Zoom died on me as I wanted to step out. It was fun, let’s organise this again 
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Seconded on doing it again! Loved getting to meet everyone and geeking out about Beeminder! 
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Damnit! I missed it. Need to pay more attention to these things…!
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That was really wonderful; thank you all so much! We had 20 people [EDIT: 20 connections but Bee and I shared one so 21 people] and it felt amazing hearing things like “Beeminder makes my life so much better” or “I look at Beeminder first thing when I wake up and last thing before bed”. And so many good ideas for how to beemind things, highly valuable feedback on Beeminder friction, etc etc.
I’m working on a [slightly] edited transcript of the side chat (which misses all the out-loud context) and here’s what I have so far and am editing this post to add more… [and done!]
Transcript of the typed side chat
@adamwolf: My weight loss goal thing I was mentioning earlier: My Weight Loss Progress
@shanaqui: Ugh Adam is so nice, I can’t stand him 
[re: Adam’s preamble about the meetup being a niceness-only zone or however he put it; it was funny, you had to be there]
@shanaqui: Jon’s really tall. You can’t tell from this.
@shanaqui: I am really small. You can’t tell.
@shanaqui: Hulk is the rabbit who just arrived.
@philip: Incredible! [I just now got this]
@mary: The bunny is too cute!
@adba: I’m also in IT - is anyone not? 
@lanthala: I mean we’re all nerds here
@shanaqui: You can’t tell, but sometimes the bunnies help with support by doing what they’re doing right now.
@lanthala: I feel very supported <3
@shanaqui: I’ve clearly fooled you all – I have no idea what I’m doing tech-wise. I just type REAL fast.
@adamwolf: and read fast!|
@shanaqui: I read a whole book this afternoon <3
@universick: @Nikki what did you read?
@shanaqui: Hulk’s Uber arrived to go back to snack on hay…@Elena: I read an advance copy of Carrie Vaughn’s “The Ghosts of Sherwood”, a novella coming out from Tor soon!
[@adamwolf introducing himself here, I think]
@adba: Yay, the Android app is the main way I use beeminder.
@philip: Beeminding the same real-world goal from several – smart!
@lanthala: But so much data entry every time you do something ; ;
@adamwolf: IFTTT can really help!
@shanaqui: I joined in 2014! I did not know it was so long ago!
@marcmarti: could you share the link later? @nick
@adamwolf: I use IFTTT to help copy datapoints from one goal to another! I will find a good example post of mine
@adba: 15 per quarter hour is more like it…
@adamwolf: An example of IFTTT data copying is here: (It’s a little fancy, but it’s an OK example) Nifty trick for "days I did this other goal" goals
@Quintrino: What Makes People Happy: 54 Ideas on How to be Happy
@Quintrino: @Marc that’s the link on baseline happiness.
@marcmarti: @thanks Nick!
@marcmarti: i did it the wrong way haha
@shanaqui: I’ve given up on not touching my face while I’m home. As you can probably tell. [in response to Mary mentioning having to add a Beeminder datapoint for touching her face]
@marcmarti: Out of curiosity, is there anyone else from Europe, apart from Nikki and me? Maybe Markos?
@lanthala: yeah, I’ve been in self-isolation for 3 weeks now so there’s no reason not to touch my face as much as I want
@apolyton: Yes, in Luxembourg currently, originally from Greece.
@shanaqui: Danny’s answer to everything is Beeminder [probably referring to how I cope with corona-distraction by dialing up my work goals so I’m scrambling for beemergencies all day]
@adba: I live in the UK
@adba: and I’ve lived in Europe since '98
@shanaqui: https://www.beeminder.com/shanaqui/nonewsisgoodnews
@adba: I’ve also been in self-isolation for over 2 weeks
@shanaqui: That’s my no-news goal.
@adba: And finally feel well again, as of yesterday
@marcmarti: Living in Spain things have been quite bad 
@marcmarti: And avoiding news is super dificult - but we try!
@shanaqui: Oh someone used a really great term for reading tons of bad news all the time that I am totally adopting: “doomsurfing”
@Quintrino: Doomsurfing is a great term! I’m going to use that too.
