point to consider them friends. Turns a business call into an opportunity to catch up.

🔗 Link Post: “Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families”

Cloudflare Blog:

“Introducing 1.1.1.1 for Families — the easiest way to add a layer of protection to your home network and protect it from malware and adult content. "

I used Cloudflare DNS in the past, but more recently have been using OpenDNS to block non-kid-safe content but its relatively slow. Now I’m moving back to Cloudflare.

I recognise all the dodgy security and behavioural issues at Zoom. At the same time, their service has been rock solid helping me get work done during the day, and in touch with family and friends at night.

PSA: If your home network goes down, don’t assume it’s the fault of a device. It might just be a dodgy Ethernet cable. Of course, I would realise that straight away and not waste 2 hours diagnosing various other possible causes.