Nerdology

Adi made the best VR buyers guide on the internet.

If you go back to the 1990s and start reading about “virtual reality,” you’ll quickly realize that the term could refer to anything from a full Lawnmower Man simulation system to a 3D model on a computer screen. Things have gotten simpler since then: outside a few special circumstances, we’re now almost always referring to things you see inside a VR headset like the Oculus Rift. Unfortunately, this definition implies that all headsets are roughly equivalent — that a $30 Google Cardboard will do the same thing as an $800 HTC Vive.

Choose your price range and she’s got you covered.

The take I’ve been waiting for. I’d been waiting to post a link about the FBI / Apple situation until I was able to link to a Nilay Patel article. He’s the most qualified IMO as a lawyer and Editor-in-Chief of The Verge.

So let’s pull it apart and see what’s going on here. While the PR machines on both sides are operating at full tilt, the actual substantive issue in this case is pretty simple: Does the government have the authority to order Apple to help unlock the phone based on statute or precedent? That’s the only question anyone’s trying to answer, since almost all the other facts in the case break decisively in the government’s favor: the government owned the phone, there’s a warrant, the guy was a terrorist asshole, etc., etc., etc. Apple doesn’t even really bring any of that up. The entire brief is focused on whether the government has the power to make Apple help law enforcement.

Nilay does a great job of breaking down the real arguments Apple has against the FBI, but also looks at some of the … let’s say far reaching points.

Okay. That’s the real stuff. Now, onto the crazy part: Apple saying the First and Fifth Amendment don’t allow the government to force it to do anything.

Crazytown: the First Amendment (and, sort of, the Fifth)

Here’s the outline of the First Amendment argument:

1. Code is speech.
   
2. Speech is free.
   
3. The FBI wants to compel Apple to write some code and sign it so it runs on this phone.
   
4. Apple doesn’t want to, and says how much it loves encryption all the time.
   
5. That means the FBI wants to compel speech from Apple that is specifically against Apple’s viewpoint.
   
6. FIRST AMENDMENT ERROR
   

It’s great and you should read it all. You can also read a first reaction to Apple pushing back against the FBI and a link to the official document here.

Adi Robertson penned a gigantic masterpiece. Adi has long been one of my favorite writers and she does not disappoint with this feature. 

I love this article by Chris Plante on the realization that Lara Croft is basically Rambo.

​Lara winces at Ana’s words — as if Lara somehow doesn’t have the chutzpah in her to pull the trigger. I snort, because if there’s one thing Lara Croft is better at than Ana’s men, it’s killing. In the first seven hours of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara shoots, burns, stabs, and drowns men from Syria to Siberia, scavenging their bodies for resources before leaving the pillaged detritus to rot in the sun. The self-professed archaeologist shows roughly the same level of respect to ancient tombs, which she raids not for monetary gain or historical artifacts, but for weaponry and ancient, lost knowledge of combat that makes her a more efficient killer. As an archaeologist, Lara Croft’s not simply bad, she’s a threat to the entire craft. She’s a bull on an international tour of china shops.

I played nearly 20 hours of Tomb Raider this weekend, spending a lot of time on side quests and gathering XP. I played the moment they are talking about in the above excerpt just yesterday. And while I also find some of the story beats out of sync with the game play (like… just pull the trigger, srsly) Chris put it words to paper far better than I could have. 

Lara Croft is top notch at practically all things, from skinning bears to uncovering lavish, riches-strewn tombs lost for centuries in the Russian wilderness, mere yards from Soviet mining sites. But like Bo Jackson’s time in the NFL, her archaeologist career is supplemental.

I mean that’s fire.

Just straight 🔥 from Nilay Patel.

“11. Asking a cable company to compete is like asking water to be dry. It is simply not supported by nature.”

Have I already shared this? I don’t think so, I think I was so floored when I read it that I never put it here.

When The Atlantic dives into a topic you just need to buckle yourself in, shout out the world, and read it straight through. This article is great.

Facebook is already, it is often said, eating the Internet. So it’s easy to see why Internet.org was rebranded as Free Basics. The old name sounded too much like a reflection of what Facebook actually is: a dominant and possibly unstoppable force, a private company exerting enormous influence on public access to the web. “The great social network of the early 21st century is laying the groundwork,” Austin Carr wrote for Fast Company in 2014, “for a platform that could make Facebook a part of just about every social interaction that takes place around the world.”