Pluralistic: Canada's privatised shadow civil service (31 Jan 2023)

Today's links

Canada's privatised shadow civil service: Tories claim governments are incompetent, Liberals prove it.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: The real scandal is overclassification; The Australian Chokepoint Capitalism Tour (30 Jan 2023)

Today's links

The real scandal is overclassification: I'd explain it, but I'd have to kill you.
The Australian Chokepoint Capitalism Tour: Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra (twice!).
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2021
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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“Conversational” AI Is Really Bad At Conversations

A read-only interlocutor is a robot troll.

A vintage 5.5" floppy disk. Its write-protection tab has been covered with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Its label contains the scrawled word “ChatGPT.” In its center disc is a hypnotic spiral. — Cryteria/CC BY 3.0

In 1977, my father, a computer scientist, brought home a teletype terminal (a keyboard and a printer, no screen) and an acoustic coupler (a box with two suction-cups that matched up with the speaker and mic on the receiver of a standard Bell phone), and he connected it to the DEC PDP minicomputer at the University of Toronto. I was seven years old. I was hooked.

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Pluralistic: Podcasts are hearteningly enshittification resistant; Red Team Blues excerpt (27 Jan 2023)

Today's links

Podcasts are hearteningly enshittification resistant: Walled gardens considered harmful (to performers and audiences).
Red Team Blues excerpt: The final adventure of Marty Hench.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: The public paid for "Moderna's" vaccine, and now we're going to pay again (and again and again); How Facebook's Real Names policy helps Cambodia's thin-skinned dictator terrorize dissenters (25 Jan 2023)

Today's links

The public paid for "Moderna's" vaccine, and now we're going to pay again (and again and again): Herd immunity is incompatible with shareholder capitalism.
How Facebook's Real Names policy helps Cambodia's thin-skinned dictator terrorize dissenters: "Yes, our beaches are the most beautiful, but our leaders are the dirtiest in the world, aren’t they?"
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: David Graeber's "Pirate Enlightenment" (24 Jan 2023)

Today's links

David Graeber's "Pirate Enlightenment": The true, swashbuckling lives of matriarchs, anarchists, and pirates at the crossroads of the world.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: Eggflation is just more price-gouging (23 Jan 2023)

Today's links

Eggflation is just more price-gouging: Cal-Maine Foods owns every egg brand you've ever heard of and its profits are up 65%.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Walking the Plank

You may never shake the fear, but you might change how you feel about it.

A pair of legs and feet traversing a plank, high over a city street. The street below has a hypnotic spiral. The feet are blurred. The plank has a subtle “Matrix Waterfall” effect worked into its grain. The end of the plank fades into nothingness. — Heinz Bunse/CC BY-SA 2.0 (modified)

Richie’s Plank Experience is a terrifying VR game first released in 2016. In the game, the user rides up a simulated elevator to a rooftop that is 525 (simulated) feet above street level. Then, the user steps out on a (simulated) plank and walks out on it, over a vertiginous (simulated) drop.

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Pluralistic: Tiktok's enshittification (21 Jan 2023)

Today's links

Tiktok's enshittification: The company manually allocates surplus to creators, and they can take it away again, too.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: Why the Fed wants to crush workers (19 Jan 2023)

Today's links

Why the Fed wants to crush workers: Fall of Rome speedrun.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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