The Antenna

finding signal in the noise

columns 2024.03

An experiment in personal news aggregation.

columns 2024.03

(date: 2024-01-19 15:57:50)


date: 2024-01-19, from: Chris Heilmann’s blog

Forget about the Vision Pro, or whatever Samsung just brought out, we all know that the pinnacle of computing fun has been released in 1982 in the form of the Commodore 64. One of the coolest things you could show people when writing BASIC on it was the following one-liner: 10 print chr$(205.5 + rnd(1));:goto […]

https://christianheilmann.com/2024/01/19/10-print-chr205-5-rnd1goto-10-in-javascript/ Save to Pocket


A New Vision (Pro) Day

date: 2024-01-19, from: Om Malik blog

Editor’s Note: I want to take a moment to welcome new readers who have stumbled upon my internet homestead, thanks to Ben Thompson’s interview with me on the Stratechery Podcast (Subscription Required). We delved into the history of technology and my renewed enthusiasm for its future. And, of course, we chatted about Apple’s Vision Pro. Apple’s Vision …

https://om.co/2024/01/19/a-new-vision-pro-day/ Save to Pocket


RIP, Internet’s Time Lord

date: 2024-01-19, from: Om Malik blog

I want to take a moment and say a silent prayer for David Mills, the creator of Network Time Protocol (NTP), which is fundamental to the functioning of networks. Mills, nicknamed the Internet’s Time Lord by his peers, passed away on January 17 at the age of 85. His contributions to the development and evolution of …

https://om.co/2024/01/19/rip-internets-time-lord/ Save to Pocket


Why Jamie Dimon loves Trump’s policies

date: 2024-01-19, from: Robert Reich’s blog

A frightening example of the integrity-crushing intimidation of a possible Trump administration

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-jamie-dimon-loves-trumps-policies Save to Pocket


Speaking to the CIA’s Creative Writing Group

date: 2024-01-19, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Bruce Schneier blog

This is a fascinating story.

Last spring, a friend of a friend visited my office and invited me to Langley to speak to Invisible Ink, the CIA’s creative writing group.

I asked Vivian (not her real name) what she wanted me to talk about.

She said that the topic of the talk was entirely up to me.

I asked what level the writers in the group were.

She said the group had writers of all levels.

I asked what the speaking fee was.

She said that as far as she knew, there was no speaking fee.

What I want to know is, why haven’t I been invited? There are nonfiction writers in that group…

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/speaking-to-the-cias-creative-writing-group.html Save to Pocket


Resurrecting Countervailing Power (Why American capitalism is so rotten, Part 9)

date: 2024-01-19, from: Robert Reich’s blog

What we must do

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/resurrecting-countervailing-power Save to Pocket


YouTube and Spotify Are Not Launching Vision Pro Apps Either

date: 2024-01-19, updated: 2024-01-19, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/youtube-and-spotify-join-netflix-in-not-launching-apple-vision-pro-apps Save to Pocket


Battery? What Battery? Oh, That Battery.

date: 2024-01-19, updated: 2024-01-19, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.wired.com/story/one-part-of-apple-vision-pro-apple-doesnt-want-you-to-see/ Save to Pocket


More on Apple’s Software Workaround for the Apple Watch Import Ban

date: 2024-01-19, updated: 2024-01-19, from: Daring Fireball

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211027 Save to Pocket


Masimo CEO on Apple Watch Blood-Oxygen Sensor: ‘I Really Feel Wholeheartedly That Consumers Are Better Off Without It’

date: 2024-01-19, updated: 2024-01-19, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/masimo-ceo-says-users-are-better-off-without-apple-s-oxygen-tool Save to Pocket


