The Week #65

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  • I had my first day at first day at Octopus Energy.  Initially I was in rushing about as I still needed to do some initial setup so I could use my muscle memory again: move the dock to the left, auto hide it, remap caps to control, swap spotlight and language input changing shortcuts ( ctrl-space <--> cmd-space), pairing my magic trackpad, and so forth.

    We used gather, this J-RPG-esque video conferencing website for a chat with my new co-workers. Amazing the number of takes on video chat these days. 

    After that I mostly spent of the day reading docs and getting the project up and running locally. There was also a global meeting with the engineering team where I got to introduce myself to everyone.

    Working in English left me less mentally taxed at the end of the day, something I must have stopped noticing. I'm a bit afraid that my Japanese will deteriorate. Without a doubt this is the largest project I've worked to date and I know I'm going to learn a lot.
  • Covid cases returned to double digits in Tokyo for the first time since last November. Kanagawa was down to 51. Cause for optimism. Let's hope this trend continues 🙏🏻.
  • Leo's return to school was delayed as a super typhoon grazed Yokohama on it's way past Japan. No damage, just a lot of rain and a bit of wind. Though my bicycle cover did manage to blow away. ( Update: Found it down at the end of the street and halfway up a hill).
  • Love seeing Weekly blog posts picking up momentum on the IndieWeb.
    Saturday: Maquie publishes thingsThisWeek.
    Monday: Michael publishes Weeknotes and James publishes Weeknotes
    Tuesday: I publish The Week.
    Soon we'll have a weekly roundup for each day of the week.
  • I started (re)-watching The Lone Gunmen (a 13 episode spinoff from the X-Files). I don't think I've seen it properly since it aired on TV 20(!) years ago. It's a bit corny, but pushes a good message about computing, freedom, and surveillance/privacy. In the opening scene Langly is at a launch party for the Optium 4, a new super fast CPU that (secretly) has a modem embedded in it to "upload your files to the internet, and your credit history, and your tax bracket, and your social security number".

    While we don't quite have chips designed / hidden to invade our privacy (yet) we are uploading everything and other data that we previously considered extremely confidential is readily accessible to advertisers – and sometimes we even supply it. Amazing that this issue was raised on prime-time TV. How the times has changed.

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