/ in English
“The cartogram is made up of squares, each of which represents half a million people of a country’s population. The 11.5 million Belgians are represented by 23 squares; the 49.5 million Colombians are represented by 99 squares; the 1.415 billion people in China are represented by 2830 squares; and this year’s entire world population of 7.633 billion people is represented by the total sum of 15,266 squares.“
When I no longer respond to any other form of communication, please play me 80s heavy metal (Iron Maiden and Metallica will do just fine!) and Pink Floyd.
Evernote isn’t looking too healthy these days
As an avid user, it makes me sad but – rescue or ruin – I think it’s time for Microsoft to do its thing and buy Evernote.
The Swedish election–which I, of course, dutifully voted in–resulted in an almost perfect tie. There is something to say for the UK style first-past-the-post voting principle.
Discord. This must be my son’s most used app, and it made me intrigued. So, I signed up, connected the app to Skype and Facebook, …and got zero friend suggestions. Got to find me some gamer friends, I suppose.
The 2013 MacBook Air was a good deal
Alternative title: Macs have become expensive.
Apparently, I double processor speed (well, cores at least), RAM, and disk space every time I buy a new computer. The 2010 MacBook Air I could “double” after less that 3 years for half the price it will cost me to double the 2013 MacBook Air with the computer I buy now (in 2018). Granted, I get a larger and better display in almost the same form factor. This may be worth paying for. But paying for Touch Bar and Touch ID seems like a waste. To get down to the same monthly cost for this year’s computer as for the MacBook Air I have had since 2013, I will have to keep it for 10 years.
August 2018
MacBook Pro 13-inch
Processor: 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.8 GHz
Memory: 16 GB 2133 Ipddr3
Drive: 512 GB Flash Storage
+ Retina display with True Tone
+ Touch Bar and Touch ID
Price: 25,695 SEK
Monthly cost:
3 yr: 714 SEK
5 yr: 428 SEK
10 yr: 214 SEK
July 2013
MacBook Air 11-inch (mid 2013)
Processor: 1,7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3,3 GHz
Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
Drive: 256 GB Flash Storage
Price: 13,454 SEK
Monthly cost: 221 SEK
November 2010
MacBook Air 11-inch (late 2010)
Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Drive: 128 GB Flash Storage
Price 13,655 SEK
Monthly cost: 414 SEK
(VAT included in all prices)
The etymology of “orange”: which came first, the color or the fruit?
“This is not to say that no one recognized the color, only that there was no specific name for it. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Nun’s Priest’s Tale,’ the rooster Chaunticleer dreams of a threatening fox invading the barnyard, whose ‘color was betwixe yelow and reed.’ The fox was orange, but in the 1390s Chaucer didn’t have a word for it. He had to mix it verbally“.
In the books I had a sa young child in the 1970s, there were no colour named orange (which is also the Swedish word—although orange, the fruit, confusingly in Swedish is “apelsin”). Instead there was the word brandgul—fire-yellow!
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant
Problem:
“If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc.)—and particularly its financial avatars—but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. Clearly, the system was never consciously designed. It emerged from almost a century of trial and error. But it is the only explanation for why, despite our technological capacities, we are not all working 3–4 hour days.“
The Bullshit Web
“You know how building wider roads doesn’t improve commute times, as it simply encourages people to drive more? It’s that*, but with bytes and bandwidth instead of cars and lanes.”
* + Google and the rest of the Internet advertising Industry.
