The makers of Silentium, a content-blocking app for iOS 9 have an interesting, if overly optimistic point of view on whitelisting:

We will try to set the example by including some sites in the white list by default and we will also make adding sites to the white list as simple as possible, by providing a Safari extension to do so without ever leaving your browser.

I think it's good that they're thinking about the good publishers. I think it's great that they're making a Safari extension to whitelist sites with ease. Unfortunately I think they're overly optimistic. I don't think many people will opt-in to ads once turning them off, even on sites they love.

I have a need / hate relationship with OmniFocus. Not love / hate — need / hate.

Every few months, I find myself drifting away from OmniFocus and its complexity. Sometimes it's involuntary, as I try to wing it. Most recently, I tried to ease into TaskPaper for my day job duties.

Every time I drift away from OmniFocus, I turn into a forgetful mess.

• What do I need to be doing?
• Where did I put that task?
• What's next?

These questions come up more and more as I use OmniFocus less and less.

Maybe some future version of me can get work done without OmniFocus. This current version just can't stay away.

Since podcast ads are getting longer, I have a proposal for a new show:

All the Good Ads

We're approaching a point with podcast ads where they can be the focal point of the show. The good ads will be the content.

Now, like any modern podcast, we will need ads to break up the content.

So it will go something like this:

Good ads = the content

Shitty ads = the ads

The best part? You're getting paid the entire time. Whether you're going on about Hover (good ad / content) or that shady-sounding investing company whose name I can't remember (shitty ad / ad) - the money just keeps rolling in. Every minute you're on the air is a minute that the advertisers are paying you.

Now I just need a few partners to get this party started.

Josh Ginter on his decision to end The Sunday Edition:

Then I remembered I had to prepare the Sunday Edition. I decided yesterday afternoon to conclude the Sunday Edition. Rash decision? Maybe. But really, this is a blog. A hobby. Not a job. And it’s become a job every Sunday morning.

I love the Sunday Edition. The Internet will be just a little worse without it. However, I understand Josh's reasons, and would likely make the exact same choice.

There are a few weekly roundups which do their jobs better than the Sunday Edition ever did.

Nope.

If you read this part and don't nod your head... I just don't understand you.

Have I any responsibility to them? Well, not really. Certainly as a standard reader, here’s what happened: I accepted an invitation to read an article, but I don’t think that we quite got things straight at the top of the page over the extent to which I’d be tracked, and how multiple ad networks would profile me, and suck up my data allowance, and interfere with the reading experience. Don’t I get any say in the last two, at least?

Read the full article. It's long, but it's really good.

I need a week on an island.

Armed men entered the apartment where Alex Horton, an Army veteran, was fast asleep. They yanked him out of bed, handcuffed him, and searched his underwear for weapons.¹

It's ok, though. It wasn't random armed men. It was the police. Horton wasn't a squatter, despite the call of a paranoid neighbor. He was staying in a model apartment while the maintenance crew worked on his apartment.

The shift commander, a lieutenant of the Fairfax County Police, thought it went great:

Rhoads defended the procedure, calling the officers’ actions “on point.” It’s not standard to conduct investigations beforehand because that delays the apprehension of suspects, he told me.

Emphasis mine.

Look, Lt. Rhoads. You have a hard job. You likely deal with all sorts of wackos and dangerous situations. But if you really believe your men did the right thing that day, you are not the right man for the job.

Podcast ads are getting longer. I have the seek forward button in Overcast set to sixty seconds. In the good old days, two taps of that button was plenty to skip ads that I didn't want to hear. Sometimes it was even too much.

Lately, though, I've been pressing that button more. Three, four, five, even six times for some shows.

Six minutes for a single ad.

Poscasters have bills to pay. That's cool. I'm ok with ads. I'm ok with good ads. I'm ok with respectful ads. I don't think a six minute podcast ad is respectful of the listener.

Carl, with a great post in response to another great post:

I am the stability that makes her endeavor work. I trade my time for money and insurance while she builds her business.

But hey: let's go ahead and keep focusing on the people who make it all "on their own". Who needs silly things like stability, insurance, and you know, an income.

This New Yorker article about an [overdue, devastating earthquake] is a great read.

The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle - The New Yorker

Among natural disasters, tsunamis may be the closest to being completely unsurvivable. The only likely way to outlive one is not to be there when it happens: to steer clear of the vulnerable area in the first place, or get yourself to high ground as fast as possible. For the seventy-one thousand people who live in Cascadia’s inundation zone, that will mean evacuating in the narrow window after one disaster ends and before another begins.

Nature is amazing. And terrible. Also, can we please get a replacement for the Richter scale?