The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

I feel the earth, move, under my feet

It's a bit disconcerting when the office is shaking. It would be one thing if I worked in The Los Angeles Office of The Corporation, but I'm don't—I work in The Ft. Lauderdale (as in Florida) Office of The Corporation (and besides, we don't have an office in Los Angeles).

I'm not alone in this—I asked around and yes, other people felt it too. It wasn't a violent “up and down and oh my God we're all going to die!” type of shaking, more of a “I can just make out this vibration in the floor; the building isn't going to collapse on us, is it?” type of vibration.

The only consolation (and it's not much) is that this isn't the first time this has happened.

And no one can explain why …

Update later today

My friend and fellow cow-orker B mentioned on GoogleMyFacePlusSpaceBook that the shaking was caused by frieght trains going by. It makes sense, seeing how there's a railroad right next to the building.

More unintentional conspiracies

Giving most people a “general purpose computer” these days is giving them enough rope to hang themselves. That’s why people that have never learned computers (or did and hate them) like iPads so much. It’s extremely difficult to mess anything up, and you don’t have to worry about antivirus and updating java and flash and all this other crap. Apps are sandboxed, privacy is taken seriously, background apps (spyware) can’t track you, etc.

As someone concerned with security, I’ll gladly tell people to switch from a virus-laden Windows laptop to an iPad or Chromebook.

As someone concerned with privacy, I’m conflicted in offering those suggestions because the security comes from proprietary app stores and review teams, trusting all your data to be stored by the GOOG, not having the ability to run your own code, etc.

Maybe it’s just as simple as: there is not one solution for everyone. Let the majority of people that have no interest in running their own code use iPads and Chromebooks. For developers and people that know enough to take precautions, keep using Macbooks and Thinkpads and whatever.

A story about Jessica | Lobsters

This is a comment on A Story About Jessica, and is presented here just as another data point about giving up control over our own computers.

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