: Picking favourites: music edition Love this. Saw it on @annie’s blog (check it out), decided to do my own. 🎶 Tried to keep the variety …
: Webbed up by gold, Macedon Ranges (2024). Photo: Cory Zanoni
: Rainbow rock, Québec, Canada (2015). Photo: Cory Zanoni
: Scooter offering, Bali, Ubud (2013). Photo: Cory Zanoni
: Currently reading: Ishmael by Daniel Quinn 📚 Then I said, “That’s not fair.” “What do you mean?” “I …
: Rain over rice fields, Ubud, Bali (2013). Photo: Cory Zanoni
: Finished reading: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk 📚 A clear distillation of a particular flavour of …
: Even the 4chan edgelords think Elon Musk is cringe In another attempt to show off his innovator credentials, Elon Musk combined JK Rowling style …
: Apple’s green message bubbles have an actual problem I don’t go in for a lot of the ‘iMessage is a tool of social exclusion and must be stopped for moral …
: Brad Esposito: ‘The sooner you start laughing the less it hurts’ Brad Esposito, in his newsletter Very fine day, has one of the better (and to the point) …
: Will the admins of Mastodon be liable for defamation posted on their servers? Lawmakers and politicians are getting more and more interested in what’s said on social media and …
: How a mining company is using fake Twitter accounts to defend itself What would any reputable company do in the face of constant distrust from banks, media outlets and …
: An ungodly collection of emoji, ascii and text meme templates Take the work out of expressing any thought, ever, with this handy-dandy list of text, emoji and …
: Audiobooks will be a real challenge for Spotify (plus: one good, free alternative for audiobooks) Spotify have jumped into the audiobook pool and, look, I’m not feeling confident for them. Ben …
: Oak is a great free meditation app (plus another great option) Tim Minchin, in his beautiful Christmas song ‘White wine in the sun’, has a lovely verse about old …
: Japanese artists manipulate the Chinese government to great success What happens when online pirates based in China straight-up clone a beloved Japanese art site, art …
: A quabble of tweets, and other collective nouns for the web The English language is full of great collective nouns. A murder of crows is a classic. Then there’s …
: Fixing Netflix: livestreaming could make them cool again Bad news is, generally speaking, bad news. Unless you work in Netflix’s PR team, of course. The …
: People love TikTok for news and money advice but TikTok doesn't love them back Four new surveys about TikTok have dropped and they can be summed up thusly: 🙃 Survey 1: TikTok is …
: Alexa can fart (and may be experiencing severe gastric distress) You can ask Alexa to do a lot of fun things. Fun fact: you can ask it to fart. Alexa will then also …
: Siri doesn’t know what time it is in Palestine (but it’s fine with Israel) Ask Siri what time it is in Palestine. Doesn’t work. Ask Siri what time it is in Israel, and it’ll …
: Cryptocurrency is now forbidden under Islamic law in Indonesia (and some fair points were made) Indonesia’s national council of Islamic scholars have decided that trading cryptocurrencies is …
: Another small reason to dislike Mark Zuckerberg I don’t go looking for reasons to dislike people. Sometimes they just come to you. Joanne McNeil has …
: Wikipedia is as contentious as you’d expect when it comes to China You’ll say “yeah, that makes sense” when you read this: Wikipedia is messy when it comes to China …
: Roblox went down, parents freaked out In what must be the online version of stepping on a piece of Lego hiding in the carpet, Roblox went …
: OnlyFans drops sexually explicit content after censoring from MasterCard, VISA, and banks Update: Tim Stokely, OnlyFan’s founder and CEO, clarified that the platform was going to bans sexual …
: How the media covers Afghanistan matters (and it’s not great) How the media covers any given issue matters. The coverage helps shapes how people understand what’s …
: Does Uber charge you more if your phone battery is low? Another one for the “that’s genius but absolutely get outta here” category if it’s true: What I …
: The Taliban has seized US biometric and face recognition tech We haven’t had to wait long to get a worse-case scenario for facial recognition and biometrics: The …
: Apple’s developer relations woes Apple has a developer relations issue. Here’s Marco Arment diagnosing the problem in a single …
: “Music Is About to Change Forever” The music times are a-changing. Eric Slivka, writing for MacRumors: The Browse tab in the Music app …
: Google could do more to prevent men killing women Update: The research about increases in the number of Google searches re: domestic abuse had flaws …
