It Was A Landslide

I normally pay too much attention to politics. I read the news; I watch interviews; I watch the conferences and the debates. Since the election, I've been taking a break, partly out of exhaustion and partly out of disappointment and resignation. In my mind, this election has proven that Trump and the MAGAGOP is what our country has decided it wants, and now we have to own the ramifications.

Over Christmas, my parents said something I keep seeing in social media, and hearing from others I speak to: that the election wasn't a landslide, because the popular vote was actually pretty close. My point, which made my parents angry enough that we eventually had to change topics, is: It was a landslide in the only way that matters. We have to stop telling ourselves that this is an abberation.

Trump won every swing state. Even here at home, Trump "increased his vote share in 45 of 58 California counties". We lost the Senate, and the GOP held the House. The popular vote doesn't matter. It also doesn't matter how unfair you might feel the electoral college is. If we can't figure out how to win the game that's actually being played, instead of consoling ourselves with results that just don't matter, there will be no turning this back.

Commercials during football are the harbinger of ads on all Netflix content

It’s weird for me to be posting another football-related item, but here we are: I watched some of the football broadcast on Netflix today (Christmas Day) with the family. The quality seemed great, except one thing: the commercials. We were watching on the full-priced, normally-no-commercials plan, and yet there they were. People in the room made excuses like “this is probably more expensive for them”, or “the NFL probably already has deals in place and Netflix didn’t have a choice”, or something similar.

I remember when I had to pay higher cable rates to include expensive sports channels like ESPN, even though I didn’t watch them and certainly didn’t want to pay a premium for them. The apologists then went on about how most people did want them, so it was spread out for everyone to make it work.

Mark my words, this is how the enshittification of streaming—and Netflix in particular—progresses: people get used to commercials during sports broadcasts, and slowly, surely, the cancer spreads to the rest of the programming, until we’re watching commercials and paying top dollar for it.

naruse, posting on ruby-lang.org:

"We are pleased to announce the release of Ruby 3.4.0. Ruby 3.4 adds it block parameter reference, change Prism as default parser, adds Happy Eyeballs Version 2 support to socket library, improves YJIT, adds Modular GC, and so on. [...] Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and enjoy programming with Ruby 3.4!"

Merry Christmas to the Ruby team, and thanks for the annual gift.

Ruby 3.4.0 Released | Ruby

We are pleased to announce the release of Ruby 3.4.0. Ruby 3.4 adds it block parameter reference,changes Prism as default parser, adds Happy Eyeballs Version...

www.ruby-lang.org
Ruby

I don't really care about football at all, but I've really been enjoying watching these ~15-minute long versions of the game. They're kind of like in-depth highlights...all of the good stuff, and none of the boring stuff, and no commercials. A football game is interminably long because of all that stuff, and this makes it compact and exciting, and very watchable. The game I linked is a good one, but I think that a bunch of the recent ones are good, too. I recommend checking it out, even if—like me—you're not really a football fan.

Minnesota Vikings vs. Seattle Seahawks | 2024 Week 16 Game Highlights

www.youtube.com

Jess Weatherbed, writing at The Verge:

"Honda and Nissan have announced plans to merge as the Japanese automakers struggle with competition from rival brands in the electric vehicle market. The two companies confirmed on Monday that they had signed a memorandum of understanding that would create the third largest car maker by sales, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

"Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors is also in talks with Honda and Nissan to join the integration, with a decision expected by the end of January."

Wow, this would be a big merger! I was a Honda fan when I was younger, and have owned 3 Hondas—my first new car was a Honda CRX that I remember fondly. I credit Honda for my love of small, light, sporty cars. Sadly, Honda has lost that touch—the Civic is unrecognizably big. Let's hope that this combo can make some interesting cars.

Honda and Nissan plan to merge as we enter the age of electric cars

Mitsubishi is also in talks about joining the partnership.

www.theverge.com
Cars

Nikon, Sony, and Innovation

While thinking about that post about Nikon's current situation, I found myself looking back on some of my posts here about Nikon. I re-read the one where I asked myself, "could my next camera be a Sony?" The answer, clearly, was "yes" (the new generation of all brands' lineups required new lenses, so it was a perfect time to consider all options). But look at that wishlist:

  • In-body image stabilization/IBIS (this was 2012, mind you, and Nikon stubbornly resisted this for way too long)
  • Integrated GPS
  • A little surprise and delight (referring to the pellicle mirror the A99 had)

Sony has top-notch IBIS, and Nikon finally added it much, much too late with the Z6/7 in 2018—six years after I was complaining in that post. Neither system boasts GPS, an omission I still don't understand. Sony actually regressed here: it was in that A99, but not in the newer mirrorless line that Sony has become so well known for.

