The iPhone is a portable movie studio that occasionally can send messages or make phone calls (poorly).
If social media was still largely text based, BB would be a more efficient device. Unfortunately, it has morphed into a shallow, rich media platform. What gets attention: TikTok dreck, Britney Spears and her wild Instagram videos, not elegant prose. We as a society can't look away from the trainwreck.
It is now but the first iphone only had a 2MP camera and did not even have 3g.
Personally I think Swype and they keyboards like it is what did it in. The people here think they could type fast with a blackberry/ physical keyboard but I bet if they went back they would find the couldnt keep up with basic swype gestures.
It's hard to imagine a more text heavy social media site than HN, but even here I'd rather have a touchscreen. I don't spend the majority of my time typing, I spend it reading with the occasional comment here and there. An adequate writing experience in exchange for a better reading experience is exactly the right tradeoff to make for almost every use case.
I don't disagree, but still it's weird to me. I don't think I've ever sent anyone a video on my phone, I've hardly even recorded any. And I'm usually annoyed when I receive one. And I don't use social media at all. I suppose I'm the weird one.
How would this even work? Get it out of the app stores, fine. But presumably the URL would still be accessible? Likewise sideloading it onto Android devices?
Go after the $ side of it. If it's illegal for US companies to advertise on TikTok, it'll be dead in that market overnight, regardless of app store availability.
If you removed it from the app stores, a humungous percentage of people would no longer install the app. There will certainly be some tech literate folks who do so, but most people have very little tolerance for technical challenges outside of the norm and would stop at, it's not in the app store anymore.
Maybe. For Android it's very easy to sideload, just share a link for an APK download and then open it. Easy and quick enough for even a TikTok-addled ADD brain to do.
Well, not to search very far, but OFAC could simply forbid US persons from interacting with TikTok and its subsidiaries. It would send shock waves through the system, but it can be done.
You can then still sideload stuff, but you are immediately in a violation of OFAC. Naturally, I doubt even US government would be stupid enough to open that particular pandora's box.
So, the thing about championing free speech and free trade is that you also need to allow speech and trade that doesn't benefit you.
If you're interested in giving up America's commitment to either, that's fine, but I'd like to have some say in what other forms of speech and trade are silly to allow.
ummm with how much we are propping up China... a country with concentration camps and that is anti free speech is biting us back if your about free speech... all western films need to be edited to Chinese "speech", all companies must say the right "speech"...
If it feels a bit weird to have your country's media steered by social, cultural, and legal norms[1] of another country, that's just the situation that the rest of the world has been in for a very long time, now, due to America's dominance in international media production.
The United States should not be expected to have a dominating position in media export forever, though, and when its relevance outside the domestic market wanes, its media producers will be free[2] to edit their products with no regard for what the rest of the world thinks of them.
[1] Also, both Television and Hollywood codes were a thing for a very long time.
[2] They are currently free to do so, too, and they exercise that freedom. They just don't do it in a way that is consistent with your values. Since they aren't nationally owned companies, they aren't beholden to you in this respect.
"The United States should not be expected to have a dominating position in media export forever" ?.... who is saying it should? China is trying to dominate the market by limiting others while still being free to export their films to anyone who wants them and forcing foreign films to their "speech"
your saying its fine? that western companies have to bow to the CCP in other to be able to have access to the Chinese market? while we allow them to profit from our free speech/ freedom we have here
World wars involve many countries, and Cold War definitely qualify. Today's war is a pretty active, quite large "hot" war, which also involves many countries - even though most fight by proxy.
I also think "Cold War II" for the current situation is more fitting.
I think if there is any useful distinction between "hot" and "cold" world wars then it's most likely whether super powers are in direct military conflict with each other or whether military confrontation is "only" through proxy wars.
Note that the original cold war wasn't very "cold" for much of the world either - the only thing that didn't happen was direct millitary confrontation between the US and USSR. Nevertheless there were lots of local conflicts and proxy wars where each bloc was backing a faction.
