NotableLinks
Mastodon Annual Report 2022
Amazing work. Consider how much this team has been able to achieve with a tiny fraction of the budget of a VC-funded tech startup - and the impact of their work is phenomenal. #Technology [Link]
Latest
NotableLinks
How Google Alters Search Queries to Get at Your Wallet
It turns out that Google quietly alters your search queries into ones it can more easily monetize, without you knowing. It's the kind of anti-user nonsense only a monopolist could pull off. #Technology [Link]
NotableLinks
Weird A.I. Yankovic, a cursed deep dive into the world of voice cloning
I think I'm a clone now. #AI [Link]
NotableLinks
Predictive Policing Software Terrible At Predicting Crimes
"Crime predictions generated for the police department in Plainfield, New Jersey, rarely lined up with reported crimes, an analysis by The Markup has found." In fact, much less than 1% of the time. #AI [Link]
NotableLinks
A New Social Web Working Group at the W3C
A look at the inner workings of getting standards built within the framework of the W3C. It honestly sounds like technical writers should be a part of the mix alongside other practitioners. #Technology [Link]
NotableLinks
The Philadelphia Inquirer launches 7-figure ad campaign to lure millennials
Notable to see a newspaper run an ad campaign that genuinely competes with another one. Kind of a bold move in a world where the whole market is declining. #Media [Link]
Why I hate flags
In her latest (excellent) book Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, the author Naomi Klein makes an offhand comment that, as a leftist, flags make her itchy. I feel the same way, in a way that goes beyond the Stars and Stripes or the Union Jack. At its worst,
NotableLinks
Critics Furious Microsoft Is Training AI by Sucking Up Water During Drought
"Microsoft's data centers in West Des Moines, Iowa guzzled massive amounts of water last year to keep cool while training OpenAI's ChatGPT-4. [...] This happened in the midst of a more than three-year drought, further taxing a stressed water system that's been so dry
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The notable list: October 2023
This is my monthly roundup of the links and media I found interesting. Do you have suggestions? Let me know! Apps + Websites DALL·E 3. Once again, this looks completely like magic. Very high-fidelity images across a bunch of different styles. The implications are enormous. Photoshop for Web. Insanely good.
What Elon Musk's X is getting right
NotableLinks
Photoshop for Web
Insanely good. It blows my mind that this can be done on the web platform now. #Technology [Link]
NotableLinks
Amanda Zamora is stepping down as publisher at The 19th
Amanda is absolutely fearless and I was privileged to work with her. As co-founder of The 19th, she was an absolutely core part of what it became: both a strategist and culture instigator. What she does next will certainly change media; I'll be cheerleading. #Media [Link]