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Scripting News Valid
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News needs a web distribution system

I can't read most of the stories I want to read. I have the money and am willing to spend it. But there is no system. On the other hand the distribution of video entertainment is somewhat functional, I spend an ungodly amount of mostly wasted money to get access to that. I...

Scripting News Valid
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In elections we get to say who we are, ie who comes closest to who we are. It's all made of imagery. Bernie Sanders is someone you either love or don't. He reminds me of people in my own family, who I would never want to be president of anything. But this ad, the best ever imho, says wait a minute, please reconsider. A campaign is a series of messages from candidate to electorate: "Is this who we are?" The great ads tap our optimism, imho. The Sanders ad says we're nice happy people who have jobs and help each other.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

The Talk Show: ‘Pinkie Swear’

daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2024/08/28/ep-407

Chance Miller, ace reporter (and editor-in-chief) for 9to5Mac, joins the show to talk about the latest changes to Apple’s DMA compliance plans with iOS, expectations for the September Apple event, and more.

Sponsored by:

  • WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million MAUs.
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Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

What to Do With Unwanted Political Spam Texts

support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/iphone/iph203ab0be4/ios

From Apple’s own documentation for the “Delete and Report Junk” feature in Messages: The sender’s information and the message are sent to Apple, and the message is permanently deleted from your iPhone. If you accidentally report and delete messages, you can recover them...

Scripting News Valid
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Wordle Kitty is colluding

In the next scene, Wordle Kitty, lithe and slender, and fiercely cute, is doing an AMA on Reddit. One of the questions asks if Wordle Kitty knows anyone in the US Government. "I don't know anyone in the US Government," she said, "but I do know their kittens!" she concluded. This scene is shown on the front page of the NY Times along with the headline "Wordle Kitty is leading an insurrection in DC, other kittens are colluding!"

Wordle Kitty is colluding and conspiring with the Kittens of DC.

Scripting News Valid
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An idea for the Harris campaign. Let me buy some swag and have it sent to 10 of my best friends, esp ones who live in swing states. Plus you get the names and contact info for people at least one of your supporters thought would be a potential Harris voter. I'd send something less presumptuous like When We Fight We Win stickers. Another related idea, let me buy a whole set of promotional materials, kind of like the gift baskets they sell at Zabar's.

Scripting News Valid
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Today Automattic announced that they're converting Tumblr, which they acquired in 2019, to run on WordPress as its foundation. This could get a simple colorful user-friendly interface for WordPress, something it's needed for a long time. WordPress does everything in its UI, Tumblr has its UI better organized for writers and more casual users. If they can move in this direction, it seems that WordPress could be large part of the emerging social web.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Retcon 1.0

retcon.app/

New Mac app that turns rewriting Git history entries from a chore into a breeze. Scroll down a bit on their home page to see just how much simpler Retcon makes edits compared to the Git CLI or other Git clients. Scroll down even more for the cleverly-named “cheatsheet you won’t need”.

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Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Dan Moren on Apple Books

sixcolors.com/post/2024/08/apple-job-cuts-in-books-are-turning-the-page-in-the-wrong-direction/

Dan Moren, writing at Six Colors: Sharing a little of my own data here: I’ve self-published my own short stories across most major ebook market places. Amazon makes up the bulk of those downloads and sales — 53 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Apple comes in a solid...

Scripting News Valid
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Note to the Harris campaign: This Google search should return a complete list of your ads. Or a pointer to a site with a complete list of your ads. I want to make sure everyone who follows me sees every one of them! Let us help you help us.

Scripting News Valid
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Very insightful Greg Sargent interview with James Carville. Two take-aways for Democrats. 1. Avoid NPR politics. 2. Appeal to college-educated white men. Most of them vote Republican, but with Walz on the ticket, they have a special ambassador, he represents that straight-talking country folk are part of the Democratic coalition. It's still true that white voters are the majority. Get a small number to vote Democratic could be enough to win the election. It never is about policy. It's about whether you are like them. That's what it means to avoid NPR politics. And btw, imho -- getting the press to like you might not be good. I wonder if the Dems would ever have the courage to sever itself from the journos. Imagine Harris saying "If the press says we're bad you know that means we're good." She could say that in her big interview. 😀

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

‘How Telegram Played Itself’

platformer.news/telegram-durov-arrest-france-explainer/

Casey Newton, writing at Platformer: Telegram is often described as an “encrypted” messenger. But as Ben Thompson explains today, Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted, as rivals WhatsApp and Signal are. (Its “secret chat” feature is end-to-end encrypted, but it is not en...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Apple Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition

apple.com/newsroom/2024/08/apple-announces-chief-financial-officer-transition/

Apple Newsroom, yesterday:

Apple today announced that Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri will transition from his role on January 1, 2025. Maestri will continue to lead the Corporate Services teams, including information systems and technology, information security, and real estate and development, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook. As part of a planned succession, Kevan Parekh, Apple’s Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis, will become Chief Financial Officer and join the executive team.

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Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Roblox: Hugely Popular, Yet Unprofitable

matthewball.co/all/roblox2024

Matthew Ball has written an excellent deep-dive into Roblox: Compared to its most similar competitors — the social virtual world platforms, Minecraft and Fortnite — Roblox has about 5× and 2.25× as many monthly players. For non-gamers, Roblox has about two thirds as many...

Scripting News Valid
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The reason I asked if NYT reporters sign NDAs with the NYT, then when a reporter leaves the NYT they can write a book about WTF happened at the NYT, and it would be an instant best seller imho.

Scripting News Valid
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I know a kitten who'd like to be EIC of the NYT.

Scripting News Valid
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Do NYT reporters sign NDAs with their employer, the NYT?

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

The ‘Reimagine’ Feature on Google’s New Pixel 9 Phones Makes It Trivial to Create Deepfakes

threads.net/@chriswelch/post/C-8LF4BOSAP/

Chris Welch, in a thread on Threads: The “Reimagine” feature on Google’s new Pixel 9 lineup is incredible. It’s so impressive that testing it has left me feeling uneasy on multiple occasions. With a simple prompt, you can add things to photos that were never there. And ...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Sonos CEO Says Their Old App Can’t Be Rereleased

theverge.com/2024/8/20/24224754/sonos-ceo-old-s2-app-re-release-cant-be

Jay Peters, writing for The Verge last week: If you want the old Sonos app back, it’s not coming. In a Reddit AMA response posted Tuesday, Sonos CEO Spence says that he was hopeful “until very recently” that the company could rerelease the app, confirming a report from T...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

1Password: The Infinite Loop of Security

1password.com/daringfireball

My thanks to 1Password — which, earlier this year, acquired frequent DF sponsor Kolide — for sponsoring last week at DF. The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) found that “the human element” (accidental breaches caused by human error, or victimization in p...