seriously, when are we gonna get over this internet thing?
Howdy [subscriber:firstname | default:yall],
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I’m breaking down most of the sections that I normally use to showcase what I’ve been paying attention to this week. The archivist, developer, and technologist, Ashley Blewer, put together a syllabus for an imaginary class on the show Halt and Catch Fire. If you know me, you know that I greatly enjoy the show.
In the past week I went through that syllabus and read most of the articles that were still online, and watched most of the videos included. There was a lot of good there to share as a reminder of the history of computing and the internet and the web.
Watch Joy Buolamwini talk about algorithmic bias. A discussion on preserving digital art and games by Wilkie. Talks by Claire L. Evans at XOXO Festival and on The Open Mind. Watch a short documentary on an art project, The World After Us. Then a longer documentary on the pivot at Netscape to release their browser source code in the open under the Mozilla project.
Finished watching? How about some readings. The dumbing-down of programming, part one and part two. How Coolness Defined the World Wide Web of the 1990s. Hiding the dangers of capitalism and the global supply chain in code. Why COBOL is good, even if it’s often ridiculed. How to make Usenet kinder and gentler. Some thoughts by Ursula K Leguin on technology and hard/soft sci-fi. What it means for the internet to become gentrified. Remember when Microsoft said that deleting Internet Explorer could make Windows crash? Remember that Google (and lots of tech) has a bias against black girls.
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I want to talk briefly about another tech related thing that’s come up a lot this week. NFT’s, or non-fungible tokens, are parts of blockchain ledgers that are meant to provide provenance for something else, either physical or digital. Lately they’ve been gaining a lot of attention for the high price that some NFTs are getting for digital works of art.
There’s so much that could be covered, from reproducibility of art, residuals and royalties for artists, speculative markets, and climate change. I mainly want to highlight what others have thought about this much harder than I have. This includes newsletters from Robin Sloan, Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day, and Mark Sternberg of Medialyte. Then let Kenny Schachter take you down a rabbit hole of NFT backed digital art and how he made several hundred thousand dollars in a trade overnight. Finally, a discussion of blockchain on The Content Mines.
Also, cryptominers are so annoying to gamers when it comes to getting graphics cards that Nvidia decided to just make GPUs without video output for miners, and throttle miners on their new graphics card for gamers and video makers.
This isn’t the same, but I think that it’s related to the announcement from Twitter that they will be offering paid Super Follows, a new way to monetize creator content, this time tweets directly. Also, who doesn’t think that “Safety Mode” is gonna end up being used for abuse?
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I don’t want to do front-end anymore – Nomm
Wow, this is way too real for me. I definitely know where they are coming from.
This makes almost no sense, but it’s a bold as fuck move from Apple. And they probably assumed that they could get away with it, or find something to sue Steam on next.
What Frustrated Workers Heard in That Dolly Parton Ad – Brooke Jarvis, NYT Magazine
What I heard: keep working, keep working, you can’t afford to live if you don’t keep working.
Generation Z, You’re Adorkable – Ben Schott, Bloomberg
Also take that money that you are barely getting and spend too much of it on bespoke brands that are pretending to be human to make you feel better about consumption.
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Tracing the Roots of Pop Culture Transphobia – Lindsay Ellis
Lots of old ground retread here, but a good reminder that pop culture influences behavior.
Bluey: Civilizing Animal Kids feat Moms of Furries | Episode 74
I was introduced to Bluey last year and it is so cute! It’s very chill and tbh much better than most any children animated programming I’ve ever seen. Plus dogs
Sci-Fi Short Film: “Don’t Forget To Remember” | DUST | *Flashing Lights Warning*
If you can try again and again, can you get it right?
This keeps popping into my head, so now it is in yours.
Bless you ants. Blants.
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Look, I like ‘Southland Tales’, and Jon Lovitz is not wrong.
Remember to share the stuff that you liked this week. See yall in a week and stay safe! 💝
