COVID
South Australia has moved forward with 37 active cases. WA is at 18 active cases, then it’s NSW with 14 active cases. Victoria is on 1 active case. Crazy amount if testing maybe causing the SA Covid issues.
In Victoria, you no longer need to wear a mask while outdoors. I was already seeing 50% of people outdoors without masks before the relaxation of restriction came off.
You are allowed back to the office, however at 25% of capacity, so really you’re not allowed back to the office. Also don’t forget if you’re in the office you need to do your work with a mask on, so make sure you just keep a cup of coffee next to you as an excuse. Make it a triple strength long black with no sugar so that you don’t get tempted to drink it but instead take tiny micro-sips when someone is looking your way. Take the following guy in Brighton for instance, he brought his beanbag, laptop, coffee, and a small table to do work – he didn’t have a mask while at the “office”.
You only need a mask while indoors at a public place, however the supermarkets (Coles and Woolworth) will not kick you out if you don’t have a mask. You also need a mask on public transport, but judging for the insane amount of traffic jams, no one is taking public transport.
You also don’t need to book to go to the gym anymore, I believe we are still waiting for confirmation if they can open 24/7 again.
This episode from a16z going through the vaccine and the challenges is very interesting. There’s going to be issues if the vaccine needs refrigeration units that run at -70 degrees and that’s not something typically medical centers or even hospitals have. I probably wouldn’t be the first in line to get the vaccine.
The world is at 16,949,590 active cases, and 1,388,710 total deceased. There has not been any increase number of death compared to what has happen for the last 10 years in Sweden, where they have not had any lockdown and have gone about life as usual. The only other question would be has there been increase hospitalisation that resulted in stress in the health system. And what are the ongoing health consequences. Finland and Norway boast the west’s lowest mortality rate, it seems like a similar recipe to NZ.
To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills. People who thrive in a remote environment have strong written communication skills. If you’re a strong writer and you can consume information in written formats really well, you’ll probably have an easier time transitioning to a remote team than someone who prefers face-to-face communication. One thing that’s become even more clear during the pandemic: there are people who really like working remote and thrive in a remote work environment, but it’s not for everyone.
Markets and Economics
It’s not lock down that matters for an economy. It’s people’s behavior. The velocity of money is below 1 everywhere except the US.
Central Bank QE aka money printing, benefits the government balance sheet and it is there to support the banks. It is often at the detriment on individual. There’s could be a bubble on top of a bubble in NZ house prices that primarily caused by the central bank there. The Aus government is considering scrapping increase in super contribution to focus on propping up the housing market.
Interesting chat about Auspost and the banks.
Paypal has enabled all users in the US to now buy and sell bitcoin, which also means it needs to go on the market to buy btc, as the price rises and rises if they are not holding btc, when their customer wants to exchange back, it will be very hard to reconcile that. CIO of Fixed income at Blackrock thinks bitcoin will replace gold.
The demographics have shifted. Self managed super funds are now the ones investing BTC in Australia according to Caroline Bowler CEO of BTC Markets here in Melbourne. However don’t be mainstream media who link that up the rise in BTC price on a globally traded asset.
A new Bretton Woods agreement will give the IMF too much decision making powers. The issue is centralising power in an organisation that no one elected. Adoption will happen gradually and then suddenly – bitcoin cannot be banned. “The only winning move is to play”. Bitcoin is now trading at $18,100 USD or $25,400 AUD.
State of the World
The Sith lord at the world economic forum wants you to implant microchips into you and your kids so that they can see your thoughts. You should also own nothing and rent everything from them cause they are the elite. I find it troubling if true that the world economic forum has links back to the Third Reich which explains the whole you will own nothing and rent everything thesis they are pushing.
Maybe it would be worth looking into if it was anything like this cult.
We can use these 4 sandwiches to represent the 4 sandwiches of the apocalypse.
Other Stuff
Scientists have obviously not watched Planet of the apes, cause they are growing bigger monkey brains using human genes.
Tech
I find it strange if people don’t have dedicated workspace areas at home at this point in time. Here’s some inspiration. How this person improved their desk setup for working from home. Holy Sh!t that’s a big screen from this iOS development work station. Someone else productivity setup. And this google software engineer has 2 monitors going vertical. I know these are all mainly tech people, but working remotely is something someone with tech skills has done for years. Here’s a video from 2018 from Hubspot about stop managing your remote workers as if they work onsite. And a Tedx talk about managing cross cultural remote teams from 2017.
Even at my level of technically prowess that everyone thinks I have, I learnt heaps of new things in this 30 Windows 10 tips. Like how PowerToys are back, and God Mode folder, and steps recorder, and the new snip and sketch which replaces the snipping tool, however I still don’t think that tool is better than Greenshot, which is one of the first program I install on a new computer to take care of all my screenshot functions.
Learning to touch type in French. For the English speakers, in France the keyboard that is used is not a QWERTY keyboard, the letters in the row are AZERTY. If you’re interested in a mechanical keyboard and the difference between the switches, then this beginners guide is interesting.
Just discovered Ventoy that allows you drop multiple ISO onto a USB stick instead of creating many different bootable USB sticks!
If you learnt programming and haven’t had a chance to learn software design. I reviewed this video and thought it’s a good start to get you into the concept.
You have zero privacy on the web, also check out the commentary on this news piece.
Above is an image I took on Friday night from my SLR camera connected to a 8 inch Dobsonian telescope . It’s using a 20mm eye piece in a eyepiece projection adapter. It’s significant for me because after 11 years I finally worked out that I needed to put an eye piece in the SLR adapter for the camera to be able to focus.
Have a great week!