Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg again a week later:
Ternus and services chief Eddy Cue want to make even more money from the App Store and figure out ways to raise margins and squeeze additional recurring revenue from the platform. Schiller, on the other hand, seems to believe that such moves will only further irk developers and governments.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, in an Epic v. Apple decision filed on April 30, 2025:
Internally, Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the Injunction, but Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise.
Phil did an exceptional job, running Marketing and Events with a steady and expert hand. Every interview with him has been a masterclass in public relations. I hope he enjoys spending more time with his Porsches family, he’s certainly earned it.
This year, it is my pleasure to ship it for a second time as an open source package, and to share our experience on the Swift blog.
]]>Taking a day off work is not a strike.
Power will only recognize threats to power, and strikes threaten a company’s bottom line. If everyone takes a day off work, the effect on production can be completely eliminated by the elasticity of work. This is especially true for exempt1 employees, who are usually expected to deliver regardless of time off and have been indoctrinated over their careers into making up for “lost time”. In fact, the evolution of the economy during the era of modern trade unions has made strike effectiveness more complicated—a company can weather a strike for longer if it has spread its production out across demographics2 that aren’t likely to participate. The effectiveness of an employee withholding their labour is basically measured by their contribution to the marginal cost of the product and that product’s place in the economy. This is evidenced at the extremes by how power attempts to limit strikes in key industries, from no-strike clauses in healthcare, the Railway Labor Act,3 and the union-busting of air traffic controllers.4
But that doesn’t mean that a daylong walkout—like what we’re seeing in Minneapolis today—won’t be effective. It’s just not a strike; it’s a protest.
While it’s easy to be tricked into thinking that nonviolent protests don’t work, the reality is that they are a visible shot across the bow of power. Protests are a reversion to direct democracy, a show of numbers by people united by a common grievance when their elected representatives fall short. They bring like-minded people together.
Most importantly though, protests are a threat of escalation. The “3.5% rule” in political science is intended to assess the credibility of that threat, but it’s not founded on any specific principles that make it inevitable. If you’re unhappy with things, get out there and meet people who share your view. Plan actions together that will threaten power in ways that encourage better outcomes.
Protests are collective action. Which makes them union as fuck.
As opposed to hourly/shift ↩
Usually by offshoring production, but manufacturing animosity towards immigrants or between ethnicities also works. ↩
See: the Biden administration’s blockade of a railroad workers’ strike in 2022 ↩
See: the Reagan administration’s strike-breaking action against air traffic controllers in 1981 ↩
I bought mine in 2022 when my employer instituted a mandatory return to office policy.1 Moving to Oakland meant that my new commute was substantially more dangerous, and having a kid meant it was more important than ever that I not die. Nor, ideally, be maimed.
There are a lot of options on the market, which raises a lot of questions. The answers depend on what you’re optimizing for. Airbag systems are available with mechanical or electronic triggers. They may be integrated into gear, worn underneath, or worn on top. Different models cover different parts of the body. Here’s how I chose:
Broadly, there are three different kinds of air bag garments:
Integrated solutions have a lot going for them and are worth considering if you’re shopping for a complete set of gear, but I’m very happy with my Roadcrafter so for me the question was just “external” vs “internal”.
Before the pandemic I rode my motorcycle every single day, which transfers a lot of sweat and grime into riding gear. My helmet’s pads and my whole suit (sans armour) are machine-washable, but at the time none of the internal airbags on the market had a better story than “use a moist rag and don’t get the inflator wet”. Nowadays some internal vests can be broken down for cleaning, but they still come with other caveats like “your jacket must have at least 4cm of extra space around the chest” which foreshadow problems2 that I don’t don’t need in my life.
Meanwhile, the bladder of an external vest is not constrained, free to fill the gap between my shoulders and helmet. Nor, practically speaking, does it need to be cleaned. It doesn’t even add an extra step to gearing up; at this point my suit wears the vest and I don (or doff) them together as one.
As far as I’m aware only external vests and some integrated systems offer mechanical triggers, which connect to a tether attached to the motorcycle. These are very simple systems—yanking on the tether with around 60 lbs of force triggers the inflator, which does its job in the blink of an eye.
