CategoryTechnology

I liked Marco Arment’s thoughts about Apple’s dominant position in the podcast world. It was a response to this NYT article. Speaking about Apple’s role in podcasting Marco writes: Apple has only ever used its dominant position benevolently and benignly so far, and as the medium has diversified, Apple’s role has shrunk. The last thing podcasters need is for Apple to increase...

In this Gizmodo piece on Facebook’s trending news curation project we find out that:

Facebook hired a bunch of contractors (likely out-of-work journalists)
to do basic curation of trending news items
worked them really hard
replaced most of them with an algorithm

TL;DR Technology progress happened. As usual. No one is surprised.
See also John Gruber’s take.

Here’s an all too common example of political incompetence and bungling when it comes to technology and infrastructure planning. And I thought it was just the NBN that had issues – at least we’ve got something rolling (albeit limping) out… Of course The Backburner nails it in a piece that you’d be forgiven for thinking was all too real: The Turnbull Government has...

I’ve been in the US for the last two weeks. Before I left I purchased a Telstra 14 Day Travel Pass. It worked out well, because it ran out when I was at the airport about to head home. Here’s the text message I got (the second message is the item of interest): Basically, since I was a Travel Pass customer I was going to now pay 3c per MB. At this price I’m assuming Telstra still...

You should read this post from Eugene Wei (no really, go read it) and consider it in terms of inefficiency. Think back to when Twitter first started. By the time you and I were getting involved, it’s likely the need for the SMS limited character limitation was long gone. Only the earliest of early adopters would have actually been around when it was in fact needed. But the character...

I’ve resisted using an ad blocker for years, since: I don’t mind ads Especially if they are personalised (as most ads are now). And I’m happy for ads to track me all over the web if it means I get a better ‘ad experience’ I realise many sites rely on ads as their business model If it weren’t for them showing ads I wouldn’t get access to many of the...

As part of an art exhibition in Zurich, an automated online shopping bot is tasked with buying a random item each week on the deep web to the value of $100 in bitcoins. Along the way it purchases ecstasy pills and a fake passport. If this bot was shipping to the U.S., asks Forbes contributor and University of Washington law professor contributor Ryan Calo, who would be legally responsible for...

Hopefully you’ve already seen this wonderful interview with Bill Gates in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. If not, then it’s well worth a read. Top marks to the interviewer – a great bunch of questions (and so much better than the cringe-worthy questions Bill’s had to endure in the past). As always Bill is such a clear and useful thinker who answers so eloquently...