From Angelica Jade Bastién’s review of Amazon’s new horror anthology series Them:

Them – showrun and created by Little Marvin and executive produced by Lena Waithe – isn’t just rote, flagrantly biting the aesthetics of other filmmakers. It isn’t just morally bankrupt. It isn’t just grating in its empty platitudes and kiddie-pool-deep proclamations. I am comfortable calling it one of the most anti-Black pieces of pop culture I’ve seen in the last few years, one that left me spent after the grueling process of watching its virulent imagery.

Later in the article:

Them primarily feels empty during the first half of its run. But episode five, “Covenant I” – which is, notably, directed by the show’s only Black director, Zola’s Janicza Bravo — turns the show from a grating, hollow depiction of Blackness in America to one that revels in degrading its Black characters in a way that left me questioning both the Black creators involved and the studio system that is eager for this kind of work.

I’ve heard a few different things about the show over the past few weeks. I was slightly interested at first, but it doesn’t sound like something I really need in my life right now.

Thomas Wilde from an article about Twitch’s growth and the rise of “sleep streaming”:

One peculiar blip on Twitch’s radar in March came from the sudden rise of “sleep streaming,” where popular streamers film themselves while they’re napping. Two streamers in particular, Ludwig Ahgren and Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo, clocked in about 2 million hours watched in March where neither of them were actually conscious at the time.

I saw Amouranth sleeping on stream when I was browsing the popular page on Twitch the other day and thought it was weird. I didn’t realize it was actually a thing though.

We just moved across the hall in my building. I’m definitely liking the sunset view more than the sunrise one.

I’ve been playing Magic The Gathering Arena (the digital version of the card game) on PC for a while. The mobile version is finally coming to iOS and Android tomorrow. And it has cross-play with PC and Mac.

I am so ready.

Dan Goodin from Ars Technica on FaceTime users receiving group call spam:

FaceTime users are getting bombarded with group calls from numbers they’ve never seen before, often as many as 20 times in short succession during late hours of the night.

Griefers behind the pranks call as many as 31 numbers at a time. When a person receiving one of the calls hangs up, a different number will immediately call back. FaceTime doesn’t have the ability to accept only FaceTime calls coming from people in the user’s address book. It also requires that all numbers in a group call must be manually blocked for the call to be stopped.

I get these “spam” calls every once in a while. I still have a bunch of numbers in my Blocked Contacts list in FaceTime from when they all called over and over for like half an hour one night. They all share my New Jersey area code.

I couldn’t tell at the time if it was legit spam or just a prank/wrong number situation.

A user can also turn off FaceTime in iOS settings or in the macOS app, but that prevents users from receiving wanted calls as well. Last, people can uncheck their phone number under the FaceTime setting “where you can be reached.” Once again, however, this will prevent wanted calls that are initiated using the user’s number.

I almost considered turning off FaceTime for a while, but I eventually blocked enough of the numbers for it to stop. It’s a shame Apple doesn’t provide any options to help with this yet.

A reader sent me a link to a blog post that lists 181 black-owned businesses by category. They wrote:

The events of last summer (BLM protests and COVID-19) saw many people rally to support Black-owned businesses. Sadly, since summer ended, people forgot to keep sharing and supporting these businesses.

I just found a new article with links to more than 150 Black-owned businesses. I was so happy to see that people still care about helping these companies thrive!

Thanks for the resource!

Bloomberg just published an article about Google’s struggles with Stadia. Things really haven’t been going well.

From Jason Schreier:

Players also didn’t like Stadia’s business model, which required customers to buy games individually rather than subscribe to an all-you-can-play service à la Netflix or the Xbox’s Game Pass. Paying as much as $60 for a single game, for it only to exist on Google’s servers rather than on your own PC, seemed a stretch to some. After all the hype, gamers were disappointed. Stadia missed its targets for sales of controllers and monthly active users by hundreds of thousands, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. A Google spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

There’s something deeply embedded in Google’s DNA that makes it great at solving huge (like exabytes of data huge) technical problems, but consistently struggle at creating actual products. If you need to manage lists of data (photos, documents, search results, messages), Google’s got you covered, but good luck getting an actual product that you’re happy holding onto for years from them.

