Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:01
This is Kota Radio, episode 562 for March 21st, 2024. Hey,
0:15
good buddy, welcome in to Jupiter Broadcasting's weekly
0:18
talk show. Taking a pragmatic look at the
0:20
art and the business of software development and
0:23
the whole world of technology. My name
0:25
is Chris and grabbing the PDF hot
0:27
off the printer, it's our host, Mr.
0:29
Dominic. Hello, Mike. 80
0:32
pages of just dripping glory right
0:34
off the Justice Department grill. Fire, man,
0:36
it's just fire. I mean, it's fire,
0:38
it's going to end in failure,
0:40
but it's fire. Oh, and
0:43
it's so spicy. I got
0:45
back just in time from scale, you
0:47
know, because I literally got back last night. We rearranged
0:49
this show so I could record with you
0:51
on a Thursday. The DOJ drops this
0:53
bomb this morning and, you know, everybody was talking where I'm
0:55
talking to me came up and said, where's Mike? You know,
0:57
so everybody says they say when I go to these events,
0:59
they say, where's Mike? And usually I used to
1:02
say, you know, he's in Florida. He's got
1:04
the kid. It's quite a trek, you know, got the biz,
1:06
et cetera, et cetera. But that's
1:08
that never really leaves them with like
1:10
a sensation of satisfaction. You know what
1:12
I mean? No. So I've
1:14
come up with a new answer this year and I think it
1:16
really can. I guess. Can I guess he's
1:18
doing a deposition and a potential Apple trial.
1:22
No, that'd be really good. No, I went
1:24
for something that seemed pretty on character, but
1:26
not not actually the truth. But, you
1:28
know, if we just lean into it, I just
1:30
tell him, oh, you came. You just
1:32
partied a little too hard last night and you're back in
1:35
the hotel room shaking off a hangover and
1:37
like, oh, he's so he's here. And I'm like, I can't
1:39
keep your eye out for him. Jesus Christ. So
1:43
they're going to go, you know, harass some poor
1:45
dude on the plane with the shakes on the way
1:47
back. Yeah.
1:49
Well, that just means they're looking for you for there. I think
1:51
it's like a game. It's like I don't know if you
1:54
ever played that game as a kid where they tell you to
1:56
go hunt for that bird in the forest. It doesn't actually exist.
1:58
Yeah, that's you. You're that. I
2:01
was not, just so we all
2:03
know, partying hard this weekend because I have
2:05
decided, when I say I, I mean the
2:07
universe, you went to the conference, yet I
2:10
got the plague. Yeah. Because
2:13
children do not apparently
2:15
understand that they're murder
2:17
vectors. You didn't make it
2:19
to the conference, but you did
2:21
get yourself snapped with a listener. I did. Yeah,
2:24
and you had a big, big old cigar in
2:26
that phone. I was like, man, look at that
2:28
guy. He looks like a boss with a cigar.
2:31
You know, you're the kind of guy who can hold a
2:33
cigar like a mob boss. I'm from
2:35
New Jersey. It just seemed natural. I
2:38
don't even know if it was lit. It just looked
2:40
like a... Well, the best is the fat belly, the
2:42
slightly rosy cheeks, you know,
2:45
I would say the two martinis before health. You
2:47
know, but you bring it in. Like, even if
2:49
you don't light it, just walk around with that thing,
2:52
right? It's a brand. It's just like Churchill,
2:54
right? You just walk around like, ah, chewing
2:56
on it. But
2:58
it is good. It is good to be
3:00
back. We drove like crazy. It turns out California
3:02
is obscenely long when you go north to south.
3:06
And, you know, when you go to Pasadena, you're basically
3:08
going to the bottom of this thing almost.
3:11
And then you got to drive all the way up
3:13
through California, which is horrendously long, all
3:15
the way through Oregon. And then I live basically at
3:18
the north end of Washington. Oh, Jesus. So
3:20
it's a three-day drive home, three-day drive there.
3:22
Well, one day I'm going to make it
3:24
to Sasquatch country. That's my goal. You know,
3:26
when you drive around – we took the
3:28
coast, too – when you drive around, they
3:30
got the Sasquatch everywhere. They really
3:33
lean into the Squans. You'd love it. Do they really? Oh,
3:35
yeah. It's a big cultural thing in the
3:38
Pacific Northwest. I guess it's like we lean
3:40
into drunken criminal behavior and gators. Yeah, it's
3:43
our brand. Or New Jersey. Can
3:46
I just have a second? I know I'm jumping
3:48
the gun. The Department of Justice
3:50
chose New Jersey as the venue.
3:53
It's so perfect. It really
3:55
is so good. I feel like that's
3:58
going to be interesting when I envelope it. start
4:00
passing heads. But hey, who knows? Coder.show
4:04
membership. Support this show directly. We
4:06
have no sponsors right now, so
4:08
our members matter more than ever.
4:11
And I believe there are a couple of more
4:13
Jar Jar promo codes to take advantage of which
4:15
will take $2 a month off the lifetime of
4:18
your membership. I don't even know how that deal got
4:20
authorized. I didn't green light that. I thought these things
4:22
had to go through me. Somehow
4:25
Jar Jar seems to get these deals through. But
4:27
you know what? What am I going to do? Take it away? That
4:29
makes me the bad guy. That makes me the bad
4:31
guy. I can't be the bad guy, so
4:33
I'm going with it. Going with it, you can use
4:35
the promo code Jar Jar. It works for new members.
4:38
Existing members too? What,
4:40
you just given the place away now? All
4:46
right, existing members too, you can use promo code Jar
4:48
Jar. So thank you. Or
4:50
if you want to reactivate your subscription, I go, okay, that wouldn't
4:52
make sense. Yeah, no, you didn't get there. Come
4:55
here. You get that. That's for you. You
4:57
know what I think there's like what? Four
4:59
redemptions left? I don't know how many there's left.
5:01
The guy's incompetent. So I don't know how many.
5:03
I don't know. But I know he just puts
5:05
a few more in there. So coder.show.com membership. You
5:07
want to support the show directly in a world
5:09
where this gimmick worked. We wouldn't need any sponsors.
5:12
That's possible, right? No, you did
5:15
the numbers. It's not possible. Okay. Well, I suppose another
5:17
way you can support each production directly is through
5:19
the boost. Those boosts go to
5:21
each production and the split goes to editor Drew, goes
5:23
to the network myself and of course into the pot
5:25
for Mr. Dominic. That's a way
5:27
to support each show directly without any middlemen. Nobody
5:30
taken their cut. No system that can be stopped.
5:32
You know what I mean? You know what I'm
5:34
talking about. Maybe Mike says
5:36
something stupid and we get canceled. I mean, that's right. That could happen.
5:39
The boost don't care. And we also get to
5:41
read your messages on the show. Anything above 2000
5:43
sats we will read on the show and we
5:45
greatly appreciate. And it's one of our favorite
5:47
segments in the show. So between the members, the
5:50
coder QA and the keeping the show on the air while
5:52
we're struggling and the boosters, we
5:54
show up every week, even if there isn't a sponsor to
5:57
pay our, you know, proverbial
5:59
pay. So we
6:02
do appreciate your support Coder.Show membership or send
6:04
a boost to support each individual production. Coder.Show
6:08
membership. Yes,
6:11
so this morning the DOJ announced
6:14
they are suing Apple over an
6:16
iPhone monopoly in a quote landmark
6:18
antitrust case. It's
6:21
really it's something to behold and I got a
6:23
couple of minute clip from CNBC as the news
6:25
broke this morning. They do a decent
6:27
job outlining it so I'll let them do the heavy lift
6:29
here. Breaking news here on Apple
6:31
out of the DOJ. Amen Jabers has it.
6:34
Amen. Sarah this is
6:36
a civil antitrust lawsuit filed in
6:38
the United States District Court for
6:40
the District of New Jersey and
6:43
it alleges by the DOJ that
6:45
Apple illegally maintains a monopoly over
6:47
smartphones by selectively imposing contractual restrictions
6:49
on and withholding critical access points
6:52
from developers. The Department of Justice
6:54
alleges Apple has broken the law
6:56
specifically section two of the Sherman
6:59
Antitrust Act in five specific ways.
7:01
One by blocking innovative super apps.
7:04
They say Apple has disrupted the
7:06
growth of apps with broad functionality.
7:08
The second is by suppressing mobile
7:11
cloud streaming services. They say Apple
7:13
blocked the development of cloud streaming
7:15
apps and services that would allow
7:17
consumers to enjoy what they call
7:19
high quality video games and other
7:21
cloud based applications without having to
7:23
pay for expensive smartphone hardware. The
7:25
third is by excluding cross platform
7:27
messaging apps. The Department of Justice
7:30
says Apple has made the quality
7:32
of cross platform messaging worse, less
7:34
innovative and less secure for users
7:36
so that its customers have to
7:38
keep buying iPhones. The fourth is
7:40
by diminishing the functionality of non
7:42
Apple smart watches. Apple they say
7:45
has limited the functionality of these
7:47
third party smart watches so that
7:49
users who purchase the Apple watch
7:51
face substantial out of pocket costs
7:53
if they don't keep buying iPhones.