: No, Bitcoin doesn’t incentivise renewable energy People who are super into Bitcoin are really into recasting it as more than just another speculative …
: Misinformation and the missing piece Everyone is vulnerable to misinformation. We’ve all, at some point, believed something untrue. And …
: Missing blogs is missing people in the machine There’s a great line in Bojack Horseman where Wanda Pierce looks back at her relationship with the …
: Languishing in the feed It’s a weird feeling, when you just kind of realise that your default state has been “bleh” for so …
: What kind of world is Amazon selling? You can say a lot about Amazon, both interesting and worrisome. But I’ve never really asked myself …
: Zhush up your computing life with Hannah Montana Linux You know what all contemporary operating systems are missing? Deeply embedded pop-star stylings. …
: For whom the Mac bell tolls, it tolls for thee The Mac startup sound is iconic. It’s a lovely way to start your computing day. But Macs also used …
: WWDC ‘21 Wishlist I’m not a picky nor demanding Apple user. The wants I have are minor when they’re not courageous. …
: Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, valued at $2.6 billion (or half Another day, another story about the success of NFTs. This one’s about Dapper Labs, the company …
: The “Amazon of South Korea” is worth billions, facing accusations of employees What’s a few bodies on the path to a billion-dollar valuation? The BBC: South Korean e-commerce …
: Why does the Apple TV still exist? You may have heard that people enjoy television. Apple have dabbled in the space for quite some …
: Human society is just collateral damage in climate change We caused climate change and it’ll change our societies forever, in ways small and seismic. But the …
: App Store scams and Apple’s priorities It’s hard to feel good about the App Store when Apple removes perfectly fine apps for not using …
: The changing face of uwu uwu has become one of the internet’s original sins. It’s the kind of performative “cuteness” that …
: The oldest image on the internet (with a link that still works) Further proof that the internet runs on anime. (via Craig Mod, Hacker News)
: I’m Being Censored, and You Can Read, Hear, and See Me Talk About It in the McSweeney’s: I weep for this country, where the media completely cancels anyone with a different …
: Will people still pay for news without President Trump? Donald Trump wasn’t good for much but he was great for the news. The New York Times, for example, …
: Neo-Nazis recruiting people to Telegram after Parler shuts down Nature abhors a vacuum (and so do extremists looking to yell about things). So, of course, everyone …
: Love the world anyway The world isn’t exactly lovable at the moment. Still, there are still things that are worth our …
: You don’t get to be anti-murder but pro-stabbing It’s been a few days since terrorists stormed the US Capitol building but it’s hard to believe it’s …
: Trump’s “political genius” Everything that has happened and will happen in the US capital stems from Donald Trump. That’s not …
: The two Americas Jaylen Brown: In one America, you get killed by sleeping in your car, selling cigarettes or …
: A long list of short thoughts about movies I've seen this year (2020) I miss the cinema. Deep seats, popcorn, an overpriced bottle of water. That particular sound of a …
: The iOS Photos widget makes your home screen feel like home Look at the photos on my phone and you’ll find the following: fleeting moments of beauty captured …
: Austin Mann’s stunning iPhone 12 Pro review Austin Mann’s reviews of iPhone cameras are beautiful. Gorgeous photos, great write ups. His take on …
: The paradox of social violence People keep pissing in the pool. There’s a deep hypocrisy at the heart of social media. Companies …
: Things that have set off Siri (Part 2) Siri just wants to help. That’s all. Siri can offer a hand with a few things, sure, but their …
: Ad tech, content, and the next internet bubble Gilad Edelman, reviewing Subprime attention crisis by Tim Hwang, for Wired: Similar conditions were …
: NYT: The Tangled Web We Weave review Margaret O’Mara, reviewing The tangled web we weave by James Ball, for The New York Times: The …
: “You big ugly. You too empty.” Ania Walwicz: You big ugly. You too empty. You desert with your nothing nothing nothing. You …
: r/IdiotsFightingThings is proof we’re failing young men There’s something hypnotic about watching a room full of about 20 young, white, drunk, shirtless men …
: 1 + 2 = wisdom: Life lessons learned while playing Threes Threes is one of the best games ever made. It’s a puzzle game wherein you match ones and twos to …
