It feels like it would be ironically shallow to say that such-and-such ideology had changed my life. Sort of a born-again cop out. We all have deeply held traditions and beliefs that inform/distort everything we do. What I’m talking about here are things. Stuff. Random objects that have become filters that modify what I view as possible and desirable.
It won’t very be helpful for me to list things like running water, modern medicine, or smart phones as life-changing. All our lives have been altered in fairly consistent ways by the trappings of modern life. Instead, I’d like to share a few things that might not have changed you yet, but probably should.
Ad blocker
If you’re not already familiar with ad blocking, you’re missing out. Ad blockers use a clever hack to eliminate ads, user tracking, and spyware in web sites and (sometimes) apps. My various ad blockers (alas, I’m forced to use a different one for each device) fundamentally change the version of the internet I see. My internet doesn’t have much advertising, is far less capable of tracking me, and doesn’t get in the way of the tools and content I’m trying to access.
Perhaps the most impactful side effect of using an ad blocker is that taking control of my online experience has reinforced the baseline lens that I view all products and services through. If something isn’t serving me, I assume I can fix the problem (compared to assuming I’m powerless to use anything in ways not intended by the thing’s creator).
Multiple ad blocking plugins are available for every major web browser. Several dedicated ad blocking browsers are available for Android, and ad blocking can actually be enabled at the system level on iOS (not specific to any one app). On top of that, you can probably configure your wifi router to block ads. Lastly, many ad blockers also block intrusive spyware, privacy-invading social media widgets, pre- and mid-roll video ads, and criminally offensive flyover click-throughs.
Pictures are probably the best way to illustrate the upgraded version of the internet that an effective ad blocker provides:
Without ad blocker (4 visible ads and the social sharing overlay, compared to only a fraction of two pieces of actual content visible—yuck!):
With ad blocker (note that the plugin blocked 14 total ads on this page!):
The Mac Is Not a Typewriter (book)
In a nutshell, if you put two spaces after a period between sentences, you had better be using a mechanical typewriter. Futhermore, there are dozens of typesetting rules that you don’t likely follow. Learning these will make every written piece you produce look more professional, and will also give you a tool for gauging other people’s and companies’ sophistication and attention to detail.
I first read this book in the 2000 while working in a graphics department at the university I attended. The book was scripture in that organization and anyone that disobeyed its precepts was treated as a heretic.
The book is tiny. It takes perhaps 45 minutes to read cover-to-cover, but you can (and should) re-read it with some frequency. It covers the way typesetting should be done in a modern (read: computerized) environment and how the right way is different from the traditional way. The author illustrates the mistakes writers, editors, and publishers often make and uses the differences between a mechanical typewriter and a computer to explain why the two approaches to typesetting exist in the first place.
This book is a filter that every document I perceive passes through before it reaches my brain. My impression of the author is directly tied to whether they cared enough to hone their craft or at least use a tool that would prompt them to fix mistakes (MS Word identifies two spaces after a period as a mistake). In other words, I project the quality (or lack of quality) of the formatting, typesetting, and punctuation of a document onto the concepts the document expresses.
Password manager
Good passwords share a few common characteristics:
- longer (more characters)
- use lots of different characters
- don’t contain real words
- are unique (not re-used on other sites/apps)
- are memorized (aren’t written down)
Some bad passwords:
test
password
abc123
go jets!
12/25/81
And a few good ones:
6Wh@!amyQK3fxY
$C$@QF&7R3g88E6!mGqmFE$tr74
AvJSPKuyJbhWEUmHuaY&dTpzh567@eQr2dfQ6kqxiZKSG!jM#bjo
Strong passwords are inherently difficult to remember, and writing them down defeats the security offered by a strong password. And the problem of remembering strong passwords without writing them down multiplies if you use a unique password for every account you have (like you should). Enter the password manager. You create a single (hopefully strong) password that gives you access to the rest of your unique, strong passwords (one per service, remember?). A good password manager will also auto-fill login forms in web pages and in mobile apps.
Using a password manager has allowed me to stop thinking about passwords. I remember exactly one and it is a very strong password. I no longer feel like I have to consider the tradeoff between security and convenience, in at least this narrow case. I don’t get anxious when prompted to create yet another new password. On the contrary, the little green checkmarks that signal the web site’s approval produce a slight feeling of smugness ;-)
The layout wasn’t designed to handle the strength of my password!
brnt 2021-06-01
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