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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess I owe you an update.









So the World Bank IMF stuff starts today and I’m registered for a meeting at 10:00am Monday morning. So we will see how that goes.




Strangely, as we slowly get back to normal, I’m not really in that bad of a shape in terms of advocacy. We tried for the verbal statement just before lockdown in 2020 which was the last time I was at the UN in person. In 2021 was the written statement for the world wide vote and that closed of that story arc with the statement and side-event. Now with the Global Social Contract we only just published the book in May of this year so chronological things are not actually that disruptive - it just seems so…..



After getting the impact driver I had no impact bits or even a shank so I got a 3/8” shank and some sockets and then get a flexible elbow that will come in handy as nothing is ever perfectly aligned for you in the real world, only in a factory setting where they probably have a custom set up tool for that anyway. And the 4K player stays even if it cost me some money I just finished another movie and this is one of the few things that I like so…..







Some boring but necessary family stuff that gets shunted to me. And it’s the end of the first real vacation I’ve had in a long time. And I’ll end this with a photo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation getting a plane to fly this banner past the Apple building when they announced the iPhone 13.




Later…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So the World Bank and IMF meetings started yesterday and I was there:







About seventy people here so it’s a pretty exclusive club. The meeting starts and when it’s over you can contact and chat with others I’ll probably do some more but at least I’m getting back into the swing of things even if it’s on-line now.




Yes I was there - see my name in the photo?



My Pinephone is on its way and should be here for Friday. It never works out that way so the smart person thinks next week. Anyway I’m more than a little interested to see what this looks like in the flesh.







What else…..



I finally checked out the iPhone 13 compared to my iPhone 12 Pro Max. Nothing to see here is my review. The size looked exactly the same and the extra weight seemed the same though mine was in a case. It won’t bother you coming from an earlier recent year. The notch is smaller though with speculation the notch may be gone in place of a single hole for the camera - I’d wait a year. Under display camera lenses are not the best but Face ID which does not rely on subjective human judgement may be good enough. Camera bump is slightly larger Pro Max to Pro Max but I was looking for this and nothing that jumped out of me. I didn’t even notice the more protruding lenses. Promotion: swiping icons does seem sharper but I was deliberately looking for that. Web browsing and I couldn’t tell the difference. I left the Apple store underwhelmed and seriously, not all that motivated to upgrade at all - so I won’t.



Next year may be way better for iPhones. If they want 8k video the need a sensor larger than the current one and that means something like 48 megapixels. You only need like under 9 for 4K and under 34 for 8K but with necessary sizing it becomes 12 and 48. That with titanium frames and possibly emergency cell phone texting to satellite comma and all that stuff. A pass for me this year.







I’m doing the WTO on Tuesday and an update tomorrow. Because of the time difference between Geneva and Toronto, mornings are spent doing the WTO and then the pivot to the World Bank / IMF right after that. So I’m multitasking and the reason why updates come later right now. But this duality is rather cool…..



Later……





https://youtu.be/-nUD6geV28U


https://youtu.be/A29djFB-nzs
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Sep 29, 2021 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote





I’m getting into specific sessions at the WTO that are of interest for me.







The pandemic has had a major effect on the usual operations at the WTO - the biggest being the ability to get there in person. Gone are the days of packed conference rooms and packed speaker lists with a lineup of backup speakers. This morning the conference rooms held a minimum of participants and social distancing. For everyone else you had live streaming and if properly registered as a CSO you had real access to the meeting and could participate and ask questions. It looks like this:







There is some creativity here with some having pertinate backdrops and with others blurring out the backdrop. For me you play it safe in a suit and tie with pants on and a safe backdrop just to make sure nothing “unforeseen” happens. These sessions are recorded so any embarrassing situations are there for all to see and in their website somewhere forever.







Geneva is six hours ahead so you live this gypsy lifestyle sleeping whenever you can. You are burning the candle at both ends. Reguar people will look at you and your inevitable mistakes in your everyday life and think the guy must be getting senile. But until you live this international lifestyle you don’t know what it does to you.







