daring-rss

John August:

John welcomes writer and director Christopher Nolan (The Dark
Knight, Inception) to discuss experimentation, subjectivity and
adaptation as they take an in-depth look at his screenplay,
Oppenheimer. They explore Chris’ writing process, how to make
non-linear structures work, finding the story in real-life events,
being kinetic on the page, the importance of embracing editing,
and why theme can be a tricky thing.

Just a terrific interview; Nolan is as cogent as you’d expect. Even if you don’t write screenplays, I think his advice and experience are applicable to any creative endeavor, in terms of how to translate nebulous ideas churning around in your head into a concrete written description or plan. Writing is thinking, and it’s in the writing of ideas that they become fully formed.

 ★ 

John August:

John welcomes writer and director Christopher Nolan (The Dark
Knight, Inception) to discuss experimentation, subjectivity and
adaptation as they take an in-depth look at his screenplay,
Oppenheimer. They explore Chris’ writing process, how to make
non-linear structures work, finding the story in real-life events,
being kinetic on the page, the importance of embracing editing,
and why theme can be a tricky thing.

Just a terrific interview; Nolan is as cogent as you’d expect. Even if you don’t write screenplays, I think his advice and experience are applicable to any creative endeavor, in terms of how to translate nebulous ideas churning around in your head into a concrete written description or plan. Writing is thinking, and it’s in the writing of ideas that they become fully formed.

Read More 

Greg S. Fink, reporting for Car and Driver:

This next-generation CarPlay builds upon previous versions by
integrating into all of the displays of a given vehicle and not
just the central infotainment screen. Though the familiar CarPlay
experience remains, multiple template options and special details
ensure the interface reflects the ethos of a given brand.

For instance, the preview of Porsche’s CarPlay interface shows
that it features a trio of circular gauges in the cluster and a
background wallpaper that mimics the brand’s distinct houndstooth
(or Pepita in Porsche-speak) seat pattern.

Aston Martin, on the other hand, goes a slightly different route.
Its cluster includes a central information screen bookended by a
circular speedometer and tachometer, the latter of which
integrates “Handbuilt in Great Britain” wraparound text. […]

This connection to the vehicle also means this new generation of
CarPlay can cohesively display information from the vehicle’s
native infotainment system (think tire-pressure information and
the like), as well.

Not a false alarm like back in August — these really are the first announcements of support for the next-generation CarPlay that Apple announced at WWDC 2022, just under the gun for the promised “before the end of 2023”.

 ★ 

Greg S. Fink, reporting for Car and Driver:

This next-generation CarPlay builds upon previous versions by
integrating into all of the displays of a given vehicle and not
just the central infotainment screen. Though the familiar CarPlay
experience remains, multiple template options and special details
ensure the interface reflects the ethos of a given brand.

For instance, the preview of Porsche’s CarPlay interface shows
that it features a trio of circular gauges in the cluster and a
background wallpaper that mimics the brand’s distinct houndstooth
(or Pepita in Porsche-speak) seat pattern.

Aston Martin, on the other hand, goes a slightly different route.
Its cluster includes a central information screen bookended by a
circular speedometer and tachometer, the latter of which
integrates “Handbuilt in Great Britain” wraparound text. […]

This connection to the vehicle also means this new generation of
CarPlay can cohesively display information from the vehicle’s
native infotainment system (think tire-pressure information and
the like), as well.

Not a false alarm like back in August — these really are the first announcements of support for the next-generation CarPlay that Apple announced at WWDC 2022, just under the gun for the promised “before the end of 2023”.

