Monthly Archives: August 2018

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“Stop….’Internet Time’ ”

Sorry about the corny MC Hammer reference in the blog title 🙂

So..this past Sunday, I happened to glance at my watch. It’s a Pebble Time Steel that I purchased over in 2016, new, for well under $249. There are tons of watchfaces that users have developed for the Pebble line. I noticed that this particular watchfa ce (many are customizable to show various aspects of data you’d like to see on the watch) that it was showing the date twice. I clicked on the watchface settings on my phone to replace one of the date settings with something else. I noticed, in the menu, something called “Internet Time”. I’d never heard of it, so I set it to show that. “Pretty cool”, I thought but…..what is it? I immeditely searched Google and here’s what I found.

From Wikipedia, Swatch Internet Time (or .beat time) is a decimal time concept introduced in 1998 by the Swatch corporation as part of their marketing campaign for their line of “Beat” watches.

Instead of hours and minutes, the mean solar day is divided into 1000 parts called “.beats”. Each .beat is equal to one decimal minute in the French Revolutionary decimal time system and lasts 1 minute and 26.4 seconds (86.4 seconds) in standard time. Times are notated as a 3-digit number out of 1000 after midnight. So, @248 would indicate a time 248 .beats after midnight representing 248/1000 of a day, just over 5 hours and 57 minutes.

There are no time zones in Swatch Internet Time; instead, the new time scale of Biel Meantime (BMT) is used, based on Swatch’s headquarters in Biel, Switzerland and equivalent to Central European Time, West Africa Time, and UTC+01. Unlike civil time in Switzerland and many other countries, Swatch Internet Time does not observe daylight saving time.

Here’s Swatch’s official website explaining internet time

Apparently, I missed this boom of the 1990’s that Swatch was attempting to start, however, it was riddled with approaches that never held much water and didn’t prove to be as useful as Swatch had hoped. This article laid out a few of the advantages and disadvantages.

The Wikipedia article gives the full history.

Be that as it may, it’s kinda quirky, and has gone by the wayside, but I think I’ll still display it.

Cheers,
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 13 – 13 Aug 18 – Google Tracking/Data Harvesting

Now Playing: Fluid – Drown in the electronic sound of instrumental hiphop, future soul and liquid trap – on SomaFM.com

Greetings good people.

Happy Monday, or whatever day you are reading this. Glad this workday is behind me, not because it was particularly hard, but my sleep patterns have been messed up ever since the attempted Parker Solar Probe launch attempt I blogged about two days ago (off patterns are exacerbated by not going to bed as early as I should have over the last few nights). Can’t believe I napped not only on Saturday but on Sunday as well. Gotta break that. After some coding tonight, I’m flat out turning in, within the hour.

Well, thirteen days into this sabbatical and the insight has been becoming clearer. My tech/podcasting/blogging brotha DarrenKeith, are continuing to discuss this journey we are on, exchanging relative articles to the “cut back” and the resurrected freedbom of spending less time on “the scroll”, creating more content through blogging, etc. Nothing wrong with consuming content, but my desire is to always make sure I am getting an ROI that results in moving me forward in the goals I’m trying to achieve.

Today a particular article referenced the age old story of how social media sites use us as product, harvesting the data collected from our likes, searches, and similar to share with marketers in order to show us more ads about they THINK we like. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

On a similar note, I ironically came across a somewhat disturbing (yet not not new) article about how Google tracks your movements, even when you have Location turned off. I thought having Location turned off meant exactly but according to this article, that is not entirely true. I won’t get deeply on what the article states, as I think you’ll get a clearer understanding if you read it, but the short of amounts to something I did last year, despite what my iPhone settings are, and that is to go My Activity – Google and adjust your location and Web App activity settings there, accordingly, for all your Google profiles. As you read the article, you will read about Google’s “Google-ease” (as I call it) stating that they are quite clear about how to keep your timeline activity and similar private, however (like Facebook’s famed chameleon privacy settings) that clarity is not apparent to the average Google user. So, yeah…read the article and adjust your My Activity settings as necessary.

“How do I do that?”, you say? Check this out.
Make sure check out the Google Dashboard page of the site as well I’ve had my location and web activity tracking on lock since last year.

POST EDIT (16 Aug 18): AP News updates the above story saying the Google has updated the erroroneous language on their Help page. The article is here.

POST EDIT (20 Aug 18): Reuters News reports of the first lawsuit, here.

Ok folks, “that’s all she wrote, the pencil broke”…I’m out.

