Random Thread ~Usagi-Chan ☮ Tūsurī~

[Moh]

I meant to post these sooner, but sometimes I just can't be bothered.

Last Tuesday's adventure was to the Birmingham Museum of Art! Admission and parking are both free; they do ask for donations to help support the museum, though.
That place is much bigger than it looks on the outside. It just kept going and going! I don't even remember the Frist Art Museum being that big, lol.
Lots of interesting exhibits, pieces from BCE, and they have a massive jasper collection. My mind kept being blown.

Spoiler: show

[TotallyUncool]

Some very nice exhibits - that looks more like a large-city art museum than one in a smaller city!

[Celedam]

To those of you who use iPhones and iPads, I strongly recommend that you check the privacy labels on whatever apps you have installed…

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211970
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/

I've been checking mine, some of which I've had installed for years, and it's shocking how many of them take personal data for no legitimate reason. If it doesn't enable the functionality of the app in a specific and obvious way, then they don't need it and we shouldn't give it to them.

And besides, at the end of the day, many apps are just frontends for web services that we can already access through the browser. They're not much more than glorified bookmarks.

The word is that iOS 14.5 will be released today, and with it comes the requirement that an app must ask for your explicit permission to track you. Simply disclosing it in the privacy label is no longer enough. So if you do upgrade today (or tomorrow, or whenever), you might be surprised by what you see. In fact, some apps might stop working altogether if they haven't been updated to comply with these new requirements.

[erilaz]

The stamp show (Westpex) and the fantasy literature conference (Mythcon) that I attend nearly every year were both cancelled last year, of course, but they're supposedly happening this year. In order to make Westpex more of a possibility, they moved it from spring to summer. Unfortunately, they chose the same weekend as Mythcon! Since Westpex is in Burlingame, CA, and this year's Mythcon is in Albuquerque, NM, I can't do both.

Problem solved. The Albuquerque Mythcon has been postponed for yet another year. In its place, there's going to be a "Virtual 'Halfling' Mythcon", but that's only going to be on Saturday and Sunday, which means I can go to the stamp show on Friday — assuming that it actually materializes.

[Celedam]

"Friction" is a term used in productivity porn to describe all of the little administrative details that keep us from actually being productive. I sometimes use the term myself, because it is so appropriate.

Today I learned the term was coined by 19th century Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz.

Huh.

[rikkikow]

Finally! After two months, today I saw a replacement squirrel that showed up in my neighborhood. The squirrel hasn't discovered my side of the street though. Time to get those peanuts back on the fense.

[Zunu]

(Technically on topic!)

Was in Flushing NY. Found some ducks who got their geese cooked.



Gomenne, kamokun

Spoiler: show

[Amped]

Duck season was last year :

"~Duck-setsu no Random Thread '20~"

It's _ _ season now

[Celedam]

C'mon, with a setup like that…

[Zunu]

Duck season was last year :

"~Duck-setsu no Random Thread '20~"

It's _ _ season now

Pretty sure I tried moving off the duck motif once previously but it got shot down by Boins E. Fudd.