Read More 

Josh Marshall:

Richards often makes lists of the greatest guitar players of all time. But at a technical level he’s no particular standout. One-time Stones guitarist Mick Taylor was and is certainly superior by that measure. Even a casual rock fan could easily list a dozen guitarists who top him by that measure. Richards’ genius isn’t technical proficiency but knowing what to play, what not to play — both in the sense of the genius of composition but the role of silence in constructing an unshakeable riff. In interviews he has often spoken of silence as the composer’s canvass. For a man notorious for excess, his music is built on economy and restraint. His obsession with finding just the right sound, just the tonal palette he needs, leads him to start using a so-called “open G” tuning, a way to tune a guitar descended from banjo tuning. It literally involved removing one of the six strings. Most of the Stones’ most distinctive and indelible songs come after that switch. You can’t quite play most Stones songs on a conventionally tuned guitar. Very close. Almost the same, but not quite.

Richards was on The Tonight Show a few months ago, and played through a few songs on an acoustic guitar with Jimmy Fallon standing in for Mick Jagger. (He does a great Jagger.) It’s just amazing to me how he can get that Keith Richards sound out of seemingly any guitar. I think of it as a distinctly electric-guitar sound, but it’s not.

 ★ 

Josh Marshall:

Richards often makes lists of the greatest guitar players of all time. But at a technical level he’s no particular standout. One-time Stones guitarist Mick Taylor was and is certainly superior by that measure. Even a casual rock fan could easily list a dozen guitarists who top him by that measure. Richards’ genius isn’t technical proficiency but knowing what to play, what not to play — both in the sense of the genius of composition but the role of silence in constructing an unshakeable riff. In interviews he has often spoken of silence as the composer’s canvass. For a man notorious for excess, his music is built on economy and restraint. His obsession with finding just the right sound, just the tonal palette he needs, leads him to start using a so-called “open G” tuning, a way to tune a guitar descended from banjo tuning. It literally involved removing one of the six strings. Most of the Stones’ most distinctive and indelible songs come after that switch. You can’t quite play most Stones songs on a conventionally tuned guitar. Very close. Almost the same, but not quite.

Richards was on The Tonight Show a few months ago, and played through a few songs on an acoustic guitar with Jimmy Fallon standing in for Mick Jagger. (He does a great Jagger.) It’s just amazing to me how he can get that Keith Richards sound out of seemingly any guitar. I think of it as a distinctly electric-guitar sound, but it’s not.

Read More 

Jennifer Lynch, writing for the EFF:

Google announced this week that it will be making several
important changes to the way it handles users’ “Location History”
data. These changes would appear to make it much more difficult — if not impossible — for Google to provide mass location data in
response to a geofence warrant, a change we’ve been
asking Google to implement for years.

Geofence warrants require a provider — almost always Google — to
search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all
users or devices located within a geographic area during a time
period specified by law enforcement. These warrants violate the
Fourth Amendment because they are not targeted to a
particular individual or device, like a typical warrant for
digital communications. The only “evidence” supporting a geofence
warrant is that a crime occurred in a particular area, and the
perpetrator likely carried a cell phone that shared location data
with Google. For this reason, they inevitably sweep up potentially
hundreds of people who have no connection to the crime under
investigation — and could turn each of those people into a
suspect.

Google’s announcement, from Marlo McGriff, director of product for Google Maps:

The Timeline feature in Maps helps you remember places you’ve been
and is powered by a setting called Location History. If you’re
among the subset of users who have chosen to turn Location History
on (it’s off by default), soon your Timeline will be saved right
on your device — giving you even more control over your data.
Just like before, you can delete all or part of your information
at any time or disable the setting entirely.

If you’re getting a new phone or are worried about losing your
existing one, you can always choose to back up your data to the
cloud so it doesn’t get lost. We’ll automatically encrypt your
backed-up data so no one can read it, including Google.

The reason these overly broad geofence warrants “almost always” were specific to Google is that Apple never collected location data that could be collected in the aggregate like this. From Apple’s most recent government transparency report (PDF), covering the first half of 2022:

Apple may also receive requests from government agencies seeking
customer data related to specific latitude and longitudes
coordinates (geofence) for a specified time period. Apple does not
have any data to provide in response to geofence requests.

