Posters

Arles, June 25.

Quote of the Day

“A Conservative Government is an organised hypocrisy.”

• Benjamin Disraeli.

It is, except that now we have a disorganised one.

Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news

The Beatles | Twist and Shout

Link

Wonderful. But listen closely to John Lennon’s voice. Then read the piece below.

Long Read of the Day

It Conveyed Them: When The Beatles Recorded “Twist and Shout”

Lovely essay by David Hepworth on “the moment when the band found its voice at Abbey Road.

As it turned out, on that day they didn’t finish the work in the morning and afternoon sessions. In fact they were still there at ten o’clock at night, the point in the evening when Abbey Road neighbours were inclined to complain, particularly if a band was using the echo chamber on the outside of the building. Most of what they had recorded that day would go on the first LP but George Martin decided that “Hold Me Tight” was not quite strong enough yet and therefore he needed another tune to complete the record. They took a break in the canteen in the basement to decide what it might be. It was Alan Smith, a journalist friend from Liverpool who was with them that day writing a story for NME, who suggested they do “Twist And Shout”—or, as he said at the time, “the thing you do that sounds like ‘La Bamba.’”

I once went on a pilgrimage with my kids to Abbey Road and tried to get a photograph of them going across the pedestrian crossing! They thought I was daft. (I was.)

Bram Molenaar RIP

The man who created Vim, one of the text editors popular with geeks, has passed away at the untimely age of 62. The Register has a nice tribute to him.

If, like me, you were an early user of time-shared Unix mainframes, then you will have used Vi, the text editor originally written by Bill Joy (founder of Sun Microsystems). But because Unix was owned by AT&T, distribution of Vi was governed by the AT&T licence (which was the reason why GNU was developed by Richard Stallman, and Linux by Linus Torvalds). Tim Thompson developed a clone of Vi called Stevie (ST Editor for Vi Enthusiasts) which did not use its source code and could therefore be freely distributed, and Moolenaar used Stevie as the base from which he developed Vim (which originally stood for ‘Vi iMitation’ but later settled down as ‘Vi iMproved’!) Vim became the default text editor that was shipped with most Linux distributions, and so was one of the key pieces of open source development over the years.

If you have an Apple Mac, then you’ve got it, though you might not know that. Open the ‘Terminal’ app, type ‘vi’ and see what happens.

Bram was a generous and talented man, the epitome of the kind of people who built the early Internet — as you can see if you go to his personal website. May he rest in peace.

My commonplace booklet

 Spyware maker LetMeSpy shuts down after hacker deletes server data

via TechCrunch.

A rare piece of good news on the malware front. Creating spyware is a loathsome practice. The only thing worse is deploying it on unsuspecting users. That was what was Jamal Khashoggi’s downfall, except that his iPhone was probably infected by NSO’s Pegasus.

Linkblog

Something I noticed while trying to drink from the Internet firehose.

Voyager 2 signal found by Deep Space Network.  The Register

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After Duchamp…

Walking through Arles one evening in June I spotted this in a builder’s disposal dump and was immediately reminded of Duchamp’s ’fountain’ — a ‘readymade sculpture’ consisting of a urinal signed “R. Mutt” that the artist submitted for the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists staged at the Grand Central Palace in New York. Although the work was accepted by the organising committee it was (surprise, surprise!) not placed in the exhibition area. But the great Arthur Stieglitz photographed it, which is how it lives on in collective memory.

Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 sculpture Fountain.

Quote of the Day

”That Trump will be tried for his coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is a fulfillment of his rights. It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial.”

• Historian Timothy Snyder

Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news

Richard Wagner | Lohengrin | Prelude

Link

Hypnotic. And at the same time magnificent.

Long Read of the Day

An Internet Veteran’s Guide to Not Being Scared of Technology

This is an interesting profile of Mike Masnick by Kashmir Hill. Worth reading for two reasons: Masnick is a shrewd, insightful and sharp critic of the tech industry. And Hill is one of the best tech journalists around. I’ve been reading both of them for yonks.

By sheer longevity and a deep knowledge of tech history, Mr. Masnick has become something of a Silicon Valley oracle. His message is to embrace change even when painful and to beware of knee-jerk legal protections with unintended consequences.

