Posts by John Tornow

This week’s Apple Event had a few interesting details to me. I’m a few days late here after some travel, but catching up on all of the latest.

First, they could have stopped the entire presentation after the redesign of the Apple TV “Siri” remote and I’d have been happy. The current Apple TV remote control is one of the strangest products I think Apple has ever released. It seemed inexplicably designed by someone that has never used a remote control on a couch to watch TV. It was even stranger that it remained basically unchanged for so many years.

Many years from now, when the current Apple employees are retired and writing books, I hope we can learn about some of these questionable decisions (including the newly replaced MacBook butterfly keyboards) that went into this era of Apple design. There have to be stories here.

Second, AirTags look pretty nice. As rumored for several years, these devices will be used to locate anything you want to track using your iPhone. The only questionable decision here to me is why the new Apple TV remove doesn’t include this capability? I don’t have a problem with losing my keys in the couch, Apple. I’m losing the remote!

Lastly, Ted Lasso season 2 coming in July. I love this show and can’t wait for the next season to drop.

Jacob Kaplan-Moss:

I often have people newer to the tech industry ask me for secrets to success. There aren’t many, really, but this secret — being willing to do something so terrifically tedious that it appears to be magic — works in tech too.

We’re an industry obsessed with automation, with streamlining, with efficiency. One of the foundational texts of our engineering culture, Larry Wall’s virtues of the programmer, includes laziness:

Laziness: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful and document what you wrote so you don’t have to answer so many questions about it.

I don’t disagree: being able to offload repetitive tasks to a program is one of the best things about knowing how to code. However, sometimes problems can’t be solved by automation. If you’re willing to embrace the grind you’ll look like a magician.

A nice little story about magic tricks too.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court sided with Google in a long-standing battle with Oracle over the design of the Android APIs. Specifically the court ruled that Google did not violate US copyright law when it used the Java SE API to create Android.

Russell Brandom and Adi Robert, reporting for The Verge:

“Google’s copying of the API to reimplement a user interface, taking only what was needed to allow users to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program, constituted a fair use of that material,” the Supreme Court ruled in a 6–2 opinion, with one justice (Amy Coney Barrett) not taking part in the ruling. It overturned an earlier federal decision, which found that Google’s use of the API had constituted infringement.

The court’s opinion concludes that APIs — which let programmers access other code — are significantly different from other kinds of computer programs. “As part of an interface, the copied lines are inherently bound together with uncopyrightable ideas … and the creation of new creative expression,” Justice Stephen Breyer writes in his opinion. Unlike many other computer programs, Breyer wrote, much of the copied lines’ value came from developers being invested in the ecosystem, rather than the actual operations of the program. Google used the API to let Java programmers build Android apps, which the court declared is a fundamentally transformative use

This is a great thing for the software industry. Copyrightable API signatures would be a giant unenforceable mess.

Congratulations to the Baylor Bears for winning the men’s NCAA tournament. What a season and a dominating Final Four performance.

From the Substack Blog:

[T]oday we’re pleased to announce that we have agreed to a $65 million Series B funding round led by Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz that will allow us to make a significant investment in writers. […]

We started Substack because we were dismayed by the state of the media ecosystem. Writers were losing jobs and newspapers were going out of business. At the same time, the rise of the attention economy had locked us all in newsfeeds optimized for engagement, rewarding the types of behavior and content that harm discourse, making it harder for people to understand each other and work together. Substack is our attempt to build a new and better model. We have set out to show that platforms that put writers and readers in charge are the way forward.

Substack has had quite an impressive growth curve over the past few years. They seemingly came out of nowhere and are now the default choice for creating an independent newsletter. Unlike Medium, they seem to be firing on all cylinders these days.

A few years ago when I was creating Air Mail, we looked at Substack as a possible platform to build on. It was early days and they didn’t have very many bells and whistles as they do now. I still don’t think it would work today for a visual weekly magazine like ours, but the gap is closing quickly.