In the today's war in Ukraine one country - Russia - fights directly, not from proxies, and the other side - mostly USA, but also other Western countries - supply weapons, volunteers, intelligence services, training. It is comparable with Vietnam war, right, but not already with Afghan war of 1980-s, or small conflicts around the world. The scale of war is also quite large, the level of directly fighting forces is much more comparable.
Should we admit that world wars don't need to involve superpowers - or at least only superpowers? The term wasn't that much applicable before end of WWII.
So here we can argue that in WWIV a non-superpower fights - Ukraine, on its territory, a superpower - USA, merely - but with principal results - supporting Ukraine, and the rest of the West. We may not call it a proxy war - I agree, it's a rather poor comparison - but for WWIV term it is another matter.
World wars don't need to involve superpowers, but they need to involve large part of the world. Russian invasion on Ukraine doesn't, and it's unlikely to escalate - Russia can't, because they have neither people, hardware, or allies, and the defending countries don't have a reason to.
I gained a lot of clarity when I differentiated "programming" from "shipping code". I still enjoy the former, but the latter is becoming harder and harder to do at large corporations.
I burned out hard towards the end of last year as an engineer. Fortunately, this preceded 4 months of paternity leave during which I was really able to think hard about what I wanted out of my career. I came back to a different position at the same company, as a PM on a new team. I'm enjoying the role for now, but I'm not sure if I'll convert permanently. If I do go back to being a SWE, it will be at a smaller company/on a smaller team where shipping code takes less overhead.
Generally my advice to anyone feeling burned out these days is to take a long break if they can, and use that mental space to strategize your next move. I appreciate that not everyone is in a position to do this, though.
I've read his Karateka journal, but not that one yet. It wasn't super technical for the most part, at least not that I can remember, but it did give across the vibe of 'regular guy getting to do some cool things and find some success' and I found it extremely conversational, relatable, and inspiring. I do intend to read the Prince of Persia one at some point.
It probably also got me to start recording my own game design journal. I'm still kicking myself for not doing one earlier like I initially intended to while I got a pretty cool job working for a video game publisher as a producer (instead I wrote like, 5 or 6 journals total... that was 11 years ago now, so a lot of it has gotten fuzzy...maybe if I sit down and try my best to remember at some point).
But my game design journal (plus some personal stuff) journal, despite me still not having anything published during that time yet, is sitting at over 300,000 words over four years. I generated a ton of ideas and prototypes and consumed lots of lectures and playtested a bunch of other designer's games and had several 'almost' opportunities during that time, so there was plenty to talk about anyway.
Pandemic really stunted that habit, though, and I'm struggling to get back into the habit of it (taking a break from writing an entry right now, actually, only the third one this year so far :/).
Highly suggest it! I read the older version back in 2011 but I believe this newer one at the least contains all the material, maybe more. It's a entertaining and insightful ride of innovation.
Mechner has superb talent, especially back in his 20's, and I'm grateful he put out his notes for us to read.
I read it and enjoyed it. As a kid who grew up playing computer games in the late 80s and 90s, it was interesting to hear what was happening on the production side. Here are my notes from the book:
It's really good. I bought it after reading about Stripe Press (yes, the payments company publishes books). I also picked up The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop. I really enjoyed both books.
The quality of the Stripe Press books is outstanding, although the type size is a little small in the Dream Machine book.
The rubber band trick [1] really helped me. Took my unlocks-per-day from ~100 to ~20. I took it off after about 2 weeks and it's more or less stayed that way.
>he was truly alone in a way that no other person had ever been in human history
The "had" there was meant to imply it was true up until that point in history. Other people have either nearly matched or slightly exceeded him depending on the specific details of the later Apollo mission lunar orbits. However it is mentally easier to be the second person to do something dangerous once you see the first person succeed safely. There is a reason everyone knows Armstrong and Aldrin, but Conrad and Bean don't have much notoriety today in the general population.
At least according to usage that I'm familiar with, if the phrase were, "no other person has ever been", that would be talking about before or since. But "no other person had ever been" is only talking about history up until that point. "Has been" is the present perfect tense, and "had been" is the past perfect tense.