Friday 19 January, 2024

date: 2024-01-19, from: John Naughton’s online diary

Cobwebbed Well, it is cold around here just now. Quote of the Day ”The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” André Gide Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news … Continue reading

https://memex.naughtons.org/friday-19-january-2024/39049/ Save to Pocket


★ ‘Like the Sixth Finger in an AI-Rendered Hand’

date: 2024-01-19, updated: 2024-01-19, from: Daring Fireball

Apple doesn’t have to make a platform-destructive money-grab policy change to ruin the Mac. They can ruin it simply by planting the seed of doubt that they might.

https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/the_sixth_finger Save to Pocket


Why is Boeing such a shitty corporation?

date: 2024-01-18, from: Robert Reich’s blog

Friends, My friend Harold Meyerson just wrote this for The American Prospect, and it’s so good and timely that I wanted to share it with you. In the wake of the midair blowout of a door on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 earlier this month, the lead that Airbus has taken over Boeing in the manufacture and sales of the world’s commercial aircraft has, not surprisingly, grown.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-is-boeing-such-a-shitty-corporation Save to Pocket


A Lesson Learned

date: 2024-01-18, from: David Rosenthal’s blog

You know how backups work great until you really need them? Below the fold, a lesson learned from my recent example of this phenomenon.

A long time ago I was feeling rich, so I spent nearly $2000 on one of the first-generation Mac Airs. This led to me travelling with a laptop I could afford to lose instead. I loved the Air for all sorts of reasons but one of its important tasks was to back up my iPhone every day. And, of course, being something of an expert on preserving digital information, then back up the Air to an external USB hard disk using Time Machine. Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe.

In the end I had to upgrade to a more recent M1 Air, not because the old one stopped working, but simply because the USB ports stoppped working, so it could no longer backup the iPhone or update the Time Machine disk. The new Air was impressively fast and had two USB-C ports, which it used both for data and for power. I continued to back up the iPhone and the Air daily

Fast forward to last month. The new Air’s USB-C ports had been a bit flaky for a while, but now one failed. It wouldn’t transfer data or power. A few days later the other port stopped transferring power, leaving me with no way to charge it. It was about 85% charged, so I powered it off.

I thought “I’m OK, I have yesterday’s Time Machine so I can get a new M2 Air and initialize it from the disk”. So I ordered a new one and, as soon as it was delivered, plugged in the Time Machine disk and fired up the Migration Assistant. It asked me what disk it should use. I wasn’t able to select the Time Machine disk because, to my surprise, the Air couldn’t see it. Plugging the disk into my Linux desktop revealed that in the couple of weeks since the day before the M1 Air failed, the Time Machine disk had died.

At this point I remembered that when I powered it off, the M1 Air still had a USB-C port that transferred data, even if it didn’t work for power. There were two ways to initialize the M2 Air using the remaining battery, either create a new Time Machine disk using the one USB-C port that transferred data, or via Bluetooth. I found a USB-C external SSD, which I figured would use less power, powered up the M1 Air, plugged in the drive, started a Time Machine backup, and crossed my fingers.

After a long, agonizing wait the backup finished with still quite a lot of battery left, so I powered off the M1 Air and used the disk to initialize the M2 Air. Apple’s Migration Assistant worked flawlessly, and I relaxed. The best thing about the M2 Air is that Apple went back to powering it with MagSafe! Their fragile USB hardware could no longer prevent the machine charging.

So the lesson was that I needed to have two Time Machine disks and use them alternately, so even if the most recent one failed I would have a backup only one day older.

The next problem came when I plugged my iPhone into the M2 Air to back it up. I got “unknown error 7014”. Google had no trace of “unknown error 7014” so, baffled, I made an appointment with the “Genius” at Apple’s Palo Alto store. In the faint hope that the M1 Air could be fixed, I took both Airs and the iPhone with me.