Casey Newton, with an interesting take on what’s been going on with Medium.com:

In a blog post, billionaire Medium founder Ev Williams announced the latest pivot for the nearly nine-year old company. Just over two years into an effort to create a subscription-based bundle of publications committed to high-quality original journalism — and in the immediate aftermath of a bruising labor battle that had seen its workers fall one vote short of forming a union — Williams offered buyouts to all of its roughly 75 editorial employees. […]

Medium’s original journalism was meant to give shape and prestige to an essentially random collection of writing, gated behind a soft paywall that costs readers $5 a month or $50 a year. Eleven owned publications covered food, design, business, politics, and other subjects.

But in the end, frustrated that Medium staff journalists’ stories weren’t converting more free readers to paid ones, Williams moved to wind down the experiment — throwing dozens of journalists’ livelihoods into question, just as he had in 2015, when he laid off 50 people amid a pivot away from advertising on the site.

Remember when Medium was first around and it was the darling of web publishing? Everyone had to get a Medium account. Oddly enough, it’s still the publishing platform of choice for many high-profile writers. I still don’t understand why anyone would want to write there.

I can’t think of a better article to explore the virtues of owning your own presence on the web. I get it: it’s still too tech-y and annoying for most people to buy a domain, configure a website, and keep it online to publish their thoughts. Medium, and others like it, are the easy path. We in the industry should be making this easier, without the walled gardens and centralized control of platforms like Medium. Journalism and writing on the web is better when there are more options and places to publish, not less.

Interesting roundup from Kottke about the reasons why the Covid–19 vaccines were developed so quickly.

For example:

4. International & corporate collaboration. Countries and companies shared research, data, and resources because the primary goal was to develop effective vaccines and save lives, not make a profit. For instance, Chinese researchers posted the genome for SARS-CoV–2 on January 11, 2020, allowing the effort to develop a vaccine to begin.

A nice take on Biden’s speech last night from Politico:

Whether it’s a natural disaster, a war, a terrorist attack, a mass shooting — some devastating event that shocks Americans equally and temporarily suspends the usual divisions — for better or worse we turn to the president not just to push and pull the levers of government in response, but also to console us.

The images of those moments are indelible: Ronald Reagan speaking after the Challenger disaster, Bill Clinton memorializing the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, Georg W. Bush with a bullhorn on a pile of rubble and Barack Obama wiping away tears describing the Sandy Hook massacre.

The image last night of Biden retrieving from his breast pocket his daily schedule on which is written the latest Covid–19 death toll — 527,726 — may one day be a part of that grim pantheon of moments.

The right man for this moment, for sure.

It’s officially been a year of Covid. Technically yesterday was the anniversary of the W.H.O. declaring that the coronavirus was a global pandemic. For us, a year ago today was the day we decided to keep our kids home from school because this thing was real and it was here.

A few days prior had been the first confirmed positive case here in North Texas and the cases were growing quickly. This thing that we’d heard about from a distance was real and in our own backyard.

I remember wondering if our kids would go back to school after spring break. Surely they’d be back in a week or two? Not even close.

A year later and we’re finally starting to see some light. I had my first vaccine round this week along with millions of others. President Biden delivered a wonderful speech last night with a July 4th goal to return to normalcy. We’re not there yet, but things are starting to feel optimistic for the first time in a while.

What a year.

In other non-Texas news, last week Brave announced it had acquired a search engine product and is focused on relaunching it as a privacy-first competitor to Google.

Stephen Shankland, writing for CNET, has some details:

The startup hopes to pay users for seeing the ads, like it does with its flagship browser. Brave’s existing browser-based ad system pays 70% of ad revenue to Brave users who opt into the system, called Brave Rewards.

“If we get to that promised land of our own automated search ad system, then we will give the user at least what we make,” Chief Executive Brendan Eich said.

The ad system is a cool concept and I hope it catches on.

Brave is unlikely to dethrone Google search anytime soon. But Tailcat could show there is room for financial success with a business that puts privacy first. The Brave browser has grown steadily since its initial release in 2016. Eich forecast Brave will have as many as 50 million monthly users at the end of the year, double the 25 million users it has now. It doesn’t release financial information, but its revenue has grown by a factor of 28 over the last 16 months and it now employs 115 people.