Tomorrow is a holiday for me so I’ll sleep most of the day when I don’t have to attend anything. Basically it’s 3:00am to 10:00am for the WTO and the World Bank / IMF from 10:00 am onwards as they are in Washington DC. It’s an insane lifestyle but these events only last a few days. The World Bank / IMF Annual General Meetings later in October will be easier on your sleep patterns. They say I’m registered for that so I’m more than a little interested to be there.



Later…..




https://youtu.be/rlIkHBm7BTA
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 12:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Normally I would not bother you with this but since nothing is for sure I’ll let you see what came in my email:







So yes, I’ve been registered to attend the World Bank / IMF Annual General Meetings in mid-October. This is separate from the civil-society stuff going on now. That in itself is exciting for me but to have a chance to see and ask a question to the President of the World Bank Group, and a week later do the same to the Directors of the World Bank Group - well, that’s the ultimate.


Here’s the thing, pre-pandemic I would have told you there was no way I was getting into this type of gig at the World Bank as there is only so many seats on the conference room. I just don’t have the connections to get in there. However, with the pandemic raging on, I now have a chance! So even though I may not make the cut - my chances are way better than before Covid 19. They have received my registrations and now it’s up to them as to if I get in…..



In other news…..



My Pinephone is at a DHL pickup outlet a few blocks from where I live. That was fast as it was shipped straight from Hong Kong. So hopefully I get to play with my new toy tomorrow!



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/VxxYqE4Gil8
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 5:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Updates…..







Confirmed- I will be attending the townhall with the President of the World Bank:






Confirmed - I will be attending the round table with the Directors of the World Bank:








So I got what I wanted with the movers and shakers at the World Bank, this is all about interaction but posting a question during the meeting is a quickly moderated thing and due to time constraints more of a lottery. So on Thursday I got an email to attend a webinar with a Director of the IMF. This was more of a traditional email thing and they were asking for questions up front with the proviso that you could also ask live during the session. So I submitted the question along with the request for participation and that is where I stand now.



This is a new thing as prior to this it was just speeches, written statements and side-events. This interactive ability with the executives is a new experience and a bit of a daunting thing. But with that first question I have cracked the ice on this new form of participation. Asking a question to the top person of a UN satellite agency like the World Bank conditions you to not shirk back from an opportunity in the future. No more “chickening out” when a chance to meet and engage some big wig comes along.


Anyway that’s what happened on Thursday. The DHL office was closed on Thursday so I’ll pick up the Pinephone on Friday morning. It’s not all
advocacy right now. Michael is back to writing songs and Shane is recording music in-studio these days. Things are slowly getting back to what we used to do pre-pandemic. You don’t know what you had till you lose it - and we are almost two years behind.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/L6yt7_NFAuM
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 6:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Late one as I had to waterproof the brick work on the chimney and around the house. That horrible job is now down and I’ll go back to fiddling around with the new phone. I’ll have a more in-depth review with photos in the next post so stay tuned for that.



I’m also looking for a dedicated Zoom space in the office. Near the studio with a backdrop should work as long as the audio is good. Again more later.



I’m soaking in the tub now as climbing on the roof alway makes you want to soak in the tub afterwards.




Goodnight…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes: The Frankenstein Un-Hackable Un-Trackable Smartphone:





So when I finished waterproofing the house (just before the season of non-stop rain, and getting a new can of the stuff reminded me of the Hunger Games - but I digress) I actually got a chance to fool around with the phone.







That’s not quite true as I did go cruising with the thing turned on to the Starbucks drive-through that morning. I get to the window to pay and proudly show her the phone just after I tapped. She still had the machine out there as I pushed the Pinephone at her and the credit card machine started acting strange and she said they would have to reboot. So she gave me my mocha as a freebie and I just got the hell out of there lest anyone blame that on me.



Removable battery on the back!



I should tell you that hackers with their own Pinephones hacked the modem and I was getting modem messages that were a bit wonky but the phone could call in and out and send text messages. Also I didn’t get the usual paper to update the phone to the latest OS version. The phone didn’t come in the usual packaging either but it was from Pine64. So maybe, maybe, I have the hacked code for the modem. This would not be the usual norm but maybe my name clicked with someone there (they did send me an email to confirm my identity and address uncharacteristically) as I did have a phone number landline near the place. Anyway the phone was on at Starbucks and the NFC may have been compromised and I wasn’t sticking around to find out. It’s probably a glitch they had all morning long - but like I said - I wasn’t sticking around to find out…..




