pluralistic

pluralistic, 8 hours ago to random

Pining for the fjords

pluralistic, 1 day ago to random

Like Oscar Wilde, "I can resist anything except temptation," and my slow and halting journey to adulthood is really just me grappling with this fact, getting temptation out of my way before I can yield to it.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for-you/#the-algorithm-tm

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pluralistic, 1 day ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Algorithmic feeds are a twiddler's playground; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for-you/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 1 day ago to random

The ruins at dusk

#Tartu

The ruins of a medieval church, integrated into the University of Tartu museum, at dusk, surrounded by trees.
The ruins of a medieval church, integrated into the University of Tartu museum, at dusk, surrounded by trees.

pluralistic, 3 days ago to random

Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people and moving it from collective ownership, "rescuing" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who will care for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

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pluralistic, 3 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: AI is a WMD; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shitting-in-the-well/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

There's one overwhelmingly common mistake that people make about enshittification: assuming that the contagion is the result of the Great Forces of History, or that it is the inevitable end-point of any kind of for-profit online world.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet

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pluralistic, 5 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: The disenshittified internet starts with loyal "user agents"; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Amazon is very good at everything it does, including being very bad at the things it doesn't want to do. Take signing up for Prime: nothing could be simpler. The company has built a greased slide from Prime-curiosity to Prime-confirmed that is the envy of every UX designer.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one-click-to-quit-the-union/#foxglove

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pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Amazon illegally interferes with an historic UK warehouse election; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one-click-to-quit-the-union/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

If you listen to F1 on your phone cranked to max in public places (e.g. airports) you are a fucking war criminal and you are going to Hell for ten billion years when you die.

pluralistic, 6 days ago to random

Well that's a hell of a chart

https://www.ft.com/content/dc47c5f3-9bd4-4da0-a5cb-c795efd14c9c?accessToken=zwAGF77R-34okdPcR8Xzm9RNoNOly8eV79FMnA.MEUCIQDlzK8iKXqo2IyOBx3R95kEVglrA1-3Z4mV7SAgvpY71AIgFYrY0LX0A5YB_Wsm5EFBv08XfD1H5letjmzX-ZO_lw8&sharetype=gift&token=959a5d69-00b3-4117-b2cd-5231e1dccc9c

via @jjn1

https://memex.naughtons.org/monday-6-may-2024/39413/

pluralistic, 7 days ago to random

Cyberpunk trifecta

Me with Bruce Sterling on the streets of Turin
Me with Neal Stephenson at a bookstore in Seattle

pluralistic, 8 days ago to random

For decades, scammy "book doctors" and vanity presses spun a tale about how Big Publishing was too conservative and risk-averse for really really adventurous books, and the only way to get your visionary work published was to pay them to fill your garage with badly printed books that you'd spend the rest of your life trying to get other people to read:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/04/self-publishing/

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Even Google admits - grudgingly - that it is losing the spam wars. The explosive proliferation of botshit has supercharged the sleazy "search engine optimization" business, such that results to common queries are 50% Google ads to spam sites, and 50% links to spam sites that tricked Google into a high rank (without paying for an ad):

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies#site-reputation

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Google is (still) losing the spam wars to zombie news-brands; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Has anyone managed to use the CCPA (or GDPR?) to force Mailchimp to cough up a list of all the mailing lists you've been nonconsensually added to?

pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

The DRM-free ebooks for my pre-apocalyptic, hopeful climate emergency novel The Lost Cause is on sale in the USA!

Today, you can get the Kobo edition for $2.99:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-lost-cause-4

And all month, the Kindle edition is also $2.99:

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Cause-Cory-Doctorow-ebook/dp/B0CF5475GR

pluralistic, 9 days ago to Halifax

That is some straight up devilry right there.

#ViolaDesmond #CanadianMuseumForHumanRights #Winnipeg #Halifax #Desegregation #PettyBullshit #Race

pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

Idaho®

pluralistic, 9 days ago to random

"Leave a loose end dangling."

My "Think Like An Artist" card (CBC Arts' answer to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies deck).

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/feeling-stuck-we-asked-67-canadian-artists-for-their-best-creative-advice-1.7191836

pluralistic, 10 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: CDA 230 bans Facebook from blocking interoperable tools; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 10 days ago to random

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the most widely misunderstood technology law in the world, which is wild, given that it's only 26 words long!

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/#cda-230-c-2-b

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pluralistic, 11 days ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Boeing's deliberately defective fleet of flying sky-wreckage; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 12 days ago to random

Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Monopolies are intrinsically destabilizing and inevitably implode...eventually. Guessing which of the loathesome monopolies that make us all miserable will be the first domino is a hard call, but Ticketmaster is definitely high on my list.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix-fix-the-tix/#something-must-be-done-there-we-did-something

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