7:55
And the fifth category here is
7:57
limiting third party digital wallets. has
8:00
prevented third party apps from offering
8:02
tap to pay functionality, inhibiting the
8:04
creation of cross platform third party
8:06
digital wallets, which of course is
8:08
important in the whole paying ecosystem
8:11
here. Now the court process is
8:13
expected to take months, if not
8:15
years here. And guys,
8:17
there's a political overlay to all of this
8:19
because if president Biden is to lose to
8:21
Donald Trump in the fall, it's a Trump
8:23
department of justice that could be in charge
8:25
of handling the end game of this case,
8:27
not a Biden one, depending on that election
8:30
outcome. So it's not at all clear how
8:32
that would play out. Although some of the
8:34
Trump people were involved in
8:36
instigating this investigation into Apple in the
8:38
first place back during the first Trump
8:40
administration. So a lot of moving parts
8:43
here, guys, but the Department of Justice
8:45
now suing Apple on antitrust grounds back
8:47
over to you. All right, so there we
8:49
have it. A process that started, they say,
8:51
under the Trump administration, which has been brought
8:53
to its conclusion, well, it's beginning, I suppose,
8:57
under the Biden administration. Like
9:00
you noted, it's filed in Jersey. It's the US
9:02
government plus 16
9:04
states, including California have signed
9:06
along with this thing. Interesting,
9:09
my state hasn't the home state of
9:12
Microsoft and Amazon. I just find that
9:14
kind of interesting that they haven't. There's
9:16
a lot to this. And the
9:18
vibe is intense from the DOJ.
9:21
It opens the opening
9:23
paragraph is, quote, in
9:26
2010, a top executive emailed Apple's then CEO
9:28
about an ad for a new Kindle e-reader.
9:31
The ad began with a woman who was using her
9:33
iPhone to buy and read books on her Kindle app.
9:36
She then switches to Android smartphone and continues
9:38
to read her books using the same Kindle
9:40
app. The executive wrote to Jobs
9:43
one quote, message that can't
9:45
be missed is that it's easy to switch
9:47
from iPhone to Android, not fun to watch.
9:50
Jobs was clear in his response, writing Apple
9:53
would, quote, force developers to use its payment
9:55
system to lock in both developers and
9:57
users on his platform. The documentary
10:00
continues to read, over many
10:02
years Apple has repeatedly responded to competitive threats
10:04
like this one by making it harder and
10:07
more expensive for users and developers to
10:09
leave than by making it more attractive
10:11
for them to stay. And then
10:13
just a little bit further down a couple of
10:15
paragraphs later they write quote and
10:17
this is some serious spice here they say from
10:20
the complaint the suit directly quote
10:23
rather than respond to competitive threats
10:25
by offering lower smartphone prices to
10:27
consumers or better monetization for developers
10:30
Apple would meet competitive threats
10:32
by shape-shifting rules that restrict
10:34
its Apple app store guidelines
10:36
and developer agreements that would
10:38
allow Apple to extract higher
10:40
fees for innovation offer less
10:43
secure or degraded user experiences
10:45
and throttle competitive alternatives. Wait
10:47
a minute we've heard that
10:49
policy before ready now third
10:51
source let's see if I can do it I
10:54
am altering the deal pray I
10:56
don't alter it further. And Apple
10:58
always alters it further right they're always like
11:00
hey what's that? You're making quite a lot
11:02
of money on that fortnight there aren't you?
11:06
Yeah no you pass. Very
11:09
much but this is I mean
11:12
that just gives you a sense of the tone
11:15
they are going for the throat the
11:17
DOJ says they may seek a breakup
11:19
of Apple into smaller companies to have
11:21
what they call quote structural
11:24
relief of this issue.
11:26
Delusional. And they feel
11:28
like they're they're
11:30
a key innovator here they're a key partner
11:32
in the market Tim Wu who
11:35
is described I've links in the show notes described
11:37
as one of the architects of Biden's antitrust policy
11:39
says that it's really about
11:41
injecting innovation into the market. Everybody
11:44
that you guys are going after and I say
11:46
you guys because you did architect some of this
11:48
you know you did orchestrate some of this. Why
11:51
go after Americans stand out
11:53
innovative companies and agree
11:56
with basically what the Europeans are saying in
11:59
a way that couldn't change the way
12:01
we innovate, the way we lead. The idea,
12:03
I think, is to hold America's best companies
12:05
feet to the fire, that if
12:07
they're forced to compete, they get better, that
12:09
dominant companies become stagnant. It's an American
12:11
tradition. We did it with IBM. We
12:13
did it with AT&T. We
12:16
did it with Microsoft. And frankly, you
12:18
know, Standard Royal. But I mean, I'm talking about
12:20
tech leaders. And I'm saying that, you know,
12:22
suing Microsoft ended up being the best thing for the tech
12:24
industry. The theory is that no one
12:26
disputes that Apple is a great phone, a great,
12:28
great company. But you
12:30
know, the law is not a popularity contest. And
12:33
the idea is that they are got
12:36
where they are and have now built them out
12:39
to prevent anyone else from getting in there, preventing
12:41
people from switching new applications. So the idea is
12:43
in favor of more innovation. So you see, the
12:45
way you make the market more innovative is by
12:48
government manipulating the market. And they
12:50
this is in the suit. A
12:52
quote from the suit, they
12:55
write a path clearing antitrust enforcement
12:57
case brought by the United States
12:59
and state attorneys general against Microsoft,
13:02
open the market and constrain
13:04
Microsoft's ability to prohibit
13:06
companies like Apple from offering iTunes
13:08
on the Windows PC. And
13:11
then they go on to build a case. In fact,
13:13
they spend a awkward amount
13:15
of time in this 80 page document building
13:17
the case how their
13:19
clever antitrust enforcement against Microsoft
13:21
set a stage for a
13:24
15 year boom, which now
13:26
Apple benefits from and has now become
13:28
a monopoly. And all of
13:30
this success is because they quote, cleared
13:33
the way for Apple
13:36
by limiting Microsoft's ability to prevent
13:38
iTunes from shipping on Windows. So
13:40
Apple success is really because of
13:42
their antitrust enforcement against Microsoft, i.e.,
13:46
to define their current antitrust enforcement.
13:48
Absolutely true. I remember Janet Reno
13:50
and Cupertino just hacking away on
13:52
an iPhone prototype. Yeah, I
13:55
remember I remember Balmer saying we
13:57
definitely don't want our customers to have
13:59
access to iTunes. and we never want
14:01
to see the iPod in the Windows ecosystem
14:03
because we don't want those customers. Remember that?
14:06
Remember, it's funny because
14:08
we're turning into the member berries from South Park, but
14:11
it was quite the opposite, right? Microsoft was PO'd
14:13
that Apple kind of...
14:15
So, wow, we're old. Remember it was FireWire
14:17
and it was a big contention that it
14:20
wasn't compatible with Windows and it was a
14:22
huge market. It was a huge market and
14:24
like Steve Jobs had to be brought kicking
14:26
and screaming to make a Windows app. And
14:28
the Windows app was based on Rhapsody at
14:30
the time. Not Rhapsody, the
14:32
music client Rhapsody, the software stack.
14:35
God damn, we're old. Yes, they acquired
14:37
that. They acquired it. And
14:39
it was just like one of the worst Windows apps.
14:42
Apple came screaming and kicking to the
14:44
platform, which did not fight them at
14:47
all. Microsoft welcomed iTunes. They were like,
14:49
cool. And I would argue Microsoft made
14:51
improvements to the USB stack to
14:54
make iPods work better with Windows. Because of the
14:56
data transformer volume at the time. And
14:59
remember how they had to release a special
15:01
service pack to XP to enable USB 2 speeds?
15:03
Yep. So
15:06
this version of history is perverted
15:08
and wrong. This isn't how
15:10
it went down at all. And
15:12
I would say, if anything, Microsoft welcomed
15:14
iTunes with open arms and the iPod
15:16
users because it meant people would stop
15:18
bleeding to Macs to use their iPod.
15:23
So I don't know. It's funny how
15:25
it's just why that bothers me because
15:27
it makes me feel like internally they
15:29
think they're responsible for these companies' success.
15:32
Like they might actually believe that crap. It's
15:34
funny too because we
15:37
keep hearing in all these cases that
15:39
US antitrust law – we're
15:42
not lawyers, right? – requires you
15:45
show consumer harm. But
15:49
harm is defined as financial harm. Like costs go
15:51
up. Prices have to go up. If
15:54
anything, Apple has done an incredibly
15:56
aggressive and frankly
15:59
effective job. at commoditizing
16:01
its compliments, particularly software developers,
16:04
in just really grinding out
16:07
all the margin in iOS software. But
16:09
if you look at their competitor, their nearest
16:12
competitor, Android, same deal, then if you look
16:14
at, I would say, their second nearest competitor,
16:16
the web, same deal.
16:18
It's just really hard to charge for software
16:20
now. Yeah, and I think they're
16:22
conflating several things. Yeah.
16:25
They keep talking about – I mean, because really,
16:27
you could read this PDF as if Mike
16:29
and Chris hired a couple of lawyers to
16:31
write a document about every complaint and every
16:33
issue we've ever brought up on the show
16:35
in the history of the show. So
16:38
you and I have been front and center at every
16:40
single one of these debates, and the audience, we are
16:42
on record where we fall down on these things. And
16:45
so in a way, it's almost like an
16:47
emotional document. I can't
16:50
really describe it any other way because
16:52
facts don't always seem to apply. They
16:55
really go after Apple, and
16:57
it feels like this was intentional because it's one
17:00
that connects with every single normie and
17:02
every single media anchor I've seen covering this
17:04
this morning, and it's the green
17:06
bubble. Oh, for Pete's sake. In
17:09
fact, Merrick Garland said
17:11
this in his announcement when they did their
17:13
little live stream song and dance about the
17:15
suit. As any iPhone user who has ever
17:17
seen a green text message or
17:20
received a tiny, grainy video can
17:22
attest Apple's anti-competitive
17:24
or difficult for
17:26
iPhone users to message with users
17:29
of non-Apple products. It
17:32
does this by diminishing the functionality of
17:34
its own messaging, and issuing the functionality
17:36
of third-party messaging apps. By
17:40
doing so, Apple knowingly
17:42
and deliberately degrades quality,
17:44
privacy, and security for its
17:46
users. That audio stream wasn't great. They had a
17:48
few drops there, but you get what he's saying.