@apolyton: Question: how many of you are able to work from home and how many can’t
@marcmarti: Question: is there a way to have a goal that both tracks doing a Little, but not doing too much?
@bwiderski: ut have had to order in a bunch of stuff to make it more ergonomic for long hours [I don’t remember what this referred to!]
@dreev: blog.beeminder.com/bothsides
@lanthala: Marc that would be a really great new goal type
@philip: @Marc I’m in London, a lot of my work (used to) take me around Europe
@justanotherjon: +1 to Nikki’s post
@adba: Hi neighbor (Philip)
@adba: Markos: I’ve been working from home for years.
@Quintrino: @Markos, I’m working from home, and I’ve been technically able to for a long time, but was worried I wouldn’t be productive.
@philip: I’ve been working remotely for years, but a lot of coffee shops and pubs rather than literally at home
@adba: I reckon I should set up a beeminder goal for a hobby I want to properly pick up.
@philip: I Resolve Not To Resolve; Or, The Anti-Resolution Resolution | Beeminder Blog
@marcmarti: Anyone has a goal for waking up on time? I would because I need it is that but I would be derailing a lot of time 
@marcmarti: *the only problema being that
@lanthala: @marc the only thing that worked for me was having a kid
@lanthala: Now I wake up on time because my alarm clock never stops yelling
@apolyton: @marc no, but I use the Sleep Cycle app and it works quite nicely
@shanaqui: Marc: I’d just start it very very low. I use an app called Sleeptown for extra motivation. MUST BUILD MY TOWN
@shanaqui: (I beemind Sleeptown as well)
@mary: I love the Sleep Cycle app.
@marcmarti: oh yeah, i Heard about that @nikki! Will check it - you also have a goal?
@universick: I had a wake goal for a while where I had a button on the fridge that I had to push before something like 8:05 am; it worked really well but I ended up just never getting enough sleep
@shanaqui: I’m going to hold up my town!
@universick: All my friends think I’m insane!
@lanthala: yeah I’m still trying to figure out how to get myself to go to bed earlier
@mary: Cute town, Nikki. I didn’t get through the first building.
@marcmarti: when i tell them i do actually PAY money… they think i am insane
@marcmarti: but they do not understand haha
@shanaqui: My wife is pretty into me using Beeminder, because then I earn money because I also beemind working for Beeminder
@lanthala: Haha nikki
@adba: Philip: point taken, I now have a 30 minute/day goal for it. Not sure how I’ll find the time, but here’s hoping.
@marcmarti: Good observation @philip
@shanaqui: Applying for my fourth degree at the moment… thanks Beeminder.
@shanaqui: By the way, I am about to hold up the ENORMOUS book the workerbees are reading together (and beeminding)
@adba: I stuck to one degree, grudgingly. I really shouldn’t do a second degree, despite it sometimes being tempting.
@adba: Which book is that?
@justanotherjon: That is much more intense when it is not on audible!
@bee: zomg, i got it on kindle… no idea it’s so huge!
@lanthala: I was never so happy as when I finished school for the very last time
@philip: @Nikki - I got the kindle edition, I confess
@shanaqui: Priory of the Orange Tree is the book
@adba: A similar book I have to hand is still in plastic, shamefully. 
@universick: Hahaha I also do parental controls on iOS
@marcmarti: which app do you use in Android?
@adba: Philip: I am now missing 45 minutes of my day for two new beeminder goals. Thank you, I think. Probably.
@shanaqui: Android just has it, now, part of Android
@marcmarti: how? haven’t seen it
@shanaqui: Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls
@pjpants: Factual Owl
@adba: It’ll be easier than my 3 hour/day goal last year, at least, kind of.
@shanaqui: (I’m on a Pixel 3, so I’m possibly ahead of the curve on getting Android stuff)
@narthur: I think this is the factual owl?: The Factual - Unbiased News, Trending Topics - The Factual
@adba: Looks like it to me, though I hadn’t heard of it before either.
@adba: Maybe you need a “do less” beeminder goal for letting batteries sit around unchanged.
