Rob Fahrni

NPR

Elon Musk has threatened to reassign NPR’s Twitter account to “another company.”

Tech Dirt

Today is six months since Elon took over Twitter and began this bizarre speedrun of the content moderation learning curve in which he seems to repeatedly… not learn a damn thing.

Ars Technica

The judge overseeing a wrongful death lawsuit involving Tesla’s Autopilot system rejected Tesla’s claim that videos of CEO Elon Musk’s public statements might be deepfakes.

The Verge

Okay, I’ll admit it: I did not expect the Twitter checkpocalypse to result in Dril accusing Elon Musk of violating federal consumer protection laws.

Slate

LeBron’s media adviser then went on the record that James did not pay, and Musk confirmed thereafter that he was paying for some Blue subscriptions himself…

Mashable

Now, that it’s finally happened though, the campaign to “Block the Blue” – that is, any user still with a blue checkmark which signifies they are paying Musk for it – is in full swing.

Still not a genius.

9 to 5 Mac

Apple is reportedly prepping some major changes for the Apple Watch this year as part of watchOS 10. According to a new report from Bloomberg, watchOS 10 will include big changes to the user interface with a new focus on widgets.

YES BUT CAN DEVELOPERS MAKE CUSTOM WATCH FACES THIS IS THE ONLY NEW FEATURE IT NEEDS.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Kim’s nemesis is back! 🐿️

I suspect he’ll be heading up the pole to her bird feeder at any moment.

Good morning! 🌄

We had a super soaker of a Friday so it looks like I’m not doing yard work today. Maybe I should haul my dumpster bike out and work on it, work on Stream, or maybe sit on my butt and watch TV all day? Decisions, decisions. 🤔

Better let the coffee do its job. ☕️

Rush Blog

Rush’s Signals 40th anniversary box set officially releases today and is now available for purchase via this link, or via Amazon and other online retailers.

The Rush geek in me wants this, now.

I’ve mentioned it before, Signals was one Rush album I ran into the ground. It was in my portable cassette player all the time. I’d listen to it on the bus or walking around town. It’s a magical album for me.

Also, 40 years? I’m old. 😳

Swift.org Blog

I’m pleased to announce that a preview of the future of Foundation is now available on GitHub!

It’s nice to see Apple continuing to push deeper and deeper into Swift. I’m very interested to see if Swift will ever become a first class citizen on Windows. That might make getting Stream onto Windows quite a bit easier. Of course bringing the underlying bits to Windows is much easier than wrapping all of WinUI 3 in Swift.

The one downside is its dependency on the Swift 5.9 toolchain which is still in development.

The Mary Sue

After being shouted down by Republicans while trying to debate a harmful anti-trans bill, Zooey Zephyr has again come into the GOP’s crosshairs. But this time, they are not willing to listen to anything she has to say. And to ensure that, they have banned her from speaking on the legislative floor.

Oh, Montana GOP, why? Why do y’all have to be so cruel? Believe it or not our country is made up of a diverse set of people. No, all Americans don’t have to be white cis folks.

Try as you might to eliminate Zooey’s voice, you’ve just amplified it on the national stage.

GitHub Blog

In this blog, we’ve compiled some important tricks and commands that every developer should know from GitHub’s own engineers.

Knowing how to use a terminal — shell — is important for every developer. I love having beautiful UIs to help me do my work but sometimes it’s just a lot quicker to type.

New Republic

Washington State Bans AR-15 Sales: “No Reason Other Than Mass Murder”

Welp, that headline says it all. Assault weapons were made for killing large numbers of people. It’s time we have a nationwide ban on them again. If you want to play with guns join the military. At least they’ll train you how to use them.

The Verge

Apple’s App Store can stay closed but developers can link to outside payments, says appeals court

Emphasis is mine. Even though Apple is being forced to allow outside payments you and I know they’ll still want their cut. Instead of they’re usual 15-30% cut they’ll take 27%. It’s what they did in the Netherlands for dating apps. Don’t expect anything less here in the States.

Semafor

Phoenix Mercury player Brittney Griner, who was wrongfully detained in Russia for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis, said Thursday that she would no longer play basketball abroad unless it was for the U.S.

Here’s hoping Ms. Griner has a long happy life free of that kind of nightmare.

The Hollywood Reporter

Dune: Part Two is coming into focus, with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve and stars Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya showing off a new trailer for the Warner Bros. and Legendary sequel at CinemaCon Tuesday.

BRING ON PART TWO! Look, this thing better be epic given Mr. Villeneuve felt the need to split it in two. The first installment was a wonderful film but definitely left me wanting.