17:50
Well, he sent it over SMS, of course. Yeah.
17:54
He's blaming the technical limitations of
17:56
SMS on Apple. Now, could
17:59
Apple do more? to support RCS, yes,
18:01
and likely they will at some point.
18:04
Could they do more to open up iMessage, like they
18:06
could release an iMessage app for Android? Clearly. We've
18:09
read the emails on the show, which they'll
18:11
no doubt cite, that talk about
18:13
how Apple doesn't want to do that because any $25
18:15
Android device makes it easy to break out of the
18:18
ecosystem. Clearly. But
18:20
I would argue that it's their right to make
18:22
a good product. Nintendo chat
18:24
doesn't work with Xbox, and
18:26
I don't see Nintendo getting sued over it, and
18:29
vice versa. You see, it's completely
18:31
placing the blame that Apple is
18:33
degrading the picture quality and degrading
18:35
the chat experience when really
18:38
they're just implementing the SMS standard, which
18:40
isn't sufficient anymore. But
18:42
it gets twisted, and the way it gets
18:44
twisted, too, is that really lands with normies.
18:47
It lands with non-technical people and all the people in
18:49
the news that are writing stories about this. Or
18:51
let me just fry some
18:54
green bird bacon here. Maybe
18:57
Attorney General Garland was
19:00
an adium user. Oh,
19:02
I like this. And remembers the glory days
19:04
of one universal chat app
19:06
for all your services. You know,
19:09
but the way it really did that was by
19:11
just implementing all the proprietary and open ones in
19:13
the one app. You know, see, why do you
19:15
have to ruin everything with facts and logic? You
19:17
know, this document... Wait, wait, wait. This
19:19
document's not about logic, Chris. You already... This
19:21
is about feces. We're happy with feces. It is
19:23
funny because they also spend a little bit of
19:25
time calling Apple out on their,
19:27
quote, $77 billion in stock
19:29
buybacks in its 2023 fiscal year alone, which,
19:33
you know, I don't like stock buybacks, but I
19:35
just, like, why is that in there? I
19:38
guess their argument is, well, that could be spent on innovation instead.
19:40
It's weird. Like, they've made, like, every
19:43
possible case. Like, some of them are good,
19:45
right? Like I think the
19:47
strongest one in here is the, hey, they're
19:50
screwing Spotify because they're competing on a platform
19:52
they own and relieving themselves
19:54
of restrictions that they put on
19:56
others. Like, that's a strong argument.
20:00
I think they have a strong argument with
20:02
the cloud streaming game apps, too. Yeah, the
20:04
DOJ points out that How
20:06
Apple has blocked that and that if Apple allowed that it
20:08
would reduce hardware requirements and you know Apple wouldn't be able
20:10
to get away with selling a thousand dollar phone because you
20:13
could you know you could Do it on a $500 phone
20:15
and that's kind of true I mean,
20:17
I think that's in part also because Apple wants to have the
20:19
revenue cut and they make that point There's things in here that
20:21
are Absolutely true, but to
20:23
make it stick They're gonna have
20:26
to argue and They will
20:28
argue that the smartphone is a type of platform
20:30
that is new and so important that Apple can't
20:32
have these types of restrictions Okay, but iPhone doesn't
20:34
have 90% market share. No one's required
20:38
to use an iPhone and Again
20:42
going back to our you know, Robert
20:44
Bork They
20:48
have definitely not raised consumer prices in
20:50
terms of all these software products that
20:53
the DOJ is talking about in
20:55
fact as we've been ditching and
20:57
moaning about for 12
21:00
years ish They've ground
21:02
them into the ground, right? They've literally
21:05
pulverized what software developers can charge for
21:07
software into dust How much do you
21:09
want to bet they actually make that
21:11
argument essentially making our point in
21:13
court to defend themselves Tim Cook's gonna get up They're
21:15
big. No, man. I
21:17
beat the crap at them like the Alabama
21:20
defense of line They'll put a chart up
21:22
that shows prices of software before the iPhone
21:24
and the price of software after the iPhone
21:27
and it's just gonna be Down, you know
21:29
how they could use for clips from the show. Look
21:32
at these guys tech guys, you know, they've been on
21:34
the air forever Alright
21:36
the one seems like he might be a little
21:38
hammered but forget that and You
21:41
know look how much he hates us. Don't
21:43
listen to Swift episode. But look at how
21:45
much and it's true I mean, I
21:49
Remember like I start
21:51
off the answer $10 and that
21:53
and people were charging that it didn't
21:55
take too long for What
21:57
was it? 99 cents to become the norm? and
22:00
then zero. Yeah,
22:03
then it had to be free with some in-app purchases
22:05
if you can figure out a way. If you can
22:07
figure out some scummy ways, like I remember the big
22:09
original thing was dark mode. If
22:11
you don't wanna go blind with our
22:13
obnoxious color scheme that we've intentionally made
22:15
super bright so that you don't
22:17
like it, you can give
22:19
us a dollar a month. They
22:22
also claim that Apple is blocking super
22:24
apps. And here's how they define a
22:26
super app, and this seems a little off to me. They
22:29
write, a super app is an
22:31
app that can serve as a platform for
22:33
smaller mini programs developed using
22:35
programming language such as HTML5
22:38
and JavaScript. For
22:40
example, a super app that incorporates a
22:42
multitude of mini programs might allow users
22:44
to easily discover and access a wide
22:46
variety of contents and services without
22:48
setting up and logging into multiple apps. That's
22:51
not how that works. I would say Google is
22:53
a version of this. I log into Gmail and
22:55
then I can tab over to YouTube and
22:57
I'm logged into YouTube. And I can tab over
22:59
to Docs and I'm logged into Docs. And I
23:02
can watch content on YouTube, I can post content
23:04
on YouTube. It seems like that's also written in
23:06
JavaScript and HTML5. What am
23:08
I missing here? They come dangerously
23:10
close to a really good argument.
23:12
Right. And then because
23:15
they're government employees that don't work at
23:17
the no such agency, hey guys, loving
23:19
you, don't, don't. Apple's
23:21
gonna blow this apart. Apple's gonna, this
23:23
is like stupid. Yeah. So
23:26
I think the best argument here, if
23:28
you wanna do the HTML5, which I hate the
23:30
term because it's been HTML5 for how long? Just
23:32
call it Web App, PWAs. Or you know what,
23:35
just call it the web. Seriously,
23:37
like. Yeah, the web would be fine. I know
23:40
people, I post LinkedIn posts about PWAs
23:42
all the time. That's called clickbait for
23:44
potential customers. They're really just web
23:46
apps because that's what they've always been. There's
23:49
the meme with the astronaut shooting the other astronauts. It's
23:51
always been web apps. Apple
23:53
degrading JavaScript engine performance. And
23:55
I mean, we literally have
23:57
a contemporary example of this.
24:00
It's kind of brutal what they
24:02
did in response to the EU
24:04
trying to make them make web
24:06
apps and PWAs more viable. They
24:09
just completely nerfed it, right? And
24:12
yeah, they backed off a little bit, but not
24:15
enough. So if you really
24:17
want an open market of
24:20
software, which kind
24:22
of feels like what the DOJ is, I
24:24
mean putting the bubbles aside because I guess
24:27
people have anxiety about green bubbles, I have
24:29
never understood that. I still know I'm too
24:31
old, I guess. The open
24:33
market continues to be the web, and
24:36
the web has some problems, like getting people to
24:38
put a credit card into Jar
24:40
Jar binks.com is super hard. That's
24:45
why Stripe exists, right? That's why PayPal exists.
24:49
It's not unheard of to sell software
24:51
on the web, or in
24:53
fact, I was just listening to
24:55
an interview on your favorite site, The Verge
24:57
with Neelai Patel, the
24:59
Figma CEO who – I love
25:02
this guy. Adobe fails to
25:04
buy him because the government stops him and he
25:06
gets a payday. Why can't we get
25:08
a deal like this, Chris? Where someone
25:10
fails to buy us but
25:12
has to pay us anyway. Yeah, I forget what
25:15
they call that clause. It's a breakup clause. Yeah,
25:17
okay. Oh yeah.
25:19
I knew that in everything, dude. It's corporate alimony.
25:22
I don't know. I feel like in
25:24
this 80-page polemic,
25:27
the DOJ drafters went
25:30
too far. There are
25:32
so many easy, narrow arguments that you
25:34
can make that are indefensible.
