Linked List: February 28, 2020

Friday, 28 February 2020

The zen of craftsmanship, captured in this soothing short film by Nick Bennett. (Via Jason Fried.)

These “experiments” from Apple are just short art films, and the only real promotional tie-in is they’re shot with iPhones. Sign of the times: this one is presented in 16:9 vertical format, optimized for viewing on an iPhone too. Don’t miss the 3-minute “behind the scenes” video either.

‘When a Pandemic Meets a Personality Cult’ ★

Paul Krugman, writing for The New York Times:

From the day Donald Trump was elected, some of us worried how his administration would deal with a crisis not of its own making. Remarkably, we’ve gone three years without finding out: Until now, every serious problem facing the Trump administration, from trade wars to confrontation with Iran, has been self-created. But the coronavirus is looking as if it might be the test we’ve been fearing.

And the results aren’t looking good.

The story of the Trump pandemic response actually began several years ago. Almost as soon as he took office, Trump began cutting funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leading in turn to an 80 percent cut in the resources the agency devotes to global disease outbreaks. Trump also shut down the entire global-health-security unit of the National Security Council.

Look at this gibberish Trump spouted at his press conference yesterday, when asked about the severe budget cuts to the Center for Disease Control under his administration:

We can get money. And we can increase staff. We know all the good people. There’s a question I asked the doctors before. Some of the people we cut, they haven’t been used for many, many years. If we ever need them we can get them very quickly. And rather than spending the money — and I’m a business person — I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly. For instance, we’re bringing some people in tomorrow that are already in this great government that we have, and very specifically for this. We can build up very, very quickly, and we’ve already done that.

So Trump is arguing in favor of a policy where we only fully staff the CDC after a pandemic breaks out.

GDC 2020 Canceled Due to Coronavirus ★

This follows on the heels of MWC being canceled last month — a huge conference with 100,000 attendees — and Facebook announcing a few days ago that its F8 developer conference, scheduled for May, has been canceled.

So: What does this mean for WWDC? I’d put the odds at 50-50 at this point. Apple’s recent announcement dates for WWDC range from mid-February (2017) to mid-April (2016), with the last two years coming in mid-March. So they still have time to decide. If they don’t hold WWDC this year, my guess is they’ll still prepare all the sessions and simply deliver them via the web and the Developer (née WWDC) app, perhaps with a media-only keynote at Steve Jobs Theater.

The Washington Post: ‘Fact-Checking President Trump’s Coronavirus News Conference’ ★

Speaking of countries that are in trouble because their government is treating the coronavirus outbreak as a PR problem. The Trump administration is simply not equipped to deal with a true crisis. This is not something that can be spun. It’s a genuine crisis but the loons in positions of power are treating it as a partisan hoax. Schools are closed in Shanghai — a city of 20 million. The Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland theme parks have been closed for over a month, and now they’re closing the parks in Tokyo. Disney doesn’t close parks for hoaxes — they don’t even close the parks in Orlando for hurricanes unless they expect to be hit directly.

There’s simply no way to square the circle of a president who demands not to hear anything bad with a virus outbreak that is inherently bad. Denial is quite literally the worst response possible.

‘Plague Inc.’ Removed From Chinese App Stores Amid Outbreak ★

Eliza Gkritsi, writing for TechNode:

Popular infection simulation game Plague Inc. has been removed from Chinese app stores, Apple and Xiaomi users noticed today, after enjoying renewed popularity during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Why it matters: The removal shows just how serious the country’s authorities are in managing the public perception of the virus.

The game remains in Apple’s U.S. App Store, and, I presume, everywhere else outside mainland China. It’s even an Editor’s Choice winner.

Real shocker that a country without a free press is having trouble containing the outbreak. Coronavirus is not a PR problem, it’s a medical problem, and accurate up-to-date information reported to the public is essential in containing it. Any country that treats it as a PR problem is in trouble.

The Man Behind the ‘2020 Astros Shame Tour’ Twitter Account ★

Chuck Schilken, writing for the LA Times:

“I’m barely sleeping and eating because I’m trying to monitor everything, come up with content,” Donley said in a phone interview Friday morning.

Donley is the mastermind behind the “2020 Astros Shame Tour” Twitter account, which goes by the handle @AsteriskTour. The concept is simple — “One year to shame them all, one year to jeer them, one year to boo them all and from your seat deride them,” according to the account’s bio.

Already a must-follow Twitter account, and we’re only in the early days of spring training. It’s going to be a long year for these cheaters.

Apple Disables Clearview AI’s iOS Developer Certificate for Abusing Enterprise App Distribution for Its Creepy Facial Recognition App ★

BuzzFeed News:

Apple has disabled the iOS developer account of Clearview AI — the facial recognition company that claims to have amassed a database of billions of photos and has worked with thousands of organizations around the world — after BuzzFeed News determined that the New York-based startup had been violating the iPhone maker’s rules around app distribution.

In distributing its app for Apple devices, Clearview, which BuzzFeed News reported earlier this week has been used by more than 2,200 public and private entities including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI, Macy’s, Walmart, and the NBA, has been sidestepping the Apple App Store, encouraging those who want to use the software to download the program through a program reserved for developers. After being asked by BuzzFeed News, Apple disabled the developer account associated with Clearview and provided them with notification to respond within 14 days.

This is the same scheme Facebook was using to distribute spyware masquerading as a VPN, and that various porno and gambling services were using to avoid App Store review.

Keep in mind too, that App Store policies aside, Clearview AI had been publicly claiming that their facial recognition software was “strictly for law enforcement”. BuzzFeed News investigated and found they were full of shit.

Disney Blocks John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ Episode Critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ★

Manish Singh, reporting for TechCrunch:

Disney-owned Hotstar, India’s largest on-demand video streaming service with more than 300 million users, has blocked the newest episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” that was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The move has angered many of its customers ahead of Disney+’s launch in one of the world’s largest entertainment markets next month.

In the episode, aired hours before U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to India, Oliver talked about some of the questionable policies enforced by the ruling government in India and recent protests against “controversial figure” Modi’s citizenship measures. The 19-minute news recap and commentary sourced its information from credible news outlets.

The episode is available to stream in India through HBO’s official channel on YouTube, where it has garnered more than 4 million views. Hotstar is the exclusive syndicating partner of HBO, Showtime and ABC in India.

Curse that notion of a free press and freedom of speech.

MI5 Chief Asks Tech Firms for ‘Exceptional Access’ to Encrypted Messages ★

Dan Sabbagh, reporting for The Guardian:

MI5’s director general has called on technology companies to find a way to allow spy agencies “exceptional access” to encrypted messages, amid fears they cannot otherwise access such communications.

Sir Andrew Parker is understood to be particularly concerned about Facebook, which announced plans to introduce powerful end-to-end encryption last March across all the social media firm’s services.

In an ITV interview to be broadcast on Thursday, Sir Andrew Parker says he has found it “increasingly mystifying” that intelligence agencies like his are not able to easily read secret messages of terror suspects they are monitoring.

There is no such thing as “exceptional access” for good guys. That he claims to be “mystified” means he either doesn’t understand how end-to-end encryption works and why it’s essential to privacy, or he’s playing dumb for politics to drum up public sentiment against strong encryption. My bet’s on the latter.