#iWork

[workinghardtobelong]

Friday reflection - about relationships; then weird- 9/6/24

I hope everyone is doing okay. Although I had a pretty good week, I’m still handling investigator #1 cleanup work. It’s tricky. I have to seek guidance once again to get clarification on being in compliance with his projects. I can’t let it go, it’s work, but I did get great guidance and advice to complete the task. Head-on, can’t cut corners and I have to start on it right away. I don’t want to…

[nakamorisuganuma]

Macを持っていなくてもiCloudは使える

Mac使いな人が周りにいると、時にMacといったAppleデバイスでしか見られないファイルを送って来ることがありませんか？Mac ユーザーとしては正直面倒くさいです。ファイルを作成できたら終わりにしたくて、メール相手がMacユーザーでないことを忘れてしまいます。

またiPadやiPhoneでもpagesやnumbersが最初からインストールしれているので、これらを使って、途中でWindowsのOfficeファイルに変換できるの？と思うことがあります。

この動画ではiWorkファイルをWindowsなどAppleデバイス以外で見ることができる方法を伝授いたします。

[oldmacnewlife]

Apple Numbers

[ridstler]

drew this fool at a tax office w the computer mouse

[archivebottles]

hopin to get this finished by tomorrow...

[journcys-archived]

.

[roboraindrop]

What job do u have? It sounds amazing!!!!!

It very much isn't great 😅 But it keeps me fed, medicated, and buying f/o merch msshsksh I keep getting "promotions" without actually getting the raise that comes with promotions. But hey, when we don't have assignments, since I work from home, I get to draw :b That's the fun part, for sure!

[innalheid]

watching mad god again while waiting for my weed to kick in and already delirious from exertion. I feel like the wizard high will give me more insight into an already incredible film

[confetti-critter]

The fact that I have to go into the warehouse to start doing stupid bullshit that doesn't matter and not watch the moths that sometimes rest on the outside wall? Literally 1984.

Whats that, I want to go check the other side of the building to check for bugs there? No. "Its 8am and can you do these 16 boxes of jeans? They're repeats so they go straight out and also be sure to tag the ones left in central inventory theres 129 of them" what the fuck? What the fuck????? I should be sleeping right now

[gojurt]

can you make a playlist for JOHAN LIEBERT. please. and also katie if you want

hi <3 <3 <3

[29121996]

am goung to try and write my resignarion letter and download some cc

[koqibaby]

'iLive & iWork' is a style, a way, method, or manner of saying, writing, or performing—an elegant mode of life. It's an aura, embodied in a fascination with taste, joy found in entertainment, butterflies stirred by lust, and an excitement for the future.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An adversarial iMessage client for Android

Adversarial interoperability is one of the most reliable ways to protect tech users from predatory corporations: that's when a technologist reverse-engineers an existing product to reconfigure or mod it (interoperability) in ways its users like, but which its manufacturer objects to (adversarial):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

"Adversarial interop" is a mouthful, so at EFF, we coined the term "competitive compatibility," or comcom, which is a lot easier to say and to spell.

Scratch any tech success and you'll find a comcom story. After all, when a company turns its screws on its users, it's good business to offer an aftermarket mod that loosens them again. HP's $10,000/gallon inkjet ink is like a bat-signal for third-party ink companies. When Mercedes announces that it's going to sell you access to your car's accelerator pedal as a subscription service, that's like an engraved invitation to clever independent mechanics who'll charge you a single fee to permanently unlock that "feature":

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/05/carmakers-push-forward-with-plans-to-make-basic-features-subscription-services-despite-widespread-backlash/

Comcom saved giant tech companies like Apple. Microsoft tried to kill the Mac by rolling out a truly cursèd version of MS Office for MacOS. Mac users (5% of the market) who tried to send Word, Excel or Powerpoint files to Windows users (95% of the market) were stymied: their files wouldn't open, or they'd go corrupt. Tech managers like me started throwing the graphic designer's Mac and replacing it with a Windows box with a big graphics card and Windows versions of Adobe's tools.

Comcom saved Apple's bacon. Apple reverse-engineered MS's flagship software suite and made a comcom version, iWork, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote could flawlessly read and write MS's Word, Excel and Powerpoint files:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

It's tempting to think of iWork as benefiting Apple users, and certainly the people who installed and used it benefited from it. But Windows users also benefited from iWork. The existence of iWork meant that Windows users could seamlessly collaborate on and share files with their Mac colleagues. IWork didn't just add a new feature to the Mac ("read and write files that originated with Windows users") – it also added a feature to Windows: "collaborate with Mac users."

Every pirate wants to be an admiral. Though comcom rescued Apple from a monopolist's sneaky attempt to drive it out of business, Apple – now a three trillion dollar company – has repeatedly attacked comcom when it was applied to Apple's products. When Apple did comcom, that was progress. When someone does comcom to Apple, that's piracy.

