Monthly Archives: July 2020

Article note: Mmyep. Predicable next round is predictable.

Article note: This is a pretty clear description of the situation. The folks I'm planning with right now are all figuring a "remote first" model, because 1. we expect it to work better and more consistently, and 2. we expect the gimped in-person thing to fall through at some point before or during the semester. We'll get what we can out of recitations and in-person help sessions and such while we have them, but all the content delivery and the default way of doing things will be online. I'm running labs (harder) but computer and electronic labs (not wet, relatively safe, most equipment costs are manageable;easier) and the planning is very different (and a ton of unpaid work to make the semester tractable for me and a three-digit number of students, thanks academia!) than a normal year.

Good thread on why “face-to-face” teaching with the necessary physical distancing, masks, and accommodations in place does not actually create a better learning environment than online lecturing during COVID-19. https://t.co/DgragLrPvH

Article note: So, uh, student (and parent) demands to surveil and police the fuck out of campus so everyone "feels safe" are, unsurprisingly, now making people feel unsafe...so students are demanding that we instead roll parts (but not the cameras everywhere!) back and let the center for hurt feelings have a turn at unchecked authority.

Article note: Neat.

Article note: Why can't our government be communicating this clearly? (to be clear, I know and hate the answer.)

I frequently get asked about risk of catching #covid19 from various activities. I love this diagram. As your personal risk goes up (bc of your own health, or because of #covid19 prevalence in your area), engagement in risky activities should stop. https://t.co/3vWlY4ltzM

Article note: Oh boy, distributing critical updates through a side-channel (Microsoft Store) that many enterprise (and some personal) customers have disabled instead of the update channel (Windows Update) just for this kind of thing. There must be a reason, but wtf?

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft has published unscheduled fixes for two critical vulnerabilities that make it possible for attackers to execute malicious code on computers running any version of Windows 10.

Unlike the vast majority of Windows patches, the ones released on Tuesday were delivered through the Microsoft Store. The normal channel for operating System security fixes is Windows Update. Advisories here and here said users need not take any action to automatically receive and install the fixes.

“Affected customers will be automatically updated by Microsoft Store. Customers do not need to take any action to receive the update,” both advisories said. “Alternatively, customers who want to receive the update immediately can check for updates with the Microsoft Store App; more information on this process can be found here.”