This day in history

2004, 2009, 2019, 2023.

Cory Doctorow
2 min readAug 7, 2024

I’m coming to DEFCON! On FRIDAY (Aug 9), I’m emceeing the EFF Poker Tournament (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the Bricked and Abandoned panel (5PM, LVCC — L1 — HW1–11–01). On SATURDAY (Aug 10), I’m giving a keynote called “Disenshittify or die! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses’ insatiable horniness for enshittification” (noon, LVCC — L1 — HW1–11–01).

#20yrsago Fox News attacks Disney for insufficient homophobia https://web.archive.org/web/20040809000157/https://www.mediamatters.org/items/200408060012

#20yrsago Disney asks FCC to lock up all the record-buttons https://web.archive.org/web/20040814133636/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001805.php

#20yrsago Canadian Legion: “We own all uses of the word ‘poppy’” https://web.archive.org/web/20040811130036/http://anhedonia.imparte.com/gbook.html

#20yrsago MMOs discourage heroism, FRPGs encourage it https://web.archive.org/web/20040808001510/http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/08/where_are_the_h.html

#15yrsago Terry Pratchett on the right to die https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1203622/Ill-die-endgame-says-Terry-Pratchett-law-allow-assisted-suicides-UK.html

#15yrsago Stupid pitfalls of social media https://web.archive.org/web/20090808193904/http://asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-09/AugSep09_Crumlish.html

#15yrsago HOWTO make dust-goggles from a bra-strap, light-bulb screens, and an old biker jacket https://windfiredesigns.com/How-To/Dust-Goggles/

#5yrsago A loophole in nonprofit law means that corporate lobbying is at least double the official figure https://theintercept.com/2019/08/06/business-group-spending-on-lobbying-in-washington-is-at-least-double-whats-publicly-reported/

#5yrsago The only thing health insurance companies are good at is scaring us about socialized medicine https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-05/health-insurance-useless

#5yrsago How Quebec’s health-care system uses “vaccine whisperers” to keep “vaccine hesitancy” from turning to anti-vax https://www.statnews.com/2019/08/05/the-vaccine-whisperers-counselors-gently-engage-new-parents-before-their-doubts-harden-into-certainty/

#5yrsago DOJ indicts man for paying AT&T employees to help him unlock millions of customers’ phones https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/6/20756625/att-unlocking-crime-conspiracy-malware-hacking-paid-employees

#5yrsago Amazon’s surveillance doorbell marketers help cops get warrantless access to video footage from peoples’ homes https://www.vice.com/en/article/43kga3/amazon-is-coaching-cops-on-how-to-obtain-surveillance-footage-without-a-warrant

#5yrsago Survey finds high levels of harassment in multiplayer games, as well as white supremacist recruiting attempts https://www.adl.org/resources/report/free-play-hate-harassment-and-positive-social-experiences-online-games

#1yrago Fool Me Twice We Don’t Get Fooled Again https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/06/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again/

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