Be good…
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 12 – 12 Aug 18

Greetings all…

The weekend is gone that quick…what else is new? It was a good one nonetheless, outside of my broken sleep patterns via trying to see the launch on Saturday morning. It was a success this morning at 3:30 am or so (I didnt wake up for it, but will be checking out the replay when I get to work tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a shot of the Delta IV heavy lofting Parer Soar Probe into space, courtesy a Twitter post:

Question…how many of you are into tracking your quantified self? I’ve been using an app called Gyroscope, the free version. I primarily use it as an add-on to my Apple Watch fitness track data. Gyroscope has some great features and a privacy mode, but as with many apps, I often wonder how the collected data is being used. The quantified self movement was very big some years ago and a friend of mine on Twitter is actually featured on Gyroscopes site as an avid user of the paid app. We had an interesting discussion about what he thinks about all the many types of quantified data he shares. In short, I’m still not certain if I could go to the extent of data sharing that he (or many do), even though we have our “always-on” mobile phones. From my understanding, the whole aspect of tracking one’s quantified data is to make improvements to yourself over time. It’s the data aggregation aspects that still don’t sit 100% well with me, though I admit there is lot to be seen from such data over time. Id be interested in your thoughts.

On the productivity front, I came across another interesting article that I was discussing with DarrenKeith, my brother in podcasting, blogging, and tech. Ironically, I received the latest Fast Company in the mail yesterday. There is a sidebar to an article in there that speaks to the subject of this article – Why productivity isn’t the only thing your smartphone is stealing from you. I think there are points in it we all can relate to. FB and IG are creating ways to cause us to spend less time on our mobile devices and there are a lot of apps that are made to do the same (although that whole approach seems like an oxymoron – spending less time on your phone my checking apps that help….that are on your phone….ok.). Then there is this approach of changing your mobile phone’s colors to grayscale. Supposedly this is less appealing than the colors we adore (there have been studies) and as a result, we’ll want to look at them less.

My solution – just put the phone down.

Have a good week.

Doug

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 11 – 11 Aug 18

Greetings…

It’s been a day…not a bad one, but moreso a long one. The launch I posted about yesterday was aborted close to 4:30am. The cause was a gaseous helium alarm detected from the launch vehicle, with about two minutes left of terminal count – they’ll try again at 3:33 am, Sunday. I went to bed late (12:30am), got up at 2:30am for the prelaunch activities, but never went back to sleep until 6pm for a two hour nap. That said, I feel kinda…out of it. LOL. I think things will balance out tomorrow. I am NOT getting back up in three hours to watch again.

I’m working on a new music project that I plan to drop in September, so this evening was spent doing sourcing some graphics for the artwork, while reestablishing my Flickr account. You can find me there (soon) for my serious photographic submissions:

Photostream
Profile

This broken sleep pattern has me meh. I did NO coding today…back to it tomorrow.

peace,
F!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 10 – 10 Aug 18

Hello…. and the weekend is here! In a way, it’s been a long one (work wise I guess), but Friday did get here kinda quick so I guess they cancel each other out. I’m sitting in Starbucks, with a cup of ice that is displacing 14.5 oz of Teavana Craft Iced Tea – Peach Green Tea. I’m sorta working/sorta decompressing with some me time before heading home. I’m debating getting up and leaving my warm bed at 2:30am to go to work for the social event they are having to witness the launch of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. The launch is scheduled for 3:33 am on a Delta IV rocket, courtesy of United Lauch Alliance.

Why is this launch special? It’s the first mission I worked on since returning back to the satellite/space exploration business. Though I didn’t work on it nearly as long as the other missions I’ve been working on for the last eight months, the company I work for built this spacecraft for NASA. So, that said, I may just do that. The second good part is that I get a crazy early start to my Saturday! LOL. We’ll see.

No articles to share today about the social media sabbatical. I did have a short chat with a friend who says she is thinking of cutting back a bit. I’m just gaining daily insight everyday overall. This isn’t the first time I left FB, but it is the first time leaving both FB and Instagram for this long together.

Anyway, that’s about it. If this is the first post you’re reading about the title subject, feel free to start at 1 August to catch up, if you’re so inclined.

Have a good weekend….
Fresh!

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 9 – 09 Aug 18

Greetings all…

A fair amount of things are on my plate at work, but I kinda fell back today to spending a little too much time on Twitter. I gathered a lot of resources with respect to the #100DaysOfCode campaign I’m involved in, but nonetheless, I’m bent on maximizing the insight I can out of this sabbatical. I was telling DarrenKeith that after nine days in, I’m starting to realize it wasn’t necessarily the need to kill the habit of constantly scrolling social media solely…now I’m starting to see the component also involves how much I keep checking my phone for way more than making/receiving calls. That, in itself, is a factor in the grand scheme of this experiment.

I found another article today that addresses this very same mindset…and some of it, no…a lot of it, walked right down my street: Why productivity isn’t the only thing your smartphone is stealing from you

There are tons of articles out on the interwebs like this, yeah, I get it, but there are a few points here that really resonated with me.

1. Dopamine has us hooked on tech.
We receive small shots of dopamine we receive every time we open a notification…check for text replies, scroll the net, etc. Instead of letting the mind be quiet or think on or of other things, or even being bored (*gasp*), human nature sets in, feening for that rush.

2. If you work a 9–5, I would go as far as to say that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to leave your smartphone out in your car and only allow yourself to check it during lunch and then again after work.

I tried this – even bought a Trac Phone to have my calls forwarded to me at my desk during the day. I have to say it did work, and I began to see this next point, owever, after the timeframe I bought ended, it was back to taking my phone into the building.

