I was *supposed* to be on vacation, and while I didn't do any blogging for a month, that didn't mean that I stopped looking at my distraction rectangle and making a list of things I wanted to write about. Consequentially, the link backlog is *massive*, so it's time to declare bankruptcy with another #linkdump:
https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/
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https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/
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Cory Doctorow
•https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/15/in-the-dumps/#what-vacation
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/145078097
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/4
https://memex.craphound.com/2016/10/25/mercedes-weird-trolley-problem-announcement-continues-dumb-debate-about-self-driving-cars/
Amazingly, the "AI" debate has only gotten *more* tedious since the middle of the past decade.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/5
https://jollyrogertelephone.com/
Jolly Roger sells different personas: "Whitebeard" is a confused senior who keeps asking the caller's name, drops nonsequiturs into the conversation, and can't remember how many credit-cards he has.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/6
https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-hire-phone-bots-to-torture-telemarketers-2dbb8457
The bots take a couple minutes to get the sense of the conversation going. During that initial lag, they have a bunch of stock responses like "there's a bee on my arm, but keep going," or grunts like "huh," and "uh-huh."
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People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers
Robert McMillan (The Wall Street Journal)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/7
The less-fun AI debate is the one over artists' rights and tech. I am foresquare for the artists here, but I think that the preferred solutions (like creating a new copyright over the right to train a model with your work) will not lead to the hoped-for outcome.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/8
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4SAPOX7R5M
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Watch: Fran Drescher delivers fiery speech on SAG-AFTRA strike
YouTubeCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/10
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/11
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/12
https://jacobin.com/2023/07/adam-conover-wga-strike
Of course, not everyone in Hollywood is striking. In late June, the #DGA accepted a studio deal with an anemic 41% vote turnout:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/26/23773926/dga-amptp-new-deal-strike
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The Directors Guild of America has ratified a new labor contract
Charles Pulliam-Moore (The Verge)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/13
https://prospect.org/culture/2023-06-21-drowned-in-the-stream/
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Drowned in the Stream
Peter Hong (The American Prospect)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/14
In a time of monopolies, it's tempting to form countermonopolies to keep them in check.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/15
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion
But replacing one monopolist with another isn't good for anyone (except the monopolists' shareholders). If we want audiences and workers - and society - to benefit, we have to *de-monopolize* the sector.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/16
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech
After that came out, the *EU Observer* asked me to write up version of it with direct reference to the #EU, where there are a lot of (in my opinion, ill-conceived but well-intentioned) efforts to pry Big Tech's boot off the news media's face. I'm really happy with how it came out, and the header graphic is *awesome*:
https://euobserver.com/opinion/157187
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Saving the news from Big Tech
Cory Doctorow (EUobserver)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/17
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/18
https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con
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The Internet Con
VersoCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/18
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/19
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/20
If you are unwise enough to pursue an #MBA, you will learn a term of art for this kind of market structure: it's a "#moat," that is, an element of the market that makes it hard for new firms to enter the market and compete with you.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/21
As #DanDavies writes, these "moats" aren't really moats in the Buffett sense. With Coke and Disney, he says, a "moat" was "the fact that nobody else could make such a great product that everyone wanted." In other words, "making a good product," is a great moat:
https://backofmind.substack.com/p/stuck-in-the-moat
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stuck in the moat
Dan Davies (Dan Davies - "Back of Mind")Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/22
> our subscription system and proprietary interface mean that our return on capital is protected by a strong Berlin Wall, preventing our customers from getting out to a freer society and forcing them to consume our inferior products for lack of alternative.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/23
https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/
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Cory Doctorow: IP
Locus OnlineCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/24
https://www.nyuengelberg.org/outputs/the-anti-ownership-ebook-economy/
> Something happened when we shifted to digital formats that created a loss of rights for readers. Pulling back the curtain on the evolution of ebooks offers some clarity to how the shift to digital left ownership behind in the analog world.
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The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy
www.nyuengelberg.orgCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/25
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/26
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/27
That's why giant companies *love* to merge with each other, and buy out nascent competitors. By rolling up the power to decide how you and I and everyone else live our lives, these executives ensure that they can help us little people live the best lives possible.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/28
https://marker.medium.com/we-should-not-endure-a-king-dfef34628153
Of course, for 40 years, we've had neoliberal, Reaganomics-poisoned antitrust, where monopolies are celebrated as "efficient" and their leaders exalted as geniuses whose commercial empires are evidence of merit, not savagery.