25:38
All the stuff that Spotify talks about regarding
25:40
the difference in the App Store Cut and
25:43
the CarPlay integration and the
25:45
just capabilities of the Spotify app versus
25:47
Apple Music, right? The
25:49
fact that you are bound to Siri
25:51
who is borderline brain
25:53
dead compared to most smart
25:55
assistants now, or as we used
25:57
to call them, lady tubes. they
26:00
intentionally nerf web
26:03
technologies, which I
26:05
don't know, like if you haven't used Figma
26:07
or any like really modern web applications, they're
26:10
really good. I mean, they're borderline
26:13
desktop quality, if not beyond. I
26:16
basically run my business from my Slack
26:18
app, which is just a web
26:20
app wrapped in electron, right? In
26:23
fact, I don't need it to be on my dock.
26:26
I just prefer to have
26:28
the icon instead of a,
26:30
but I could easily run it in Edge
26:32
or Chrome or hell even Safari, right? But
26:35
not on mobile. On mobile, I have to
26:37
have the app because using it in the
26:39
web is just godawful, even
26:41
though it makes no sense. And
26:43
it's so obvious that it's a
26:46
strategy tax that they're imposing because
26:49
they don't want, you know,
26:51
top tier web software to compete
26:53
with native apps or not even, they don't even care
26:55
if you're native, right? But they want you to go
26:57
through the app store so they get their cut. Yeah.
27:00
I mean, this is why Ionic exists. The
27:02
thing is, that's not
27:04
what this suit is going to go after.
27:06
But that's the, don't you agree that that's
27:08
the easier shot? Oh, we all 100%. I'm
27:12
really surprised they missed the mark by this
27:14
much, because Apple will just be able to
27:16
technically demonstrate that they support HTML and JavaScript.
27:18
And then, then if they
27:20
want to, if the DOJ wants, they're going
27:22
to have to really get down into the
27:24
weeds and nuance the difference between browser implementations
27:27
of HTML5 standards and see if that actually
27:29
lands. We're going to start talking about WebKit
27:31
versus Karma. Yeah. You know
27:34
what the baller move for the Apple lawyer is going to be?
27:37
Without his iPhone, open the DOJ
27:39
website on his iPhone. Your website
27:41
or in HTML and JavaScript? Right.
27:43
Yeah. I mean, I think too,
27:46
they could point to their investment in
27:48
WebKit, how they forked it from KHTML,
27:50
how that's open source. They can play
27:52
up that in this as well to
27:55
show, to demonstrate their commitment to open standards. Well, and
27:57
that's true. I know we're going to get some hate,
27:59
but remember when... Steve Jobs decided that Adobe
28:01
was the enemy, and by the way, he
28:03
was totally correct. If
28:05
we were running Flash on these smart devices,
28:07
we would be years behind. They
28:10
invested hugely, even before that, but
28:12
particularly at that time, they invested
28:14
hugely in WebKit for mobile Safari.
28:17
And those investments were, to their credit,
28:19
made open source, right? Google got to
28:21
piggyback off them. Hell
28:24
everybody did. There's also digital
28:27
wallets in here. The Apple Watch, which I think
28:29
Apple's going to be able to argue both of
28:31
those for security and lock-in, er... Apple Watch is
28:33
a no-not-star. The lock-in there is... It's like, it's...
28:35
The lock-in is inherent to the product, I think,
28:37
on those. So they're going to have no problem
28:39
there. I feel like if you're buying something called
28:41
the Apple Watch, you kind of know what you're
28:43
getting. The CarPlay one is
28:45
interesting. So we get a little insight
28:47
into perhaps why automakers have been bailing
28:49
on CarPlay recently. This
28:52
is from the suit as well. Apple has
28:54
told automakers that the next generation of Apple
28:56
CarPlay will take over all the
28:58
screens, sensors and gauges in the car, forcing
29:00
the user experience driving as an iPhone-centric experience
29:02
if they want to use any of the
29:05
features provided by CarPlay. Here
29:07
too, Apple leverages its iPhone user base
29:09
to exert more power over its trading
29:11
partners, including American car makers,
29:13
in future innovation. I just had
29:15
a horrible image flash in my
29:17
head. I'm driving down
29:20
I-95 and I'm
29:23
looking at the fuel gauge and the speedometer and all
29:25
of a sudden an iCloud. You need to sign in
29:27
again with your iCloud back. Yeah,
29:31
really, right? Out of storage. So
29:34
first of all, this is technically true if
29:36
you want to use the, quote,
29:38
next generation CarPlay experience. However,
29:40
the classic CarPlay experience remains available.
29:43
You know, you're not forced to opt into this next
29:45
generation. And the idea of the next generation is that
29:48
Apple provides the entire experience. Honestly,
29:51
I would be interested in a car that did
29:53
offer that because CarPlay is
29:57
better than anything I have ever seen an
29:59
automaker produce. Even the top tier
30:01
automakers, it was responsible for the
30:03
purchase of the vehicle. Part of the decision of the
30:05
vehicle I made is that it supported CarPlay. The screen
30:08
was large enough and it
30:10
would play a factor in purchasing a future
30:12
car if it had the entire CarPlay integration.
30:15
I know that sounds odd to people, but I actually
30:17
trust Apple to develop that more than I trust
30:19
any car manufacturer to develop that. And I'm not
30:21
sure I want any of this stuff. But
30:23
if I was, if I was purchasing a car that had
30:25
that, that would probably play a factor. I don't think I'll
30:28
ever be buying a car that has that, but I
30:31
don't know. It's like, yeah, you do if
30:33
you want to, if you want to be all in
30:35
and have the iPhone control the entire experience. I'm not
30:37
sure what auto manufacturer would want that, but it's interesting
30:39
to see that that's even in the, it's like every
30:41
big company that's had a little bit of an issue
30:43
with Apple got their complaint into this thing. I
30:45
mean, GM's name's not on that, but it's
30:47
clearly that's from GM. Yeah. And
30:51
then also, you know, we're going
30:53
to have Apple go into full damage control mode now
30:56
because this is, this is rough on
30:58
the Apple brand. You know, Oh, no, no,
31:01
here's why I feel this way. I just
31:03
two weeks ago had a conversation with
31:06
an everyday tech user. Just,
31:08
you know, they don't really follow this stuff. And
31:10
they were, they were explaining to me like I didn't know
31:13
about how Apple intentionally degrades the battery
31:15
to force you to buy new ones
31:18
and, you know, completely oblivious to the fact
31:20
that lithium ion batteries just degrade over time
31:23
and that, you know, they have so many
31:25
charge cycles and he thinks it is, as
31:27
he said, he said the words built
31:30
in obsolescence. My mom thinks that too. I've
31:32
tried to explain it several times. Yeah. Yeah.
31:35
And also it just as a side,
31:38
so many normies think the phone is listening to
31:40
them all the time. Who knows? Come
31:42
on, maybe. Come on. I
31:45
can understand maybe once while you're running the app
31:47
for a few minutes, but if the iPhone or
31:49
an Android device, especially we're listening to you all
31:51
the time, the ramifications on your
31:53
battery would be so significant. The phone would
31:55
be hot all the time, but also, you
31:57
know, any Tom Dick network. if sniffer could
31:59
just put it on your Wi-Fi only and
32:01
just and they would be seeing that but
32:04
then also think about like The inbound data
32:06
transfer to these data centers of every phone
32:08
was streaming audio the massive requirements on their
32:10
end to process all of that I
32:12
think it's actually creepier than they're listening
32:15
The reality is these systems have actually
32:17
modeled this well enough that
32:19
they can start proactively figuring out what they need to
32:21
advertise To you it doesn't work all the time, but
32:24
when it does work, it's so creepy. You think they're
32:26
listening to you I heard a guy explaining I was
32:28
I was making food for my dog and I was
32:30
talking to my wife about how I want to Get
32:32
an apple core and I wanted to core
32:34
these apples so I could make this dog food faster And then
32:37
I got on my phone Yeah, I was
32:39
podcast and I got on my phone and I saw I
32:41
saw a thing about the apple cores Oh, it must be
32:43
listening to me. No, no, no They figured
32:45
out that you're a dog nut They figured out
32:47
that your fancy pants that spends money and they
32:49
figured out they can advertise these things to you
32:51
That's creepier and but normies are
32:53
walking around Thinking that their
32:55
phones listening to them and they're just fine
32:57
with it Like if you really thought it's
32:59
listening to you turn it off put in
33:01
a Faraday cage Like don't bring it with
33:03
you don't take it into your bedroom for
33:05
God's sakes If you think this thing's actually
33:08
listening to you then take action It's
33:10
ridiculous And so I think these stories about
33:12
the phone always listening about how it's
33:14
built in obsolescence with the batter Even though
33:17
it's just lithium-ion technology They
33:19
permanently stick and this is
33:21
going to stick to and the way that's really
33:23
registered with the normies is the blue versus green
33:25
thing I mean every news anchor I've seen cover
33:27
this this morning when they get to that point
33:29
in the document. Oh, yeah, that's true I do
33:31
hate that when I'm texting my dad. I sent
33:34
a picture of the new baby. It's just not
33:36
working Yeah, I wish they'd fix that This
33:38
stuff sticks and Apple's gonna have to fight this. I
33:41
wonder if they make a statement at WWDC Probably
33:44
not no, it's
33:46
usually not a good idea to talk about pending
33:49
or current litigation, right? I You
33:54
know that there's a level of irony here and
33:57
they probably could have avoided this whole thing
34:00
Oh, totally and really not lost
34:02
that much revenue, right? so
34:05
like I Don't
34:07
really care about the green bubble thing
34:10
But I understand because I deal with
34:12
young people now for a lot and
34:14
they could have led the way on RCS Yeah,
34:16
no, I think that's where they should actually hold the line
34:18
because that is lock-in and that's You
34:22
know what? SMS they are supporting an open step
34:24
Like I would yeah if I was them I'd
34:26
defend that first because I think it's the most
34:28
effective lock-in But look at the I think you
34:30
look at how this is actually gained traction I
34:32
mean would it really harm the I message lock-in
34:34
that much keep the bubbles green,
34:36
but you know support more advanced features
34:38
Yeah, but why do it right? Why
34:40
make life easier? Well now it's
34:42
in a lawsuit from the United States government That
34:44
might be one reason why? Really
34:47
about it's gonna stay without all the bad
34:49
will from developers right without the DHH bitching
34:52
and moaning all the time without Microsoft
34:55
which I We will not
34:57
know this for years, but I would bet my little hat
35:00
that Microsoft lobbyists have been out there
35:03
Trying to get Apple to you know because of
35:05
this cloud streaming stuff Like
35:07
there were so many off ramps where they
35:09
could have just right Captain
35:11
even recently they shouldn't have done this
35:13
this Ridiculous petulant PWA
35:15
poll for a bit in the
35:17
EU Right, that's just
35:20
making the case their their battle
35:22
with Tim Sweeney They could they could have played
35:24
that a little bit better Tried to
35:26
come to a different resolution because you know, that's
35:28
that is exactly One
35:30
of the pillars that is informing this case. Well, we
35:32
were off for the week, right? we were a pre-record,
35:35
but there was this whole weird thing where
35:37
last week they banned
35:39
the epic Europe account that
35:42
they told they promised epic they could make
35:45
and then Tim Sweeney was like
35:47
what the hell you told us we could do
35:49
this and they sent like a
35:51
nasty letter like a It's kind of it's the
35:53
kind of letter you read in like old British
35:55
novels We're like the father since the boy at
35:58
boarding school like a chiding letter like you you
36:00
blah blah blah, you're disrespectful. And if you think
36:02
I'm exaggerating, I urge you to Google it and
36:04
read what Apple sent them because it's, it
36:07
boils down to you said mean things about
36:09
us on Twitter and we're upset. So,
36:12
you know, like
36:14
do you need to? I feel
36:16
like there's, the companies are people, right?
