Links
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
Links
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
Links
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
Links
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’
Links
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;
Links
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
Links
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
Links
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
Links
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.
Links
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
Links
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
Links
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
Links
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
Links
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
Links
Puzzmo, my favorite new website of 2023, has already been acquired
Andrew Webster for The Verge: Zach Gage’s Puzzmo gets acquired as the newspaper games space heats up
As part
Links
One woman, two mirrors, three looks…but I’m suspicious
Matt Growcoot: 'One in a Million' iPhone Photo Shows Three Versions of the Same Woman
Standing in front of two large mirrors, Tessa Coates’ reflection does not return the same pose that she is making, and not only that, but both reflections are different from each other and different from the pose Coates
Links
But what if like, I just don’t like it anymore?
Mike Masnick: Musk’s Faulty Vision Of ‘Free Speech’ Is Driving Speech Off ExTwitter
I mean, it’s not like we didn’t warn Elon Musk. Free speech is not about creating a single private space where everyone gets to speak, because that doesn’t support free speech. It enables the worst of society to
Links
Annoyed by the car market, defensive of the camera market
Lloyd Alter: How 'Skeuomorphism' Is Making U.S. Roads More Deadly — Streetsblog USA
The electric car revolution is a golden opportunity to redesign the vehicle from the ground up to make it smaller and safer. Instead, as Alissa Walker wrote in Curbed, [“]If “petro-masculinity” defined the past decade, as oversized, gas-guzzling
