In the United States, the authority of state governments to mandate vaccinations is clear — it goes all the way back to a 1905 Supreme Court case that upheld a Massachusetts law requiring vaccinations for smallpox.

Vaccine mandates will prove controversial, to put it mildly, but, like seat belt laws, drunken driving laws and motorcycle helmet laws, they will save lives. We should not grant an unreasonable minority the power to endanger public health.

It is far past time to put the health of the public, as a whole, over that of the individual. Don’t want to get vaccinated? Fine. Unless you medically are unable to, then you are no longer welcome or allowed in public spaces.

“Given Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which holds that a state may require all members of the public to be vaccinated against smallpox, there can’t be a constitutional problem with vaccination against SARS-CoV-2,” said the decision by a three-judge panel at the appeals court. The plaintiffs also made a due-process argument, but multiple court decisions show that “such an argument depends on the existence of a fundamental right ingrained in the American legal tradition,” the ruling said. “Yet Jacobson, which sustained a criminal conviction for refusing to be vaccinated, shows that plaintiffs lack such a right. To the contrary, vaccination requirements, like other public-health measures, have been common in this nation.”

You, or anyone else has no right to endanger others. Period.

“In a way I’ve never seen before, they are fighting tooth and nail,” said Gigi Sohn, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy. “They consider these bills existential for them because they get at their business models.”

Is anyone actually surprised that companies encourage the “right” regulation, and actively fight it with every fiber of their being?

“Parents want their students to learn how to think critically, not be indoctrinated by the ridiculous leftist narrative that America and our Constitution are rooted in racism,” Patrick said.

And yet this country is very rooted in racism and racist practices, while at the same time trying to continue the experiment of democracy. These two things are not mutually exclusive.

Broadband connectivity — or, rather, the lack thereof — has long been a problem in the United States. The pandemic has demonstrated how essential a lifeline the internet is, and how costly it can be for those who don’t have it. Work, education, social services, and myriad other activities are increasingly taking place online.

While the focus of lawmakers and regulators is often on rural broadband, getting good internet to more people is really a two-pronged problem of both access and affordability. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimates that 21 million Americans don’t have access to quality broadband internet, though some estimates suggest the actual number is much higher.

21 million do not have access to broadband. Imagine if that were the case for electricity or clean drinking water? It would be declared a national emergency. And yet, people are sitting outside of public libraries for hours at a time trying to get school work done, apply for state/local relief aid, or connect with family in the only safe way.

It is pretty clear that the private sector is not interested in a ‘connection for everyone’. They often fall short of their current commitments while taking federal money and offering more promises without results. Frontier Gets More After Missing Deadlines or NY Settles with Version to Deliver on Contract Over and over again private companies are cutting corners, leaving out any areas that might not turn a quick profit, lobbing to keep state and local municipalities from delivering cheap high speed access themselves, it is laughable to stay that the ‘market’ is delivering high speed affordable internet access to everyone.

Apple’s App Store rules didn’t even acknowledge creators until this week. On Monday, they were updated with a new section saying that creator-made content and experiences are allowed in apps — so long as they’re properly moderated and monetized for Apple.

I really think this squeeze on individual creators will ultimately force regulation on Apple

Apple Is Holding Back The Creator Economy

10. 💸  Just like the App Store, Apple owns the customer relationship and can choose to offer a refund if they decide you haven’t fulfilled the benefits offered in your subscription. You have to reimburse the money, but Apple retains their cut, natch.

We’re going to learn a lot about Apple Podcast Subscriptions over the coming months. Number ten from Nathan Gathright really gets to the heart for creators and why I don’t believe this will change the landscape of podcasting.

To reach herd immunity, experts generally estimate that we’ll need to vaccinate at least 70 to 80 percent of the population — though it could be more or less, because we don’t really know for sure with a new virus. Yet according to a recent AP-NORC survey, 32 percent of Americans say they definitely or probably won’t get a Covid-19 vaccine. If that holds and the herd immunity estimates are correct, it would make herd immunity impossible.

I am not interest in arguments about personal preference, or individual freedoms. Get vaccinated unless you are medically unable to. That is the only valid reason.

US courts almost always deferred to public health authorities that have deprived individuals of their liberty in the name of public health. One US state high court declared at the beginning of the twentieth century that, “[i]t is unquestionable that the legislature can confer police powers upon public officers for the protection of the public health. The maxim Salus populi suprema lex is the law of all courts in all countries. The individual right sinks in the necessity to provide for the public good” (Parmet, 1985). Even more remarkably, a plenary grant of authority was still found to be constitutional in the 1960s. In upholding the detention of a person with tuberculosis pursuant to a statute that provided virtually no procedural protections, a California appellate court declared in 1966 that, “[h]ealth regulations enacted by the state under its police power and providing even drastic measures for the elimination of disease…in a general way are not affected by constitutional provisions, either of the state or national government.”

