Snippet: Does Anyone Care About Meta’s Actions? ☇

Emma Loffhagen for The Guardian (via Nick Heer):

[Sarah] Wynn-Williams, whose bestselling memoir, Careless People, details her years working at Facebook, was due to appear in conversation with the investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu.

Instead, Wynn-Williams sat on stage for the duration of the hour-long discussion between Cadwalladr and Wu, without speaking or responding. She was unable even to nod or shake her head.

I read Careless People about a year ago and it included a number of disgusting, but unsurprising stories about the inner-workings of Facebook Meta. Even if some were embellished, the confirmed ones were already bad enough. However, what’s been tough to reconcile for me is that despite plenty of evidence and potentially continued abusive behaviors, there is no outrage nor are there consequences. In the past, if any company’s dirty laundry was aired out, we’d typically see more of a reaction, either the company hastily trying to clean up its act and minimize the past concerns or the court of public opinion would roast that company.

Instead, it’s basically business as usual as people stay in the Facebook Instagram WhatsApp Meta ecosystem to “stay connected” while also consuming more and more slop and less content from people they know. That disconnect has irked me for awhile, but Heer’s comment brought it all home:

I am no media relations expert, but I bet “Careless People” would feel much less potent if Meta realized it is a trillion-dollar corporation with a crappy reputation regardless of one ex-employee’s book, and with shareholders who do not care about what she wrote so long as the ads keep selling.

Similarly, another version could replace “shareholders” with “users” and “ads keep selling” with “dopamine keeps coming.”

Snippet: The Costco Theory of the Internet ☇

JA Westenberg:

For 20 years we built the internet around abundance: more products, more creators, more opinions, more newsletters, more podcasts, more apps, more tools, more marketplaces, more feeds. The founding promise was access: anything, from anyone, anywhere, instantly. No gatekeepers, no scarcity, no permission. The shelf went infinite.

For a while that felt like freedom.

And then it turned into drudgery…

I’ve been a Costco member for a couple of years now and it always fascinates me how many things have been done with intentionality. Many of these are to either make things more efficient or work around the segment of the population that just seems to be unaware how to behave in public. Ultimately, they are to serve the interests of Costco, but often benefit members, too. There are both implicit and explicit rules and if you abide by them, the experience is pleasant.

One recent instance that stuck out for me is the gas station—it’s often quite a bit cheaper than anything else around, but traffic flows one way, pumps are doubled-up, hoses can reach both sides of a car (in case you’re a dummy and forget what side the fuel door is on), and receipts don’t print by default. There’s also only regular or premium, eliminating mid-grade as an option. Oh, and the pumps themselves are fast—each of these little decisions speeds the line along.

Famously, Costco only takes debit cards (all types) or Visa credit cards. With this exclusively, they got an absurdly-low card processing rate and have also got PIN-based debit working properly with contactless, forcing even Apple Pay transactions over the much cheaper debit networks. Is it inconvenient if your favorite method of payment isn’t debit or Visa? Yeah, but they get to take cards, avoid passing along surcharges, and get better margins to boot.

Other than some of the annoying third-party kiosks that pop up, I generally go into Costco and just buy things without worrying about if I’m getting ripped off. Similarly, Aldi is another variation on that theme. Those businesses have clearly defined who they are and if that works for you, great. If not, Kroger has a whole aisle of just ketchup (why?) that you can spend some time in.

I’ve found myself shopping less on Amazon to the point of ditching Prime. While it’s great for a few specific things, too many of the search results are flooded with no-name products of dubious quality, products disappearing entirely if you plan to reorder, and deliveries have gotten inconsistent. While I’m not expecting Costco levels of choice (or lack thereof), it would be nice to have a merchant that focuses on a few good choices instead of leading me to analysis paralysis.

