Closing the Barn Door

I'm having trouble getting motivated to write this week, so I'm going to be lazy and jump on the anti-Facebook bandwagon.  I know that I said it was being over covered last week, but the new stories about The Zuck potentially doing some insider trading and how they have been scraping Android data from phones for years has got some creative juices stirring.

And now there's the newspaper ads that Zuckerberg took out.  You can read what you want into the ads as words like 'limit' and 'stopped apps like this from getting so much information' leave wiggle room for FB to provide some information to 'apps like this' and maybe more to other apps that aren't quite so like that.

All this begs the question of whether you should #deletefacebook.  The surface answer is easy: yes.  But there are consequences to everything, so lets look a bit closer.

Fifth Domain Electricity

There's been more than a few news articles this past week about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica and how user data was used to (maybe (almost certainly)) swing the 2016 election.  Enough coverage that I'm not going to talk about it here.  Suffice to say that anything you put on social media can and will be used in ways that you may not intend.  Including rambling blog posts.

Instead, I want to discuss another item that is not getting as much traction, but may be much more serious.  It's this opinion piece from The Hill that warns of Russia's ability to attack our infrastructure through the internet.  It sounds like something from a spy thriller and would be easy to dismiss if they had not already done it once.

Go Go Gadget Mobile!

A couple of months ago, my ten year old car decided to stop firing on one of its cylinders.  As that killed a quarter of its power, that made it a significant decision on its part.

As I believe in squeezing out as much as I can out of large capital investments, I dutifully took it in to the mechanic who changed the plugs, the wires and the coil.  None of which shut down the baleful red Check Engine Light on the dash.  This failure was beyond the quick fixes.  A quick comparison between the engine overhaul estimate and the Kelly Blue Book value of the vehicle put me in the market of a new (to me) car.

And, if I'm going to do that, then I might as well go electric.  With an updated electronics package.  And a bamboo interior with recycled fabric and LED lights that use light frequencies guaranteed to not hurt the eyes of roadside wildlife.

Mom, Dad: Please Stop Fighting

On Friday last week, Business Insider posted an article that stated Amazon will stop selling Nest products including thermostats and home security products.  Nest, which is owned by Alphabet (Google), was apparently expecting the call.

This is the latest in a long standing retail feud between the two Internet giants:

• Amazon would not sell the Chromecast for a long time ostensibly because it did not play back Amazon Prime Video in a way that Amazon liked.
• Google pulled YouTube from Amazon's line of Fire products, but then relented when Amazon agreed to start selling the Chromecast... though they still aren't showing up on Amazon three months later.
• Amazon does not stock the Google Home product that directly competes with its Echo line of smart speakers.

On the surface, it appears that Amazon is being the antagonist and using its e-tail power to try and curtail the Big-G.  Dig a little deeper and it is clear that both are holding their own share of the blame-bag.

Artificial Warning

An article about Artificial Intelligence crossed my consciousness last week.  It's called "Tech companies should stop pretending AI won't destroy jobs" and is written by Kai-Fu Lee.  This is a thought that I embrace whole-heartedly.

In it, he argues that soon at least half of all jobs will be better and more safely handled by AI.  That we are not ready for the dramatic social upheaval that this transition will cause.  That we should not look to previous economic revolutions (industrial, computer or otherwise) because the same sets of conditions do not apply: things are moving faster than those did, and the transition may not give rise to new forms of work.

For the most part, I agree with him.  AI and automation are going to cause incredible changes.  My first quibble is with the speed: some sectors will be changed much more rapidly due to the economic advantages automation provides.  My second is that Mr. Lee offers no solutions.

The Olympic Spirit

This last weekend saw the 2018 Winter Olympics kick off in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  And with them, I thought that I'd continue my 'State of Cordcutting' that I started last week with the Super Bowl.  And also because, the Olympics are one of the few sporting events that I actually care about, especially the Winter ones as I'm a skier.

I watch the Olympics because I enjoy watching people do things at their peak.  These are athletes who have trained hard, committed their entire existence to this one skill and are now using that skill at a level that at the edge of human capability.

Add to that the feeling of togetherness and internationalism that pervades much of the event.  Even though these athletes are competing against each other, most of them (not all) recognize that their competitors are more kindred spirits rather than enemies.  They have all worked hard at the same skill.  They understand each other's pain.  Something that we more baseline humans could stand to do better as well.

Despite all of that, I'm unlikely to watch any of it.  And that has to do with another spirit of competition: International Broadcast Rights.

Almost Superb Streaming

Last night, the Super Bowl happened.  Two teams.  One of them won.  There were commercials.  And I did not watch any of it.  Partly because I write this early on Sunday afternoons, but more because I don't care.

Maybe that makes me un-American.  I like to think that it makes me a new American.  One who better things to do than watch a contrived sporting contest (practice guitar, cook dinner, do the dishes, clean the bathrooms, write this blog).  And, if ESPN's subscriber loss is any indication, I'm not alone.

With all of that in mind, the advent of the Super Bowl seems a good time to take a look at the state of cord cutting and how technology has changes what and how we consume entertainment.  Buckle up, mes amigos.