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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Technology

WordPress.org’s latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin

[Wes Davis at The Verge] The feud between Automattic (or more specifically, Matt Mullenweg himself) and WP Engine is getting bonkers: "WordPress.org has taken over a popular WP Engine plugin in order “to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem,” WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg

13 Oct 2024

AI

Insecure Deebot robot vacuums collect photos and audio to train AI

[Julian Fell at Australian ABC News] "Ecovacs robot vacuums, which have been found to suffer from critical cybersecurity flaws, are collecting photos, videos and voice recordings – taken inside customers' houses – to train the company's AI models." So in effect these robot vacuums are tiny spies

10 Oct 2024

It turns out I'm still excited about the web

I’m worried I’ve become cynical about technology as I’ve gotten older. But maybe technology really is worse. Someone asked me the other day: “what [in media and technology] are you excited about right now?” We both agreed that it was a surprisingly difficult question. And then came

10 Oct 2024

Media

Why Reach journalists are being asked to write up to eight articles per day

[Charlotte Tobitt at Press Gazette] "Paul Rowland wrote in an email to staff on 27 September that article volumes were being talked about “a lot in newsrooms at the moment” and blamed, in part, the volatility from previously huge traffic referrers like Google and Facebook." "A separate

10 Oct 2024

Society

Waffle House Index labels Hurricane Milton red, closes stores

[Ben Kesslen at Quartz] "Waffle House, the iconic American restaurant chain with over 1,600 locations known for cooking up Southern breakfast food, has developed an advanced storm center FEMA consults with." Stores in the path of Milton were closed in advance of the storm, which is rare

09 Oct 2024

Culture

Forums Are Still Alive, Active, And A Treasure Trove Of Information

[Chris Person at Aftermath] "Over the years, forums did not really get smaller, so much as the rest of the internet just got bigger. Reddit, Discord and Facebook groups have filled a lot of that space, but there is just certain information that requires the dedication of adults who

09 Oct 2024

Climate

Earth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance, say climate experts

[Damian Carrington at The Guardian] Meanwhile, while we're all paying attention elsewhere: "More and more scientists are now looking into the possibility of societal collapse, said the report, which assessed 35 vital signs in 2023 and found that 25 were worse than ever recorded, including carbon dioxide

08 Oct 2024

Notable Links

Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster

[Charles Duhigg at the New Yorker] "As the tech industry has become the planet’s dominant economic force, a coterie of specialists—led, in part, by the political operative who introduced the idea of “a vast right-wing conspiracy” decades ago—have taught Silicon Valley how to play the game

07 Oct 2024

Media

The blogosphere is in full bloom. The rest of the internet has wilted

[ John Naughton ] "If you log into Dave Winer’s blog, Scripting News, you’ll find a constantly updated note telling you how many years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds the blog has been running. Sometime tomorrow morning the year field will switch to 30." Running a blog

07 Oct 2024

Technology

If Harris Wins, Whether She Keeps Lina Khan Will Be Extremely Telling

[Karl Bode at TechDirt] "The Harris campaign has remained largely silent on whether Khan will be allowed to stick around. And it remains entirely unclear whether Harris will continue Biden’s support of something that, for once, at least vaguely resembles antitrust reform and a crackdown of concentrated corporate

07 Oct 2024

Business

Rules for Resters

[Ben Werdmuller on Medium] I find myself returning to this piece I wrote on Medium about building downtime into your work and lifestyle. It's important: Eight years into working in America, I’m still getting used to the macho culture around vacations. I had previously lived in a

06 Oct 2024

Technology

You Can’t Own The Social Web

[Bix Frankonis] Bix Frankonis does not agree with my analysis of the Fediverse and the Social Web Foundation. For him, much of the issue relates to appropriation of the "social web" name: "Like many trade groups, this one is named and self-described in a manner deliberately meant

06 Oct 2024
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Werd I/O explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. It's independently published by Ben Werdmuller, reader-supported, and always free to read.