Linked List: March 7, 2016

Monday, 7 March 2016

Josh Eidelson, writing for Bloomberg:

In an effort to discourage stealing, Amazon has put up flatscreen TVs that display examples of alleged on-the-job theft, say 11 of the company’s current and former warehouse workers and antitheft staff. The alleged offenders aren’t identified by name. Each is represented by a black silhouette stamped with the word “terminated” and accompanied by details such as when they stole, what they stole, how much it was worth, and how they got caught—changing an outbound package’s address, for example, or stuffing merchandise in their socks. Some of the silhouettes are marked “arrested.”

Not weird or Orwellian at all. No sir.

WSJ Editorial: ‘Apple Is Right on Encryption’ ★

The Wall Street Journal:

We bow to no one in defense of antiterror programs whose political popularity waxes and wanes, especially on surveillance. But this case isn’t about “privacy”. This is about engineering security and its implications for the security of all Americans.

I disagree that it’s not about privacy, but they are exactly correct that it is about engineering security. Apple — and every other company in tech — should be working as hard as it can to make its entire systems as secure as possible, even if “as secure as possible” completely locks out everyone, including law enforcement.

Apple Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court in $450 Million E-Book Case ★

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. must pay $450 million to end an antitrust suit after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to question a finding that the company orchestrated a scheme to raise the prices for electronic books.

The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal by Apple, leaving intact a federal appeals court ruling favoring the U.S. Justice Department and more than 30 states that sued.

The rebuff means Apple must comply with a settlement it reached with the states in 2014. The accord calls for Apple to pay $400 million to e-book consumers, $20 million to the states, and $30 million in legal fees.

Whenever someone says Apple does things only for the money, they should examine this case. This was always about the principle. They could have settled years ago, but they truly believe they got the shaft on this, and fought it until the end.

(I think they got the shaft.)

Chris ‘Moot’ Poole Joins Google ★

Chris Poole, founder of 4chan:

I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company.

Of course the founder of 4chan wound up at Google.