36:20
And they have cultures and I don't like the
36:22
whole like, you know, Adam Newman, oh, the culture,
36:24
the spirit, but I feel like
36:26
Apple is a little bitchy.
36:29
Like it reminds me of when I was in
36:32
college, the art students, like they're, they're all
36:34
right, but they get real upset
36:36
real fast. Like, I don't know. Yeah,
36:38
yeah. Still got a fire in their belly up
36:40
at this kind of stuff. I mean, their response
36:42
was pretty strong. It was short. It was concise.
36:44
Oh, they said that they're going
36:46
to take this of the mattresses to use in New
36:48
Jersey. Right? They're there. Yeah, they're not going to negotiate
36:50
at all. Well, can you think of a company in
36:53
tech that has a better legal team? I mean, I
36:55
think Apple's maybe had the best legal team in tech
36:57
for 15 years, maybe 20 years. So
36:59
I have a dream, a battle royale that I
37:01
would like to see happen one day, Apple's
37:04
legal team versus Disney's. And
37:07
you can ask good old Ron DeSantis how
37:09
that went for him. I wonder that
37:12
would be a good, that would be
37:14
the ultimate. That would be you're right.
37:16
I'd tune in for that. Craig Federicki's
37:18
untamed wild, final chest hair versus the
37:20
dark Lords of the Sith that are
37:23
Disney's lawyers. I mean, no disrespect
37:27
to the DOJ, but you guys are going to
37:29
get ripped apart. Can
37:31
I bring up the
37:33
orange elephant in the room here? This
37:36
is happening during the election year.
37:38
Which makes it dumber. That's awkward.
37:40
Yeah, it makes it, well, it makes it political.
37:42
It makes it, or at least it makes it
37:44
liable to get political. Trump hates Tim Apple, so.
37:48
Well, they got along when he was in office. Apple's
37:51
always been really good about playing to the
37:53
current administration. Remember he went to that Arizona
37:55
opening with Trump and that, you remember
37:57
that time he called him Tim Apple, that was great. I
38:00
really thought it was his name too, that's the worst part. Yeah, I
38:02
know. And then, you know, they've
38:05
tried to be really tight with the Biden
38:07
administration, but this hasn't gone very well for
38:09
them. But you have to
38:11
wonder if this will have any kind
38:13
of success with
38:15
a Trump administration should he win in
38:17
November, because the gal
38:20
that is running this is, I
38:22
think, appointed by the president would
38:24
likely be replaced if
38:26
Trump comes into office. And I wonder if that would
38:28
shift at all. It's hard to say, but it
38:31
either this thing either because of that wraps up
38:34
in the next 14 months, or
38:37
it goes on and on and on. And
38:40
I think it's a it's a lock if Biden
38:42
is reelected. I think it's just I think
38:44
it just by default will continue to roll and it's gonna be
38:46
a multi year fight. So let me
38:48
fry some Arizona apple factory bacon here.
38:52
So the best thing that could happen regarding
38:54
this lawsuit, one, they're gonna win anyway, but
38:56
for Apple is Trump wins. All
38:58
they have to do is take their bar tab,
39:00
open another factory in Texas or Arizona, let
39:03
Trump do a photo off and he'll
39:05
be like, great. And he'll order the
39:07
whatever her name is to drop the
39:09
case or probably fire her
39:12
actually because of her political. Yeah, they'd fire.
39:14
Yeah, I just I just wonder it is
39:17
when we talked about this last time, I'd
39:19
asked the question, do they wait? Does the
39:22
DOJ wait for the election to be over and
39:24
then drop this thing? Clearly, the answer
39:26
is they have to go hard. And Apple,
39:28
if I was Apple, I would stall and
39:30
saw and saw and just
39:32
see what happens. I
39:34
think that's probably what I mean, that's probably the
39:37
play. And you
39:39
know, the irony of all this, I just
39:41
think is this, they finally
39:43
pull the trigger when Apple
39:45
has had the most market punishment
39:48
that we've seen in the run of the show. For
39:50
the last year, Apple has been slowly but
39:52
surely getting grinded down to buy the market
39:54
now at very low levels in the market,
39:56
but also sales are dropping.
40:00
expensive. There's just
40:02
a lot of things up in the air. Then
40:04
you combine the other big tech companies are slobbering
40:06
all over AI to integrate it into their projects
40:08
and into their products as fast as possible and
40:10
Apple has yet to announce their AI
40:12
play. So the quote-unquote market again is
40:14
punishing them for that. They're kind of
40:16
on the ropes in some ways. Not
40:19
like any major way like they were
40:21
a decade ago. On the ropes? Insofar
40:24
as the chatter right now is maybe
40:26
Apple's lost its luster, maybe
40:29
they're no longer part of the magnificent
40:31
7. Maybe they can't innovate anymore. There
40:33
doesn't seem to be
40:35
a big impact from the Apple Vision Pro. The
40:38
narrative around Apple is at an all-time low is what
40:40
I'm trying to say. I'm not saying Apple is doing
40:42
bad. I mean they're not making as much money as
40:44
they were. They're still making plenty of
40:46
money. I'm saying the narrative around Apple outside
40:48
of brand but just their narrative around their
40:50
ability to innovate, their ability to actually sell
40:52
something in the market right now that's feeling
40:54
price pressure. The situation in
40:56
China which has impacted them greatly, all
40:59
of these things are bad
41:01
headwinds already. Then you
41:04
have this DOJ case come in. It's
41:06
another headwind. I mean this is just
41:08
a sh**ty situation for Apple right now. That's
41:10
mostly they're doing though. They can't blame the
41:13
DOJ. I agree.
41:15
This is all they're doing. Do
41:18
you know what would be a, I mean
41:21
I know this is my hobby horse, but
41:23
would it be like a renaissance for Apple
41:25
and Apple users and Apple developers? Unleash
41:27
the iPad. That is
41:29
some beautiful powerful hardware that is
41:32
shackled down by stupid strategy taxes.
41:34
Yeah, unleash the iOS platform in
41:36
general. I mean what if that is
41:39
the positive outcome here? Is that the iOS platform is
41:41
forced to be opened up a bit? Well how about
41:43
you, I mean I think it's easier on
41:45
the iPad at this point because it's more, I mean
41:47
it is a consumer product but there's a lot
41:49
of enterprise use. Make it
41:52
so developers can build really
41:54
large software packages and not have
41:56
to be the adobes or microsauce
41:58
of the world. to get
42:00
money. I don't know, make
42:02
it like the Mac used to be, right? When it
42:04
kind of still is. I mean
42:07
we've done the comparison of when
42:09
I buy a Mac all the software I
42:11
buy when you get one of your Linux
42:13
machines, you get the equivalence for effectively free
42:16
or if not actually free, right? Yes. People
42:18
will spend money for good software but you
42:21
have to not make the norm free. I really
42:24
think it's like Apple's created this – I
42:27
understand why they did it but they devalued –
42:30
they forgot. Why did people buy an Apple
42:32
too? Well, because
42:35
it ran
42:37
Apple right and Apple paint. You
42:40
could load these big old floppy disks in
42:42
there and run the program you want. Yes,
42:44
people don't buy the machine for the machine.
42:46
Nerds might, right? We might because it's like
42:48
cool. Remember the – what is it, the
42:50
UWA? So now you're making the DOJ's case.
