Sebastian @hinterwaeldler@mastodon.social
Bookworm 📚 Pumper 🏋️♂️ Scientist 👨🔬 Cyclist 🚴♂️ German 🇩🇪 in the Netherlands 🇳🇱
Joined Mar 2018
I'm hanging out on #reddit more and more these days. User generated content really is what draws me there, I think...
"You have five incompatible messaging apps on your phone not from technical limitations, but because greed drives companies to ignore compatibility and optimize for vendor lock-in."
"Messaging isn't complicated. We solved this more than a decade ago."
"One of the saddest stories of vendor lock-in is the story of messaging." #xmpp #whatsapp
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/lessons-vendor-lock-messaging
Serious question: My bank uses an Android app, which is coupled to the phone number, and locked with a PIN code.
Is this a valid 2FA scheme? After all, you need the phone and the PIN code.
"Does a toothbrush have feelings?" - #duolingo, teaching me about I-don't-know-what
"The big question shouldn’t be whether AIs or robotic caregivers could be better than human parents—they inevitably will be, at least in some ways."
An interesting thought here: "Will we lose our rights as parents once robots are better at raising our kids?"
https://qz.com/1650396/tech-for-kids-will-soon-automate-away-the-job-of-parents/
Now reading: Tony Robbins' "Awaken the Giant within". I've read this book two years ago in English, now again in German. The concepts and ideas are truly amazing. I will annotate and highlight the shit out of this book. 🎉
It's a shame that the book is a little unstructured, and that this twenty-five year old book is still the best thing you can find from Tony.
After having read "Born a Crime" by #trevornoah, I can highly recommend it. 👍
It's funny, personal, and educational. The subtitle "Stories from a South African Childhood" couldn't be more true. At it's core, it's about the state of South Africa, Apartheid, Race, Religion. It showed me a world that I did not know before. Time well spent.
(on a side note, the book doesn't cover his public career at all)
Ok, the last chapter "My mother's life" is tough. It deals with domestical abuse, and ends with his mother shot in the head by her husband, surviving by miracle.
On crime: "The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn’t do: crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement."
On South American police: "What Americans call SWAT is just our regular police."
On hustling: "When Bongani first said to me, “Let’s go to the hood,” I thought we were going to sell CDs and DJ parties in the hood. It turned out that we were selling CDs and DJing parties in
order to capitalize a payday-lending and pawnshop operation in the hood. Very quickly that became our core business."
"With Mandela came freedom - and with freedom came McDonald's."
On having money: "The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money."
On the ridicule of institutionalized race:
"Which seems ridiculous, but it would happen. Every year under apartheid, some colored people would get promoted to white. It wasn’t a myth; it was real. People could submit applications to the government. Your hair might become straight enough, your skin might become light enough, your accent might become polished enough—and you’d be reclassified as white."
About getting to know his (largely absent) father:
'“So,” he said, “in the time we’ve spent together, what would you say you’ve learned about your dad?”
“Nothing. All I know is that you’re extremely secretive.”
“You see? You’re getting to know me already.”'
On pets: "A dog is a great
thing for a kid to have. It’s like a bicycle but with emotions."
Bookworm 📚 Pumper 🏋️♂️ Scientist 👨🔬 Cyclist 🚴♂️ German 🇩🇪 in the Netherlands 🇳🇱
Joined Mar 2018
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