Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Google’s AMP project is not uncontroversial. Users often love it because it makes mobile sites load almost instantly. Publishers often hate it because they feel like they are giving Google too much control in return for better placement on its search pages. Now Google proposes to bring some of the lessons it learned from AMP to the web as a whole….
Since I started working on Discourse, I spend a lot of time thinking about how software can encourage and nudge people to be more empathetic online. That’s why it’s troubling to read articles like this one: My brother’s 32nd birthday is today. It’s an especially emotional day for his family because he’s not alive for…
Article Topper: Vertical The startup accelerator Y Combinator is known for supporting audacious companies in its popular three-month boot camp. There’s never been anything quite like Nectome, though. Next week, at YC’s “demo days,” Nectome’s cofounder, Robert McIntyre, is going to describe his technology for exquisitely preserving brains in microscopic detail using a high-tech embalming…
An enormously popular YouTube video, uploaded last month by an account called Ridddle, explores a bong-rip hypothetical: What if someone detonated a thermonuclear bomb in the depths of the Marianas Trench? In the seven minute clip, a gravelly-voiced narrator uses convincingly scientific-sounding language — at least at first. As it goes on, though, the video’s…
Credit Jennifer Heuer At one point during the 2016 presidential election campaign, I watched a bunch of videos of Donald Trump rallies on YouTube. I was writing an article about his appeal to his voter base and wanted to confirm a few quotations. Soon I noticed something peculiar. YouTube started to recommend and “autoplay” videos…
Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel—who secretly schemed to annihilate Gawker Media, a goal he achieved in August 2016, and to force its founder, Nick Denton, into personal bankruptcy—may yet have cause to regret that he has reveled so publicly in his vengeful triumph. The German-born, Donald Trump-supporting (with a $1.25 million campaign donation) Thiel is…
Medium has suspended the accounts of Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, and Laura Loomer. Unfortunately, this means that “articles” like Cernovich’s “How I Would Run for Congress” are no more. Links to any of the suspended accounts (or their published works) redirect to the dreary white suspension page, which reads “This page is unavailable.” Screenshot of…
Twitter “Just an Ass-Backward Tech Company”: How Twitter Lost the Internet War Twitter faces more challenges than most technology companies: ISIS terrorists, trolls, bots, and Donald Trump. But its last line of defense, the company’s head of trust and safety, Del Harvey, isn’t making things easier. “Del overcomplicates things . . . and you can…
Facebook’s Campbell Brown and Adam Mosseri.Image: code media/recode By Karissa Bell and Kerry Flynn2018-02-13 03:28:39 UTC Facebook is famous for the mantra “move fast and break things.” But these days, the tech giant is all about time well spent, and with that comes a new tagline for everyone to follow: If you don’t like us,…
Begin: Article Header Begin: Article Eyebrows End: Article Header Begin: Article Featured Image End: Article Featured Image Begin: Article Body – Main Begin: Right Rail Advertisement Container End: Right Rail Advertisement Container Begin: WordPress Article Content Google just announced a plan to “modernize” email with its Accelerated Mobile Pages platform, allowing “engaging, interactive, and actionable…