Notes

Last Friday, after watching a bit of “Foundation” I browsed a little further through AppleTV+’s catalog and found a documentary that had been on my list but which I had simply forgotten: David Attenborough’s “The Year Earth Changed” (trailer on YouTube). In around 45 minutes I learnt about some of the things that changed in nature during the first 12 months of the various lockdowns throughout the world, from Pinguins in South Africa being able to feed their chicks all of a sudden multiple times a day because they didn’t have to avoid beaches due to tourists to Humpback Whales communicating with others over longer distances due to the lack of cruisers entering their habitat. Combined with just gorgeous visuals it was just a great show!

If you have an iOS/iPadOS device you probably have a trial code for AppleTV+ lying around somewhere. Do yourself a favor and use it … for this and obviously Ted Lasso 😄

This might be the one article that stayed the longest in my to-read list: Since January 2021! Here Tom MacWright goes into a bit of detail about GEDCOM, an industry-standard for genealogical data dating back to 1984. It’s the data format that pretty much every family-tree software out there supports at least when it comes to importing/exporting. He also explains some of the issues with the standard especially around the handling of sex (no intersex value, which has been resolved since then) and relationships (always a HUSB and WIFE).

Luckily, one aspect of the article is outdated by now: GEDCOM has seen some active development since the article was published with FamilySearch pushing out version 7 and now once again actively maintaining it.

OK, I definitely didn’t see that one coming. Is Epic Games now a general entertainment company? So far it looks like Bandcamp will continue as it is…

However, behind the scenes we’re working with Epic to expand internationally and push development forward across Bandcamp, from basics like our album pages, mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features, to newer initiatives like our vinyl pressing and live streaming services.

I really hope that this is true and Bandcamp will just have more money available to expand and get even more attractive. Bandcamp is awesome and I want to see it grow but also to keep its indie feeling …

Austrian minister for “Digital and Economic Affairs” Margarete Schramböck explains that SWIFT is essential but single transactions can still be made by filling out a paper slip and put it into a box in the back then someone does the transaction manually. I really wonder what she was doing at Austria’s largest telecommunication company for all these years…

One day I really want to have an automated process that posts the notes I write here also to appear on my Mastodon and Twitter account. And once I have that, I’ll start thinking about ways to do the same for my longer articles but using some kind of teaser text. One day I will find the time to actually think that through instead of wasting time with every single post 😅

On Sunday I finally picked another book that had been on my to-read list for far too long: “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman. Since it’s available without DRM in the German edition I even decided to read it in German this time around! So far, so very entertaining! There is just always such a nice flow to his books that makes them hard to put down 😀

Somehow I had mostly missed the story about the ANOM messenger last year! Back in 2018 various law-enforcement agencies throughout the world had launched their own messenger service and marketed it as secure chat service for criminals replacing the Phantom Secure service. In June 2021 the agencies then sprang the trap with more than 800 arrests.

I guess not only governments have a limited degree of IT knowhow 🤪

Russian warship, go fuck yourself.

Jake Worth pretty much covers most of my motivation for loving Vim!

At this point I’m at a loss for words. Last night Russian troops invaded Ukraine, targeting military bases, airports, and other installations. While this attack wasn’t surprising to anyone anymore at this point, it is still shocking for something like this to happen in Europe.

I can just wish all Ukrainians the best and stay safe! And I hope that the reaction by the EU and other countries will be swift and economically severe for the aggressor…