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LATEST ARTICLES - PAGE 59

Nathan Fielder: How the Cult Comedian Rules the Outer Limits of Awkward

Nathan Fielder
Jason Tate

Andy Greene, writing for Rolling Stone:

Television has never seen anything quite like Fielder, who grew up in Vancouver as a gawky kid who loved to perform magic tricks, then went on to get a business degree from the University of Victoria. Nathan for You manages to make use of both his love of magic and his business acumen, as well as his natural social awkwardness. On the show, he “helps” mom-and-pop shops with schemes that can border on offensive – like when he convinced haunted-house visitors that they’d contracted an autoimmune disease “a step below AIDS” in order to give them a real scare. Other bits are hilarious, sophisticated illusions: To promote a petting zoo, he made a video in which a pig appeared to rescue a goat from drowning. In reality, it was a scheme involving divers and other underwater props, but most of the big morning shows played the clip, believing it was real.

Nathan for You returns tonight. I’m ready.

Meet the Font Detectives Who Ferret Out Fakery

Jason Tate

Glenn Fleishman, writing for Wired:

What does international political corruption have to do with type design? Normally, nothing—but that’s little consolation for the former prime minister of Pakistan. When Nawaz Sharif and his family came under scrutiny earlier this year thanks to revelations in the Panama Papers, the smoking gun in the case was a font. The prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Sharif, provided an exculpatory document that had been typeset in Calibri—a Microsoft font that was only released for general distribution nearly a year after the document had allegedly been signed and dated.

A “Fontgate” raged.

The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Matt Bellinger

Planes Mistaken for Stars
Jason Tate

Jason Heller, writing about the passing of Planes Mistaken for Stars’ Matt Bellinger:

A basic obituary isn’t enough to sum up a life, let alone one that had as much impact as Matt’s.

When I met Matt in 1998, I had yet to even dream of being a journalist. Back then, I worked the cash register at Wax Trax, while Matt and the other members of Planes lived in Peoria, Illinois, where they had grown up. Their singer-guitarist, Gared O’Donnell, visited Denver frequently in the ’90s to see his mom, who lived in Colorado.

iOS 11: The MacStories Review

iPhone
Jason Tate

iOS 11 is out today. As always, Federico Viticci over at MacStories has a fantastic review:

But perhaps more importantly, unlike iOS 10, iOS 11 presents a cohesive narrative for both the iPad and iPhone. A story where, for the first time in years, the iPad is informing some of the design principles and features of the iPhone’s software. Even from different angles, and each with its own past struggles, both acts in iOS 11 end up asking the same question:

Where does the modern computer go next?

Man Who Saved the World From Nuclear Armageddon in 1983 Dies at 77

Jason Tate

Matt Novak, writing for Gizmodo:

On September 26, 1983, Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov received a message that five nuclear missiles had been launched by the United States and were heading to Moscow. He didn’t launch a retaliatory strike, believing correctly that it was a false alarm. And with that, he saved the world from nuclear war. But now reports have surfaced that Petrov died this past May. He was 77 years old.

The $25 Million Inauguration

Jason Tate

Associated Press:

The opening concert featuring Toby Keith and Three Doors Down was broadly similar to concerts put on for Obama in 2009 and Bush in 2005 — except for the cost and size.

Bush’s inaugural committee spent $2.5 million on its concert on the National Mall. Obama’s concert had 10,000 ticketed seats — twice the size of Trump’s — and cost less than $5 million, said Kerrigan, and was produced at a high enough level that HBO paid for the rights to telecast it.

“I couldn’t tell you how we possibly could have spent $25 million on a concert,” said Kerrigan.

$25 million for 3 Doors Down and Toby Keith? Um, sounds like the “best deal maker” got fleeced.

Apple’s Craig Federighi Answers Some Face ID Questions

Apple
Jason Tate

Matthew Panzarino, writing for TechCrunch:

The simple answer, which is identical to the answer for Touch ID, by the way, is that Apple does not even have a way to give it to law enforcement. Apple never takes possession of the data, anonymized or otherwise. When you train the data it gets immediately stored in the Secure Enclave as a mathematical model that cannot be reverse-engineered back into a “model of a face.” Any re-training also happens there. It’s on your device, in your SE, period.