The Genius was very good. He rapidly figured out that:

So now I can travel with a Mac Air.

https://blog.dshr.org/2024/01/a-lesson-learned.html Save to Pocket


I love logos

date: 2024-01-18, from: Paolo Valdemarin’s blog

Sometimes it happens when I find myself walking in a new neighborhood, or maybe when I watch business parks outside a town while passing on a train: I’m fascinated by all these shops and industrial sheds with small companies logos on them. All these logos… Very rarely the graphic quality is any good, but I … Continue reading “I love logos”

https://val.demar.in/2024/01/i-love-logos/ Save to Pocket


Canadian Citizen Gets Phone Back from Police

date: 2024-01-18, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Bruce Schneier blog

After 175 million failed password guesses, a judge rules that the Canadian police must return a suspect’s phone.

[Judge] Carter said the investigation can continue without the phones, and he noted that Ottawa police have made a formal request to obtain more data from Google.

“This strikes me as a potentially more fruitful avenue of investigation than using brute force to enter the phones,” he said.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/canadian-citizen-gets-phone-back-from-police.html Save to Pocket


Evangelicals for Trump? It’s Not About Religion

date: 2024-01-18, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

Right after his victory in Iowa, where he received 53% of the evangelical and born-again Christian vote, Donald Trump traveled to New York to plead his case — literally. He was in federal court today, where he’ll soon find out how much he’ll have to pay for defaming a woman he’s also been found liable for sexually abusing. You may want to think about that for a moment. And let us remember it’s only January. There are more trials to come starring the leading GOP presidential candidate.

https://steady.substack.com/p/evangelicals-for-trump-its-not-about Save to Pocket


Davos duplicity

date: 2024-01-18, from: Robert Reich’s blog

They say they want to build public trust and avoid political upheaval, but they’re bankrolling election deniers

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/corporate-enablers-of-dictatorship Save to Pocket


Netflix Has No App for VisionOS

date: 2024-01-18, updated: 2024-01-19, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-17/watching-netflix-on-apple-vision-pro-you-ll-have-to-use-the-web Save to Pocket


Apple Will Begin Selling Series 9 and Ultra Watches With Blood Oxygen Sensors Disabled Tomorrow

date: 2024-01-18, updated: 2024-01-18, from: Daring Fireball

https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/17/apple-watch-series-9-ultra-2-without-blood-oxygen-sensor/ Save to Pocket


date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://twitter.com/games_fray/status/1747504304695484810?s=20 Save to Pocket


★ Coming to Grips With Apple’s Seemingly Unshakable Sense of Entitlement to Its Commissions From Third-Party iOS Apps

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

No matter what the sport, no matter what the letter of the rulebook says, it’s never a good idea to piss off the refs.

https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/coming_to_grips_with_apples_seemingly_unshakable_sense_of_app_store_entitlement Save to Pocket


Code Written with AI Assistants Is Less Secure

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog

Interesting research: “Do Users Write More Insecure Code with AI Assistants?“:

Abstract: We conduct the first large-scale user study examining how users interact with an AI Code assistant to solve a variety of security related tasks across different programming languages. Overall, we find that participants who had access to an AI assistant based on OpenAI’s codex-davinci-002 model wrote significantly less secure code than those without access. Additionally, participants with access to an AI assistant were more likely to believe they wrote secure code than those without access to the AI assistant. Furthermore, we find that participants who trusted the AI less and engaged more with the language and format of their prompts (e.g. re-phrasing, adjusting temperature) provided code with fewer security vulnerabilities. Finally, in order to better inform the design of future AI-based Code assistants, we provide an in-depth analysis of participants’ language and interaction behavior, as well as release our user interface as an instrument to conduct similar studies in the future…

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/code-written-with-ai-assistants-is-less-secure.html Save to Pocket


Office Hours: Can Trump’s nomination be stopped?

date: 2024-01-17, from: Robert Reich’s blog

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/office-hours-can-trumps-nomination Save to Pocket


Apple’s Workaround for the ITC’s Import Ban on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2: Disabling the Blood-Oxygen Sensor in Software

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/apple-watch-redesigned-without-blood-oxygen-monitoring-to-avoid-import-ban/ Save to Pocket


