The Weekly Squeak — IOST Blockchain, JPEG joy and Zoom woes

3 min readJul 15, 2019

Ahhh, I am nice and relaxed as I near the conclusion of my two week staycation ☺️. I have got so many little personal projects under way, and even some completed, more to share very soon.

But this week I talk with some of the team from the IOST Blockchain, look at the Zoom drama, unravel JPEGs, dig back into the Hitchhikers game, and so much more.

xx Chinch

Air travel, ‘aint what it used to be

15 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Airline Pilots — Mental Floss — Pocket — getpocket.com
They may not have told you everything when you went into the cockpit to have wings pinned to your shirt. So, here’s a few interesting facts about working in the sky.

France will apply an ‘ecotax’ to nearly all air travel — The Verge — www.theverge.com
France plans to put an “ecotax” on nearly all air travel starting in 2020, the government announced on Tuesday. The new tax could bring in approximately $200 million that could be used to support less polluting modes of transportation, like trains.

Zoom woes

Zoom Zero Day: 4+ Million Webcams & maybe an RCE? Just get them to visit your website! — medium.com

Zoom did not have a good week.

Remove Zoom From Your Mac Right Now | Lifehacker Australia — www.lifehacker.com.au

And here’s how to get rid of Zoom.

Computing history

From the Mac Startup Tone to the Skype Ring, Sound Designers Discuss the Legacy of Their Creations

onezero.medium.com
How our apps and devices sound has an enormous influence on how we think about the machines we use. OneZero speaks to sound designers on the magic of their craft, from the Mac Startup to Skype’s Ring.

» The Computerized Hitchhiker’s The Digital Antiquarian — www.filfre.net

The game that nearly wasn’t, except when it was nearly 5 games.

Unraveling The JPEG — parametric.press
JPEG images are everywhere in our digital lives, but behind the veil of familiarity lie algorithms that remove details that are imperceptible to the human eye. This produces the highest visual quality with the smallest file size — but what does that look like? Let’s see what our eyes can’t see!