cincytee

US House of Representatives to recommend break up of Big Tech firms

cincytee

October 2020

wood1208 said:

US Government getting into non-government business affairs is how they screw them up. Leave them alone. Once upon time Bell/AT&T,Kodak,Standard oil,etc,etc were big and could have expanded globally but look at where they are today.. Even threatening to break up restricts their ability to invest,grow and compete globally especially against Chinese companies where Chinese government continuously help beyond normal instead of hurting them. To compete against larger global competitors, you have to be big in size and balance sheet.

Your initial point isn't entirely unfounded, but your examples aren't so great. The regional children created by breaking up Standard Oil have been able to compete just fine globally: Standard Oil of New Jersey, aka Exxon; Standard of New York, aka Mobil; Standard of Indiana, aka Amoco; Standard of California, aka Chevron. Kodak's demise was the result of poor management decisions and hubris. AT&T agreed readily to be broken up because it was sure it could use its expertise and resources to become a giant in computer technology; it was wrong.

The argument about facing government-supported Chinese entities sounds like it was copied and pasted from the 1980s – just search for Japan and replace with China. That turned out not to be quite the danger it seemed. (Admittedly, China is larger and has more resources to bring to bear, so that might boost your argument.)

Still, the lines of business demarcation for possible breakups of, for example, Apple or Amazon, are not readily apparent. Even a Democratic tidal wave in 2020 will not lead to that draconian a solution, but it does make a strong negotiating starting point for the government.

China lambastes Apple, others for 'incorrect' references to Hong Kong & Taiwan

cincytee

January 2019

From a historical perspective, the mainland's attitude and official position are completely understandable, but I've always thought that talks about peaceful reunification would actually be far easier if they started from the acknowledgement that there are, in effect, two independent countries in play here. Is anyone remotely surprised that telling Taiwan that it's just a rebellious province that needs to come in from the cold hasn't been very helpful?

AirTag again exposes lies told by airlines about lost luggage

cincytee

August 2023

AppleZulu said:

“Lying” suggests the airlines knew where the luggage was and intentionally said it was in a different location. It’s much more likely here that the airlines’ tracking system, which depends on a bar code being correctly scanned, was reporting incorrect information to staff, and they were reflecting that information to the customer. Yes, the customer was telling them he had different information, but all they have to go on is their own system, which to be fair, moves a huge amount of luggage around correctly every day.

So this isn’t about anyone lying, it’s about a customer convincing airline staff that he has different, more accurate info, and that, based on his info, they need to pull a person off of whatever task they’re normally doing, send them to the general area where the customer sees his luggage pinging, find it, and return it correctly to their system for final delivery. It’s not that they shouldn’t be expected to do that, but it’s at least realistic to understand what that means in the context of a system that’s still moving millions of other bags to their destination.

Airlines do correctly deliver an enormous volume of luggage every day, and people forget what a logistical triumph that is. The problem is that, when presented proof that the system has failed in a specific instance, the typical airline response is that the customer is wrong. The airline here did lie that it knew where the bag was and when and how it would be returned. You're right that it wasn't lying in the usual criminal sense, but it was a known falsehood: A quick check by airline staff in the airports involved would have confirmed that.

iPhone SE is powerful & accessible with tired design, early reviews say

cincytee

March 2022

Complaints about "tired" design make me laugh. Form follows function. No one complains about the "tired" design of a toaster: Toasters have to do what they do, and there are only so many ways to do that. Phones aren't much different at this point.

Western Digital My Book Live devices being remotely wiped by attackers

cincytee

June 2021

DAalseth said:

Kinda torn on this. On one hand if WD knew that's bad. But if WD knew but had declared them legacy well before and no longer supported them, well, that's the risk. Shouldn't be using such an archaic device for critical storage. Would we expect Apple to patch a vulnerability in Bondi Blue iMacs at this point? OTOH the newest of these would just be barely seven years old. That's not that far back. I don't know. 🤷

I have no problem with declaring products "legacy" and offering no new functional upgrades or support for normal drive failures or software compatibility, but this kind of critical flaw, if known to them, should have been patched. Having your data remotely wiped is well beyond the normal "it's old, so it won't do everything the new version will" risk of using older hardware.

Browsers like Chrome and Firefox can abandon WebKit in EU with iOS 17.4

cincytee

January 26

22july2013 said:

The EU has now learned that when it makes any demands, of any type, hardware or software, even against user privacy and security, Apple will capitulate.

You say that like the company is spineless. The EU is the master regulatory body for the continent. If Apple wants to sell its products in EU countries, it can file a few years' worth of appeals on rules it doesn't like, but, in the end, it has no choice but to capitulate if it wants to keep doing business there. The same situation applies in China.