Recent Articles

Sarah Perez:

However, it’s not likely that all Onavo users understand they’re actually feeding Facebook the information that allows it to take on any challenger to its social networking empire. (That empire also includes WhatsApp and Instagram as well as smaller acquisitions like tbh and MSQRD).

Noooo, whaaaaat?

Rick Wartzman writing:

“It’s kind of how we progress as a species,” adds O’Reilly, the author of, most recently, WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us. “We start out starry-eyed and optimistic with all the possibility of a new technology,” only to realize that there are shortcomings that need to be addressed—and often are addressed, even as some people invariably resist in order “to preserve the profits that they’re making.”

Some really interesting points.

Shawn was kind enough to provide me an early look at this course and it’s really well done, and I mean it’s about the best task manager you can get — what’s not to like?

Oh, and in case you’ve been longing for a podcast like think featuring me and Shawn, he recorded an interview with me about all my nerdy task management ways.

This is a great write up about a new insulation that seems pretty amazing. Yeah it’s got NASA marketing hype around it, but if what all Steve’s research says is true, it’ll change the way “warm” jackets look.

And in case you want more thoughts from me on Outlier, I recently wrote another Outlier shirt review.

Amit Gawande:

Dumb and powerful, now there’s the super villain from any sane person’s nightmare.

The power is in the data, not the devices. Right now some of that data is mostly noise, but it won’t be long before machine learning makes that “noise” into a billion dollar industry.

Om Malik:

I for one, refuse to use Alexa and Google Home in my apartment. I don’t trust them, much like I don’t trust Facebook. Apple seems to be doing a good job of keeping its nose clean, but who knows when they come under pressure from “activist” investors.

So much promise, but without any regulation by the government, we are asking for trouble.

Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu:

I’m going to warn you against a smart home because living in it is annoying as hell.

I have shockingly few smart gadgets. And what I do have, switches, are not great. They all lack “just works” factor, and that’s crucial for these devices.

John Herrman on his five year old iPad:

It was, in contrast to the iPhone from which it descended, understood by its users as simply good enough — not life-changing, but handy. It was to be used until its users started noticing it, at which point it was to be replaced. It was, like the iPhone, immune to attachment. But unlike the iPhones, which might be reclaimed by a cellular carrier as part of a scheduled trade-in or just shoved aside by a two-year upgrade, iPads tend to linger. They have time to reveal their tragic thingness.

This is a pretty good read. I understand why older devices don’t move up to newer version of iOS, but it does suck that they eventually get put in device purgatory.

Jessica Guynn reporting:

“In total, we made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day,” Zuckerberg said, in announcing the social media company’s fourth-quarter results. “By focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term.”

Unless my math is wrong (and I don’t rule that out), given that Facebook has 1.4 billion daily active users, that’s only a reduction of 2.1 minutes per person, on average. Right? No wonder he used the larger number.

Then again, the average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on the site per day. So there is hope for humanity, is I guess the lesson.

Brent Simmons:

Micro.blog is not an alternative silo: instead, it’s what you build when you believe that the web itself is the great social network.

I really want to get a pair of these for work travel.

Lindy West:

Being on Twitter felt like being in a nonconsensual BDSM relationship with the apocalypse. So, I left.

Miranda Katz:

Those numbers tend to be steady regardless of the length of the show—and according to Panoply, the few listeners who do skip ads continue to remain engaged with the episode, rather than dropping off at the first sign of an interruption.

I’m fairly shocked by this, but I don’t think it’s far off before we get podcast ad blockers. Take something like the “deepfakes” ML that places people’s faces on another persons body (usually to make porn right now, or add Nicholas Cage into movies) — that’s a much computationally harder task than learning when a podcaster is starting a stopping an ad read. It will be interesting to see which company jumps on making such an app “click play on your favorite podcast, never hear an ad”.

Zeynep Tufekci:

Part of the problem with the ideal of individualized informed consent is that it assumes companies have the ability to inform us about the risks we are consenting to. They don’t. Strava surely did not intend to reveal the GPS coordinates of a possible Central Intelligence Agency annex in Mogadishu, Somalia — but it may have done just that. Even if all technology companies meant well and acted in good faith, they would not be in a position to let you know what exactly you were signing up for.

Our laws are dangerously lagging behind.

Pretty neat trick, it’s too bad you have to use really shitty keyboards to make it work well.