With no notes here, you can probably guess that I have not been around for a while. I took an extended break and have been out of the country for a month. I’m back now and wanted to share some things I had been doing without getting too personal.

I took a bit of a holiday and tried disconnecting myself from the internet and work. I largely succeeded but inevitably did a little work while I was away. This is probably my longest time away from home and work. Honestly, I wanted to get back, but there is a slight anxiety about what I’ll find once I’m back. To no avail, of course, as things carry on with or without you, and nothing is that urgent.

It’s a lesson for me, and I need to consider it in the future when thinking about holidays.

I’ve never been one to take holidays. I’m unsure why; it just didn’t work out that way. There’s nothing in particular that I can pinpoint; it just didn’t happen. I haven’t taken a proper holiday in many years, and since I’ve been working as an independent, it has been more challenging to do so. COVID-19 didn’t help matters either.

So, what have I been up to?

I left my home island to spend ten days in Paris. With lovely weather and a personal distraction (of the sports kind), I had a great time and got to spend time in parts of Paris that I don’t usually visit.

After that, I flew out to a different island. Again, for sports reasons. (You’ll excuse the brevity; I prefer to keep some details private). I spent over two weeks there, taking some time for myself and setting up things for the next year or so. So, it was a bit of a holiday/organisational visit.

Having spent around a month in a different timezone, it can be hard to adjust once you’re back in your “normal” timezone. I’ve adjusted pretty quickly and am pretty much back to normal, despite waking up a little early still, but nothing too bad.

Next week will be busy, and I can share a few new things I’ll be doing.

I’m looking forward to the week.

Reading

I not only spent time away from work but also from reading. I did a little on the plane back and forth. 9 hour and 4 hours flights give you enough time to read. So, I continued reading iRobot. Christ, the book is so different from the film with Will Smith. It’s a travesty and makes watching films like this impossible for me. All the nuance, the subtlety is lost, replaced with action, guns, shooting, fighting and other bs that puts bums on seats. I hate it.

Of note

There is nothing to report here, as I have been virtually offline for a month. I guess it is of note that despite disconnection, things are as they were.

Enjoy your week.

Via The New York Times:

The subscription plan is a response to European Union policies and court rulings to restrict Meta’s data-collection practices.

I say go for it. We might find out what Social Networks are really worth then. I suspect not a lot.

2 September 2023 — French West Indies

I called this post transitions because I had a week that will hopefully set me up for a transition to something good for a while to come. It’s also a week where I have considered moving a few things around and supporting better causes than big technology companies.

I’m probably going to move this blog off WordPress soon and on to something more human in scale. It’s complicated, and I get a feeling of cognitive dissonance when talking about technology and the biggest of the biggest companies. I like tech and have been employed in it for more than 30 years, but whenever you look into the detail, you find that as big tech firms grow and as they can exert their influence, they become more and more about wealth extraction and wealth displacement. Inciting and controlling money into their pockets and away from the pockets of the average person. Astronomical profits from the likes of Apple, on the back of layoffs and hiring freezes, show the true colours of organisations that want more money, not more employment or more engagement in the community. And although they create tools for us to make and sell stuff, the real wealth is in selling those tools. This is probably a topic for another post one day.

I’m unsure how to reason with all this, and this entry is a little scattered. I’m ok with that for the moment. As I gather my thoughts and collect and organise them, I’m sure I’ll write something else on the topic.

Another big transition is coming soon, but that will have to wait.

Reading

I cracked. I bought the first of the I, Robot series. There’s just something about Isaac Asimov that clicks with me for Science Fiction. I’ve only just started it, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to finish it soon.

I have plenty of other texts I’m reading, some boring and some interesting. I’m spending a little time going over sports science papers about tennis. Interesting that the majority that I have seen are from China. I would guess that there is a concerted effort to produce one or more Grand Slam winners in the near future.

Of note

I have a reasonably large music collection. Or rather, I like a lot of music and can access it using a streaming service. Before, it was an extensive CD collection with several vinyl records thrown in for good measure. I moved (transitioned) away from them when I moved abroad and couldn’t access the music I liked in physical form. As a result, I continued collecting through digital means, albeit with lesser quality. I’m rambling.

What I wanted to say is that I’ve been a fan of The Dandy Warhols for a long time. My brother put me on to them, and I have really enjoyed their music ever since. But recently, I was playing a playlist through one of the streaming services, and I heard a track that I hadn’t heard before.

