Screen shot of my next product, WordLand.WordLand screen shot
Screen shot of my next product, WordLand.People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
Screen shot of my next product, WordLand.Billionaire-proof?
I just realized that there's another kind of enshitification that we're experiencing now because the twitter-verse has split into so many forks. Bluesky is hot now, but this isn't over yet.
Developers are deliberately locking their users in by creating new APIs that are not ...
I just realized that there's another kind of enshitification that we're experiencing now because the twitter-verse has split into so many forks. Bluesky is hot now, but this isn't over yet. Developers are deliberately locking their users in by creating new APIs that are not ...
I started a feature list on the About WordLand page.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
An Interview with Boots Riley
[Annalee Newitz at The Believer]
Boots Riley is a national treasure. I loved this interview with him in The Believer:
"BLVR: Do you think that all expression is propaganda?
BR: The word propaganda got popularized in different ways at different times. But ou...
Ayn Rand, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan walk into a bar. The bartender serves them tainted alcohol because there are no regulations. They die.
Matthias Ott
• Matthias Ott
Free Audio Plugins: Accusonus ERA 6 Bundle
I’ve been down in an audio plugin rabbit hole lately. More on that in a later blog post. But I just stumbled upon a set of free plugins that might be of interest to you, if you are doing voice recordings of any kind – be it a podcast, voice over, or, let’s say, video tutoria...
Matt Mullenweg
• Matt
Welcoming Harper
As announced by Automattic and covered by TechCrunch, I want to take a moment to welcome Elijah Potter and Harper to join Automattic. Harper is a super-fast (way faster than LanguageTool and Grammerly), local English grammar checker. The technology is nascent, but I’m very excited to embed this throughout all of Automattic’s products, and then … Continue reading Welcoming Harper →
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
ProPublica is a big part of the future of news
In the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin discusses my workplace, the journalism it undertakes, and why it's important (gift link). I lead technology, and while I sit on the business side of the operation, it's an absolute privilege to support these journalists.
This is on poin...
There are no more gotchas
When people said they didn't know Kamala well, they weren't kidding. She didn't start broadcasting until three months before the election. That's not even one season of Abbott Elementary or Wheel of Fortune. Of course they didn't know her. We should be marketing the hell out...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Decentralised social media ‘increases citizen empowerment’, says Oxford study
[Oxford Martin School]
The Oxford Martin School is a multidisciplinary research institution at the University of Oxford focused on tackling global challenges and shaping a sustainable future through innovation and collaboration. It ran a study on the societa...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Google must sell Chrome to end search monopoly, says US justice department
[Dan Milmo at The Guardian]
The Department of Justice has filed its proposed remedies to Google's illegal monopoly over search services:
"The proposals filed to a Washington federal court include the forced sale of the Chrome browser and a five-year ban from...
CCC | Ban tracking and personalised advertising
A ban on tracking-based personalised advertising will provide an incentive to reinforce sustainable alternative models and, in fact, will be a condition for making them viable. The advertising industry already has sustainable, proven concepts for effective online advertising that do not require targeted tracking and personalisation (e.g. contextual advertising).
MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia
Technology doesn’t have to be terrible. Here’s an absolutely wonderful use of an e-ink display:
I made as much use of vanilla HTML and CSS as possible. I used a small amount of JavaScript but no framework or other libraries.
I don’t have time to learn React - Keith Cirkel
React is a non-transferable skill.
React proponents might claim that React will teach you modern UI, but from what I’ve seen it barely copes with modern UI.
autofocus is broken, custom elements don’t work in all but the experimental version, using any “modern” features likedialogor popovers requiresuseEffect, and the synthetic event system teaches you so little about how DOM actually works. This isn’t modern UI, it’s UI from 2013 at its inception. I don’t have the time left in my career to pick up UI paradigms that haven’t evolved much beyond from when Barack Obama was in office.When I mentor early career developers and they ask me what they should learn, I can’t say React, they don’t have time. I mean sure, pick up enough React to land you the inevitable job doing it, but it’s not going to level up your career.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Undergraduates with family income below $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition-free starting in 2025
[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
Changes to financial aid at MIT:
"Undergraduates with family income below $200,000 can expect to attend MIT tuition-free starting next fall, thanks to newly expanded financial aid. Eighty percent of American households meet this income threshold."
If your family makes less than $100,000 a year, you also get housing, dining, and fees included, as well as an allowance for books.
I was a part of the final year of students to attend university tuition-free in the UK, and it made a huge difference to me. I would also have met this bar for having all costs covered - which will give the students who qualify an enormous head start. May more universities follow this lead.
[Link]
Basically, if you have to lock your users in, your product must suck.
Wednesday session
Wednesday session
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
The Right Triumphed Over Social Media and Helped Elect Trump
[Julia Angwin at The New York Times]
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Julia Angwin makes a strong argument for the open social web:
"If we want a quality information environment, we have to build a new one beyond the walls of the existing Big Tech social...