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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Replicators

I’d love to read about the early days of the Star Trek replicator. It’s a sometimes-useful macguffin in the context of Star Trek: The Next Generation and later shows: a device that can recreate virtually any object on command, from food to electronics. By the time ST:TNG

02 Apr 2024

Nonfiction

Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family, by Jordan Mechner

Just fabulous. Maybe it's because his family history is not a world of different from mine, or maybe it's because his journey and interests feels intertwined with my own, but I wept openly as I read the final third of this. It's beautiful and

30 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

With 'Cowboy Carter,' Black country music fans are front and center, at last

"In interviews with The 19th, a dozen Black fans of country discussed reconciling their love for the music with its racist, misogynistic past, as well as the pervasive image of White men who continue to dominate the mainstream industry. They are hopeful that Beyoncé and “Cowboy Carter,” released Friday,

29 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Facebook let Netflix see user DMs, quit streaming to keep Netflix happy: Lawsuit

"By 2013, Netflix had begun entering into a series of “Facebook Extended API” agreements, including a so-called “Inbox API” agreement that allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook’s users' private message inboxes, in exchange for which Netflix would “provide to FB a written report every two weeks that

28 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Russell T. Davies on Why Doctor Who's Disney Partnership Is So Important

"You’ve also got to look at the long-term, at the end of the BBC, which somehow is surely undoubtedly on its way in some shape or form. What, is Doctor Who going to die then?" This is a pretty clear-eyed quote from Russell T Davies. And there&

28 Mar 2024
An intrusive thought about Trump 2024

An intrusive thought about Trump 2024

I come from families of forced migrants. On one side, my father’s earliest memories are of the unspeakable horrors he endured in a concentration camp in Indonesia. On the other, my great grandfather’s Ukrainian village was burned down by the White Army as part of a vicious pogrom.

28 Mar 2024

Yes: A writing-focused Homebrew Website Club is completely up my street and I'm excited to attend!

A writing-focused Homebrew Website Club is completely up my street and I'm excited to attend!

28 Mar 2024

Advertising share intents with microformats

Yesterday I published a fediverse-aware / indieweb-aware version of a "share to..." / AddThis-like tool. It allows you to easily add a “share to ..” button to your website that works with as many social platforms as possible, and attempts to use whatever share intent a platform might have available. One

28 Mar 2024

Share Openly

You know all those “share to Facebook” / “share to Twitter” links you see all over peoples’ websites? They’re all out of date. Social media has evolved over the last year, yet nobody has “share to” links for Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, etc. There have been a few attempts to create

27 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

The Deaths of Effective Altruism

"This is a stranger story of how some small-time philosophers captured some big-bet billionaires, who in turn captured the philosophers—and how the two groups spun themselves into an opulent vortex that has sucked up thousands of bright minds worldwide." This jumped out to me: "If you’

27 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Facebook and X gave up on news. LinkedIn wants to fill the void

"All of this has led to some pretty serious soul-searching among America’s journalists. Is the future email newsletters? Will podcasts save the news? Does everything need to be short vertical video now? Well, here’s a question that it might be time to start asking: What about LinkedIn?

26 Mar 2024

How I use screens

Nathan Schneider writes about how he uses screens: The underlying idea for me is that I like to keep a clear desk. In my office, for instance, I keep the desk where I meet with students empty, except for a few intentional symbolic objects on the side. I do this

26 Mar 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.