It’s been so long since I read the book details have faded and I’ve honestly forgotten how it ends. I can remember the ending of the 1984 version but I don’t remember if it held true to the book?

I enjoyed the ‘84 version and I hope the new one blows it out of the water. ⏳

Wired

By 2018, the city and Ford Motor Company were ready to tell another story. That year, Ford announced that it had acquired the station and the area surrounding it, a monument to the kind of transportation past that the automaker and its manufacturing brethren had all but killed.

Detroit was such a beautiful city at one time and it’s great to see Ford invest in its recovery given cars helped destroy it.

I wish I had a bunch of time to go explore the city and its burnt out neighborhoods and buildings.

CNN

CNN has parted ways with longtime host Don Lemon. The announcement Monday came without explanation and astonished the media industry.

This caught me off guard as I’m sure it did many others. I hope MSNBC picks him up. 😃

Also, another “news” organization fired their white supremacists “talent.” Good riddance.🫏

Love that little tongue sticking out. 👅

So, I like a lot of NASCAR drivers; Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie, and Brad Keselowski.

I’m just getting into NASCAR at 55 years old and I think the competition amongst Cup drivers is through the roof. Today’s Talladega 500 was absolutely amazing.

From the start of the race Bubba Wallace was in the front of the pack. He even led for quite a while. But, since everyone is so darned good, and they really do race for 500 miles, the end of the race gets really dicey and dangerous.

At the end of the race Bubba Wallace, Kyle Busch, and Ryan Blaney were all in contention.

At a restart, after a pileup, Bubba Wallace made his move to the front and was making moves to block Blaney. One touch of Blaney’s front bumper to Wallace’s rear bumper and there was a big crash.

Kyle Bush went on to win the race. Happy to see him win but I feel terrible for Bubba Wallace after running such a brilliant race all day. He was at the head of the pack all day and to see it end like that was depressing and exciting all at the same time.

I fell for Ms. Priss’ trap. She rolled onto her back, exposing her belly, and sprung the trap when I started rubbing it. 😆

Ok, got a new app idea.

Micro Manager!

It does everything for Micro.blog but posting. Allows you to manage your tags, photo uploads, and whatever else you wish you could do from the native iOS and Mac client apps.

Good old Elon Musk is proving day after day he’s not a good leader — he’s an absolutely terrible leader — and he’s not the genius everyone makes him out to be. He’s not to be taken seriously.

Some of Tesla’s investors are finally asking the board to get the man back to work at Tesla and stop splitting his time between companies. Good for them. Honestly they should find a new CEO so he can spend more time with his pet bird project. Running it in the ground is a full time job.

Great idea. Let’s boost regimes who are the worst of the worst when it comes to human rights violations. Nice work.

Free speech is allowed as long as Elon Musk agrees with it. Again, nice work dude.

Wow, you have a trans kid and you do this? You should be father of the year. You’re a horrible human being, Elon. Shame on you for doing this to your own flesh and blood.

Musk proves time and again he’s not to be taken seriously. Daddy’s money got him started and like every great grifter he’s fooled everyone into making him wealthy. That is his true talent, hoodwinking people.

It’s really hard to know exactly what he’s playing at. He’s definitely working to move the country to an extreme right wing agenda.

The blue check was intended to verify identity but it turned into a status symbol for many — not saying Dan took it as such — now it’s a sign of shame, not to be trusted.

Seriously?

I’m pretty sure Mr. King wasn’t thanking you Elon.

Dare Obasanjo is definitely not an idiot. Quite the opposite, he’s a very intelligent, thoughtful, human being. Even he admits he was fooled by the great grifter. Yes, we all were but now we know better.

To have a rocket go out in a blaze is perfect for his 420 obsession. At least he got that right.

I post this yesterday but it’s too good not to post again.

How the boards of SpaceX and Tesla believe this man is a genius I have no idea. If you really, truly, believe in space exploration and electric vehicles, fire this man.

Yep, I’m a Monday morning Quarterback. Yep, I’m a nobody. Yep, I see him for what he’s worth. I’m sure a lot of folks are now awake to his nonsensical bullshit.

The New York Times, CNN, and other news orgs should really consider aggregating their content on Mastodon with their own instances, or one for all news orgs, that verify the organization. Their reporters could get their own accounts elsewhere so it’s easier for them if they choose to move on.

I think it would be extremely cool to see things like nytimes@breaking.news or something like it.

I wish I had some kind of influence in media. I’d push really hard to bring everyone together to pay for this effort.

