Keir Starmer’s Speech Today

Byrichard

This speech reminds us that English democracy is not gone, that there are moral people still around, and that we need to get the current Tory government out of power and go back to having leadership worthy of respect.


When you are at events you listen to speech after speech, and they meld into each other. Occasionally you hear speeches that stand out and are worth sharing. This is one of them. It reflects values that have recently been lost in several countries. We need to revert to good moral values. Pandemics are a marathon, not a sprint.


https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1488180224667832320

Confined by Freedom

Confined by Freedom

Byrichard

Some of us are confined by freedom. By this I mean that as society is opened up, as people are told that they don’t need to wear masks, that they don’t need to self-isolate and that they don’t need to show covid passes, so the freedom of others is taken away. During a pandemic there are two types of people. Those that hear the word pandemic and think “I need to self-isolate, wear a mask, and vaccinate.” and the others who think “Why should I do what the state tells me to do? I am my own person.”


Quarantines have already been shortened so people who could be contagious are allowed to move through society freely. At the same time there is discussion about not requiring people to wear masks, returning to work and not requiring covid passes.


If this was in a vacuum we could say “well, let’s see what happens.” except that we are not. We see that Denmark has gone from the BA-1 wave to the BA-2 wave. We see that in England, France, Switzerland and the US the number of sick children is going up. We also see that hospitalisations are increasing. If we look at a map of Europe now with levels of spread of the virus then the whole of Europe is dark red with serious Covid outbreaks.


This is the worst possible time to reopen society, because the virus is already virulent, and governments are not trying to contain it. All of the indicators above show that we have a choice to make for this spring and summer. Do we self-isolate and spend a third summer in solitude, or do we play pandemic roulette, hope for the best, and see whether we fall sick? I would prefer not to play pandemic roulette personally, so, for now, the summer will be solitary.


Frozen Fountain Water

Frozen Fountain Water

Byrichard

Although the name of this blog post is bizarre it is inspired by the site of a fountain with a big block of ice, serving as a mirror to the tree, and sun, in front of me. The weather is still nicer, more springlike than it has been. More people are out on bikes cycling together. They are taking advantage of the good weather. In theory we could have rain in the next few days but the likelihood, as usual, is very low. An app said that it could be 90 percent certain, but I think it is 100 percent unlikely.


Frozen Fountain Water
Frozen Fountain Water


During the entirety of this pandemic I have hardly seen any rain, and if it did rain then it cleared up by the time I went for my afternoon walk. If we were not in a pandemic then I would love this weather, as it would mean going on adventures every single week. As we are in a pandemic it just means more people to avoid when out on my daily walks.


As things are going I think this spring and summer will be an unsafe one because those that should be working towards covid zero, are being complacent now that hospitalisations are declining. They are failing to take this type of findings seriously: Long Covid study finds abnormality in lungs that could explain breathlessness.


“They suggest that the efficiency of the lung in doing what it is meant to do – exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen – may be compromised, even though the structure of the lung appears normal,”

Claire Steves, King’s college: as accessed on 29/01/2022.


Several governments are looking at the low numbers in hospitals without spending any time discussing the prevalence and effects of Long Covid. They may be sleep walking into an entire generation of people with damaged lungs.


Solitude hurts, but after having a broken arm for one summer, I have learned that injuries are worse, than playing it safe. I will not expose myself to Covid-19 unless I am forced to.

Spring And Self Isolation

Spring And Self Isolation

Byrichard

Today I went for a walk and it felt warm enough for me to skip on wearing a layer. It was warm, around six degrees, and sunny. It felt like Spring, and it feels as though cycling could almost be considered. The cycling season is nice. I speak about cycling because I think that this year, like the last two, will be spent in self-isolation until we have zero new cases for two weeks in a row.


The Swiss government has today decided to start discussing the end of quarantine, masks, and more. The government, for the third summer in a row is making the same mistake as for the last two years. Reopening because they think it’s safe, allowing the virus to thrive, mutate, and then shutting down again. The routine never changes, because for some reason politicians are able to make the same mistake over and over, without consequences. They don’t get fired, and their contracts do get renewed. It’s a shame that we can’t all live in that distorted reality.


View of the Alps
View of the Alps


I decided to try Edelweiss tea and so far it’s fine. I don’t know if the Edelweiss has any taste or if it just a marketing gimmick to get us to try a different tea than usual. It’s easy to drink although I don’t know how to describe the taste. I will keep having it, to give a better explanation.


