Is the underlying principle of debate the intent to change the mind of those who disagree with you? And if so, what happens if one gives up wanting to change others minds? It sounds to me to be the difference between dictating decisions and making decisions based on consensus. It's also the difference between arguing and shouting. Let's not forget, democracy was never intended to be efficient, and in fact not all efficiency is good.
I've seen it written about how personal computing has changed from "speeds and feeds" to things like battery life and portability. Up until now I have not really observed this first hand, but that has changed now that I have a new work computer.
The new EliteBook 745G3 has an AMD processor with four cores but scores lower using Geekbench than the HP ProBook 6460b that it is replacing, which is five years older! From a performance perspective, it would be better to keep the ProBook, but it is much larger and heavier than the 745G and that makes it desirable.
The 745G3 benchmarks slightly better than my 2010 Macbook Air. Note that both older computers have faster (> 2 Ghz) CPUs and fewer cores.
I find the comparison between the 745G3 and the Surface 3 fascinating. Both have 1.6 GHz, 4 core CPUs, the Surface 3 having an Atom processor, the EliteBook having an AMD. The multicore score is nearly the same, while the 745G3 has a much better single core score.
The Surface 3 is the highest scoring of the computers that I own, while the new Mintbox is in second place.
It is absolutely gorgeous outside today, 65 degrees on February 18 in Michigan. The average high this time of the year is 33 degrees, the record high, set in 1997, was 57 degrees and we are well past that.
So nice out that I went for an extended walk this afternoon.
Setting up a new work computer is giving me the opportunity to try Docker for Windows. I've made more progress this time in that at least I have it install and running with Hyper-V. However, I am having a problem with disk access, which prevents me from working with storage volumes. I keep getting a message saying that a firewall is preventing the ability to access the C drive, even though it appears all firewall rules are in place. I've seen other reports, speculating about network configuration.
I write the content for this site on one server and copy the rendered versions to another site hosted on Amazon S3 and that process works well for all the content created using 1999. However this is not the case for content being created using Little Outliner.
I have Little Outliner pointed to my own instance of nodestorage. All of the OPML files I create in LO are being written to my S3 bucket with the proper text/xml content type but HTML LO generates for Status Center is being written as text/plain rather than text/html and I can't figure out why.
The statuscenters and listicle folders are under /user/screenname like all other publicFiles, so I am not sure why it is not work as it should.
My current theory is that the type global is being set to text/plain from the LO code.
Earlier today I restarted storage.js while logged in to my server as root, and now I am having all sorts of problems publishing posts to this site.
Ok, I had to do a lot of file permission and ownership clean up. I hope I have that fixed!
Dave has added the Status Center / Live Outline functionality to Little Outliner. It means that I can publish this outline live.
As you might know, Fargo.io will cease to function as a writing and publishing platfom this summer when Dropbox shuts down its API. One thing I did in Fargo was to take notes in what I called my Work Notes outline. I published those notes to a blog for ease of access and public visibility, in case anyone could benefit or cares.
When Dave added the Notes feature to Little Outliner, I created a new work notes outliner but I have not had an easy way to make to available outside of Little Outliner. With Status Center I now have a way to make my work notes outline more broadly accessible.
As a test, here is a direct link to my notes on tracking Trump.
In preparation for a podcast that I will participate in this weekend, I am thinking about my experience with Google Home.
I am early adopter of the Amazon Echo, which I use to control my Hue lights, SmartThings, and Harmony Hub. We have an Echo in my home office (the basement), and a Dot in our living room.
Google Home does not have much that is better than Echo, which isn't too surprising given Amazon's year+ lead over Google. Home excels in Internet search, as you would expect, so it is a bit better for finding general information.
Another way that Home is better than Echo is its ability to control Google Chromecast. First, Home automatically finds Chromecast devices on your home network, whereas you need to explicitly set up other home automation devices like Hue and SmartThings.
Once you get Home connected on your network, you can say things like, "Ok Google, show pictures on basement TV" and Home will start a slideshow of your Google Photos on the Chromecast called basement TV. You do need to have the Chromecast running on a TV before seeing the pictures, Home will not turn on your TV unless you have it integrated with other home automation devices.
The speaker built-in to Google Home is slightly better than the one in Echo, but both are pretty good. Neither are as good as the Yamaha soundbar I have connected to my Samsung TV, so I enjoy telling Google to play my favorite music on my Basement TV Chromecast, which of course sends audio to the soundbar.
I have Google Home and Echo connected to my Spotify account. Of course Echo plays music from Amazon Prime as well as any music that you own and associated to your account. Google Home also plays music from Google Play, where I happen to have uploaded all of my personal music that I ripped from CDs over the years.
Home also is integrated with Netflix, so you can say "Hey Google, play Supergirl on basement TV" and it will start streaming via Chromecast to your TV. I can configure Echo to turn on Netflix via the Harmony hub, but I cannot direct it to a specific show, although I can tell Harmony to turn on specific cable TV channels via Harmony.
Alexa, which is the brains behind Echo, has a ton of skills that add functions, ranging from the silly, like telling jokes, to requesting an Uber. Amazon has a pretty good developer network and seems to be releasing new skills for Alexa every week.
Home has services that add functions, but only a few are currently available. Most services are basically a form of a web search but there are services like Uber, Todoist, and Kayak that provide specific functions.
Echo and Home both work with If This Then That, so you can use them to trigger applets that work with other smart home devices or web services. I am surprised that there is no real integration between Android and Google Home, but you can add it with Tasker and AutoVoice, which are automation tools for Android.
Google Assistant is the brains behind Home in the same way that Alexa is the brains of the Echo and Dot. Assistant is also available on the Google Pixel phones, while Google Now is a similar, but not the same, assistant on all other Android devices.
Google Home ought to be able to recognize Android devices just like it does Chromecast, and likewise Android should know about Home. Here is a an example of where the lack of integration causes a problem.
I have Google Now configured on my Nexus 6 P to wake up whenever I say "Ok Google" even while I have the phone turned off. When I am in my basement and say "Ok Google" both Home and my phone acknowledge the wake word. The phone should recognize there is a Home nearby and defer to it, just as it does with Android Wear, but it does not.
Even more maddening is the integration with Keep, Google's notetaking and list making app. Home/Google Assistant creates a item in Keep called Google Assistant shopping list, and you call say "Ok Google, add milk to shopping list" and Home will add milk to that shopping list note.
Say "Ok Google, add bread to shopping list" to your Android phone and it will add bread as an item to another entry in Keep called Shopping List, which means you end up with two shopping list areas in Google Keep, one controlled by Assistant/Home and the other controlled by Google Now. How hard would it be for Assistant to add items to the Shopping List entry that Google Now uses?
Oh, and by the way, Echo also has a shopping list that is of course directly connected to Amazon so Alexa can automatically order stuff on that list, where as the Google's shopping list is more traditional.
The duplicate shopping list scenario is the type of thing we see with first generation products like Google Home. I expect Google Home to get much better as Google improves Assistant, which I think will ultimately replace the Google Search web page. In the mean time we will have to wait and see whether Google Home will surpass Amazon Echo.