Tim Culpan, Bloomberg:

The problem with Mike Daisey’s lies is that they’ve painted a picture of the Evil Empire, a place devoid of any happiness or humanity. A dark, Dickensian scene of horror and tears. They also make anyone who tries to tell a fuller, more balanced account look like an Apple or Foxconn apologist because your mind is already full of the “knowledge” of how bad it is there.

To the public, a story about a 19-year-old shrugging her shoulders and claiming work is not so bad just can’t stand up against a 12-year-old working the iPad factory lines. The naïve and youthful smile of a kid having found his first girlfriend at a Foxconn work party pales in comparison to a crippled old man holding an iPad for the first time. Compared to the lies, the truth just doesn’t make good theater.

Worth the read. Culpan clearly summarizes the harm that Mike Daisey has caused. Instead of meaningful dialogue about real issues, the public has been seeded with fantasy. Even when people discover that their beliefs are rooted in lies, they will continue to grasp at the premise of those feelings in order to preserve their pride. In short, Daisey poisoned the well.

Alli Houseworth, former marketing and communications director at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company:

Now is not a time for us to lay down and take this, to pretend “oh, it’s just theatre,” to coddle an artist because he brings in big box office bucks and “sparks dialogues.”  It is absolutely crucial that we remain relevant in the world as art-makers. And art doesn’t always have to mean untruth. And if we are going to put this on our stages for our audiences then we need to trust the artist who creates the work in the first place. Until then, don’t do it. Do not produce his work until you get an apology.

I love that Houseworth calls Daisey out on using the art of theater as an excuse for his lies. Especially when Daisey demanded “This is a work of non-fiction” be printed on the playbills of his monologue, such as this one.

(via: The Loop)

Brendan Eich, CTO of Mozilla Corporation:

What I do know for certain is this: H.264 is absolutely required right now to compete on mobile. I do not believe that we can reject H.264 content in Firefox on Android or in B2G and survive the shift to mobile.

Losing a battle is a bitter experience. I won’t sugar-coat this pill. But we must swallow it if we are to succeed in our mobile initiatives. Failure on mobile is too likely to consign Mozilla to decline and irrelevance. So I am fully in favor of Andreas’s proposal.

Firefox currently relies on Flash fallback to play H.264 videos. While this poses no real disruption on desktops, it’s not a viable mobile option when you couple the popularity of iOS devices and Adobe’s announcement of dropping mobile Flash support.

To remain relevant in a mobile-driven world, Mozilla will now support H.264 media in the HTML5 <video> tag. This is a large - yet necessary - departure from Mozilla’s previous stance on an unencumbered web. To be clear, this only apply’s to their Boot2Gecko mobile operating system and Android version of Firefox.

Apple:

Apple® today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16.

As a point of reference, the original iPad sold 300,000 units during its opening day and took 28 days to reach one million.

Also for comparison, Google’s Andy Rubin said that only 12 million total Android tablets had been sold as of a meeting in February.

Mike Daisey, responding to This American Life: Retraction:

Especially galling is how many are gleefully eager to dance on my grave expressly so they can return to ignoring everything about the circumstances under which their devices are made. Given the tone, you would think I had fabulated an elaborate hoax, filled with astonishing horrors that no one had ever seen before.

Except that we all know that isn’t true.

Daisey again comes off as defiant. No one is claiming that the overarching story that surrounds his monologue is a hoax. The issue, as I stated previously, is that Daisey presented his story on multiple media outlets under the presumption of fact. He never framed the story as strictly theater. To now claim that he is unfairly targeted in order to distract from the issue is bullshit. The distraction is Daisey himself - he lied.

When people invest emotional capital into a cause, they rightfully feel betrayed and angry when lies led to their deposit. His tone suggests that lying was the only way to force people to consider the issue of worker abuses. Here, Daisey underestimates his audience. I believe people would have eagerly engaged in the issue had Daisey simply stated upfront that his monologue was a dramatic telling of real human interests.

Daisey does touch on what he hopes his audience takes away from the monologue:

But understand that if you felt something that connected you with where your devices come from—that is not a lie. That is art. That is human empathy, and it is real, and even if you curse my name I hope you’ll recognize that and continue reading, caring, and thinking.

I agree completely. People’s feelings about working conditions at warehouses that make their gadgets shouldn’t be forgotten. I don’t think they will. It is shame, however, that people now need to curse his name at all. Simple honesty from the beginning would have endeared Daisey to his audience and forever linked his name to any future improvements in working conditions for Chinese workers. Unfortunately, he will forever be remembered as a liar.

Apple:

Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

This should make some shareholders very happy.

Apple announced it will hold a press conference tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. EDT concerning their $100 billion cash reserve:

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, and Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, will host a conference call to announce the outcome of the Company’s discussions concerning its cash balance. Apple® will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash.

A few possibilities immediately come to mind:

• Apple could announce that they are issuing dividends to investors. They haven’t done so since 1995 and it seems too minor to warrant a conference call.
• Apple might consider buying back stock to increase earnings per share. However, that seems unnecessary given their earnings growth.
• Apple could announce a large acquisition - the target possibilities are endless. However, Apple hasn’t historically made such acquisitions.
• Apple might announce a strategic investment, perhaps in manufacturing infrastructure or component supplies.

What will it be? Your guess is as good as mine. I’d prefer to see an investment in manufacturing, but it may end up just being a dividend.

Jordan Moore:

Realising that the web is naturally responsive encourages your thinking to keep your code light. A lot of the work is already done for you when using a mobile first approach. That was my epiphany, I hope it helps you too.

This is along the lines of what motivated my redesign of this site. Every site should be responsive - it’s the web’s nature.

If you want to make a responsive site, start small, start simple, and then work your way out to more complex viewports. Life’s easier that way.

Michael Interbartolo of NASA posted this awesome video from cameras mounted on the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket boosters. The video follows the boosters from launch to separation to landing. Some cool things to note include the rockets breaking the sound barrier, the tumble to Earth that shows the launch smoke plume, and the hard impact with the ocean when landing.

You gotta spend green to get green, baby! Here are some interesting St. Patrick’s Day facts reported by Bloomberg:

• Adult Americans will spend $4.5 billion today, an average of $38.94 per person. Compare that with Halloween ($6.9 billion) and Valentine’s Day ($17.6 billion).
• Brewers will make $245 million from beer sales today¹ - one percent of the annual U.S. total.
• New York will receive $250 million in tax revenue from today’s festivities.
• Chicago will spend $10,000 on security and cleanup for their downtown parade.
• Two private citizens paid $9,000 for New York to paint a green line down Fifth Avenue. Meanwhile, a radio station in Chicago spent $1,500 to dye the river green.
• One million North Americans will travel to Ireland this year, spending a total of nearly $1 billion.
• The emotional cost of forgetting to wear green is immeasurable².