And Finally


I finished this course about developing for web performance and I recommend it. I found the topic about downloading google fonts and placing them on the web server where the site is hosted interesting. I also find imaginemin, squoosh and more interesting. Prefetch and preconnect are of interest because when you’re fetching content from another site, such as google fonts, or other, you can establish a connection to the relevant server, to save time, so that when the data is needed things have been prepared in advance.


One And A Half Years of Pandemic fatigue

Byrichard

For the first one hundred days of the pandemic it felt long but we had a hope, and the impression that respective governments were working to eradicate the pandemic so that we could resume normal life. Eventually though people against lockdowns, and against other measures began to be heard and so societies around the world reopened, and with the reopening of society so the virus flared up again. In the French part of Switzerland society is opening up despite half of people tested for covid testing positive, and despite knowing that the numbers are climbing by around 30 percent per week.


The number of children falling sick is increasing in Switzerland but some cantons are allowing children to stop wearing masks and it is written about as if it is a liberation. Before this pandemic falling sick, or being exposed to illness was either never, or rarely seen as a right. Health was seen as a right.


Vaud is going to remove the obligation to wear masks in crowds and in towns, meaning that now, if you want to stay safe, you have to stay away from crowds, cities and to some degree even villages.


Today when I wrote that with the new measures I would continue to avoid towns and cities as people are not wearing masks I was told “well it’s your choice to continue, if you wish. Leave the choice to others” to which I responded that self-isolation isn’t our choice because the risk of being infected comes from those who are either not masked, not vaccinated, or not self isolated. I was called a liar so I blocked the troll.


I recognise that logic. It is the logic of alcoholics and drunks. “I can do what I want because it doesn’t harm anyone.” and “Let other people have their freedoms” and other such attitudes. Selfishness. For the entirety of this pandemic the idea of people being selfish has permeated the pandemic conversation.


To get out of this pandemic we need selflessness and empathy. We need people to vaccinate, to wear masks, to aerate, to socially distance and to show empathy for others. At the moment the opposite is happening. Those who think there is nothing to worry about are forcing those who want to remain safe, to withdraw to the countryside and minimise any and all social contact.


Those who don’t want measures, are forcing those who want to minimise risk of catching the virus to live in solitude, ostracised from society for taking a pandemic seriously. This ostracism has lasted for two years and there is no sign of it getting any better for months or even years to come.


The Infection Paradox


The biggest challenge we face as a society is that there is the notion that the current variants are safe. There is the misplaced idea that we can fall sick, but because we’re not ending up in hospital, that it is safe. With the speed at which the virus spreads through society it will take weeks to infect everyone. That’s where the discussion about intentional eugenics comes in.


If we are optimists then we think there is nothing to worry about and in a few weeks the pandemic is over. If we are well-read realists then we have seen that from 10 percent to 60 percent of people develop Long Covid, and that many are being infected two or three times within a month or two.


Europe is falling sick, and we don’t know what the long term effects of Covid-19 are. We will see how history remembers this moment in time. We have to sit and wait for this pandemic to end.


On twitter I have found a bubble of likeminded people who think we should be working towards covid zero, and minimising risk, rather than the opposite.

Migrating from the iPhone 8 Plus to the iPhone SE (2020)

Byrichard

I went from the iPhone SE to the iPhone 8 plus to the iPhone SE (2020) because the 2016 iPhone was an excellent low budget iphone that did everything you needed, in a small package. I switched to the iPhone 8 Plus purely to use the bigger phone screen with a drone. If you can see what you’re doing then a big screen is worthwhile. Eventually I crashed the drone and the need for such a large screen degraded, and that’s why I eventually settled for the iPhone SE(2020).


Crosscall Core S4 – Good for hiking, climbing, via ferrata etc.


At first I considered a feature phone as a backup phone so I got the Crosscall Core S4 because I was curious to see whether a feature phone could replace a smartphone for twitter, facebook, web browsing and more. It can’t. KaiOS should go for text only website displays but it doesn’t. It is slow and clunky. The one good thing is that you can drop it in a puddle and not worry about a thing.


Low End Androids


I was then tempted by cheap android solutions for 200 CHF but the issue with these is that they’re usually low end android phones that are slow, laggy, and give the same experience of a feature phone, but without the small screen but with added fragility.


