WhatsApp to Signal: what privacy and the pandemic have in common

CC BY-SA 3.0 Nick Youngson

“Why does it (privacy) matter? What are they going to do, read my messages?!” I get this question a lot and like many things in life, it’s one that’s not quick and simple to understand or answer (otherwise the question would not get asked as much).

It strikes me that the problem is in a way similar to that of the Covid-19 pandemic: if you yourself are not in a risk group (old or very ill, in the case of the virus), you’re likely (although not guaranteed) to come out unscathed and so people are tempted to socialise, as they normally would. The thing is, as a result of you catching it, perhaps the old lady living next door, using the same elevator as you may catch it and be less fortunate.

Aim and Achievement

Ubuntu 18.04 crashing after suspend – solved

It was way past time to upgrade my Ubuntu 14.04 machine: the OS was no longer supported. Backed my data up, upgraded to 16.04, had a scare when the system wouldn’t boot, turned out it was a one-off problem, proceeded immediately with an upgrade to 18.04 and started familiarising myself with the new graphical shell – Gnome 3. And as I did, I noticed that every time I resume from suspend, the machine fails to connect to the network and grinds down to a halt, requiring a hard reboot.

Close one. Damn car culture.

Sorry, didn’t see you! (Photo source: Alexas_fotos)

Very bright, sunny morning, the sun in my back. Cycling straight, a car is driving towards me and is starting to turn left into an alley, crossing my path. I see it and continue forward at speed. The car speeds up, instead of stopping before the turn. It misses my rear wheel by centimetres. I stop dead in my tracks and sit on my horn for a few seconds. The car stops.

Calling home

The world through the eyes of a cyclist: lessons learned – Catalunya

Somewhere on a north Italian railway station

“I never lose: either I win, or I learn.” – Nelson Mandela

Dear future me,

this was all very well, but next time you go, take my your word for it and do things a bit differently…

You’ll have ideas you want to try out and you’ll read tons of articles about it: that’s great! Learning, experimenting, honing skills and growing is a big part of these kinds of trips. That said, do try at least the most important ideas out in advance. Buy or (preferably) borrow everything you need, ahead of time, pack it up and go for a weekend somewhere. See how everything fits together, how it sits on the bike. How you handle it. How it works during night and day. What would happen if it rained, got cold, how you’d manage if you lost something on the way…

You can do 500 km/week, no problem – you could probably do twice that – but

The world through the eyes of a cyclists: going home

Costa Brava from Cerbère

Cerbère. Inhabitants: 1363. Elevation: 0-643 m. The place that probably left the strongest mark on this trip. Ivo and I reached it and dismounted next to its tiny main square on one windy, sunny afternoon. We had just crossed the border into France and I felt like the language barrier suddenly erected around me could easily stop winter from coming. A local twenty-ish-year-old girl serving fast food in a coastal town didn’t know enough English to even attempt to sell a sandwich. Go figure.

Ivo and I planned to go to Can Decreix – the degrowth experimentation farm/property/place where I slept over on my way into Catalunya a week and a half earlier – and ask if we can stay the night again. Imagine my surprise

The world through the eyes of a cyclists: Catalunya

The Via Verde going through the Els Ports nature park

5 PM, Lleida, a city I’ve only heard of the day before. The place my cycling trip was about to start from. I went south, aiming for a camp site in Mequinenza I had previously looked into on-line. I started fairly late in the day and have progressed rather slower than expected, with lots of stops to check position, direction, occasionally going back, trying out a gravel road too difficult for my bike…and at about half past 8 I realised there was no way I would reach Mequinenza before well after nightfall. Another stop to look at the map and I found another camp site some 10 km closer, in the village of Massalcoreig. I turned from the main road onto a side road, than to a smaller and poorly maintained one with a few rabbits and myself the only animal life around. As I progressed I grew more and more uneasy. I was supposedly just a few km from the camp site, but there was absolutely no sign of the camp site at any intersection and it was almost night. I finally entered Massalcoreig and as I reached the point of the supposed camp site just outside of the village, it was completely dark. I was in a forest, swarmed by a million mosquitoes and as I pointed my light to the left, the only thing I could see was a large gate with a single sign – camping prohibited. And as if that wasn’t enough,

The world through the eyes of a cyclists: getting to Catalunya

Short break in the 3-dimensional city of Genova

I’m back. Actually, I’m writing this on the day I was supposed to come back. I’ve been back for over a week and as “real life” gushes back in, I’d like to round off this trip of mine.

The world through the eyes of a cyclist: Let’s go!