The switches on the back!



Anyway the current OS (KE Plasma) had everything on the phone working - even the flashlight and selfie camera, but battery life was a abysmal and the phone got hot and everything was clunky. It did work though. So I loaded up an old but more fleshed out OS in Linux called Umbuntu Touch and threw that in on an SD card. The phone boots automatically from an SD card and this OS worked out great! It wasn’t overheating and the battery usage was way better! But with this OS not everything worked as it was originally made for another phone like 10 years ago. Specifically the front camera and flash - but really, those can wait! But the latest version activated the rear camera with acceleration and decent colour - you could actually take photos with this thing! I could now actually use this thing as a real phone. Still not my only phone but for mission specific functions where I needed privacy.



So I now have the official OS on the motherboard (with maybe hacked modem) and the Ubuntu superior every day driver OS on the SD card. The cool thing here is that leaving the SD card in means that I always boot to Ubuntu when I turn the phone on. If I want to use the other OS for extras privacy, I just take the back cover off and pull the SD card out. Pull the SD card out isn’t exactly as it seems; normally I would have to rip the back cover off and rip the battery out (a pain in the bum that) and pull out the SD as the battery blocked the slot. It as is the “raised catch” of the SD card now works like a switch and clicking it up is Ubuntu and clicking it down is Plasma - I just love this!



So I don’t have to remove the back cover anymore. I could buy this special back cover that has this small window to get access to the tiny switches to disable stuff and I may do just that; so take off the jell case I bought and use your pen to work the kill switches - this all just rocks!



But enough of this as I have to set up my Zoom meeting cubicle. More on that tonight. I want to do this properly as from past experience you never know what you have till you lose it - and I want to do this right in case that is the only chance I get.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/ytW4xPH-ONw
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I decided to go crazy and try everything out on the phone to make sure it works as the warrantee is only like 30 days.









The verdict is that everything works and if it doesn’t it’s the software. I tested all the kill switches and they work, even the reset button. The convergence connector works for the mouse and keyboard, but the monitor didn’t connect. That doesn’t bother me as I never had a monitor problem in all my other phones and this is coming out of the convergence now and not the phone’s USB C port (which works) so it’s really not a hardware problem on the phone at least. So everything on the phone works and everything stays!







Went back to Starbucks the day after their terminal went wacky. It was the same barista and when she saw it was me she got a bit nervous but the phone was off and all was well and she even quips that it was good we had no issues. So it was the phone as if they were having a problem on their end she would not worry when I showed up. What I think happened is that this phone went after the NFC or more likely spat out a lot of RF interference that nevertheless allowed me to call and text. This is what you want to avoid the spooks out there. I was really pleased about this! So I’m keeping the on-device OS as is because of this special nature. A hacked modem gives you a huge advantage over everyone else out there. Basically you can do things with the modem and the only response is “what’s that?” from the modem and “who are you?” from the cell tower. With this setup you can even place calls without a sim but I haven’t tried that yet. Such a cool phone!









So to the outside world you just have this cheap aging phone - but - take the back out and you have kill switches for all the hardware and can remove the battery for 100 percent disconnection. Dismount the SD card and you have a cellphone that can’t be hacked or tracked! Get back home and the phone becomes a PC with convergence……



Ok, enough about my new phone…..



From here on it’s about the advocacy. First I will set up a small desk and mounts for the iPhone and test the back drop and audio over CiscoWebX. Only problem is it’s in the studio where I have a backdrop so it’s cavernous. We will just have to test it out and see how the new chat room works out!




Later…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Oct 05, 2021 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m going to hold my web meetings from my office.



I took some shots from the iPhone and while the dark very backdrop looks good, it changes the skin texture as you can see below (and yes I’ll be wearing a suit instead of a stretched out shirt):







Back at the office I get a more neutral skin tone as can be seen below:







As for audio the office is the best so that rocks with the video. I have also made my advocacy emails as the default for Zoom and CiscoWex. Now it’s just polishing up my use of the programs. And that’s about it for now.



