A week’s worth of assortment. — If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/09/gallimaufry/#marty-hench-rides-again This is my dozenth linkdump! The world comes at you fast, and even though I’m writing 4–5 essays a week for this newsletter, many’s…

2008, 2013, 2018. — #15yrsago Gibson’s self-destructing poem Agrippa: screen-movie https://agrippa.english.ucsb.edu/post/bibliography-subcategories/video-resources/a-run-of-william-gibsons-agrippa-poem-made-from-playing-a-copy-of-original-1992-agrippa-diskette #15yrsago Chinese “poem” on the cover a scholarly journal is actually an ad for a brothel in Macau https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/chinese-classical-poem-was-brothel-ad-1058031.html

When Big Content makes the paid version *worse* than the free one. — If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/#tyler-james-hill 20 years ago, I got in a (friendly) public spat with Chris Anderson, who was then the editor in chief of Wired. I’d publicly…

2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022. — 20yrsago Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar) https://web.archive.org/web/20040112231612/http://www.forteanbureau.com/dec2003/Doctorow/index.html #15yrsago New Rochelle school board mutilates books to protect children https://web.archive.org/web/20081210080026/http://www.newrochelletalk.com/?q=node/288 #15yrsago How to Pay for National Health Insurance https://ritholtz.com/2008/12/how-to-pay-for-national-health-insurance/

Beeper Mini preserves end-to-end encryption and doesn’t require an Apple ID. — If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor Adversarial interoperability is one of the most reliable ways to protect tech users from predatory corporations: that’s when a technologist reverse-engineers an existing product…

2003, 2008, 2018, 2022. — #20yrsago Not to be read by Metafilter Matt https://web.archive.org/web/20031208053325/https://jonsullivan.com/thread.php?id=110&mat=8549 #20yrsago How many years does an Azeri have to work to buy a copy of WinXP? https://web.archive.org/web/20031204165358/https://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/ghosh/index.html #15yrsago How the Great Firewall of Britain works https://nock.co.uk/2008/12/08/great-firewall-of-britain/

A powerful principle with a vast constituency. — If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy The internet is embroiled in a vicious polycrisis: child safety, surveillance, discrimination, disinformation, polarization, monopoly, journalism collapse — not only have we failed to…

2003, 2008, 2013, 2018. — #20yrsago Walt Disney’s FBI files https://memex.craphound.com/2003/12/06/walt-disneys-fbi-files/ #20yrsago Ska-anthem about duct tape https://web.archive.org/web/20031209020640/http://www.ducktapeclub.com/contests/roll/lyrics.asp?entryid=131 #15yrsago Britain’s “Great Firewall” set to restrict access to Wikipedia https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_ISPs_restrict_access_to_Wikipedia_amid_child_pornography_allegations

With amici like these… — Tonight (Dec 5), I’m at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org’s Bill McKibben called “The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful.” It’s not merely that the Sacklers — a multigenerational, ultra-wealthy drug-pusher dynasty — made billions…