Linked List: January 23, 2019

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Russell Baker, Pulitzer-Winning NYT Columnist and Humorist, Dies at 93 ★

Robert D. McFadden, writing for the NYT:

But it was as a columnist that Mr. Baker made his name. Based at first in Washington, he recalled that he had to feel his way in the new genre of spoof and jape. “Nobody knew what the column was going to be,” he told the writer Nora Ephron. “I didn’t. The Times didn’t.”

But soon he was doing what he called his “ballet in a telephone booth,” creating in the confined space of 750 words satirical dialogues, parodies and burlesques of politicians and the whirling capital circus — then stoking the fires of the antiwar and civil rights struggles of the 1960s and the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard M. Nixon from office in 1974.

Baker retired at the end of 1998, but I was a regular Times reader in the 1990s, and loved his column. Such a distinctive voice and deft touch. McFadden cites a 1975 column, “Francs and Beans”, spoofing a report from the Times’s restaurant critic on a $4,000, 31-course meal. Here’s an excerpt:

The dish is started by placing a pan over a very high flame until it becomes dangerously hot. A can of Heinz’s pork and beans is then emptied into the pan and allowed to char until it reaches the consistency of hardening concrete. Three strips of bacon are fried to crisps, and when the beans have formed huge dense clots firmly welded to the pan, the bacon grease is poured in and stirred vigorously with a large screw driver.

This not only adds flavor but also loosens some of the beans from the side of the pan. Leaving the flame high, I stirred in a three‐day‐old spaghetti sauce found in the refrigerator, added a sprinkle of chili powder, a large dollop of Major Grey’s chutney and a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda to make the whole dish rise.

Beans with bacon grease is always eaten from the pan with a tablespoon while standing over the kitchen sink. The pan must be thrown away immediately.

This, from the man perhaps best known as the host of PBS’s “Masterpiece Theatre”.

Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’ Contest Has No Prizes ★

William Gallagher, writing at AppleInsider:

There’s one reason why Apple is calling its new Shot on iPhone Challenge a contest, and that’s because it has no intention of actually buying any of the photographs it uses. Your best iPhone photography could end up at the heart of a nationwide billboard campaign that will cost Apple millions to deliver from concept to physical execution, and you will get nothing for it.

Apple, the company about to post $84 billion earnings in a quarter, will get yet more sales. Apple’s ad team will be paid, Apple’s website developers will get their salary, and even the billboard company will get money.

I thought about this too when Apple announced the contest today. But I don’t think this is like spec work. Presumably everyone entering is using photographs they would have shot anyway, and the contest rules make very clear there are no prizes. No professional photographer is losing work from this.

Gallagher again:

And to rub your face in how you’re being exploited here, in previous campaigns that credit has been your first name and the initial of your surname. So if you win this contest — or if you even enter it at all — you are giving the richest company in the world free use of your work.

Apple’s “first name, last initial” crediting for “Shot on iPhone” ads has always bothered me. People deserve credit for their work, and a full name at least gives those who admire a winning photo the chance to search for them online to find more of their work. I noticed though, that in Apple’s Newsroom announcement of the contest, the three example photos are all credited by full name. Incredible photos too — the bar is going to be very high to win this contest. Also interesting: the three photos were shot on iPhone 7, 6S, and 6 — a four-year-old iPhone.

If you’re happy with no reward other than exposure for your photograph and credit, by all means, enter the contest. But if credit is all you get, it should be credit by full name (and a link to your original post on Instagram, Twitter, or Weibo).

Update: Shawn King:

@gruber BTW, I heard from a “friend” at Apple who said, “Another reason why this isn’t a contest with prizes? Legal. There are a whole other set of rules if Apple offers prizes and those rules differ from country to country. This way, Apple doesn’t have to worry about it.” Makes sense.

That does make sense, especially since the contest is worldwide, including China.