Later…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some quick notes:







IMF connect really works sending me updates on all the happenings going on this year. Having it all go through one portal works and is probably a good idea for the other venues going forward - in my honest opinion.


The Pinephone seems to have everything working now. It was a pain of trial and error but it is now sorted out and working to the limit of the current programming! Actually I’m pretty comfortable with the idea using this thing for maybe half a day all on it’s own which is a huge accomplishment to the community trying to make the Linux phones a viable third choice for people.







My biggest issue is having made my main line an eSim on the iPhone. A regular sim would have let me stick it into the Pinephone keeping functionality. Now I would have to use call forwarding and such. I can add data on the go, so sooner or later I will rock a day or so on the Pinephone just to see how the phone holds up in this stage of development. The big enabler is the really good battery life in Ubuntu Touch. Every other OS seems to run down the battery in a few hours, but this OS actually works!



Pulling the SD card gives you the true privacy OS and I believe this is the most a private operating system you will get while still having a usable phone. You literally will disappear and become invisible with this setup! It’s clunky as opposed to Ubuntu, but this turns you into the “invisible man” so it’s really a “in case of emergency break glass” OS and it’s great the default booting OS is Ubuntu.




YouTube on the Pinephone on Ubuntu!



Does anyone need that level of privacy? Mostly no and I would say going that far for the vast majority is due to paranoia. Some like me do need it as every call or data communication at the UN in New York is apparantly captured and deciphered by probably more than a few of the usual suspects, at least according to Snowdon. The BlackBerry seemed to do the trick well but the dropping of 3G for talk spells the end of that era. The Passport has voice over LTE but it was an early version no longer supported. So I needed a new security phone and the Pinephone looks like it’s ready for action. So I may need it but for everyone else I’d say no. Buy a de-Googled phone instead if you just want more privacy. Unless you need the highest level of privacy, the Pinephone will disappoint you. I have six cell phones and five different OS (operating systems), so the iPhone 12 Pro Max is my daily driver and the Pinephone and the BlackBerry Passport are for security. iPhones and Android can use my enterprise security if need be. Anyway, I can be cloaked or invisible if I have to depend on the Pinephone!



And if you haven’t heard, William Shatner (or Captain Kirk from Star Trek) will be going up into space in a few days by invitation of Jeff Bezos who is a huge fan of Star Trek. Shatner is 90 and will be the oldest person to make it into space.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/g7nhMQAlzR8
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Oct 07, 2021 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tomorrow things start up again at the World Bank/IMF!








So I’ve asked an Executive Director at the IMF a question ahead of time by email and still don’t know anything. Since this is mostly a recon mission at this stage I don’t have anything critical that has to be addressed. We just sit back and see what happens. The other meetings take place next week and we shall see what happens there.







The WTO want us to take a survey of our experience this year and I’ll probably do that just once this time as I usually never do surveys.



For all of this we will promote I our own causes while just hanging around inter-governmental agencies and letting them know we are hanging around. We are a legitimate journalist association and the association and its members can get real exposure for a issue if one comes up as we are on the scene. That is what we do at these venues.



I did a battery endurance test on the Pinephone on Ubuntu Touch and it’s actually fine! I may also get a higher capacity battery of 3,500mwh as opposed to 2,800mwh. That will give me two usable batteries and longer duration as if the larger battery is used alone. The proof is that I’m keeping one of my sims in there instead of another phone and that says more than an anything else..




Later…..




https://youtu.be/pXezLv_5RaY
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So our first meeting with an IMF Director happened today:







I have to hand it to the IMF as this event was slick in visuals and presentation! A raised lighted platform and custom hard backdrops for the live webcast and webinar:







But this all started with an email to us saying as a registered CSO we could participate in the meeting and ask a question.




A CSO asking a question on Cisco WebEx!



