Category: unkategorisch

I don’t know the media landscape in New Zealand. “Herald” sounds somehow trustworthy to me. But they seem to peddle in junk info when they headline:

Covid-19 coronavirus: Superspreader – woman infects 71 people in 60 seconds in elevator: CDC study

It actually happened in China, and it seems that the traveler returning from the US infected only one person in said elevator.

Junk info and clickbait has been a problem during pre Covid days. Now it is on a different level though: Good information is our only weapon against this thing. It spreads. Only thing we can do against it is to spread good information faster so that we can change the way we behave. It does not help when 10% of people do a 200% effort. With other things it does. Pretty much how most societies run and work. Only few women and men came up with the great stuff that muggles like you and me benefit from every second. When mitigating a virus you need to change the way a majority of people works. You need to alter what around 1/3 of people do. The rest will fall in line. Peoples behavior is usually very aligned with that of the people around them. No matter how “individual” people feel or claim to be.

I stop reading books frequently. Just fall out of love while turning pages. Usually they go on the shelve. Maybe one day … Recently I started to abandon them. Makes more sense to me now: Very rarely have I seen something come around. Cases where the first quarter sucked, but then my life got altered in even the slightest way are far in between. They go into a box now. Which is probably not right either: Why should I clutter the world with bad things? Eventually somebody will find some books. And there they are: The good ones and the bad ones. All alike. But throwing a book in the trash is a weird thing that needs some getting used to.

At great resource is the site Covid Act Now. Looks like Arizona is at capacity with ICU beds. Hopefully Texas can avoid that fate. People were afraid of the winter, and thought that in the summer the epidemic would take a break. The epidemic does not seem to care about what people think. My explanation for the southern most states being so affected right now is that people congregate too close in public rooms that are cooled by AC. Arizona in July is pretty much indoor living like Minnesota is in January. Seeing all those red colored states is sad. There needs to be more green …

Annie Duke is a professional poker player. And she wrote a book with the complete title: “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts”. I enjoyed it a great deal. Yes, at times it feels a bit redundant. But I don’t mind: She points out important flaws in our reasoning. Hearing things more than once is OK with me. It’s not that I would live already what she points out. I had the good fortune to read “Lucky or Smart” by Bo Peabody 15 years ago. It is a great little book, and I really am thankful that I got to read it before I happened to have what people would call success.

“Thinking in Bets” has a broader scope. It looks at decision making and where we really and generally suck at it. She also points out what we can do about it. I like it. I hope to remember what I have learned.

For me the trouble with great books like this one is that I listen to it, understand most of it. Agree with it. Spend a couple of times to implement some things. And then next thing comes along. And the work leaves vestiges at best. I should probably listen to books again instead of jumping on new ones. But they are all so interesting …

Finished Dark. Glad we didn’t binge it. Glad we watched it. Glad I could watch it together with somebody who matters to me. Not sure if I would recommend it to somebody who is not with somebody. Glad we spent the money on a decent 4K OLED. At 77″ it is – with decently lensed content like this – actually on the small size. Glad that we got our telco to switch us away from the DSL sub station that we were on before. With the 15Mbit they sent us from there 4K didn’t fly. With H266 it eventually will as we have learned this week. But today it would not be enough.

Daᴙk is really worth watching I think. Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar did an outstanding job in writing and directing it. Also in assembling an awesome cast and talented production designers, composers and all the other crafts one need to make such a tight piece. It is refreshing to watch something and not to know if I am just stupid and don’t get it, or if it is not known yet why something happens. I am looking forward to watching it again. There are still things that don’t make sense to me. Interesting to find out why I still don’t understand some aspects.

That Netflix makes large bets like this one is great. Lots of other, actually rather crappy, stuff they make as well. But then again, there is no Sendeplatz that it would take away from content like Daᴙk.

A deadline clip from 1998. Now hat we know the outcome it appears to be a rather strange piece. Back then it was not.

I oscillated between being worried and being totally calm in respect of my job. After I had set the date forward on the machines in question and they still worked I was not worried. There was a patch one could install so that one utility that nobody had ever heard of would continue to run. Somehow I ended being in charge for a specific slither of computer systems in next larger entity that owned us. I wasn’t very much liked, probably also since I was an arrogant a*hole, that even was right some of the time. So when I asked for a budget of zero peoples reaction were telling: They were convinced that come January 1st 2000 I would finally be a problem of the past. Didn’t happen for a while.

But when the road to our house was blocked for non residents January 31st I started to worry again: It eventually ended up at a drinking water reservoir. Where the authorities worried about drinking water for 16 million people? Actually not: They just didn’t want people to go up there for the fireworks. It came – it went. And sold lots of computers.

Of course January 19 2038 will be whole different matter.