Well, after logging in and finding that the update to Chrome had been rolled back to the previous version I then went hunting to find out the reason behind the chaos caused by one little update. On the Salesforce website (link) there is a link to the Chromium bug (link) but there are mixed signals as to whether the issue has been fixed – some are reporting the issue resolved while others have said they have been able to reproduce the bug on version 153.0.8010.48. The one thing to keep in mind that Salesforce is a complex platform and many organisations have third party services integrated into it, many customisations to suit their workflow so the cause of the problem could involve quite a lot of work to narrow down the cause and then eventually find a solution.
I’ve got Version 153.0.8010.48 installed on my Mac becase I do like the notification in the tab when someone sends a message in Google Chat rather than having to keep switching back and forths to avoid missing a message. Although I can get uBlock Origin Llite on Safari it never performs as well as it does on Chrome – I also noticed a bug on Goovle Chat that when you send a message that it doesn’t scroll down to the new message you sent but rather it stays on the last message that the person sent to you. I’m unsure whether it is a Google or a Apple problem but as I’ve said in the past – end users don’t care who is at fault they just want the software to work. It is the reason why the first Microsoft Edge (using their own web and javascript engines) never gained traction – because the moment that a website didn’t work the end user threw their hands in the air, installed Chrome and went on their merry way. There was a conference where a Microsoft developed outlined the statistics based on the telementry data they collected so I’m not surprised when Microsoft were faced with an uphill battle or adopting Chromium they took the pragmatic choice.
I’ve been following the whole Ed Sheeran and Macklemore situation – many people have put their opinions out there so I thought I may as well put out my own. There were other acts that were Ed Sheeran tour who decided not to continue on the tour – smaller acts who had a whole lot more to lose from not performing than if Ed Sheeran put his foot down and not compromise. Whether you agree or disagree with Macklemore I think one thing is clear – the moment you capiticulate to bullies and bend the knee to their demands is the moment that you paint a massive target on yourself for further bad actors making demands from you. Don’t be surprised if we see more venues flexing their muscle and using economic coercion to silence speech they disagree with. This is the reason why I oppose cancel culture and why it is important to start having a serious conersation about freedom of speech in the light of how public spaces have become privatised, places where people congregate are now controlled by private interests.
The technology industry are laying off more people (this topic came to my attention when reading an article about the recent Oracle layoffs and Chief Financial Officer Hilary Maxson’s company wide town hall meeting) and it always amazes me the number of people involved in the tech industry who act shocked that in the capitalist system the purpose of a business is to maximise the return on investment for shareholders by minimising costs and charging the maximum amount the market is willing to bear. It reminds me of the discussions on Slashdot by tech employees with a libertarian streak that had convinced themselves that they were the indispensable strata in society that allowed them to command higher wages which is why they didn’t need to have unions like blue collar workers. Well, here we are almost 30 years later and I think tech workers are slowly waking up that maybe those blue collar workers were onto something when it came to unions and collective bargaining. Then again unfortunately for many people they would sooner hold onto myths that comfort them into believe the world operates a certain way because facing the reality of how the world actually works is rather unsettling for many.
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