I did ask a question regarding keeping the web based format post-pandemic or even expanding participation via the web going forward. That probably isn’t the most popular question in the bin of questions to pick and choose but I had to go for it as whether we get this amount of access going forward is never guaranteed. It costs money to travel to Washington to be there in person and for those in third world countries the event would be cost prohibited even though the IMF is supposed to be for those countries. So I asked it formally as an email and it wasn’t accepted.




The Director responding to questions!



I did my job and didn’t squander the access we had - I did my part! More meetings coming up but this one officially broke the ice. At the end, the director addressed the need for CSOs (civil society organizations) to keep the IMF transparent and accountable and for those whose questions were not voiced to keep at it and such. I recorded that part and will save it but I’m not sure if I’ll upload it to the server, but I’ll keep it in my back pocket for reference if the need ever presents itself…..




That was Friday morning - later…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Saturday is a bit of a disaster. I lost the camera function on Umbuntu on the phone with an update. And trying a cool program on the default OS gave me screen flickering! Fantastically all that got fixed by the afternoon - but I have another problem.





Linux on my laptop!



The other problem is that Windows 10 won’t start on my laptop. I can get the files out through the Linux OS I also have on the laptop. So move the files over and re-do Windows…..




What a pain! Later…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually at the end of Saturday all the phones were fixed and the Windows side of the laptop was repaired without the files being deleted. I had to reinstall all the programs but now everything is basically back to where it was before.








The Pinephone is now with Ubuntu as the daily driver - at least in Canada - because its call quality is the best with the 4G OS examples being too noisy right now. That will get better as the bugs are worked out. Plus the Ubuntu browser scales web pages to the cellphone while the others stay true to its PC based format and web pages are larger that the phone screen. Apps like Gmail, Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are all there but in web access form, but it works just like your Android or iPhone! Ubuntu doesn’t work with the headphone jack on the Pinephone - yet - but I just found out my Bluetooth earbuds do and with excellent quality! This phone is coming together nicely and we now have an third alternative OS maturing nicely…..



So absolutely no regrets buying the Pinephone! It’s not for you guys yet as it’s still a beta but if you are a geek who likes to tinker then this here is a project for you. For example the screen flickering I had yesterday turned out to be a bug in the timed screen shutdown after a minute. I changed it to 2 minutes and it started flickering, but turning it back to default times got rid of it it - that is what you sometimes have to deal with and it’s not for everyone. As an aside: The folks at Ubports who now run Ubuntu Touch say they are programming for VoLTE (voice over LTE) with paid programmers so this should be a done deal shortly. Anyway this is exciting for me as we need that privacy alternative. We need this if only to keep the big two in check with an alternative set of foot steps following behind them…..



As for the vacation, I lost a day with the IT problems but the World Bank / IMF stuff between home renovations and car stuff for the next week….. However, the Pinephone or Linux phones look like they may be more of a permanent thing - mainly because of the unique nature of its operating system. Juxtapose this with interesting also-randoms like the Eveready brand of smartphones - yes that was a thing two years ago and where are they now?




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/Yz8VcDWgpIM
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A late one today…..



I spent the day cleaning out all the files from my laptop on the Windows side. My laptop runs a SSD or solid state drive and that make it more rough and tumble traveling with it. The laptop is also solid cast metal which makes it ugly but tough! Anyway, these drives can have a type of “rot” where the amount of memory diminishes and if there is data on there it can get corrupted which is why you should only keep the OS on there and not important files. I got lazy and kept all sorts of files in there and thankfully got them back! But then I had to move them to a more permanent memory medium.



So that’s what happened today for the most part. I did take the family downtown to visit old haunts while the traffic was lite and the parking was free for this holiday. But that laptop had large files everywhere - what a pain!




Google Play Store on a BlackBerry!



As an aside - can we trust Google’s search engine anymore to be relatively accurate to display search results? Trying to find a phone and OS that skirts a Google account makes it seem this thing doesn’t exist! Was this deliberate? Realize Google is more of an advertising company than anything else. More and more I use other search engines as Google’s doesn’t seem as good anymore. Anyway that was just something in the back of my mind. We in the BlackBerry club did skirt the Google Play Store on Blackberry 10 but this was just a handful of us - numbers matter to Google…..




Later…..
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