Tag: life

Bloomberg Leaked Apple-Release Specifics?

On By JohnIn annoying, techLeave a comment

Wait, wasn’t it Bloomberg that did a hit and run piece about a rather implausible, science-fiction-y issue with SuperMicro hardware a few months ago? Entirely baseless, didn’t name names or give any other mechanism to substantiate the claims.

Stock on all three companies took a dive.

And now that same Bloomberg has released “leak” of the pending Apple release of macOS (v10.15), iOS (v13), and WatchOS (v6) that outlines a huge number of features.

Sounds quite suspicious to me, especially because of the source. They haven’t named a name or provide any other means to validate the claims they’re making. So, no, I certainly don’t trust anything revealed via Bloomberg.

Assumptions

On By JohnIn education, psychology, sociologyLeave a comment

Don’t assume that somebody else possesses the same knowledge that you do. And never become frustrated when you feel that you’re either talking beyond them, or well-beneath them.

Another person’s knowledge and experience differs.

You will need to find a way to communicate your ideas at a level that they can understand.

This means you’ll need to reduce the concepts significantly…

…or expand your own knowledge to communicate at a differing level than you’re accustomed to.

—

Also, common sense isn’t.

Apple Card & The Future Of Spend

On By JohnIn finance, techLeave a comment

I absolutely love the idea of the Apple Pay.

A single device that you have with you all the time that affords you the touchless transaction experience.

In Europe, they’ve been using NFC (Near Field Communication) — the same technology that Apple Pay uses — for transactions for years. They typically refer to the concept as “touchless”.

North America is finally moving in that direction.

You have your phone, so NFC is literally at your fingertips. If you have an Apple Watch, you can even catch people off-guard by just waving your hand around a pay kiosk like a Jedi.

Right, so it seems that NFC is too advanced for some — or too trivial and easily exploited for some others — and in several places, they only support chip-cards, which require physical contact.

Apple has revealed their new concept for an Apple Card. A card for those occasions when businesses haven’t quite stepped into the 21st century with NFC… er, I mean… for those businesses that don’t yet support Apple Pay, and are still dependent upon a physical card with a chip. A single card that

  • is meant to integrate seamlessly with Apple Pay
  • contains the encryption enclave chip
  • doesn’t have a trivially-skimmed or accidentally-erased magnetic stripe
  • presents only your name: has no trivially-exploited card number, card security code, expiration date emblazoned across it —  that’s human-readable and exploitable by onlookers or malicious parties

Yes, please.

No, it’s not perfect — nothing is perfect and if you wait until it is, then you’ll be waiting forever. But it certainly is intriguing.

Oh, and you won’t have to charge it.

But something is bugging me: what about those establishments that haven’t yet joined us in the 21st century to use the latest, more secure technologies? Those companies that only support magnetic stripe cards?

You know, things like fuel pumps.

It seems that I’ll need to retain my card for the periodic swipe until we can move everyone else culturally and socially into the future of commerce.

Or find a way to simply no longer need to use them.

The Apple Card? Yep, I’ll be one of the early adopters and even look into transferring my other credit cards’ balances to it.

Safety Third…

On By JohnIn lifeLeave a comment

Ideas first

Tools second

Safety third

“But John,” you’ll exclaim, “safety always comes first!”

No, it doesn’t.

You would not have even considered safety at all if you didn’t have the idea to begin with.

Ideas come first — they’ll guide you to attempting and completing them. They give you direction. Purpose.

“Well, surely safety comes next!”

Nope.

Next, come tools. It would be folly to prioritize acquiring the “best of” every conceivable tool for every issue. Ideas will determine which tools you’ll need to make achieving that idea more efficient.

Safety? Once you have ideas of what you want to do, and once you have tools [to help get started, not “perfect tools”], then you’ll have to be aware of the risks.

I think I’ll have a meaningful sign made up to call those out. It’ll serve as a realistic reminder to help maintain focus.

Life With a TBI

On By JohnIn techLeave a comment

My head [is] so full of things to say or share or do… but sometimes, before they get out, I forget.

So I take notes.

Lots of notes.

Sometimes actually writing things down.

Ideas, thoughts, stories, plans, sketches, pictures — our current technology helps me maintain focus.