Ed Zitron Nails the State of Tech
There are things that you read where every word hits. This is one of those pieces, and it’s long. Ed Zitron says what I have been both feeling and saying for the last decade of tech in his own special way. There was an inflection point where technology companies went from making our lives better to making it worse in most ways, and doing so while making society more reliant on them.
I have pulled a few excerpts from the post below, but please go and read the whole thing. Consumers and customers are not powerless against this, but it will take most coming to terms with the reality first.
The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible
You are the victim of a con — one so pernicious that you’ve likely tuned it out despite the fact it’s part of almost every part of your life. It hurts everybody you know in different ways, and it hurts people more based on their socioeconomic status. It pokes and prods and twists millions of little parts of your life, and it’s everywhere, so you have to ignore it, because complaining about it feels futile, like complaining about the weather.
Things are being made linearly worse in the pursuit of growth in every aspect of our digital lives, and it’s because everything must grow, at all costs, at all times, unrelentingly, even if it makes the technology we use every day consistently harmful.
We as a society need to reckon with how this twists us up, makes us more paranoid, more judgmental, more aggressive, more reactionary, because when everything is subtly annoying, we all simmer and suffer in manifold ways.
Gotham Sports App
So many regional sports streaming apps are not good, but the new Gotham Sports App which combines MSG and YES networks is actually kind of good?
Here is a screenshot taken on the iPad.
Post to Bluesky Right From Drafts
If like me you love using Drafts on iOS and your Mac, you should download this Action from FlohGro and post right to BlueSky.
RIP Lou Carnesecca
St. John’s was my first basketball love. Born in NYC with a dad from Queens, St. John’s was basketball. To this day when you mention St. John’s to anyone one man comes to mind. That man was Coach Carnesecca. I can still remember the infamous sweater game. I was very young, but I will never forget watching it. My dad has been gone for almost 30 years, but I will never not think about him every time I watch or attend a St. John’s game.
It was not until the late 80’s after the Knicks drafted St. John’s point guard Mark Jackson did I even care about the Knicks or the NBA. When they drafted Jackson, the head coach of the Knicks was Rick Pitino. Today Coach Pitino will wear the famous sweater as he takes the floor as the head coach of the Johnnies. Let’s go Johnnies!
FTC Finally Does the Thing
FTC Bans Location Data Company That Powers the Surveillance Ecosystem
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced sweeping action against some of the most important companies in the location data industry on Tuesday, including those that power surveillance tools used by a wide spread of U.S. law enforcement agencies and demanding they delete data related to certain sensitive areas like health clinics and places of worship.
Data brokers should not be a thing, and the fact that they are is failed policy. Glad to see something coming via the FTC since congress continues to not pass a real privacy law. Of course with a new administration coming in January I expect this be rolled back.
The GOP Hates You Unless Your Name Ends in Corp
Republicans and their friends in the telecom industry opposed fixing our broadband maps, contributing to this delay (like their friends at AT&T and Comcast, they like data that pretends U.S. broadband is competitive, because it props up their false claims that coddling monopoly power is a good thing).
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You can’t live in a modern society without good internet, so of course the GOP wants to stop any chance of helping everyone get it. The big ISPs need a few more bucks.