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We Should Not Endure a King - Marker
Cory Doctorow (Marker)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/29
Leading the fight is the aforementioned FTC chair Lina Khan, who is taking *huge* swings at even bigger mergers. But the EU is no slouch in this department: they're challenging the #AdobeFigma merger, a $20b transaction that is obviously and solely designed to recapture customers who left Adobe because they didn't want to struggle under its yoke any longer:
https://gizmodo.com/adobe-figma-acquisition-likely-to-face-eu-investigation-1850555562
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Adobe's $20 Billion Figma Acquisition Likely to Face EU Investigation
Lauren Leffer (Gizmodo)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/30
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/31
https://www.anildash.com/2023/07/07/vc-qanon/
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"VC qanon" and the radicalization of the tech tycoons - Anil Dash
www.anildash.comCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/32
https://www.anildash.com/2023/02/27/tycoon-martyrdom-charade/
These dudes are prisoners of their #GreatMan myth, and leads them badly astray. And while all of us are prone to lapses in judgment and discernment, Dash makes the case that tech leaders are *especially* prone to it:
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The tech tycoon martyrdom charade - Anil Dash
www.anildash.comCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/33
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/34
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/35
They live in privileged bubbles, which insulates them from disconfirming evidence - ironic, given how many of these bros think they are wise senators in the agora.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/36
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/37
https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you
*The Markup's* report lets you plumb 650,000 targeting categories, searching by keyword or loading random sets, 20 at a time. Do you want to target gambling addicts, people taking depression meds or Jews? Xandr's got you covered. What could possibly go wrong?
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From “Heavy Purchasers” of Pregnancy Tests to the Depression-Prone: We Found 650,000 Ways Advertisers Label You – The Markup
themarkup.orgCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/38
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/39
https://theconversation.com/dutton-wants-australia-to-join-the-nuclear-renaissance-but-this-dream-has-failed-before-209584
Despite the rhetoric, nukes aren't cheap, and they aren't coming back.
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Dutton wants Australia to join the "nuclear renaissance" – but this dream has failed before
The ConversationCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/40
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/41
Solar is the clear winner here, along with other renewables, which are plummeting in cost (while nukes soar) and are accelerating in deployments (while nukes are plagued with ever-worsening delays).
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/42
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/43
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/44
Nukes are getting a charm offensive because wealthy people are investing in hype as a way of reaping profits - not as a way of generating safe, cheap, reliable energy.
Here in the latest stage of capitalism, value and profit are fully decoupled.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/45
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/06/20/the-pentagons-52000-trash-can/
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The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can - Responsible Statecraft
Connor Echols (Responsible Statecraft)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/46
https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/47
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/48
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJhf6l1nB9A
Porter pulls out the best version yet of her infamous white-board and makes her witnesses play defense ripoff Jepoardy!, providing answers to a series of indefensible practices.
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Rep. Porter Plays "JeoparDOD" to Expose Waste at the Pentagon
YouTubeCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/50
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/us-allocates-42b-in-broadband-funding-find-out-how-much-your-state-will-get/
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US allocates $42B in broadband funding—find out how much your state will get
Ars TechnicaCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/51
To understand how radical this is, you need to know that for decades, the cable and telco sector has grabbed billions in subsidies for rural and underserved communities, and then either stole the money outright, or wasted it building *copper* networks that run at a fraction of a percent of fiber speeds.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/52
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/eof
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/11/crows-and-magpies-show-their-metal-by-using-anti-bird-spikes-to-build-nests
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Crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build nests, researchers find
Ian Sample (The Guardian)Matthew Malthouse
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/52
Because if the Telcos build, own and operate it they will persist with their local physical monopolies that allow them to gouge the customers — only now at faster speeds.
Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/52
Das
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/49
immibis
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: re: Long thread/44
Geoff Berner
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/43
Cory Doctorowudostępnił to.
Meowki
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/37
christopher :rebel: 38C3
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/35
pettter
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/26
Competition is, at best, desirable because of moralistic liberal concerns about 'meritocracy', but had never actually been a core part of capitalism as such. Capitalism is about ownership.
Matthew Malthouse
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/24
We lease them. And on terms where the freeholder can revoke our lease without compensation at any moment.
That freeholder is not the author and not even the publisher but the retailer. In most cases Amazon.
Änn Euing 📜
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/20
Cory Doctorowudostępnił to.
Piotr "Mikołaj" Mikołajski 🐉
•1. Consider moving to a server that has much higher character limits. The one I'm on, c.im., has a 5000 character limit, and I'm pretty sure there are more such servers. Higher character limit shortens threads significantly and makes them much more readable.
2. Regardless of the length of the threads and the server, please publish following parts of the thread as 'Unlisted', just like this answer. Otherwise the feed looks like in this screenshot and as an your follower I am far from being enthusiastic. Publishing replies as 'Public' makes the feed unusable and your whole thread looks like spam.
I realise that 'Unlisted' is not the default response setting (actually, I don't know why) and any such change increases thread creation time, but that little bit of extra effort will be greatly appreciated.
TIA / HTH
Cory Doctorow
•How To Make the Least-Worst Mastodon Threads - Cory Doctorow - Medium
Cory Doctorow (Medium)