What we really need is a robust public conversation around strong privacy laws that would apply to the government and private companies alike and clear limits on what should be done with data. Important choices about the future of technology and privacy should be made by the American people and their representatives, not by Silicon Valley, where even the noblest intentions are mixed with huge financial stakes. If the government wants the power to compel companies to undermine their own security systems, it should go to Congress and ask for it.
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But the current choice is between a government that doesn’t seem to recognize limits to its own power to access personal information and a technology company that does. It’s a bad choice, but an obvious one. While nobody elected Mr. Cook to protect our privacy, we should be glad someone is.
Launching a side project can drag on forever, at least if you have a full time job. My friend Andreas and I know this all too well, as we’ve discussing ideas forever, but never really launched anything together.
So in order to break out of the procrastination, we decided to set off an entire weekend in our calendars in order to build and launch a product idea Andreas had been thinking about a year.
The line is where two very American impulses collide — one of the quickly eroding vision of an even playing field, the other of money buying better service. (What is being rich if not jumping every one of life’s metaphorical and physical lines?) And while jumping the line face-to-face in the physical world is the surest way to a dogfight, why do we mostly accept the digital equivalent without comment?
Something is wrong with a multiplayer game that I am playing on my iPhone: I can't 'join' the 'room'.
What's wrong?
It could be the game server. It could be Game Center. It could be my AirPort. It could be the ISP. I have no idea where to even figure out stuff.
I'm old. I think I should give up now.
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Thanks for reading.