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The Massive-Disparity Edition Friday, May 27, 2022

Tech Industry Groups Are Watering Down Attempts At Privacy Regulation, One State At A Time, by Todd Feathers and Alfred Ng, The Markup

It’s common for industries to lobby lawmakers on issues affecting their business. But there is a massive disparity in the state-by-state battle over privacy legislation between well-funded, well-organized tech lobbyists and their opposition of relatively scattered consumer advocates and privacy-minded politicians, The Markup has found.

During the 2021 and 2022 Utah legislative sessions—when Cullimore’s bill made its way through the legislature—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft collectively registered 23 active lobbyists in the state, according to their lobbying disclosures. Thirteen of those lobbyists had never previously registered to work in the state, and some of them were influential in shaping Cullimore’s legislation.

The Grave Insult Of Being Sent The Proper Tools To Perform A Complicated Task, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

As I take it, the people who’ve long asked for Apple to support self-service repair have been asking for respect. Don’t treat us like babies who need help. Treat us with respect and give us what we need to repair our devices ourselves.

That’s exactly what Apple’s done. It’s not an insult to send you 79 pounds of professional equipment. It’s respect.

Stuff

A Year With The Elgato Stream Deck, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

It turns out that, yes, the concept of wiring up commands I could never recall from the keyboard shortcuts, of placing front and center all the macros and shortcuts and scripts I spent hours building and then promptly forgot existed, made it all worthwhile. I had gone from a skeptic to a convert, and it only took a few months—and a bunch of lessons learned.

Morpho Review: Worldwide Unit Conversions Quick And Easy On Your Mac, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

For those who work across nations, whether from a desk or traveling by car, plane, train, or bus, keeping track of local differences can be a bear to memorize and prepare for. Even European Union countries that have adopted the euro vary in electrical plug types, languages, and time zones.

Morpho from Think Tap Work combines every useful fact and conversion into an app, letting you set countries, currencies, and units you use preferentially as pinned items or presets.

Logitech MX Master 3S Review: The Best Mac Mouse Gets Better, by Jason Cross, Macworld

Logitech has taken what we still think is the best all-around mouse for Mac users and made it even better with a higher-resolution sensor and awesome quiet-click buttons that still feel great.

Microsoft's Popular Platform Adventure 'Psychonauts 2' Launches On Mac, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Psychonauts 2 continues gameplay as Raz, a “trained acrobat and powerful young psychic” to solve “quirky missions and mysterious conspiracies.”

Develop

Apple Developer App Updated Ahead Of WWDC 2022, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Developers can watch WWDC content together over FaceTime using the SharePlay function that has been added to the Apple Developer app.

Bottom of the Page

If I can travel back in time to my younger self, I will tell him to not bother collecting CDs and DVDs and books and whatnots. By the time he retires, there will be so much music and radio programmes and television programmes that he will not have the time, even at retirement, to finish reading and listening and watching them all. Even without stepping out of the house.

On the other hand: cinemas. Maybe spend some time there to watch movies with strangers.

~

Thanks for reading.