Bayer, Ronald. “The continuing tensions between individual rights and public health. Talking Point on public health versus civil liberties.” EMBO reports vol. 8,12 (2007): 1099-103. doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7401134

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which promotes community broadband projects, recently estimated from Federal Communications Commission data that some 80 million Americans can only get high-speed broadband service from one provider.

This is not ok. It is laughable to proclaim that there is plenty of broadband competition, when 10’s of millions only have a single option for service.

Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, said the Facebook board’s decision was “extremely disappointing” and that it was “clear that Mark Zuckerberg views himself as the arbiter of free speech.” And Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, said Facebook, which faces antitrust scrutiny, should be broken up.

Again. What is it about a private business, moderating, and removing users from their platform that leads people to ‘free speech’? Facebook is not a public space, the internet as a whole is sure, hence Trump’s new ‘platform’ blog is perfectly fine, but there is no expectation of free speech on a closed platform run by a private business. Like saying the New York Times won’t print my article ranting about why Miracle Whip is superior to mayonnaise is stifling my free speech!

Verizon is defending its practice of forcing customers to switch plans to get a government-funded $50-per-month discount, telling the Federal Communications Commission that this is not the same thing as “upselling.” Verizon has partially backtracked from this restrictive policy but told the FCC it will take “about a month” to deploy a billing-software update that will let more home-Internet customers get the discounts without changing plans.

It’s exhausting to keep up with ISPs that are paying lip service to “improved customer care” while really wringing them out for the good of shareholders. 🥵

The state has been in a drought since 1994, and climate change is making things worse. Now, the vast majority of Arizona faces a “severe” drought, according to the US Drought Monitor.

Living here for the last 22 years, I was surprised that the drought has been in effect since 1994?!? That is the same year Forest Gump came out, the number #1 saying that year “The Sign”, Ace of Base. Like really? That is a obscene amount of time.

Now I wonder what the southwest has done to mitigate the consistent climate challenge and the ever increasing population growth?

Biden had originally proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent as part of the plan, but many Republicans remained adamant that they wouldn’t support a change in the corporate tax rate. Biden later showed an openness to only raising the rate to 25 percent, and last week began pushing Republicans to see if they would accept any tax changes whatsoever.

It is no secret that the US is in dire need of massive overhaul. Enough budget acrobats, raise taxes on the corporate wealth and get it done.

It’s only February so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but this post by Claus Matzinger, author of Data Structures and Algorithms with Rust, was very encouraging.

Initially, a book was this unsurmountable challenge, but, one chapter at a time,

It’s nothing profound, but a great simple explanation of the benefits you as the author get out of tacking a project as massive as a book. You bet the resources listed are in my amazon book list for down the road. 😉

ArsTechinca

Pai didn’t release the full Broadband Deployment Report

No kidding. 🙄 But wait, with a little digging you wouldn’t believe what the results are!

Despite the limited information available, advocacy group Free Press was able to discover a huge error that showed broadband progress under Pai’s leadership was less impressive than he claimed.

So there was a big error, they fixed it, and then continue to lie about the results of their unsuccessful program. Ok. Got it.

From 9To5Mac

According to a promotional message found in the service, the price for Apple Arcade will be $4.99 / month, including a one-month free trial. As Apple previously announced, the service will allow access to all members in a Family Sharing account.

If this is the case, I’m all in. I would have been in the fence about it at $10. That compounded with the Switch Lite at a lower price is gonna make gaming at my house with young kids awesome for everyone !!!!!

This week Apple has been putting several products to the dirt nap, sleeping with the fishes.

Original HomePod Originally overpriced, over engineered, and stuck with Siri. While it did sound fantastic, the price tag of $349 did not offer the same features and benefits as smart speakers a 1/3 that price. And while we’re used to paying the ‘Apple Tax’ for good products that work well in the ecosystem, this first version was noticeably lacking for the price. Even more concerning is the 4 years it’s been out, it has received little improvements via updates. Most notably it launched without multiple timers, eventually released, I struggle to think of anything else noteworthy that the HomePod improved upon during it’s lifespan.

iMac Pro Released the same time as the HomePod, fall of 2017, this iMac was easily the best iMac ever made. Also just like the HomePod, it was released, and left without any revisions or updates during its life. (Dropping the 8-core model doesn’t count) The iMac Pro came from an alternate time line where Apple was not going to make a new Mac Pro, there was to be no more powerful, modular tower from Apple. Months before it’s release, Apple had its unusual round table to announce it was changing directions. It would be almost 2 more years before the now Mac Pro is readily available, the iMac Pro, the future pro machine, was now relegated to keeping pro users content until then. Often referred to as the most powerful and quiet iMac ever, it continues to be a favorite among podcasters. Now with the M1’s out, Apple is closing this time loop, leaving the iMac Pro in a short list one 1 and done products.

While these products are discontinued for very different reasons, it marks the end of the beginning into a new chapter for Apple.

