Writer, Dabbler In Things
It’s no secret among family and friends that my income has been… let’s call it “tight” for a while. I’m ready, willing and able to do what I need to to pay bills and get food on the table. But I’m torn among thoughts of finding other work even if it’s for less hourly money … Read more
Hey, you know how Facebook (now called Meta) makes a fourtune from selling oceans of highly detailed, extremely personal data about each of its users to advertisers? … and how that had for some time included collecting data from its unsuspecting users even when they weren’t using Facebook at the time, reporting on what else … Read more
I struggled with making myself work on this book idea more than any other idea in recent memory. I had the core idea for a while, and started filling it out as time (and other projects) allowed, and some time back finally felt like it maybe might kinda be ready to work on.I had the … Read more
I recently recommended a book I was reading about a new take — or at least, a take now getting a bit more attention — about how bodies do what they do, and what happens to them that causes illnesses.Part of the heart of that book was that we’re eating too much too often. Ours … Read more
I recently wrote about one aspect of the advent of technology like ChatGPT, specifically in regard to the blurry legality of how it “learns” by scraping anything and everything online. But I’ve been thinking recently about the ethics of using something like ChatGPT for various other purposes. I just wanted to touch on a few … Read more
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as they say. And reward card systems are no exception. I can’t speak to all of them everywhere, but can say with confidence that broadly speaking, if you’re seemingly getting something for nothing — i.e. if a bank or grocery store chain offers you free points if … Read more
I’ve recently mentioned my looking at getting into voiceover work (he says, determined to go with one spelling for “voiceover” and stick with it, and it looks best to me as one word). That’s still happening. It’s just been in a bit of a holding pattern over my wanting to approach it the best way … Read more
Bruce Schneier is a long-time digital and technology privacy advocate who’s written some of the most important and influential books on those and related subjects. He posted this brief article yesterday, nicely summarizing the grey area issue surrounding what constitutes fair use of material readily available to the public vs. what people should have to … Read more
I was scrolling on Mastodon yesterday — the ad-free, federated social media I went to after finally leaving Twitter and Facebook for good a few years ago — and came across these two images that I modified. The Apple Store, where Apple devices get their apps, has long had a section deep on their app … Read more
I like money. I like having it and what it can get for me and I certainly wish I had more of it.It’s true that money can’t buy happiness. But I suspect it’s also true that, as the nearly as old saying goes, it can buy you the boat that will take you there. I … Read more