I checked with a source at Apple, and they believe they have never collected or stored geolocation data in a manner that can be linked to groups of individuals in a certain area or areas.

Good on Google, though, for changing this.

 ★ 

Jennifer Lynch, writing for the EFF:

Google announced this week that it will be making several
important changes to the way it handles users’ “Location History”
data. These changes would appear to make it much more difficult — if not impossible — for Google to provide mass location data in
response to a geofence warrant, a change we’ve been
asking Google to implement for years.

Geofence warrants require a provider — almost always Google — to
search its entire reserve of user location data to identify all
users or devices located within a geographic area during a time
period specified by law enforcement. These warrants violate the
Fourth Amendment because they are not targeted to a
particular individual or device, like a typical warrant for
digital communications. The only “evidence” supporting a geofence
warrant is that a crime occurred in a particular area, and the
perpetrator likely carried a cell phone that shared location data
with Google. For this reason, they inevitably sweep up potentially
hundreds of people who have no connection to the crime under
investigation — and could turn each of those people into a
suspect.

Google’s announcement, from Marlo McGriff, director of product for Google Maps:

The Timeline feature in Maps helps you remember places you’ve been
and is powered by a setting called Location History. If you’re
among the subset of users who have chosen to turn Location History
on (it’s off by default), soon your Timeline will be saved right
on your device — giving you even more control over your data.
Just like before, you can delete all or part of your information
at any time or disable the setting entirely.

If you’re getting a new phone or are worried about losing your
existing one, you can always choose to back up your data to the
cloud so it doesn’t get lost. We’ll automatically encrypt your
backed-up data so no one can read it, including Google.

The reason these overly broad geofence warrants “almost always” were specific to Google is that Apple never collected location data that could be collected in the aggregate like this. From Apple’s most recent government transparency report (PDF), covering the first half of 2022:

Apple may also receive requests from government agencies seeking
customer data related to specific latitude and longitudes
coordinates (geofence) for a specified time period. Apple does not
have any data to provide in response to geofence requests.

I checked with a source at Apple, and they believe they have never collected or stored geolocation data in a manner that can be linked to groups of individuals in a certain area or areas.

Good on Google, though, for changing this.

Read More 

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma:

Figma and Adobe have reached a joint decision to end our pending
acquisition. It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, but despite
thousands of hours spent with regulators around the world
detailing differences between our businesses, our products, and
the markets we serve, we no longer see a path toward regulatory
approval of the deal.

We entered into this agreement 15 months ago with the goal of
accelerating what both Adobe and Figma could do for our respective
communities. While we leave that future behind and continue on as
an independent company, we are excited to find ways to partner for
our users.

From a joint press release:

Although both companies continue to believe in the merits and
procompetitive benefits of the combination, Adobe and Figma
mutually agreed to terminate the transaction based on a joint
assessment that there is no clear path to receive necessary
regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK
Competition and Markets Authority.

“Adobe and Figma strongly disagree with the recent regulatory
findings, but we believe it is in our respective best interests
to move forward independently,” said Shantanu Narayen, chair and
CEO, Adobe.

Adobe owes Figma a $1 billion termination fee, but it’s unclear to me whether Figma was adequately prepared to go it alone as an independent company. Who else could and would acquire them for a similar price?

Benedict Evans, on Threads:

I did not understand how this could possibly get past regulatory
review even without the current shift in attitudes. ‘Company that
dominates a market buying a hugely strong new challenger that’s
changing the market’ looked like an old-fashioned textbook
competition case.

 ★ 

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma:

Figma and Adobe have reached a joint decision to end our pending
acquisition. It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, but despite
thousands of hours spent with regulators around the world
detailing differences between our businesses, our products, and
the markets we serve, we no longer see a path toward regulatory
approval of the deal.

We entered into this agreement 15 months ago with the goal of
accelerating what both Adobe and Figma could do for our respective
communities. While we leave that future behind and continue on as
an independent company, we are excited to find ways to partner for
our users.