Can you imagine a coop of news orgs? It would be glorious.

It’s here and it’s blowing, raining, thundering, and lightening like mad. 😆

It’s not here yet, but there’s a thunderstorm brewing. Hearing the thunder in the distance now.⛈️

Good morning! 🌅

Another 8AM wake-up. Kolby, our puppers, must’ve read my blog post a few weeks back complaining about him waking me up at 6:30AM on the weekend. 😄

Coffee in hand, time for links! Enjoy. ☕️

The Wall Street Journal

It sounded like a dream partnership when Apple Inc. reached out to Joe Kiani, the founder of a company that makes blood-oxygen measurement devices. He figured his technology was a perfect fit for the Apple Watch.

Sherlocking is an Apple tradition. Tim Cook comes across as a nice Southern Gentleman but under that demure exterior is a cold blooded killer. Hey, he’s the CEO of the most successful company in the world, I wouldn’t expect anything less. Other companies innovating on an Apple platform is great for Apple. It gives them a blueprint without having to do it themselves.

Lucky for me there’s no way Apple could Sherlock the advanced algorithm AI ML of Stream! It’s too powerful for anyone but me to understand! 🤣

How’s that for completely shameful self promotion? 👍🏼

Red Shirts Always Die

Season three of Star Trek: Picard has been a hit for Paramount+. Fans love nostalgia, for good or bad, they do.

I’ve been thirsting to watch Picard since the original season but I’ve refused to add yet another streaming service to our mix. I’m hoping we’ll get some kind of licensing deal that allows other streamers access to it. 🤞🏼

Daring Fireball

But what got me thinking about this issue this week is the dumbest adware in iOS I’ve seen.

I hear this from folks from time to time. Apple is advertising in their apps now. I’m certain Steve Jobs has rolled over in his grave.

I’ve seen a couple myself but they’ve been very subtle and easily dismissible. Do I want to see ads in Apple products? Nope. It feels beneath them but they gotta add that shareholder value and squeeze every last penny out of their products.

New York Times

In a move that brings to a close a pioneering era of online journalism, BuzzFeed is shutting down its namesake news division.

Not that I’m a huge BuzzFeed reader but this was very surprising. This media outlet with a funny name eventually became a Pulitzer winning company. That’s something to be proud of. I wish everyone well and hope they land on their feet. Tech has been a been a real mess lately. So many layoffs.

MSNBC

If you’re a transgender resident of Missouri, the next 10 months are set to be horrible. Under an emergency regulation from state Attorney General Andrew Bailey, it will soon become incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for many patients to receive any sort of gender-affirming care.

More GOP cruelty. They love, love, love, guns but hate people. I don’t know how else to say it. They’re control freaks who want a nation of drones who push buttons to churn out widgets to make them rich at the cost of their humanity. It’s really very disgusting. Let people live their lives with dignity and respect.

Los Angeles Times

Andrew Toles hasn’t played for the Dodgers since Sept. 30, 2018. However, he just had his contract renewed for another year last week.

This is a class move by the Dodgers organization. Not many companies would be so thoughtful.

Texas Tribune

Public schools in Texas would have to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school year under a bill the Texas Senate approved Thursday.

Here we are again. Yet another red state trying to make a ridiculous law infringing on Constitutional rights and freedoms. This will not holdup under judicial review but these assholes love to challenge law in hopes of overturning it. Maybe this is their retaliation for us normals wanting to revoke the Second Amendment.

The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Emphasis is mine. This should override any state sponsored law. It’s just a GOP game.

Gus Mueller

Twenty years ago today, March 27, 2003, I released VoodooPad 1.0.

I didn’t see this until this week. Congratulations Gus! Twenty years is a quite an accomplishment. 👍🏼

The Verge

Volkswagen is pulling the cover off the ID.7 flagship electric vehicle that aims to rescue the sedan from the dustbin of vehicle history.

This is a really nice looking ride, not to mention great for consumer choice.

Traditional car companies have caught up with Tesla and are making better cars. The gravy train had to end at some point.🚂

New York Times

A new state-funded project in the San Joaquin Valley hopes to find a new way to build drought resilience. The idea is simple: Cover the state’s canals and aqueducts with solar panels to both limit evaporation and generate renewable energy.

I grew up and spent most of my life in the San Joaquin Valley of California — hello Exeter — and saw canals everyday.

I recall a particular canal at the base of Rocky Hill, in Exeter, that had an underground section. Because it dove underground it provided and excellent hill for speeding and jumping down on our bikes.