While Greater China and other emerging markets accounted for the vast majority of the year-over-year iPhone revenue decline, in some developed markets, iPhone upgrades also were not as strong as we thought they would be. While macroeconomic challenges in some markets were a key contributor to this trend, we believe there are other factors broadly impacting our iPhone performance, including consumers adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, US dollar strength-related price increases, and some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements. 

Apple Website

Like many I can’t say the last line that iPhone battery replacements made a significant impact to lower sales than previous projected, it’s a bad look Tim. The smartphone market is mature and for the most part fully saturated. Someone like myself, who has pre-ordered most iPhones, getting the newest biggest best, have held off in recent cycles. Why? The combination of phones breaking $1,000, with the leveling off of hardware speed from year to year. Even with that, I’ve been Apple Leasing iPhones since they offered it. Pretty much iPhone as a service. At this point every 2 years seems more than adequate.

Full Response from Apple 

What Spotify is demanding is something very different. After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem — including the substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers — without making any contributions to that marketplace. At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.

I am not sure I’d quite agree with Spotify “using” the App Store to “dramatically” grow their business without making any contributions to the “marketplace”. What they mean is using the App Store and not paying Apple for that privilege. Also the jab making “ever-smaller” contributions to the artist, is a separate issue all together and not the point of this particular argument. It’s a valid argument, just not this one.

The only time we have requested adjustments is when Spotify has tried to sidestep the same rules that every other app follows.

Mmm. That every app follows. 🤔 What about Apple Music? Does it go through the same app approval process?

The only contribution that Apple requires is for digital goods and services that are purchased inside the app using our secure in-app purchase system

Oh, you left out the part where the purchase system is the only option. Against the rules to link out the any other option Against the rules to even mention having any other products of any kind that is not purchased directly through the in-app system. This is explicably user hostel on Apple’s part. Why aren’t talking about Google’s Play Store because you can link to, mention, advertise other tiers and products in your app. That’s the point, there are options. Look at Netflix if you download the app, and don’t have an account, there is nothing for the user to do. They can’t sign up, they don’t have a clue what to do, or where to go. That is not a good user experience and wholly on Apple and their imposing rules.

I read this and I think, Apple is not budging on lowering the 30% fee. Not now, and with the focus on service revenue, not on an infinite time line. If anything, it will become more restrictive over time, not less.

With another day comes another company making a push for more podcasts in it’s lineup. Today that’s iHeart Radio

From The Verge

iHeartMedia will harness more than 850 radio stations to build its podcast audience and entice potential advertisers. The company today announced Sunday Night Podcasts, in which 270 stations will play a prerecorded podcast episode in between music or talk radio. The initiative will bring podcasts to the airwaves in every one of iHeart’s markets.

I like the idea of using other avenues besides the ‘podcast app’ to expose people to podcasts as a medium. I have friends and family that continue to listen to FM radio to this day, even with dozens of other options, their car is tuned into some random station I don’t know. They are unlikely to fire up their podcast app and find something interesting to listen to. This might be a soft sell that gets them over the hump? I guess we’ll see.

Netlify deploy might auto publish?

It’s very tricky for platforms… these are winner-take-all markets. It really is winner-take-all. If you’re there with half as many apps or 90 percent as many apps, you’re on your way to complete doom. There’s room for exactly one non-Apple operating system and what’s that worth? $400 billion that would be transferred from company G to company M.

Bill Gates

My hope is after reading Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory I will be better equipped to answer the question I have. Ok, so how best to approach the tech industry in a way that promotes competition when the network effect is so strong?

I didn’t realize that BlackBerry was still around, and haven’t been dismantled and sold off for scrape like Palm or Motorola. Turns out they are making a business as a patent troll. 🙄

BlackBerry, which refers to itself as a pioneer in mobile messaging, alleges Twitter “created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry’s innovations, using a number of the innovative user interface and functionality enhancing features that made BlackBerry’s products such a critical and commercial success in the first place.”

BlackBerry sues Twitter for patent infringement

Bringing the blog back in-house

Rework Podcast

This move by Basecamp, along with other antidotal moves from others, maybe some research later, on moving away from curated platforms like Medium and other spaces where the author or company don’t really own the content or experience, to a self hosted content service like WordPress or Ghost is really on the rise. Maybe I’m just hyper aware of it from building out my own stream of content that is not tied to a specific platform, but I’m definitely seeing a growing trend.

Buttigieg isn’t the only Democratic candidate calling for more broadband in rural areas. Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced her big broadband plan that would include an $85 billion grant program for nonprofits and local governments to build their own networks.

Pete Buttigieg rolls out $80 billion plan to improve rural broadband

It would be great if this sort of talk actually made it through election cycles. Like so man promises before it, ISP’s have and will continue to spend millions of dollars annually to keep their respective monopoly on providing subpar internet to rural Americans. 😢 Making promises like these nothing more than campaign rhetoric.