cubicgarden @cubicgarden@twit.social
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- City
- Manchester
Senior firestarter at BBC RD, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser.
http://www.cubicgarden.com | @cubicgarden@twitter.com
Joined Jan 2021
cubicgarden
boosted
For new people wondering why Mastodon is on thousands of servers instead of one:
-It helps protect us all against Elon Musk scenarios. It's very difficult for anyone to buy a network made of thousands of independently owned servers. (It's the same reason why no one owns the world's email network, because there are so many independent providers out there.)
-If your server misbehaves (or sells out to a malevolent billionaire), you can move your account to a different server, or even to a brand new server. Decentralisation means you're never trapped on a site you hate.
-Mastodon is an open platform where anyone can start their own server, and they don't need tech knowledge if they use a service like https://masto.host or https://federation.spacebear.ee
...and there are lots more good reasons too, to do with servers using alternative Fediverse software etc, but I'll save that for a future post 😁
cubicgarden
boosted
Because you asked, a couple of classic behind-the-scenes accounts of the computer industry. (Mentioned on Windows Weekly yesterday).
Steven Levy's Hackers (a must read) https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/hackers/9781449390259/
Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine https://www.tracykidder.com/the-soul-of-a-new-machine.html
G. Pascal Zacary's Show Stopper
https://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Microsoft/dp/0029356717
Tripp Mickle's After Steve https://www.harpercollins.com/products/after-steve-tripp-mickle?variant=39651232972834
I'll be interviewing Tripp in a week, May 19 at 1:30p Pacific on TWiT.tv.
One for twit.tv I certainly think...
https://www.ft.com/content/d3be2f7a-3705-4bee-9e50-d81b9f31ee1b
The FT on Mastodon & Twitter
Alexa tells girl to touch live plug with penny
Amazon has fixed its voice assistant so that it will not suggest the dangerous “challenge” again.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59810383
Straight out of black mirror!
Northern lights photographer of the year
Stunning pictures, although not tech. Hands on photography will enjoy
The travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has published its annual northern lights photographer of the year collection with stunning images from 25 photographers. Coinciding with the northern lights season at the end of the year, it aims to share the beauty of this natural phenomenon
Fancinating study of how aesthetics has dominated modern technology reviews. Something I keep thinking about...
https://components.one/posts/the-new-pornographers-tech-reviews
The Unfinished conference is looking pretty great.
https://live.unfinished.com
Free for online viewers too.
The future is decentralised...
Quite like the dressing down Google & Facebook got in the UK today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_HC_jW5ZIM
Wondering if similar is happening in other countries or not?
When I see this how Facebook was aware of instagram's affect on teen girls - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/14/facebook-aware-instagram-harmful-effect-teenage-girls-leak-reveals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHg-lKfxqew
I am so sadden and speechless but always think about the atlantic piece "Facebook is a doomsday machine" - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/12/facebook-doomsday-machine/617384/
Found Cory Doctorow's piece about why he aurgues with people in the open really interesting.
https://onezero.medium.com/twitter-arguments-ef50dca9f45f
I do find this piece quite interesting.
In Europe, we are looking to create alternatives rather than work within the big corps.
So glad for this... At long last Google has finally added the ability to block people via Google Drive
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/10613533
Got so much spam via Gdrive sharing
Nice review of Social Warming as mentioned on Twit
Got to say this is pretty cool stuff from Mozilla, who are totally embracing their trusted position in the browser/data ecosystem
New Study Says AI Is Driving Your Dating App Choices Technology
Its shocking to see the reaction to the UK's ICO's cookie guidence - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOei5vMhgD0
I understand the sensitivity but we need to respect peoples personal decisions. Yes its going to be painful but for example, I accept cookies on sites which provide value to me. I reject on ones which do not. The wild west of cookies is coming to an end.
I would click accept on twit.tv and I do live in the UK.
Quite like the little Youtube short/drama the FT has done - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTpO9y2Dh4
Its quite UK focused but aspects apply across different countries, companies and governments as they bring in more survillence systems.
Say after me #blackmirror but for real
Listening to Tech news weekly, I'm sure the story about Facebook not informing users isn't possible in the EU under GDPR? - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-data-leak-idUSKBN2BU2ZY
RT @scalzi@twitter.com
It's never too late to go back to the blogs, people.
https://thehypothesis.substack.com/p/heres-why-substacks-scam-worked-so
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- City
- Manchester
Senior firestarter at BBC RD, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser.
http://www.cubicgarden.com | @cubicgarden@twitter.com
Joined Jan 2021