Post-SCOTUS Ruling, Apple Releases Guidelines for ‘External Purchase Links’ in iOS Apps (Spoiler: They Still Demand the Same Commissions)

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://developer.apple.com/support/storekit-external-entitlement-us/ Save to Pocket


Update: The Family Who Died at Eagle Pass

date: 2024-01-17, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

Often lost in the gamesmanship of border politics are details of those who tragically die trying to get to this country. In 2022, the most recent year for which records are available, nearly 700 people perished or disappeared trying to come to the United States. The International Organization for Migration says this is the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide.

https://steady.substack.com/p/update-the-family-who-died-at-eagle Save to Pocket


Disney Has a Good Disney+ App for VisionOS (and, by the Way, I Got Another 30-Minute Hands-On Experience With Vision Pro)

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-on-apple-vision-pro-ushers-in-a-new-era-of-storytelling-innovation-and-immersive-entertainment/ Save to Pocket


Wednesday 17 January, 2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: John Naughton’s online diary

This is how you do it Trinity Street, Cambridge. Quote of the Day ”I love criticism so long as it is unqualified praise.” Noel Coward Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Tuba Skinny | Jubilee Stomp – Royal Street … Continue reading

https://memex.naughtons.org/wednesday-17-january-2024/39036/ Save to Pocket


curl is a CNA

date: 2024-01-16, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog

The curl project has been accepted as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities in all products directly made or managed by the project. If I’m counting correctly, we are the 351st CNA. The official announcement from Mitre states: curl is now a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for all products made and managed by the … Continue reading curl is a CNA

https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/01/16/curl-is-a-cna/ Save to Pocket


Tim Sweeney on the SCOTUS Ruling

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Daring Fireball

https://twitter.com/timsweeneyepic/status/1747280528745624000?s=61&t=16WqqI8uLOTkQieKK2aS4g Save to Pocket


Supreme Court Rejects Petitions in Epic v. Apple Antitrust Case, Largely a Win for Apple

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/16/24039983/supreme-court-epic-apple-antitrust-case-rejected Save to Pocket


Why Trump ran away with Iowa

date: 2024-01-16, from: Robert Reich’s blog

Friends, The mainstream media still don’t get it. This morning’s New York Times tried to describe it and utterly failed: “Donald J. Trump’s decisive victory in Iowa revealed a new depth to the reservoir of devotion inside his party. For eight years, he has nurtured a relationship with his supporters with little precedent in politics. He validates them, he entertains them, he speaks for them and he uses them for his political and legal advantage.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-trump-ran-away-with-iowa Save to Pocket


Apple Teases New Entertainment Experiences Launching With Vision Pro

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-previews-new-entertainment-experiences-launching-with-apple-vision-pro/ Save to Pocket


The Story of the Mirai Botnet

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog

Over at Wired, Andy Greenberg has an excellent story about the creators of the 2016 Mirai botnet.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/the-story-of-the-mirai-botnet.html Save to Pocket


The Deadly Consequences of Playing Politics

date: 2024-01-16, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

Immigration has always been Donald Trump’s most compelling issue. It was a major factor in his Iowa victory last night and is his best hope for returning to the presidency. Many Republican officeholders and office seekers recognize this and follow Trump’s lead.

https://steady.substack.com/p/the-deadly-consequences-of-playing Save to Pocket


What’s the “Chevron doctrine,” and why should you want to preserve it?

date: 2024-01-16, from: Robert Reich’s blog

Two cases to be argued tomorrow before the Supreme Court threaten hundreds of consumer and environmental protections

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/whats-the-chevron-doctrine-and-why Save to Pocket


date: 2024-01-15, updated: 2024-01-15, from: Daring Fireball

https://hey.com/ Save to Pocket


Hands-On at CES With the Clicks Keyboard Case for iPhone 15 Pro

date: 2024-01-15, updated: 2024-01-15, from: Daring Fireball

https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/12/clicks-iphone-hands-on/ Save to Pocket