Netflix on Its Competition (PDF) ★

Netflix, in its letter to shareholders announcing (solid) quarterly results:

In the US, we earn around 10% of television screen time and less than that of mobile screen time. In other countries, we earn a lower percentage of screen time due to lower penetration of our service. We earn consumer screen time, both mobile and television, away from a very broad set of competitors. We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO. When YouTube went down globally for a few minutes in October, our viewing and signups spiked for that time. Hulu is small compared to YouTube for viewing time, and they are successful in the US, but non-existent in Canada, which creates a comparison point: our penetration in the two countries is pretty similar. There are thousands of competitors in this highly-fragmented market vying to entertain consumers and low barriers to entry for those with great experiences. Our growth is based on how good our experience is, compared to all the other screen time experiences from which consumers choose. Our focus is not on Disney+, Amazon or others, but on how we can improve our experience for our members.

This seems like a good measuring stick. We’re seeing more streaming services every year, but there are still only 24 hours in a day.

Lee Unkrich Is Leaving Pixar After 25 Years ★

Lee Unkrich, in a letter to Pixar:

It is impossible for me to adequately express how epic this twenty-five year journey has been, and how much it has meant to work alongside such fantastic people and phenomenal talent. Many of you are like family to me, and it’s nearly incomprehensible to imagine no longer being here at Pixar with you. But life is about change, and it’s now my time for new challenges and new adventures. I’m not leaving to make films at another studio; instead, I look forward to spending much-needed time with my family, and pursuing interests that have long been back-burnered. And perhaps I’ll have some new stories to tell along the way.

He co-directed Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo, and then solo-directed Toy Story 3 and co-directed last year’s amazing Coco. All great movies by any measure, but these Pixar films are particularly near and dear to my heart, because they’re the movies of my son’s childhood. Every one of them is funny, exciting, surprising, beautiful, and most importantly, brimming with a palpable sense of camaraderie. What does it feel like to have loving friends and family? Watch a Lee Unkrich movie.

Ron Amadeo: ‘Even With the Google/Fossil Deal, Wear OS Is Doomed’ ★

Ron Amadeo, writing at Ars Technica:

Meanwhile, the non-Wear OS competition is Samsung and Apple, both of which have their own private SoC divisions where they can invest in building quality smartwatch chips. I would argue Apple’s “S” line of SoCs is the primary enabling technology of the Apple Watch — it can be compact, fast, and long-lasting thanks to a smartwatch SoC with actual effort behind it. Apple doesn’t talk much about technical details, but the S3 chip in the Apple Watch Series 3 was claimed to be 70-percent faster than the S2 SoC. The S4 SoC in this year’s Apple Watch Series 4 is claimed to be two times faster than the S3, and it’s a modern ARM design with 64-bit compatibility.

Wear OS has never once seen the kind of performance increase that the Apple Watch enjoys every single year. If you read Qualcomm’s press releases carefully (2100 launch, 3100 launch), you’ll notice the company never even claims its new smartwatch chip is faster than its old smartwatch chip. We’ve verified this with benchmarks, too. It’s just the same ancient CPU being repackaged over and over.

Interesting way to think about it. Whatever you think of the software, Wear OS just doesn’t have competitive chips available on the hardware side.

The Talk Show: ‘More Smarter’ ★

Joanna Stern returns to the show. Topics include the iPhone XR (and the argument that it might be the best phone in Apple’s current lineup), Apple’s new Smart Battery Cases, Apple Watch, and, of course, the new MacBook Air.

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The Twitterrific Ad Network ★

Ged Maheux, writing for The Iconfactory:

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$100 for 1,000 guaranteed tap-throughs is an amazing deal. And at just $100 a pop, this is a great opportunity for indie developers with a limited ad budget. And of course the ads look great and there’s no user tracking.

EU Fines Mastercard More Than Half a Billion Euros ★

DW:

The European Commission on Tuesday fined Mastercard €570 million ($648 million) for preventing retailers from looking for better card payment terms at banks around Europe.

The Commission, which monitors competition, said that Mastercard’s rules prior to 2015 forced retailers to pay certain bank fees in the country they are located rather than let them shop around.

Now that’s a fine.