Read: I believe in files. “Building things on clouds even sounds bad.”
tech
-
-
Meta Workers Say They’re Seeing Disturbing Things Through Users’ Smart Glasses
“I saw a video where a man puts the glasses on the bedside table and leaves the room,” one data annotator told the newspapers. “Shortly afterwards his wife comes in and changes her clothes.” -
[I was] “… at a tech conference where a robot was making and serving drinks, and me and a few friends followed a power cord to a curtained area, behind which was a human in VR controlling the robot manually.” hughhowey.com
-
Radiant Computer. “We believe the current trajectory of personal computing is leading us to a less free world, and that only a new computing movement rooted in human dignity and creativity can change its course.” (radiant.computer)
-
The Resonant Computing Manifesto. “… rethinking the system architectures, design patterns, and business models that have undergirded the tech industry for decades.” (resonantcomputing.org)
-
The Argument for Letting AI Burn It All Down. “But maybe when the crash comes it’ll look like the dotcom crash: A Pets.com or two gets razed to the ground, but the new infrastructure remains, and we humans spend years—decades—weaving it into our systems. I was there for the dotcom crash. I could barely make rent, but it was delightful. I attended tech salons at people’s apartments. The price of admission was a six-pack. I switched to Linux and no one cared. I blogged day and night, as free as a bee. All I could do was read O’Reilly books, learn to code, and hang with friends. What a slice of heaven. And tech became less magical—more normal, more boring. Not driving culture, but reflecting it.” Emphasis mine. (wired.com)
-
Secondhand Embarrassment. (robinsloan.com)
-
On Additive and Extractive Technologies, “an extractive technology seeks to extract value from you instead of providing it.” Avoid.
Seer, “the built environment itself is, for all intents and purposes, becoming a gigantic archive, at all scales, forensically recording every event that occurs within it, with few or no options for opting out.” Also, BLDGBLOG is still alive.
Google Fonts organized by vibe, even if fonts aren’t your thing, visit to see all the little cursors flying around the Figma canvas.
Alistair Smith’s personal site is pretty neat.
-
Read: The sound of inevitability: “These are some big names in the tech world, all framing the [AI] conversation in a very specific way. Rather than “is this the future you want?”, the question is instead “how will you adapt to this inevitable future?”. Note also the threatening tone present, a healthy psychological undercurrent encouraging you to go with the flow, because you’d otherwise be messing with scary powers way beyond your understanding.”
-
“I often wonder about the costs of the “digital echo.” What is the psychological cost of knowing that your actions aren’t just your own, but create information that can be observed and analyzed by others? As more aspects of our lives generate digital echoes, they force an ambient awareness of being perpetually witnessed rather than simply existing.”
-
Look: starlinkmap.org. We are surrounded.
-
“Meanwhile, my little home-cooked apps each do the one thing they are supposed to do, sparkle-free. These apps are substantially finished the day I “launch” them, and, unlike modern commercial software, they are allowed to just: be finished.”
-
The return of the Pebble watch
The new watch we’re building basically has the same specs and features as Pebble, though with some fun new stuff as well 😉 It runs open source PebbleOS, and it’s compatible with all Pebble apps and watchfaces. If you had a Pebble and loved it…this is the smartwatch for you.
Why We’re Bringing Pebble Back
I’m so in!
-
How a Connecticut middle school won the battle against cellphones (🎁 link)
Gabe Silver, another eighth-grader, echoed that sentiment. When the pouches first arrived, “everyone was miserable and no one was talking to each other,” he said. Now he can hear the difference at lunch and in the hallways. It’s louder. Students are chatting more “face to face, in person,” Gabe said. “And that’s a crucial part of growing up.”
I know there has been pushback against The Anxious Generation’s use of research, but I tend to agree with Zoë Schiffer from Platformer. Too much phone time (for kids or adults) just feels bad:
At the same time, we shouldn’t set aside the lived experiences of so many everyday smartphone users. For many of us, constant connectivity feels bad, and doomscrolling can heighten feelings of anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, getting outside and spending time with loved ones face to face can be the antidote to despair. I’m sympathetic to researchers who call attention to that dynamic, even if disputes remain about which claims are grounded in unassailable evidence.
-
The truth is that whether or not AI determines our future will be decided by a confoundingly small minority of humans who nevertheless control a counfoundingly vast majority of the world’s wealth. This is not a technology issue, really, but one of structural inequality.
From Out Random the AI.
See also, Jon Stewart on the False Promises of AI
-
We can engage with people outside the rule-bound linear progression of offline relationships, and discover information about another person, miles and years from the person they were when they were posted it. Try responding to a post on a message board dated a while ago, maybe 10 years or more. That person might have lived in five cities between then and now, and fallen in and out of love three times, but the person they once were remains a notational snapshot trace, as if it were yesterday, offering thoughts on gardens, allergies, movies, or recipe ingredients.
From Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil. I’m only through the Introduction of this book and I’m already all 👀!
-
There were devices that simply did what they were for, without demanding attention. For their makers, they had some real problems. They had moving parts, which meant that they required more factory tooling and had more warranty returns. They were terrible for displaying advertisements. Without always-on internet connections, they were really bad for buying other things with.
From Glow by Tom MacWright.
Some of my favorite non-glowing devices that are still in use:
-
If your concept of “progress” doesn’t put people at the center of it, is it even progress?
Source: I’m a Ludite (and so can you!)
-
When my dad was sick, I started Googling grief. Then I couldn’t escape it. “There’s an assumption the industry makes that personalization is a positive thing.”