Eurobloat #0037 • May 2013
The month Brussels decided that the gravest threat to European civilisation was the open jug of olive oil on your restaurant table, while quietly drawing up report cards for sovereign nations.
Eurobloat
Blog
Inferno by Dan Brown
Dan Brown’s Inferno thrusts Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon into a race against time in Florence, waking with amnesia to stop a bioengineered plague linked to Dante’s Inferno.
Books
NSUUID /CFUUIDRef /UIDevice -uniqueIdentifier /-identifierForVendor
Apple stopped letting apps use the unique device identifier, called UDID, from iOS 5 onwards. Apple blocked new apps using it after May 2013.
Development
The Office
The Office is an American comedy series. It aired on NBC from 24 March 2005 to 16 May 2013. Greg Daniels adapted it from the British series by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Steve Carell plays Michael Scott, the bumbling but well-meaning regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
TV Series
What is cloudd?
If you see cloudd running on your Mac or using a lot of CPU, here is what this iCloud process does.
Mac
De Cock en de sluimerende dood by A.C. Baantjer
An old woman vanishes on the road between Purmerend and Amsterdam, an architect is shot at three times, and an old man has also disappeared. De Cock walks into a hornets nest.
Books
Privacy Roundup #0082 • May 2013
May 2013 brought government surveillance of journalists, corporate snooping, and a wave of breaches that exposed how loosely personal data was held.
Privacy
Monthly update #0277 • May 2013
Monthly update 277 • May 2013 • 2013-05-01 - 2013-05-31
Monthly Updates
Eurobloat #0036 • April 2013
The month Brussels capped the City's bonuses over Britain's objection, watched its own carbon market collapse, and quietly drafted rules on how restaurants may pour olive oil.
Eurobloat
What is DataDetectorsSourceAccess?
If you see DataDetectorsSourceAccess running on your Mac, here is what this data detection process does.
Mac
Pentecost
Pentecost continues to shape my adult life. The events of that first Pentecost bring lasting peace.
Christianity
NSCoding / NSKeyedArchiver
Apple gives options like Core Data or NSKeyedArchiver with NSKeyedUnarchiver. These turn objects into data and back again.
Development
Ascension Day
Ascension Day continues to shape my adult life. The events of that first Ascension Day bring lasting peace.
Christianity
De Cock en de dode meesters by A.C. Baantjer
Three lawyers are found dead in the Brouwersgracht canal within a short time of each other. De Cock takes the case.
Books
Monthly update #0276 • April 2013
Monthly update 276 • April 2013 • 2013-04-01 - 2013-04-30
Monthly Updates
Privacy Roundup #0081 • April 2013
April 2013 was dominated by the fight over CISPA, a run of retail and social breaches, and fresh signs that encryption and surveillance were on a collision course.
Privacy
MKLocalSearch
MKLocalSearch lets your app search for places (restaurants, shops, etc.) using normal language, all powered by Apple’s own data.
Development
What is secd?
If you see secd in Activity Monitor, here is what this macOS process does and why it is running.
Mac
Eurobloat #0035 • March 2013
The month Brussels reached into ordinary savers' bank accounts in Cyprus, told eurozone capitals to hand over their budgets for marking, and fined Microsoft half a billion euros over a missing menu.
Eurobloat
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3 (2013), directed by Shane Black, follows Tony Stark after the events that nearly broke him. Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony, who suffers from panic attacks and buries himself in building suits he cannot stop making.
Movies
Useful macOS defaults: Disk Utility
Handy defaults write commands for com.apple.DiskUtility, controlling what Disk Utility shows.
Mac
What is findmymacmessenger?
If you see findmymacmessenger running on your Mac, here is what this Find My messaging process does.
Mac
NSSecureCoding
NSSecureCoding is a protocol from iOS 6 / OS X Mountain Lion. It adds the class method supportsSecureCoding.
Development
Monthly update #0275 • March 2013
Monthly update 275 • March 2013 • 2013-03-01 - 2013-03-31
Monthly Updates
De Cock en kogels voor een bruid by A.C. Baantjer
De Cock suspects a link between the murder of a young woman and the disappearance of a former colleague who had been threatened.
Books