parkersweb

One of the web projects I worked on some years ago was visualisation of a research project into compensation levels for farmers who have had herds culled from Brucellosis.

It’s an interesting economic question - because farmers around the world feel the economic impact of losing their herd in entirely different ways. When you get the compensation value wrong though you make the outbreak worse - because farmers will shop around an infected animal to enable others to claim.

Internally the project was always known as the ‘cowcullator’...

Seconded - I particularly enjoyed the references to how OODA was applied by Dominic Cummings in the Brexit vote campaign - but also how that same thinking is flawed when faced with everyday running of government.

It’s off-topic - but I found this BBC podcast on the simplification of using Stockholm syndrome as an explanation fascinating:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s7n1

The legendary Mike Batt!

And specifically no-one can tie that billion pounds to the business interests of ministers or their family members...

This was actually quite an issue when my father-in-law died and his wife wanted to continue to use the computer. It was only because I have an Adobe ID of my own that I was able to resolve it by temporarily licensing it under my subscription....

Or another book recommendation from Gates Notes ‘Where Good Ideas Come From” https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Where-Good-Ideas-Come-From which argues that some of the most innovative discoveries from history come from exaptation - the application of ideas from one discipline to an unrelated field.

A similarly noteworthy pilot is Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown - a guy who holds the records for most aircraft carrier deck landings and has flown more models of aircraft than anyone in history.

This interview with him is definitely worth a listen as he was also involved in so many moments of 20th century history!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1

But to also add - as someone who purchased a 3 letter domain name through escrow, but still ended up in a minor legal battle over ownership it’s worth doing some background on who the owner is...

Actually - the more I think about the question the more I realise that I don’t want an iPad to do laptop tasks - as a designer I want the interface connection that comes from Pencil + touch interface on my MacBook Pro...

I think this is the study you’re referring to : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00014... - wearing a wig (and iirc riding slightly erratically?) causes drivers to adjust their behaviour and give you a wider berth...

I been thinking similarly- it might not have reduced the number of serious accidents but I wonder what impact it had on those more minor incidents that don’t typically get reported?

Ah - now I want an assistant that doesn’t just offer to hold for me, but can also play the cancellation script system for the optimum length of time, then give me options for continuing at the reduced price or completing the cancellation process ;-)

I went through a similar experience - in fairness Adobe do say that the prices advertised are the monthly fee based on a 12 month subscription, but the way in which it was presented felt like they went out of their way to hide that fact.

I then discovered that you can only cancel that 12 month subscription within a short window at the very end of the 12 months.

In the end Adobe retired one of the products from Creative Suite and I used consumer protection law to cancel the subscription on the basis that the service had been materially changed.

Given that Monopoly was invented in 1903 to illustrate that exact point we’ve been living with that knowledge for some time. Problem is - those is a position to enact changes are generally those benefitting most from it and therefore the least willing.

What seems to have changed in UK and US politics in recent years is those who have benefitted most from the current system have persuaded those who have most to gain that they’re on the same side.

My kids secondary school uses Bob Ross on YouTube in mindfulness sessions. The kids seem to love them...

Looks great - but the App Store says it requires iOS13. iPhone 6 user so I’m stuck on iOS12 - I couldn’t see from the release notes when that change came in?

I’m in the same boat - set up the free service with my own domain for the family a long time ago.

Quite frankly I’d love to ditch it entirely because Google frequently makes crazy stuff inaccessible as a result - I can’t use Android screen time limits for the kids, I can’t sign up for Google music family plan.

Problem is - I have loads of purchases on the accounts and there’s no way at all to convert them to standard Google accounts and no way at all to transfer the purchases. It’s maddening...

I've been using this resource: http://chir.ag/projects/name-that-color/ in naming CSS colour variables for years. It can often help with that gray-700/800/900 or gray-light/lighter/lightest issue where another colour needs to be added to the palette between existing values.

I don’t in my case because I’m not comfortable with the commercial information that gives Google.

One of the gestures I think Google could make in this fight is to allow people to opt into that data sharing on a strictly limited basis. I’d opt in if it was only going to be provided for the purposes of medical infection contact tracing while this pandemic is rife.

My Dad used to be a council civil engineer - every year he took turns deciding when to send the gritters out. There’s quite an art to deciding on a plan based on the road dew points, the precipitation forecast and the temperature. Precipitation washes the salt off - so that mileage often has to be covered multiple times over.

He used to get very nerdy over Christmas checking the road network data website :)

This. So many of the arguments about the license fee seem to miss the point - the BBC isn't a commercial broadcaster. Impartiality and 'public service' as fundamental tenets that drive output would disappear if they had to chase subscriptions.

Interestingly, as someone who worked as an audio engineer for 8 years, engineering for audiobooks is very poorly paid. The studio I negotiated with (one that record some very well known titles) pay all their engineers by the _finished_ hour. So all the added production work for a poor reader falls on the editor.

I spoke to some friends who had done work for the same studio to find out what typical production times were for a quick-working editor, then quickly moved on.

.iris { background-color: red !important; }

My personal favourite fan art: Goose Omens

https://theladymania.threadless.com/designs/goose-omens

Click the link to watch the episode:

https://southpark.cc.com/sitewide/img/messages/geoblock/gb.j...

The irony is not lost...

Yeah - felt similar when I visited. Inexplicably the only command from spectrum days I could still remember was POKE 23609,100 which switched on the keyboard beep!

Also really feels like they need a purpose built building - it's housed in an old car showroom at the moment.

I've still got one of those - the tone creator on it is awesome :)

Hmmm - I can see how this is a good thing for the notification permission (there are far too many news/blog sites starting with that request) - but it looks from what they're saying that microphone/camera will still use the old method. Won't that be a bit confusing?

As an aside I've often wondered why cookie permissions couldn't be moved to a similar model? It would create a much more consistent experience instead of the popup insanity we currently have across Europe...

True - exactly why my wife chose one earlier this year. Her main criteria was "it has to fit in my back pocket" - which meant 4.5" screen. There's so few of those devices in the modern smartphone market - and yet I wonder why? I'd happily keep my phone small if it didn't mean compromising on performance...