3. As you spend more and more time away from your phone, what you will find is that your focus sharpens, your quality of work improves drastically and your creativity runs wild.

Here’s a prime example. I will admit that I have always carried my phone everywhere I went – even into the rest room for that “breaktime” where I could check social, etc etc. Over the last two days, I stopped that. Today, I went down the first floor, taking the stares, and clearly got the vision of something that is going to help me better achieve the solution of a problem I’m working on. Had I been getting that dopamine shot as usual, I might have missed that opportunity.

My desire is to go back to #2 in order to minimize the effect of #2 so I can widely realize #3.

Time for some coding.

peace,
Fresh.

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 8 – 08 Aug 18

Greetings….

For all my electronic music production posse out there, Happy 808 Day!

Today’s post is sort of a continuation of a portion of yesterday’s post. The portion I wrote about that relates to a seeming “phone addiction” as it relates to social media use (scrolling) via phone. That said, I’m simple leaving an article reference I came across less than an hour ago, as I was reading a article via Medium ….on my phone, LOL.

The Real Cost of Phone Addiction…and another one (I like #3) How to break that tech (phone) addiction

Take from it what you will.

As DarrenKeith and I continue to say: “Social media is not evil….”

Peace

Fresh

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 7 – 07 Aug 18

One week, people. This is the longest I’ve gone without Facebook and Instagram together. In this one week, I’ve learned some things, been enlightened, etc. One of the things I HAVE noticed it is this – it’s not necessarily ONLY the time spent aimlessly (sometimes, that is) scrolling social media BUT the time spent on the phone doing it. The more I have the phone on me, the more prone I am to scroll these sites, eating up my time. By habit, I still pick up my phone to do it when it appears I have idle time (which, in reality, I rarely do), only to remember those apps are no longer on my phone. That said, the habit not to do it (because I can’t) is slowly starting to form.

I don’t access FB or IG at work, so I’m starting to realize I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would. At least, what I believe will happen is, whenever I do go back to using either site, the habit will be formed that I will spend far less time on them – at least that is the desire. In light of things, over the past two days, I’ve been thinking about this:

Instagram, my personal feed to be specific, is what I am thinking of deleting. It’s strictly where I share photos BUT what is it netting me? Instagram has some fantastic photography, don’t get me wrong, but it is really more of a social media site and a branding tool. *I* am not a brand. Yes, I’ve found content worth reposting and hope that my content is worthwhile (I’ve been told by a follower that my positive contributions to his feed) as well. I get that, and I appreciate it, but again, what is it netting me? How is it helping me move forward in attaining any specific goal? I’ve told many of my disdain for certain aspects of IG – bot followers, bot friend requests, having to delete followers that post things I really don’t care for: viral videos, overkill memes, etc (none of which I can control), but I still love the beauty of photography, without the social media mess that comes with it. Filters, yeah they have their place, and one is not forced to use them, but again, they are another feature that I can live without.

Flickr, on the other hand, is where I started sharing photos prior to IG. It now offers 1TB of storage, shows the EXIF data of every pic you upload, has specific user groups, and has, what I consider to be, better user commentary without the social media branding and foolishness. I’m considering getting a digital SLR sometime in the future, as my love of photography is returning, The current camera I have is a Nikon Coolpix L810. Nice camera that my wife gave me for a gift 4 years ago, but it has a fixed lens and it’s not as fast (mechanically) as I’d like so…

I do have a fitness account on IG which I will keep, as well as two music production sites that are strictly branding tools, but for my personal Instagram, that may very well be going by the wayside. The thought process continues…

I’ve had some interesting discussions with DarrenKeith about the constructs of Facebook and ironically just came across this blog post about a construct called Blogmesh (see the last paragraph and associated link). Sounds promising for those of us that like to blog.

Thanks for the read,

peace,
Fresh

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Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 6 – 06 Aug 18 – The Experiment Continues

Greetings all…

Hope your Monday was not manic (cues Bangles song). It was typical for me. Posted my #100DaysOfCode status and made it through the workday. I’m actually in bed posting this (first time I’ve tried it).

Nothing much to say today, just learning a wee bit more about this experiment I’m conducting. Gave some thought of the possibility of ditching Instagram for Flickr, yeah Flickr, you remember that site, yes?

Ok lights out.

Peace,
Fresh

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#100daysofcode – Day 16 – Comparative Syntax and my coding project – Python

10:45 pm. It was my plan to continue with the tutorial on Python Conditional Statement Syntax, but instead, I worked on my coding project. The data input code block is ugly, ugly enough that I see what needs to rewritten. It’s really cool posting status and reading other coder status about the #100DaysOfCode challenge we’re all on. Reading them is not only inspirational but motivational. That said, in the end, discipline always trumps both. For those who care to see my status on this journey, my Twitter ID is MrFresh.

It’s three minutes before 11pm on a Sunday night. Weekends are always too short, so they seem. Back to it tomorrow.

Peace,
Fresh