Tag: Sunday Paper

Sunday Paper - Medical Aid, Privacy, Art

There are many more disabilities that are misunderstood and demonized. I think we need to rethink our engagement with all of them, all the time.John Saddington

Privacy is a feature.

Glenn Greenwald, in a TED Talk called Why Privacy Matters, said it best (emphasis mine):

Over the last 16 months, as I’ve debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, “I don’t really worry about invasions of privacy because I don’t have anything to hide.” I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, “Here’s my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you’re doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you’re not a bad person, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide.” Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.Andrew Orr

What makes art?

You know who makes art? Makers. Doers. The paint-stained and the dust-covered. The ones who pick up their cameras and walk out the door without a hint of inspiration or the foggiest notion if anyone is even watching, or cares – but they go to find out, to see if it’s there. Because they care. You know who doesn’t make art? The dreamers, the blamers, the excuse-makers, and the I-could-have-done-that’ers: anyone who doesn’t do the work for whatever reason: fear, laziness, even something as noble-sounding as the pursuit of vision. And that’s OK. The world will survive if you don’t make your art. But you won’t.David duChemin

Sunday Paper - Surveillance Capitalism, Amazon & Whole Foods, Quitting Facebook, Photographic Vision, Uber Burns

Trading privacy for peanuts.

... “Surveillance”, as the security expert Bruce Schneier has observed, is the business model of the internet and that is true of both the public and private sectors. Given how central the network has become to our lives, that means our societies have embarked on the greatest uncontrolled experiment in history. Without really thinking about it, we have subjected ourselves to relentless, intrusive, comprehensive surveillance of all our activities and much of our most intimate actions and thoughts. And we have no idea what the long-term implications of this will be for our societies – or for us as citizens.John Naughton writing for the Guardian

There can be only one.

The similarities go deeper, though: both Colligan and Mackey made the same analytical mistakes: they misunderstood their opponent's goals, strategies, and tactics. This is particularly easy to grok in the case of Colligan and the iPhone: Apple’s goal was not to build a phone but to build an even more personal computer; their strategy was not to add on functionality to a phone but to reduce the phone to an app, and their tactics were not to duplicate the carriers but to leverage their connection with customers to gain concessions from them.

Mackey’s misunderstanding was more subtle and more profound: while the iPhone may be the most successful product of all time, Amazon and Jeff Bezos have their sights on being the most dominant company of all time. Start there, and this purchase makes all kinds of sense.Ben Thompson

I have recently seriously considered the idea of deleting Facebook, Instagram and Google+. I don't interact much on them anymore. I have not actively engaged with anyone on Google+ in months. David Dennis is pulling the plug.

... there's the more relevant fact that once the 'honeymoon' period, where everything felt new, wore off a familiar sense of frustration returned. The truth is that I just don't enjoy having these services in my life anymore, and the period I spent on hiatus was notably more pleasant. This time around I can see that without the distraction of a number of unpleasant Twitter experiences, which while contributory to the magnitude of my frustration at the time were not the sole or even most significant factors, my experience is predominantly one of dissatisfaction and occasionally one of stress. Unfortunately, there is nothing that social media offers to balance the scales; my satisfying and meaningful social interactions come while face–to–face, or through a direct, private channel such as iMessage when immediate proximity is not an option.David Dennis

David duChemin on photographic vision.

From my perspective a depressing vision of the future. Is this what the Native Americans felt when they realized that Europeans and their descendants would soon replace them? Is this what Neanderthals felt when they realized that Homo sapiens would soon replace them?

This is the true essence of life: the struggle to overcome, to be victorious, to survive, and to expand. It’s the same with battling against other animals in the African plains as it is looking to find another star before ours burns out.Daniel Miessler

I'm feeling a lot of schadenfreude. But I don't care.

Some people attribute the company’s missteps to the personal failings of founder-CEO Travis Kalanick. These have certainly contributed to the company’s problems, and his resignation is probably appropriate. Kalanick and other top executives signal by example what is and is not acceptable behavior, and they are clearly responsible for the company’s ethically and legally questionable decisions and practices.

But I suggest that the problem at Uber goes beyond a culture created by toxic leadership. The company’s cultural dysfunction, it seems to me, stems from the very nature of the company’s competitive advantage: Uber’s business model is predicated on lawbreaking. And having grown through intentional illegality, Uber can’t easily pivot toward following the rules.Benjamin Edelman writing in Harvard Business Review

Sunday Paper - Cartes-de-Visite, Politics and Religion, Smart Assistants

Links to stuff I read during the week and found intetesting.

Cartes became popular among all types of people, reinforcing photography as a great equalizer among the classes. Whether you were rich or poor, your Carte would look an awful lot like any one else’s Carte and everyone was a part of the same trend. As more and more people exchanged Cartes, people also started writing on the fronts and backs of them, telling stories about the images the Carte contained, in essence like a postcard.

Carte-de-Visites lasted around 10 years until around 1866 when photographers began looking to push the boundaries and create something new. Stay tuned for what happened next in the next History of Photography column!Lisa Robinson

Russell Vought and Bernie Sanders:

Some took issue with Sanders bringing up religious beliefs in the midst of the hearing at all. They argue that not only do such questions not belong there, but they are being used as a litmus test for suitability for office. These, of course are boilerplate persecution complex for Christian conservatives and secularists alike. And they ignore the fact that this is a job interview for a position which requires respect for all people.

Sanders didn’t so much bring up sincerely held beliefs foundational to a man’s soul. He asked about a public statement which sounded an awful lot like Vought might struggle with impartiality. This supposedly persecuted man acted, calling people of another tradition condemned. Then hid behind his faith.Pastor Drew Downs

Dave Mark opining on market research data released by Morning Consult:

I suspect this data means the market will segregate into strong layers, with Amazon owning the cheap seats, Apple owning the higher tiers, and brand loyalty dividing the areas in between.Dave Mark

Wrong! I don't think so. As one commenter posted there is no income demographic information. So ... can we even trust the research? Sonos has been in this space for a while and sells more capable and cheaper solutions. The very same article Dave references had this to say about HomePod.

Data shows the new Apple product is not yet holding people’s interest: Fifty-five percent of respondents said they are not interested in purchasing a HomePod.

When/If Apple drops the price of HomePod within range of Sonos' offerings then we'll have a horse race. Until then ...

I ventured down a two hour rabbit hole of information on WikiPedia:

A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person, currently Elizabeth II, as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch, but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms. As of 2017, there are 16 Commonwealth realms: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, The Bahamas, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom.Wikipedia

I was born in the Commonwealth realm of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and I have lived in the Commonwealth realms of St. Lucia, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. I have visited the Commonwealth realms of the United Kingdom, Canada, Grenada, and The Bahamas. Someday I hope to visit the Commonwealth realms of Australia and New Zealand and I have talked to my wife about retiring to the Commonwealth realm of Belize.