Pluralistic: Forcing Google to spin off Chrome (and Android?) (19 Nov 2024)

Today's links

Forcing Google to spin off Chrome (and Android?): Structural separation is the ultimate anti-cheat hack.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019
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.

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Pluralistic: Someday, we'll all take comfort in the internet's "dark corners" (23 Mar 2024)

Today's links

Someday, we'll all take comfort in the internet's "dark corners": The Sea of Enshittification is rising and your online home will eventually be flooded.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2009, 2019, 2023
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Podcasts, events and more.
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.

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Pluralistic: Social Quitting (09 Jan 2023)

Today's links

Social Quitting: How social media barons squandered their lock-in and made themselves obsolete.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: None
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Twitter Arguments

A theory of change

The kind of activism I do has a serious structural barrier: it’s esoteric. Even today, tech-policy issues are extremely niche. Indeed, tech-policy is a niche within a niche —most people have little technical knowledge and most people have little policy expertise, and the stuff I do requires that you have some of both.

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Probably

We also serve, who write and boost.

A blurred roulette wheel in motion. Image by Angelo_Giordano, CC0 https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode — Image by Angelo_Giordano, CC0

There was a time when I would read the whole internet, every day.

Oh, not all of it. But when Usenet — the internet’s first widescale social media — was bridged into Fidonet (a network of dial-up BBSes), my local free bulletin board system began to import several hundred Usenet newsgroups, updating several times per day. I would dial up to this BBS and read my way through all of the new posts on these groups.

Early on, this was easy. Then, as traffic picked up, and as more newsgroups entered the feed, it got harder. Then it got impossible.

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Pluralistic: 30 Nov 2020

Today's links

Twitter is more redeemable than Facebook: Guidelines for constructing a productive anti-bubble.
Open law and the rule of law: A copyrighted law can't be law.
RÄT: An extraordinary musical interlude.
Attack Surface in the New York Times: And Macleans!
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 10 Nov 2020

Today's links

Microchip "dark matter": An unpatchable, ecosystem-shattering security break.
Reset: Ron Deibert's Massey Lectures.
Rights of Nature and legal standing: Give precedence to humans and nature, not corporations.
Broadband wins the 2020 election: First, Denver and Chicago – now, the nation!
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 12 Aug 2020

Today's links

Grace is cleared: The homeschool-to-prison pipeline is closed…for now.
Mexico's terrible copyright is in trouble: Hasta la victoria siempre.
Failed State: Chris Brown's outstanding new ecopocalyptic cyberpunk legal thriller.
Marvel's $0.10 mini-comics: Gashapon funnies from 1966.
Sorting machines snatched from post offices: Administrative incompetence vs textualism?
Payday lenders are CFPB's pandemic aid: When the watchdogs switch sides.
Trump's Solicitor General says bribery is legal: Rule 48a applies even if the judge sees the prosecutor accept a bribe in the courtroom.
RSS WTF: An explainer for the newly awakened.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 10 Jul 2020

Today's links

Homebrew dongles let hospitals fix ventilators: You forgot Poland.
Teddy Ruxpin and the Haunted Mansion: Ken Forsse's miniature Sid and Marty Krofft haunted house.
Dataminr helped cops spy on protesters with Twitter: And then they split the most idiotic hairs imaginable over it.
Police militarization has a business-model: The unstoppable force of excess rents and Beltway Bandits.
How Finspy protects itself from security researchers: Despots' malware, wrapped in spaghetti code and VMs.
Clamshell currency: Pismo Beach's solution to the bank holiday of 1933.
Macron demands national database of porn preferences: Comment dit kompromat en Français?
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Pluralistic: 05 Jun 2020

Today's links

EFF offering legal referrals to protesters: If your phone was seized or you were targeted with electronic surveillance, they've got a list of lawyers.
The unsatisfying history of obscenity: "I know it when I see it" was always a cop-out.
A ride through of Elitch Gardens' Kaleidoscope: Meow Wolf's ride for Denver's centuries-old theme park.
Big Tech is good at being big: But that shouldn't get them a pass on anti-monopoly law.
Personalized, signed copies of Little Brother/Homeland: With an intro by Ed Snowden!
No fix for Chrome's Incognito Mode: What matters more: user privacy or paywalls?
DoJ seizes pro-BLM coronavirus masks: The Flu Klux Klan wants protests to be death sentences.
Science Fiction Writers of America on Black Lives Matter: Free dues, travel and memberships for the Nebulas, and a reading list.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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