So I’m a bit of a pedant if you couldn’t already tell, and that extends to grammatical snobbery as well as technical and literary.
Part of that is my appreciation for grammar and language in general, as it is a living record of our history. But also it’s fun to tell other people about it. Anyone who knows the difference between ‘who’ and ‘whom’ well enough to correct someone when they use the wrong one knows the exact feeling I’m talking about. We are such awful people. 😂
So I am a very sad person who has the Wikipedia mobile app downloaded on their phone. 😂
And it was whilst browsing Wikipedia that I came across the article for the Kola Superdeep Borehole. I found it quite interesting, so continued researching the concept of digging deep into the Earth. That was when I came across 12 Kilometers.
So for the avoidance of doubt, and for anyone who might not know, Proton AG is a Swiss tech company trying to create an internet where privacy is the default option, directly opposing big tech giants like Google or Apple. They are my go-to for Mail and Password/Auth security, as well as more general advice on the current state of the internet.
I could say many things about Proton’s feature-list, some of them excellent, some less so. But one thing stands out in my everyday usage of Proton, and it relates to the calendar.
Most science fiction takes one of two stances: a positive one of exploration and discovery (à la Star Trek), or a dystopia where humanity is being brutally oppressed or even is the one doing the oppressing.
Adrian Tchaikovsky takes a slightly different path from either, but does tend to lean towards the negative. His books contain a brilliant impression of interstellar travel by humanity into the far future, with a refreshing sense of pessimism. 😂
It’s been a bit of time since the last time I wrote. I wish I could say that’s because I have other stuff in the works to be published, but in all honesty it’s simply because I’ve not bothered to write anything. So today, I thought I’d take a bit of a closer look into why that is, and what’s causing my particular form of writer’s block.
Ah, so you’ve decided my deranged ramblings are worthwhile listening to after all. Well, at the end of the last instalment of Encrypted Pigeons, I had a very healthy de-Googled phone, a bunch of data exports, and absolutely no way to do anything with them. The thing about Google apps is that you actually need to replace them with something. Stands to reason, really…
But I wasn’t going to be put off and return to American Big Tech. Rather than tackling Big Tech specifically, I decided it was the Americans who had to go. Hello Brussels.
My concern at this point wasn’t privacy per se — it was simply is an app British or European, and do I enjoy using it. A few notable cases come to mind with this.
Welcome back to the next part in the series I’m calling “Encrypted Pigeons“. Why? Because it’s a frankly terrible name and I’m sticking with it.
At the end of the last issue, I was talking about my overall experiences with privacy, and how that has changed quite a bit. Roughly six months ago, I had no real understanding of digital privacy, and I was perfectly happy to keep going as I was. My main computer was Windows 11; I messaged everyone on WhatsApp, and practically everything I did backed up onto Google drive in some way or another. Google Photos, Google calendar, Google everywhere.
I was happy with that, because it all worked together quite well. I only had a vague sense that maybe my digital life wasn’t quite in my control.
I’d been quite excited to read this one for a while. It was a Christmas present, and I’d been told that Ursula Le Guin was “the birth of modern fantasy”. Tolkien’s predating her by about a decade aside, it was certainly interesting.
One disclaimer: the edition I read was the original Earthsea quartet of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu. It did not include the two later books written to finish the series.
I use Google Wallet.
That’s a bit of an issue for me, because I’d quite like to stop using Google’s products.
In Scotland, the country harvests their potatoes — colloquially known as “tatties” — around mid-October. Farming families, looking for more labourers to help them, would often bring their children out of school during the season to help with the harvest.
Eventually, schools became so empty during this period that the schools themselves, who generally received funds based on attendance, were suffering, and complaining to the then Scotch Education Department. Around the 1870s, the Department decided to make the entire period a school holiday, which was quite an effective way of avoiding having to deal with the problem. 🤣
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