Vision Pro’s Long Shadow Over A Boring CES 2024

date: 2024-01-15, from: Om Malik blog

CES 2024, unlike its predecessors, lacked the usual impact because tech companies now prefer their own events for product releases. This was an in-between year, and no one knew what to build, or whom to copy. As is usually the case, the looming shadow of Apple, along with the launch of its Vision Pro device, only highlighted the fact that this …

https://om.co/2024/01/15/vision-pro-looms-over-ces-2024/ Save to Pocket


Voice Cloning with Very Short Samples

date: 2024-01-15, updated: 2024-01-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog

New research demonstrates voice cloning, in multiple languages, using samples ranging from one to twelve seconds.

Research paper.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/voice-cloning-with-very-short-samples.html Save to Pocket


What’s the matter with Iowa?

date: 2024-01-15, from: Robert Reich’s blog

Why today’s Iowa Republican caucuses won’t represent America.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/whats-the-matter-with-iowa Save to Pocket


Monday 15 January, 2024

date: 2024-01-15, from: John Naughton’s online diary

In flight Two of my kids, on a memorable day on the Mayo coast, way back in 2004. Quote of the Day ”There’s no underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” H.L. Mencken As we may be destined to discover … Continue reading

https://memex.naughtons.org/monday-15-january-2024/39029/ Save to Pocket


Yours Truly on the Techmeme Ride Home Podcast

date: 2024-01-14, updated: 2024-01-14, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.ridehome.info/show/techmeme-ride-home/bonus-john-gruber-talks-apple-and-ai/ Save to Pocket


Why Words Matter

date: 2024-01-14, from: Om Malik blog

A Man may make a Remark –In itself – a quiet thingThat may furnish the Fuse unto a SparkIn dormant nature – lain –Let us divide – with skill –Let us discourse – with care –Powder exists in Charcoal –Before it exists in Fire –A Quiet Thing, Emily Dickinson When reading this poem, I was …

https://om.co/2024/01/14/why-words-matter/ Save to Pocket


Week 2, 366 Project Wrap Up

date: 2024-01-14, from: Om Malik blog

I could use the rain as an excuse, but that would be a cop-out. I did go out often, and there were opportunities to capture images. The rain itself gave me so many opportunities. Even when I did find images that spoke to me, I couldn’t get things to work out. Usually, my everyday camera, …

https://om.co/2024/01/14/week-2-366-project-wrap-up/ Save to Pocket


Upcoming Speaking Engagements

date: 2024-01-14, updated: 2024-01-09, from: Bruce Schneier blog

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

The list is maintained on this page.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/upcoming-speaking-engagements-33.html Save to Pocket


Playing for Change

date: 2024-01-14, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

We saw a remarkable video on social media this week, a new rendition of John Mayer’s Grammy-winning “Waiting on the World to Change,” performed by 100 artists from dozens of countries around the world.

https://steady.substack.com/p/playing-for-change Save to Pocket


Sunday caption contest: the currents

date: 2024-01-14, from: Robert Reich’s blog

And last week’s winner

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-caption-contest-the-currents-b03 Save to Pocket


★ Margrethe Vestager Met With Tim Cook Yesterday, But I Doubt Anything Happened

date: 2024-01-14, updated: 2024-01-14, from: Daring Fireball

It’s just not clear at all exactly what Apple needs to allow to comply with the DMA, nor do any of us outside Cupertino have any idea what Apple plans to do.

https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/vestager_cook Save to Pocket


CNN: ‘FAA Keeps Boeing’s 737 Max 9 Grounded as It Reviews Inspections and Data’

date: 2024-01-14, updated: 2024-01-14, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/business/boeing-faa-manufacturing-oversight/index.html Save to Pocket


The Mom and Son Sitting in Front of the Blown Out Window on Alaska Flight 1282

date: 2024-01-14, updated: 2024-01-14, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/when-hole-opened-on-alaska-flight-1282-a-mom-held-tight-to-her-son/ Save to Pocket