Snippet: Wide Camera Shots Exposed the Limits of Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Soccer Broadcast ☇

Andrew Orr for AppleInsider:

Apple placed iPhone 17 Pro units throughout Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, for the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC Major League Soccer match on May 24. The phones handled match coverage, tunnel footage, in-goal cameras, player introductions, and crowd shots. […]

In-goal footage, tunnel shots, player walkouts, and low-angle views near the pitch received positive reactions on social media and in live match threads. Apple and MLS promoted these placements in social clips and behind-the-scenes footage showing iPhone rigs around the stadium. […]

Criticism picked up once the iPhones handled the main gameplay feed. Viewers in live Reddit match threads complained about soft wide shots, visible compression, constant refocusing, shaky tracking, and heavier image processing during fast movement across the field. […]

Several viewers said grass textures looked smeared or muddy during pans and transitions. Others noted the issues were more noticeable on larger televisions where compression artifacts and sharpening were easier to spot.

This was obviously a marketing stunt by Apple, as there have been other “Shot on iPhone” moments throughout other MLS broadcasts. I was watching the NWSL broadcasts that evening and switched over to check things out. I’ve typically switched to other MLS broadcasts to wind out the evening, so I’ve gotten quite familiar with what to expect.

Not every reaction was negative. Some viewers said the broadcast looked normal for most of the match and argued the tighter shots appeared sharper than the wider gameplay coverage.

To my eyes (and Apple TV 4K attached to an LG 4K HDR TV), it was really close to the other MLS broadcasts, but there were some uncanny moments that reminded you this one was a little different. Nonetheless, it was still pretty good overall and demonstrates how far we’ve come with smartphone cameras. I’d argue that it was better than most NWSL broadcasts (Amazon Prime and ESPN tend to be the two that really put in the production effort), and significantly better than any lower-level league broadcasts. Realistically, I think iPhones could be an option for some angles and locations, but using traditional cameras for the wider gameplay makes the most sense.

Snippet: The Boring Internet ☇

Another banger from Terry Godier that gives me just a bit of comfort:

The layer where every human activity became a venture-backed destination, every destination became a feed, every feed became ad inventory, and every ad market became a machine for producing more things to interrupt you with.

Underneath that layer is another internet: older, slower, less polished, harder to monetize, and much harder to kill.

It is not utopia. It is full of spam, abandoned servers, broken clients, hostile nodes, strange old commands, half-maintained software, and people arguing in plain text about things no normal person should care about.

Snippet: How to Be a Carnival Barker ☇

Mike Montiero:

A while back I was a member of a Discord server that was part of an event I went to. And like a lot of temporary communities, people ended up hanging around on the server long after the event had ended. Chatting with new friends they’d just made and showing off what they were working on. Personally, I enjoy showing people things I’m working on. Whether it be a zine, or a painting, or a book I’ve got coming out. Other people were showing off stuff they’d made as well. Which I also enjoyed seeing. And there was a lot of advice being asked for and offered. It was nice. At one point, and I forget what prompted it but it also doesn’t matter, the organizers sent out a “gentle” reminder that self-promotion was frowned upon. Now, I took that personally.

Talking about the company you worked at was fine. Talking about where you sourced weird materials was fine. Talking about your investments was fine. Talking about a particular tool a company made, including a link on where to buy it, was fine. (And for what it’s worth I agree that all those things are fine.) But things got in a gray area when it came to work you made yourself. For example, I could mention I was working on a book, and get lots of support from people, which was nice. I could talk about the process of writing the book, which was also nice. But once the book was finished, I couldn’t link to the page for buying the book. Because this was considered self-promotion. I find this attitude puzzling.

I adored this post because it really sums up everything that’s wrong with many people’s relationship with work. If you’re running something on the side that is a labor of love, whether it’s a book, web site, podcast, art, music, etc., that is the thing you should be excited about, even if it isn’t paying the bills. I don’t know why we’ve been “strongly encouraged” time and time again to tie our identities to our job and leave little room for hobbies, side hustles, and interesting projects. Those are the things where you’re in control, be proud of your attempts and successes!