Author: Daniel Andrews

Posting in December

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  Something I promised and failed to do earlier this year was to write more often. I stand before you again, making a similar promise. The key difference his time is that I’m smack in the middle of a posting streak. I committed to make one post a day for the month of December, no […]

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Mike Norvell Introductory Press Conference

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FSU isn’t great at coaching searches. This is their 4th coach in nearly 40 years! A lot of times after a coach is fired, their replacement is essentially the polar opposite of the person who was just let go. I think the administration did a good job of getting someone who had the best qualities that Taggart embodied while also correcting for his unorganized, players-coach style.

An intro press conference doesn’t tell you a lot other than how good of a salesman the new coach is, but he said all of the things you’d want him to say.

I’m really excited to see what sort of staff Norvell puts together and what the next few years look like. 2020 is gonna be rough, but after that I anticipate a turnaround.

How do I protect my online privacy from ‘surveillance capitalism’?

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A great overview of what you should be worried about on the web when it comes to your data and what folks can do with it. If you really want to dive in on this, the linked article from the EFF really expands on the ideas. As the author states above, I’m also not opposed to advertising in principle. What I’m opposed to is the massive amount of personalized data companies gather about me to deliver mediocre ads that are not any better than those you might get in a non-targeted way.

How Ring Went From ‘Shark Tank’ Reject to America’s Scariest Surveillance Company

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Source: How Ring Went From ‘Shark Tank’ Reject to America’s Scariest Surveillance Company – VICE

Amazon’s Ring started from humble roots as a smart doorbell company called “DoorBot.” Now it’s surveilling the suburbs and partnering with police.

I’m definitely more interested in what HomeKit Secure Video will look like …. from iMore:

When you have security cameras in your home, the footage captured by these cameras will be highly personal and sensitive. You wouldn’t want these recordings to fall into the wrong hands. With HomeKit Secure Video enabled, all of your security camera footage gets end-to-end encryption before it is securely uploaded and stored in iCloud.

Facebook Gives Workers a Chatbot to Appease That Prying Uncle

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From Facebook Gives Workers a Chatbot to Appease That Prying Uncle:

What if Mom or Dad accused the social network of destroying democracy? Or what if they said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, was collecting their online data at the expense of privacy?

If you’re having to create a chatbot to handle this sort of thing, you might need to look at the underlying cause, not creating a PR answer bot.

Engineering Mangement Lessons

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I became an engineering manager a few years ago now and have since moved into a role where I’m responsible for both direct ICs who report to me but also for other managers and the direction of an entire department. Titles are always funny as they’re so dependent on where you work – but one […]

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My favorite 2019 tech things

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As we head into the holiday season, I thought I’d throw my hat in the “best of the year post” ring with a list of a few of my favorite personal tech items of the year. Some of these are bigger than others, but I wanted to list out some things I’m thankful for this […]

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Google’s smart home ecosystem is a complete mess

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From CNET:

While Google might argue its new system will be good for users in the long run, the fact remains that customers spent money on a product, and Google is taking that product out of customers' hands and replacing it with something different. In effect, Google just unplugged many of its users' smart homes, all while asking them to kindly move into a new, Google Assistant-branded tenement. In the long run, Google assures us, things will get better. Its track record with killing products doesn't inspire confidence.

I found myself nodding my head a ton while reading this article. I’m moving to Alexa/Sonos over the next few months.