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How one VW Vanagon Westfalia helps thousands of Philadelphians get out the vote

media.vw.com

“My thought was pretty simple: people would stop and spot this crazy red, white and blue van and think, well, this must be the right place to drop off my ballot,” Thornburgh says.

A VW enthusiast, Thornburgh has owned multiple Volkswagens, including a 1985 Golf and two other “Westys” (a 1987 and 1988 model) before purchasing the Vanagon Westfalia in August 2016.

“A Westfalia is a car that always invites a conversation. People just want to come and share their stories with you,” says Thornburgh. “And I love the driving experience. It’s like a Swiss Army knife on wheels – wherever you stop is home.”

Bill Plaschke talks about his COVID-19 experience

latimes.com

Nobody tells you about the dread. From the moment my doctor phoned me with the test results, to the moment I am writing this column, I have been scared out of my mind.

I know the minuscule overall fatality percentages. I know the overwhelming odds of survival for a 61-year-old male in good health with no preexisting conditions. It doesn’t matter. Once you realize you have a virus that could kill you and there’s nothing anybody can do about it, you live in constant fear.

cheat/cheat

github.com

cheat allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the command-line. It was designed to help remind *nix system administrators of options for commands that they use frequently, but not frequently enough to remember.

The Case of the Top Secret iPod

tidbits.com

My guess is that Paul and Matthew were building something like a stealth Geiger counter. Something that DOE agents could use without furtively hiding it. Something that looked innocuous, that played music, and functioned exactly like a normal iPod. You could walk around a city, casually listening to your tunes, while recording evidence of radioactivity—scanning for smuggled or stolen uranium, for instance, or evidence of a dirty bomb development program—with no chance that the press or public would get wind of what was happening.

Expiring vs. Permanent Skills

collaborativefund.com

Expiring skills tend to get more attention. They’re more likely to be the cool new thing, and a key driver of an industry’s short-term performance. They’re what employers value and employees flaunt.

Permanent skills are different. They’ve been around a long time, which makes them look stale and basic. They can be hard to define and quantify, which gives the impression of fortune-cookie wisdom vs. a hard skill.

ZX Spectrum Next

kickstarter.com

The ZX Spectrum Next is the evolution of the original Spectrum, the computer Sinclair would perhaps have made if given the chance at the time. Designed by Rick Dickinson (1957 - 2018) and Phil Candy, the Next embodies the very same principles that made the original computer a success: a beautiful look, ease of use right out of the box, endless hacking possibilities and power that punches way above its weight.

With new video modes, co-processors, more colours, sound channels, faster speeds, large storage and networking capabilities, the Spectrum Next leads the way for a generation of new games and apps created with the same philosophy that made the ZX Spectrum an icon, and the most successful home computer in British history.