Some great data visualizations here:
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Some labs are also suffering from a shortage of supplies, Axios reports. As we detailed in our February explainer, testing for the virus behind COVID-19 is a multi-step process that involves a number of chemical reagents. These chemicals are mostly available off-the-shelf, but the system isn’t designed to handle sudden, massive spikes in demand.
[…]
We saw this first-hand. On Thursday, Ars Managing Editor Eric Bangeman drove to a drive-through testing site near his home in the Chicago area to get some photos for this story. On Friday, the hospital hosting those tests announced it was suspending its drive-through testing program due to a shortage of test kits.
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Remote desktop is awful. It’s useful in an emergency, or for an overnight trip or something, but not for all-day everyday work. For all the promise of remote desktops and web apps, they still don’t come close to local tools for your daily main production work. Of course you need access to your company’s/customers’ data for that, which leads to
Assuming they’re anything like companies I’ve been in, they had a policy but it was tailored for specific needs and now that everyone needs it, they’ve had to modify it substantially and reinforce it. Developers and sysadmins need access to a lot, but are also generally more security conscious/paranoid and used to dealing with things like VPNs, encryption, and data retention lifecycles. Rolling that out to marketing, administrative, finance, etc. needs some consideration, both for what they’ll need and how to make it usable, as well as other concerns.
Let 'em gather if they want. Just don’t let them leave back into the community. Quarantine them until this is all over, with whatever supplies and healthcare they carried in. Just put up cameras first, so we can take bets and watch the drama unfold.
Our company has been noticing glitches in some of our tools like jira, slack, and zoom. Zoom went from giving one call-in number to about a dozen depending on location, and we’ve ended up with people split between different rooms that somehow have the same ID number. I haven’t seen any problems with bandwidth or anything like that yet, just services that weren’t expecting such a sudden massive influx of users and usage. And we’ve had people working distributed for many years, so we have other channels.
I’ve been pretty happy with Comcast in recent years (ten years ago I wasn’t as happy, but they’ve been much better since then). Getting 340+ down and 12 up while streaming a video in the background. Typically there’s about 6 devices using the net here at once and no problems.
So they can sell business packages with higher upload speeds. Back in the olden days of dialup, BBSes usually had a download/upload ratio so if you didn’t contribute your downloads were limited. I think some torrent sites still do that - if you’re just a leech you get throttled, but if you seed, you can download more. Unlike BBSes or torrent sites, ISPs don’t gain anything if you upload, but if your business depends on it, then you’ll pay for it.
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Eh, we’re pretty thin on administrative/management types that don’t have PhDs in mechanical engineering and experience keeping classified/confidential stuff secure. What seems likely to me now is that (A) the remote staff were already talked to about security and the sales guy probably doesn’t have access either to source code or to clients’ confidential data, and (B) this is the boss’s way of feeling like he’s still in control of the situation.
I’m actually fine with remote desktop for ordinary work. For two weeks I had to remote desktop to an underpowered VPN because of a screwup with our Visual Studio licenses… now that was bad. But remoting to a real computer works okay.
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I keep getting emails about jobs in my area. Hah, like anyone’s going to be interviewing anyone anytime soon…since I left my job due to lack of transportation, I wasn’t eligible for unemployment benefits then nor am I now. SIGH.
So far, here in Warren, folks are panic-buying but not much else. Schools are closed. Shut-offs of utilities and foreclosures have been suspended but only until April.
Since I smoke cannabis, I cough productively. I worry about my brother, though - he has no spleen. He was over with some cash and facial tissues and my niece on the 18th, it was good to see her. He’s coming to pick up my son today and spend time with him at his place. This is a very good thing.
Having since spent the cash on a pizza, groceries, fuel for the car, and cannabis, I’m going to take returnable cans and bottles back today while my son’s out. We pretty much have all the food we need, except for sugar. My son drinks a lot of Kool-Aid, and it’s that or soda. He’s lactose-intolerant and like many neuro atyps, is finicky about flavors. Although I am glad he’s not into coffee and beer (not at the same time, you know what I mean).
Oh, and I forgot about my neighbors to my north, who had gatherings - with children - this past Sunday and Monday. You know, the neighbors whom I called the cops on when they were playing their music loud after curfew and then the guy whispered outside my window later that night? Yeah, them. And the “Police Lives Matter” flag still flies on the house north of the above-referenced house.
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Was just at Meijer’s on Wednesday. Empty (and dirty) shelves, totally.
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Went on a walk to do some banking yesterday evening. Ran into mostly people walking their dogs and small groups of teenagers, 3-5 (this was just after dark). Paranoid about hang time of the virus, so I tried to keep to the other side of the sidewalk, if not the street.
Today I had to dissuade my parents from taking a walk on a trail. My reasoning was that you can avoid groups of people on a street, but not on a trail. Given that they all have diabetes and are pushing 70, perhaps they should avoid that? We aren’t even on full lockdown yet (though I suspect we should be here around Vancouver) and the cabin fever is already getting my normally risk averse parents antsy… I wonder how we’re going to handle another few months of this.
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They also wrote this:
Which was written for the Dubya administration, but appropriate for now.
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All of REM’s 80s albums, but especially Lifes Rich Pagent, hold up very well the past few years.
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It’s shocking anyone is listening to him.
Meanwhile in Russia:
He’s declared the outbreak of Covid-19 “under control” in Russia thanks to its “timely” measures, while state media coverage has slammed Europe for “mismanaging” the pandemic and highlighted a “failure of EU solidarity”.
It’s a deliberate show of business as usual: the president out and about, meeting crowds and shaking hands, not “social-distancing”.
But it is a show.
Everyone who comes into close contact with President Putin is now being tested in advance for coronavirus.
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Journal of the Corona Year
3/21
I went for a walk today to get some exercise and fresh air. I walked to Shore Road Park where even under normal circumstances it is normal to encounter a sparse scattering of individuals and couples all staying far away from each other. A perfect place for social distancing.
Later in the afternoon I took my life in my own hands by getting a few necessities at a grocery store. It was filled with people. Apparently people are still panic buying. How is that still happening? Where are they putting all this food?
The three quart-sized bottles of milk I bought earlier in the week froze nicely. I have room for one more so I bought a fourth. I cleaned the exterior with Windex before putting it in the freezer.
So my Saturday involved house cleaning, a walk, buying some supplies and making a slightly involved dinner. “Sheltering in place” seems to be my normal lifestyle.
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This is only true if the trails are relatively empty or people are taking care to keep a distance. That’s not happening here:
I give us a fortnight before we are where NYC is now… so right now is the time for us to stay in place if we don’t want to catch it.
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I usually like hearing the music from the churches on Sunday mornings.
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Interview with Laurie Garett, author of the Coming Plague.
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