Linked List: July 23, 2019

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Facebook Negotiated Its Rules 

Great column from Matt Levine, writing for Bloomberg:

But the process wouldn’t be a one-on-one negotiation. It’s not like Congress would say “we want to regulate your data collection practices” and Facebook would say “hmm no we’d rather you didn’t” and Congress would say “okay you have good lawyers we give up.” Facebook’s main leverage against the FTC — “we don’t think we did anything wrong and if you insist on restricting our data collection we will see you in court” — just wouldn’t work to stop Congress from making a law, because it is irrelevant. Congress can make a law about data privacy even if no one has broken any previous laws. In fact that’s the best reason to make a law! “There is a bad thing that is happening, and there is no law against it, so we should make a law against it”: That is a perfectly sensible line of reasoning!

Stop-Motion Version of ‘The Shining’ Made With Lego 

Beautiful work by filmmaker and Lego enthusiast Wim Laroy.

BMW to Charge $80 Annual Fee for Apple CarPlay 

Greg Fink, reporting for Car and Driver:

BMW will turn Apple CarPlay into a subscription service beginning with its 2019-model-year vehicles.

The German automaker currently charges a one-time $300 to add Apple CarPlay capability to navigation-equipped BMW models. Going forward, though, navigation-equipped BMWs will come with CarPlay at no charge for one year. Following that first year, customers will need to pay an annual fee of $80 to maintain the relationship between their Apple device and their BMW’s infotainment system.

That is some serious next-level bullshit right there.

Update: Turns out this story is 18 months old — and I linked to it then, too! — but is somehow making the rounds again now (perhaps because this is the year when it took effect).

How to Use a Zebra Ink Cartridge With Studio Neat’s Mark One Pen 

When I linked to Studio Neat’s Mark One: Apollo Edition Kickstarter campaign the other day, I mentioned that I use a Mark One using Zebra ink refills, thanks to a 3D-printed converter. A few readers asked how to obtain this converter. I’m linking here to the model. I don’t own a 3D printer — the guys at Studio Neat made this for me as a favor — but if you have access to a 3D printer this should get you started.

The refills you need are the JSB-04 (0.4mm, very fine) or the JSB-05 (0.5mm, fine), and, of course, you can get them at JetPens.

Sony’s Proto-Walkman That Went to the Moon 

A fascinating lesson in the power of iteration. You get to a breakthrough like the original iPhone one step at a time.