Paul Ganssle @pganssle@qoto.org

Wow, apparently Signal is going to stop supporting SMS soon. That really sucks. That was one of the killer features of Signal.

https://signal.org/blog/sms-removal-android/

For Python users (particularly on Windows), the tzdata package is now up-to-date with version 2022.6 (2022f upstream): https://pypi.org/project/tzdata/

Considering that some of the changes go into effect /tomorrow/, it seems obvious that for a while people will be very confused about what time it is in Chihuahua (see also this article: https://codeofmatt.com/time-zone-chaos-inevitable-in-egypt/

Time for everyone to upgrade their tzdata to the latest version, particularly if your software needs to work properly in Mexico (which enacted permanent DST on short notice).

Someone should translate Matt Johnson-Pint's article into Spanish: https://codeofmatt.com/on-the-timing-of-time-zone-changes/

I always associate this "one option in grey and one option in bright red" with dark patterns. Is the Red Cross trying to trick me into claiming a gift card for some reason? Or do UX designers today just not know how to design neutral interfaces?

Is it a bad sign when your fitness tracker says your heart rate is 0? #spooky

Six of the sweetest words a parent can hear: "I don't like Paw Patrol anymore."

Can't believe they went with that ugly copper / tan color.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing something wrong with the traffic stats on my blog, since one of my articles showed up on the front page of HN but I'm not seeing any spike in the traffic...

Some highlights:
- Logs from spam logins filled up disk space
- Need to restart nginx after updating cert
- Systemd timer only triggering once: https://serverfault.com/q/1079993
- Timer accidentally activating the wrong trigger.

Hosting your own website on a small VPS is a great learning opportunity.

Every 3 months I learn a new way that an automated job to update your certificates can fail. 🙂

Moving on September 1st: Boston area achievement unlocked! 🏆

You completed the "drive a 26 foot moving truck through the streets of Cambridge and Somerville" side quest! 🚚

And while I would prefer permanent STD to permanent DST, for the latitude I'm at, I'm actually in favor of the status quo. I like a rule that's fairly simple to implement and keeps sunrise closer to the same time each day.

Though I've really been meaning to write an article about exactly why I think permanent DST is a bad idea.

I still need to get this plot looking nicer (it's a sun graph for New York, with DST):

Finally took the time to call my congressperson to register my opposition to the "Sunshine Protection Act" (H.R. 69). When the House votes it down by a single vote, you can thank me. 😉

Now that I've released this on a Friday afternoon, time to run off to go apartment hunting and make myself completely unavailable for a few days! Byyyyyeeeeeee!

Hot off the presses, we've just released the latest version of tzdata, bringing us in line with the upstream 2022b data: https://pypi.org/project/tzdata/

See release notes here: https://github.com/python/tzdata/releases/tag/2022.2

(Or upstream: https://github.com/eggert/tz/blob/2022b/NEWS)