walled garden

Prior to learning about this breaking development thanks to Super Punch, I was mulling the notion of reinstating part of PfRC’s and my personal media presence once the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect, but the company’s surprise decision to repatriate its Ireland-based international operations means that the new law will have magnitudes fewer beneficiaries.
The four hundred million or so EU-area residents that are creators and consumers of digital content will be covered, and had the headquarters remained in Ireland and under EU jurisdiction so would the rest of the global population of over a billion and a half users whose activities are banked there, with the exception of North American records which are stored in California. With only Europe cordoned-off, all other data from accounts around the world will migrate to servers in the US and the company will have far greater latitude in what it does with people’s history and demographics. What do you think? Though we are glad to be afforded at least a measure of protection and control (maybe, hopefully a meaningful one), it seems like a real jerk move on the company’s part to deprive the rest of the world by centralising its clearinghouses and now I don’t think in good conscience reanimate my account. What we let this company get away with informs how all other stewards of privacy and truth behave going forward.

frühling in wiesbaden

The weather today was splendid and enjoyed the vast park between the Bahnhof and the newly remodeled Rhein-Main Conference Centre (Congress-Zentrum) across from the city’s venerable art and natural history museum.

la révolution introuvable

A recent interview with EU parliamentarian Daniel (le Rouge) Cohn-Bendit who was one of the student-leaders during the unrest in Paris that ignited in May of 1968, ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of the riots, had two rather pointed statements: during the protests, no one was asking us about our relationship with 1918 and, commenting on today’s atmosphere, Cohn-Bendit’s compatriots were fearless about the future, whereas things now seem a bit tremulous (with notable exceptions).

hex key

We learn via Slashdot that robotic engineering is on the brink of surpassing an important milestone in terms of dexterity, coordination, versatility and patience in assembling a piece of IKEA furniture, a complicated, hands-on experience that would have until just recently been too much to ask of even the most sophisticated robots.
Spending half its time modeling a plan (and a little guidance from its handlers what the end product was to be without the ability yet to just consult the manual) and the rest on putting the chair together, both novice teams finished the job in about twenty minutes. See a video demonstration of the competition and feat at the link above.

extended character set

Appreciating that as originally a Japanese convention, quite a lot culturally significant symbols would be represented in emoji, like the Great Wave off Kanagawa, Mount Fuji or a bento box. I was curious what the characters following zodiacal symbols meant.
Initially I felt a little underwhelmed with the list but took the chance to reflect on what strikes others as worthy of inclusion or shorthand for something else. For your edification: 🈁 is Koko for Here, 🈂 is Sa for Service Charge, 🈷 is the sign for Moon and signifies a Monthly Amount, 🈶 means Owned or Not Free of Charge, 🈯 indicates Reserved, 🉐 signifies a bargain, 🈹 a discount, 🈚 is for Free of Charge, 🈲 means Prohibited, 🉑 signals acceptable, 🈸 is the Japanese button for application, 🈴 is used to advertise that one has earned a passing grade, 🈳 is empty and available and used to mean Vacancy, ㊗ is the icon for Congratulations, ㊙ marks a Secret, 🈺 is the equivalent of “Yes, we’re Open,” and 🈵 indicates No Vacancy. The Alpha through Omega Omicron following are incidentally blood-types.