: The conspiracy theory classification model Abbie Richards has developed The Conspiracy Chart, grouping conspiracies from “grounded in reality” …
: Home Jesper (via Michael Tsai): The Mac gets a lot of flack from people who are nose deep in technical …
: Coinbase is off base: the joys of politics at work Ah, politics and business. Delicious. A tech CEO wants to keep politics out of his workplace. That …
: Twitter’s telling you who matters Every now and then, people tell you what they stand for. They don’t always mean to do it, but it …
: Surprise: it’s worth taking a break from social media If the last few days haven’t already convinced you that social media can have a detrimental effect …
: It’s okay to punch Nazis Two people are arguing. Person A starts interrupting Person B, refusing to let them make their …
: “There’s no launch party for decay.” Indi Samarajiva: In the last three months America has lost more people than Sri Lanka lost in 30 …
: Journalism is a team sport Another day, another reminder of two things: It’s financially viable — sensible, even — for some …
: “Doomer trad wife” and reactionary culture Ryan Broderick, writing about a growing sense of reactionaryism in some online communities (and what …
: The only good answer is “Yes” Tom Ley, editor-in-chief of Defector: When we all stood in that abandoned office 10 months ago and …
: Political leaders are sabotaging renewable energy Christine Milne, former leader of the Australian Greens party: If you fail to remember the past you …
: Windows 10 ignores your default browser to launch Edge Microsoft have relaunched their Edge browser and they’d like you to know about it. In addition to …
: Microsoft’s console names make yet another good feature confusing IGN: Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox Series S will not run Xbox One X Enhanced versions of …
: The world could use a little bit of tact right now Corina Stan: Tact, or délicatesse, was an old obsession of Barthes’s, going back to the early years …
: We don’t want everyone to understand us all the time Florence Hazrat, writing about the myriad failed attempts to introduce punctuation that indicates …
: “There’s nothing novel about Netflix’s competitive culture of fear” Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, writing about Netflix’s management culture: The Wall Street Journal …
: kites can’t jive (August 2020) Did I even listen to any new music in August? I know I did but I’d be hard pressed to tell what any …
: Sleep tracking in watchOS 7: simple but thoughtful Ryan Christoffel, writing about the upcoming sleep tracking features in watchOS 7 for MacStories: …
: Can Uber delete itself? Jason Arias: Some companies, however, are taking a stand once and for all against racism. Uber has …
: kites can’t jive (July 2020) I’m obsessed with Palimpsest by Protest the Hero. I was a big fan of theirs in the mid-to-late …
: The public helped fund great tech – what should they get in return? Mariana Mazzucato, in her book The value of everything: Yet in presenting themselves as modern-day …
: Why time is weird in lockdown Time is weird right now. Feilding Cage found out why: Think back to when you were asked to stay …
: China has been playing the long game. The US, not so much Patrick Wintour, writing about the brewing cold war between China and the US: China has been lucky …
: TikTok, Douyin, and the “dystopian censorship machine” The Telegraph received leaked documents about the “dystopian censorship machine” that is Douyin, the …
: Facebook’s civil rights failure Facebook hired two civil rights experts – Laura Murphy and Megan Cacace – to write a report on the …
: Tech exec wants to recreate the creepy surveillance tech from The Dark Knight A tech exec by the name of Chris Larsen wants to install high-def security cameras all around San …
: Memeing law into existence: San Fran introduces the CAREN Act CNN: It may soon be illegal to make discriminatory, racially biased 911 calls in San Francisco. The …
: What would it mean if Facebook and Google left Hong Kong? Facebook and Google are weighing up their options after a new security law out of Beijing that …
: Concern over TikTok is “international politics thinly veiled as a data ethics Samantha Floreani, arguing that consternation over TikTok ignores the reality that other, US-based …
: “Scream inside your heart”: advice for rollercoasters (and everyday life) BBC: Fuji-Q Highland near Tokyo re-opened last month after its virus shutdown. It asked riders to …
: Hong Kong is the next battleground in the tech Cold War between China and the The Chinese Government has announced a sweeping new law for Hong Kong that aims to “crack down on …
