March 2012
21 posts
Siracusa Meme →
Kinda amazing.
Twist and Shout
Ben Brooks:
Culpan also talks about how workers want more hours, not less — a story that jives with a Reuters report.
No. Workers want more money, not less. As things stand, they have to work more hours in order to get more money. But I don’t think they’d complain if, oh I don’t know, their hourly wages were raised by 20% and they don’t have to work overtime. Indeed,...
Hard Question
Stephen Hackett, in a post entitled “On Android Tablets”:
Furthermore, why do sites like the Verge and others keep spending so much time reviewing [Android tablets]?
I don’t know. Why do Appleverse blogs keep talking about Android tablets (and how they’re not “winning”)?
Apple at $600
Horace Dediu at Asymco:
Apple’s share price has increased rapidly in the last few weeks. The rise to $600 was swift and broke the pattern of slow growth the the stock was able to obtain over the past few years.
[…]
What we are observing is market inefficiency.
[…]
The cause of this divergence between reality and perception is that disruptions are divergent from perceptions. A...
Svbtle
Love the backend of Dustin Curtis’s new blogging system, Svbtle. The ideas / posts area is especially innovative.
Not a huge fan of tying it to a “network” with the same frontend. However, that’s probably just because I’m not invited to the party. ^_*
Strawman Deontologist
Ben Brooks, strawman deontologist:
So I can only assume that lying, in Topolsky’s eyes, can be justified if it is done so out of necessity. That’s a good reason not to read a single word Topolsky writes.
Yo, look up “murderer at the door”.
I don’t think Mike Daisey’s fabrications are justified, because I think they ultimately harm more than they help. Witness the...
1 tag
"Creepy"
Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic, from February 2012:
The word you hear over and over and over is that targeted ads can be “creepy.” It even crops up in the academic literature, despite its vague meaning in this context. My intuition is that we use the word “creepy” precisely because it is an indeterminate word. It connotes that tingling-back-of-the-neck feeling, but not...
Mike Daisey, Again
The Economist:
I don’t know what other people are mentally accusing Apple of, but in my book, the relevant question in this whole drama has always been very simple: is Apple adequately ensuring that its Supplier Code of Conduct is being enforced, and is that code of conduct itself adequate? The question is not whether it is sinful to buy an iPhone. The question is not whether Apple is a...
Path Redux
Ben Brooks:
David Barnard asked Path to delete all his user data and got a support email confirming the data was gone.
Today he signed back up and all his old data was still there for him to use.
But I’m sure everybody does it so it’s okay. Can’t wait to hear MG Siegler and Michael Arrington’s defense of this.
P.S. Why are people still using Path?
P.P.S. Obviously I...
Anonymous asked: Strictly, Gruber's reply about the temperature was good science, just not useful for most people. Percentage comparisons only matter when you are working from a real, well-defined zero. If you can move the zero, what's the point? If I define Google's stock price minus one dollar as the baseline for comparison with Apple stock, a share of Apple is worth eleventy billion percent more...
Apple Says
Apple enthusiast John Gruber:
The actual larger truth — underage workers, unsafe conditions, grueling hours, crowded dormitories — are all real problems, and all deserve our attention. But that’s exactly what Apple itself has been saying for five years. It’s also what journalists from the Times to ABC Nightline have been reporting for years.
True, Apple has been putting out Supplier...
gypsycabco asked: In this particular case, could one use room temperature as a base for measurements?
1 tag
Bad Science
Speaking of sensationalists, Apple enthusiast John Gruber writes
As Alex Dedalus points out on Twitter, to say this is a crap headline is give crap headlines a bad name. Celsius and Fahrenheit are relative temperature scales, not absolute, so you can’t do percentage-based comparisons. Think about it: 33.6 / 28.3 gives you an “18.7 percent” increase, but if you do the math with the same...
Rush
Stu Parker says goodbye with this gem:
There’s alternatives, of course, I could badger M.G. Siegler, but that guy is the Rush Limbaugh of tech writing. If Siegler is legitimately intelligent, he never shows it, instead he plays the role of an all-knowing wise ass sitting high above everyone else, staring down, shouting his opinion incoherently at the masses; shouting for no reason, demeaning his...
Mike Daisey
In general, I think it’s bullshit to say you’re lying to serve “the greater truth”. Still, let us not forget what is important here — the workers. Brad Plumer:
One thing to note here, however, is that this whole kerfluffle seems to have little bearing on what we actually know about labor conditions in China. Let’s hear what Rob Schmitz, the Marketplace reporter who...
Action at a Distance: "4G" →
Richard Gaywood at actionaad:
Don’t believe anyone who tells you that Apple stands firm against the worse excesses of the carriers. This is pure capitulation to AT&T’s marketing department.
Super-excited that my iPhone 4 will get 4G now!
Why I Ignore 0-Day Reviews
There have been lots of reviews of exciting software recently: Clear, Frames, Windows 8, you name it. My advice: ignore them all.
I understand this is what tech writers have to do. Or, if you think like MG Siegler and Mike Arrington, tech writers must write 0-day reviews in order to get on the front page of TechMeme. The problem is that these reviews are rarely indicative of long-term user...
Pro-Tip
Peter Cohen of The Loop, on what tech writers should write about when there’s no real news:
My friend Monty suggested that I write an article to offer guidelines to journalists about what to write when there’s no real news […] I thought it was a great idea, so here it goes:
Keep your fucking mouth shut, asshole.
Good tip, but I got one better. Here it goes:
Write some condescending...
Monetization^2
Speaking of Twitter and monetization, here is Reuters:
Twitter users are about to become major marketing fodder, as two research companies get set to release information to clients who will pay for the privilege of mining the data.
Boulder, Colorado-based Gnip Inc and DataSift Inc, based in the U.K. and San Francisco, are licensed by Twitter to analyze archived tweets and basic information...
Control
A question for everyone:
If you’re someone who thinks it’s okay for Apple to exert a tight control on their ecosystem but not okay for AT&T to exert a tight control on bandwidth, usage, etc., what is the relevant difference between the two?
Email me at raging.thunderbolt@gmail.com
This is not a rhetorical question. I am genuinely curious.
Monetization
Matt Alexander on Twitter:
Opposing the monetization of the platform and spewing outrage at promoted Tweets is distasteful. The platform does a great deal for its users and has existed with no acknowledgment of financial stability for years. Introducing fairly light advertising is, on the grand scale of things, of emphatically tiny significance and of virtually non-existent detriment to the...
