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The Afraid-Of-Reality Edition Sunday, May 29, 2016

Tech Giant Apple Removes Lesbian Couple From International Advertisements, by 9News

“I am so embarrassed for the stupid French team from Apple, I am a French follower and am truly inspired by your beautiful family,” one user wrote.

“I don’t understand why people are so afraid to show reality,” another commented.

Walking With Cook

When I Met Apple’s CEO Tim Cook..., by Rajiv Makhni, Hindustan Times

The call came early morning. The Apple PR team wanted to meet me. Thinking it was a typical ‘we are about to launch a new product’ meeting, I agreed to catch up the next day. It was anything but typical. Apple CEO Tim Cook was coming for his first-ever visit to India (wow), he would be here for four days (very unusual), I was to spend three days with him travelling all over the country (double wow), I would be the only one doing so (stunned silence) and I would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement (standard practice).

That set in motion a chain of events that saw me travel to multiple cities, attend multiple events and have multiple conversations with the man who heads the most valuable company in the world.

Apple Sets Sights On Bigger Target In India, by Simon Mundy, Financial Times

Mr Cook’s visit has put the spotlight on what is now “the most important country in the smartphone market”, according to a Morgan Stanley report last month, which predicted that by next year sales in India would be second only to China and boast a higher growth rate.

But in some respects India is more challenging than any other big market on which Apple has set its sights.

Stuff

GraphicConverter 10, by Agen G. N. Schmitz, TidBITS

Lemkesoft's GraphicConverter — the "Swiss Army knife" of graphics programs that can convert over 200 different graphic file formats into any of almost 80 graphic formats — has been updated to version 10.

Notes

This iPad Mini Is An Invisibility Cloak, by William Hoffman, Inverse

Researchers at University of Rochester have long been working to make invisibility cloaks a reality, and their latest attempt takes things digital using an iPad Mini and a standard camera.

How Restaurants Know What You Want To Eat Before You Do, by Nicole Torres, Boston Globe

Around 3 p.m. every day, Andy Husbands gets an e-mail telling him who’s about to come into his South End restaurant, Tremont 647. The chef-owner can see who made a reservation, when they last visited (and how much they spent), the people they eat with most often, what they tend to order, and whether they’re VIPs or celebrating an anniversary. He can call up a prediction of which menu items will be popular that night and how many walk-ins will show up. Then he shares the data with his staff so they know what to expect, too.

I Created Godwin's Law In 1990, But It Wasn't A Prediction - It Was A Warning, by Mike Godwin, International Business Times

Earlier this month, my email and social media alerts starting going off when friends let me know a pseudonymous number-cruncher had "proved" Godwin's Law.

This struck me as odd, given that I designed Godwin's Law a quarter-century ago in a way that (I hoped) would make it insusceptible to scientific proof or disproof—at least by anyone who interpreted Godwin's Law as a prediction.

Bottom of the Page

The worst thing to do on a Sunday night is to accidentally open up your work email client and discover you have that many emails waiting for you in the inbox.

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Thanks for reading.