This idea is really interesting but makes me wonder if they can pull it off? Canals are already extremely dangerous. What would adding covers to them do? Once you’re in one it’s extremely difficult to get out. In my experience folks are usually pulled out by someone who notices they’ve fallen in.

/Film

Roman has slowly but surely become a more competent businessman and human being throughout all four seasons of “Succession.”

Ah, Succession, my favorite 💩show of all time.

Of all the characters I’ve always found Roman the most likeable of all the Roy family — that’s not saying much as they’re all disgusting pigs — and I’m really anxious to see where we land at the season finale.

Some thoughts. Shiv aborts her baby. Tom murders Shiv and commits suicide. Kendal becomes a homeless drug addict. Roman starts an online dating service. Connor goes back to his life a solitude. Cousin Greg dupes them all and ends up in charge of the family fortune.

Sounds about right. How many of these will I get correct? Guess we’ll find out. 🤣

Ed Zitron

I’ll get right to it: Mark Zuckerberg is an ineffective, incompetent, and directionless executive, one bereft of complete or concrete ideas.

I feel like the only reason the Zuck is still CEO is because he has more than a 50% interest in the company with a handpicked board of sycophants.

Mark’s not going anywhere.

Just watching a little TV.

This fella knows how to live. He parties all night and sleeps all day.

More flowers coming in.

I love movies and I love going to the theatre to see movies. I haven’t made this list since 2019 because when COVID hit I just didn’t feel like it.

I don’t know if we’ll go catch any of these in theaters but I’d like to.

Enjoy.

Here’s a list of prior years.

Flynn in his natural state.

Kim’s rhododendrons have struggled mightily over the last couple seasons. She moved them last summer in an attempt to get them to survive and she used a different amended soil meant for rhododendrons. It seems to have worked. They’re quite a bit happier and putting off flowers. Finally!

Good morning!

I managed to sleep until 8AM! That’s pretty good and I needed it. Still groggy but the magic elixir should help. ☕️

New Republic

On Thursday, Tennessee Republicans had their first opportunity to show Democrats, Tennesseans, and the country their willingness to work together to enact baseline gun safety reform.

Not unexpected from the GOP in any state. They only care about children when they’re in the womb. After birth it’s game on, “good luck making it to adulthood kid.”

Techdirt

That became ridiculously clear on Thursday when Chris Best went on Nilay Patel’s Decoder podcast at the Verge to talk about Substack’s new Notes product, which everyone is (fairly or not) comparing to Twitter.

I listened to the entire podcast and I’d encourage you to do the same. Nilay is so good at asking those questions that make people squirm and he doesn’t let go. This was by no means a “gotcha” question. It’s very relevant to running a social network, which Substack Notes is.

Vox

Logan Roy is dead.

Man, that episode was amazing and uncomfortable. I love how we didn’t see him die, as it could be in real life. The kids just got that dreadful call many of us have received. We never really see an actual dead, or dying, Logan Roy. Just someone lying on the ground receiving CPR. I think it was brilliant and caught me off guard which was also perfect.

Now, what do the kids do? Do they find a way to bring Pops business into the 21st century, sell it as scraps, or run it in the ground?

We obviously don’t know how this ends but it’ll be a complete train wreck all the way to the end and I’m here for it. 🍿

Wired

Montana lawmakers voted 54-43 today to ban TikTok from operating in the state and forbid app stores from offering it for download.

I’ve been on the fence about TikTok for a few weeks now. At first I was in the die hard ban them group but I’ve been questioning that position for a while.

I wonder if their strategy to wall off content from China by keeping it here in the states could work?

Apple allows the Chinese government access to iCloud in China, why couldn’t the opposite work here?

I’d imagine the moderation team could be immense and I’d also imagine a substantially large team dedicated to tooling to make this work, but it might work, right? 🤷🏻‍♂️

The Nation

Two Sundays ago, I got a call from the Texas Tribune informing me that the board had voted to lay off the entire staff and shutter the publication.

The Texas Observer is a small progressive paper in, you guessed it, Texas. Yeah, the state that has drive-thru margarita stands that give free guns away with a purchase of $5US or more (yes, the gun part is full on sarcasm.)

Texas needs an independent progressive voice and I’m hopeful the Observer hangs around for a very long time. This is one of those times I wish I were very wealthy. I’d happily fund them for years just to make sure Texas progressives had a place to get their news.

Mozilla Blog

Total Cookie Protection is Firefox’s strongest privacy protection to date, confining cookies to the site where they were created, thus preventing tracking companies from using these cookies to track your browsing from site to site.

