702: Isolate the Evil

What It Covers

ATP episode 702 covers library copyright law and video game preservation, Marco's data center redundancy overhaul using Ubiquiti shadow-mode failover, Apple's macOS 26 password auto-change feature with poor beta results, the Ford and Apple Maps SDK partnership, Safari 26 shifting focus to bug fixes over new features, and the Slate electric truck's $24,950 launch price.

Key Questions Answered

• •Video Game Preservation Law: Libraries hold unique copyright exemptions under 17 U.S.C. §108 allowing up to three replacement copies of damaged or obsolete-format games, but the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause technically blocks the DRM-cracking required to exercise that right. Every three years, the Copyright Office grants temporary exemptions. Currently, preserved games can only be accessed on library premises — a 2024 petition to allow remote researcher access was denied. The next exemption renewal cycle is 2027.
• •Data Center Redundancy Design: Avoid single points of failure by splitting equipment across two power feeds rather than relying on one automatic transfer switch. Marco restructured his 48-Mac-mini Overcast server setup by ordering a second Ubiquiti Dream Router Pro in shadow-backup mode, a WAN switch to feed both routers simultaneously, and a DC power distribution unit to provide a second power path — eliminating the need for an ATS entirely and distributing Mac minis evenly across two switches.
• •macOS 26 Password Auto-Change Feature: Apple's new agentic password-changer in macOS 26 uses a headless browser to navigate websites and update compromised credentials automatically. Beta testing by Jason Snell yielded 3 successful changes out of 39 attempts; Dan Moren achieved 5 out of 18. The feature addresses the common problem of hundreds of stale or weak passwords that users never manually update, but the low success rate in current betas suggests the feature needs significant refinement before release.
• •Apple Maps Automotive SDK: Apple announced a MapKit for Automotive SDK alongside a Ford partnership, bringing Apple Maps natively into Ford's upcoming Universal Electric Vehicle platform in 2027. Unlike CarPlay, this integration connects directly to vehicle systems, enabling battery preconditioning during navigation — a key EV feature CarPlay cannot access. Preconditioning warms the battery before reaching a fast charger, preventing artificially capped charging speeds during the initial minutes of a charging session.
• •macOS Screen Sharing File Transfer Workaround: Dragging files directly into or out of the macOS Screen Sharing app window transfers files between two Macs faster and more reliably than using Finder's built-in file sharing. Finder file sharing suffers from persistent bugs, inexplicable slowness, and a broken "remember password in keychain" checkbox that Apple has not fixed despite bug reports filed over three years ago. Screen sharing connects quickly, remembers credentials, and handles file transfers without those issues.
• •Safari 26 Bug-Fix Strategy: Apple's WebKit team explicitly shifted Safari 26 development priority away from new feature implementation toward resolving existing bugs and completing partial implementations. A WWDC session pie chart showed the majority of work categorized as resolved issues and improved features, with new features as a small sliver. Safari currently passes approximately 90% of Web Platform Tests, while Chrome exceeds 98% and Firefox exceeds 96%, meaning many long-standing developer complaints about broken or incomplete APIs remain unaddressed.
• •Safari MCP Server for Web Developers: Apple released a Safari MCP (Model Context Protocol) server in Safari Technology Preview 247, allowing AI coding agents to directly control a live Safari browser window for debugging. The server exposes DOM access, network requests, console output, and screenshots to any MCP-compatible client. Without this tool, coding agents default to headless Chromium for testing, systematically producing websites that work in Chrome but fail in Safari — perpetuating the same browser-compatibility problem human developers created by testing only in Chrome.