I don’t think “dethroning” Google is (or should be) the goal here. A small percentage of the search market could be a massive business. And if one company shows that doing so in a private user-focused way is a successful venture, then others will follow. I’d argue that DuckDuckGo is already doing this quite well, so hopefully Brave is continuing the trend. More choices in search, and more choices that respect privacy are good things.

Another good one articulating the problem in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

We know that public health policy has been far more effective in dealing with the pandemic than individual actions alone. We understand the push to stimulate our economy and support our businesses. So why not start with increasing businesses’ allowed capacity to 100% while maintaining the mask mandate?

After talking with many people about the Governor’s announcements last week–it’s obviously been the talk of the town–it’s hard to find a non-political reason why this action was taken. The science doesn’t back it up. The experts weren’t even consulted.

The frustrating part of the removal of the mask mandate is that every business, school, church, and other organizations now have to put out their own policies and enforcement. It’s created an unnecessary amount of work and burden for these groups when there’s no reason for it.

This is a nice piece by Karen Attiah, writing in The Washington Post, describing the current state of Texas politics:

It was ironic that Abbott made his announcement on Texas Independence Day. For many of us Texans, what we desperately need is to be free from a GOP leadership that has put our safety last at every turn since the pandemic began. Abbott’s decision to lift occupancy limits on businesses and other restrictions is reckless and premature. If you are unvaccinated in Texas — as most of us still are — the message is clear: You’re on your own.

And a side note for my non-Texan friends: The state leadership does not represent all of Texas. Some commentators have reacted to Abbott’s move by suggesting that Texans don’t deserve vaccines, but that ignores the fact that tens of millions of Texans did not vote for any of this. Voter groups have worked for years to end the gerrymandering and voter suppression that have enabled Republicans to put such unserious men in power.

During a press conference and release yesterday, non-coincidentally on Texas Independence Day, Governor Greg Abbott removed all Covid–19 restrictions on Texas businesses and will allow them to open at 100% capacity again. He also removed all state mandates that require masks.

The CDC’s data tracker is reporting encouraging news: there are less cases and deaths than there have been for a few months. President Biden also announced yesterday that his administration’s efforts to ramp up vaccine production will result in enough vaccines for every American “by the end of May.” The good news here is that the Covid–19 situation is improving, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We’re still in the midst of a major public health crisis.

Governor Abbott’s move is in direct contrast with science, public safety, and the well-being of Texans. It’s too soon. He knows it, and we all know it. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt as he attempts to energize his base for a reelection campaign next year. It’s also a convenient way to change the narrative away from the complete failure of our energy grid during the winter storms a few weeks ago.

This announcement is premature at best. It would have been better if he had a giant ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner hanging behind him while he spoke.

Weather Line, my iPhone weather app of choice, is being acquired by an unknown source:

Weather Line has been beloved by so many people across its near-decade long life on the App Store. First and foremost, thank you to everyone that has supported the app over the years. We never could have imagined how far it would go. Weather Line has had a fantastic journey as an indie app, and we are grateful to all of you for that.

In recent months, we were approached by a buyer. They saw the uniqueness of Weather Line and the strong foundation we’ve built. While we aren’t able to provide further details on their future plans for the app, we hope you can understand, and will look forward to it.

First, it’s great to see a delightful indie app being acquired. I hope this means good things for the founders and it’s a decision that supports them. Second, it’s kind of a strange thing to announce an acquisition without naming the purchaser. I’m sure there’s reasons behind this, but it certainly makes me curious.

I’m sad that the app will be going away after another year but hopeful that the purchaser will do great things with it.

Photographer George Utkov shot some amazing views of a frozen White Rock Lake with his drone last week. These pictures are incredible, and it sure doesn’t look like Texas.

And, Central Track collected a few other photographers’ views of a snowy Dallas too.

Today the estimated high temperature in Dallas will be 78°. Last week at this time we were at –2°. What a week.