This is a very nice feature. Your turn Google and Microsoft.

Newsweek

President Donald Trump has such a fragile ego, his secret service agents are forced to act like “fluffers” and tell people to say nice things to him before he enters a room, Donny Deutsch has claimed.

I LOL’d when I read the term fluffer and I’m happy to know this man is super fragile. I also wonder if a few weeks in a prison cell would break him or make him an even more disgusting human. Somehow I fear the latter would occur.

Mission Local

Mission Local is informed that the San Francisco Police Department early this morning made an arrest in the April 4 killing of tech executive Bob Lee, following an operation undertaken outside the city’s borders. The alleged killer also works in tech and is a man Lee purportedly knew.

This is turning into a wild story and crap like this happens every day.

Slash Film

True Detective: Night Country Trailer: Jodie Foster Headlines The Return Of The HBO Series

I loved the first season of True Detective. The second was good but not as gripping as the first. I think that’s part of why I’ve never watched the third season but I’ve heard it harkens back to the first season. I need to go play catch-up before we get this Jody Foster version. I’m really looking forward to it.

Reuters

The person who leaked U.S. classified documents prompting a national security investigation is a gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked on a military base, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing fellow members of an online chat group.

How in the world does a 20 something get access to top secret documents when he’s not part of the security apparatus of the United States? What a dangerous and embarrassing situation for the US government.

NBC News

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal appeals court to take immediate action to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying in the Justice Department’s probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

I’ll bet he’s asking the courts to block Pence from testifying. I’d imagine Pence, being the weakling coward he is, will take the fifth a bunch and not say much.

At first I thought he acted bravely on January 6. Then I realized he didn’t do nearly enough to stop it from getting that far. He was a witness to the planning and could’ve stopped it long before it happened.

Kim’s lilacs are coming in.

This morning we were talking about Priss and Flynn when they were kittens. Thought I’d share some pictures.

The trees are happy the sun is out. Soon enough they’ll be so thick with leaves they’ll cast great shade.

The Verge

Tumblr is somewhere between a social network and an old-school blogging platform, and like most major blogging tools, every post has a dedicated section for freeform category tags. The tags typically appear in a smaller, lighter font under each post, visible but tastefully separated. You might tag a post with the name of a loose topical community like #writeblr, the name of a fandom or hobby, or an internal filter that helps people navigate your blog.

I really like this idea. No only has Tumblr done it right, so has Micro.blog.

Both are microblogging platforms with a timeline and the ability to do long form blog posts complete with titles.

I use Micro.blog for this blog and love it. I’ve settled on Mastodon for more of a Twitter like experience and use Micro.blog for blogging.

Having a true tagging feature would be really amazing and would clean up the hashtag soup you find in some Mastodon posts. 👍🏼

CNN

A 23-year-old bank employee opened fire at his workplace in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday morning and livestreamed the attack that left four dead and nine others wounded, authorities said.

More dead and wounded. Our obsession with guns in America is an epidemic. It should be treated as such and removed from society.

We can start by revoking the Second Amendment. [insert gasps and pearl clutching here.]

Next outlaw weapons of war for use by the general population.

Add longer waiting periods for delivery of weapons.

Outlaw selling at gun shows.

Require purchasers to be over 21 in all states.

Require every gun to be insured for death and dismemberment, like a cars accidental death and dismemberment.

Require training by a US Certified weapons specialist.

Require recertification of the permit to own a weapon, every year.

Require background checks and certification from doctors stating the mental well being of the potential owner.

All weapons registered with a central database managed by the ATF.

Require annual inspections for each weapon to certify they’re in good working order and have not been unsafely modified.

There’s my starting list. As much as I think it’s fine to not own a gun and don’t see the need for them, you can still have your guns. Just be responsible owners.

The gun used in the shooting was an AR-15-style rifle, a federal law enforcement source told CNN. The AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle, is the most popular sporting rifle in the US, and about 24.6 million people have owned an AR-15 or similarly style rifle, according to the 2021 National Firearms Survey.

Ah, yes, the favorite weapon of mass murderers, the AR-15 was used in this multiple murder as well.

We’re a pathetic nation that values guns over people, and don’t even care enough about children to do anything sensible to prevent mass killings.

The performative GOP loves to talk about mental health in this nation when something like this happens. Yes, let’s take care of mental health issues in this country, but that’s a separate issue, isn’t it?

The problem is easy access to guns.

Kim’s first set of seasonal flowers are coming in. I love watching this area of our flower beds progress through the seasons. One set of flowers will die back as another set emerges. It’s amazing.