I think is spot on. The culture has changed (and Apple doesn’t see it). But also Apple’s place in the culture has changed and it is just another tech giant. I would argue, though, that’s down to Apple itself, and its behaviour. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/05/09/dhh-crush
@clacke There are/were definitely socially conservative SNP members and MSPs – Kate Forbes, who narrowly lost the leadership election last time, is undoubtedly socially conservative (see https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64747672 for details).
@SometimeHippy I'm not sure that Alba has helped the SNP to siphon off the right that much (Alba seems to be mostly cranks and people who love a conspiracy theory tbh). 48% of the SNP members voted for Kate Forbes last time, even with her record as a social conservative (saying she would not have voted for gay marriage, and that she believed having children outside marriage was wrong, etc)
@hengymrohebwlad Interesting pointr re: Sinn Fein, but I think they're in a different position in that they are campaigning not for independence for NI, but to join a different country – and one where they are established as a party in their own right.
I don’t know much about Scottish politics, but it sounds like the SNP is finally facing the question all nationalist parties eventually face: apart from independence, who are you? Are you really an economically and socially progressive party. Or is independence your only thing and every other policy is up for change depending on how many votes you can muster from it?
I've consistently said that adding LLMs to voice assistants is a great way to make slower, less useful voice assistants, and I think the reviews of the Humane Pin bear this out.
This is one of those "thank god some journalists understand the history of antitrust" moments. One small quibble: Allison says, "I’m not really sure Apple owes the DOJ a thank-you card for making the iPhone possible", but Gates himself noted how, distracted by antitrust, Microsoft's ability to compete in smartphones was curtailed. They might not have stopped Apple, but they might well have been able to stop Android.
And here's the key point. Importantly, the DOJ didn't have to *legislate* to keep Microsoft out of mobile: the chilling effect of worrying about the antitrust implications slowed the company down enough to make space for others.
An entire generation of tech commentators and CEOs have grown up not understanding the history of antitrust in tech, or the impact it had in shaping the industry. And they really don’t understand that without regulatory action in the 1950s to 1980s, their own businesses would not exist.
Another thing that US pundits get wrong about EU antitrust action: the EU doesn't tell companies *how* to comply, the companies propose solutions and the EU tells them *if* is complies. They don't design your products for you. If a company goes for a browser ballot, say, it's because that's what it wants to do, not because the EU is making them do it that way.