It hasn’t paid very well, but what Mr. Masnick doesn’t have in wealth he makes up for in influence. Lawmakers, activists and executives consider him an essential guide for what’s happening in the technology world and what to do next.

“Whenever tech policy news breaks I always want to see what Mike’s take is going to be,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, in a statement. Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, has called him “insightful and reasonable.” The tech entrepreneur Anil Dash said he “shows up and ships every day” and has been “filing constantly for decades on a beat that is thankless.”

Interesting throughout.

What Apple did to Nokia, Tesla is now doing to the motor industry

Or, is Toyota the new Nokia?

My column in yesterday’s Observer…

An intriguing news item dropped into my inbox this week. It said that in the first quarter of this year, an electric vehicle (EV) had become the biggest-selling car in the world, outselling the Toyota Corolla. I know, I know, dear reader: you think this is non-news of the “Small earthquake in Chile, not many dead” variety. But to those of us condemned to follow the tech industry, three things are significant about it: the vanquished car was a Corolla, the EV was a Tesla (the Model Y hatchback), and the runner-up is made by Toyota.

The poor Corolla gets a lot of disdainful looks from petrolheads, who tell rude jokes about it and view the vehicle as bland, unimaginative and boring. Normal people, however, have consistently regarded it as one of the best compact cars available, with good fuel economy, impressive reliability and excellent luggage capacity. And they have backed that judgment with their wallets for many years. So on the sales front, the Corolla was no pushover.

Despite that, it was overtaken by, of all things, a Tesla…

Do read the entire piece.

My commonplace booklet

China considers limiting kids’ smartphone time to two hours a day

From Engadget…

China might put further limits on kids’ smartphone use. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has proposed draft rules that would cap the phone time of children under 18 to a maximum of two hours per day. That’s only for 16- and 17-year-olds, too. Youth between eight and 15 would be limited to one hour per day, while those under eight would have 40 minutes.

The draft would also bar any use between 10PM and 6AM. Phones would need to have an easy-to-access mode that lets parents restrict what kids see and permit internet providers to show age-appropriate content. Children under three would be limited to songs and other forms of audio, while those 12 and up can see educational and news material. There would be exceptions for regulated educational content and emergency services.

As with previous measures, the proposal is meant to curb addictive behaviour in children…

Interesting example of the differences between an authoritarian state and a liberal democratic one. Imagine the hoo-hah if governments in the West tried this — even though it’s a sensible strategy. If you want an example of state incapacity, just think about out inability to control junk foods, sweet drinks and other causes of obesity in kids.

Linkblog

Something I noticed, while trying to drink from the Internet firehose.

How pencils are made. Link

Wonderful 10 minutes. And the strange thing is that it’s also how pencils were made a century ago.

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The Beady Eye

We’re looking after a neighbour’s chickens at the moment. This one is not impressed by her new custodian. Personally, I don’t blame her. I’m not impressed by me either.

Quote of the Day

A good writer doesn’t just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing. And there is, as far as I know, no substitute for this kind of discovery. Talking about your ideas with other people is a good way to develop them. But even after doing this, you’ll find you still discover new things when you sit down to write. There is a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.”

• Paul Graham Link

That’s my experience too. E.M. Forster once said that there are two kinds of writer: those who know what they think and write it down; and those who find out what they think by trying to write it. The former are rare (though I’ve known two of them in my time, and I’ve always envied them). I’m definitely the second kind.

Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan | Chimes of Freedom

Link

I’ve loved this song for longer than I care to admit.

Long Read of the Day

 What Oppenheimer the film gets wrong about Oppenheimer the man

Very good, sharp essay by Haydn Belfield of CSER. Particularly interesting if you’ve seen the film. Although the movie is based on (or at least informed by) American Prometheus, Kai Bird’s and Martin Sherwin’s exhaustive biography of Oppenheimer, there’s lots that the movie left out, which is why Anthony Lane, in his New Yorker review observed: “I hate to say it, but, if you zip through all six hundred pages of the book before seeing the film, you’ll enjoy the ride more. Much is omitted in the adaptation; there is no whisper, for example, of the fact that Oppenheimer was born into serious wealth.”