Electronically-triggered airbags use advanced machine learning algorithms fed by GPS data and multiple IMUs. Some can communicate with an additional IMU on the motorcycle,3 some support multiple deployments before the inflator is discharged, and they can all react (and deploy) before the rider even realizes they’re crashing.
They also don’t work when the battery is dead and require factory service after discharge. Many models only fire at GPS speeds greater than 15 mph4 and some manufacturers engage in pretty unsavoury pricing practices.
I chose the tether. I like that I can check if it’s “on” by giving the tether a tug. I’d gone down with it once before, but the airbag didn’t deploy because I stayed on the bike, having lowsided at low speed in a mud patch. This was a fine outcome for me because there was also no real threat of injury—I even had enough time to kill the engine on the way down—but if it had deployed, the propellant is a standard threaded 60 cc CO₂ cartridge and the spring-loaded trigger mechanism can be reset on the side of the road with an Allen key.
It’s easy to imagine downsides to mechanical tethers, but they don’t really come up in practice. I’ve figured out how to connect the buckle with one hand while I’m riding,5 but rarely forget to do it before taking off. If I forget to unbuckle when dismounting, the trigger’s minimum force provides feedback that’s pretty difficult to ignore.6 One company in Europe uses an inertial reel for their tether (instead of a nylon-webbed bungee), which guarantees the fastest possible deployment for a mechanical system without compromising the rider’s ability to stand up on the pegs.
When I was first shopping, internal vests were sized for fitting under jackets, which limited their coverage. External vests extended further, with the bladder overlapping the rider’s hips and tailbone. Nowadays maximalists that don’t mind spending more time getting dressed can choose internal (or integrated) airbag systems with coverage all the way out to the rider’s wrists and thighs.
Collarbone fractures are the most common injury among riders wearing passive protection. Hip fractures are less common, but affect your mobility for the rest of your life. My goal was not to prevent all injuries, but to minimize long-term impacts. Your goals may be different—and it’s totally reasonable to want maximum coverage—but past a certain point optimizing for this favours internal or integrated systems; if you’re inclined towards a mechanical trigger, you may have to compromise.
If you made it this far, I chose the Helite Turtle 2. The fabric around its back armour has seen better days, but it’s still serviceable and I’m still wearing it on the commute. I’m planning on buying a Helite H-MOOV as soon as someone will sell one to me.
In 2021 Ryan F9 posted a pretty good video about airbags (he also preferred the mechanical Helite) and in 2024 he posted another (same). Note that he’s not an ATGATT guy, and that his (and my) perspective is focused on the hazards of street riding. Maybe you’re shopping for the track. Maybe you think bulky vests with tethers look dorky.7 Everyone’s needs are different and ultimately my choices may be different from yours, but hopefully reading this can help you decide what’s best for you. All I can say for sure is that crashing with an airbag is wayy better than crashing without one.
I also treated myself to a comfier seat ↩
Using differential readings to determine when you part ways ↩
Which seems fine until you get rear-ended at a stoplight, or crash in a tunnel ↩
Thinking every time that the tether’s buckle would be a perfect application for a sturdy Fidlock ↩
Or overcome, the only time I’ve seen an accidental discharge from a tether system was when the rider literally jumped off of the motorcycle ↩
They do; I am perennially uncool ↩
This post is not readable in the feed due to a bug, follow this link to check it out in your browser!
]]>Sell enough that you’re not crying in the shower if the company goes out of business tomorrow, but not so much that you’re crying in the shower if the stock goes up 100⨉ in ten years.
So I sold enough to become debt-free, and got fired shortly after that2. I bought up what I could afford in the following weeks3, SQ did make it to 100⨉ above my strike in 2021, and at no point was I crying in the shower over my investment decisions!
Best advice I ever got.
]]>This post is not readable in the feed due to a bug, follow this link to check it out in your browser!
]]>My commute home from work did not go as planned.
This post is not readable in the feed due to a bug, follow this link to check it out in your browser!
]]>