Pluralistic: The stupidest imaginable excuses for surveillance pricing (30 Jul 2026)

Today's links

The stupidest imaginable excuses for surveillance pricing: Since 1850, San Francisco's Chamber of Commerce has been pissing in our mouths and calling it rain.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: RIP Wau Holland; Diebold voting machines suck; How to steal an RFID-locked car; Pirates are big spenders; You can't fight enshittification.
Upcoming appearances: Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, Brighton, London, South Bend.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

A weekend's worth of links: Short hits for a long weekend.
Object permanence: Floppy disk CD sleeves; Rules for radicals; California's preventable fires; Muppet Haunted Mansion; Wells Fargo steals rescued Nazi loot; Texas abortion release.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Kickstarting a new Martin Hench novel about the dawn of enshittification: A crime thriller of pyramid schemes, faith scams, weird PCs, Reaganomics, punk rock, and San Francisco during the AIDS crisis (and Amazon won't sell it!).
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2005, 2020
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

How America's oligarchs lull us with the be-your-own-boss fairy tale: Temporarily embarrassed millionaires aren't born, they're made.
Come see me on tour!: LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Boston, New York City, Toronto, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Chicago, Amherst, Torino, Tartu.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Why are so many Californians homeless?: It's not "homeless migration."
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2008, 2013
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Iowa's starvation strategy: Maybe the cruelty IS the point?
The Red Team Blues tour: LA, San Diego, Burbank, San Francisco, PDX, Mountain View, Berkeley, Vancouver, Calgary, Gaithersburg, DC, Toronto, Hay, Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, London, Berlin.
Red Team Blues Chapter One, part three: Danny does THE THING.
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

The Chokepoint Capitalism tour: Ottawa, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles (and beyond!)
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Uber loses (another) $6.8b: The market can stay predatory longer than you can stay angry.
Ring helped LAPD spy on BLM protests: The public-private surveillance partnership from hell.
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

US passports basically worthless: Trump built a wall.
DNA Lounge deletes Postmates: Your pizza dollars, murdering future Jamal Khashoggis.
Mississippi's GOP lawmakers sicken: Dozens of mask-shunners test positive.
Wirecard's vanished COO wanted 15,000 Libyan militiamen: German finance scandal hides geopolitical private army scandal.
Near Future Labs' Covid Zine: Design fiction meets the unfathomable future.
This day in history: 2010, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

A new Marcus Yallow/Little Brother story!: "Force Multiplier" is free if you pre-order Attack Surface, the third Little Brother book
DRM and CHI: When the metaphor shear is deliberate.
Talking with Toronto Public Library's Shelve Under podcast: Toronto is a hell of an sf town.
The law is free: Carl Malamud wins big at the Supreme Court.
"Absolutely faithful" Discworld TV adaptations: Will we finally get a decent Discworld video adaptation?
Read the prologue of "The Lost Cause": My post-GND novel-in-progress
Foreclosure vultures hold illegal auctions on courthouse steps: You say "investor," I say "profiteer."
Hands-free door-handles: Ability is a spectrum.
NYC will pedestrianize 40 miles of city streets: Hey I'm walkin' here.
Citizen DJ: The Library of Congress wants to bring back the golden age of sampling.
"Essential" workers will strike across America for May Day: Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx.
Synonyms vs machine learning: An adversarial example to defeat sentiment analyzers.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading