One Man's Notes

Why Ewan is going back, as far as is practical, to the Web 2.0 era.

A very graceful exit to @coreint, @danielpunkass and @manton. Thank you.

The nice thing about podcasting basically just being spicy RSS is that I can just leave that feed subscribed, just in case…

Oh, look, it’s an “update all the Apple things” night.

Worth keeping an eye on: The LLM bubble might be about to burst (but not for the reason you think)

Good luck on writing that five year business plan, folks.

(Says the man deep in writing a feature about the office of 2030…)

A winged maple seed fell from a tree, landing on the page of the book I was reading. The world was going about the work at hand. Survival and renewal were literally in the air.

From the introduction to Visualizing Nature edited by Stuart Kestenbaum 📚

Started reading: Visualizing Nature by Stuart Kestenbaum 📚

Picked it up cheap in an Islington bookshop. Looking forward to it.

Rebecca Solnit: How to Comment on Social Media:

Also you have the right to check their papers, as in to demand they prove to you their commitments and beliefs, and their unwillingness to do so on demand is a sign of culpability too. Have they properly condemned the recent something or other? It is not your job to find proof; it is this complete stranger’s obligation to offer it up, and there is no reason they would not if they were not guilty as charged. Condemn them for insufficient condemnation issuance.

This is amazingly funny, but you’re a better person than I if you don’t wince, too.

Manuel Moreale:

I’ll start sounding like a broken record but, at this point, I don’t care: social media was and still is a mistake. Enough people all bunched together in the same space with the ability to quickly interact with each other will produce more harm than good.

I’m not saying AI is Apple’s achilles heel.

But…

Nature:

55% of respondents to the question ‘What do you use Bluesky for?’ said it was a mix of three research-related activities: to connect with other scientists, keep up to date with other research or researchers, and promote their own research

Bloomberg:

Over the past two years, a set of massively popular podcasters and streamers cemented themselves as the new mainstream source of information for millions of young men, and, according to a new Bloomberg analysis, used their perch to rally these constituents in support of Trump and the political right.

There’s a new mainstream media and I don’t think journalism as a profession is anywhere near adjusting to this reality.

I am immensely sad that the situation around micro.blog has accelerated as far and as fast as it has. I’m disappointed that opportunities to de-escalate and resolve it have been missed. I’m gutted that people whose presence here I value have decided to move on.

I’m stepping away from the timeline for a wee while (although will probably be posting links and photos). I’ll let this long piece (posted elseblog, so as to not shove it too much into the face of the community here) about the broader issue of how we deal with problems online stand as my explanation of why.