Projects, Alibaba, Python, AliExpress, OnlyKey, Privacy, CyberForce

• Finally a customer who prefers getting things done properly. Most of the projects ask for cheap and quick implementation. Honestly they don't even care about the data integrity, they just want "something" to delivered quick and cheap. And nobody's often sure even what that something is. But this time it's all different. First of all data is cross checked several times on lower levels. And the end of the day all of the transactions are cross checked using three completely different data sources and metrics. Data source is cross checked with summary of daily export transactions created by two separate teams. This is really something I do like. All major issues are caught immediately do the initial validation. But even the smaller issues are caught finally at least on daily level. Instead of the usual ridiculous cases, where someone starts complaining that the system has been malfunctioning for years, but nobody has really cared enough to report or investigate it.

• Alibaba Cloud and their website. It's so badly broken, that you can't even unsubscribe from their spam emails. I just love technology companies which absolutely and totally fail on even on the most basic levels of tech stuff. Credibility? Zero. Sure, I also confirmed without privacy filters (which shouldn't affect proper sites anyway) and with mobile browser that it's really that broken.

• WTFPython - Absolutely awesome post. People using Python probably have encountered most of the traps on this list. But it's always so funny to acknowledge how "logical" (or not) the system is. Stick output function was a good one, I haven't yet encountered it in my code, but in theory I could well have. But in total, this is absolutely great post, no matter what. Good stuff. Enjoyed so much! Many of those things mentioned in the list have lead earlier to why, why, why, is this happening situations. Needles in a Haystack - Been there, done that. kw: constant folding, interning

• Found out reading some detailed discussions on net that the AliExpress is organized scam platform. Yep, of course that's nothing new. It's perfect for scamming, issues are often so small, that there's no point of making major fuss. Therefore people let scams slide all the time, and "business" is good. As long as there are users using the platform. With global scale, there are always new people to be scammed, when previous ones learn their lessons.

• Quickly checked out OnlyKey USB U2F / FIDO2 / security authentication token. Yet another, yet I don't personally need more keys. I've already got plenty.

• The data privacy / access battle goes on. Is it data access, secret or semi-secret encryption backdoors, or just legal process. EFF Year in Review 2019. What data should be logged, accessible, how, why and using what kind of process steps and requirements.

• Python 2.X is going to go unmaintained 1st Jan 2020, so it's lights out in 5 days, while writing this post. Luckily I haven't been writing basically anything for Python 2, since Python 3.2 was released in Feb 20th 2011. Even the oldest projects have been migrated to Python 3.X a long long time ago.

• Extremely long discussions about "encrypted email" and all the related disinformation. I personally hate term encrypted email, because it's mostly highly misleading and doesn't really mean anything without going into details. As example ProtonMail and Tutanota are marketing email just like VPNs. There's a lot more to know than that the generic claim "your email is encrypted".

• Read some long analysis about stock market valuation at the end of 2019. Only future will tell, those articles were quite pessimistic about future, due to very high valuation on markets. Well, maybe we know what happened, when this post comes out.

• I've got a movie where dubbing and subtitles are translated from the original by different translators. It's amusing and interesting to follow such a movie. First it gives you kind of split brain feeling. But after that it's just interesting to see how differently the very same thing can be said when translated separately. Some direct quotes from dubbed audio versus subtitles: "not quite" = "almost" or "about to leave" = "before I leave", "effect" = "impact", "miss some" = "forgot a part", "be flattered" = "won't be offended", "doubt you would care" = "doubt you're interested", "dump it" = "throw it out" or "thorough" = "accurate".- Maybe I should have used JSON for that key value list.

• Some not so different reading: Cyber force

• If anyone is wondering, I'll be making only one post per week starting today. Yes, posts are still delayed before publishing for an year or so.

2020-11-29