Words are inadequate

Some background on IFA, Apple's new tracking method for iOS users. Shorter: Apple used to allow tracking by device ID but stopped after privacy concerns. Now instead they allow tracking by... a random string assigned temporarily to your device ID.

At least it can be shut off. On the other hand, I keep finding more places where things need to be shut off. Hence, this list, provided as a public service.

This list will be updated as more places where you have to opt out are discovered.

1. In the Settings app, tap General, then About. Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Advertising. Make sure the Limit Ad Tracking switch is set to On.
   
   
2. In the Settings app, tap Privacy, then Location Services. Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap System Services. Make sure the Location-Based iAds switch is set to Off.
   
   
3. In Safari on your device, browse to oo.apple.com. Make sure the Interest Based Ads switch is set to Off. You may have to repeat this for each device.
   

Currently rereading Gene Wolfe's Latro books, because I wanted something both meaty and familiar and because I'm running Agon. They're still excellent, even if I'm not sure exactly how many werewolves there were in the first one. (I'd thought 'two' at first but now I'm pretty sure there was only the one and someone was lying to Latro. Like they do.)

Also, while I'm still not sold on the Device as a reading platform for narrative fiction, it does pretty well for RPG books. Been reading Ken Hite's Nights Black Agents, which is sort of "Jason Bourne Versus Vampires," and the 13th Age beta-test, which ought to be Just Another Fantasy Heartbreaker but so far at least seems to be an acceptable blending of mechanics that encourage storytelling and role-playing with D&D-style Bashing It With My Axe. Also, dear gord reading PDFs in Ibooks drains the battery like nobody's business.

Tangent: non-narrative reading scratches some sort of itch for me. Strategy guides, RPG books that mix worldbuilding with rules... I've even been known to read board game rules over lunch. My tentative guess is that they're things with rules and guidelines, they describe systems that I can understand.

Off to B'ham again today. uilos cleared the bookcase's Go-Away Shelves into two largeish tubs so we'll be taking those to one or two of the giant used bookstores down there and trading them for books we'll actually read again sometime. Then there's Readercon in Boston next weekend, from which I should not bring back too many books because luggage.

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In the interest of Doing All The Physical Caretaking a few weeks ago, I started swimming in the mornings. I also saw a chiropractor for my stupid shoulder and stupid wallet-sciatica. Turns out the swimming is aggravating my stupid shoulder, so that's out. Back to running in the mornings I suppose. Will have to see about finding a decent route. At least it's neither hot nor humid out here.

Given: Bookshelf space is a serious consideration for housing. We got unbelievably lucky with the place we're in right now but it's bloody expensive, and we may not be so fortunate in the next place.

Also, books are the great majority of the physical objects I own. If I'm looking to reduce the amount of Stuff in my life (and I usually am; the "do not have any attachments" pattern is locked in eternal conflict with the "might be useful someday" pattern), books are a place to start.

Hence: the possibility of going over to ebooks for the small portion of the library available in that format plus anything new that comes out.

The imminent release of the new iPad is doubtless a small factor in pondering this possibility.

Pros: Less space, obviously. Being able to buy books immediately as I want to read them may (may) curtail the need to Buy All The Books whether or not I have time to read them. (Case in point: acquired "Throne of the Crescent Moon" this weekend, but gord only knows when it'll slot into the stack.) Not as much having to haul a giant hardback around because it's what I'm in the middle of (e.g., Anathem). Ereading is likely to lend itself to reading more online magazines & contemporary short stories.

Cons: Love of the physical experience of reading a paper book. Fear of lost data. The visible library is a defining feature of Home. Another %&$ device that needs to be plugged in. Can't loan ebooks to people who don't have an ereader. Many older works are unavailable as ebooks, leading to frustration. Need to find an ereader acceptable to uilos as well as one for me, otherwise she'll just buy dead-tree copies of anything I pick up in ebook that she wants to read too.

Unknowns: The biggest factor is how well I'll like reading on an ereader / tablet / what have you. (Already known: how well I like reading on the Device, that being "not very," but that's a function of the tiny screen.) How much of a problem the confusion of "do i have that in ebook or dead-tree" will be. How much of a problem DRM will be, though I anticipate "not much."

Thoughts?

Time was, I had one computer. If I wanted to do anything online, I'd power up the desktop. (I didn't leave it running all the time because it has a half-dozen fans in it, and it lived in my bedroom, and that was more noise than I really wanted when I'm sleeping.)

Now, for a variety of reasons, I do practically all my at-home computing with the laptop on the couch, or sometimes on the other couch. This means I'm not getting any use out of my clicky keyboard or awesome trackball, and am thus consistently frustrated in small ways by the keyboard layout. On the other hand, it's kind of nice to do simple stuff in the evening sacked out on a couch.

Some of the simple stuff can be done on the Device: email, FB, blowing up skeletons. Even LJ /can/ be done there, as can chat; it's just slow and awkward. Chat especially. (There's a scene in Y: The Last Man where the ninja assassin says "You understand Japanese! Thank god! I sound like a moron when I speak English." That's about how I feel after trying to type on the Device.)

Ideally, when I move I'll get a better desk chair and start using my desktop again. (This may require a new desktop system, since the current one is, um, elderly. I think its last upgrade was in 2004. I know for a fact it's still running Windows 2000.) For lazy evening couch-based surfing, I'll acquire an iPad, since in theory the bigger screen and the 'multitasking' OS update this fall will fix most of my complaints with the Device. And it can be decent for typing on, too, if I use the Neo and the camera kit.

I've been saying "i'll wait until the second model" for months now. And I keep weakening.

