Zelle

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UPDATE: While it was easy enough on my end (sender), it was a pain in the ass for one of the people I attempted to send money to. His bank was not one of the Zelle banks so he had to download an app and blah, blah, blah. Too much trouble. Use Apple Pay.

I’ve never used Venmo but I did send a few bucks with Apple Pay Cash a couple of weeks ago. But that only works if they recipient is using Apple Pay. I had never heard of Zelle until I read this article.

Zelle is currently offered by over 30 banks, including Chase, Bank of America, and Capital One. It can also be downloaded as a standalone app, like Venmo. To use Zelle, you will need to have a US bank account. […] Transferring money with Zelle goes straight from your bank to the recipients’ bank, unlike sending money with Venmo, which is processed through the third-party app.

I opened the Ally app on my phone and, sure enough, Ally supports Zelle. Took about 10 seconds to send $20 to Barb’s account. Zelle already reaches over 85 million users, thanks to its integration with major banks.

James Gleick interviews William Gibson

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This interview was recorded in 2014 and runs one hour and twenty minutes. If you are not a fan of Gibson’s novels you can skip this. If you are a fan but haven’t read The Peripheral, you should not watch this interview. The interview is notable in that Mr. Gleick doesn’t interrupt Mr. Gibson once. He lets him fully answer each question before asking the next one.

Non-fiction in 2017

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  • Chaos: Making A New Science (James Gleick)
  • Technocracy In America: Rise of the Info-State (Parag Khanna)
  • Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (James Gleick)
  • The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Fritjof Capra)
  • From Bacteria to Bach: The Evolutions of Minds (Daniel Dennett)
  • Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Yuval Noah Harari)
  • Isaac Newton (James Gleick)
  • Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment (Robin Wright)
  • WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us (Tim O’Reilly)
  • Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream (Paul Ingrassia)
  • Breaking the Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon (Daniel Dennett)

2017: Year of the Truck

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The Land Rover Adventure that started on May 1st will spill over into 2018. A few elements of the restoration were not up to Mr. Wolf’s high standards.

“One injector was not sealed correctly, and I think all four were missing the “nozzle washer”. I’ve ordered all new seals, and in the meantime I had a friend drive the injectors over to Diamond Diesel for testing because I was too impatient for shipping. Yep, all four were bad. I’m having them do a fancy rebuild and calibration rather than rolling the dice on some cheap remanufactured units. I am hoping (and hopeful!) that this will resolve the smoking issue.”

The injectors are and the new seals are installed but it turns out they use “an O-ring that is some goofy size” that had to be ordered. In the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf are headed down to Baja for a couple of weeks of camping so work on the truck resumes in 2017.

It’s been a journey. Almost bought a truck from the Cool & Vintage guys (Portugal); seriously considered Arkonik (UK); and wound up in the capable, Master Mechanic hands of Grayson Wolf.

I’ve been thinking about what I’d tell someone considering purchasing a vintage Land Rover (frame off restoration). They’re expensive, of course, but you can’t be in a hurry. And if you know almost nothing about older vehicles, you need a guide. Someone to keep you from making a very expensive mistake.

If all goes well I expect to meet Mr. Wolf next month and get my hands on the truck. Mr. Wolf is shooting for nothing less than perfection and I think he’ll achieve that.

Go deeper, not wider

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Another brilliant insight from David Cain at Raptitude.

I keep imagining a tradition I’d like to invent. After you’re established in your career, and you have some neat stuff in your house, you take a whole year in which you don’t start anything new or acquire any new possessions you don’t need. No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to find the value in what you already own or what you’ve already started. You improve skills rather than learning new ones. You consume media you’ve already stockpiled instead of acquiring more. You read your unread books, or even reread your favorites. You pick up the guitar again and get better at it, instead of taking up the harmonica.

Every paragraph in this post seemed to be written just for me. We’re coming up on a new year, a perfect time to attempt a Depth Year. Do I have the will, the determination, the focus? Unlikely.

Scott Adams: Quotable

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I started this blog in 2002. Since then I have quoted Scott Adams — from his blog, his books or other publications — 114 times. More than any other writer, blogger, or public figure. I found his insights fresh, provocative and brilliant. Topics included: robots; reality; education; the universe; immortality; free will; the economy; war; religion; politics; voting; government… and a bunch more. I stopped following and quoting Mr. Adams near the end of 2015. That was around the time he became — it seemed to me — obsessed with Donald Trump and his presidential campaign. It was “All Trump all the time” on Mr. Adams’ blog and I stopped following. As did many others. This week I’ve been doing a bit of housekeeping on this blog and had occasion to reread Mr. Adams’ posts. Many of his predictions about technology were eerily prescient. Most of his pre-Trump ideas still resonate with me.