: Apple never really gave Apple Arcade a chance (and that’s why it needs to change) Looks like Apple Arcade may not be going as planned. They’re cutting some games in development and …
: kites can't jive (June 2020) June needs to be a month of change. The Black Lives Matter movement reverberated around the world …
: Everyone’s joining the ban train The bans are flowing. Reddit bannedr/The_Donald, r/ChapoTrapHouse, and 2,000+ other subreddits: …
: iOS 14's widgets bring the Windows Phone dream back to life Tom Warren, sparking joy in my heart: Microsoft showed off the future of mobile home screens a …
: Platforms like Mixer, Twitch, and YouTube don’t care about you Microsoft shuttered their streaming service Mixer without warning. That extends to people streaming …
: Spaniards can't stop ruining important artworks It happened again: Conservation experts in Spain have called for a tightening of the laws covering …
: Women share stories of sexual assault in the world of video game streaming Taylor Lorenz has pulled together a Twitter thread filled with allegations of sexual assault in the …
: A long list of short thoughts about things announced at WWDC (2020) Apple announced a lot of new things for their platforms at WWDC. Let’s turn them into a list, …
: The picture 12 billion years in the making Caleb Scharf, writing about the end of a journey that began long before our planet was even a thing, …
: Apple's Windows Problem You know what makes a phone or computer great? Amazing software. You know what doesn’t? So much …
: The WNBA is back The WNBA: After significant discussions with the league’s key stakeholders, including the Women’s …
: Minneapolis lawmakers: ‘Our commitment is to end policing as we know it’ Lisa Bender, Minneapolis city council president: In Minneapolis and in cities across the US, it is …
: Mates don’t let mates kill people Speaking of Australia’s relationship with the United States, Michael Wesley characterised it …
: Australia’s relationship with the US started with deception Foreign policy is, obviously, complex. A lot goes into building and maintaining relationships, …
: Amy McQuire: ‘There cannot be 432 victims and no perpetrators’ Amy McQuire: There cannot be more than 400 black deaths and no justice. There cannot be 432 …
: The mine that ate up a town Ackland is a town in Queensland, Australia. Over the past 20 years of so, a coal mine has been …
: Pakistan is managing COVID-19 with mass surveillance Pakistan is using “a secret surveillance system… otherwise used to track high-value militant …
: Cities aren’t ‘facing protests’ – they’re taking part in them Historian Mar Hicks responded to a CNN headline – Cities face an eighth night of protests – with an …
: An actual politician: ‘brumby lives matter’ Beverley McArthur, the Liberal Victoria Member for Westen Victoria Region, in an actual speech that …
: ‘They’re not moving. They’re not moving. Oh they got shot.’ This is an update. They’re just having a normal conversation while at least a hundred cops are …
: Police Commissioner: the officer who threw a kid to the ground had a bad day A police officer in New South Wales, Australia, held a 16-year-old Indigenous boy’s hands behind his …
: The man teaching cops to kill How does a police force normalising killing? They learn to kill. Here’s Radley Balko, writing about …
: Lao lao, Laos's very own moonshine I’m not much of a drinker but I’d give lao lao a (very trepidatious) try. It’s made in households …
: Gregg Popovich: ‘The System Has to Change’ Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, on the protests happening across the US after police …
: kites can't jive (May 2020) May was all about catchy, guitar-drive tunes (and a band whose name you can’t say in polite …
: “The guy is drunk! But there he goes!” Speaking of Kevin Harlan, his call of a drunk guy running onto the field during a Monday Night …
: LeBron James had no regard for human life twelve years ago The best call in sports, from one of the best to ever sit behind the mic. (And don’t forget the Kobe …
: Only monsters reply all Lavender Baj, writing about the “shopping cart” theory, for Pedestrian: Well as the theory goes, …
: Bookwork Adventures is gone and there no words John Walker, eulogising a classic: There’s been a murder. And no one seems to have noticed. One of …
: Improv comedians are suffering because of COVID-19 Ryan Broderick in his great newsletter Garbage Day, writing about the plight of improv comedians …
: John Gruber on the state of iPhone and Android CPU Performance John Gruber with the shot: But one gets the feeling that if these performance tables were turned, …