Here’s Belfield on the same subject:

One would be tempted to describe J. Robert Oppenheimer as a tragic figure — that’s certainly how Christopher Nolan portrays him in the biopic Oppenheimer. The father of the atomic bomb who spent the rest of his life agonizing over what he had helped birth; the ultimate insider who was humbled and brought low; the hopeful scientist who started the nuclear arms race. But then, tragic figures don’t generally spend their retirement yachting around the Caribbean. Or maybe he was a tragic figure in the mold of Lord Byron — interestingly dark and mystical, remarkably pretty, and rich as Midas.

Oppenheimer grew up in privilege, and remained swaddled in it for his whole life. His father immigrated to New York with nothing, and rose up to become a wealthy textile company executive. His parents spoiled their little genius. When he started a childhood rock collection, it grew to cover every surface in their apartment, which itself covered an entire floor overlooking the Hudson River. The Oppenheimers had a chauffeur, a French governess, three live-in maids and three van Gogh paintings. He corresponded with the New York Mineralogical Club, but when they invited him to speak they were surprised and delighted when he turned out to be only 12. His 16th birthday present was a 28-foot yacht (to go with the family’s 40-foot Lorelei) which he called Trimethy, after a chemical compound. As Oppenheimer remarked when he bought his first holiday home in New Mexico, the state where he would later spearhead the development of the atomic bomb: “hot dog!”

Interesting throughout. Worth your time. Also, makes me wonder about getting the book. Hmmm…

You-couldn’t-make-it-up dept.

When The New York Times reported in April that a contractor had purchased and deployed a spying tool made by NSO, the contentious Israeli hacking firm, for use by the U.S. government, White House officials said they were unaware of the contract and put the F.B.I. in charge of figuring out who might have been using the technology.

After an investigation, the F.B.I. uncovered at least part of the answer: It was the F.B.I.

The deal for the surveillance tool between the contractor, Riva Networks, and NSO was completed in November 2021. Only days before, the Biden administration had put NSO on a Commerce Department blacklist, which effectively banned U.S. firms from doing business with the company. For years, NSO’s spyware had been abused by governments around the world.

Source

Dress Codes

From the FT’s daily newsletter:

”Lately, one of [Derek] Guy’s regular targets is our prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who he insists dresses badly. He’s right. Sunak’s suits reflect the current fashion for slim-fitting attire with short trouser legs. These make two of Sunak’s assets — that he is slim and looks young for his age — into liabilities, because the combined effect is to make him look like a sixth-former who has outgrown his uniform.”

Translating Musk-speak into plain English

Recently, Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO of X (neé Twitter) wrote a company-wide memo to the remaining staff of that wretched company. The memo is a masterpiece of corporate cant, so Jon Gruber did us all an heroic favour by providing a running translation on his Daring Fireball blog.

Here’s a sample:

Memo:

At our core, we have an inventor mindset — constantly learning, testing out new approaches, changing to get it right and ultimately succeeding.

Translation: We are hemorrhaging cash and our advertisers are still fleeing.

Memo:

With X, we serve our entire community of users and customers by working tirelessly to preserve free expression and choice, create limitless interactivity, and create a marketplace that enables the economic success of all its participants.

I used to run all advertising for NBCUniversal. Now I’m running an $8/month multi-level marketing scheme where the only users who’ve signed up are men who own a collection of MAGA hats.

Memo:

The best news is we’re well underway.

There is no hope.

Memo:

Everyone should be proud of the pace of innovation over the last nine months — from long form content, to creator monetization, and tremendous advancements in brand safety protections.

Have you seen the ads we’re running these days? Last week we were filling everyone’s timeline with ads for discount chewable boner pills, the punchline of which ads is that you’ll bang your lady so hard she’ll need the aid of a walker afterward. That’s a video we promoted to everyone. This week it’s anime for foot fetishists. That’s what we put in everyone’s feed, every three tweets. Or X’s, or whatever we’re now calling them. I used to book hundred-million-dollar Olympic sponsorship deals with companies like Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble. (Thank god for Apple.)

Memo:

Our usage is at an all time high

Our owner is high as a kite.

There’s lots more in this vein. Do check it out.

Linkblog

Something I noticed, while trying to drink from the Internet firehose.

• How to test different A.I. chatbots: try asking them a question to which you know the answer — like Doc Searls (Whom God Preserve) did.

  This Blog is also available as an email three days a week. If you think that might suit you better, why not subscribe? One email on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays delivered to your inbox at 6am UK time. It’s free, and you can always unsubscribe if you conclude your inbox is full enough already!