Notices by Sean Coates (sean@scoat.es), page 2

@evan I wouldn’t say that Air Canada is particularly well-known for their application of Poka-yoke.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke

Adding mine to the #eclipse traffic

Trying to buy tickets to a music show, and the only way to purchase them (which is a Ticketmaster rebrand) requires me to enter the personal details of each ticket holder (not just the cardholder).

** This madness must stop. **

(Obviously, I lied. They’d better not be checking IDs at the door.)

For the past ~2 years, I’ve been working on a neuroscience startup (called Matter). We have an app that—by its nature—needs to operate on private user data. Some of that data is so private that we never actually want to handle it ourselves. So we don’t.

We can’t leak data we don’t have. We can’t mishandle private info that never leaves the control of the user.

We’re taking a mostly-unique approach to user data at Matter, and I’ve finally written a little bit about it:

https://seancoates.com/blogs/matter-and-privacy

I’ve been saying “exists is the enemy of good” in conversation for quite a while, now, but I’d never really documented it before today.

(TL;DR: sometimes we miss a good-enough solution because a not-quite-good-enough solution is already out there and in use.)

https://seancoates.com/blogs/exists-is-the-enemy-of-good

Rereading Cory Doctorow’s ( @pluralistic’s ) book `The Internet Con: How to seize the means of computation`, and I’m increasingly convinced that this is the most important thing I read in 2023.

The reread is to solidify the book’s ideas and to try to figure out what I—a capable technologist who has been fighting for data portability and interoperability for 15+ years—can actually, practically, do to help.

I urge all of you to read this book, and I almost never do that kind of thing.

Confirmed: no Beaujolais Nouveau at the #SAQ this year (like last). Now they’re even bad at wine.

Taking this situation into our own hands with a local Primeur (same style as Beaujolais Nouveau) from Pinard & Filles (but the 2022 edition, so not even really a primeur anymore; haven’t found any 2023 yet). Still in great shape—tiny bit of carbonation even.

#Montreal / #Quebec folks: anyone know if the liquor/wine import monopoly (#SAQ) is going to bless us with availability on #Beaujolais Nouveau day, tomorrow? Or will this be like 2022 when they didn't bother and we're just out of luck because monopoly?

Imagine naming your newly-launched social network platform “BS”.

@evan hey (nice bumping into you today); are you aware that the insulating window film plastic will shrink and go clear if you heat it? (e.g. with a hair dryer)

Not trying to call you out; just maybe not as obvious to people who grew up in warmer climate?

Looking for recommendations. This guy wants to know the best #mastodog server for labs.

@evan Sorry; meant no shade. Best commercial? (-:

@evan Looks great! Have you tried Falafel St. Jacques? Maybe the best in the city.

@evan My favourite quote from that whole book is:

“The industry learned how to secure the enactment of seemingly innocuous and sensible regulations that nonetheless spelled doom for any rival”

Feels like he's talking about Big Tech right now, but it's about AM radio stakeholders trying to keep FM down, 85 years ago.

@evan (sorry; I see there's a lot of context I missed. I'll read. No need to reply unless it's not there.)

@evan Wait… what? 2022? Which producer?