From a joint press release:

Although both companies continue to believe in the merits and
procompetitive benefits of the combination, Adobe and Figma
mutually agreed to terminate the transaction based on a joint
assessment that there is no clear path to receive necessary
regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK
Competition and Markets Authority.

“Adobe and Figma strongly disagree with the recent regulatory
findings, but we believe it is in our respective best interests
to move forward independently,” said Shantanu Narayen, chair and
CEO, Adobe.

Adobe owes Figma a $1 billion termination fee, but it’s unclear to me whether Figma was adequately prepared to go it alone as an independent company. Who else could and would acquire them for a similar price?

Benedict Evans, on Threads:

I did not understand how this could possibly get past regulatory
review even without the current shift in attitudes. ‘Company that
dominates a market buying a hugely strong new challenger that’s
changing the market’ looked like an old-fashioned textbook
competition case.

Read More 

Eieio:

I made a game. It’s called Flappy Dird. It’s Flappy Bird inside
MacOS Finder.

It has instructions, high score tracking, and marquee banner ads.
You double-click to start a game and select any file in the window
to jump. It runs at 4 frames a second and can’t run much faster.
It occasionally drops inputs for reasons that you’ll understand if
you finish this blog.

There are two types of hacks I just love: those that are surprisingly useful, and those that are utterly useless but completely joyful. Pretty clear which type Flappy Dird is. Even better than the game itself is the detail Eieio puts into explaining how it works, including this gem of a sentence:

I was reluctant to do this because adding any amount of control
flow to an AppleScript seemed hard — but I was also pretty excited
to get to say “I rewrote it in AppleScript for speed.”

 ★ 

Eieio:

I made a game. It’s called Flappy Dird. It’s Flappy Bird inside
MacOS Finder.

It has instructions, high score tracking, and marquee banner ads.
You double-click to start a game and select any file in the window
to jump. It runs at 4 frames a second and can’t run much faster.
It occasionally drops inputs for reasons that you’ll understand if
you finish this blog.

There are two types of hacks I just love: those that are surprisingly useful, and those that are utterly useless but completely joyful. Pretty clear which type Flappy Dird is. Even better than the game itself is the detail Eieio puts into explaining how it works, including this gem of a sentence:

I was reluctant to do this because adding any amount of control
flow to an AppleScript seemed hard — but I was also pretty excited
to get to say “I rewrote it in AppleScript for speed.”

Read More 

Craig Hockenberry:

Do you hate how hard it is to get to System Information now? (System
Settings… > General > About > System Report…)

Just hold down the Option key in the Apple menu…

This is actually a great meta tip: on the Mac, it’s an idiom that goes all the way back to the classic Mac OS era for additional menu items to be exposed by holding down the Option key. One common idiom — which you’ll notice in the Apple menu — is using Option as a modifier to skip a confirmation step. So the “Restart…” and “Shut Down…” commands — whose ellipses indicate that they require confirmation — turn into “Restart” and “Shut Down” while holding Option.

(Also: System Information is just an app, so you can launch it using Spotlight, LaunchBar, Alfred, Raycast, etc.)

 ★ 

Craig Hockenberry:

Do you hate how hard it is to get to System Information now? (System
Settings… > General > About > System Report…)

Just hold down the Option key in the Apple menu…

This is actually a great meta tip: on the Mac, it’s an idiom that goes all the way back to the classic Mac OS era for additional menu items to be exposed by holding down the Option key. One common idiom — which you’ll notice in the Apple menu — is using Option as a modifier to skip a confirmation step. So the “Restart…” and “Shut Down…” commands — whose ellipses indicate that they require confirmation — turn into “Restart” and “Shut Down” while holding Option.

(Also: System Information is just an app, so you can launch it using Spotlight, LaunchBar, Alfred, Raycast, etc.)

