My lovely wife made me a mocha to go with composing this weeks post. That combined with oxycodone, ice, and elevation are doing their job. I can focus well enough to get this done. š¤š¼
Shelly Rosen: āThe way Googleās two-factor authentication system is designed, sets up poor and elderly people to be locked out of their accounts again and again, and without access to their email, they lose their welfare benefits, their housing, and struggle to find work.ā
Iām not sure what Google can do to fix this extremely important problem. Take some time to read Ms. Rosenās letter it lays everything out for Google. As a developer this is the kind of feedback you hope to get from folks using your software.
TechCrunch: āAmazon this morning announced plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion.ā
Alexa, donāt vacuum the cat. This seems like a really sweet deal for Amazon. I canāt believe iRobot couldnāt fetch a higher price.
Los Angeles Times: āThe California Department of Motor Vehicles has accused Tesla of false advertising in its promotion of the companyās signature Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies.ā
This shouldnāt surprise anyone. Tesla has been touring Full Self Drive for years and theyāre no where near the desired functionality. Is it novel? Yes. Do I trust it? No way.
I canāt wrap my brain around the challenges the developers must be facing. And the icing on the cake would be Musk breathing down your neck to get it done. No thanks.
My idea of a better challenge would be tackling mass transit with electric motors and making it easier to travel long distances on electric trains and busses.
Heck, the eBikes business is really taking off.
Cartoon Brew: āDreamworks Animation has unveiled plans to release its proprietary production renderer Moonray as open-source software later this year.ā
Iāve had a fascination with rendering pipelines for years and years. As far as I know Pixarās RenderMan is still the Cadillac of rendering software but having an open source choice from a heavy hitter like Dreamworks is worthy of consideration, and itāll be open so folks can contribute to it. Amazing!
When the git repo is made public you know Iāll be there poking around. š
Makes you wonder if Pixar will follow with RenderMan?
TechCrunch: āInfowars founder Alex Jones took the stand today in a trial that will determine what he owes to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Last year, Jones was found liable in a series of defamation cases brought by the parents of Sandy Hook victims.ā
Alex Jones is a grifter. He has an unwitting audience of people willing to believe anything because they hate everything and everyone. Jones feeds their animosity with wild stories of the deep state and blood drinking Democrats to drain them of their hard earned cash. Whoās the vampire?
Vulture: āItās pretty well known and even darkly joked about across all the visual-effects houses that working on Marvel shows is really hard. When I worked on one movie, it was almost six months of overtime every day. I was working seven days a week, averaging 64 hours a week on a good week. Marvel genuinely works you really hard. Iāve had co-workers sit next to me, break down, and start crying. Iāve had people having anxiety attacks on the phone.ā
I donāt think this is a new reality of the VFX business. Rather, a horrible expectation set by major studios.
Deadline: āEven though Batgirl is in the final stages of post-production, Deadline has confirmed that Warner Bros. and DC Films will not be releasing the movie on any platform, including theatrically.ā
This is a real bummer. I was totally ready for it.
As far as release platforms go, I was fully expecting it to appear on HBO Max. Itās the streaming platform I use more than any other. More than Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Apple TV. Each of those services has a place in my streaming lineup, but HBOās ability to release new movies to streaming early is itās real superpower.
The Washington Post: āSAN FRANCISCO ā Elon Muskās countersuit to Twitter contains aggressive new claims about the social media siteās methods for tallying bot and spam accounts ā as well as which accounts generate ad revenue ā cementing the strategy the billionaire is using to attempt to back out of the deal.ā
I suspect Musk will be forced to show up and pay $54.20 per share.
The big question is, once he owns it can he make it something better or will he lose an uphill battle?
How do you deal with bot problems and nihilistic American politicians hell bent on turning our democracy into a self serving dictatorship.
Iām sure Mr. Musk has some really great ideas. Itās the bad ideas Iām worried about.
Thatās all for today. I hope you enjoyed your coffee or tea with your read. āļø
