My employers closed a couple of offices for good in 2022 and 2023. Work from home or quit. Since I work very remotely (head office in Dallas, me in Canada) work from home is here to stay. We tried a shared packaged office space a few years ago but decided the costs didn't justify the benefits.

The Powers That Be decided this year that it would be a good idea for remote people to be seen in person every now and then, so I spent a few days in Dallas early in December. It was good to interact with the voices on the computer. And far less expensive than maintaining a remote office. Perfect weather and good food didn't hurt.

...laura

It doesn't matter how the information is stored, on paper or in a computer. People need to trust the system. If they don't trust the system it's game over.

I've seen lots of FAA 8130-3 and Transport Canada Form One maintenance releases. A human actually signed the form and accepted legal responsibility for the parts or work on them being done right. I'm trusting my life to them.

...laura

Genres come and go. The superhero genre has run its course. Poor writing hasn't helped. M-She-U, anybody? Ugh!

Give people something entertaining and they'll pay to watch it. Barbie and Oppenheimer weren't superhero movies. Nor was The Eras Tour. All three made a bundle.

...laura

If women aren't interested in such careers, who cares? We're all different.

If there are barriers to womens' participation in technology, that is a problem. Some workplaces are a little too much of a frat house atmosphere. This is a bona fide problem, but it's not the subject of this silly article.

Yes, sometimes I get tired sometimes of being the only woman in the office or in meetings. It's a rare treat when there are other women around, whether we go for coffee and doodle equations on napkins, discuss fashion trends or DSP algorithms over lunch, whatever.

...laura

You can't mandate a technology that doesn't work unless you have other goals in mind.

We (I'm Canadian) don't have the electricity infrastructure, nor will we by 2035. Danielle Smith and Scott Moe have been shouting this until they're blue in the face but the feds are so driven by dogma they don't listen. Here in B.C. we have good answers, 98% of our electricity is generated by hydro dams, but we need a lot more capacity. Big capacity, Site C-level, not solar farms that don't generate at night or in the winter.

In time the technology will be useful and cost-effective and people will adopt it. EVs have their attractions - I'd be happy to have one as an around-town runabout if I had somewhere to plug it in at home - but they're not there yet. I look forward to the day when they will be. They have a lot to offer.

...laura

I was there the second night and wasn't at all surprised that the show was seismic. I assume the big seismograph peaks coincided with 22 and Shake It Off. Lumen Field was really bouncing around.

...laura

I'm currently doing development on Android and iOS. On Android we use Firebase. On Apple we use APNS directly.

As recommended by both Apple and Google our notification payloads are minimal: "You've got mail!". The app then phones home to retrieve its messages. I'm curious what you could learn from the notifications. We know the messages themselves are sensitive and take care to protect them. We know about CALEA and related laws, but this is way about my paygrade.

...laura

How did they all get to Dubai? Oh. Right. OK...

If such a conference is necessary and must happen in person, it might be a nice touch to have it in a town that is genuinely on the front line. In Canada I nominate Timmins, Ontario or Prince George, BC.

That the climate is changing is obvious. What to do about it (if anything) is not at all obvious. Socialism always seems to be the answer, no matter what the actual problem is...

...laura

Years ago my employers decided we needed maps on our web-based application. Google Maps was in its infancy and didn't really have commercial terms, so we bought a mapping package (MapInfo) and figured out how to make it play with our software. The initial performance was disastrous. I figured out how to make it less disastrous.

I also spent some time designing attractive maps. I collected paper maps (I like maps anyway), picked out the ones I liked, tried to identify why I liked them. Made MapInfo draw similar maps. Liked what I saw. I even bought a couple of fonts from Adobe to dress up the presentation, to try to make the maps ours. I subsequently attended a map design session at a MapInfo user's conference and confirmed I was generally on the right track.

Then the Powers That Be said our maps had to look like Google Maps. So they did.

...laura

I loved The Eras Tour, first time I'd seen a movie in a theater snce Skyfall.

On TV/streaming I'm just finishing up Reacher, but that's a 2022 leftover.

...laura

We know where Taytay stands on various subjects (e.g. Lavender Haze, You Need To Calm Down), but it's never intrusive. Her music comes first. Fans respect that.

I saw her in Seattle back in July. A spectacular show, worth every penny.

...laura

Give people what they want and they'll pay money to see it. Don't, and they won't.

Taylor Swift's home movie was the second-highest-grossing concert film before it even opened.

...laura

The Beatles were enormously influential in their day - and, arguably, still are - but they broke up when I was 9 years old. I'm 62 now. A lot has happened since then.

Like all modern recordings/reissues/remasters this one sounds more like a really good tribute band than the Fab Four themselves. Nor are they breaking any new ground: Now and Then sounds like a B side from Abbey Road or Let It Be.

...laura

If an electric car meets my needs at a price I can afford, I'll consider it. If it doesn't, I won't.

At the moment no EV meets my needs. They're interesting, but (for me) just not there yet. If I had somewhere to plug one in at home I'd consider a low-end EV as an around-town runabout. They're good for that. Since I don't - I live in an apartment and the building management aren't interested - I won't be driving an EV any time soon.

...laura

Otherwise it's all just hype.