Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
Technology
[Tara Tarakiyee] "I want to talk about three examples I see of cracks that are starting to form which signal big challenges in the future of OSS." I had a knee-jerk initial reaction to this post - what open source bubble?! - but Tara Tarakiyee makes some important
AI
[Andy Jassy on LinkedIn] Andy Jassy on using Amazon Q, the company's generative AI assistant for software development, internally: "The average time to upgrade an application to Java 17 plummeted from what’s typically 50 developer-days to just a few hours. We estimate this has saved us
Media
[The 404 Media team] "In the last year, we learned that the technical infrastructure exists now for even non-technical journalists to build a sustainable site that can receive money from subscribers. [...] If you are a journalist reading this thinking about going out on their own: the tech is there
Business
[Jess Weatherbed at The Verge] "A federal judge has blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements that make it difficult for workers to join their employers’ rivals or launch competing businesses. The ruling prevents the FTC’s ban on noncompete agreements from taking effect on September
Fediverse
[Erin Kissane] "Back in the fall, I wrote about a research project I was diving into with Darius Kazemi. Now, after a few months of prepping and conducting interviews with people who run Mastodon and Hometown servers about how they govern their parts of the network and then many
AI
[Open Society Foundations] "In February 2024, the Open Society Foundations issued a call for applications for a convening in which selected participants would share their visions of an AI-mediated future." I thought this, from the concluding observations, was telling: "Participants were generallyreluctant or unable to articulate exactly
Technology
[Alexander Saeedy and Dana Mattioli at The Wall Street Journal] "The $13 billion that Elon Musk borrowed to buy Twitter has turned into the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008-09 financial crisis." "[...] The banks haven’t been able to offload the debt without incurring major
AI
[Jess Weatherbed at The Verge] "“Generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things. Built on a foundation of theft, the technology is steering us toward a barren future,” Procreate said on the new AI section of its website. “We think machine learning is a compelling technology with a
Privacy
[Surveillance Watch: They Know Who You Are] "Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations." This is a volunteer-driven, well-cited database of global surveillance companies and how they interrelate. It's very well-executed: a pleasure to use,
Fediverse
[Anuj Ahooja and Sean Tilley at We Distribute] "Starting today, Flipboard will let users search for and follow accounts from across the Fediverse from the comfort of their own dashboards. [...] This new feature isn’t just limited to Mastodon or PixelFed, but includes Threads profiles that opted in to
Notable links
[Andy Kroll at ProPublica and Nick Surgey at Documented] "Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda for a right-wing presidential administration, has lost its director and faced scathing criticism from both Democratic groups and former President Donald Trump. But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of
Notable links
[Dan Kennedy at Media Nation] "Four years ago, Boston lawyer and journalist James Barron wrote that the Watergate break-in may well have been an attempt to steal documents from Democratic Party headquarters showing that Nixon had taken $549,000 from the Greek government in order to help finance his