Linked List: November 6, 2013

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Steven Soderbergh’s Paean to ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ ★

Steven Soderbergh:

So what’s wrong with it? George Lazenby, but not for the reasons you might think. I actually like him — a lot — and think he could have made a terrific Bond had he continued (allegedly he decided before the shoot was over he would only play the part once). What seems obvious to me, though, is no one was helping him during the shoot or the edit (they won’t even let him finish a fucking sentence onscreen). It feels like everyone was so focused on what he wasn’t (Sean Connery) that they didn’t take the time to figure out what he was (a cool-looking dude with genuine presence and great physicality). For instance, they should have known that a lot of the one-liners that would have worked with Connery don’t work with Lazenby. This isn’t because he’s bad, it’s because his entire affect is different, less glib. This, to me, is a lack of sensitivity and understanding on the part of the filmmakers and not a shortcoming of the lead actor, because Lazenby has one thing you can’t fake, which is a certain kind of gravitas.

Makes me want to watch it again. Also makes me want to see a Soderbergh-directed Bond movie.

Burger King Commercial Admitting They Rip McDonald’s Off ★

After yesterday’s piece on Burger King’s “Big King” ripoff of the Big Mac, a few readers pointed me to this 2010 Burger King Commercial. The honesty is refreshing. (How long until Samsung starts running ads like this?)

Also: McDonald’s Big Mac is itself copied from Bob’s Big Boy sandwich.

About the New iWork for Mac: Features and Compatibility ★

New Apple support document:

In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork ’09 were not available for the initial release. We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis.

They go on to list “features in upcoming releases in the next 6 months”.

I’m reminded of this short piece I wrote back in 2011.

Update: I’m also reminded of this piece, just three days ago:

I wouldn’t hold my breath, though, waiting for Apple to explain its plans for restoring lost features to the iWork apps.

Happy to be wrong on that one.

Football Great Tony Dorsett Diagnosed With Signs of Brain-Damaging Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ★

Really sad story about one of my boyhood idols. Getting hard to enjoy football knowing what the players are doing to themselves.

Analyst Claims Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties ★

Jay Yarow, writing for Business Insider:

Microsoft is generating $2 billion per year in revenue from Android patent royalties, says Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund in a new note on the company. He estimates that the Android revenue has a 95% margin, so it’s pretty much all profit. […]

Sherlund says that if you back out the Android profits, Microsoft is probably losing $2.5 billion on Skype, Xbox, and Windows Phone. Of that, $2 billion in losses are attributable to the Xbox platform.

Take all of this with the usual grain of salt for anything attributed to an analyst, but if it’s all true, it’s rather stunning — both in terms of how much money Microsoft is making on Android’s back, and in terms of Xbox being a sinkhole. (If it’s true that Xbox is losing billions of dollars per year, it certainly puts Sony’s and Nintendo’s console struggles in a different light. It’s hard to compete against a rival that is willing to lose billions year after year after year.)

‘Fuck These Guys’ ★

Mike Hearn:

Recently Brandon Downey, a colleague of mine on the Google security team, said (after the usual disclaimers about being personal opinions and not speaking for the firm which I repeat here) - “fuck these guys”:

https://plus.google.com/108799184931623330498/posts/SfYy8xbDWGG

I now join him in issuing a giant Fuck You to the people who made these slides. I am not American, I am a Brit, but it’s no different - GCHQ turns out to be even worse than the NSA. […]

Thank you Edward Snowden. For me personally, this is the most interesting revelation all summer.