Fairphone


I then considered Fairphone, and with its price point it is close to the iPhone, but with a deal-breaker flaw for me. A big screen. The problem with big screen phones is that they’re heavy, bulky and annoying to cycle or run with. They are also hard to hold and use with one hand. I also worry that with Fairphone the OS, camera and general user experience will be mediocre.


The Car


Although idiotic one of the reasons for which I decided to stick with iOS is that the car plays well with car play and when I tried to play with Android’s equivalent I had no luck. If you can’t use your phone for in-car navigation then the car’s software version costs about 300 CHF per map or more. For that price, it’s worth sticking with iOS for now.


Context


We are now in 2022 and mobile phones have reached a plateau in terms of features, apps and more. Now it is a question of iterative changes rather than revolutionary changes. As I wrote this blog post I read the specs for the SE and the 8Plus and they are practically the same phone, except for the processors. In light of this buying a 1200 CHF phone will not give you a huge advantage over a cheaper phone. The SE and 8 plus are similar, but the SE is small and light.


For around 500 Francs you can get the iphone SE, whereas for the flaship iPhone 13 Max, with better specs you’d be paying two to three times more, for something that could drop out of your pocket and break. I’d rather spend 1300 CHF on a laptop or camera, than on a phone.


The Advantages


Small phones are easy to hold, easy to carry, fit into most pockets and they’re light. The phone ways 60 grams less, but when you consider the difference that a case would make then the difference can be more than a hundred grams. When you consider that you carry your phone everywhere all day long, it’s worth having something small and light.


And Finally


This isn’t meant to be a phone review. This is a demonstration of the thought process that you may go through before choosing a new phone. It isn’t simply a matter of getting the flagship device, or the cheapest device, or the smallest device. It’s about finding the device that fills the niche that you want to fill at that moment in time. At this moment in time I needed a new phone with a healthy battery and a smaller size. KaiOS doesn’t fill that need, and I don’t trust cheap androids to fill a niche. That I could not automatically use android’s car features with ease, sealed the decision. This was a thought-out decision, rather than an impulse purchase.

A Day In The Clouds

A Day In The Clouds

Byrichard

Today was a different to recent days because we spent it within the clouds, rather than beneath, or above them. It is hard to be above the clouds when you are near lake level. SRF has two nice time lapses of clouds flowing over a mountain as if it was water, or dry ice. Choose the one you prefer.


https://twitter.com/srfmeteo/status/1486011638956314626


It is estimated that a tenth of the Swiss population could be sick with covid-19 at the moment. If a tenth of those people had long covid then Switzerland is faced with 87,000 people with long Covid.


“Environ une personne sur dix a contracté le Covid ces dernières semaines en Suisse, a dit Urs Karrer, vice-président de la task force scientifique de la Confédération devant la presse à Berne. Les nouvelles infections se concentrent actuellement surtout chez les enfants de moins de 10 ans.

source


One million one hundred thousand cases of Covid have been detected in Switzerland, out of a population of around eight point seven million. In theory that’s an eighth of Switzerland that has fallen sick, if we ignore second and third infections of the virus.


There are two challenges to face. The first of these is to see whether we can get through the current wave without being infected, and that’s unlikely for parents of children and people who are exposed to others. The second challenge, it to see how much longer this pandemic will last. At the moment, with the speed at which new variants arrive. Three, within a matter of weeks, it looks as though new variants will emerge faster than vaccines and as if we will have many more waves.


Some countries stand out by the way in which they are not trying to make things better.


And Finally


I am still studying and learning. I will continue to study for as long as the pandemic lasts, because it is the one thing that is guaranteed not to be taken away from me. It also provides me with a sense of accomplishment every day.

A Walk in The Swiss Sun

A Walk in The Swiss Sun

Byrichard


Yesterday I read that we will have sun for at least a few more weeks due to a high pressure system over this part of Europe and this afternoon I read that it is snowing in Greece. Normally, out of pandemic I would love sunny days because it would mean climbing, cycling, hiking and more. During a pandemic it means solitary mud while avoiding being run over by cars, walking through the mud to avoid couples, and wearing a mask when you have to be close to others.



With a rainy day I could stay in, focus on studying, and rest for a day or two. I also love the sound of rain on the roof and the sense of intimacy, despite solitude, that a rainy day provides. Sunny days are quite lonely. We have nothing between us and the universe but a little air. No cloud vapour or anything else. I never thought I would like rain, but I never thought I would live through a 25 year pandemic, and that politicians would get away with letting people die, either through their own idiocy, or through idiotic government policy. To be clear, I mean by shortening lockdowns, speaking of discontinuing masks, or ending restrictions when it is the irrational thing to do.


