Weekly Digest

Life
The weeks are flying by. Work is busy, health is fair to middling and there’s never enough time to do what I want. turning attention to some projects around the house – shit needs fixing.

Media
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was pretty fantastic. Made me laugh, the visuals were top notch and the 3D wasn’t bad. Add on another great soundtrack and there’s not much to hate. Yes it follows a formula, but when done well it’s not an issue for me.

Also watched Nightcrawler (from 2014). What a great but creepy/disturbing film.

Links

• PSA: If you opened your PayPal account before you were 18, close it now.
  Everyone knows a horror story about PayPal, I’ve had several painful experiences with them over the last decade, but now I’ll never have to experience that again, as I’ve just been permanently banned…
  PayPal are such a shitty company. Avoid them if at all possible.
• Earth From Above – Earth From Above
  Aerial photography has really taken off now that drones are affordable and the camera’s on them are so good. Some of these images are jaw dropping.
• Elon Musk: The future we’re building — and boring | TED Talk | TED.com
  This just sounds bonkers.
• Diane Abbott’s Agonising Interview Over Police Policy Cost – LBC
  Diane Abbott being Diane Abbott. The problem with Labour isn’t just Jeremy Corbyn, but that his top team are not of the right calibre to run a country. She followed up with another car crash interview later in the week.
• You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you – The Oatmeal
  Take 10 minutes to read this. Stunning.
• Damage – Matt Gemmell
  Apple’s destruction of the value of software, and the sustainability of indie developer businesses.
  Hard to disagree with this. Software has so little value for so many people and the App Store hasn’t done enough to combat that perception.
• SQL is 43 years old – here’s 8 reasons we still use it today | The Official SQLizer Blog
  In this year’s Stack Overflow Developer’s Survey 64,000 developers laid bare their innermost developer secrets. How they learn, the tools they use, what they…
  Still love SQL.
• Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable – The New York Times
  Raw Google search data proves that we are not who we say we are on social media.
  Social media can be bad for your health…
• Report: Facebook helped advertisers target teens who feel “worthless” [Updated] | Ars Technica
  Leaked 2017 document reveals FB Australia’s intent to exploit teens’ words, images.
  And allegedly Facebook will target your misery…although they do deny the story, but they would, wouldn’t they?
• Regulating the internet giants: The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data | The Economist
  A NEW commodity spawns a lucrative, fast-growing industry, prompting antitrust regulators to step in to restrain those who control its flow. A century ago, the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants that deal in data, the oil of the digital era.
  Thought provoking, especially in this age where news spreads so quickly, almost nothing is fact checked and the mob can rule.
• The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked
  Some great reporting on the sites behind fake news.
• Laura Galante: How to exploit democracy | TED Talk | TED.com
  Hacking, fake news, information bubbles … all these and more have become part of the vernacular in recent years. But as cyberspace analyst Laura Galante describes in this alarming talk, the real target of anyone looking to influence geopolitics is dastardly simple: it’s you.
  Video of the week.
• Nike’s Quest to Beat the Two-Hour Marathon Comes Up Oh So Short | WIRED
  It was close, but the two-hour marathon remains unbroken. For now.
  What an amazing run. The times are mind boggling.
• Introducing Microsoft Surface Laptop – YouTube
  This could easily be an Apple advert…except it’s using a modern CPU.