Linked List: June 20, 2020

Saturday, 20 June 2020

Siracusa on the App Store: ‘Apple Needs to Decide if It Wants to Be “Right” or if It Wants to Be Happy’ ★

John Siracusa:

But throughout all these changes, Apple has never given up on its dream of an App Store filled with great apps that make everyone happy and make lots of money for both Apple and developers.

Today, Apple’s stance seems to be that if they just hold the line on a few key provisions of the App Store rules, companies will build their business models around Apple’s revenue cut in the same way companies built their business models around the costs of brick-and-mortar retail in the pre-Internet days. Apple seems to firmly believe that its ambitious goal state can be achieved with something close to the current set of App Store rules.

This belief is not supported by the evidence. Years of history has shown that Apple is getting further away from its goal, not closer.

Agreed. It feels like Apple is fighting for its own long-ago-established vision for how the App Store ought to be, rather than making sweeping changes to account for how it actually is. They can do this because they have such tremendous power, but why? Why fight it? Is Apple really happy about this whole state of affairs?

See also: This explication of the reference to rather being happy than right.

‘Just Because They’ve Turned Against Humanity Doesn’t Mean We Should Defund the Terminator Program’ ★

Carlos Greaves, writing for McSweeney’s:

This initiative, also known as Skynet, was created by Cyberdyne Systems for the Department of Defense as a way to keep Americans safe. Critics have said that spending half of our country’s GDP on developing an army of state-of-the-art cyborgs with advanced weapons systems and an AI specifically trained to neutralize threats was a bad idea. And while the recent killings might seem to confirm that, we feel that, despite a few stumbles here and there, this program has still been an overwhelming success.

Don’t get me wrong, we all remember Judgement Day, when the Skynet gained self-awareness and initiated a nuclear holocaust, killing millions. That was a terrible moment in our nation’s history. And the human uprising led by John Connor was definitely justified even though we felt like some of the violence and destruction of Skynet property was a bit unnecessary. But it’s important to remember that Judgement Day was initiated by a few rogue Terminators, and isn’t indicative of a widespread problem with Skynet.

HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Series Is Free to Watch This Weekend for Juneteenth ★

Susana Polo, writing for Polygon:

All nine episodes of HBO’s conversation-defining Watchmen television series, a spiritual sequel to the influential Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic, will be available free this weekend.

HBO will make the series available for non-subscribers to stream on HBO.com, as well as through Free on Demand services, starting Friday June 19, through Sunday June 21. The company’s press release stated that the move was “an extension of the network’s content offering highlighting Black experiences, voices and storytellers. […] HBO is proud to offer all nine episodes for free of this timely, poignant series that explores the legacy of systemic racism in America.”

I watched Watchmen as it came out, and really enjoyed it. Nice move by HBO making it free for everyone this weekend. (Via Shawn King.)