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A long time ago, I made a list of things I'd like to accomplish in my life. Actually that list is right here.

One of those things was red last week.

Today it's blue.

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Daring Fireball: Kara Swisher on Katie Cotton shines a light on just how well Katie Cotton did her job for Apple.

And yet, in the press, she's called names.

As is often the case… screw the media, man.

A commercial company’s ability to innovate is inversely proportional to its proclivity to publicly release conceptual products.

Hello, Google.

The Internet With A Human Face - Beyond Tellerrand 2014 Conference Talk

Here's one idea for where to begin:

1. Limit what kind of behavioral data websites can store. When I say behavioral data, I mean the kinds of things computers notice about you in passing—your search history, what you click on, what cell tower you're using.

It's very important that we regulate this at the database, not at the point of collection. People will always find creative ways to collect the data, and we shouldn't limit people's ability to do neat things with our data on the fly. But there should be strict limits on what you can save.

2. Limit how long they can keep it. Maybe three months, six months, three years. I don't really care, as long as it's not fifty years, or forever. Make the time scale for deleting behavioral data similar to the half-life of a typical Internet business.

3. Limit what they can share with third parties. This limit should also apply in the event of bankruptcy, or acquisition. Make people's data non-transferable without their consent.

4. Enforce the right to download. If a website collects information about me, I should be allowed to see it. The EU already mandates this to some extent, but it's not evenly enforced.

This rule is a little sneaky, because it will require backend changes on many sites. Personal data can pile up in all kinds of dark corners in your system if you're not concerned about protecting it. But it's a good rule, and easy to explain. You collect data about me? I get to see it.

5. Enforce the right to delete. I should be able to delete my account and leave no trace in your system, modulo some reasonable allowance for backups.

6. Give privacy policies teeth. Right now, privacy policies and terms of service can change at any time. They have no legal standing. For example, I would like to promise my users that I'll never run ads on my site and give that promise legal weight. That would be good marketing for me. Let's create a mechanism that allow this.

7. Let users opt-in if a site wants to make exceptions to these rules. If today's targeted advertising is so great, you should be able to persuade me to sign up for it. Persuade me! Convince me! Seduce me! You're supposed to be a master advertiser, for Christ's sake!

8. Make the protections apply to everyone, not just people in the same jurisdiction as the regulated site. It shouldn't matter what country someone is visiting your site from. Keep it a world-wide web.

One of the kids is named "Dash."

"I like this better than Flappy Bird."

Hopscotch - Coding for kids. I'll download this on my kiddo's iPad soon.

The Shawshank Residuals says:

Twenty years after it was released and flopped, "The Shawshank Redemption" has turned in a money machine.

…

"Shawshank" was an underwhelming box-office performer when it hit theaters 20 years ago this September, but then it began to redeem itself, finding an audience on home video and later becoming a fixture on cable TV.

The film has taken a near-mystical hold on viewers that shows no sign of abating. Steven Spielberg once told the film's writer-director Frank Darabont that he had made "a chewing-gum movie—if you step on it, it sticks to your shoe," says Mr. Darabont, who went on to create "The Walking Dead" for AMC.

If you ask my 11-year-old daughter what her favorite movie is… she'll tell you it's Shawshank Redemption.

Of course, I've skipped "The Sisters Scene" every time we've watched it…

Mule Radio closes. The loss of The Talk Show hurt them quite a bit, I think, just as gaining it helped them quite a bit.

P.S. I thought it was just "Talk Show" but even Gruber's site says "THE" on it.

Gruber on Beats Management

Not sure why anyone is surprised by this arrangement. Cue has long run Apple’s entertainment/iTunes stuff, and that’s where Beats Music clearly fits. As for the hardware reporting to Phil Schiller, that’s a little less obvious, but makes sense: what Beats needs as an Apple subsidiary is product marketing, a replacement for Ammunition, the firm that previously handled this for Beats.

The weirdest part of this whole thing to me is the idea of Apple acting as a parent company to an independent subsidiary brand. But with Beats Music that might make sense: Cook told the Financial Times’s Tim Bradshaw today that Beats Music will remain available for Android and Windows.

Original article: http://9to5mac.com/2014/05/28/tim-cooks-memo-to-employees-on-beats-buy-i-hope-you-are-as-excited-as-i-am-about-this-new-chapter-in-our-history/ .

Apple Buys Beats. Why? I don't know.

Apple today announced it has agreed to acquire the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time.

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”

“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” said Jimmy Iovine. “The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”

Meet the New Apple and
What Steve Jobs Wouldn't Have Done are both two good articles that look at the changes in Apple since the passing of Steve Jobs.

But the big story — and the big picture — is that Apple seems to have come out of deep freeze. It feels light, like it’s moving forward. Like the cobwebs have brushed aside, and things are going to get fun again. Everything we saw at WWDC’s keynote points to a very interesting next few months for Apple — a period that will undoubtedly come into deep focus around the fall, when the company tends to roll out its major hardware updates. But unlike previous events, which have felt painfully predictable and iterative in the past couple of years, the next move Apple makes should be surprising. If the software and platform work that we saw at the keynote on Monday is any indication, the kind of apps and hardware that follow it aren’t just going to be business as usual.

Setting a Contact’s Default Address in Apple Mail. It shouldn't be this hard.

Amazon’s Tactics Confirm Its Critics' Worst Suspicions

But the more basic problem here is that Amazon is violating its own code. To win a corporate battle, Amazon is ruining its customer experience. Mr. Bezos has long pointed to customer satisfaction as his North Star; making sure customers are treated well is the guiding principle for how he runs Amazon.

Yet Apple was the one that was taken to court…

I probably use about 10% of LaunchBar, but I'm bookmarking these here to read up on how I can do more:

• Take Control of LaunchBar
• Mac Gems: Veteran Gem LaunchBar gets better and better
• Be more productive with LaunchBar, Part 1
• Be more productive with LaunchBar, Part 2
• A Review of LaunchBar and a History of Application Launchers