Links (29 October 2024)
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“Platform Strategy and Its Discontents - Infrequently Noted”. “The rate of failure to deliver minimally usable experiences on phones seemed to be increasing over time, despite the accelerating costs associated with the client-side JS-based stacks that teams were reaching for. Worse and costlier is a bad combo, and the the opposite of what competing ecosystems did.” I don’t have access to the same data as Alex but “worse and costlier” fits with what I’ve been seeing as well.
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“‘We don’t really consider it low probability anymore’: Collapse of key Atlantic current could have catastrophic impacts, says oceanographer Stefan Rahmstorf | Live Science”. This would be very very bad news.
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“‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump | Alan Moore | The Guardian”. “Unnervingly rapidly, our culture has become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in. Our entertainments may be cancelled prematurely through an adverse fan reaction, and we may endure largely misogynist crusades such as Gamergate or Comicsgate from those who think “gate” means “conspiracy”, and that Nixon’s disgrace was predicated on a plot involving water, but this is hardly the full extent to which fan attitudes have toxified the world surrounding us, most obviously in our politics.”
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“Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza | AP News”
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“We’re All Content Creators for Machines - Jim Nielsen’s Blog”
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“The “Godfather of AI” Predicted I Wouldn’t Have a Job. He Was Wrong. | The New Republic”
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“Iceland embraced a shorter work week. Here’s how it turned out”. “Following the trials, Icelandic trade unions negotiated reductions in working hours for tens of thousands of their members across the country.” Iceland has generally been run by right wing parties for the past forty years. The only reason why we have good things like this or anything resembling a welfare state is the fact that 90% of the workforce is unionised. “Negotiations” in this context include the threat of a general strike shutting everything down.
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“How Google is Killing Bloggers and Small Publishers - And Why - Just a Pack”. “The stated goal of this update to search results was to reduce the amount of spam and AI-generated crap that littered the internet. The actual result? The destruction of small publishers, blogs, and the Rise of Reddit. Traffic started falling. At first a dip, and then a plunge, and suddenly Just a Pack and a thousand other blogs lost 90% of their users.”
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“Carbon emissions are now growing faster than before the pandemic | New Scientist”
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“Framework overload: when convenience dulls innovation in software development”. “When you focus on mastering frameworks, you end up chasing trends.”
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“NYCC ’24: Interview: Mike McMahan teases STAR TREK legacy characters for LOWER DECKS final season”. “We end with them in a different place but there’s no betrayals. Nobody is going to feel like we pulled the rug out from under them.” This is why Lower Decks is the absolute best
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“AI Audiobook Narrators in OverDrive and the Issue of Library AI Circulation Policy | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books”. This is bit of a taste of the future of publishing, if you ask me.
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“Trans Brits feel like a ‘target’ in wake of Brianna Ghey’s murder”. “Brianna Ghey’s tragic murder highlights rising transphobia concerns”
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“Why I’m skeptical of rewriting JavaScript tools in “faster” languages | Read the Tea Leaves”. Agree completely with Nolan here.
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“The LLM Reasoning Debate Heats Up - by Melanie Mitchell”. Honestly does not look good for the “it reasons! it reasons!” camp.