@universick: Stream Deck | elgato.com
@apolyton: For tooth brushing, Oral-B now sends data to Apple Health on it’s own data category
@shanaqui: @Markos Oh MAN I wish I had iOS for that. I am AWFUL about brushing my teeth
@philip: Genius
@shanaqui: I don’t know if anyone has had the payout for my toothbrushing goal yet. I’m sure I must have failed.
@apolyton: But we need Beeminder to read this data
@philip: I’m a big fan of moving the action right next to the reminder for the action
@universick: Yeah kingdon I have one of those
@bwiderski: I use Todoist goals through IFTTT for most of my goals.
@adba: Adam: your setup is amazing. I kind of want to do that, and kind of think it would utterly eat my life.
@adamwolf:
@adamwolf: I think Mary was talking about something like this: Stream Deck | elgato.com
@marcmarti: I would love a lot of YNAB + Beeminder ideas
@mary: Yup, the elgato is the one!
@mary: (I always forget its name)
@universick: Adam you just set off Alexa on my tablet
@shanaqui: I use “OK google” to find my phone, like a call and response
@adamwolf: This is what I did before I realized I needed to put the app (or web shortcut or whatever) that handles the goal next to the goal: *Lots* of Android widgets on one screen
@apolyton: Back with a beer
@marcmarti: widgets don’t work on my Xiaomi
@marcmarti: they disappear in 24h or so
@universick: I think the google homes are the best at responding to questions, but I have data privacy issues with the google assistant
@adamwolf: (These are my home screens from a year ago or so, I don’t think there’s anything too sensitive: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LZYwdLcZ4PzMTyCo7 )
@shanaqui: Oh hey, selfish new topic. How should I beemind my MSc application?
@shanaqui: (Joke unless someone has an amazing idea)
@adamwolf:
@Quintrino: What’s MSc application?
@adamwolf: I have to drop off, but I’ll just mute/drop camera and let you folks keep going!
@shanaqui: Applying for my 4th degree. Mary is writing my reference!!!
@shanaqui: BYE ADAM
@apolyton: See you Adam !
@adba: Mary: how did that work? I tuned out to beemind at a crucial bit of it, sadly!
@shanaqui: (I always wonder what books things are when I see people with books, so if people want to know, behind me are my mystery novels followed by romance novels. I think you can mostly see Georgette Heyer and K.J. Charles! This is my small bookcase. There are four like this of SF/F…)
@mary: Luke, Are you asking about the Must Do goals?
@philip: blog.beeminder.com/mustdo
@adba: I’m asking about the goals for when you haven’t really mapped something out yet.
@adba: Were those the mustdo, or something else?
@Quintrino: Nikki, the books to my right are RPG books that I turned into a standing desk while I’m WFH.
@adba: (I’ve added 3 goals during this call so far)
@shanaqui: Luke: What goals?
@adba: That I’ve added during the call?
@shanaqui: Yep! Curious what you’re doing
@shanaqui: (Nosey)
@pjpants: like, right now during the call? or beeminder? life?
@adba: half an hour/day going through “complete babylonian” (because it’s awesome and I’ve mainly been ignoring it, and I don’t want to ignore it!), 15 minutes/day Japanese phonology stuff (an anki pitch accent distinction deck and taking notes from dogen’s phonology videos), and a daily gratitude journalling thing because I’ve been meaning to do that for ages.
@shanaqui: I’ve just set one of those up myself! (daily gratitude)
@morehavoc: apparently one can not join two zoom meetings at the same time. It was great listening to all of you! wave
@shanaqui: Bye Christopher!
@adba: I still need to do something with exercise beyond my walking goals, and I keep thinking about doing some gardening (and have a bunch of new blueberry plants that probably would like some attention), and I’m getting a 3d printer in a few weeks (bought it yesterday), and there are other languages that I’d like to be doing things with, and… but hey.
@pjpants: I am right now, during the call, knitting. And for beeminder, I’ve got a must do twitter and trello actions for my freelancing, a feelings journal and a general personal journal, steps, newsletter/blog posts, gratitude, and reading pocket articles
@adba: What I don’t have a good way to do is basically beeminding long-overdue personal one-off tasks of various sizes
@adba: Possibly I should use a 3rd party service with an API and auto-beemind accordingly, but I’m not currently.