42:52
Smartphones are a special platform. Apple
42:54
is making the case. These are essentially consoles. No,
42:56
they're not special though. I have a PS5 sitting
42:59
next to me. I didn't buy it because I
43:01
want to stare at a white Sony totem. I
43:03
bought it because I want to play the games.
43:06
But that's a similar type of lock-in. You
43:08
can't just – you as a developer can't go
43:11
create something that just runs on the PlayStation 5.
43:14
I can't but when I
43:16
do, Sony doesn't stop me from charging for
43:18
it. I see what you're saying. Your problem
43:20
really is that in order for Apple to
43:22
make the App Store like this attractive thing
43:24
where people can pop apps like they pop
43:26
pills, they had to drive the prices down
43:28
to zero. So now there's not really a
43:30
path for a shop like yours to make
43:32
money by just publishing an app. You've got
43:34
to incorporate a service or do a business
43:36
play, et cetera. All right. Well, didn't we
43:38
just see – and I'm going to apologize
43:40
to the guys at Black Pixel if I'm
43:42
wrong. But didn't we just see one
43:44
of the old great indie Mac studios, Black Pixel, go
43:47
down a couple of years ago? I mean, we've seen
43:49
so many go down over the years. We've seen so
43:51
many go down and these are like venerable
43:54
independent developers who
43:57
– by the way, kids, if you ever listen to the back
44:00
– at me doing a eulogy for
44:02
everyone that goes down. You've
44:05
got a lot to catch up on. It's
44:07
all Apple's doing. I
44:10
remember Panic, right? Remember when Panic tried to port all their stuff over?
44:15
Very old, respected Mac software company. Now they make the... Yeah,
44:20
the game machine. They also make Transmit still, I
44:22
think, and a couple other Mac apps. They
44:25
couldn't justify it. It takes time.
44:27
It takes money. You
44:30
have to pay designers even if you're the developer
44:32
yourself. One, your time isn't free because you have
44:34
to feed yourself. I
44:37
just don't understand how Apple doesn't
44:39
see – and maybe this won't help them with
44:41
the DOJ. But the
44:44
market's not healthy, right?
44:47
And under what the standard is for
44:49
antitrust, certainly prices have
44:51
not raised for consumers. Yeah, they could probably make
44:53
that case if they're willing to admit that they
44:55
have driven the price of software down to nearly
44:58
zero. They'll just have to be willing
45:00
to make that case on there. They're
45:03
like, we've bankrupted all
45:05
these people. Yeah. I mean, they
45:07
might. They might. And then, of course, they
45:10
have their 30% cut. This is going to be something we'll just have to keep our
45:12
eye on. I don't know how we'll cover it in the show. Maybe
45:15
we'll just sort of watch for the highlights. It's not going to be
45:17
a week-to-week thing. I would think there's going to be... We
45:21
will have to have an orange Apple special, should
45:23
he win. You know what I'm
45:26
also going to keep an eye out for is the
45:28
really juicy discovery stuff. I'm hoping we get
45:30
some of that. Who knows? I
45:33
remember depositions of Bill Gates, video
45:35
depositions of Bill Gates. That was
45:37
particularly spicy during the Microsoft time. You know
45:39
what I want? I want all of Tim
45:42
Sweeney's texts and emails to all the Apple
45:44
execs. I'm pretty sure some of them are
45:46
not safe for work. 50,000
46:01
sap. Thank
46:05
you hybrid I don't see a message there but I want to
46:07
give you a shout out for that. Appreciate it. Now
46:10
that was from the podcast index. Now the
46:12
next one I'm gonna say it's mr.
46:16
Senni U Tech
46:18
666 who's also
46:20
a baller booster
46:22
with 50,000 sap.
46:24
Are they right? I know the season
46:26
is slow and I wanted to show my hubby's favorite
46:28
podcast some love. He's a longtime follower
46:30
and a wonderful husband going into the army.
46:33
We couldn't be more proud. We'll
46:35
listen and boost while he's away. Thanks
46:37
guys. Oh that's amazing. Thank you and
46:39
be safe to the hubby. That's a
46:42
tough time to be
46:44
on. I would love
46:47
to know his name and
46:49
also how does he listen? I
46:51
mean does he have like internet on his
46:53
iPhone? Can he enter the phone? How does
46:55
that work? Do you get like general
46:57
internet access where you're deployed? Yeah they
46:59
have access on base. Yeah I know
47:01
but you get access to everything like they just
47:04
let you listen to this thing. Could you imagine?
47:06
Uncle Elon has hooked us up. Oh
47:08
man we're star links. You know what okay you know
47:10
what else is great it's like we're on the inside
47:13
you know what I mean? Of the army? Well
47:16
yeah we got a guy on the inside now. I
47:19
don't know what that means. I know well
47:21
we probably do. We should get they should be giving a shout
47:23
out because you know maybe we could just
47:25
slowly but surely work together make
47:27
things a little better for everybody. I
47:30
want a guy I want a guy in
47:32
the Federal Reserve. There you go. Oh yeah
47:34
Federal Reserve. That'd be good. Secret Service would
47:36
be kind of interesting. Oh
47:39
there. I'm sure. Yeah you
47:42
know Chris if you and I just
47:45
the octopus murders and I'll end the conspiracy
47:47
theory there. You have to you
47:49
have to watch it on Netflix. Okay.
47:51
All right but God bless the hubby be
47:53
safe. It's yes it's wild out there.
47:56
Yes we really appreciate that. I should mention you
47:58
know you know I should say tomorrow. my wife, you
48:00
know, his wife was
48:02
in his favorite podcast. I mean, I'm just saying, honey,
48:04
just saying. That's really sweet though, we really
48:06
appreciate it. Ty Alaskan Ben comes in with
48:08
31,337 sets. Boop,
48:11
boop, boop. I'm a software engineer
48:14
and while I love listening to all the
48:16
other JB shows, I normally just don't have
48:18
time or the energy to tinker in
48:20
my free time. I guess I feel most
48:22
at home with the salty vibe here. Oh, okay,
48:25
well that's the bacon. He says,
48:27
that said, I've slowly been finding places in my
48:29
day job where stuff that JB has mentioned
48:31
is fitting and solving problems. I
48:34
think it's like Zology or something. It's
48:36
like a Teamux teammate replacement or a
48:38
screen replacement. Oh yeah, yeah, okay. LunarVim
48:40
has been really great for remote development,
48:42
they write, and I'm planning to pitch
48:45
packaging one of our projects with Nyx
48:47
to the rest of the team. Keep
48:49
up the great work. Nice, checking
48:52
them off there. Really appreciate that, Ty Alaskan
48:54
Ben. Nice, thank you, yeah. Oh,
48:56
here we go. Let's hope that we hear from them. Tampa
48:59
Tech Trekkie boosts in with 30,500 sats. Life,
49:03
you tiny little life. It
49:09
says, I hope this gets you guys over the 200K this week.
49:13
Thank you for that value, Tampa Tech Trekkie, we really
49:15
appreciate it. Lego Feet writes in with
49:17
22,345 sats. And
49:22
they write, it's another spicy take, I love it.
49:24
I mean, it's no presidential assassination plot like we've
49:26
heard before, but keep them coming. Wait, what? And
49:31
he says, I'll be captain obvious now, the sentiment
49:33
behind words will never hurt me is bang
49:35
on. But every now and then,
49:37
Chris talks about stacking some Ws, that's
49:40
clearly a mental health call out to the community. I'm
49:42
on board with your idea, but
49:44
there's a middle ground somewhere. The end
49:47
game isn't needing pre-approval for all communication.
49:49
It stops earlier than that. The value
49:52
of quote, don't be a dick is core to that.
49:54
The censoring is just an over-correction for
49:56
people that cannot be a dick. And
49:59
then he said, second second boosting boosting to raise
50:01
the sats for this episode. Yeah, that's
50:03
fair. That's all I think that makes
50:05
sense right like it It's I
50:08
mean, I don't Chris I do
50:11
you think there are listeners are that much younger
50:13
than us collectively? I mean, I think
50:15
on average probably in our range, but I know we
50:17
have folks on on each end I met a couple
50:19
of retired individuals at scale and of course I met
50:21
a couple of kids So they're on both ends So
50:23
I remember going to conferences in like New York and
50:26
the in the quote they didn't call it a code
50:28
of conduct And but they said roll number one and
50:30
last rule don't be a jerk. Don't be a dick
50:32
something like that Yeah,
50:35
right. I mean it's just
50:37
like your mama taught you you just gotta be like
50:39
nice gotta be polite Thank
50:41
you Lego feet. Great point Appreciate
50:44
you torped came in with a row of mick
50:46
ducks. He's that looking up for all my duck
50:49
and they write I've been compiling some code from
50:51
my arm 64 phone recently and I
50:53
had a bit of fun with looking into compiler flags
50:56
To either of you have any fun
50:58
compiler stories a compiler story.
51:01
I have a compiler adjacent story Oh,
51:03
I used to play around with Gen
51:05
2 And one
51:07
of the things that was fun with Gen 2
51:10
is there was this wiki in this community around
51:12
Figuring out the compiler flags you could use for
51:14
your particular CPU and you know what
51:16
you were gonna use the machine for and I Mean
51:19
at least back in the day. It
51:22
did seem like it made slight improvements
51:25
You know, I don't really recall After
51:27
like stopping that to noticing any differences computers
51:29
got faster I get there that period of
51:31
time seemed to just go away and
51:34
so I stopped bothering but to me it always
51:37
was so incredibly Just
51:40
strange that you
51:42
could build a program and it wouldn't be just absolutely
51:45
Perfectly optimized for that particular machine you're running
51:47
on for that architecture I didn't understand that
51:49
at first and thought that you know, it
51:51
just would inherently work that way So
51:54
the fun learning experience. Yeah, I
51:56
think I don't have a specific one
51:58
that pops into into mind easily.
