onfocus

"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).

"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]

"’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!

The world doesn’t deserve another mouth sounds but we got one anyway. (On your wedding day.) Yahoooo!

"I feel like these videos are a very good way for me to get out this thing within me that likes things that feel like a magic trick: You’re not expecting this thing to happen, so when it does, it’s a little rush of dopamine."

One of the best Internet traditions. Thanks for all the dopamine, Demi!

“What you write about is not a fossilized bit of commentary for a blog post. When you learn more, you add to it. It’s less about shock and rage; it’s more connective.”

Just entering this link into the fossil record. But seriously, anything that gets people excited about indie publishing is exciting! The gardening metaphor reminds me of my favorite Gary Snyder line I think about all the time: “Sweep the garden. Any size.”

lo-fi music + animated clouds brought to you by poolside.fm.

Fun experiment: see if loading up Paul Ford's random archive.org ephemera thing gives you the same dopamine hit as the random crap social media gives you to look at. I enjoy it.

Video of windows from around the world. Very nice tour of other people's views.

The Board was presented with a unique and complex situation – impacting one of the largest registries with more than 10.5 million domain names registered. After completing its evaluation, the ICANN Board finds that the public interest is better served in withholding consent as a result of various factors that create unacceptable uncertainty over the future of the third largest gTLD registry.

This is a relief. The .org top-level domain is not being sold for parts after all.