IMG_0014 Hi! My name is Russ. Welcome to RS Notes, my home on the web. I’m a former wordpress user who drifted away years ago. Recently, I decided to ...
Everything that I write here - unless I'm quoting someone - comes from my brain, through my fingertips to the keyboard. When it comes to editing, I re-read and edit until I am satisfied with it enough to publish. Then, I usually immediately find something huge error that horrifies me, and I edit it again, and then I'm usually good to go. While sometimes that means mistakes, awkward sentences,…
Of late, I have been trying to think more deeply about how I feel about ai. Its pervasiveness annoys and exhausts me, and while I have no active experience using it purposefully, I’ve encountered it many times, because it’s been impossible not to. Off the top of my head, here are just a few examples: call screens when I make phone calls at work, web search ai summaries, and generated images on the…
Twelve days ago, an opportunity came up, suddenly, to uproot and move to a different house. I've been stressed out and losing insane amounts of sleep about it ever since. This morning, after several discussions and weighing of pros and cons, we decided not to pursue it, and I'm feeling a great deal of relief. Moving house is a massive undertaking in almost any circumstance, but especially when…
Found out this morning that Apple is ending support for apps that are built for Intel Macs with macOS 28. I also found out that, as far as I can tell, Blizzard has been silent when asked by users if the Battle.net app and games will be updated for Apple silicon. Today I got a settings notification when I opened the Battle.net app, telling me that “a future release” of macOS will not support the…
I recently finished a week of vacation. I try to take time off in April each year, with dual goals of taking a needed break from my job and giving myself some time to work on outdoor projects, so this year I booked PTO from Thursday to this past Wednesday. As winter starts to tail off, the itch to do springtime-y things outdoors grows stronger. I start looking forward to my April vacation,…
For 20 years, my primary email address was a hotmail account. I used it for everything except a few odd accounts and some personal correspondence. For those, I used gmail. I created both addresses in 2005. The amount of spam that I receive at my hotmail address at this point is appalling. It's like a toilet that never stops running. If our household received as much physical junk mail as we get in…
I can’t remember a time when I would knowingly agree to “send data to help us improve your experience” to various digital entities. Even years ago, as a neophyte in privacy-mindedness terms, I consistently declined, de-selected, or declined to select such kindly-worded requests or options when, for example, setting up a new computer or using a new account. The gracious part of my brain wants to…