Time to sip my coffee and put together the stuff I found interesting this week. I may even include some older stuff. Who knows? I certainly don’t. 🤷🏻♂️
New York Magazine: ”As expected, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court for trying to wriggle out of the $44 billion deal he put together in the first place. The whole thing is just beyond weird — and not just for the world of business, but crazy on just about every plane of interpretation.”
From what I’m reading and hearing Musk is in a really bad position. Apparently Delaware Chancery Court moves really quickly and it sounds like they’ll force him to buy it or come up with the difference between todays stock price and his offer price to get out of the deal.
I hope he takes the deal to walk away, which could cost him billions, not just the $1 billion breakup fee. I’d like to see him out because if the man does end up with it I figure it’ll be shuttered or sold to someone else for much less.
Find a serious buyer or get it back on its feet. Tough road, I know.
Also, Mr. Musk, I still have musk.social sitting out here for you. Let’s talk. 😃
Slate: ”Jason van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers—a group of self-appointed vigilantes who were instrumental in storming the Capitol—told the House committee that the actions of the group on Jan. 6 provided “a glimpse” of their vision. The group had actively hoped for (and trained for) the chance to participate in a violent insurrection like the kind staged in the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency.”
If you don’t fear for the survival of our democracy and the potential for Civil War, why aren’t you?
The GOP is 100% MAGA at this point. They want to burn it all down and are working to take rights away from us common folk. They’ve already done it with a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her and her body. They want to go much, much, further.
When Trumpty-Dumpty said “I’ll have to wait and see” when asked about accepting the outcome of the election we now know he was serious about remaining in power.
Go back to March of 2018
Back in March 2018, Trump gave a closed-door speech at Mar-a-Lago to Republican donors in which he said this of Chinese President Xi Jinping: “He’s now president for life. President for life. No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.” - [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/politics/donald-trump-term-limit/index.html ?utm_source=rob-fahrni)
Take him at his word. That joke is not a joke. He wants to be President of the United States for the remainder of his life. If he gets back in office he’ll never leave and our Democracy will die.
Book bans are getting ugly and violent as conservative groups target educators online and harass them on their social media accounts.
— Tanya Basu (@tanyabasu) July 15, 2022
My story here:https://t.co/nAkeHk6pyu
Again, the GOP wants to take the entire nation backwards.
The notion that we’d get really close to Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale is terrifying and not a place I want to live.
[Dave Winer](http://scripting.com/2022/07/15.html#a124125 ?utm_source=rob-fahrni): ”Podcasts are RSS 2.0 feeds with enclosures that contain the podcast content. Anything that doesn’t use a feed to distribute the audio isn’t a podcast, and shouldn’t use that name. Eventually Spotify will regret diluting the meaning of the name…”
Podcasting is an open distribution system like RSS. In fact podcast distribution is via an RSS feed and, as Dave says, it’s not a podcast unless it’s distributed that way.
Services by Spotify, Apple, and Substack that lock content into their own proprietary systems need to use a different name. They are not Podcasts by definition.
[Laptop Mag](https://www.laptopmag.com/news/84-scam-apps-still-active-on-app-store-steal-over-dollar100-million-annually ?utm_source=rob-fahrni): ”Despite analysts reporting on 133 fraudulent apps on Apple’s App Store, 84 subscription-based iOS apps are still scamming unsuspecting victims into forking over an accumulated $103.2 million annually — and they’ve been active for over a year.”
I’m clearly in the wrong segment of iOS App development. I need to make a game that creates whales so I can sell them tokens to get past stages or earn more points.
The $10-15 per month I’m earning now is such a laugh but at least I’m not a scumbag developer.
Also, shame on Apple for allowing this to happen right inside a store they market as safe and secure. That safety should include not being ripped off by scammy apps.
[CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/politics/trump-secret-service-january-6-metropolitan-police-officer/index.html ?utm_source=rob-fahrni): ”A Washington, DC, police officer has corroborated to the House select committee investigating , details regarding a heated exchange former President Donald Trump had with his Secret Service detail when he was told he could not go to the US Capitol after his rally, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.”
Trump and crew need to be convicted of some type of Federal Crime so they can never hold public office again, at a minimum.
I’d prefer the entire Trump Crime Family see a bit of jail time.
Netflix chooses Microsoft as an ad-tech partner for its coming ad-supported subscription service: https://t.co/XFdsL7rwHW
— Mary Jo Foley (@maryjofoley) July 13, 2022
This is a real surprise. I trust Microsoft will do a great job and Netflix will get what they’re after, but the fact Netflix is going to do an ad supported tier is really surprising.
They are a premium brand. This move makes them feel less premium.
Virginia Mercury: ”In the search for hard-to-find bottles of bourbon at Virginia ABC stores, some liquor enthusiasts have been worried about leaks of a more serious kind.”
A little explanation for my friends in states without state run liquor stores. ABC is Virginia’s state run liquor store. When you want to buy anything stronger than beer or wine you have to go to ABC.
In the South Bourbon is king and certain bourbons are highly sought after. When we arrived and I sauntered into an ABC looking to purchase some bourbon the clerk mentioned they’d just received a shipment of Buffalo Trace. That didn’t mean anything to my California brain. I could get Buffalo Trace in California anytime I wanted. It wasn’t rare. But in Virginia it’s a real treat and flys off the shelves as soon as it hits the store.
So, with that context, this is a huge scandal in Virginia.
McSweeney’s: ”As you can probably tell by looking around, every employee at our startup is 23 years old. On the morning of your 24th birthday, the barcode on your employee ID stops working and you can no longer enter our building.”
This is funny to me because there is a bit of truth to it. When I turned 40 and went to work for LEVEL Studios I felt really, really, old. Then, at 52, when I landed a gig at WillowTree and met my new group I felt absolutely ancient. 👴🏼
It may sound strange but the pandemic helped me immensely. I could control the environment around me. I could focus more easily. The office was full of young folks flitting about the office with their laptops never sitting in one spot, and it was really noisy and distracting.
I’m really grateful I’m now a part of our remote only team.
Enjoy your coffee. ☕️