Today's the seventeenth of June. I've got exactly thirteen days before the end of the month, and the deadline for Viable Paradise. I'd meant to apply this year; heck, I'd meant to have "Junkyard Dog" and one more thing complete by 1 January, but Life and the sluggish pace of my writing at the best of times intervened. So, a blatant attempt at manipulative motivation: if I can finish either of the things I'm halfheartedly working on by then, and get them in email with a coverletter, I get an iPad. (16GB, because that's all the space I need; wi-fi only, because I don't want to muck with having to switch carriers and such after I move.)

We shall see.

Is Executing an Innocent Man Enough?: "What I hope will emerge is death penalty advocates honest enough to admit that no system of state-sponsored execution can be infallible, because people are fallible. I want them to come out and say what's clear-- innocent people will be executed." To which one commenter responds "They won't make the argument b/c death advocates don't believe anyone is actually innocent. I've had this conversation before and the response is 'well, they must have been doing something wrong, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten caught/been in the wrong place/etc.'"

The Chains That You Refuse: I believe this story came about when someone in a chat room said "Not all combinations of person and voice will work: you can't write a story in, say, second person future," and eBear responded with "It will have been raining in Harvard Square for only half an hour when you give up hope."

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If the Device forgets that it's supposed to be on shuffle, and instead starts playing all its songs in alphabetical order (starting at a random point), I won't realise it until I've heard two different versions of the same song twice.

Relatedly, I have an awful lot of songs that start with the letters "Si."

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Words I am allergic to:

• Should. In the context of "I should do X," it's guilt-inducing, and negative reinforcement is nobody's friend. Better: "I want to do $thing," or (in cases where that's clearly not true, like getting out of bed so I can go to work) "I want $result, and therefore I will do its prerequisite $thing even though I don't really want to." In the context of "You should do $thing," or "Life should be like $thing," it reflects a refusal to live in the world the way it is. Either do the dishes, or don't do the dishes.
  
• But. It undercuts what I'm saying. It's a way to not have to stand behind my statements. In many situations it can be replaced with "and" to have the same effect. For example, "I'm going to $event but I don't know how long I can stay" comes across like apologising for not really going to $event. "I'm going to $event and I don't know how long I can stay" is true, and accurate, and confident.
  
• Work, in context of things that are meant to be pleasurable, such as relationships, or living my life the way I want it to be. These are things to be enjoyed, not justified through back-breaking happiness-killing labor. I recognise that there are aspects of my psyche that require both healing and self-monitoring to prevent falling into old ruts. I treat these as they come up, I try to change aspects of my life that aren't making me happy. I don't look at that as work. I look at it as an investment.

I spent the weekend doing very little indeed. I played a lot of games on the Device (Geo Defense and Harbor Master, with a touch of Toki Tori) and slept lateish and made waffles and poached eggs and replaced a button that was trying to come off one of my favorite shirts. Gaming on Friday night, and dinner with folk on both Satyrday and Sunday nights, which seems to have been a mostly acceptable level of socialization. I'd like to say I'm feeling recharged after that, but really it just made me want to keep hiding.

I haven't been spending much time in the hamster room since the discovery that my shoulder hurts when I use my desktop. We're going to experiment with leaving the laptops in there for now instead of out in the living room. I suspect that this is at least partly a ploy to get me to put away the boxes on the spare bed and give away the DVD player and TV. Regardless, it'll be good to hang out with the wee beastie a bit more.

Went out running on Monday morning. I can't tell if it's the July heat and humidity or if I've just lost that much muscle and lung capacity. It's a struggle now to keep going for five minutes at a stretch. Stiff today, too. With any luck it'll get easier as it goes.

A couple months ago I bought a crazy-expensive new pair of running shoes. They're supposed to correct my tendency to step harder on the balls of my feet and not put much weight on my heel. The hope was that this would also fix my supertight hamstrings, by changing how I walk. Now articles are starting to trickle out about how running shoes are actually bad for your feet and walking heel-first can cause all manner of problems. So, I dunno. I think next time I'm someplace near where they're sold I'll try on a couple pairs of Vibram Five Fingers and see what I think of them. (If they'll fit me at all; the website says they're good for up to EEE widths, which isn't too helpful for my EEEE feet.)

Other than that, tired mostly. I'm starting to suspect that my brain feels like it's overdue for a summer vacation. I've been doing the same thing for three years straight, now, which is at least two years longer than I've ever before gone without a few weeks of sleeping late and reduced work hours. Too, school was more stressful than work, but also more varied. Every year something different.

I can't see myself staring at these cube walls for the next five years, even if I weren't planning on moving. I just don't know what else I'd be staring at.

. . . man, this got depressing. Here, have a heartwarming tale about a mystical Chinese warrior. I think the phrase "Don't make me unleash Chiang!" needs to become an integral part of my trash-talking lexicon. (See also Urban Dictionary.)

The Breakfast Cereal Club: "You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a leprechaun, a monster, a cap'n, a tiger, and a rabbit. Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Cereal Club."

The Doors of His Hotness, the Lamps of His Cuteness: "Also, he is an environmentalist, and doesn't like factory farmed foods! He says he can trust locally farmed meat not to have been poisoned like it was that time the winged lizards of Morok's Volcano drugged us and tried to seduce him. And he's right!"

Uncle Sam: "Verizon is a billing company that levies a monthly fee from a quarter of American households, occasionally also providing some of them with wireless and long distance service." [via Making Light]

From eBear, The Best Amazon Review Ever. Seriously. Everyone else can give up and go home now.

V.displeased with battery life of the Device. Looks like I'll be charging it daily if I plan to use the internet (or phone) at all the next day.