A million-row limit on Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet software may have led to Public Health England misplacing nearly 16,000 Covid test results. From The Guardian:

But while CSV files can be any size, Microsoft Excel files can only be 1,048,576 rows long – or, in older versions which PHE may have still been using, a mere 65,536. When a CSV file longer than that is opened, the bottom rows get cut off and are no longer displayed. That means that, once the lab had performed more than a million tests, it was only a matter of time before its reports failed to be read by PHE.

Microsoft just announced that they’re exclusively licensing GPT-3.

I knew Microsoft has really been investing in ML/AI through Azure, and now it looks like the only way you’ll be able to use GPT-3 is through Azure services. I’m not sure how I feel about this yet.

From VentureBeat:

The implications of the licensing agreement weren’t immediately clear, but Microsoft says that OpenAI will continue to offer GPT-3 and other models via its Azure-hosted API, launched in June. (To date, the API, which remains in beta, has received tens of thousands of applications, according to OpenAI.) Microsoft plans to leverage the capabilities of GPT-3 in its own products, services, and experiences and to continue to work with OpenAI to keep commercialize the firm’s AI research.

1Password just added a feature to create virtual credit cards for you through Privacy.com.

I’ve been using 1Password for years now, and it’s definitely necessary for my workflow these days. It’s also really good for two factor authentication.

I also signed up for Privacy.com back in May and use it every once in a while for random things. Most recently it was to pay to have my LLC listed in some newspapers in Albany for New York’s publication requirements.

Putting the two together is a really good idea. I’ll definitely be using this.

So even though Oracle was selected as “technology partner” for TikTok, the US government will be banning both TikTok and WeChat from American app stores.

Which just… makes the security situation even worse. From the article:

For a policy that is nominally based on protecting national security and the data of American users, this is one of the most counterproductive moves imaginable, considering that the most basic of all security advice is to “keep your apps updated,” because developers often issue updates that fix security holes. By banning TikTok from the app store, it will be impossible for users to update their app, meaning any existing vulnerabilities discovered by ByteDance between now and November will continue to persist for Americans and Americans only.

Panic (the company that makes popular macOS dev apps… and the Untitled Goose Game) just released a new editor called Nova.

It looks really good. Lots of great features. I love the website! ¹ I won’t be using the app though.

The marketing angle is that it’s native to macOS and takes full advantage of the OS. That’s cool, but I end up doing work on Linux, Windows, and macOS these days and it’s nice to have the consistency of an editor that works on all of them.

Just came across an article about Kim Kardashian West freezing her Facebook/Instagram accounts to protest the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation.

This comes not long after a 6,600 word memo from a Facebook whistleblower was leaked where the author describes the company’s failure to act on evidence that people have been abusing the platform to undermine elections and political affairs around the world.

I haven’t used either Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp in years. The company has way too much of an effect on the world to be run by people who are this severely lacking in empathy or morality. I’m glad Kardashian West is bringing a little more attention to the company’s failures.

Oracle will be “buying” TikTok, not Microsoft.

Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO) coincidently has been very friendly towards the President lately.

I mentioned Microsoft not being happy with Apple in Epic vs Apple vs Everyone a couple weeks ago. The Verge reported today that Microsoft told them as much in a response to Apple’s updated App Store rules for streaming game services.

From the Streaming games section of Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines:

Microsoft doesn’t like that of course:

“This remains a bad experience for customers,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “Gamers want to jump directly into a game from their curated catalog within one app just like they do with movies or songs, and not be forced to download over 100 apps to play individual games from the cloud. We’re committed to putting gamers at the center of everything we do, and providing a great experience is core to that mission.”

From The Verge:

There’s never been a better time to buy a new game console or PC. While consoles have typically been held back by weaker CPUs, spinning hard drives, and average GPU performance, the next-generation PS5 and Xbox Series S / X are promising some big leaps in performance that will put them beyond even average gaming PCs. Nvidia, meanwhile, is claiming it will deliver the “biggest breakthrough in PC gaming since 1999” with its new RTX 3000 series of graphics cards.

I mostly played Xbox in the 360/PS3 era, and then I switched to PS4 instead of sticking with Xbox One last gen. About 2 years ago I bought a gaming PC and basically stopped playing consoles, but I have definitely been keeping an eye on what Microsoft and Sony are doing.

Xbox Series S info leaked yesterday, and everybody’s sounding real excited. $299 sounds like a really good deal for those specs to me. I think Sony is gonna struggle on price, but it’s obvious the competition has been good for consumers.

