Jason Anthony Guy

Naturally, Google uses “verify” and “verification,” while Apple opts for “assurance,” which is insufferably on-brand.

EFF: Language matters because it shapes how we think about these systems. “Assurance” sounds gentle. “Verification” sounds official. “Estimation” sounds technical and impersonal, and also admits its inherent imprecision. But they all involve collecting your data […]

EFF on ‘Age Verification, Estimation, Assurance’ Terminology Rindala Alajaji, writing for the EFF: If you’ve been following the wave of age-gating laws sweeping across the country and the globe, you’ve probably noticed that lawmakers, tech companies, and advoc...

EFF on ‘Age Verification, Estimation, Assurance’ Terminology

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/eff-...

Some devs may be unable or unwilling to comply. They can control app availability in 175 countries and regions, choosing whether to sell them in, say, Russia, Israel, or the EU—but can’t select individual U.S. states.

It would be utterly satisfying—if wholly implausible—if Apple changed that.

Privacy-Compromising ‘Age Verification’ Laws Coming to App Stores in Texas, Utah, Louisiana Apple Developer News, in October: Beginning January 1, 2026, a new state law in Texas — SB2420 — introduces age assurance requirements for app marketplaces and developers. While we share the goal of ...

Privacy-Compromising ‘Age Verification’ Laws Coming to App Stores in Texas, Utah, Louisiana

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/app-...

A brief acknowledgment as I celebrate my eighth anniversary of becoming an American citizen. I’ve touched on the subject several times: the uniqueness of being naturalized, the delicacy of my citizenship. Despite threats, we evince a fierce loyalty to what America claims to be, not just what it is.

Celebrating Citizenship, Year Eight A brief acknowledgment today as I celebrate my eighth anniversary of becoming an American citizen, which I first wrote about last year: It’s an odd feeling to be—in even a small way—celebrating seven...

⚙ Celebrating Citizenship, Year Eight

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I’d bookmarked the NYT piece (“How a Small Elite College Influenced Mamdani’s World View”) but found its thesis so obviously and infuriatingly slanted that I let it slip by uncommented. I’m glad Coviello did not.

A Brutal Takedown of the New York Times, Though Critics Say It’s Not Peter Coviello, the former chair of Africana studies at Bowdoin College, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s alma mater, absolutely excoriates The New York Times for its piece on Mamdani’s “elite” education,...

A Brutal Takedown of the New York Times, Though Critics Say It’s Not

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/pete...

Quips @pbones.com: “Get your team a Will Smith, stat.”

‘Will Smith’ has won six straight World Series, and the Wills Smith faced off in the 2020 NLCS, with the catcher smashing a three-run homer, but what I really need to see is a Will Smith-Will Smith battery.

Proudly sharing this because it represents four years of my wife’s life: she leads one of the many teams at Revolution Medicines striving to get this breakthrough drug into the hands of doctors and patients.

‘Unconventional FDA Fast-Track Designation’ for Pancreatic Cancer Drug Daniel Gilbert, The Washington Post (semi-gift link; Apple News+ link): At 69 years old, Debby Orcutt was diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer, a condition so dire that her doctor refused to te...

'Unconventional FDA Fast-Track Designation' for Pancreatic Cancer Drug

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/revm...

Americans have grown weary of Donald Trump’s divisive, vindictive, and revanchist politics—and they’re electing leaders unafraid to wield the power of their offices to stop him.

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/demo...

Mamdani took over 50% of the 2 million votes. Maybe I’ll move back: nearly a million people are ready to flee the city now; the deals on apartments and condos will be wild. I’ll happily make anyone a completely reasonable, fleeing-the-city offer for their Upper West Side penthouse or brownstone.

Zohran Mamdani Wins New York Mayoral Race 0:00 /0:11 1× The City (“Reporting to New Yorkers”): Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani culminated a meteoric political rise Tuesday by scoring a decisive victory in a polarizin...

Zohran Mamdani Wins New York Mayoral Race

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/zohr...

There is a direct line between Dick Cheney’s unwavering belief in the plenary power of the president, and Donald Trump’s seemingly unchecked attempts to wield that power today.

We have Donald Trump because we had Dick Cheney.

Dick Cheney, Architect of America’s Post-9/11 Descent Into Authoritarianism, Dies at 84 If you want the usual staid “Vice President dies” obituary, read John D. McKinnon’s in The Wall Street Journal (Apple News+): Dick Cheney, who served four Republican presidents and whose role as an a...

Dick Cheney, Architect of America’s Post-9/11 Descent Into Authoritarianism, Dies at 84

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/dick...

The web version solves one glaring limitation of the native App Store: it shows the current prices of apps you’ve already purchased—finally!—but the site prevents you from copying text.

I use a custom style sheet to override block. I named it _nof—you.css_. Uncensored, of course.

Apple Launches Web Version of App Store, Blocks Text Copying Juli Clover, MacRumors: Apple launched a new App Store on the web today, allowing users to browse through and search for apps across all of its platforms. The web version solves one glaring limitati...

Apple Launches Web Version of App Store, Blocks Text Copying

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/web-...

I had the same thought. I figured someone who knows would tell me….

When it comes to CarPlay, I think we’ll see consumers voting with their wallets, and I’m willing to bet GM and other manufacturers will quietly start supporting CarPlay again.

Probably via a subscription.

I initially balked at the Canva acquisition because these kinds of deals often go south, either via price increases or crappier apps. Instead, we get what looks like a massively improved app that’s completely free.

I hope Adobe is quaking in its overpriced subscription boots.

Affinity Releases a New, Completely Free App Combining Designer, Photo, and Publisher Canva: When Affinity joined the Canva family last year, we made a promise to preserve its power while expanding what’s possible. Today, that vision comes to life with the all-new Affinity: a studio-g...

Affinity Releases a New, Completely Free App Combining Designer, Photo, and Publisher

jagsworkshop.com/2025/11/affi...

I’ve certainly noticed an increase in typos over the years. Alas (or perhaps, fortunately), while others can reproduce the specific issue shown the video, where typing “thumbs up” gives (for example) “thjmbs up,” I cannot.

For real. And it makes me wonder what else they’re being “taught”…

The teacher said “cellulose and oxygen products” are a result of combustion, adding that light is not always a product of the process—which is true—but oxygen and cellulose never are.

Via a friend whose daughter attends the school. Her reaction to the teacher’s incompetence?

“Not surprised.”

Local Teacher and School District Insist Fire Produces Oxygen Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle (syndicated via Yahoo News): Burning firewood does not produce oxygen. That is an incontrovertible scientific fact, one of several a Fremont family spent six mon...

Local Teacher and School District Insist Fire Produces Oxygen

jagsworkshop.com/2025/10/fire...

—a B-plot pitched by a first-year television writer, only to be gently chided for its artlessness by the more experienced staff.

The unexpected destruction of the White House East Wing felt like a ham-fisted, punch-in-the-mouth metaphor for Donald Trump’s dismantling of America’s democracy—another jackhammering from an aging “master builder” toying with his tools, violently ramming them into places without permission—

A lovely paean to TextEdit and its unassuming minimalism, from Kyle Chayka in The New Yorker.

Other than a font faux pas, it’s a wonderful ode to an underappreciated app and a beautiful bit of writing.