: A guy tried to buy nudes with Animal Crossing money (in a Facebook group his fiancé was also in) Sasha Rei Thorne on Twitter: Hello children, here’s the story of how I accidentally fucked up a …
: Mastering tech as an expression of power Jess Hill, writing about power in her fantastic book on domestic abuse See what you made me do: The …
: 5 nit-picky changes I want to see in iOS 14 Some people have ideas that would push iOS forward. Make it a better, richer, more nuanced platform. …
: My essential self-isolation apps Life is different now, to put it mildly. People all around the world are stuck indoors, perhaps …
: "Digital Air Jordans" and the future of collectibles Benjamin Wallace, writing for Intelligencer: “The elevator pitch I always give,” offered Duncan “is …
: Facebook has chosen growth over safety too many times Julia Carrie Wong, writing for The Guardian: The social network is now officially available in 111 …
: What will survive when the millennial aesthetic dies? Molly Fischer, writing for The Cut: You walk beneath a white molded archway. You’ve entered a white …
: Sending confetti is the superior way to text Amelia Diamond: Sending texts with confetti is, when ranked among this entire list, a superior way …
: The power China has over companies and countries (and how that shapes the world) Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute writing about China’s use of …
: Apple News provides a mediocre reading experience Apple News should be my kind of service. I’m a media hack with too many opinions about the news and …
: Netflix softens their viewership metrics, which doesn't seem insecure at all Natalie Jarvey: Netflix’s metrics, which are not verified by a third party and are not comparable …
: Police are using an invasive tool they don't understand Kashmir Hill, reporting on Clearview AI, which uses a database of 3 billion images scraped from the …
: Why lie to journalists when you can lie to the people directly? Emily Bell: In the past four years the media in the US and UK have learned what other parts of the …
: Things that have invoked Siri since updating to iOS 13 and watchOS 6 Saying either “love you too” or “see you soon” to my partner on the phone (unclear which, likely the …
: Nepal introduces jail terms for "offensive" social posts Rotjita Adhikari, reporting for The Guardian: Jail terms of up to five years could be imposed on …
: Amazon is donating money to victims of the Australian bushfires (while raking in money from oil companies) Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon is donating $1 million AUD to support Australians coping with our …
: The lives lost due to Kashmir's internet blackout Hannah Ellis-Petersen and an anonymous local correspondent, reporting on the internet blackout …
: The environmental destruction of the Australian bushfires Bianca Hall and Peter Hannam, reporting on a leaked report on the ecological damage caused by …
: The Apple Watch is a sassy bitch Apple loves to highlight the Watch’s health benefits. Here’s what they don’t tell you: the Watch is …
: Picking apart Rupert Murdoch's influence on the Australian bushfire debate Damien Cave, for the New York Times: And on Wednesday, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp, the largest media …
: Twitter's changes to replies are a decade too late (and barely address the problem) Dieter Bohn, reporting for The Verge: [Twitter’s director of product management Suzanne] Xie says …
: Unloveable Apple, endless growth, and the ad hellscape John Gruber: But I worry that with its services push, Apple is turning into an advertising company …
: The governments turning off the internet Michael Safi, reporting for The Guardian: Since India’s first recorded use of the tactic, six times …
: Let kids vote to save Australia (and the world) It’s tempting to feel fatalistic at the moment. Australia is burning: 500 million animals have died, …
: Bird mimics fire engine sirens as Australia burns Devastating. Australia is facing some of the most devastating fires the country has ever seen. …
: 8tracks shuts down and another music service fades out David Porter, writing on the 8tracks blog: 8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We’re …
: Machine learning and the art of under-paying people to fix your problems Can Duruk, writing about what things like “machine learning” often mean: There’s another …
: 5 great Christmas albums on Apple Music Christmas isn’t Christmas without great tunes. Unfortunately, the tracks on offer can get a bit …
: The art of dying Peter Schjeldahl: Swatted a fly the other day and thought, Outlived you.