Rolling Stone to Be Put Up for Sale

Rolling Stone
Jason Tate

The New York Times:

And so, after a half-century reign that propelled him into the realm of the rock stars and celebrities who graced his covers, Mr. Wenner is putting his company’s controlling stake in Rolling Stone up for sale, relinquishing his hold on a publication he has led since its founding.

Mr. Wenner had long tried to remain an independent publisher in a business favoring size and breadth. But he acknowledged in an interview last week that the magazine he had nurtured would face a difficult, uncertain future on its own.

My Home Screen

iPhone
Jason Tate

Yours truly was asked to talk a little bit about my iPhone home screen over at MacSparky.1 It’s basically a picture of my home screen and some commentary about the apps I use the most. I’ve had a few people ask me about the second screen on my phone, so there’s a screenshot of that below for anyone curious.

Read More “My Home Screen”

  1. A really good blog and podcast, definitely worth checking out.↩

Colin Kaepernick Has a Job

Colin Kaepernick
Jason Tate

Rembert Browne, writing for Bleacher Report:

Here in Turlock, he absorbed every survival skill necessary to live phenomenally among white people, so expertly that they begin to make assumptions—not that you think you’re white, but that you’ve stopped concerning yourself with That Race Stuff, that you are finally content. It is a commonly unfair expectation thrown upon many an agreeable non-white person in a white space in America. But as a black man with a black biological father and a white biological mother, adopted by loving white parents who raised him in a majority white town to become a star three-sport athlete, a God-fearing Christian and a model citizen, this went well beyond the experience of a privileged American jock.

Helluva read. Highly recommended.

Equifax’s Unacceptable Unaccountability

Technology
Jason Tate

Farhad Manjoo, writing at The New York Times:

If a bank lost everyone’s money, regulators might try to shut down the bank. If an accounting firm kept shoddy books, its licenses to practice accounting could be revoked. (See how Texas pulled Arthur Andersen’s license after the Enron debacle.)

So if a data-storage credit agency loses pretty much everyone’s data, why should it be allowed to store anyone’s data any longer?

Here’s one troubling reason: Because even after one of the gravest breaches in history, no one is really in a position to stop Equifax from continuing to do business as usual. And the problem is bigger than Equifax: We really have no good way, in public policy, to exact some existential punishment on companies that fail to safeguard our data. There will be hacks — and afterward, there will be more.

J.J. Abrams Returns for ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

Star Wars
Jason Tate

J.J. Abrams has signed on to return and write and direct Star Wars: Episode IX. The movie will be out on December 20th, 2019.

J.J. Abrams, who launched a new era of Star Wars with The Force Awakens in 2015, is returning to complete the sequel trilogy as writer and director of Star Wars: Episode IX. Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio. Star Wars: Episode IX will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Abrams, Bad Robot, and Lucasfilm.

What to Do if You Were Affected by the Equifax Breach

Jason Tate

If you were affected by the Equifax breach, I’ve found these resources to be helpful in sharing with friends and family.

The New York Times:

In the meantime, here’s hoping that this breach is the nudge you need to finally sign up for permanent freezes on your credit files. I’ve used them for years, and here’s how they work. You sign up (and pay some fees, because you knew it wasn’t going to be free to protect data that you didn’t ask these companies to store, right?) at Equifax’s, Experian’s and TransUnion’s websites.

Lifehacker:

This breach actually happened three months ago, so there’s a chance that your information is already being used. Check your credit report and make sure there’s nothing out of the ordinary happening.

Reddit:

If you do nothing else, place an initial 90 day fraud alert on your file. This is free and will require lenders to contact you if someone (including yourself) tries to apply for credit.

Brian Krebs:

I’m here to tell you that if you’re an American, your basic personal data is already for sale. What follows is a primer on what you can do to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft as a result of all this data (s)pillage.

U2’s The Edge Helping Replace Lost Instruments

U2
Jason Tate

U2’s The Edge will be helping to raise funds via Music Rising to replace instruments lost in Hurricane Harvey:

Music Rising is raising money to help replace the instruments lost in schools affected by the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. We are taking donations through our partner the Mr. Hollands Opus Foundation. 100% of all donations go straight into our efforts.