On another note, one of the interesting military aspects is the way that smart phones like iPhones have pushed communications abilities down to the individual level. Previous wars have almost always been marked by the challenges that commanders have in staying in touch with their troops (imagine trying to stretch telephone line across the battlefield! Welcome to WWI). Now, the ubiquitousness of smart phones may reduce that challenge substantially.*
*this requires a functioning cell network, of course.
Many millions of Russian speakers live outside Russia but have to see the Russian flag on their Mac when they use the Apple Russian language keyboards. For anyone wishing to avoid that I have put up an alternative set of Apple layouts with a different icon here.
I imagine there are some really interesting technical issues in play here. For instance, can Ukrainian cellular providers prevent Russian phones from accessing their network? And I wonder if both militaries might be employing COWs (cell-on-wheels) to relay communications. (I still remember the first time I saw one of those at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, since the cellular traffic from the conference was overwhelming the local cellular infrastructure.)
The US has already imposed sanctions on Russia that prevent a list of US companies from selling there, and Apple is not on that list. Other mobile and desktop manufacturers also are not on the list either. Apple Pay is affected because banking services are. And Apple has never sold hardware or services to the Russian military or government.
I personally think the President of Ukraine should have stuck to standup comedy. Though I think he is a very inspiring leader, communicator and modernizer whose heart is definitely in the right place, an effective commander in chief or a military strategist he is not. And he’s up against a former KGB officer and leader with a strong military background and longstanding military connections, a hugely bigger army, Air Force, Navy, etc. Banning Apple in Russia isn’t going to help Ukraine turn the tide, especially since Apple has never supplied any products or services to the Russian military or government. They only sell to consumers in Russia. The only result of an Apple ban that I can foresee is that Russians who already own Apple devices won’t have access to violent video games in which they can blow up virtual tanks, blast missiles from the virtual sky, unleash virtual nuclear weapons, etc.
Another issue…what about misinformation that’s running rampant on social media? And also ads that are actually faked content and don’t appear to be ads, as well as unmarked sponsored content?
For anyone fretting about repercussions from Russia, I have published a guide to preparing for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I actually published it before it happened, but I’ve been updating it as the situation develops. I hope you find it helpful.
That maybe the only way to get the Russian populace to remove Putin and the rest of his Communist clique from power. Their eventual aim is restore the Soviet Union to the way it was under Stalin.
The Soviet Union lied to the SU populace and hid the number of casualties during their incursion in Afghanistan and the communist Putin regime will do the same. As for going after Poland, the Baltics, Moldova, and other countries that were subservient to the SU, the so far non-action by NATO led by these United States will only encourage the regime. That these United States refuse to totally impose economic sanctions and sets Putin reap billions for oil and gas sales, is unfathomable. Unfortunately I think only being possibly sanctioned by the CIA might have an effect, but I doubt that too.
Based on the long table I saw on the news tonight with him at one end and all the advisors 20 feet away at the other end…plus the general dissatisfaction some of them are hinting at…maybe they’ll get rid of him on their own. If they end up encircling Kiev in the next couple of days…which isn’t for sure since they are apparently having fuel and supplies issues as the invasion isn’t proceeding as planned…then the Ukrainian President can either surrender the city and accept no longer having a free country or he can make them reduce the city to rubble with thousands dead. At that point…I think he will force the issue…which means Putin will have to stop or destroy the city…and the latter will drastically increase the resistance forces and result in the long bloody repeat of Afghanistan.
Trying not to be political and get the post removed…but a US and NATO enforced no fly zone over the country is a good idea despite the administration refusing to do so. Putin isn’t stupid to get into a war with any NATO country since that will result in all NATO countries including the US being involved…and just like he can crush Ukraine if he really wants to…NATO has vastly more competent and well armed military forces than he does…and that war would result in the end of Russia. Despite his megalomania…that’s not a choice he is likely to make. Alternatively…a few Marines on the border would likely have prevented the invasion because he won’t do anything to kill Americans. That would have us with troops there for awhile…but we had major units in Germany during the Cold War and a lot of them are still there…so having troops deployed to a friendly country that would become a NATO member isn’t out of line.
We are getting far from the original topic though…and to get back Apple can do nothing here except theater. Anything they do will hurt the Russian people and not Putin and cronies…and from what I see most Russians don’t approve of Putin or the invasion. The man only understands strength and thinks he can bully the world to get what he wants. If they succeed and the war is over…he will want the sanctions removed because there is peace now…and most countries will likely relax and eventually remove them.
This is Russian GDP from TradingEconomics.com using data from World bank. Grey are predictions. Sanctions are obviously very effective, just that Russia is not a place where people complain. The next phase should be to reduce the amount payed for oil and gas.
A logistics and production take on the invasion and resulting sanctions - more of a collection of links and some comments which I hope is useful to everyone as they are to me. (I am not knowledgeable in any of these areas.)
Raw Materials and Manufacturing Equipment
Neon gas is used in semiconductor manufacturing, and Ukraine is a major supplier of neon gas.
Russia produces 40% of the world’s palladium, alongside South Africa. This might also hit the automotive industry hard because palladium is used in catalytic converters.
Russia has been increasing its production capacity of rare earths which is used in such things as strong magnets in Apple devices. I guess most of the rare earths used in Apple devices are sourced from elsewhere though (Australia/Congo?).
Transportation and Delivery
High-value goods like semiconductor chips are usually shipped by air, so re-routing air traffic and avoiding the conflict zones would cause further transportation disruption.
I tried to donate to several of the organizations on the page Adam linked to:
Unfortunately, my credit card was repeatedly declined on all the links I tried. I don’t know if the problem is my credit card issuer’s fraud detection or something else.
Yesterday I attended this webinar sponsored by my alma mater:
One of the participants on the panel, Tymofiy Mylovanov (President of the Kyiv School of Economics and Advisor to Ukraine’s presidential administration), said that all donations made through his school’s website would be used for humanitarian aid. I went to the site, my card was accepted; I received a receipt from the School and a thank-you email from him, so I assume that it is legitimate. Here is the link I used:
I think the urldefense.com prefix is the Proofpoint service/filter that prevents attacks like DDoS. The actual page is https:/kse.ua/donation/; I was able to access it without going through the filter.
I’m going to let all the current posts stay for now, but to keep this thread from devolving into everyone’s opinions about what has happened, is happening, and should happen, from this point on, I’m going to remove anything that doesn’t directly relate to our shared world of technology and specifically Apple. There are plenty of other places for the general discussions of world affairs.
