--- title: Week 2 date: 2021-08-22T22:58:02.387Z excerpt: Bit of a weird week. tags: ["weaknotes"] --- {% image "https://cdn.wonderfulfrog.com/noblewarrior_d2rbeta.png", "Like Link in Zelda, I have NobleWarrior the ever-living Paladin. Never the same character, but I always make a new one every so often.", "" %} - [More stories from victims at Blizzard]. I'm saddened and disappointed to hear that Morhaime was largely an accessory and protected the harassers. I had him pegged as one of the last few good executives. I guess they don't exist after all. - This whole notion of coworkers being "family" needs to die. They can be friends, but the whole "family thing" is a gross tactic employed by people in positions of power to make employees complacent. I am pro-union, for the record. Unions help protect employees, especially the marginalized. I hope to see game developers unionize in my lifetime. [I like this article for its actionable steps at the end]. I want to see more of this. People are ready to fight for this but aren't sure how. This helps. - The term sideloading needs to go away. It's the term used when talking about installing "unauthorized" software on your iOS device. It creates this irritating amount of nefariousness with something that is not nefarious at all. We can thank Apple for that one. Installing the software we want has been something we've been doing for decades now with the earliest computers. That's all it is -- installing software. We should be allowed to do it, but Apple has decided their bottom line is more important than giving their consumers freedom. At least they care about privacy, right? Oh wait. - [A collision with NeuralHash]. A lot of tech-talk here but the crux seems to be that Apple's CSAM technology is not infallible after all. What's on display here is that two completely unrelated images end up being confused as the same thing by Apple's tech. Not to mention that this happened in a matter of _hours_ once the tech was released. If you're out of the loop, CSAM stands for Child Sexual Abuse Material, and Apple was trying to find a way to scan for this content on the user's device. There is no good way to add this to every iPhone without it being a gross invasion of privacy and rife for abuse by the government, police, etc. I respect Apple for making this a priority, but their implementation is no good. If anything this displays that the system has some glaring flaws and god only knows what will happen from that. Apple claims that everything will be reviewed and protected against abuse, but if their App Store review policy is anything to go by then this should inspire absoutely zero confidence. In fact, it should make everyone deeply concerned. - [The Taliban are carefully crafting their social media presence]. They skirt the line very carefully. - [Dubai Is A Parody of the 21st Century]. I'll let the video speak for itself. I don't understand why anyone (read: white people) would want to live here. That is to say, I understand, but I don't understand why _they_ would. - [It's really hard to like Apple right now], or in general actually. Particularly horrible is this portion (emphasis mine): > When Georgia legislators introduced a pair of app store bills in early February, Apple immediately hired five new lobbyists to advocate against the legislation in the state. And during the frenzied debate following the bill’s introduction, Apple lobbyists told legislators that the company could pull out of two important economic development projects in Georgia — **a $25 million investment in a historically Black college in Atlanta** ... Give us what we want or we pull funding. Disgusting. This is the same company that touts "black lives matter". What they really meant is "Black Lives Matter... when it's convenient for us". Fuck lobbying. - We finished Deep Space 9. The final was a whirlwind finish with more sad parts than I expected. It was more bittersweet actually. I hope we get to revisit some of these characters in Voyager. Speaking of, we should be starting that soon. - Playing through the D2R Open Beta. Trying out more classes. They fixed some of the annoying crash and chat bugs, but it still craps out on me now and then. Suddenly I see "You have left World Chat" with no way to rejoin. Now I can't talk to anyone. If I restart the client it works fine. - [Some alarming legislation coming from our country]. - Finally got to watch Studio Ghibli's latest movie [Earwig and the Witch]. Checking the reviews it seems to be universally panned. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a different look but I still get that "Studio Ghibli" aesthetic and feeling. Especially the colour choices and character design. The ending is abrupt, which is the harshest criticism I can give it. Otherwise it was a fun and super charming movie! The soundtrack is amazing and channels the prototypical prog rock sound well. So good in fact that I'm hunting for the music to add to my collection! [more stories from victims at blizzard]: https://www.upcomer.com/activision-blizzards-lawsuit-may-force-change/ [i like this article for its actionable steps at the end]: https://www.polygon.com/22627759/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-games-worker-unions-labor-organizing [a collision with neuralhash]: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2021/08/18/neuralhash-implementation-and-collision/ [the taliban are carefully crafting their social media presence]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/18/taliban-social-media-success/ [dubai is a parody of the 21st century]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SacQ2YdVOyk [it's really hard to like apple right now]: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/20/apple-takes-on-state-legislatures-georgia-50629 [some alarming legislation coming from our country]: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/20/apple-takes-on-state-legislatures-georgia-50629 [earwig and the witch]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12441478/