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ianbetteridge

@ianbetteridge@writing.exchange

Journalist, anecdontalist. I work for the company. But don't let that fool you, I'm really an okay guy. There is no future in England's dreaming.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

ianbetteridge , to random
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In journalism it’s always important to get the local angle

ianbetteridge , to random
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I would be much more supportive of compulsory national service for 50-60 year olds. The ones who got free education, affordable housing to buy, etc. It’s about time we gave something back to our country.

ianbetteridge , to random
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I am greatly enjoying quite how salty Susan Hall is.

ianbetteridge , to random
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The only reason that companies stop reporting stuff like this is because the numbers look crap and they want to hide it.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/netflix-stop-reporting-subscriber-numbers-starting-2025-1235975341/

ianbetteridge , to random
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Because the British are gullible?
https://apple.news/Ar36R-YpORnCUX1z-HafDKg

ianbetteridge , to random
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This is one of those "thank god some journalists understand the history of antitrust" moments. One small quibble: Allison says, "I’m not really sure Apple owes the DOJ a thank-you card for making the iPhone possible", but Gates himself noted how, distracted by antitrust, Microsoft's ability to compete in smartphones was curtailed. They might not have stopped Apple, but they might well have been able to stop Android.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/22/24107693/doj-us-versus-apple-complaint-microsoft-antitrust-case

ianbetteridge OP ,
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Here's a story about Gates' comments...

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/6/20952370/bill-gates-windows-mobile-android-competition-comments-microsoft-antitrust

ianbetteridge , to random
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An entire generation of tech commentators and CEOs have grown up not understanding the history of antitrust in tech, or the impact it had in shaping the industry. And they really don’t understand that without regulatory action in the 1950s to 1980s, their own businesses would not exist.

ianbetteridge , to random
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I'm amazed that so few people understand that the ruling classes smashed unions to make sure that workers didn't get their fair share of growth in productivity. Then, as a distraction, they blamed "immigrants" for stealing jobs and depressing wages. And now they'amazed that this has led to the rise of the far right.

ianbetteridge , to random
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Yep. I have no idea what Apple is playing at. It seems to have decided it wants to immolate its political capital in Europe, to hold on to something that inevitably will change (and not just in Europe). For what? https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/112055446465943054

ianbetteridge OP ,
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@RolloTreadway I don’t think so. I think it could be as simple as an obsession with growth - and at Apple scale that will be harder to achieve.

ianbetteridge , to random
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Just I'm clear, privacy-loving Apple allows itself to track the location of all its users to ensure they aren't avoiding paying a tithe to Apple?

ianbetteridge , to random
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I love this post from @pluralistic because it reminds me of the other, more broad adage: "you can't shop your way out of capitalism".

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/

ianbetteridge , to random
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Re Apple’s EU judgement: Remember that EU antitrust law does not require direct harm to consumers. It’s not the same as US law. Behaviour which is anticompetitive (ie using monopoly positions to stifle competition) is regarded as harmful to consumers, even if no direct harm (ie raised prices) has occurred.

https://www.covcompetition.com/2022/06/the-cjeu-sets-out-an-analytic-framework-on-exclusionary-abuses-in-the-context-of-market-liberalisation/

ianbetteridge OP ,
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@blabberlicious Mainly because of the influence of Robert Bork's book on antitrust, which became the dominant legal view around the Reagan era. That view holds that all that matters is prices so if a monopoly doesn't raise prices it's fine. It was a big break with core economic theory, which holds that competition reduces prices and so lack of competition will always end up raising them. Guess what? Economics turned out to be right, longer-term.

( @pluralistic has written lots about this )

ianbetteridge OP ,
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@blabberlicious @pluralistic DOJ Action (Taylor's version)

ianbetteridge , to random
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I had completely forgotten quite how much this kind of demanded anonymity drove me up the wall when I was doing "proper" journalism.

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/05/14/anodyne-anonymity/

ianbetteridge , to random
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Look this is still the best headline in history, I don't make the rules.

ianbetteridge , to random
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I bet you have all occasionally wondered what Willy Wonka land would look like if Cthulhu took over. WELL.

ianbetteridge , to random
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I reckon it'll be about 15 minutes before Anderson is joining Reform.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/24/lee-anderson-stripped-of-tory-whip-over-sadiq-khan-comment

ianbetteridge , to random
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The Martin Hench spin off the world needs @pluralistic https://toad.social/@LOLRH1/111955863702648540

ianbetteridge , to random
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Well this is quite a thing #musk

https://mashable.com/article/x-twitter-elon-musk-bots-fake-traffic

ianbetteridge , to random
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One of the greatest tricks capitalism pulls is the myth that if a service is run privately it magically becomes so efficient that not only is it a better service for customers, it can generate enough for a tax we call “dividends” going to shareholders. Well, we don’t get the efficiencies - but they get dividends anyway.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/01/royal-mail-killed-lying-politicians-lousy-managers-ruthless-moneymen

ianbetteridge , to random
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One of the things which today’s @pluralistic post reminded me: markets are almost entirely irrational. Leaving things to the market is literally “government by vibes”.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/

ianbetteridge , to random
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@pluralistic I still get a bit of a buzz when I see this 😀

ianbetteridge , to random
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I mean, basically it sounds like Apple has just looked through its entire catalogue of features and broken as many of them as possible for any app that dares to use an alternate app store.

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/25/features-unavailable-with-alternative-app-stores/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

ianbetteridge OP ,
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@fskornia @pluralistic I'm old enough to remember how badly Bill Gates' testimony went down when he was just a little bit grumpy with regulators. That was a picnic compared to this.

ianbetteridge OP ,
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@pluralistic @fskornia Oh lord yes.

ianbetteridge , to random
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I'm actually going to have to start a @pluralistic -style weekly link post because if I don't, one day Kim is going to come downstairs and find me crushed to death by the sheer weight of links I have saved.

rberger , to random
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We're living in the enshittocene, in which the forces of enshittification are turning everything from our cars to our streaming services to our dishwashers into thoroughly enshittifified piles of shit. Call it the Great Enshittening…

ianbetteridge ,
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@dangoodin @rberger @pluralistic We only recently got rid of the Prestcold fridge that my partner's parents got as a wedding present in 1961... seeing the same model as an exhibit in the Science Museum was probably the tipping point 😀️

DJDarren , to random
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Brilliantly, I can’t see my own post because I mentioned the Orange Shithouse in the alt text and my mute filter has done its job.

ianbetteridge ,
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@DJDarren On the plus side, you know your filters definitely work!

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