Today 90,000 more people fell sick of Covid. If ten percent get Long Covid then that’s 9000 people. That’s a lot of people with Long Covid in a single day. This is life today.


I stopped being optimistic about this pandemic ending because it was too painful when optimism was misplaced, so now I am a realist, and I aim to stay busy, until real life resumes, in 20 or more years from now.


We are in a pandemic, and it isn’t meant to be easy or pleasant.


I have found people who think like me on Twitter, so at least I can converse with people who would like more to be done. It reduces solitude.

An Interminable Pandemic

An Interminable Pandemic

Byrichard

At the same time as the number of active strains of Covid-19 are increasing governments in England, Switzerland and other countries are pushing the narrative that this summer will be normal, that we may no longer need the Covid passes and other such news. We are at a point where there is discussion about lifting restrictions at the same time as cases are going up. Some officials say “we will know whether this strain is dangerous to children in a month, so that’s when we will respond.


For people who see pandemics as serious this is a despairing time. In some cantons they are saying “we don’t have the capacity to test everyone so we will only test symptomatic people” or “We can’t test everyone so people can leave quarantine without a test.” In these scenarios the attitude should be to go into a soft lock down and to get the number of infections to go down.


One of the biggest issues we are phasing is that governments, because we are vaccinating are thinking of it as a miracle solution rather than being combined with other measures. In some countries they spoke of Covid+ approaches, where vaccination, along with virus spread mitigation measures, were used.


Another issue we are facing is the “this variant is mild and people aren’t being hospitalised so we don’t need to worry” group of people. People are actively ignoring the dangers that this virus may present. They are also glossing over the risks posed by long covid.


I stopped writing about the pandemic after 120 days because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and I thought that governments would try to end this pandemic. Now, two years in it feels as though the opposite is true. Some speak of eugenicist policies. We are now in wave five or six of an unlimited number.


As society opens up, it forces those who want to stay clear of the virus, to stay away from society for an ever-increasing period of time. Two years in self-isolation is a long time. It is impacting the mental health of children and young people, who can no longer see an end to this pandemic. I can’t see an end. I can just see wave after wave, as lessons are not being learned.


What is worth noting, is that New Zealand, South Korea, China, Australia and many Asian countries are working hard to stay at covid zero, or get back down to Covid-Zero. It seems that Europe and the US are giving in to fatalism. The pandemic could have been ended within half a year. Now it feels as though we have to either wait a human generation, for it to end, or wait for better leaders to take power. Either way it is discouraging to see countries open up while a wave of infections grows.


I right this for posterity, not for today’s readers.


A Simple iPhone – iCloud solution

A Simple iPhone – iCloud solution

Byrichard

A few years ago I bought a 256 gigabyte iphone because I wanted more space and for a long time it was great because it meant that I had plenty of room to grow into. The issue comes when you get to over 200 gigabytes of data stored in iCloud because you go from 3 CHF per month to 10 CHF per month. You go from 36 CHF per year to 120 CHF per year. That is a big increase.


I wouldn’t mind paying this much, if it was easier to retrieve this data. Once data is on iCloud and plenty of services it is a nuissance to retrieve. If you think “I can expand it for a few weeks then you’re right, you can. It’s when you want to recover the data that you will get blocked. iCloud doesn’t allow a photo library to be spread across multiple drives, so either you have everything on a single volume, or you’re trapped paying for decades to come.


Now for the simple solution I hadn’t considered until last night. A lower capacity iPhone. With a 256 gigabyte phone you need ten terabytes of storage to backup the entire phone, but with a 126 gigabyte phone you sneak under the 200 gigabyte limit with ease. The cost of a new phone is relatively high, but consider that you’re saving 81 CHF per year, and several hundred francs on a mobile phone.


Next time you consider an iPhone consider the size of the phone compared to your laptop hard drive, as well as the cost of cloud storage and backup. The bigger the phone, the larger the yearly tax. Keep it to 200 gigabytes and the tax is 39 CHF per year, expand it to two terabytes and it’s 120 CHF per year. Retrieving the data is not straight forward. I will stick to smaller capacity phones, to avoid hitting the 200 gigabyte limit in future.