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I’m always happy I use Ghost and not Substack, but I’m extra happy today
Hamish McKenzie in a note on Substack:
We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power. We are committed to upholding and protecting freedom of expression, even when it hurts.
Here’s what I’ll say for myself,
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The surprising challenge to run the best web apps locally
Tim Bradshaw for the Financial Times: Apple Wants AI to Run Directly on Its Hardware Instead of in the Cloud
While Microsoft and Google have largely focused on delivering chatbots and other generative AI services over the Internet from their vast cloud computing platforms, Apple’s research suggests that it will instead focus on AI
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Pedestrian deaths have been rising for a decade. Mostly in America, and mostly at night. Why?
Emily Badger, Ben Blatt, Josh Katz for the New York Times: Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night?
What’s even more perplexing: Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. In places like Canada and Australia, a much lower share of pedestrian fatalities occurs at night, and those fatalities
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The Beeper Mini saga
Beeper: Beeper Mini Is Back
In the first 48 hours, it was downloaded by more than 100,000 people. The reason for its success is clear: Android and iPhone customers desperately want to be able to chat together with high quality images/video, encryption, emojis, typing status, read receipts, and all modern chat features. We
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A great year for games, a great year for players, and a tough year for the people making those games
Ash Parrish writing for The Verge: Geoff Keighley failed to recognize a terrible year for game developers - The Verge
At this point, you cannot talk about how amazing 2023 has been for the quality of games released this year without also mentioning how it’s been utterly disastrous for the people who made them. But
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LLMs can be quick to discriminate, and that says more about us than we’d like to think
Devon Coldeway writing for TechCrunch: Anthropic’s latest tactic to stop racist AI: Asking it ‘really really really really’ nicely
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The harmful mythology of “we didn’t use CG”
Todd Vaziri: FXRant: The Most Egregious Example of "We Didn't Use CGI" Mythology (So Far)
In
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Big month for plagiarism
Case Marshall writing for Polygon: Hbomberguy’s 4-hour YouTube plagiarism video set social media abuzz
Brewis systematically goes through Somerton’s content, calling out multiple instances in which he plagiarizes — or heavily lifts from, without proper crediting — authors from other outlets, academics, and documentaries.
I know it’s a lot to ask, but Hbomberguy’
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Google releases Gemini Nano, which runs locally on Pixel 8 (just like Apple should next year)
Casey Newton reporting on Google’s update to their AI backend, Gemini
In accordance with Google’s preference for chaotic branding, Gemini will be available in three “sizes”: Nano, which is small enough to fit in a smartphone and will power features in the Pixel 8 Pro smartphone starting today; Pro, which now powers Bard;
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Disney belittled Pixar’s brand
Charles Pulliam-Moore for The Verge: Pixar’s Turning Red, Soul, and Luca are getting theatrical releases
Today, Disney and
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You have every right to block whoever you want (and a quick story!)
Joan Westenberg: The block button is the ultimate source of dopamine. Use it
It's your right to choose
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Casey Newton’s internet problems vs. platform problems
Casey Newton: How Facebook helps predators find each other
This year Stanford found equally disturbing CSAM issues at networks including X, Telegram, Mastodon, and decentralized networks generally. That Meta is subject to more scrutiny on this subject is less of a commentary on the company’s unique negligence than on its vast scale and the
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A blog without a website
theunderground.blog is a blog that only exists in RSS form. There is a home page, but that’s it. There aren’t any permalinks and you can’t link to a web page at all. It’s weird and it’s wild and I kinda love it, even if I think it’s impractical.
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How Be My Eyes is working with OpenAI to make a more accessible future
Steven Aquino writing for Forbes: Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley Talks OpenAI Boardroom Saga, ‘Life-Changing’ Tech, More
Specific to Be My Eyes’ application of OpenAI’s technologies, Buckley explained he and his team provided Open AI with “very direct feedback” based on needs of the Blind and low vision community, adding that OpenAI
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Batman: Arkham Knight is another terrible port on Switch
Richard Leadbetter writing for Eurogamer: Arkham Knight on Switch is disastrously poor
Lighting is savagely downgraded, texture quality is a
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Decentralization is the cherry on top
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue on his new podcast, Dot Social:
Decentralization isn't a feature in and of itself. And you know, I think it's tough when, if you build a product that's just a clone of a closed product and it's decentralized, so you should care about
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Does Birchtree have the rizz?
Jennifer Schuessler for the New York Times: Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year Is … ‘Rizz’
“Rizz” — Gen Z (or is it Gen Alpha?) slang for “style, charm or attractiveness,” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner” — has been named as Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year, beating out contenders like
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Greenlight everything
Tim Wu for the New York Times : Mergers Like JetBlue’s Proposed Acquisition of Spirit Usually Turn Out to Be Bad
A comprehensive meta-analysis of 50 studies covering more than 3,000 contested mergers in the United States in recent decades found that “most studied mergers result in competitive harm, usually in the form
