I have got to bring my tab habit under control. There’s no point opening all these damn things, unless I’m going to sit and read them.
The New Wilderness
No two companies have done more to drag private life into the algorithmic eye than Google and Facebook. Together, they operate the world’s most sophisticated dragnet surveillance operation, a duopoly that rakes in nearly two thirds of the money spent on online ads. You’ll find their tracking scripts on nearly every web page you visit. They can no more function without surveillance than Exxon Mobil could function without pumping oil from the ground.
This is a fundamental, unavoidable truth of both their business models.
Finished drafting tomorrow’s newsletter for my paying subscribers. Feeling good about it (although slightly guilty that this is not going on the open web. But then, this is a topic I’ll return to on my blog, I’m sure).
Warning for highly polarising politics…
I poked into why #notjewish was trending on Twitter, and why an account I had no awareness of had blocked me - and found some really simple answers - with complex consequences
Interesting discovery while booking a trip: it’s no longer safe to assume budget hotel chains are substantially cheaper than more upmarket offerings.
Online community dynamics change as the membership grows. In particular, most networks require increasing attention-seeking behaviour in order to get any attention at all.
Here’s one from the archives - that’s me on the left, taking a photo of the chief scout, during the 75th anniversary of scouting celebrations in 1982.
Seeing this magazine on sale in my local newsagent is odd. I associate it so strongly with my Mum and my childhood, it seems almost incomprehensible that it’s still going so long after she died. A silly reaction, I know.
