This strikes me as illustrating the digital labor issues associated with generative AI. It’s someone else profiting off of one’s work.

Aw, geez, and I liked Automattic, too. I get that financing Tumblr is hard, but why this?

I feel like I say this whenever I talk about Doctorow, but I love that his fiction reads like an op-ed. While waiting for this book to come out, I’ve been slowly reading his co-authored book Chokepoint Capitalism, and I feel like The Bezzle is all his (and Rebecca’s) critiques about large and greedy companies wrapped up in a fun, action-driven narrative.

Here’s the thing about me: I’m an academic, and I respect facts, reason, and citations. However, when those are the basis of an argument, I sometimes also struggle with feeling like I need to be better read and know all the angles before I can get on board with the argument. A narrative, on the other hand, sucks me in and convinces me. I ended this book feeling angry about prisons, DRM, and unscrupulous corporations and their executives—I’m on board with the argument. That the story was exciting and fun to follow was only a plus.

Dammit, I literally just started following Motherboard again.

I enjoyed Nolan’s movie so much that I thought I ought to eventually read the book—yet, I couldn’t imagine that it could live up to the film adaptation (especially after hearing the audiobook narrator’s awful attempts at any language other than English).

Yet, this ended up being amazing—perhaps better than the movie. Funnily enough, I felt that the best parts weren’t about the man himself. Rather, his life provides fascinating insight into the existential horrors of nuclear weapons, the authoritarian impulses of McCarthy-era conservatism, and lots more besides. Lots to think about in this book!

About a week ago, I felt like I was going through an audio drought—I wasn’t listening to any audiobooks, my podcast consumption has continued to go down in recent months, and I just wasn’t listening to anything while doing the dishes or whatever. This wasn’t necessarily a problem (it’s been good in terms of mindfulness, for example), but it had gone on long enough that I decided that I wanted something to listen to. In particular, I decided that it was as good a time as any to revisit Thomas Römer’s excellent lectures on the bible, which the Collège de France makes freely available in podcast format.

Darkly hilarious.

There are few phrases grosser than “monetizing our user base.”

This made me laugh out loud while reheating my leftovers for lunch.

Look, even academics cite the wrong papers sometimes, but if the researchers you cite to support your crime bill don’t actually support your crime bill, that should be a warning…

Musk’s pettiness knows no bounds.

We live in a dumb timeline. Why are we turning TVs into surveillance machines?

Look, I’ve never been really into Reddit, but I’m still really disappointed in the company. This sucks.

I’ve never voted for Michael Adams, but I appreciate his being a voice of reason within his own party.

I recently started following The Onion again, and it’s already paying off.

C’mon, Reddit.

On peut pleurer la mort de quelqu’un sans oublier ses problèmes. Je ne savais pas tout cela, et j’avoue que je vois Navalny différemment maintenant. C’est toujours quelqu’un qui a mené une lutte importante, mais on ne peut pas ignorer ces propos non plus.

Very interesting case.

Depressing but important read.

Look, it’s hard to oppose legislation that purports to be “for the kids,” but with the EFF, Mike Masnick, and other voices I respect still firmly against this, I’ll be calling my reps—and encouraging others to do the same.

Russia is in the wrong in this conflict, but that also means that Russians are among those being wronged.

You know, instead of assuming that we must grow AI data centers and asking how we should power them, we could look at the costs in terms of power and ask whether we should grow AI data centers.

Heck yes.

Hmm. Unsurprising but all the more frustrating for it.

Fascinating read on web crawlers and robots.txt