Linked List: April 10, 2017

Monday, 10 April 2017

Netflix vs. Amazon Spending on Video Content ★

Felix Richter, writing for Statista:

If you think that Amazon isn’t serious about Prime Video, the company’s video streaming service included with every Prime membership, think again. According to analysts at JPMorgan, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant is set to spend $4.5 billion on video content this year. While that is still $1.5 billion shy of the $6 billion that market leader Netflix is planning to shell out this year, it is still a pretty clear statement of intent on Amazon’s part.

Looks like Amazon is about ~~one year~~ two years behind Netflix in spending.

Technical Analysis of the Facebook App Bundle for iOS ★

Alexandre Colucci:

The version 66.0 was a 165 MB app on an iPad Air 2 (64-bit). It was a monolithic app with its main binary being more than 100 MB.

The version 87.0 is now available: 253 MB on the same iPad Air 2 with only 64-bit code. In just 6 months, the Facebook.app size grew by 88 MB!

It’s the most popular third-party app in the world, and it’s structured like a pile of garbage. At least 40 MB of resources are duplicated. Imagine how much collective bandwidth and storage Facebook is wasting here.

A Man Was Dragged Off a United Plane After the Airline Overbooked the Flight ★

Alicia Melville-Smith, reporting for BuzzFeed:

Bridges said passengers were allowed to board the flight but were later told four people would need to give up their seats for four United employees who were needed in Louisville on Monday.

She said no passengers volunteered, so a manager came aboard and said passengers would be randomly selected and asked to leave.

When asked to leave, the man in the video became “very upset” and said he was a doctor who had patients to see the next day, Bridges said. A manager then told him security would be called if he refused to leave the plane. Three security guards then removed him from his seat while other passengers yelled in disgust.

The description doesn’t do justice to the brutality of this incident. It’s a new world, where everyone is equipped with a high definition video camera.

And it gets even worse: somehow the guy got back on the plane, bloody and panicked, and United removed him again — on a stretcher.

Update: Another video. This one is hard to watch: blood streaming from his mouth, the man is repeating over and over, “Just kill me” while clutching the curtain at the back of the cabin.