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A New Look for BirchTree
It was time for a change, so I hope you like it!
Blog
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Have I Mentioned I’m Done with Call of Duty?
Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Ad Promotes Far-Right Conspiracy Theory
The term more recently gained popularity in gaming circles thanks to (what else) GamerGate. The specter of Cultural Marxism is routinely conjured to decry anything that doesn’t adhere to the straight, white, cis male perspective that has dominated the video game
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Work From Home is Having a Moment, but it Will Fade (at least some)
The Long-Term ‘Work From Home’ Trend is Overstated – Tech.pinions
There’s another, less measurable benefit of working in an office: serendipity. Zoom, Teams, Slack, and so on all have their place. But there’s something to be said for the nuances of an in-person conversation that can’t be fully captured remotely,
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$156 Billion in Lost Value
The devaluation of assets in black neighborhoods
This report seeks to understand how much money majority-black communities are losing in the housing market stemming from racial bias, finding that owner-occupied homes in black neighborhoods are undervalued by $48,000 per home on average, amounting to $156 billion in cumulative losses.
And:
This analysis
Game
Flying Around the World, Recreating macOS Wallpapers
Above is my recreation of the macOS Catalina wallpaper taken in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.
And here's a
Slack Feature Request: Focused Working Mode
Slack is great, but it's also terrible. It's much better than email at talking to people, but it's also a distraction machine. This isn't an original thought, but it's certainly something that bothers me like it bothers the rest of you.
Do not disturb exists
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Forgetting Your Dark Past vs Celebrating It
Most Americans think recognizing the country’s flaws makes the U.S. stronger, not weaker - The Washington Post
“So we’re not going to tear down monuments and forget the people who built our great nation,” he continued. “Instead, we will learn from our past so we don’t repeat any mistakes.”
Trump Jr.’s
Jerry Seinfeld Brings the Heat
Opinion | Jerry Seinfeld: So You Think New York Is ‘Dead’ - The New York Times
Energy, attitude and personality cannot be “remoted” through even the best fiber optic lines. That’s the whole reason many of us moved to New York in the first place.
You ever wonder why Silicon Valley even exists? I have always
ipad
The iPad Cursor is an Achievement
The Magic Keyboard for iPad came out in April this year and I’ve been using it everyday. I know some people said it was more of a dock than a case, but I use it exactly the same as I did my Smart Keyboard Folio, it lives on the iPad 95% of the time
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What if Users Had to Select a Search Engine?
Browsers Should Have No Default Search Engine - Initial Charge
This certainly wouldn’t solve all of our problems. Google would still be, by far, the most popular search engine. But not having a default and introducing awareness to users that there are other options would be a huge step in the right direction.
I think
Politics
There is Nothing Else, There is no Policy
Stuart Stevens, an ex-GOP operative, on why the party should be burned to the ground
That’s why I say the Republican Party really isn’t a political party. It’s a cartel. Why do cartels exist? Why does OPEC exist? To sell oil. Nobody says, “What is the moral purpose of OPEC?”
What
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We Might Be Getting that 120Hz iPhone 12 After All
Well, just yesterday I was weighing whether I'd prefer a high refresh screen or 5G in the new iPhones, but if this is legit, it looks like I won't have to choose. Can you tell how much I'm grinning over here?
Actual iPhone 12 Pro Max (PVT) notch shot
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Top Shelf Hardware with a Clean Android Experience
John Gruber on Daring Fireball:
If all of this is true, what phone is someone supposed to buy if they want top-shelf hardware and the pure no-junk Android experience?
While the Pixel 5 being a shift to the mid-range (lower mid-range, maybe) may be a good move for their chances of
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Should Apple Delay the iPhone 12 for a 120Hz Screen?
iPhone 12 Pro Likely to Ship With 60Hz Display, But Launch Delay to Add 120Hz Possible - MacRumors
Apple may delay the iPhone 12 Pro launch due to supply chain issues with the 120Hz display, or face cancelling the feature entirely, according to display analyst Ross Young and leaker Jon Prosser.
I love high refresh screens.
The Cult of the Free Must Die
The cult of the free must die
Small company gives away software for free. Large companies give away the same software for free, and to them the cost is essentially peanuts, and they own the platforms the software runs on. Therefore small company will lose, decreasing diversity in the browser market. Simple as that.
This
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Leading Trim is Not Something I Knew I Needed Until Today
Leading-Trim: The Future of Digital Typesetting
Today, we’re excited to announce that Microsoft Design is sponsoring the authoring
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The Sweet Setup Switches to Notion
Shawn Blanc writing for The Sweet Setup:
The thing we love most about Notion (so far) is how we can manage each article with its own due dates, editorial status, content outline, and more. All that information stays with the article itself as it moves along the editorial process.
And we can view our editorial
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Web by Google
Web by Google (TM)
So Google controls the Web’s search and video infrastructure. It can and does dictate standards and media formats. It also controls a huge chunk of the revenues available when publishing and selling on the Web. It even controls the operating system and browser through which most people interact with it.