404 Media

A new, independent, worker-owned venture by ex-Motherboard journalists. I'm a subscriber.  #Technology [Link]

Actually writing

I’m over halfway through writing my book. It’s not, technically speaking, my first — I published a technical guide to the browser geolocation API a long time ago, and self-published a short novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo — but it is my first really serious attempt at a novel. As

Neoclassical economists are the last people to listen to on climate change

Interesting commentary on "economic theories that have led to government by markets, fuelling financial and other shocks, and the rise of authoritarian, and even neo-fascist regimes promising citizens ‘protection’ from ‘globalised’ markets.”  #Climate [Link]

The Secret Weapon Hackers Can Use to Dox Nearly Anyone in America for $15

It costs $15 to uncover an American's personally identifiable information illegally for potentially violent purposes. But also consider the number of entities that have access to this information legally, without any oversight. None of it should be allowable.  #Technology [Link]

This AI Watches Millions Of Cars And Tells Cops If You’re Driving Like A Criminal

A good rule of thumb is that if technology makes something feasible, someone will do it regardless of the ethics. Here, AI makes it easy to perform warrantless surveillance at scale - so someone has turned it into a product and police are buying it.  #AI [Link]

RSS Zero isn’t the path to RSS Joy

“RSS is not email. You don’t have to get to inbox zero!” is a correct take, in my opinion; that’s certainly how I approach my feed reader. But also, I’ve got bad news about my email inbox.  #Technology [Link]

Reconsidering my website and newsletter

I’m thinking about diverging my website and newsletter. Today, if you sign up to the newsletter, you get every blog post via email (although sometimes I wait until there have been several small blog posts and send them together as a digest). That means you can follow along on

Most students haven’t learned about LGBTQ+ issues in school, survey shows

Why the internet - as well as more traditional media like books - are a lifeline for kids hungry to learn about queer history. Of course, I'm sure the usual suspects will come for those too.  #Equality [Link]

International Chess Org: Trans Women Have "No Right To Participate" In Women's Chess

This stance by the International Chess Federation is so transparently bigoted that it helps clarify other anti-trans measures happening across competitive sports. There's nothing here about fairness; it's all to do with conservative division and hatred.  #Equality [Link]

Publishers on social media are between a rock and a hard place

Publishers are between a rock and a hard place as they try and figure out where to devote their time and energy. The options are: Mastodon: My favorite network to use, but not a good fit for publishers’ existing audience models. Mastodon has no effective cross-network search and blocks browser

My Taylor Swift eras

It’s fun to think of the work I’ve done in terms of Taylor Swift style eras. Hey, I might not have the musical talent, good looks, or legions of fans, but the work I’ve done has required a series of overlapping re-inventions. So, why not. In roughly

Yellowface, by R. F. Kuang

This tale from a deeply unreliable, envy-driven narrator is more of a sharp satire of liberal racism than its publishing industry setting. It's at its least compelling when discussing Twitter drama, but there's ample snark just underneath each turn of phrase, and more than enough ratcheting