This is what 99% of a solar eclipse looks like. Still plenty of light.
Right now it is a normal, sunny Monday morning.
Good morning Cubs fans! Welcome to Eclipse day. Our Cubbies have played three series and won two of them. We could have won all three of them if you consider how well Justin Steele was pitching before his injury in Texas. So far the lineup as produced runs and the starting pitching has been pretty good. My only disappointment yesterday is that the rain disrupted Imanga’s start against the Dodgers, which I was looking forward to seeing. Hopefully they continue to play well during the road trip this week along the west coast.
The flowering tree in our neighborhood that always blooms first has blossoms.
I just checked and discovered that circle to search is on my Pixel 7A. I don’t know why I didn’t get some form of a notification from Google that this software is on my phone given that it’s a new Pixel feature. Not sure how much I’m going to use it, but it’s nice to see current features being updated on my phone.
We Need An Emoluments Amendment
How much of the lack of trust in Biden and Trump is due to money? What about politicians in general? Of news organizations? Of the medical industry? Of regulators? What is the consequence of this lack of trust?
Today is the Chicago Cub’s home opener after they completed the first series of the season with one again and two loses against the Texas Rangers. Texas is the defending World Series champion and therefore is one of best teams, so not getting swept is a bonus. In fact, the Cubs came within inches of maybe winning the first game in the tenth inning when a foul ball hit by Christopher Morel just missed being a grand slam. Steele was keeping the Rangers lineup in check before he pulled a hamstring fielding a swinging bunt. Despite this, my reaction after one series is that the current Cubs lineup seems no better than last year’s, with the same unreliable hitting, amplified by bad fielding.
Pugnosticating The 2024 Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs have completed the 2024 Cactus League spring training “season” and will start the 2024 MLB season tomorrow at the Texas Rangers. As many questions exist about the 2024 team as did for the 2023 team, so it is hard for me to expect them to be too much better than last year. Will Greg Counsell as the new manager make a difference? Perhaps that is the main question going in to this season.
One cannot read much into what happens at spring training, although I attended spring training games in 2016, which is when the Cubs won the World Series, and have not attended a spring training game since nor have the Cubs returned to the World Series. Read in to that what you will.
If you are watching the NCAA men’s or women’s basketball tournament and think to yourself, “that’s a nice basketball court,” know that what you are seeing was manufactured in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is my homeland!
Finished reading: FAITH IN THE FACE OF EMPIRE by RAHEB 📚 Can a people enslaved in empire not realize that they are enslaved?
Finished reading: The A to Z of the New Testament by James F. McGrath 📚
The 2023-24 CCHA Mason Cup champions. Michigan Tech is going to the NCAA tournament!
Apple will say that consumers benefit from their exclusive control over the iPhone ecosystem. I imagine that Google will say that consumers benefit from tying their ad business to search by providing consumers with more relevant ads. The problem is that in capitalism consumer benefit is not the ends, wealth generation is the ends. As a general principal, though not applied enough, the ends do not justify the means, particularly if in the United States the means result in harm to consumers.
Markets and Ecosystems
Based on what I’ve read so far, it seems to me the biggest challenge the DOJ has in its lawsuit against Apple is convincing a court that there is such a thing as a premium smartphone market. In my opinion what the DOJ really means by a “premium smartphone market” is an iPhone market, in fact I think DOJ would have been smart to actually call it the iPhone market.
What defines a market? From a traditional lense, one may say there is no such thing as an iPhone market. However, the iPhone is not just a product, it also includes the App Store and accessories like the Apple Watch that are exclusive to the iPhone. Apple and most of the tech industry refers to this as the Apple or iPhone ecosystem and that ecosystem functions in ways that most will recognize as a market. Apple clearly uses monopoly power in its control of the iPhone ecosystem.
If one accepts the iPhone ecosystem is a market then I think Apple most clearly has a monopoly. While I am not even close to being a lawyer, I would think the next step is to convince a court that the iPhone ecosystem/market is large enough to cause harm to a significant number of U.S. citizens to justify government action. Unlike in Europe, antitrust in the U.S. is about harm to consumers and not harm to competitors.
So, if I am right, I think the big question being raised by the DOJ is a question about whether a product ecosystem is a market. The product ecosystem is fundamental to Apple’s business model, and frankly many people benefit from that ecosystem. In some ways the issue of product ecosystems and antitrust has occurred before. At the time when phones were only landlines one could only buy a phone from AT&T and a DOJ lawsuit forced AT&T to allow consumers to buy phones from other manufacturers. I am sure at the time AT&T considered the phones as part of their product ecosystem and AT&T did claim security and quality reasons for why they should be the exclusive providers of phones.
Despite what Apple says, they will fight this suit because the App Store and exclusive accessories like the Apple Watch are competitive advantages. Both are big revenue streams and Apple takes actions to protect those revenue streams. Apple has stated this approach is a fundamental part of their business model.
Consequently another big question being raised here is, if a company makes a product that is a platform for selling other products, is the owner of that platform allowed to be the exclusive store front for those products and require a portion of each sale of that product? HP makes more money selling ink for their printers than in selling printers; Gillette makes money selling razor blades and practically gives away their shavers. Should a manufacturer of a computer platform be allowed to have an exclusive app store that is the only way for one to install apps on that platform? The EU has said no, now the United States is attempting to say the same thing.
Two days after the spring equinox, mother nature does have a sense of humor. Just got back from a short walk and I think there is about four inches on the ground.
I agree with everything that Om Malik wrote in this post about how AI IS Changing Writing, in particular the following:
My approach to AI has been to embrace and extend my capabilities. I use quite a few tools with AI inside. Many of them have boosted my productivity. I am on the lookout for more to add to my arsenal, so I can become more effective when it comes to my creative output. I don’t need it to write for me. I need AI to make sure I don’t make spelling mistakes, point out some overused phrases, repetitive usage of phrases, and what my editors used to call “Om” things.
I don’t understand why an individual will want AI to write for them because I own (and want to own) my words because they reflect me. My writing is never about producing content and I don’t make a dime from any of my web sites. I may be biased, but I think what makes it blogging is whether or not one is making money.
I agree with everything that Om Malik wrote in this post about how AI IS Changing Writing, in particular the following
The upcoming U.S. Presidential election is unique in my life time in that it is an election between two incumbent Presidents. Consequently, we don’t really need to focus on character issues because there is a record of what each candidate did in office. For example, Biden ought to focus on what Trump did and did not do about COVID-19 as his actions are on record as are the consequences, millions of people died while Trump was in office, unnecessarily. I also wish Biden, or pundits, would at least emphasize that there is a difference between feeling better and actually being better. Were you really better off when Trump was in office than you are now, or did you just feel better (were more entertained) while Trump was in office? Finally, yes, inflation is an issue right now, and if we accept that government spending is the primary cause, let’s note that it was Trump who signed and provided most of the COVID stimulus checks. Most economic circumstances are reactions to the past.
I might be out of touch, but the idea of one being able to buy a Macbook at Walmart seems odd. It feels like a cheapening of the brand. I get the ability to buy Apple “consumer” goods that include iPhone and iPad but I would not think of going to Walmart to buy a Mac.