Can we at least agree that killing is wrong?
I don’t think it’s possible to morally support the ongoing bombardment of Gaza, but that’s too weak a statement. What’s happening there seems to be — based on what I’ve read through the news, what...
View ArticleUnexpected Anti-Patterns for Engineering Leaders
"The key to effective engineering leadership lies in figuring out which scenarios are worth deliberately defying conventional logic, and when to simply follow the rules." Lots of good food for thought...
View ArticleUser Research Is Storytelling
I shared this with my team and one of them said they had to check that I didn't write it. This is exactly how I think about (and ask my team to think about) rooting software development in human...
View Article“The way we raise the money at The Guardian is different than any place I’ve...
"The way we raise the money at The Guardian is different than any place I’ve ever been. This is truly a jointly owned responsibility among the business side and editorial." Every non-profit newsroom...
View ArticleHow Black Lives Became The Hidden Cost of Clean Energy
"The nation, fractured by war, disease, and famine, has seen more than 6 million people die since the mid-1990s, making the conflict the deadliest since World War II. But, in recent years, the death...
View ArticleThe 21 best science fiction books of all time – according to New Scientist...
This list of the New Scientist's favorite science fiction books is brilliant. The books I've read that are included here are some of my favorites of all time; the others are on my to-read list. What's...
View ArticleKnown fizzled
One of my biggest regrets is how the Known hosted service declined. The paid subscriptions came to an end, and eventually the hosting whimpered out. Behind the scenes, the database cluster was in need...
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Protecting artists on the fediverse
Over the weekend, I started to notice a bunch of artists moving to Cara, a social network for artists founded by Jingna Zhang, herself an accomplished photographer.The fediverse is a decentralized...
View ArticleZoom CEO Eric Yuan wants AI clones in meetings
Eric Yuan has a really bizarre vision of what the future should look like:"Today for this session, ideally, I do not need to join. I can send a digital version of myself to join so I can go to the...
View ArticleUK broadcasters trade ad airtime for advertisers’ shares
This is an interesting business model: UK broadcasters are trading unused ad space for equity in digital media startups, turning them into venture-scale investors."The move comes as broadcasters...
View ArticleHow Tony Stubblebine turned Medium around in the AI era
This is a lovely piece about Tony Stubblebine, who, as it rightly says, is doing an excellent job as the new CEO of Medium."Under Stubblebine’s direction, Medium, a site known for its many pivots, is...
View ArticleColumbia Law Review Board Nukes Website Over Palestine Article
"Eghbariah’s paper for the Columbia Law Review, or CLR, was published on its website in the early hours of Monday morning. The journal’s board of directors responded by pulling the entire website...
View ArticleOnline Privacy and Overfishing
"The pervasive nature of modern technology makes surveillance easier than ever before, while each successive generation of the public is accustomed to the privacy status quo of their youth."The key,...
View ArticleIs Microsoft trying to commit suicide?
Microsoft's Recall software seems like a horrible idea:"Surprise! It turns out that the unencrypted database and the stored images may contain your user credentials and passwords. And other stuff. Got...
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A jab back at Brexit (or a kick in the teeth)
I grew up in Britain, but I was able to be there because of my European citizenship. When I moved to the US it was because my mother was terminally ill; I’d always assumed that I would go back. When...
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A computer can never be held accountable
I love this IBM slide circa 1979, which is more relevant today than ever:Simon Willison asked about the provenance. Jonty Wareing weighed in:It was found by someone going through their father's work...
View ArticleBuilding another big fediverse platform
Purely hypothetically, I wonder what it would take to raise enough money to build another first-class fediverse platform for the mass market.Not because there’s anything wrong with Mastodon (or...
View ArticleBluesky and Mastodon users can now talk to each other with Bridgy Fed
"An important step toward a more interoperable “fediverse” — the broader network of decentralized social media apps like Mastodon, Bluesky and others — has been achieved."Bridgy has always been a...
View ArticleA Guide to VC “Congrats” Tweets, From 🤑 to 😐
“Tweet: Thrilled to have represented [VC firm] in our work with [company]. Huge outcome!”"Translation: A partner we fired actually did the deal, and no one serviced it well until it was clear it was...
View ArticleAI Lobbying Group Launches Campaign Defending Tech
"Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition whose members include Amazon, Apple and Meta, is launching a campaign to defend the legality of using copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence...
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