Off in the distance are the lights of downtown. Around the corner from this spot is a Walgreens, sitting on a lot that used to house a thrift store we called Saks North Avenue when I was in college: a football-field sized building with more treasures than our 18-year-old brains could process. I still have some of the clothes I bought there: a blue sharkskin jacket, a full tuxedo set, a National Beer delivery shirt…
Interesting...
- September 10
- Driver’s licenses and state IDs in Wallet are only presented digitally through encrypted communication directly between the device and the identity reader, so users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device.
A long time ago, I worked with a bunch of guys who were hired from a Name Brand Consulting Firm to take our dot-com public. I was enlisted to build the pitch deck for the roadshow, which meant I was making edits to Powerpoint slides at all times of the day and night with these guys (they were all guys). One late afternoon, two of them were talking about catching important flights, and one of them claimed he'd called in a bomb scare to hold a flight at the gate until he could make it. This was before September 11, but I remember thinking how sociopathic that sounded, and revolted by how proud of himself he was.
Apparently this tactic doesn't work anymore.
September 4
Here's a cool story with a tool I'll be looking into: a book author is reproducing old halftone images in his book but keeps running into moiré patterns when he scans them. He uses a tool to view the image's Fast Fourier Transform—the frequency pattern behind the moiré—and is able to paint it out with a simple interface, cleaning up the image with math and magic. File this under useful.
September 1
Apple has announced a plan to adopt driver's licenses/state ID's into Apple Wallet. Maryland is one of eight states working with the company to add personal ID into an iPhone or Apple Watch; all you'll have to do is tap the device like you do with Apple Pay.
In the Before Times, when I was commuting, I was using Apple Pay with my watch and phone quite a bit, and I found it extremely handy.
August 30
“At that point, I said that whereas I had risked my life to defend my country while in the Air Force, I was not willing to risk my life to teach a class with an unmasked student during this pandemic,” Bernstein said in an email to The Red & Black. “I then resigned my retiree-rehire position.”
An 88-year-old psychology professor, who came out of retirement to teach a class at the University of Georgia, abruptly resigned after a student refused to wear a mask properly—this after he'd explained that he was at risk for dying from COVID.
Fuckin' A, sir.
August 24
Yay! the new Chvrches album will be out this week. Here's hoping it's better than the last one.
