The Daily Dad

Things you might want to know, for Dec 19, 2023:

• 23andMe confirms hackers stole ancestry data on 6.9 million users — It’s probably too late and my warnings are pointless, but please kids… don’t give something as valuable as your DNA to a for-profit company that views security as a cost-center. It’s not just the millions of 23andMe suckerscustomers who have lost control of their genetic identity… their family members are compromised, too. Maybe it’s just me, but finding out you’re actually 8% Neanderthal isn’t worth giving the Russian mob the blueprints to your ancestry.
• COMIXOLOGY, RIP — I was there at the start, with my little iPhone 3GS, ready to plow through a digital comic collection in Guided View mode. I was certain Comixology was going to save the comics business, and revitalize the audience. Now here we are at the end, nothing has been achieved, and a decade of progress has disappeared into the Kndle app, never to be seen again. Fucking A.
• Using the iPad Pro as a Portable Monitor for My Nintendo Switch with Orion, a Capture Card, and a Battery Pack — Okay, I eat this kind of shit up. It’s absurd on a practical level, but it’s the kind of thing I’m likely to try, just for the hell of it.
• Here’s what intentionally crashing a plane for YouTube clicks gets you — To paraphrase Robin Williams: the ability to crash a plane for attention is God’s way of telling you that you’re making too much money.
• Facebook Messenger Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption by Default — About fucking time, Zuck. I guess he figures the petabytes of pre-E2E conversations that they can use to train their LLM will suffice, so it’s time to let the peasants have their privacy.

• Noah Hawley: How ‘Twin Peaks’ Influenced My Work — If you were between 16 and 30 in 1990 and had any sort of creative impulse, Twin Peaks influenced your work.
• What Did It Mean That Howard the Duck Was Trapped ‘in a World He Never Made’? — The ‘80s movie and modern MCU cameos don’t do justice to the comic book Howard of the 1970s. He was dark and weird and absurd and (?) sexy and grown-up in a way that other comics on the spinner rack hadn’t been in decades, and I was enthralled.
• The use and misuse of evolutionary psychology in online manosphere communities: The case of female mating strategies
• The Bizarre Cottage Industry of YouTube Obituary Pirates
• Warner Bros. Reverses Course on ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ After Filmmakers Rebel

• ‘Now and Then,’ the Beatles’ Last Song, Is Here, Thanks to Peter Jackson’s AI — The song is very good, and the technical skill and care that went into its recovery is just as interesting. The video is just goofy fun, very much in keeping with The Beatles pre-breakup sensibilties. Overall, a delightful and unexpected treat in a year that was full of absolute bullshit.
• Apple Now Selling Standalone USB-C AirPods Pro Case for $99
• Texas sues Pfizer with COVID anti-vax argument that is pure stupid — I feel like most headlines featuring “Texas” or “anti-vax” should always include “pure stupid” as well.
• How TV Executives Ruined Everything
• Humane Debuts $700 AI Pin With ‘Laser Ink Display’ — Do I think this will be a success? No. It’s too niche and weird. But as a signal of life beyond the smartphone, it’s an intriguing development.

• DAK and the Golden Age of Gadget Catalogs — As a household, we didn’t receive a ton of mail as a kid… we saw only a fraction of the junk that hits my physical mailbox these days. But every few months, the DAK catalog would arrive, and I knew I was in for at least a night or two of nerdy, consumerist joy. Page after page of discontinued, misconfigured, or too-oddball-for-the-general-market gadgets were waiting to tempt me with deep discounts on things no one really needed. Sheer bliss, I tell you.
• How to Stop Your Kids From Ruining Your Apple Music Recommendations
• Prince’s Purple Rain puffy shirt is up for auction — You’ve gotta figure Prince’s clothes would fit an American Girl doll.
• Audible’s Moriarty podcast understands what makes Arthur Conan Doyle’s arch-villain survive
• The Real Reason You (Still) Watch Reality TV