Blockchain for Big Brother

While doing some job hunting, I came across a company (Crossover) that promises high salary jobs in a strictly metrics-based remote work environment (it’s not an MLM/network marketing company).

How does this company measure metrics?
They have you install software on your computer which takes snapshots of both you and your computer screen every ten minutes. Obviously, this must keep the employees focused and on task in a Big Brother sort of way

That got me thinking… I wonder if they use blockchain for linking all the photos to prevent tampering?

That thought, in turn, got me thinking more about a simple way to store a sequence of files in AWS S3 (photos, video frames, etc).

Unsavable Photos on the Internet

Imagine if you could send a photo to someone else that couldn't simply be captured or saved. In other words, a screen capture wouldn't work and neither would taking a photo of the screen with another camera. One of the first Java applets I wrote solved this problem. But, since then, I haven't seen this technique used anywhere (which probably means there's not much demand for it).

I still think there's a market for displaying photos that can't be captured. But this technique is only a feature... there's not enough for an entire business. I'm just surprised I haven't seen it used. I thought, with the advent of disappearing photos on SnapChat, that it would resurface. My technique for this is still one of my favorite hacks.

The Early Days of Java

Java was the new hotness during the Dot Com boom period of the 1990s. It was the first mainstream object oriented language that worked great on the client and server. Although it was billed as "write once, run everywhere," it still needed work in the early days and we were fond of saying "write once, debug everywhere."

The big selling point of Java was it could be complied and run as an applet inside a web browser's Java Virtual Machine. It was the first executable mobile code for the Web. Java became everything Ada wanted to be and JavaScript became everything Java applets wanted to be. It's funny how that happens.

Backups and Versioning

Revert To keeps multiple versions of your iWork files
with a UI similar to Time Machine.

Steve Jobs first demonstrated Time Machine about a dozen years ago. It's a simple backup feature built into macOS that takes hourly backup snapshots of files on your computer, when they change. This makes its trivial to recover a file your deleted or overwrote. The biggest challenge is enabling it with an external hard drive (which isn't much of a challenge at all).

Even Better

But, what if you didn't setup Time Machine? No worries, since backing up work is such a valuable feature Apple has incorporated versioning into their iWork suite of applications for word processing (Pages), presentations (Keynote), and spreadsheets (Numbers). At any given time, you can step back to earlier document versions in iWork; no setup required (screen shot, above).

I wish other major software suites, like those from Adobe or Microsoft, would implement this simple feature.

To step back to an earlier version of your iWork file, simply go to File –> Revert To and, voilà, your previous versions are there. This out-of-the-box feature, coupled with Time Machine, will solve nearly all of your common backup needs. I say nearly because all of your backups will still be local to your computer and network. For the most mission critical redundancy, I recommend a 3-2-1 backup policy: Three backups on at least two different media, with one backup located offsite (i.e. Amazon S3 or Glacier).