Any time I talk about passwords with people, I always end up recommending password managers. I don’t really expect average computer users to have amazing password practices¹ considering just how many different accounts you need for things these days. I’ve been using 1Password for a while, but I’ve been keeping an eye on some of the others (Bitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass, etc) too.

LastPass just recently decided to severely restrict the service’s free tier. Right now, you can sign up for LastPass for free and get access on all your devices. After March 16th, you’ll have to choose between having access on your computers (laptops, desktops, etc) or on your mobile devices (phone, tablet, watch, etc). Full access starts at $3 per month.

From the support page:

As a LastPass Free user, your first login on or after March 16, 2021 will set your active device type. You’ll have three (3) opportunities to switch your active device type and explore what’s right for you. Please note that all of your devices sync automatically, so you’ll never lose access to anything stored in your Vault or be locked out of your account due to these changes, regardless of whether you use computers or mobile devices to access LastPass.

I have no problem with having to pay for the service (1Password has no free tier at all), but springing this kind of change on people who have already been using it feels pretty shitty. It’s clearly not really useful this way since most people with more than one device are probably using one of each of the device types (phone and laptop), so they’re just kicking people off the free service without being direct² about it.

Most of the people I’m seeing talk about this today are mentioning Bitwarden. It’s free for use on all devices (and has paid plans with more features) and is also open source.

There’s been some Apple Car news this week. According to this Cult of Mac article, a source for CNBC said that the first Apple Cars will be completely driverless (like Waymo). My guess is something like an Apple version of Uber, with self-driving cars.

It sounds more Appley to me than self-driving cars that people own. Some features I would expect to see that would be convenient for the user and pushes them further into the Apple ecosystem:

• Integrates with Maps and Apple Pay. Open Maps, search for a location, hit a new “Request an Apple Car” button, then double click the “side button” to Pay. You can watch the car drive up on the map and get an alert when it’s close.
• “Hey Siri, send me a car to go to Mom’s house.”
• Uses the phone (or watch) to enter the car of course.
• Personalization with your Apple account. All your Apple shit (News, Apple Music, Messages, accessibility settings, etc) is available on the touch screen where the steering wheel would be by the time you sit down. When it comes to Privacy, Apple will emphasize always-on encryption for any data that is ever transferred to or from the car, and complete destruction of encryption keys when exiting.
• Optional spoken alerts.
• “Homepod quality” speaker system with virtual surround sound and all the other audio tech Apple’s been into.
• Safety built in with always-on GPS and monitoring of routes. If anything unsafe happens, you’ll be contacted through your phone, watch, and/or the car touch screen.
• Everything as wireless as possible so you don’t have to deal with dirty or broken USB cables and like… food stuffed in the ports.

On that last point, I’m not sure how they’re gonna keep that Apple image of clean perfection when you’re sharing the car with other people. How often will they have to clean/inspect?

Earlier in the week, Bloomberg reported that Apple is about to sign a $3.6 billion deal with Kia Motors (owned by Hyundai). The plan is to introduce the Apple/Kia cars in 2024.

New Cyberpunk updates, new bugs.

I have a feeling this is the fate of the game. It seems pretty obvious that whatever company/process/development/management problems fucked up the launch haven’t been addressed in any real way (and I don’t know how they would under these circumstances).

I would really hate to be a dev at CD Projekt Red right now.

I was very happy to hear about Lisa Jackson leading Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative.

From the Apple’s press release yesterday:

Apple today announced a set of major new projects as part of its $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) to help dismantle systemic barriers to opportunity and combat injustices faced by communities of color. These forward-looking and comprehensive efforts include the Propel Center, a first-of-its-kind global innovation and learning hub for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); an Apple Developer Academy to support coding and tech education for students in Detroit; and venture capital funding for Black and Brown entrepreneurs. Together, Apple’s REJI commitments aim to expand opportunities for communities of color across the country and to help build the next generation of diverse leaders.