Linked List: January 22, 2019

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Mariano Rivera First Player Ever Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame Unanimously ★

Kristie Ackert, writing for The New York Daily News:

Mariano Rivera thought he might have “a good shot of being a Hall of Famer” after his 19-year career with 13-All-Star appearances, five World Series rings, MLB’s all-time saves record, an obscene postseason ERA and the title as the “greatest closer ever to play the game.” He never imagined, though, that he would make history on Tuesday night.

The Panamanian right-hander became the first player in baseball history to be elected into the Hall of Fame unanimously.

“After my career, I was thinking I had a good shot to be a Hall-of-Famer, but this was just beyond my imagination,” Rivera said Tuesday night on a conference call with reporters. ”Just to be considered a Hall-of-Famer is quite an honor, but being unanimous — it’s amazing.”

The whole thing where no one had ever been elected unanimously — not even Babe Ruth! — was a bad tradition. Glad to see it go, and even gladder that Mariano Rivera was the player. What a privilege it was to watch him pitch.

Update: Derek Jeter wrote a nice piece on Rivera for The Players Tribune.

French Privacy Regulators Fine Google €50 Million ★

CNIL:

On 21 January 2019, the CNIL’s restricted committee imposed a financial penalty of 50 Million euros against the company GOOGLE LLC, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding the ads personalization.

Is this sort of penalty effective, or does Google just shrug it off? Last quarter Google reported $33 billion in revenue and over $8 billion in profit. €50 million is not nothing, but is it enough to give Google pause?

What Happened to CurrentC? ★

In light of Target (and a slew of other major retailers and restaurant chains) joining Apple Pay today, it’s worth a look back at CurrentC. This piece from last April by Nicholas L. Johnson is a good overview:

We’re waiting for CurrentC.

That was the response from a host of major retailers when Apple launched its much-awaited payments app, Apple Pay, in October 2014. While Apple consumers were excited, many retailers didn’t see much benefit. Apple Pay was built on top of existing credit and debit card infrastructure. It was just a shiny new interface on the same old payment mechanisms.

CurrentC was going to be different. For retailers, it was a way out. Many merchants don’t like the 2% to 3% that the major card networks charge when consumers pay with credit. That was all going to change.

I think Johnson’s conclusion that CurrentC solved a problem for retailers, not for consumers, is exactly right.

The last big holdout on Apple Pay in the US is Walmart, who spearheaded CurrentC. Update: Walmart’s the biggest, but there are a few big holdouts in the U.S., including Kroger, the country’s biggest supermarket chain.

Yours Truly on the New Mac Power Users Podcast ★

Stephen Hackett has joined David Sparks on the long-running Mac Power Users podcast, and it was my pleasure to be their first guest. Lots of talk about the ins and outs of writing Daring Fireball and doing my own podcast, and some speculation about the future of Apple’s major platforms. Very fun show — David and Stephen make for a good team.

Apple Pay Coming to Target, Taco Bell, and More Top US Retail Locations ★

Apple Newsroom:

Target, Taco Bell, Hy-Vee supermarkets in the Midwest, Speedway convenience stores and Jack in the Box are the latest merchants to support Apple Pay, the most popular mobile contactless payment system in the world that lets customers easily and securely pay in stores using their iPhone and Apple Watch. With the addition of these national retailers, 74 of the top 100 merchants in the US and 65 percent of all retail locations across the country will support Apple Pay.

Target is a big one for me. It always felt inevitable to me that Target would support Apple Pay, but I’ll bet it was a lot of work behind the scenes to get the deal in place.