Linked List: June 26, 2013

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Why Edward Snowden Asked Visitors in Hong Kong to Refrigerate Their Phones ★

Heather Murphy, writing the NYT Lede blog:

Another household object that functions similarly, Mr. Harvey has learned through his research into cellphone data transmission, is a stainless steel martini shaker.

“It’s a perfect Faraday cage — it will block all radio signals unless you decide you need to pour yourself a martini,” he said.

Unless?

(Via Matthew Panzarino.)

Conan O’Brien Visits E3 ★

“The big question in the gaming industry is, which is the better console — and what does a naked woman look like?”

‘iOS 7: Catch Me if You Can’ ★

Allen Pike:

Let’s say we worked at Apple, and were challenged with designing an experience that was impossible in 2007. Something that would be entirely impossible with web technology. What would our futuristic UI look like?

It would have compositing effects that need serious GPU horsepower. Blur is a beautiful but computationally intensive operation, so we’d use it liberally. To push it further, the blurred areas will need to update during scrolling and update at 60 fps.

The Real Math of Pandora Royalty Payments ★

Michael DeGusta takes David Lowery to the woodshed:

Even more importantly, FM/AM paid him NOTHING for the performance of the song. Unlike most industrialized nations, terrestrial radio stations in the US have never paid performers anything. It’s hard to believe, but true: they can play John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things” for decades and never pay him or his estate a single cent.

Lowery doesn’t disclose the Pandora performance royalty but he declares it “unsustainable.” This is a fascinating perspective: apparently in Lowery’s view a performance royalty of $1,275 is unsustainable but the AM/FM world of $0 is totally fine?

Systematic ★

Brett Terpstra was kind enough to have yours truly on his podcast this week, and it was a lot of fun. We talked about Vesper, Markdown, editing and writing blog posts, and more.

DOMA’s Demise Celebrated by Apple, Other Top Tech Firms ★

Mike Isaac, AllThingsD:

One ruling overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the bill passed in 1996 that ruled same-sex marriages unconstitutional. The other decision left intact a lower-court ruling that invalidated California’s Prop. 8 ban on same-sex marriage.

Among progressive Silicon Valley tech companies, the reaction was incredibly positive.

“Apple strongly supports marriage equality and we consider it a civil rights issue. We applaud the Supreme Court for its decisions today,” an Apple spokesman told AllThingsD in a statement.

Google, in typical Google fashion, has had fun with its statement of support for same-sex couples. Type the word “gay”, “lesbian”, “transgender” or “bisexual” into Google’s search bar, and the box quickly morphs into a pride-colored rainbow, a not-so-subtle showing of celebration.