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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Notable Links

Elon Musk says 'woke mind virus' 'killed' estranged trans daughter

[Anthony Robledo at USA Today] "Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his estranged transgender daughter was "killed" by the "woke mind virus" after he was tricked into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures." The thing is, his daughter Vivian is perfectly happy with the decision. The

23 Jul 2024

Technology

For Good Reason, Apache Foundation Says ‘Goodbye’ to Iconic Feather Logo

[Christine Hall at FOSS Force] "The Apache Software Foundation is making changes in an attempt to right a wrong it unintentionally created when it adopted its name 25-years ago." This is an unnecessarily awkward article (why describe the existing logo as cool in this context?!) to describe a

22 Jul 2024

Technology

After years of uncertainty, Google says it won't be 'deprecating third-party cookies' in Chrome - Digiday

[Kayleigh Barber and Seb Joseph at Digiday] "After much back and forth, Google has decided to keep third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Turns out all the fuss over the years wasn’t in vain after all; the ad industry’s cries have finally been heard." Advertisers are

22 Jul 2024

AI

When ChatGPT summarises, it actually does nothing of the kind.

[Gerben Wierda at R&A IT Strategy & Architecture] "ChatGPT doesn’t summarise. When you ask ChatGPT to summarise this text, it instead shortens the text. And there is a fundamental difference between the two." The distinction is indeed important: it's akin to making an

22 Jul 2024

President Harris?

I didn’t post about it — what is there to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere? — but former President Trump was almost shot last week. The would-be assassin’s motive is muddy (he was a Republican), but the bullet or a sliver of glass narrowly missed him, taking a

21 Jul 2024

Notable Links

Can J.D. Vance's Populist Crusade Succeed?

[Matt Stoller] "So what does Vance think? He is in agreement with the views of a rising set of younger conservatives, populists like Sohrab Ahmari and Oren Cass, who assert that libertarianism is a cover for private rule, most explicitly in Ahmari’s book Tyranny, Inc. It is flourishing

18 Jul 2024

Technology

Taboola + Apple News? No thanks

[Om Malik] "Apple’s decision to strike a deal with Taboola is shocking and off-brand — so much so that I have started to question the company’s long-term commitment to good customer experience, including its commitment to privacy." This move says a lot about modern Apple, but more

18 Jul 2024

Media

News CEOs and the Question of News Experience

[Richard J. Tofel] "I think some of those choosing these new business leaders themselves forgot about the special nature of the news business. It won’t be enough, for instance, at least in most cases, for someone who aspires to run a news organization to recognize the importance of

18 Jul 2024

The Silicon Valley Would-Be Vice President

JD Vance is an obvious, bald-faced opportunist. It makes sense that Trump would pick him as his Vice Presidential candidate; they probably understand each other quite well. It can’t have hurt that a bevy of tech billionaires told Trump to pick him, and it’s not unreasonable to assume

18 Jul 2024

Technology

Ethicswishing

[Robin Berjon] This is somewhere between a call to action and a wake-up call: "If you wish to be moral, you have to also pay attention to whether what you're doing actually works. And the best way to do that is to set up a forcing function

17 Jul 2024

Innovation in news is an oxymoron

If you’re waiting for permission to build something, or if you want to see how well something has worked for your peers or competitors before you implement it yourself, you will never, ever innovate. That’s the trap that news media seems to be in: nobody wants to be

17 Jul 2024

Todoist is really good

I’m, uh, very bad at task management. I wouldn’t want to pathologize, but I’ve never been a particularly organized person. I’ve always aspired to be more organized, but I’ve never found a tool or a methodology that really works for me. They were either too

17 Jul 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.