52:01
But I do remember quite a bit of pain back
52:04
in my early days of
52:06
realizing that C++ compilers
52:08
were different, especially if they were in
52:11
Visual Studio. So that was
52:13
fun. Yeah,
52:16
good time. Thank you, Torp. Appreciate that. Trey
52:19
Fordham comes in with a row of ducks. I
52:21
wanted to boost Coda because I feel like it
52:24
doesn't get as much love as the other shows,
52:26
but I love Mike's take on business news. This
52:28
is also a boost in appreciation of the Vision
52:30
Pro cliffhanger from a few episodes back. Oh,
52:34
yeah. Yeah, man, I really thought you'd end
52:36
up with that thing. No. I mean,
52:39
first of all, when Apple can't sell me
52:41
something, something's gone horribly
52:44
wrong. I can
52:46
feel myself waiting
52:48
for WWDC, waiting for
52:50
them to announce multi-monitor
52:52
mode and a couple of
52:55
other killer apps and then me going, hmm, maybe, because I
52:57
think this is a two, three year device. I don't think
52:59
they're going to have an update next year. So
53:01
if they updated and improved the software quite a
53:03
bit, maybe I'd consider it. I think the
53:06
key question that I came up
53:08
with that remains is if you could do some of your
53:10
work on an iPad, then you could do your
53:12
work on a Vision Pro perhaps with more screens. That
53:15
limits it. I feel like they're
53:17
going to put a big effort into AI, right? Oh,
53:19
yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah.
53:21
They're probably filming it right now.
53:23
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I
53:26
think so. All right. Moving right along.
53:29
Thank you very much for the boost, Trey. We
53:31
really do appreciate that. And we had a boost
53:33
also come in. I think this might be our
53:35
last one. Nope, not quite. From
53:37
VeniMax. We got some great support. VeniMax
53:40
came in with 4200 sats. I appreciated
53:42
Mike outlining the billing models for small
53:44
software shops. If you're considering ideas
53:46
for new segments, oh, this is
53:48
a new. People should boost in ideas for segments. Yeah,
53:50
that's great. I'd like to
53:52
hear more about the prominent venture capitalists and their history
53:55
in relation to the tech industry. Most of the major
53:57
plays the VC folks you've mentioned were before
53:59
my. You know, that
54:01
is an interesting story right now.
54:04
And the VC world
54:06
is still alive in tech, but
54:09
the amounts, if it's not an AI program
54:11
or some sort of AI, JSON
54:13
as they call it, yeah, way down. Way
54:16
down. Way down. I mean, this might
54:18
be the right time to do it because this is a fallow period,
54:20
right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
54:24
Shout out to DJ at PTC for
54:26
boosting 5000 sets and No Message. And
54:28
Southern Fried Sassafras came in with Road
54:30
Ducks. I heartily
54:32
support the boost becoming a means to recommend
54:34
sci-fi books. That's a great idea. So
54:37
you can blame Jar Jar for that. In that
54:39
vein, I think it all would like the almost
54:41
human. 2013-2014 era,
54:43
sadly only one season. It
54:46
follows Carl Urban who
54:48
plays detective forced to work with a human looking
54:51
like an Android or an Android looks like a human. It
54:54
even features Bitcoin as the currency used in the future
54:56
society. Oh, well, you got me right there. It's
55:00
great. Thank you, Southern Fried. Please
55:03
do. I just finished Westworld with
55:05
The Wife and she wants
55:07
me to watch some cutesy
55:10
Apple TV series show in the meantime.
55:12
I need help. Give me
55:14
another deep, rich sci-fi
55:16
or sci-fi adjacent show. Preferably
55:19
not fantasy, but man, if it's good enough, I
55:21
might consider it. Thank you, Southern Fried. Appreciate
55:24
it. Noob Steve came in with Spaceballs Boost,
55:26
12,345 sets. So
55:29
the combination is one,
55:31
two, three, four, five. That's
55:35
the stupidest combination I ever heard in my life. He
55:37
says thanks for a recent shout out we gave him. He
55:40
says I don't know if he got any exposure for it or he
55:42
clicks for it, but exposure he appreciates. And he wants to know if
55:44
we've seen this. He writes,
55:46
I feel like everything is going in
55:48
the freelance direction right now. They have
55:51
freelance programs for taxis, delivery drivers, drone
55:53
pilots, etc. and now coding. As
55:55
a drone pilot, I know it's a race
55:58
to the bottom pay-wise. Great for closing. Quick
56:00
jobs, but there's no benefits. I
56:02
thought about seeing if I could get some basic stuff
56:04
for extra cash to spend on boosts. Lowell, and
56:07
he links us to
56:09
dataannotation.tech slash
56:12
coders, where they
56:14
basically have quick coder jobs. Boom,
56:17
boom. How to get started in
56:19
four quick steps. One, create an account. Two,
56:22
take the starter assessment. Three, complete
56:24
engaging tasks. And four, get paid
56:26
weekly. Yeah,
56:29
what do you think about this? Everything is kind of
56:31
going to you becoming an LLC. There
56:34
is some truth to that. I think
56:36
we're going back to the days of 1770, whatever,
56:40
right, it's gonna be you're working
56:42
out of your house, kind of, and you're,
56:44
yeah, you're an LLC. I mean, they were
56:46
just sole proprietorships effectively back then, but yeah,
56:48
you're an LLC. Noob,
56:50
Steve, we're kind of the worst people to ask about.
56:53
Yeah, that is true. We've been living that life for
56:55
a long time. Yeah,
56:58
I think there's gonna be big firms that have
57:00
a lot of employees, a lot of infrastructure, and
57:03
there's gonna be maybe, I
57:06
worry that the hardest place to be is the middle.
57:10
Because you have the overhead of the big
57:12
firms, but not
57:14
the, all right, so one
57:17
of the other boosters said they like the business stuff. I
57:20
have been trying to hire a business
57:22
development rep because I'm exhausted, and
57:26
frankly, their base salary is less than developers. What
57:28
a great idea. But the
57:31
pay expectations, forgetting
57:33
about commission, right, I love commission, I think
57:36
it's, I used to sell suits on commission,
57:38
I'm a big fan of it. And
57:40
I, first of all, for me, a red
57:42
flag, anybody who says they're a sales guy and doesn't want commission,
57:45
I think commission only, right,
57:47
but doesn't care about the commission, that's a problem. But
57:50
I looked at
57:52
my remaining small competitors here, and I've looked at
57:55
some of the bigger guys. Some
57:57
of them are paying as little as like 40,000. $1,000
58:00
base but with a
58:02
more generous commission. But
58:05
I noticed those jobs seem to be open. And
58:08
I wonder how well they're
58:10
doing where others like I
58:13
can't name names because it's a former client, but
58:15
I know for a fact that
58:17
they paid their sales guys 150
58:19
base and a commission.
58:22
The commission was structured in a weird way that
58:25
like they could get screwed. But
58:28
150 base as
58:30
a biz dev guy for
58:33
I mean, I've
58:36
been like, this is so
58:38
terrible, I shouldn't admit this, but I've been
58:40
listening to like these sales podcasts and all
58:43
these things trying to understand because I've done this
58:45
a number of times and I can't, you know, some of them
58:47
were good. I'm not saying they were bad, but like they were
58:49
a sales guy
58:51
really should be
58:54
the easiest thing for you to hire because he
58:56
or she should be paying for themselves within 90 days. Yeah,
58:59
it's one of the few times you hire somebody
59:02
that basically pays for themselves. You can effectively if
59:04
you have the cash flow, you can effectively hire
59:06
them at a deficit. Right? In
59:08
fact, one of my one of my best clients, he was laughing
59:10
at me on the phone about a month ago. He
59:13
said, you just need a sales guy, man. He's like, this is
59:15
a great idea. Why can't you like,
59:17
you know, get more? It's
59:19
just bandwidth for me. I mean, I have
59:21
like today, I was up all night doing
59:23
I have some feelings about
59:26
Cloudflare we could talk about later. Then
59:30
I had to do a sales meeting first thing
59:32
in the morning, then I was working on another
59:34
project for the same customer. Then
59:36
I got an email from another client. It's just you
59:38
can't do both at the it's
59:41
just too much. The context switching and
59:43
it's two very different jobs. So
59:46
it's a complete context switch every
59:48
time. And this sounds horrible, but
59:50
I like track my metrics and stuff on the sales
59:52
side. I basically cannot close
59:54
the sale if I pull an all nighter. Maybe
59:57
I get maybe I don't sound right.
