Jeremy Cherfas

Twofer! Adactio's Ways and means and Tim Bray's Reviewing Ethics

2 min read

Two savvy treats on one day. Jeremy Keith takes a general look at the power of internet companies in his post on Ends and means. Tim Bray focuses specifically on the utility that is Google Maps in his post Reviewing Ethics.

Jeremy: Going back to the opening examples of online blackouts, was it morally wrong for companies to use their power to influence politics? Or would it have been morally wrong for them not to have used their influence?
Tim: Call me crazy, but I’d pass legislation to keep Google from doing what they’re doing. They should be able to sell space on the maps, and they should be able to provide quality filters, and collect feedback on reviews and downgrade or upgrade them accordingly. But no damn way should they own the map and the crowdsourced value-adds on the map.

No collusion, I'm sure, just two smart people addressing their concerns about good behaviour by those who make and use the web.

The Dark Art of Stealing from Self-Checkouts

I've never done this myself, honest, but I can understand that it is tempting for a whole reason. And I like both ends of the spectrum of justification:

The authors further proposed that retailers bore some blame for the problem. In their zeal to cut labor costs, the study said, supermarkets could be seen as having created “a crime-generating environment” that promotes profit “above social responsibility.”

... and ...

“Anyone who pays for more than half of their stuff in self checkout is a total moron,” reads one of the more militant comments in a Reddit discussion on the subject. “There is NO MORAL ISSUE with stealing from a store that forces you to use self checkout, period. THEY ARE CHARGING YOU TO WORK AT THEIR STORE.”

It occurs to me that people here might be interested in learning about my latest episode. The Hamlet fire was a devastating industrial "accident" that exposes the cost of cheap food. Why the scare quotes? Listen to Bryant Simon talk about his new book. Link in bio.

#podcast

Replied to a post on twitter.com and a post on stream.jeremycherfas.net :

@toggl Overall, the font size and lack of contrast make the screen hard for me to read on my iPhone 6+ and more specifically, switching between manual and automatic is more difficult and selecting clients and projects more cumbersome.

I may need a new work timer, having inadvertently upgraded the old version of @Toggl. The new one is silly complex.

Winter wonderland

The worst possible feedback: it works for me.

1 min read

One of the good things about WordPress is how flexible it seems on the surface, able to perform all sorts of wizardry. One of the bad things about WordPress is how that very flexibility often makes it extremely difficult to achieve any sort of wizardry. That seems particularly true of anything to do with the #indieweb.

So I was surprised to learn that Aaron Davis was having difficulty implementing a ZenPress child theme

Surprised because I run fornacalia.com with a ZenPress child theme and cannot recall any difficulties in setting that up. I think there may have been some issues with capitalisation of various names, but beyond that, I'm at a loss. I'd love to help -- but not sure how best to do that.

Maybe I should just share my child theme.

Replied to a post on doubleloop.net :

Kinda like Indie Hosters, but more suitable for Gens 3-4? Add Known support and you might get even more customers.

Pankaj Mishra reviews ‘We Were Eight Years in Power’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The white man, Tocqueville wrote as he observed race relations in America, ‘is to the men of other races what man himself is to the animals’, in the sense that he ‘makes them serve his purposes, and when he cannot make them bend, he destroys them.’ A social order built on systemic violence made the black man, Tocqueville recognised, an ever present menace in his white master’s imagination.

Still I find it hard to internalise this understanding, no matter how much I may "know" it.

Replied to a post on jaysonlusk.com :

Jayson Lusk's reminder that the Economic Research Service is a really important source of data is valuable. His suggestion to follow the ERS's daily "chart of note" is even better.