Notices by Bruce Lawson ✅ (quiet time) (brucelawson@social.vivaldi.net)

Like Apple, Google is sad because DMA compliance costs them money. There are fabulously brilliant digital products (presumably, code for "Artificial Intelligence") which can't be sold to EU customers because of pinko commie godless regulation.

Today is the 2nd DMA Compliance workshop with your good chums at Alphabet. I know how to enjoy myself.

Once again, Google reiterates how mean it is that they can't release products without spending a moment to work out whether the product is legal and/ or non-monopolistic. It calls this "the miasma of uncertainty around the DMA". Or, as I call it, "the fresh air of regulated conscience".

"Before the App Store, the web was a wild west experience. Users never really knew what they were downloading". Yup, no school shooter apps, sanctioned Russian bank apps or ripped-off games get past the in-depth App Store review process.

I've just been struck by the sudden realisation that I don't regard so-called "cottage cheese" to be a cheese at all. It's just a curd to me.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is today proposing to designate Google with 'strategic market status' (SMS) in general search and search advertising. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-takes-first-steps-to-improve-competition-in-search-services-in-the-uk

On Friday, I was in Brussels, having fun in the European Commission for one of the highlights of the social calendar: Microsoft's DMA Compliance Workshop. Read about British Browser Boiz in Brussels! Fun at Microsoft’s DMA compliance meeting, and envy my glamorous life.
https://brucelawson.co.uk/2025/british-browser-boiz-fun-microsoft-dma-compliance-meeting/

US embassy wants 'every social media username of past five years' on new visa applications https://www.thejournal.ie/us-visa-changes-6740830-Jun2025/

Happy father's day to all dads, except the Mad King of America, the Mad King of Israel, the Mad King of Iran, the Mad King of Russia, the Mad King of North Korea and the Mad King of China.

Disney And NBCUniversal Sue AI Company Midjourney For Copyright Infringement https://deadline.com/2025/06/disney-nbcuniversal-ai-lawsuit-1236430694/

A.I. in everything is a first, and so welcome. And Liquid Glass is nothing short of revolutionary.

Ordering troops on the streets to quell citizens protesting against race-based round-ups to make a nation great again is back, I see. Along with annexing neighbours to provide more "living room". https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/07/immigration-raids-los-angeles

@chrishtr Here's my 20 year old blog post about css and poetry! https://brucelawson.co.uk/2005/what-i-want-from-css-3/

I seem to have 100 slides for a 40 min talk. #CSSDay victims, strap in. xxx

It was highly gratifying to see @mia using Vivaldi for her #CSSDay presentation! Here's the interview I did with her in April about her work on CSS, AI, why tech is political https://vivaldi.com/blog/8-miriam-suzanne-oddbird-for-a-better-web/

Watching @johnallsopp, the Gandalf of the Web Standards movement, talk about his seminal article A Dao of Web Design, 25 years after it was first published.

Going to an office and pretending to work: A business that’s booming in China https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-05-31/going-to-an-office-and-pretending-to-work-a-business-thats-booming-in-china.html
Many citizens who don’t want to explain their employment status pay to rent a position in a fake office, with some even assigning fictitious tasks and organizing supervisory rounds

Apple said the EU's interoperability requirements create "a process that is unreasonable, costly, and stifles innovation". https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/apple-challenges-unreasonable-eu-order-open-up-rivals-2025-06-02/ Comedy gold!

"lack of health insurance explains about five to twenty percent of the mortality disparity between high- and low-income Americans" https://www.nber.org/papers/w33719

An analysis of a dataset of 37 million people.

Why Are Penises In Older Paintings So Small Compared To Today?
Around the 19th century, they suddenly got bigger. https://www.iflscience.com/why-are-penises-in-older-paintings-so-small-compared-to-today-67850