1:00:00
or whatever. Yeah, for me it's
1:00:02
hard when I'm traveling or if I'm recording doubles, it's
1:00:04
like when do I have time to do the sales
1:00:06
job? Yeah, I feel you. I
1:00:09
need to consider doing the same. I really should. Well,
1:00:12
it's an interesting thing. I just totally
1:00:15
lost how I got here because I'm tired,
1:00:17
but... Yeah. Well, it
1:00:19
was the hiring independent workers. Yeah, the independent
1:00:21
workers, yeah. Yeah, it's... It's a rough biz
1:00:23
out there and you get stuck in the
1:00:26
middle and you're just really getting squeezed. Now,
1:00:28
I mean a thing I used to do a lot
1:00:30
that I'm not doing, this is kind of to a
1:00:33
new steep point, is I used to do a lot
1:00:35
of subcontracting for other companies. Sure. And
1:00:38
I had a lot of employees at the time. The
1:00:40
problem with that is like
1:00:43
their whole business model
1:00:45
is basically margin. Yeah. When
1:00:48
you're responsible for the deliverable and
1:00:51
they're dealing with the customer, it's their
1:00:53
incentive to keep the customer happy and to
1:00:55
maximize what they're getting out of you. Of
1:00:59
course, but that leads in software where it does
1:01:01
have to be an iterative, creative process. That
1:01:04
leads to some pretty unsustainable outcomes
1:01:06
where I mean
1:01:08
I don't – one of my pride
1:01:10
things is like I have never had a super
1:01:14
bad problem with a customer really. I
1:01:16
tend to just like, okay, you're not happy, I'll fix it,
1:01:19
but you get screwed. And
1:01:22
in a subcontracting situation, they own that end
1:01:24
relationship. So it's not like you're investing in
1:01:26
goodwill to get the next order a month
1:01:28
later or whatever. You're just – they'll be
1:01:31
like, okay, and you know what? Yeah, like
1:01:33
the incentives are totally mismatched, right? It's
1:01:36
just – I don't know. I
1:01:40
didn't want to talk about this yet, Chris, but this
1:01:42
is something I think we're going to be on the
1:01:45
business side going into because I'm pretty – I
1:01:47
need someone dedicated to doing the BD stuff
1:01:49
because it's – That'd be interesting to follow.
1:01:52
Yeah, I think that's a good insight. And
1:01:55
also a good insight by Noob Steve, thank you for
1:01:57
that boost. HealthCareAnon comes in with $3,400. I'm
1:02:00
wondering how I should approach practices at the company. Our text
1:02:02
act is woefully out of date. I currently administer a Windows
1:02:04
2008 box, a RHEL 5 box, and an OpenBSD 5.4. Oh
1:02:12
my goodness. Sorry,
1:02:14
I just found this. What?
1:02:17
Ooh, I've tried to get on the same page as my manager,
1:02:19
and when we get these things updated due to critical software
1:02:21
that's been running on there from the 90s, it's been
1:02:23
a little bit different. I'm
1:02:25
not sure. When we get these things updated due to critical
1:02:27
software that's been running on there from the 90s, it is
1:02:30
a massive plan. It's been measured
1:02:32
in two to three years, if not a decade, for
1:02:34
the process. I've mixed feelings
1:02:37
around the situation as I feel I should
1:02:39
silently work on my given role of managing
1:02:41
users and not step on toes. Yet
1:02:43
the security risks are worrying, and I feel like
1:02:45
I'm squandering my time on systems that were released
1:02:48
when I was in elementary school. Any
1:02:50
guidance would be appreciated. Well,
1:02:52
one, the fact that you were in elementary school in 2008
1:02:54
is very depressing for me. Moving
1:02:57
right along. I do follow
1:02:59
this sensation of, man, I'm
1:03:02
spending all my time working on last decade's tech
1:03:05
instead of working at a job that's teaching me
1:03:07
the current stuff that could build a resume. Yeah,
1:03:09
but is Windows Server 2008 even getting security updates?
1:03:11
I mean, I think really you're
1:03:13
still learning good practices, and it's really about your
1:03:16
ability to learn and adapt, document, work
1:03:19
in a team. Those things don't
1:03:21
really depend on which particular technology you're working on.
1:03:23
No, no, I'm not worried about him. I'm just
1:03:25
like, I thought that was end
1:03:27
of life. Yeah, well, it's bad. Well, so is Rail 5.
1:03:30
I mean, that is genuinely
1:03:32
– I feel their
1:03:34
concern there because this is also
1:03:37
a healthcare system, right? So
1:03:39
we're talking patient records here and stuff like that. Yeah,
1:03:42
so practical advice other than me being horrified,
1:03:44
which I really shouldn't be. I've seen enough
1:03:47
access businesses at this point. Yeah, this isn't
1:03:49
too shocking, but it's in the kind of
1:03:51
gross category. It's weird that they somehow got
1:03:53
away with HIPAA compliance. I have a feeling
1:03:55
they have some weird intranet stuff or some
1:03:57
hardcore like tunneling or VPNs going. I
1:04:00
don't know right back if you want to tell us So
1:04:04
you are right to be concerned, but
1:04:06
remember you're their junior guy So
1:04:09
you gotta I would say
1:04:11
speak softly and try to learn what you can
1:04:14
But if you do see something really scary
1:04:16
just gently met met, you know message it
1:04:18
to your managers, right? Yeah, you can always
1:04:20
keep notes as well to yourself. So something
1:04:22
can happen in the future You've got documentation
1:04:24
on the other hand, you know in the
1:04:26
future as you evolve in your career Having
1:04:29
this rather nutty
1:04:31
experience is gonna be a big
1:04:33
asset to you Yeah, and if you ever if
1:04:35
you ever do a podcast you'll have great stories. You'll
1:04:38
have incredible stories Yeah,
1:04:41
Yukon Cornelius comes in with 9000. That's
1:04:43
fun will now commence Mike Can you
1:04:45
give me advice for someone who's looking
1:04:47
to transition from a mid-level dev to
1:04:49
a team lead role? That's
1:04:52
a big question never thought
1:04:54
about that. Um I'm trying
1:04:57
to think of things I did wrong Okay.
1:05:00
Yeah, so process is boring and annoying but
1:05:02
you need it You know That's a good
1:05:04
point because giving other leadership to recognize your
1:05:06
leadership capabilities is gonna be in
1:05:08
in how you do process
1:05:10
it For have if you have an opinion informing
1:05:12
process building things like that that set examples You
1:05:15
know you need to have traits that other leadership
1:05:17
would recognize this one I think is I'm a
1:05:19
little less confident in but I feel like this
1:05:21
is a character flow on me and how I
1:05:23
handle issues at work If
1:05:26
you're managing the team You
1:05:28
probably should try to take a step back
1:05:30
and not always save the day when
1:05:32
they have an issue It's more
1:05:34
about allocating, you know the team right allocating
1:05:36
It's like playing a Final Fantasy if you
1:05:38
I don't know if you're familiar with Final
1:05:41
Fantasy tactics or that new Marvel Forbidden
1:05:43
Sons or whatever it was Game
1:05:46
where you're you're managing the different combatants
1:05:48
the different players than just
1:05:50
doing everything yourself Because it it
1:05:53
doesn't scale and it
1:05:55
causes a ton of trouble. That's
1:05:57
a good that's a great journey to be on though Yeah,
1:06:00
God bless. I think if anybody else out there
1:06:02
has tips, do boost those in and we'll
1:06:04
cover those because I think there's got to be a lot of people
1:06:06
thinking about that. It's
1:06:08
a good North Star as well. Thank
1:06:11
you for that. Thank you everybody who boosted and we had several that
1:06:13
were under the 2000 on-air cut too,
1:06:16
but we appreciate that. We had 18 total boosters
1:06:18
across 24 boosts and we stacked
1:06:20
a handsome 253,575. Thank
1:06:29
you everybody. If you'd like to boost into the
1:06:32
show, you can get a podcast app that supports
1:06:34
it at podcastapps.com. Fountain
1:06:36
FM has been fantastic since the
1:06:38
1.0 release. Pod versus GPL cross-platform
1:06:40
and available on the web and
1:06:42
Castomatic is the Cadillac for the
1:06:44
iOS platform. Check it out at
1:06:46
podcastapps.com. You can get your stats
1:06:49
through strike, send them over to Lightning
1:06:51
Network and boost into the show with your message.
1:06:53
We appreciate the support of this production. Thank you
1:06:55
everybody. We really do appreciate that
1:06:57
and of course a shout out to our members
1:06:59
as well, coder.show slash membership.
1:07:02
You can support the show with your Fiat fun
1:07:04
coupons directly that way and that's also extremely appreciated.
1:07:07
All right, Mr. Dominic, is there anywhere you want
1:07:09
to send the good people before we get out
1:07:11
of here? Go to alice.dev if you also have
1:07:13
ancient Windows data that you need to convert it
1:07:15
to something useful. There you go. That's
1:07:18
a good idea. Follow me at
1:07:21
chrislast.com or at chrislast on the
1:07:23
Weapon X Network and
1:07:25
at Coder Radio Show is the podcast network. I
1:07:27
mean the show, whatever it is, this is a
1:07:29
podcast, right? I think so. Anyways,
1:07:32
we have a handle over there at Coder Radio
1:07:34
Show or you know, there's God,
1:07:37
who cares it's Twitter. I don't know. There's
1:07:40
links. Wow. I'll probably care
1:07:42
more about that. I can't be bothered anymore
1:07:44
but great show notes. That's the
1:07:46
stuff we referred to including audio and the PDF
1:07:48
for the suit against Apple, coder.show slash
1:07:51
five six two. You'll find our RSS feed over
1:07:53
there. It's really simple and it's syndicated. You can
1:07:55
put it in your podcast app of choice or
1:07:57
just find Coder Radio in the podcast index. Thanks
1:08:00
so much for joining us. We're back to our Tuesday time
1:08:02
at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern next week. We'll
1:08:05
see you then.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More