Read More 

My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring last week at DF. Getting OS updates installed on end user devices should be easy. After all, it’s one of the simplest yet most impactful ways that every employee can practice good security. On top of that, every MDM solution promises that it will automate the process and install updates with no user interaction needed. Yet in the real world, it doesn’t play out like that. Users don’t install updates and IT admins won’t force installs via forced restart.

With Kolide, when a user’s device — be it Mac, Windows, Linux, or mobile — is out of compliance, Kolide reaches out to them with instructions on how to fix it. The user chooses when to restart, but if they don’t fix the problem by a predetermined deadline, they’re unable to authenticate with Okta.

Watch Kolide’s on-demand demo to learn more about how it enforces device compliance for companies with Okta.

 ★ 

My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring last week at DF. Getting OS updates installed on end user devices should be easy. After all, it’s one of the simplest yet most impactful ways that every employee can practice good security. On top of that, every MDM solution promises that it will automate the process and install updates with no user interaction needed. Yet in the real world, it doesn’t play out like that. Users don’t install updates and IT admins won’t force installs via forced restart.

With Kolide, when a user’s device — be it Mac, Windows, Linux, or mobile — is out of compliance, Kolide reaches out to them with instructions on how to fix it. The user chooses when to restart, but if they don’t fix the problem by a predetermined deadline, they’re unable to authenticate with Okta.

Watch Kolide’s on-demand demo to learn more about how it enforces device compliance for companies with Okta.

Read More 

Eileen Sullivan, reporting for The New York Times:

A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million
to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed
their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020
election from Donald J. Trump.

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington
had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers,
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide
only on the amount of the damages.

The jury awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss a combined $75 million
in punitive damages. It also ordered Mr. Giuliani to pay
compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Ms. Freeman and $16.9
million to Ms. Moss, as well as $20 million to each of them for
emotional suffering.

I’m sure Rudy isn’t concerned — he’s good friends with the former president of the United States, who swears he’s a multi-billionaire and is a loyal friend, so I’m sure he’ll foot the bill. (Multi-billionaires often find themselves hawking NFT comic-book portraits of themselves on trading cards. Totally normal thing to do.) No need to worry that Giuliani will need to switch to plastic jug scotch.

 ★ 

Eileen Sullivan, reporting for The New York Times:

A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million
to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed
their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020
election from Donald J. Trump.

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington
had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers,
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide
only on the amount of the damages.

The jury awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss a combined $75 million
in punitive damages. It also ordered Mr. Giuliani to pay
compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Ms. Freeman and $16.9
million to Ms. Moss, as well as $20 million to each of them for
emotional suffering.

I’m sure Rudy isn’t concerned — he’s good friends with the former president of the United States, who swears he’s a multi-billionaire and is a loyal friend, so I’m sure he’ll foot the bill. (Multi-billionaires often find themselves hawking NFT comic-book portraits of themselves on trading cards. Totally normal thing to do.) No need to worry that Giuliani will need to switch to plastic jug scotch.

Read More 

Scott Evans, writing for MotorTrend regarding GM’s announcement earlier this year that they’d be dropping CarPlay (and Android Auto) support from future vehicles:

Tim Babbitt, GM’s head of product for infotainment, gave MT a
better explanation at a press event for the new Chevrolet Blazer
EV, the flagship vehicle in the no CarPlay or Android Auto
strategy (and our 2023 MotorTrend SUV of the Year
winner). According to him, there’s an important factor that
didn’t make it into the fact sheet: safety. Specifically, he cited
driver distraction caused by cell phone usage behind the wheel.

According to Babbitt, CarPlay and Android Auto have stability
issues that manifest themselves as bad connections, poor
rendering, slow responses, and dropped connections. And when
CarPlay and Android Auto have issues, drivers pick up their phones
again, taking their eyes off the road and totally defeating the
purpose of these phone-mirroring programs. Solving those issues
can sometimes be beyond the control of the automaker. You can
start to see GM’s frustration.

