Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

NotableLinks

“I've Rediscovered A Mode Of Expression That Was Important To Me As A Kid”: A Talk with Jordan Mechner

A lovely interview with the creator of Karateka and Prince of Persia. (Karateka in particular was a formative game for me.) "If you'd asked me at age 12, I’d probably have said that my dream job would be comics artist or animator." Me too. So

18 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

The weird world of altruistic YouTube

This is such an interesting trend: "It seems like a pretty well-worn path at this point. Start a YouTube channel with some compelling videos, and when you amass enough views/revenue, use that money to entice strangers into helping you make more videos that get more revenue." Mr

17 Mar 2024

Right-wing comments on Microsoft Start

My posts are syndicated to Microsoft Start as part of the Creator Program. It’s been interesting to see which ones find an audience there and which ones don’t: politics seems to be more interesting to the community there than tech commentary, which stands to reason, as it’s

16 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Four things about threads.net

"We're selling ourselves out by letting Facebook own a new social network and not putting that energy into building something that preserves our choice." I am worried that this might turn out to be correct.  #Technology [Link]

16 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

FBI sent several informants to Standing Rock protests, court documents show

"Up to 10 informants managed by the FBI were embedded in anti-pipeline resistance camps near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation at the height of mass protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016." This seems obvious: there are informants in any major protest movement, and have been

15 Mar 2024

Seeking share URLs for every platform

I wish there was a conclusive list of “share-to” URLs. For example, here’s the URL you can use to build a “share to Threads” button: https://threads.net/intent/post?text= Here’s the equivalent URL for Reddit: https://reddit.com/submit?url= Every Known site has a URL

14 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

FCC scraps old speed benchmark, says broadband should be at least 100Mbps

"The Federal Communications Commission today voted to raise its Internet speed benchmark for the first time since January 2015, concluding that modern broadband service should provide at least 100Mbps download speeds and 20Mbps upload speeds." Finally. The previous 25Mbps down  3Mbps up benchmark was pathetic - and even

14 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

CEO of Data Privacy Company Onerep.com Founded Dozens of People-Search Firms

Something I've long suspected is often the case: the founder of a data privacy firm also ran dozens of the people search services the firm was set up to remove people from for a fee. "Onerep’s “Protect” service starts at $8.33 per month for individuals

14 Mar 2024

Coming back to Obsidian

After some to-ing and fro-ing, I finally cracked how using Obsidian is useful. I’d previously been trying to work in the open and update my thoughts for a public website there — but, of course, that’s what my personal site is for! So it didn’t click, because I

14 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

A smackdown over programmatic ads and why reader revenue is crucial

"There’s a reason that some 2,900 newspapers have closed since 2005, and that reason is the ad revenues publishers were hoping for to support what were initially free websites never materialized." What's left: paywalls and patronage. I've become much more bullish about

14 Mar 2024

NotableLinks

Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to buy TikTok

"Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance’s TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S." Come on. This is brazen. Whatever you think of TikTok, I'm not

14 Mar 2024

Seeking a first-class Fediverse platform

Subsequent conversations have convinced me that I’m right about the assertions I made about the Fediverse for media organizations. There’s a huge need, a huge opportunity, and the underlying technology is there. The thing that’s a bit missing is a first-class Fediverse platform. Mastodon itself has become

14 Mar 2024
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.

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Ben Werdmuller explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. Always independently published, reader-supported, and free to read.