Sometimes the internet is awesome.

I find it curious that the rhetoric around competition changes when a company acquires around 50% to 70% of a specific market.

Then, instead of competing, the company is magically abusing it’s leading position in the marketplace to avoid competition.

This is a weird one to me. The analysis just doesn’t make sense for a remembrance post. But, Om is a Silicon Valley expert so, surely he knows more than I do.

Om Malik on DPReview being shut down

First of all, the camera industry is not healthy. Here are some sales numbers of digital cameras from CIPA:

Steady demand for multiple years is not a healthy market? Sure it’s less than the demand from a decade ago, but demand for cameras and lenses is not dropping off a cliff.

He then goes on to compare site visits for DPReview, a review site, and Petapixel, “another photography website that aggregates and publishes more “photography” related click-friendly content”. He determines that DPReview “wasn’t that good” with 1.9 million visits in January 2023 (down from 3 million in 2021) while Petapixel saw “its traffic surge” with 2.2 million visits in January 2023 (up from 1 million in 2021).

Om’s analysis:

1. Camera Industry is not healthy because they’re not selling the same number of units they did a decade ago, even though they they have steady demand currently.
2. Traffic review is all about the change in visits not the number of visits. Which in his research is approximately the same number for both sites he compared even though they are not the same type of site, just the same area of interest.

Deadly Fungus Detected in Most U.S. States

The Last of Us is real and it’s starting now.

Ummm, anyone remember this asshat saying he could shot someone on 5th Avenue in New York and nothing would happen?

Trump Did It Again

That’s what they call foreshadowing.

I’m sickened that half this country thinks he is worthy of the highest political office we have.

This is excellent.

Pitch Perfect.

getting serious

Chris Christie,

But look at the end, being indicted, never helps anybody.

And yet, no one in the Republican Party is seriously distancing themselves from his dumb lying ass.

🎵
BK
Have it Your Way
🎵

Stupid jingles are stupid and get stuck in my head.

Landscape by Gordon Mortensen, born 1938

Yes, I’ll take the call.

Thank you.

Yes. Yes, you do.

Thank you for the notice.

Ellen Joanes writing at Vox

How Trump’s Using a possible arrest to rile his base

TL:DR - The same way he has always riled his base: lies and lies and lies and lies and we’re great, they’re losers so we have to fight to stop them from cheating and lies.

Nothing has changed in MAGAland since the Chief Dipshit lost the election.

It’s Caturday.
That means it’s time to play.
In the cardboard cat pad.

Daring Fireball, John Gruber: ‘Hating Everyone Everywhere All at Once at Stanford’

I can’t help but contrast this pull quote with Gruber’s thoughts on banning TikTok.

It seems to me to be the same; taking about someone else’s speech because you don’t like it.

Vox

Can society adjust at the speed of artificial intelligence?

TL;DR

Society can’t even adjust at 1980’s speed. It’s like society is just now learning how to deal with the internet from 1990’s, let alone the internet of 2020’s.

The New York Times Maggie Haberman reporting on possible Trump indictment,

It is unclear what data points, if any, the Trump team plans to point to…

Oh, Maggie, how are you still so naive about Trump and the MAGA idiots of this country?

It won’t matter what data points he says because he’ll fucking make shit up like a 5 year old - just like he’s always done, even while president. Because the corrupt dipshit is a 5 year old in an adult body.

This little piece from Arch Budzar is a nice reminder.

All I’ve ever received in response to my questions about why TikTok should be banned are

1. They’re tracking people
2. They’re owned by a Chinese company

Neither of those things on their own are worth an outright national ban on an app. Why?

1. Because other apps and services already track people
2. Owner ship isn’t relevant to suspected improper or illegal operating practices

The news media and politicians often site national security reasons, but never say what those reasons are. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, they all operate in a similar manner to TikTok (the apps, not the companies) so why is there no national call to ban those apps?

All I want is to understand why the app is worthy of being banned. Just one reason. However, “National Security” doesn’t hold weight without proof. So, where’s the proof?

Tonight’s Soundtrack:

I’d be interested in seeing how many of the conservative Don’t Say Gay or anti LGBTQ bills are directly related to the crap legislation they pushed in Africa a decade or more ago.

Ross Levine, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley business school who specializes in banking and finance, on the SVB collapse

SVB took lots of uninsured deposits from 100 or 200 really large depositors and invested a large portion of that money in long-term securities—very, very safe securities, so US Treasury securities and government-backed mortgage securities. This created an extremely fragile bank with respect to interest rates: Interest rates go up, bond prices go down, and that change is particularly big for long-term securities. So the value of the assets of SVB fell as interest rates rose. The fact that it had a few large, uninsured depositors who were very well connected meant that any sign of vulnerability triggered a flow of information such that the uninsured depositors wanted to remove their deposits, and everything unraveled very quickly.

They couldn’t stop the bank run once the word about the risk got out. CAO Greg Becker should be held accountable for not keeping his bank safe from the risks his investments made on depositors money.

To everyone fanning over Nilay’s post about the Brother HL-3170CDW printer:

1. It’s discontinued on Brother’s website.
2. It’s $400 on Ebay
3. It’s $900 on Amazon

I’m not spending that money on a freaking printer. I don’t care how good or who has it.

I rewatched The Matrix Reloaded ★★★★★ and The Matrix Revolutions ★★★★ in the last week. I must say I really enjoyed these movies.

The Matrix Reloaded is definitely in my top ten favorite movies of all time.

I might have to sit down at some point and list my top ten movies.

The former Dipshit in Chief talking about famous people

I knew them all — and every one of them kissed my ass, and now I only have half of them kissing my ass.

He only cared about what people could do for him because he’s a criminal grifter and always has been. A straight up garbage human being.

Excited to see what Google brings with their Pixel Fold phone.