As for the "surprise and delight", Sony had quite a few years where they were on a tear, technologically; it was a great time to be a Sony user. Their lens lineup really took its place among the top tier, and the cameras—while still too computer-y to earn my undying love—had a lot of innovation. Nikon sat on the sidelines for way too long: I'd say the Z9 was the first Nikon model in a long time that had a hint of that je ne sais quoi, with its lack of a shutter and freakishly fast sensor.

To be fair, Sony seems to have matured and that rapid pace of innovation might be slowing. The ⍺1 in early 2021 was a technological tour de force, but the recent ⍺1 II was a pretty minor iteration. My most recent model, the ⍺7 RV is a nice, solid upgrade over the ⍺7 RIII that was my first entry into the system, but it was also iterative.

Anyway, I thought it was fun to look back in light of that Nikon piece.

The Online Photographer, in reference to Lensrentals' "Top Rented Photo and Video Products of 2024" article :

"Nikon doesn't show up with even a single camera or lens. And, rather humiliatingly for Nikon perhaps, on the "Lenses Rented By Lens Mount" list, the old Canon EF mount for SLRs and DSLRs comes in ahead of Nikon Z."

Ouch. As a long-time Nikon fan—albeit one who reluctantly jumped ship to Sony out of frustration with Nikon's lack of innovation in mirrorless other areas—this is sad to see.

From the Lensrentals post:

Looking at these numbers, there is one very obvious change from previous years. Nikon has started scratching back at its market share, showing a 21% growth from last year. As B&H Photo highlighted in their recent post, Nikon has made a big push into its mirrorless platform, and it appears to be paying off. Moving away from Nikon, DJI also saw steady growth as drone operations became easier and easier over the recent years.

That's a pretty optimistic way of looking at it, but I hope Nikon is able to recapture its former glory. The Z8 and Z9 seem like a great start, albeit too late for me; I've got too much invested in modern Sony glass to go back.

"Lensrentals 2024: Where'd Nikon Go?"

theonlinephotographer.typepad.com

The Hollywood Reporter:

"Kraven supplanted Madame Web to rank as the worst start ever for a Sony-produced Marvel comic book movie (the studio has rights to the Spider-Man universe), and one of the worst for any pic based on a Marvel character, not adjusted for inflation."

That's $11M too much, but I'm glad to see the correct signals getting sent.

"Other weekend highlights: The rerelease of Christopher Nolan and Paramount’s Interstellar in 321 Imax locations came in seventh with $3.3 million."

Ha! A ten–year–old movie did about a third of it, and only on IMAX screens. Love it.

Box Office: ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Bombs With $11M Opening, ‘Moana 2’ Crosses $700M Globally

'The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim' also fell on its sword as the 'Moana' sequel and 'Wicked' — which cleared the $500 million mark worldwide — saved the weekend.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

"Sony has made bad Spider-Man spinoff movies before, but Kraven the Hunter is another level of terrible." I've steadfastly refused to watch any of Sony's Spider-Man spinoffs. No Venom, no Madame Web, and certainly not this one. Sony keeps making them mostly so that they can keep their legal obligations that allow them to retain the exclusive rights to Spider-Man, not because anyone is looking forward to a Kraven the Hunter movie. But the other reason is that they do well enough for them in terms of money. The only way we can get this kind of garbage to stop is to stop paying to see them. That includes watching them "for free" when they make their way to streaming services, which also get the studio income and is also an indicator that people want them.

Kraven the Hunter is the flimsiest strand in Sony’s spider-free web

Kraven the Hunter lays bare what Sony’s universe of Spider-Man spin-offs has always been: a bad idea.

www.theverge.com

Wes Davis at The Verge: "The Vision Pro’s ultrawide Mac display is very close to being a killer app". As I wrote earlier, I love the new display modes. I've taken another trip since writing that, and it really is amazing to have that kind of workspace on a plane. I also had a day where the power was being worked on in my area, so I worked from my Starlink-connected van, and used the Vision Pro to have a bigger monitor setup than just the laptop screen. It's a revelation, honestly, to have such a powerful environment in challenging conditions like in a van or on a plane. As the article says, "...if it’s not in killer app territory, it’s at least right next door to it."

The Vision Pro’s ultrawide Mac display is very close to being a killer app

And I’m not even an ultrawide display guy.

www.theverge.com