The track is called The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I have listened to the two versions on high-quality headphones, and the sound is so nice.

I’m sure I would have fallen on this track someday, but I’m grateful to the music service for surfacing it.

Have a great week.

Highly personalised ads imply highly personalised data about you. Despite what Facebook/Meta and the intrusive advertising apologists say, collecting, storing and profile-building that information is a huge security risk to each and every individual on the internet. And yes, I know there have not been any “known” breaches reported, but known is doing a lot of lifting in that statement.

After more than five years of extensive litigation by noyb, the German Kartellamt and decisions by the EDPB and CJEU, it seems that Meta finally complies with EU privacy laws:

5 years of litigation: Meta apparently switches to consent for behavioral ads

Many think that policy advisors in the EU Commission develop policy ideas like they’re given in Christmas crackers. That couldn’t be further from the truth, as policy is shaped mainly by research and findings. And whether you agree or disagree with eventual legislation, the foundations of it are not some verbal fart of a career policy wonk with incentives to climb the greasy pole of EU politics.

Firstly, I’d like to point you to a document from the European Commission, the Study on the impact of recent developments in digital advertising on privacy, publishers and advertisers.

The Executive Summary lists many conclusions and observations, with one that is particularly interesting and not widely understood:

There is limited evidence to suggest that the efficiency and efficacy gains of advertising products that rely on personal data and profiling outweigh the interference with individuals’ fundamental rights and consumer rights in addition to the reported negative societal impacts. A large amount of academic research has focused on demonstrating that the way that digital advertising works today has significant impacts on privacy, data protection, democracy, society and the environment. However, there is a lack of independent analysis to assess the costs and benefits of using personal data and profiling in advertising.

And this:

Lack of transparency in digital advertising limits evidence-based decision-making because advertisers lack independent data to assess the performance of digital advertising. This strengthens the position of players with strong market power and deters advertisers from switching to emerging alternatives that are less intrusive, even though there is evidence that some advertisers would prefer to rely on models that minimise the processing of unnecessary personal data. More independent data about the performance of alternative models compared to the status quo is needed to encourage widespread adoption among advertisers and publishers.

The efficacy of online advertising has always been bullshit and a mechanism of wealth extraction from advertisers and targeted individuals alike. It is time to expose it for what it is —essentially a scam.

5 August 2023 — French West Indies

I spent most of the week organising things for my business and continued with the last bits of research for the paper I’m writing. I’m still a little unfocused and distracted, but I’m getting through it better than I have been lately.

I do often wonder how it works for other people. Do they sit at the computer and start working on what needs doing? Do they have an impulse to get around to working on the checklist they’ve done? I’d love to know because that is so far from how my brain works.

I had an immovable task last week, and I thought I’d start it, but it was impossible for several days until the deadline was upon me. I thought, ok, I’ll start a little and give myself room only to do a little of it, then stop or do something else. What actually ensued is that as soon as I’d started it, I couldn’t stop it until it was finished.

I cleaned my deck with a pressure washer this morning, and like the task in the week, it was precisely the same. As soon as I’d started to do the first bit, allowing myself a break if I wanted, then I ended up not only doing it all, but I washed a concrete platform that I have around the back of the house that had accumulated dirt and other grime, then threw in for good measure four plastic chairs that needed a good clean. I spent all morning doing this.

I earned my ti’punch.

Reading

My reading of the books I mentioned continues, and I’m progressing well. Sometimes I feel too tired in the evening, but on the whole, I dedicate a little bit of time to the task every day.

If you’re like me, you’ve heard of, with horror, the proposed/launched project called Worldcoin. You’ve seen my thoughts, but I thought I’d share an excellent article on the project. Molly White’s newsletter does a good job of introducing and explaining the reasons why you might want this project to fail. I think it is ridiculous and extremely naive to believe that this would not be a massive target for scammers, criminals and mafia-type syndicates to exploit the vulnerable. Let’s hope some sense prevails.

My disdain of Facebook (or “Meta” if you prefer) is well known. I stumbled upon this article, and I think you should read it, regardless of your position vis a vis Mark Zuckerberg.

Of note

For those of you who use or have used the Eurostar train service between London and Paris, a consortium(paywalled) is trying to set up a rival service through the same tunnel and over the same tracks. There are a lot of ducks to get lined up (regulation, types of trains, capacity, etc), but it might be interesting.

We’re getting into the holiday season, so things might be a little slow on the news front for a few weeks.

Have a good week.