jan's stuff

Alles wat Jan bezighoudt, interesseert en irriteert... en ook een beetje onzin...

zondag, december 01, 2024

My dystopian week


This is a cross-post to our brother/sister platform, so you can either read this post on janromme.com or on seriousaboutech.com


Last week the well-known software engineer and investor Marc Andreessen (of Mosaic/Netscape fame) went on a long interview at with Joe Rogan in which he explained, to I imagine the shock of millions of listeners, the existence of a pressure mechanism barely controlled by rule-of law namely: debanking.

This is like deplatforming. When you are kicked off Twitter or Instagram, you are deplatformed. When the bank cancels your bank account and tells you in a letter, phone call or email that you have x days to take your money and leave, that's called debanking. 

David Marcus worked at Meta (Facebook and Instagram are well-known companies of Meta) to set up their cross-border payments platform Diem/Libra, and were targetted by what I would call Law-fare (it's a wordplay on warfare). Many others chimed in to relate similar harrowing stories of how they had to keep cash under a mattress because not only did they lose their bank account, but also would no other bank start a banking relation with them. 

You could be excused for thinking these things only happen to rich and powerful people with similar adversaries somewhere far away in that parody of a country, the United States. 

Let me tell you about my past week now. 

Since we adopted the "Black Friday" craze here, I wrote a comparison of mobile phone subscription plans and set my mind to becoming a customer at an MVNO called Ben. After filling out some form for number porting and such like, I received an email that I am rejected as a customer. The reason is that one or multiple of these 3 companies has deemed my "not creditworthy enough": PreventelExperian and Focum

I always pay my bills and have no outstanding debts anywhere, so this is an obvious mistake. 

But I didn't have the time, energy or even the impulse to challenge these 3 companies (that I never heard of before that day) so I just went to the next telecom provider on that list that was 33 cents more expensive. 

But that was not all…

Some elderly friends of mine, who live down the street, complained about their slow iPads. So I told them I would help them order new iPads. They both wanted the iPads Air M2, which, I think, is a good choice because the iPad A17 is now old tech and the iPad Pro M4 is expensive overkill for almost anybody.  

I had my laptop with me, so I proposed we order both devices and fitting cases from my laptop. 

One day later, one of these ladies is in the supermarket, and she discovers to her horror that her debit card is blocked. I don't know if/how she paid at that instance, but she right away went to her bank to complain. The explanation for her being blocked was that with her bank account, a payment was detected by CrowdStrike to have originated from a "laptop that also does crypto transactions". 

The fact that she had to authenticate and confirm these transactions and the fact that we just ordered something on Amazon, and the fact that this, according to the bank, "suspicious" transaction was not blocked, but the next one was, is mind-boggling to me.

I am happy to confirm that after complaining at the bank, her bank account was unfrozen again. When this happens to you for the first time, this adage: The money in your bank account is not yours, not money and not there rings in your ears. 

How easy would it be for an well-meaning but misguided algorithm, AI or a semi government organization to debank or block whole swats of people that it, or they, deem 'unwanted'? Our societal reliance on these choke points makes us fragile. This is one of the reasons why the Human Rights Foundation and others are so sceptical of Central Bank Digital Currencies, the latest efforts to do away with cash all together. I know my individual actions, trying to pay with cash wherever i can for example, will in no way turn this tide. So why bother trying?  
 
We live in 1984-esk times. End Times. And a worldwide time is coming in which "nobody can buy or sell without having the mark of the beast". So things will get weirder before they get better

On that happy note: until next time 👍 



maandag, november 11, 2024

Bijbelse Geschiedenis van Rome

Lieve vrienden, 

Afgelopen week heb ik samen met ongeveer 1500 personen (dat is een schatting op basis van 600 Zoom connecties waarbij er 2/3 personen achter een beeldscherm zitten) kunnen genieten van een tour door het oude Rome.

Deze stad groeit uit tot de hoofdstad van een wereldrijk, maar heeft een klein begin, ingeklemd tussen de grote jongens als de Etrusken, Grieken en Feniciërs.

Via deze linkjes kun je deze tour downloaden en zelf nog eens op je gemakje terugkijken:



En wie rustig de plaatjes nog eens wil terugkijken kan ze hier downloaden (inclusief enkele aantekeningen van mijzelf).

Wie graag een donatie wil geven (hoeft niet, mag wel) kan dat nog doen via deze link.

Bedankt voor het meedoen, en wellicht tot een volgende keer 😊 
Groetjes
Jan 

vrijdag, oktober 04, 2024

Learn languages online: English, German, Russian, Japanese... - LingQ


I've basically learned English by watching Divx movies that classmates burned on CD's for me.

There were no subtitles back then. Or they were in English only. If I didn't understand a words I had to look it op. On paper. In a dictionary. 

This platform gives kids these days the same freedom, to learn a new language while having fun doing it:  https://www.lingq.com/

I have no idea if it works or if it's worth the money. But the idea is pretty sound. 


dinsdag, augustus 20, 2024

Bijbelse geschiedenis, virtuele Rome tour, 10 november 19:00

 

Lieve vrienden, 


De afgelopen jaren hebben we kunnen genieten van verschillende digitale rondleidingen in het British Museum 🏛️

Met behulp van foto’s, landkaarten, tijdbalken en videoclips zijn we beter bekend geraakt met verschillende Bijbelse wereldmachten van Egypte helemaal tot aan Griekenland. 

Op veler verzoek heb ik besloten nog één keer en nieuwe geschiedenis tour te maken, namelijk over het volgende deel van Daniëls droom, de benen van ijzer: Rome. 🏺

Er is plek voor ongeveer 1000 Zoom connecties, dus voel je vrij anderen ook uit te nodigen door deze uitnodiging link te sturen: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HIkIcprI9nx8Ql3d6KskDh

  • Zondagavond 10 november 2024 19:00
  • De Zoom link stuur ik via WhatsApp

Wellicht tot dan? 😃

Groetjes

Jan Romme

uitnodiging Rome Tour




donderdag, augustus 08, 2024

The News is Information Junk Food | Chuck Carroll



Avoiding news may lead one to think I live under a rock, but if it's important enough, the major news stories will make it's way to my perception. If something horrific happens in my country, I do find out about it perhaps hours after the news breaks - maybe a few days for less dramatic stuff from other people in my life. That said, what difference does it make if I hear about the story hours after it happens? 

zaterdag, juli 27, 2024

Go Inside the Great Pyramid of Giza | Digital Giza


Guided Tour of the full interior Great Pyramid on the Giza Plateau.




dinsdag, juni 11, 2024

Clocky, The Loud Alarm Clock That Runs Away Beeping for Heavy Sleepers


Deze alarmklok op wieltjes gaat er letterlijk vandoor zodat je hem niet kunt uitzetten. 

Je moet hem eerst zien te vangen. Perfect voor mensen die na het snoezen nog even terug gaan liggen en daarna veel te laat wakker schrikken 😂