Finished reading: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. Mostly for kids, but I had already been looking forward to the upcoming movie and kept running across the book, so I bought it. Wonderful story. đź“š
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
Idea for TV series. Law and Order style crime drama where all the crimes are against humanity.
Wednesday session
Wednesday session
Got my updated Covid shot. Going to lie low for the afternoon, just poke around a little with blogging and email. đź’‰
Even if his supporters don't see it, Trump is a pathetic broken has-been. When he's gone we'll dance in good riddance.
Trump was at his most pathetic lying bullshit asshole self. He looked and sounded terrible. I wouldn't have traded places with Harris for anything in the world, she did fantastic. The pressure on her was enormous. I don't think Trump said one thing that was true. And Harris made the point that the division is coming from that guy over there, and if we don't want it all we have to do is turn the freaking page. For once the power is with the people. The Repubs in the Senate wouldn't vote to convict, the Supreme Court just gave him immunity, but the American people, in a few weeks, can tell them all the fuck off.
The most encouraging thing about last night's debate was that the moderators were journalists. When Trump repeated his most egregious lie about murdering babies being legal in certain states, moderator Muir confidently, almost derisively, said that there is no such thing. And when Trump said he didn't admit he lost the election, and then when challenged said in a snotty way he was being sarcastic, Muir plainly that wasn't true either. It was like the Monty Python dead parrot sketch. ABC News was the last place you'd expect real journalism to surface, maybe the NYT et al will follow their lead.
Adrian Vila blogging about the lens choices on the iPhone 16:
I said it a year ago, and I still think Apple made a mistake with the 120mm lens. The current lineup of 13mm, 24mm, and 120mm leaves a huge gap between the main and telephoto lenses, missing out on key and very useful focal lengths for everyday situations. I’d rather see a 75mm lens on a 48MP sensor, with the ability to reach 120mm using the fancy cropping the main sensor has.
The camera is such an important part of the iPhone, at what point will we get four separate lenses, or the ability to pop a lens out and replace it? 🤪
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Obviously I'm voting for Harris
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that I plan to vote for Kamala Harris. Just consider the alternative: who he is, what he stands for, what the world might look like if he gains another four-year term.
Last night’s debate performance may have sealed the deal for many vo...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
How Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris and Walz is a masterpiece of persuasive prose: a songwriter’s practical lesson in written advocacy
[David Allen Green at The Law and Policy Blog]
"In essence: this endorsement is a masterpiece of practical written advocacy, and many law schools would do well to put it before their students."
This is a fascinating breakdown of Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris: not just the what of her endorsement, but the linguistic how. As David Allen Green says, it's worth studying.
It comes down to this:
"The most effective persuasion is often to lead the listener or reader to making their own decision – and to make them feel they are making their own decision."
Taylor Swift's endorsement really matters, and was clearly planned carefully. This wasn't a dashed-off Instagram description, and I'll certainly be learning from it.
[Link]
First Impressions of the Pixel 9 Pro | Whatever
whatever.scalzi.com/2024/09/10/first-impressions-of-the-pixel-9-pro/
At this point, it really does seem like “AI” is “bullshit you don’t need or is done better in other ways, but we’ve just spent literally billions on this so we really need you to use it, even though it’s nowhere as good as what we were already doing,” and everything else is just unsexy functionality that makes what you do marginally easier or better. I’m sorry we live in a world where enshittification is being marketed as The Hot And Sexy Thing, but just because we’re in that world, doesn’t mean you have to accept it.
How to Monetize a Blog
This is a masterpiece.
“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.” — Taylor Swift 🇺🇸
Nice job by the ABC moderators for some quick fact-checking and generally keeping things on track, with a little room for back and forth replies. No need for another debate, other than the VP debate. We’ve all seen enough. 🇺🇸
Kamala Harris has a really clever approach to some answers where she talks about the actual question but then in the middle she inserts a quick jab at Trump — your father gave you money, or the world is laughing at you — and he can’t help but respond and get completely derailed into nonsense. 🇺🇸
Kamala Harris off to a strong start, I think. Lots of policy but also layering in some bigger themes. 🇺🇸
Finally cancelling iTunes Match. Created playlists in Music.app to find and download every track with cloud status “matched” or “uploaded” to my Mac. In the process, found a gold mine of old audio recordings off my MiniDisc, circa 2004-2006.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Big tech is painting itself as journalism’s savior. We should tread carefully.
[Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos at NiemanLab]
"To survive, journalism must continue to embrace technology. But doing so should never cost newsrooms their independence. News organizations should prioritise building direct relationships with their audience to r...
Tuesday session
Tuesday session
Online grocery prices dropped last month. More surprising, Adobe tracks these kind of prices as part of their enterprise products. Talk about losing focus… That business feels very far apart from Photoshop.