Apple has many tools at its disposal that Microsoft lacked in the early 2000s. Radical new interpretations of existing copyright, contract, patent and trademark law allows Apple – and other tech giants – to threaten rivals who engage in comcom with both criminal and civil penalties. That's right, you can go to prison for comcom these days. No wonder Jay Freeman calls this "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Take iMessage, Apple's end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) instant messaging tool. Apple customers can use iMessage to send each other private messages that can't be read or altered by third parties – not cops, not crooks, not even Apple. That's important, because when private messaging systems get hacked, bad things happen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak

But Apple has steadfastly refused to offer an iMessage app for non-Apple systems. If you're an Apple customer holding a sensitive discussion with an Android user, Apple refuses to offer you a tool to maintain your privacy. Those messages are sent "in the clear," over the 38-year-old SMS protocol, which is trivial to spy on and disrupt.

Apple sacrifices its users' security and integrity in the hopes that they will put pressure on their friends to move into Apple's walled garden. As CEO Tim Cook told a reporter: if you want to have secure communications with your mother, buy her an iPhone:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tim-cook-says-buy-mom-210347694.html

Last September, a 16-year old high school student calling himself JJTech published a technical teardown of iMessage, showing how any device could send and receive encrypted messages with iMessage users, even without an Apple ID:

https://jjtech.dev/reverse-engineering/imessage-explained/

JJTech even published code to do this, in an open source library called Pypush:

https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush

In the weeks since, Beeper has been working to productize JJTech's code, and this week, they announced Beeper Mini, an Android-based iMessage client that is end-to-end encrypted:

https://beeper.notion.site/How-Beeper-Mini-Works-966cb11019f8444f90baa314d2f43a54

Beeper is known for a multiprotocol chat client built on Matrix, allowing you to manage several kinds of chat from a single app. These multiprotocol chats have been around forever. Indeed, iMessage started out as one – when it was called "iChat," it supported Google Talk and Jabber, another multiprotocol tool. Other tools like Pidgin have kept the flame alive for decades, and have millions of devoted users:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/tower-babel-how-public-interest-internet-trying-save-messaging-and-banish-big

But iMessage support has remained elusive. Last month, Nothing launched Sunchoice, a disastrous attempt to bring iMessage to Android, which used Macs in a data-center to intercept and forward messages to Android users, breaking E2EE and introducing massive surveillance risks:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/21/23970740/sunbird-imessage-app-shut-down-privacy-nothing-chats-phone-2

Beeper Mini does not have these defects. The system encrypts and decrypts messages on the Android device itself, and directly communicates with Apple's servers. It gathers some telemetry for debugging, and this can be turned off in preferences. It sends a single SMS to Apple's servers during setup, which changes your device's bubble from green to blue, so that Apple users now correctly see your device as a secure endpoint for iMessage communications.

Beeper Mini is now available in Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima&hl=en_US

Now, this is a high-stakes business. Apple has a long history of threatening companies like Beeper over conduct like this. And Google has a long history deferring to those threats – as it did with OG App, a superior third-party Instagram app that it summarily yanked after Meta complained:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

But while iMessage for Android is good for Android users, it's also very good for Apple customers, who can now get the privacy and security guarantees of iMessage for all their contacts, not just the ones who bought the same kind of phone as they did. The stakes for communications breaches have never been higher, and antitrust scrutiny on Big Tech companies has never been so intense.

Apple recently announced that it would add RCS support to iOS devices (RCS is a secure successor to SMS):

https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/

Early word from developers suggests that this support will have all kinds of boobytraps. That's par for the course with Apple, who love to announce splashy reversals of their worst policies – like their opposition to right to repair – while finding sneaky ways to go on abusing its customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

The ball is in Apple's court, and, to a lesser extent, in Google's. As part of the mobile duopoly, Google has joined with Apple in facilitating the removal of comcom tools from its app store. But Google has also spent millions on an ad campaign shaming Apple for exposing its users to privacy risks when talking to Android users:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/21/23883609/google-rcs-message-apple-iphone-ipager-ad

While we all wait for the other shoe to drop, Android users can get set up on Beeper Mini, and technologists can kick the tires on its code libraries and privacy guarantees.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor

[ancientgoddessofegypt]

ORANGE AURAS BE LIKE…

someone with an orange aura is somebody that has a very creative spirit. Someone who is capable of attracting what is that they like at the moment. an orange aura has a capability of creating something out of thin air a person with this aura color is someone who is very charismatic, very gentle and also very bold but in a way that is more sensual than someone with a red aura. These people usually use some form of art to embrace their creativity. They also can use their self expression as a way to open up that portal of creation. Orange tend to have a lightness to express expressing their emotions or their sensuality, and this also helps create their reality in a more special way. The beauty of the having an orange aura is that this person can always have a social life that iworks better for them. These people are incredible with the power of attraction and are able to get the life that they want because the orange is connected to their sacral chakra which is ruled by the color. It also connect them to their sexuality so someone with their being the color orange is someone who is going to be able to focus more on their sexuality at that time as well.