: Who goes Nazi? Dorothy Thompson, writing for Harper’s: It’s fun—a macabre sort of fun—this parlor game of “Who …
: A long list of short thoughts about movies I saw this year (2019) Happy New Year, Colin Burstead was clever, thoughtful, and funny and I never want to see it again. …
: No-one cares about the cool bands you like Chris Ott: Recommendation engines, play-ola and “platform capitalism” (please stop with this shit) …
: Muzak for tech bros Liz Pelly for The Baffler: Everything about Sofar Sounds is a data-driven simulacrum: a performance …
: Kindle hackers and resistance via submission Melanie Ehrenkranz, for One Zero, writing a community of people hacking Kindles: Now when he looks …
: Stratechery on privacy fundamentalism Ben Thompson: It is disappointing, though, that the maker of one of the most important and the most …
: The Cook Doctrine comes for your iPhone battery Craig Lloyd for iFixit: Apple is locking batteries to their iPhones at the factory, so whenever you …
: Your wearable might be prejudiced Ruth Hailu for Stat News: Fitbits, Samsung watches, and several other brands rely on only green …
: Craigslists' founder is committed to helping the newspaper industry Jessica Dolcount for CNET: Newmark’s dedication to journalism is another one of his seeming …
: How a trade dispute in Asia could affect Apple Virginia Harrison for the BBC: In July, Tokyo imposed export controls targeting South Korea’s key …
: Jeremy Renner has an official app (and a song) Danny Heifetz, doing the lord’s work for The Ringer: Whether these accounts belong to devoted fans …
: The problems facing tech journalism Brian Merchant on the trend of tech companies briefing journalists “on background” for Columbia …
: Everyone owns your face Brad Esposito, writing about FaceApp and the hubbub about it being owned by a Russian company, for …
: Flight Control was one of the reasons I got an iPhone Flight Control was one of the reasons I got an iPhone. Getting an expensive phone I could barely …
: How to regulate the internet Karen Kornbluh and Ellen P. Goodman for Project Syndicate: The Digital Democracy Agency would limit …
: Microsoft champions progressive values while donating to Republicans Maciej Cegłowski: In the dissonance between his words and actions, Mr. Smith resembles another …
: The App Store's search is a disappointment The App Store’s search needs some love. Right now, it favours people acting in bad faith who can …
: Netflix isn't a storytelling company Jessica Toonkel, Tom Dotan and Beejoli Shah for The Information: [Netflix] now routinely ends shows …
: Jony Ive and the Apple Watch compromise Much is being said about Jony Ive leaving Apple, from the Wall Street Journal’s reporting to Tim …
: 9 million people play Candy Crush for 3+ hours a day, but there are no but there's no 'addiction problem' Alan Dale, a senior executive at King, put on a masterclass in disingenuousness while talking to a …
: When complaints about censorship are about protecting the status quo Whenever I hear someone talk about the importance of political neutrality online, part of me assumes …
: Media organisations liable for Facebook comments An Australian judge has ruled that three media organisations “could be considered publishers” of …
: The internet's right to partiality Jeff Kosseff, in interview with Adi Robertson: Then we get to these early internet services like …