internet

The Verge
“I don’t really see any good that can come from Reddit going public,” Dan M. told me. “Not to sound dramatic but it kinda feels like the final nail in Reddit’s coffin after years of degrading quality.”
Same, they treat their volunteer moderators like expendable cogs and all of their revenue depends on them. Add the new pressure of shareholders to the situation and it seems like a recipe for meh. Feels like someone’s cash out before the end.

Update (3/9): LOL
Ars Technica
Wyden suggested that the intelligence community might be helping data brokers violate an FTC order requiring that Americans are provided "clear and conspicuous" disclosures and give informed consent before their data can be sold to third parties. In the seven years that Wyden has been investigating data brokers, he said that he has not been made "aware of any company that provides such a warning to users before collecting their data."
If you’re curious about why we need much stronger privacy laws in the US, this article is a good start. Thanks Senator Wyden for fighting the good fight.
PJ Vogt
How am I supposed to use the internet now? The experience of asking that question and getting a series of good answers, to me, it felt like the conversation you have with a friend that finally convinces you to make a break-up stick. A break-up with someone who maybe has always sucked, or at least, sucked for awhile.
This episode of Search Engine is a great conversation with Ezra Klein about being aware of where your attention is going.
society.robinsloan.com
"But it’s interesting: the appeal of these checkpoint videos is precisely the fact that they are NOT designed. This subculture has repurposed a plot of unloved YouTube real estate and totally turned it around, charged it up with emotional energy, all without changing a single line of JavaScript or CSS. So, maybe the deep lesson of the checkpoint isn’t “make it like this!” but “don’t MAKE it at all”."
Great look at a type of comment that the systems aren’t designed for but people want to make.
The.Ink
"Whatever lawmakers are willing to set it at, let's double that, just to be safe. That's what I say. I say, whatever it is, let's double it. We've tried underpaying people. That doesn't work. Let's try overpaying for a little bit. I think that's the best strategy right now."
I love those angry IKEA guy videos and it’s great to hear more of his story. If you haven’t seen them yet [dramatic music starts] that’s on you. LOOK INWARD.
daniel.haxx.se
"Small and quick decisions done back then, that would later make a serious impact on and shape my life. curl has been one of my main hobbies ever since – and of course also a full-time job since a few years back now."
curl is one of those ubiquitous tools that all developers use. It's just part of the water we swim in and I forget that tools don't just spring from Earth fully-formed. This is a fun look at where curl came from and where it's going. These hobbyists, amirite?

How I Consume RSS in 2021

I was just looking at my iOS Screen Time report and noticed that I spend a good portion of my phone time reading RSS feeds. I'm guessing that's unusual and I thought it might be good to share my latest setup.

When Google Reader shut down in 2013 I installed Tiny Tiny RSS on an AWS server and used that regularly in a desktop browser without really touching it again until 2018. (Beyond regular OS updates.) I wrote about that update—Newsreader Update—which opened up reading feeds in a nice interface on my iPhone. I figured I'd go another five years without touching it, but no. Some quirk of the app was annoying enough that I looked at updating tt-rss and there has been a big improvement: Dockerization.

The salty folks who created and maintain tt-rss have packaged everything up with Docker so it's easier to maintain. Here's the tt-rss docker compose version. Now I have this running on a $5/month Digital Ocean server and the code updates with every reboot. The one piece I wasn't sure about was configuring the web server inside Docker. But it turned out to be pretty easy by setting up a reverse proxy on the host OS.

Anyway, I realize that not everyone is going to want to reverse proxy their way to reading RSS on their iPhone. But you can consume RSS feeds in 2021 with a little work. I still think having control of your primary news feed without all of the sorting, attention, and social alogrithms is the best way keep up with the web.
conradakunga.com
"So today I set out to actually see what it is one agrees to when they accept all."
Peeling back the layers on those cookie agreement dialogs helps us learn about how web advertising works (and how massive the industry is).

Oddly Specific YouTube Genre

Not since 80's music playing in an abandoned mall has there been a YouTube genre that speaks to me like Muffled Christmas Music From Another Room. Stumbled on this via the latest Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends which, well, hmm.
Ars Technica
"Seven out of 50 video clusters the researchers identified are deemed 'situational' music. This designation doesn't operate under the standard concept of genres but rather the context in which the music takes place. This includes relaxation music like 'Ambient/Chillout,' 'Sounds of Nature,' and the ASMR-affiliated 'Hair Dryer Sound.' The paper concludes that situational music, sometimes deemed trivial by musicologists, is growing in popularity."
One great aspect of the Internet is that old (or new!) niche media can find its audience. This ambient music is my jam, glad I found it. [via waxy via mefi]
Medium
"’00: There also must be some really good music discussion forums."
[pained face] The Internet is complicated and didn't go as planned. Paul Ford converses with his past self about where we are in 2020.

Update: Paul added a new version of this conversation that is less jokey and more earnest. For example, he elaborates on the discussion forum pain I quoted above:
"’20: Independent forums are mostly dead, swallowed up by Reddit, social media, and the like. I cannot overemphasize how much the lesson of the web is that people, given the choice between the freedom of operating and managing their own platform, and running a centralized platform that they do not control, will choose the centralized platform."
Sometimes it's worth explaining the joke!

Dreams Memes

This meme has been coasting down the street for so long that there's no point in my posting it here. But dammit, I like this one and if you haven't seen it yet you might need these feels. Watch morning vibe. Then Mick Fleetwood.
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