[stelly22]

Doin retail is so draining but i b havin lots of fun cuz the ppl iwork w all hilarious and kind hearted

[scythegameing]

Cobflicting Lives- Chapter 4: The Meeting (pt.1)

Word Count: 2050

As he and Scar walked into the meeting room as Lux and Hotguy, Scythe was relieved to see that the only other people that were there other than Voidling seemed to be iWork, Tek, and Cuteguy.

He walked over to where Voidling was talking with iWork, and the two older men looked at him expectantly. “Would I be able to speak with you for a moment Voidling?” Scythe asked after a second or two of silence.

“Of course Lux.” Voidling said, getting up from his chair. The pair walked towards an unpopulated corner of the meeting room. “What did you need to tell me?” the older hero asked.

Scythe took a deep breath. “You know about how I put up an illusion to further keep my true identity a secret from the public,” he looked at Voidling, who was nodding with eyes full of curiosity, “But I didn't have time to grab my uniform from my room before I came over here.” Voidlings eyes opened a bit in shock for a moment, then softened in understanding.

“So the illusion you have right now is for both appearance and clothing then, correct?” he asked Scythe. And he nodded in response.

“I’m not sure how long I can keep one up without revealing the other, either. Even just starting it I can tell that I’m not going to be able to hold both for more than like an hour or an hour and a half, max.” Scythe continued explaining. He didn't know what Voidling was thinking, and just the thought of anything being revealed to other heroes he didn't know well enough to trust very well made his stomach turn over itself.

There were only a few seconds before Voidling responded, but it felt like hours. “I can try to keep it as short as possible, but with what I’ve gotten I don't expect this meeting to be that short.” He finally said, concern filling his eyes as he looked at Scythe. “If you need to leave for a moment during it if you feel like the illusion is falling, by all means take a breather.”

Scythe contemplated for a moment, mulling over the offer that Voidling had given him. “That could work, but I also don't want to miss out on what has happened.” That much was true, but he may have told a small white lie as he continued, “The situation concerning the last meeting has been eating at the back of my head, and I want to try and help as much as I can. It feels like I can't do that if I have to leave because of my stamina capacity.” Well, maybe only part of it was a lie.

“I understand where you’re coming from,” the older hero said in a comforting tone, “But I also don't want you to over exert yourself for the sake of some information that I can get to you at a different time.” Voidling put a hand on Scythe's shoulder, and he looked up at the masked man. “Don't push yourself beyond your limit when you don't have to or aren't comfortable with doing so.”

Scythe took a deep breath and looked down once more, looking back up a moment later. “I… I could just let a little down. Not enough to be super noticeable, but enough to let off some of the drainage.”

 Voidling was silent for a moment longer, and took his hand off of Scythes shoulder. “Just don't push yourself too far. I may not be as close to you as some of the others are, but that doesn't mean I don't care and worry about you.” With that, he turned around and walked back towards the table, where the rest of the heroes seemed to be filing in.

Scythe took another few seconds to recuperate, then walked back to the table himself. As he approached, the last of the heroes to arrive walked through the door. Joel walked in, and it looked like he just got out of bed. Scythe assumed that his messy hair was from flying, as his artificial wings were also fluffed and messy from the air.

The white-winged hero walked over to the area where Scythe sat, and chose a seat next to him, moving his wings farther ti back to drape over the back of the chair. The pair looked at eachother, having a silent conversation of how much it sucks to be rushed.

“It looks like everyone is here. Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I do want to start by apologizing for the rush, especially as many of you aren't exactly very close to our building here.” iWork was the one to start off speaking, and he continued on, “however some information we've just received from one of our IOs needed to be discussed immediately.””

Voidling reached his hand under the table where he sat and the small click of a button was heard. A forgotten door in a back corner opened, and everyone's eyes went wide as four people walked out. Two of them looked well dressed and prepared, while the other tel looked rushed and a bit unkempt. And there were at least three heroes in the room that knew at least one of those people. 

Scythe felt like all of the oxygen left his body. He made eye contact with Lunar and Augustus, then with Etho and the fourth IO, his identity unknown, but something eerily familiar about them. The red highlights of their outfit and the blond, unkempt hair definitely belonged to someone he knew, the name just on the tip of his tongue.

