ricmac

ricmac, 4 days ago to random

It worries me when I see “end of the open web” commentary, especially when the fediverse is trying to provide a moral solution to open web tech going forward. I can’t disagree with this guy’s pov… but from an indie publisher pov, I DO NOT want to hide away my work (eg for Cybercultural), I want it to be freely available. My current strategy is to make my posts as human-centered as possible, based on my own experiences and perspectives. Will that be enough to get click-thrus from AI search tho?

ricmac, 4 days ago to random

“What are you doing?” This was the prompt that Twitter users saw throughout 2007. It explains why so many early tweets were about eating lunch. To be fair, nobody knew back then how to do microblogging, the 2007 term for writing short posts — 140 characters or less in Twitter’s case. Along with Facebook and Flickr, Twitter was literally inventing social media. https://cybercultural.com/p/twitter-in-2007-key-facts/

ricmac, 5 days ago to random

I'm branching out into history lessons on Cybercultural -> Here are five things you might not have known about Twitter in 2007, the year it broke out as a leading social media tool. For starters, it was termed microblogging and the word 'tweet' wasn't yet common. https://cybercultural.com/p/twitter-in-2007-key-facts/ #InternetHistory #EarlyTwitter #Web20

ricmac, 6 days ago to random

“…I spend more of my time with patrons and students talking about the relationship between things as much as how to use any one thing. So, we discuss how email talks to a word-processing program, what is happening when someone texts, or how WhatsApp is different from iMessages on an iPhone or Google Messages for Android.” https://glammr.us/@jessamyn/112565233422300007

ricmac, 6 days ago to random

In mid-2008, ReadWriteWeb expands its writing team (including two future tech blogging stars) and I put some much needed structure into the business. Also, we ink a syndication deal with The New York Times. https://cybercultural.com/p/035-indie-media-business-20/ #InternetHistory #Web20 #Serialization

ricmac, 7 days ago to random

If you had to power rank the least trustworthy big tech cos to start a new social product, how would you rank them? My list:

1. Google (the least trustworthy; 99% of their products would be eventually sunsetted)
2. Apple (the blue bubble gang is as social as it gets)
3. Meta (long list of past infractions)
4. Amazon (everything they do is designed to make Bezos richer and own more of space)
5. Microsoft (ironic they are the most trustworthy of this lot…but they’ve learned their lesson, no?)

ricmac, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to random

I started this account on Mastodon.social 7 years ago today :) As my first post points out, I had previously joined Mastodon.technology, but I think that instance folded not long after. Btw this is the search I used to find my first post: from:me before:2017-06-08 #MastoBirthday

ricmac, 8 days ago to javascript

This was the top performing post on @TheNewStack last week, so it seems there is a tremendous amount of interest in a post-React future among web developers. Maybe my Gmail analogy wasn’t far off after all ;) https://thenewstack.io/from-react-to-html-first-microsoft-edge-debuts-webui-2-0/ #WebDevelopment #javascript #htmlfirst https://mastodon.social/@ricmac/112531029962000384

ricmac, 10 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to random

Let Perplexity do the blogging for you? No thanks, but I suppose an AI blogging tool was inevitable. “Perplexity Pages”: yet another reason to support indie publishers and the human-focused fediverse. https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/perplexity-pages

ricmac, 11 days ago to fediverse

Not sure if it matters to anyone else, but I re-branded Cybercultural as a "website and newsletter" (previously I just called it a newsletter). In the post-Substack era of Cybercultural, and now that I use @eleventy + @buttondown, and with the rise of the #fediverse as the social layer on top of the web (hat-tip @mike for that framing), and with AI trying to usurp the open web, I think it's more important than ever to reclaim the word "website" for indie publications. https://cybercultural.com

ricmac, 11 days ago to random

👀 “Coming in January 2025, Nicholas Carr’s Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart, is a searching, searing exploration of the way social media has warped our sense of self and society.” https://www.nicholascarr.com/?page_id=664

ricmac, 12 days ago to random

Quantum computing has taken over from AI as the tech that seems highly promising, but also has been not quite there for years now. I did a series of posts 2 years ago, and I still receive a stream of news in my inbox about it, but it still seems a ways off. e.g. "...today announced a significant milestone on the path to commercially relevant quantum systems. While many existing quantum architectures achieve entanglement within modules, [this co] has demonstrated entanglement between modules."

ricmac, 12 days ago to random

Gmail changed the web platform in 2004 — are we about to see a similar shift in web development thanks to Microsoft Edge and its new 'HTML-first/JavaScript-second' approach? Less React, more Web Components — what's not to like! Hat-tips @slightlyoff & @brucelawson for the explanations on Mastodon (but note that I'm the only one to blame for the Gmail comparison). https://thenewstack.io/from-react-to-html-first-microsoft-edge-debuts-webui-2-0/

ricmac, 13 days ago to random

This is my favourite yet, especially the Beatles reference… #googleaioverviews (via https://www.instagram.com/p/C7btGs-Bovd/?igsh=MWgyeHVnMGZmaWZ2MA==)

ricmac, 13 days ago to random

@404mediaco really is an inspiration in this era. What about an open web media collective that is sponsored by 5-6 companies for whom the web is crucial to their business (eg Netlify cc @biilmann Fastly cc @anildash Automattic cc @photomatt …). I have been wondering lately if a RWW 2.0 but owned by a collective would work. Perhaps a pipe dream, but there are talented people like @jomc and companies that want to be associated with supporting the open web. https://friend.camp/@jomc/112525445258939697

ricmac, 13 days ago to random

Boomer art… ?? That has actually flummoxed my Gen X brain. I am so old. https://post.lurk.org/@entreprecariat/112518015215854537

ricmac, 13 days ago to random

After weeks of delay in closing the proposed Ziff Davis Enterprise acquisition of ReadWriteWeb, and seeing Ars Technica and PaidContent both get bought in mid-2008, I decide enough is enough. I'd spent $50k of my own money to try and get this deal done, and it was all for nothing. https://cybercultural.com/p/034-rww-withdraws-from-zde-deal/ #InternetHistory #Web2 #Serialization

ricmac, 14 days ago to random

Well this sucks. Feels like an attack on web history! #staystrong #kiakaha @internetarchive -> "The Internet Archive, the nonprofit research library that’s home to millions of historical documents, preserved websites, and media content, is currently in its third day of warding off an intermittent DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) cyber-attack. According to library staff, the collections are safe, though service remains inconsistent." https://blog.archive.org/2024/05/28/internet-archive-and-the-wayback-machine-under-ddos-cyber-attack/

quillmatiq, 14 days ago to fediverse

"The Verge and 404 Media are building out new functions that would allow them to distribute posts on their sites and on federated platforms – like Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky – at the same time. Replies to those posts on those platforms become comments on their sites."

If you're not looking at @theverge and @404mediaco as social web platforms that are hosting hand-picked content creators with a publisher's infrastructure, you're not paying attention. #Fediverse

https://digiday.com/media/why-publishers-are-preparing-to-federate-their-sites/