Anyone know what on earth happened to day one’s activity feed? The location logging was so useful and now the new “today” shows nothing. Is there a switch I’m missing?
A new edition of the Learn Create Share newsletter is about to be sent to press. Inside are
- A book sketchnote summary
- A new creative challenge
- A collection of Photography
- An invitation… You can subscribe here.
Finally got round to writing a new sketchnote classroom blog post. When you should use text and when you should sketch in a sketchnote.
(I also have finished a new sketchnote ready to send in this week’s edition of Learn Create Share)
🔗 The Surface Duo, Microsoft’s first-ever Android phone, is $1,400
The Surface Duo, Microsoft’s first-ever Android phone, is $1,400
A foldable can be a big-screen device for watching video, playing games, using a tablet-style app, or browsing a desktop webpage. The Surface Duo will never be a good device for these use cases. To be clear, the device does have a mode that merges the two screens into a big 8.1-inch display, but it’s going to have a big gap down the middle.
There are aspects of the duo that seem really interesting to me:
- looks good for reading
- using the second screen as a keyboard looks like a nice option
- the app pairing looks well done
- Support for the Surface pen is really nice (imagine that with concepts app!) Basically, it makes me wonder if it could replace my tablet and phone which is exactly what it should do! It is also clearly the type of device that is full of compromises and has a high “early adopter cost” (not to mention high price).
But I have to wonder what an Apple version, with pencil support, would be like.
I’m looking at setting up a private community. I’d like some private channels but also some open public ones. I was thinking of Slack as I know it well but I’m open to alternative suggestions. (I’ve never used discord…but it certainly looks interesting).
🔗The end of secularism is nigh - UnHerd
The end of secularism is nigh - UnHerd
All of which should serve as a wake-up call to the West that it is not only its financial, economic and military muscle that is currently atrophying. So too is its ability to market its culturally conditioned assumptions as universal. The concept of the secular is not, as many in West like to think, a neutral one. Quite the opposite. As the very word betrays, it derives from the distinctive theology and history of Latin Christendom: for ‘saeculum’, the word given by the Romans to the endless flux of things, was counterpointed by St Augustine and his heirs to the religio, the ‘bond’, that, so Augustine had taught, joined the pilgrim Church on its journey through the centuries to the radiant eternity of the City of God.
I thought of the XKCD standards comic, where people try to unify things by a standard but just add another competitor in the process. I wonder if that’s how the future will see secularism. Admittedly many different religious systems have already passed away (which is different from the standards comic), and I’m sure there are other issues I haven’t thought of.
That’s a nice style guide you’ve been working off for the last 10 months.
It would be a shame if someone were to decided to change the whole thing and then make you search through all the website copy and update it.
(But still. The em dash is back!)
Finished reading: Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian, Tom Griffiths 📚
Is this a silly idea?
Doing an Ask Me Anything for the next Learn Create Share newsletter?
I’ve tried this before for another newsletter and got no questions…and so then had to just pretend nothing had happened.
I know a few MicroBlogranauts took part in a Christian survey on how Covid has affected their faith/use of technology. Well, we just published the results!
Malcolm Gladwell on His Dad Asking Dumb Questions
The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Malcolm Gladwell (#168)
My dad is a great question asker. And my father has this, and I’ve spoken about it many times, of his many gifts, one in particular, as a kid, always had the biggest impact on me, which is my father has zero intellectual insecurities. So this is the only thing he has in common with Obama. He and Obama are the same way. It has never crossed his mind to be concerned that the world thinks he’s an idiot. He’s not in that game. So if he doesn’t understand something, he just asks you. He doesn’t care if he sounds foolish. He will ask the most obvious question. And it was without any sort of concern about it.
And maybe it’s because my dad is a mathematician. So he has this thing that he knows he’s really good at. And so he’s home free. If you have a PhD in math, you’re home free. … Yeah. And it’s like if you look like an idiot because you don’t know anything about basketball, who cares? So he asks lots and lots and lots of dumb, in the best sense of that word, dumb questions. He’ll say to someone I don’t understand. Explain that to me. And he’ll just keep asking questions until he gets it right. And I grew up listening to him do this in every conceivable setting. My father, here is this guy with his PhD in math. He made friends with all of these farmers who were our neighbors who were all drop outs.
I can’t remember where I heard about this quote (not from Tim’s podcast) but I’ve been trying to apply it. Ask questions “Do you mean… Sorry I don’t understand.” I’ll report back on the results.
Putting the final touches on this week’s Learn Create Share newsletter including:
- A book review and summary
- A creative challenge
- a chart about parenting Subscribe to get it as soon as I finish the last minute checks.
I have an alternative idea for all those people who can’t deal with wearing a mask…
The theme of reconciliation has been on my mind a lot recently.
Although I’ve been thinking about it primarily in relations to our culture, today I’ve been thinking about it with work. There’s an opportunity for reconciliation right now, but I’m not sure either side will seize it.
I’ve got my Roost stand and Anne pro keyboard back and all is right with the world.
Must remember to send @gr36 his commission cheques for the two mentions in his newsletter this week.
Forgot my keys this morning. Just so happens to be the one day of the week when my wife is out till later. Nice excuse to read in the park (the book feels very appropriate too).
🔗 YouTube is experiencing an egregious bitcoin hack that no one is fixing - iMore
YouTube is experiencing an egregious bitcoin hack that no one is fixing - iMore
Famed Apple leaker Jon Prosser recently tweeted that his YouTube channel, Front Page Tech has been hacked. At the time of this writing, the channel’s name has been changed to NASA [News], his entire library of videos appear to have been deleted except for a live-streaming bitcoin scam video that currently has 48,000 views.
🔗 Posing for selfies - Seth's Blog
Posing for selfies - Seth’s Blog
The irony is that the people we’re most likely to want to trust and engage with are the ones who don’t pose. They’re consistent, committed and clear, but they’re not faking it.
Figure out what you want to say, the change you seek to make, the story you want to tell–and then tell it. Wholeheartedly and with intent.
Posing is unnecessary.
A reflection on my reduction of podcast listening during the pandemic: It’s almost like I wanted something to silence me from my thoughts during silent moments… that’s not a good thing.