He prayed that he hadn't gone too pale as he then locked eyes with Voidling when scanning the room for the others’ reactions. Voidling seemed to be talking to him through the silence, Step out if you need it, Lux, his eyes seemed to say. Scythe knew that he wasn't pale because of the illusion efforts, but because he wasn't expecting to see three of his closest friends infront of him, and in front of all of the other major heroes throughout the island.

Trying to gather his composure, Scythe took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing mind. His head had started to ache from all the thoughts darting around, and he took a few moments to calm them down, steady his breathing, and check his illusion to make sure it hadn’t faltered in the moment of panic.

He turned around to look at Joel, who also seemed to be a bit pale in the face, despite the light pink hue riding on his cheeks. Joel looked back at Scythe, a look of slight fear in his eyes as they both realized the situation, and the pink faded from the winged man's face. The pair then looked at scar and the three exchanged knowing glances, but making sure to look amongst the others as well. Thankfully they all seemed to be as confused as they are, if not a little pale too.

“These are the four IOs that had agreed to gather information for us at the last meeting.” Voidling said once everyone seemed to calm down and gather themselves once more. “These are Storyteller, Snowfall, The Above, and Slab,” they each waved as their name was announced, “and I feel that they each have a very valuable piece of information to give us all.” Voidling turned around to face the four IOs. “Storyteller, would you like to go first?”

Lunar, or rather Storyteller, stepped forward. “Sure. Thank you for inviting me here. I was asked to gather information about the routes that Ender takes at night, from where they split from Tanuki after any chosen activities, and figure out the area where they seem to be located.” She looked around the meeting room, meeting the eyes of a few heroes, sparing Scythe from eye contact in the already awkward situation.

Even though Scythe knew that Lunar knew what she was saying and how they were going to say it, he couldn't help but feel anxious. He was putting an incredible amount of trust in someone he knew very well, but even that didn't stop the farthest corners of his thoughts spiraling. 

“What I have found by slowly trialing Ender is a semi-consistent direction that he travels in. Oftentimes, he heads in a south west direction. This does vary a lot of however, and I've seen him go north and east before for a very long while before he eventually turned back towards Cursia.” Lunar at last looked at Scythe, then back at Voidling who was watching and listening very intently. “This leads me to believe that Ender may be staying somewhere in Cursia, though I have yet to follow him past the border line. Each time I have tried to do so, it has been far too late into the night for me to continue any longer.” 

Lunar had finished speaking at last after what felt like hours, and stepped back to where the others were. Scythe realized he had been holding his breath a bit, and let out a slow exhale. Joel seemed to hold his as Voidling spoke next, “Thank you Storyteller. What you have brought to us is greatly appreciated. Slab, would you please step forward and present what information you have to offer?”

Scythe felt bad for the winged man behind him. Slab, or Etho as Scythe knew him, was one of Joel's two partners. Void knows what he would be feeling right now if Ella was one of the IOs standing up there, so he could only imagine what Joel was feeling.

“Of course. I was asked to provide similar information as the Storyteller was, but about Tanuki instead of Ender,” Etho started. “From what I have been able to gather myself, Tanuki has been seeming to head north more often than any other direction, though I have followed him as far as the Wynnran border a small number of times. What I believe is that he may have a home in a few different cities, though they seem to be mainly in Empyria and Wynnra.”

Etho stepped back into the line, and Scythe heard Joel breath a small sigh of relief. He looked around at the others to see if anyone had noticed, but thankfully it seemed as though no one else did. “Thank you Slab. Your additional information will greatly aid us in our search.” Voidling said.

Then the masked hero turned to the third IO in line. “The Above, would you care to speak next?” Voidling asked, and Scythe could feel butterflies rising once more in his stomach.

“I would be honored,” Augustus said. “Before I present my information however, I would like to make a clarifying statement. I am mainly a weapons developer, and only gather information for others as the need arises. Information gathering is not my specialty, but I was not going to refuse someone that needed help for a good cause.

That being said, I was asked to bring information about the way that both Ender and Tanuki fight. What I have found isn't all too much, either. From what I can tell, they balance eachother out to make fighting others easy at all ranges, Ender seeming to keep a bit farther back and Tanuki seeming to keep closer in.” Augustus looked around the meeting room, pausing on a few people's gaze, including scythes. His look seemed to ask if he was revealing too much, and Scythe quickly blinked once as a way to tell him he's fine. And so the masked IO continued, “I believe they work as a team because they balance their own strengths and weaknesses with the others, proving for a force to reckon with.” 

At last, Augustus stepped back into the line, finalizing what information he could give. It was a few more seconds before Voidling spoke again, and he seemed to be lost in thought for that short amount of time. “Thank you for what you have been able to give us. We now know how we can try to combat both of these villains if it comes to a fight.” He said atlas. “Snowfall, thank you for waiting. Would you like to give us your findings?”

AN: Next chapter is going to have a TW, so enjoy the calm(ish) before the storm

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