Babbitt’s thesis is that if drivers were to do everything
through the vehicle’s built-in systems, they’d be less likely to
pick up their phones and therefore less distracted and safer
behind the wheel. He admits, though, GM hasn’t tested this
thesis in the lab or real world yet but believes it has
potential, if customers go for it.

What a load of horseshit. If CarPlay is unsafe, why isn’t GM recalling all its existing cars that have it equipped? And that last sentence is the real kicker: hasn’t been tested, even in a lab, but he’s just guessing. In his imagined scenario, people check their phones while driving when the CarPlay connection flakes out. But if the car doesn’t support CarPlay, people will use their phones for every single thing that’s on their phones but not in GM’s built-in system. “If drivers were to do everything through the vehicle’s built-in systems” is as much a fantasy as, say, “If drivers always obeyed all posted speed limits.” It’s not going to happen. There is no plausible scenario where the drivers of future GM vehicles without CarPlay support check their iPhones less frequently than they do in vehicles that support CarPlay.

As GM continues to try to dig their way out of this idiotic hole, Ford CEO Jim Farley continues to laugh:

We’re committed to keeping Apple CarPlay & Android Auto. @Ford
customers love the features because they help keep their eyes on
the road and hands on the wheel. We work closely with Apple &
Google to create a very high-quality experience for customers. And
I think we have the best experience out there with SYNC 4A.

It’s enough to make you think that GM’s decision to drop CarPlay was made by moles in the company planted by Ford.

 ★ 

Scott Evans, writing for MotorTrend regarding GM’s announcement earlier this year that they’d be dropping CarPlay (and Android Auto) support from future vehicles:

Tim Babbitt, GM’s head of product for infotainment, gave MT a
better explanation at a press event for the new Chevrolet Blazer
EV, the flagship vehicle in the no CarPlay or Android Auto
strategy (and our 2023 MotorTrend SUV of the Year
winner). According to him, there’s an important factor that
didn’t make it into the fact sheet: safety. Specifically, he cited
driver distraction caused by cell phone usage behind the wheel.

According to Babbitt, CarPlay and Android Auto have stability
issues that manifest themselves as bad connections, poor
rendering, slow responses, and dropped connections. And when
CarPlay and Android Auto have issues, drivers pick up their phones
again, taking their eyes off the road and totally defeating the
purpose of these phone-mirroring programs. Solving those issues
can sometimes be beyond the control of the automaker. You can
start to see GM’s frustration.

Babbitt’s thesis is that if drivers were to do everything
through the vehicle’s built-in systems, they’d be less likely to
pick up their phones and therefore less distracted and safer
behind the wheel. He admits, though, GM hasn’t tested this
thesis in the lab or real world yet but believes it has
potential, if customers go for it.

What a load of horseshit. If CarPlay is unsafe, why isn’t GM recalling all its existing cars that have it equipped? And that last sentence is the real kicker: hasn’t been tested, even in a lab, but he’s just guessing. In his imagined scenario, people check their phones while driving when the CarPlay connection flakes out. But if the car doesn’t support CarPlay, people will use their phones for every single thing that’s on their phones but not in GM’s built-in system. “If drivers were to do everything through the vehicle’s built-in systems” is as much a fantasy as, say, “If drivers always obeyed all posted speed limits.” It’s not going to happen. There is no plausible scenario where the drivers of future GM vehicles without CarPlay support check their iPhones less frequently than they do in vehicles that support CarPlay.

As GM continues to try to dig their way out of this idiotic hole, Ford CEO Jim Farley continues to laugh:

We’re committed to keeping Apple CarPlay & Android Auto. @Ford
customers love the features because they help keep their eyes on
the road and hands on the wheel. We work closely with Apple &
Google to create a very high-quality experience for customers. And
I think we have the best experience out there with SYNC 4A.

It’s enough to make you think that GM’s decision to drop CarPlay was made by moles in the company planted by Ford.

Read More