Notices by Glenn Fleishman (glennf@twit.social), page 6

Anyone have experience purchasing errors & omissions insurance before publishing a book? I am going down twisty corridors online to get a quote—they start out with the right path and then wind up in places that say “professional Insurance (exception errors and omissions).” Basically, I want to protect myself against copyright infringement lawsuits and I’m doing all due diligence and signing licensing agreements. I can’t be alone in this?

Nancy goes horror

Did you love Yahoo! Pipes and miss it? I sure did. I wrote this history of the graphical web-based processing tool that sure seemed like the future when it was introduced! https://retool.com/pipes I interviewed the core team and several other folks so we could finally have a definitive history. (And forget my words, even—the illustrations are amazing!)

This is part of a series at Retool, a visual programming tools company, that decided to make sure the past wasn’t forgotten.

Retail theft went down and the national retailers federation had to admit 5% not 50% of theft was from criminal gangs. This whole panic was concocted to close underperforming and unionized stores and the media bought it. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/business/organized-shoplifting-retail-crime-theft-retraction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ek0.cMux.iabRLNkE-vqu&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

@thomasfuchs …sanal cheese”

Apple shortly introduces a much-needed feature for iMessage for users with a high degree of risk of having their communications intercepted or other parties impersonated: Contact Key Verification. At its heart, it's a way to shift the end-to-end trust in iMessages from Apple’s central servers to each party’s copy of Messages on their devices. I explain in short, medium, and long versions. @TidBITS https://tidbits.com/2023/11/08/upcoming-contact-key-verification-feature-promises-secure-identity-verification-for-imessage/ The feature should arrive in iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, and watchOS 10.2.

"The Tragedy of the Commons" was written by a eugenicist and was effectively debunked as ahistorical fantasy decades ago. More propaganda in the service of privatizing public space and resources. Pass it on. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-tragedy-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/

Incredible sentence in this article focusing on Sinead O'Connor's early condemnation of Catholic abuse: "Catholic leaders were outraged, including some who were forced to resign years later for their roles in covering up abuse." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/nyregion/sinead-oconnor-childhood-abuse.html?unlocked_article_code=vRLWhal8DetL2w4vJCut7XdIS3OJiO-oJXDiNTvecjoBkyj3K0P71LHT-EIDoPwJXJDdYEP3p4TvGlpcZT8h_1B3lqUmzj5o7hUmhZMU4ifazeDWH3toYsFbaLcU2N5dZXwCTc_ncEAFDW_XRBEnMOCV3GsowtDt-fVQGwL--qeBhCHx1h2izPukHUPzjWdE1VA_-Qt2URM0ReRNO7K-BP-GjVHBB17BzXUsSJQDiQDP92Yr_YFd4WSdAJi2B2FhgE5lWamEaduyR6TqfjU9CsJG8j1Bu3zReVmdd2T36vRmXUfclxj_PEq0AOrPtYAjs6qk1VdalhzA2Jsz6EQCxedpk_1nIw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

@edbott @briankrebs I watch the first episode, thought it was excellent, found it so stressful I couldn’t watch more. (I had the same problem with the Sopranos: saw a random episode, was blown away by it, but had palpitations for days, it felt like.)

@sfoskett @edbott @briankrebs WOW. I watched ER religiously in its first several seasons, typically live (back in those days), and I realized I couldn't sleep for hours afterwards! Good TV can be too good. Dang, I even watched the Invincible Season 2 premiere (Atom Eve origin store), and even though I’d read the comics—well, the writers made excellent changes and upped the emotional ante so much I was shaking at the end. (It’s possible age increases emotional sensitivity to drama…)

Still reading and hearing takes that Mastodon has “failed” as a Twitter alternative. Listen, it’s ok if it doesn’t work for someone—unlike Twitter, I think Mastodon requires more effort and cultivation to produce an experience that feels meaningful. It’s been worth it for me. But there is definitely a smell of…not sour grapes but people making broad assumptions based on their own experience while ignoring millions of other people. Will Mastodon top 100 million? Who knows. Who cares?

Missed the exciting news that the boffins at NASA JPL have figured out a way to use reserve power to keep using all the scientific instruments on board Voyager 2 for even longer. For a mission that only had a requirement to last until about 1982, job well done. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-will-do-more-science-with-new-power-strategy

Several years ago, I wrote extensively about space probes, including *six* articles about or involving the Voyager probes! https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2017/8/4/if-you-love-voyager-like-i-love-voyager

@thomasfuchs If you had ChatGPT write your analysis for you, they’d say your take was excellent.

@thomasfuchs Took a few tries, but I "convinced" "it" to be honest.

@leigh How To Lose Friends and $44 Billion in Just Six Weeks

This thread by Tweetbot co-creator about his health, family, and the anxiety of Musk buying Twitter (along with his joy on developing against an open-source API) and the incredibly wonderful replies shows some of the current glory of the fediverse. So far, the arrow pushes towards kindness. https://tapbots.social/@mark/109524034375455489

@juddlegum Elon Musk enters, holding a case of beer