I just picked up an RTX 2070 a few weeks ago so I’ve been curious about ray tracing really taking off (especially now that the 3000 series are out). But it’s good to know the stuff I’ve been excited about for PCs are coming to the consoles too. It sounds like a great generation for PC, Xbox, and Playstation gamers. ¹

I use htop sometimes on this Ubuntu server to check CPU/RAM usage. I’ve been using version 2.1.0, which has been out since early 2018.

Today I saw that version 3.0.0 was just released!

It turns out the project was forked after the developer stopped maintaining it at 2.1.0 and the new developers did the 3.0.0 release. The original developer wrote about his experiences maintaining the app, the burnout he felt, and his relief after hearing about this new release. From his comments:

I guess here it’s a good point to make a note that might be useful for others: yes, burnout is a very real thing and for FOSS maintainers it can be hard to identify. I’ve experienced burnout at work before, and it’s easier to spot — because of the performance pressures — and to deal with — because ideally you have a supportive organization around you. For FOSS maintainers, the best-effort nature of the endeavor in most cases may make it hard for you to measure that effort, to balance your sense of duty to a community (that at times you built yourself!) to that of the effect it has on you (as in “why did I start doing this in the first place”). If you find yourself looking at your own FOSS projects and sighing, I guess that’s a sign!

I created a lil reference page for Flexbox and CSS Grid (I don’t have much of CSS Grid done yet; it’s coming soon) today. I usually use the guides at CSS-Tricks (A Complete Guide to Flexbox and A Complete Guide to Grid), but I wanted to create something organized the way I like it.

I’ll be improving the design and adding properties for a while. I hope you find it useful!

Flexbox and CSS Grid Reference

Microsoft being the one to buy TikTok has been weird to me from the start. Their press release praising the president was weird.

Then just recently the CEO quit, which also feels weird.

And now Walmart wants to parter with Microsoft on the deal, which is, yet again, weird to me.

What’s going on here?

This NYC School COVID-19 plan cannot seriously be the answer.

Aside from testing, the plan lays out six possible situations involving confirmed infections. They range from a single positive case, in which a classroom will close for 14 days and students and staff with close contact will self-quarantine, to more than two cases in different classrooms. Under the latter scenario, the entire school would shut down and transition to remote learning.

So we’re going to open and close individual schools all throughout the year? Really?

Came across this anonymous blog post about the general narcissistic attitude of certain parts of America right now:

Here is the internal narrative that dictates this state of affairs: “I am the only thing that matters; what I want is the only thing that it is valid to want; what you want is so unimportant that is is not worth discussing. I see you, but I am not convinced that you exist in any significant way, except as a potential blocker to what I want. This is your only real importance. Your assertion of personhood is irritating to me, because it gets in the way of what I want. Which is more money, more power, more self-gratification, at any cost, by any means necessary. The end always justifies the means, and if this means your end, that means nothing to me. My rights trump your rights, always, molehills to mountains no matter. I am not open to discussion of my position. I will become angry if you attempt to discuss this with me, then if you persist, I will kill you, because you are getting in the way of what I want. How dare you disagree with me.”

And:

Internal narrative #2: “I do not recognize that I am part of a society, even though I am wholly dependent on society for my continued existence. My actions, whatever they may be, are justified, because they are what I want. To shed any residual guilt I may have, I will deny evidence as conspiracy. I am, by design, so poorly educated that this does not trouble me at all. So I will not wear a mask in public, and I will not socially distance, because to do so inconveniences me, and I do not want to be inconvenienced, and what I want is the only thing that matters.”

Selfishness in its purest form.

I’ve definitely been noticing some of these post-pandemic work relationship changes:

According to Gallup research, having a close work friend increases fulfillment, productivity, and even company loyalty; on the flip side, loneliness in the office can affect both professional and personal well-being. The absence of casual hallway chats and long lunch breaks during the pandemic could potentially make workers feel more isolated, according to Hilla Dotan, an organizational-behavior researcher at Tel Aviv University. “What we’re doing through virtual work is we’re neutralizing the social aspect of [work],” she told me.

I don’t maintain relationships well when I don’t see people regularly. It’s been a struggle.

Again, things are bad:

Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off.

The tactic appears to be another escalation in federal force deployed on Portland city streets, as federal officials and President Donald Trump have said they plan to “quell” nightly protests outside the federal courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center that have lasted for more than six weeks.