@dreev: http://commits.to [@yebyenw asked about this and someone assumed we were talking about git commits :)]
@pjpants: Luke, I might use either Habitica or Trello for those kinds of things
@adba: Yeah, I used to use Habitica. I found it useful for dailies (but it’s frankly been replaced by beeminder for me), and I’m yet to find a tool I like better than paper for todo lists of various sorts.
@shanaqui: I switch my to do list stuff regularly, except for Beeminder
@shanaqui: Right now I’m back on Todoist, but… I also have a big paper one
@adba: I’ve used trello with a bunch of work/event stuff, but don’t particularly want to use it for these tasks.
@shanaqui: Right now I have a paper to-do list as well, which my wife has stuck up next to her desk each day. She shouts at me if I’m not progressing. Wifeminder.
@philip: I’ve moved to using Things for my projects and task lists, using Tiago Forte’s PARA organization scheme
@adba: Yeah; my partner doesn’t get to see me in person during lockdown, and wouldn’t be into that.
@shanaqui: (Re: Wifeminder: she doesn’t really shout at me. We don’t do that. She brings me a bunny and asks what I need to get unstuck.)
@adba: (That is incredibly adorable. My partner’s housemate has a bunny… I wonder if something could be negotiated. :D)
@adba: Source link?
@adba: Nikki: what are the first 3 degrees in, and what’s the MSC?
@shanaqui: (Oh god I’ve admitted the MSc out loud, now I HAVE to do it.)
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Glad y’all enjoyed yourself! It sounds like it was a fun event and I’m looking forward to join in the future. I wanted to join yesterday’s meeting, but I decided it would be irresponsible to use Zoom given its terrible security. Instead I came here to warn you all. These are not insignificant security risks and I did not want to see you all “run into open knives” as we say. In fact, they are so bad that Zoom themselves admitted their severity and announced they would stop developing new features and focus on fixing their manifold security problems during the next 90 days.
Since I feel more is expected of me, full disclosure: I studied applied IT security¹ and friends of mine worked on the instant messenger Wire which uses the state of the art encryption protocol TextSecure² (now Signal Protocol).
Make of this what you want, I don’t claim to be an expert on this (I’m just heavily implying it 
). But I do know red flags when I see them and Zoom is full of them. To quote Rik Ferguson, the vice president of security research at Trend Micro:
These issues run the full gamut: from configuration and lax default settings, software vulnerabilities, corporate policy and product roadmap decisions, and that it painfully clear from the blog post.
Not something I would trust and definitely not something I would recommend to others.
Take care and wash your hands!
¹ During the exam we actually had to write assembler to exploit security holes including NOP slides with shellcode and all that good stuff.
² It uses proper end-to-end encryption and forward secrecy and is also used by WhatsApp.
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Post by the founder of Zoom: A Message to Our Users
Taking their post at face-value, makes me wish more companies were this frank and open about addressing security issues when they come up.
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One shouldn’t (from what I read). Apparently most of their issues are by design, for example no passwords (by default) so that people can enter faster or messing with the Mac installer workflow (basically acting as malware). Especially the mac installer thing was previously known and they didn’t do anything.
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From yesterday’s daily beemail, forum-poll-ified, soliciting feedback on whether to have another Beeminder Remote Global Meetup and/or regular office hours:
- I’d attend the next Beeminder Remote Global Meetup
- I’d run the next meetup
- If the founders / workerbees had regular office hours for newbees, I’d help with the newbee-helping
- I am a newbee who’d take advantage of office hours
0 voters
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I’m not technically a newbee but I would definitely take advantage of office hours lol, as well as help newbees.
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[x] I’d attend the next Beeminder Remote Global Meetup if it were at a suitable time in my time zone.
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I’m trying to be better about over-volunteering/over-committing. So if there’s a hidden option for ‘back-up volunteer’, I’d be very happy to sit on the bench.
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