COVID-19 vs. our Networks

Tue Mar 17 17:43:45 UTC 2020

On Tuesday, 17 March, 2020 03:31, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:

>On 16/Mar/20 21:08, Owen DeLong wrote:

>> For up to date local information, check with the local public health
>> authority in your jurisdiction. In the US, that will usually
>> be your county public health agency. In some cases, individual
>> municipalities also have public health departments.

>It's the price we pay for hyper-connectedness (not trying to coin a
>phrase, hehe).

>Everybody (especially the kids) lives on their device 99% of the time.
>If you're not on their device, you are not relevant to them.

If by "device" you mean "computer", then you are correct.

>When was the last time you bought a newspaper? 

Never in 57 years.

>How many times do your kids watch the news, either on TV or their device? 

Never because I don't have any.  But I don't either.  Babbling idiots don't do anything for me.

And before you ask, I get "important news" directly.  If the building next door falls over, I notice.  Otherwise I don't think there *IS* such a thing as *important news*, or I can only think of a couple of "important news" that have happened in my entire lifetime on one hand.  In no case was a babbling idiot or propaganda purveyor of any particular use.

>But they are all over WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, WeChat, et al. 

Never used any of those.  They are just hangouts for yet more babbling idiots.  Some of them are even named appropriately -- like Twitter -- which as I understand it is the place where all the twits congregate.

>And even if they have the "News" app on their phone, they probably have never opened it.
>If they opened it, they didn't find value in it.

Correct.  No value there.  Just more babbling idiots.

>On average, the we (and the kids) will give your app two tries; if we
>don't like it, you're out - which explains why we all have 3,000 apps on
>our phones, but only use 2 or 3 of them most consistently.

I have an e-mail app on my phone that is connected to my (not someone else's) e-mail server that handles e-mail, contacts, and calendaring in a distributed fashion that is the same on every "device" I own.  If a device will not work with my e-mail server, does not function as I need it to function, or is not safe and secure to my requirements, I do not buy that device (that means that the list of devices that I refuse to buy and will not permit in the same room as me is VERY VERY VERY long).  Most of the other rubbish has been banished because it is nothing more than yet more piles of babbling idiots.

>Whoever wants to get professional and verified information out (to the
>kids who live on their devices) needs to find a way to do so in a manner
>we find relevant, otherwise we'll simply keep trading mis-information
>for whatever reason we feel gives us value.

Send e-mail.  Or provide an e-mail list.  I will not fiddle faddle with going to websites chock full of malicious websites nor will I let any Tom Dickhead send their malicious crap to me.  By the time the malicious crap infestation is filtered out, there is nothing left.

Then again I am an old fart.

-- 
The fact that there's a Highway to Hell but only a Stairway to Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic volume.