Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Billionaire-proofing the internet; Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 4); and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/14/contesting-popularity/
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Billionaire-proofing the internet; Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 4); and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/14/contesting-popularity/
1/
*Picks and Shovels* is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton:
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Billionaire-proofing the internet: Scolding people for choosing popular services is no way to build a popular movement.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113828346614186146
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Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 5): Now we're just haggling over the price.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113828435157729361
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Hey look at this
* A Private Equity Hospital Bankruptcy Gets a True-Crime Twist https://prospect.org/health/2025-01-14-private-equity-hospital-bankruptcy-true-crime-twist/
* Taking On the Biggest Problems and the Biggest Companies https://prospect.org/economy/2025-01-13-qa-taking-on-biggest-problems-companies-jonathan-kanter-interview/
* DNA Lounge: Wherein I want to know how you advertise your events https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2025/01/13.html
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#15yrsago Candy-ass vice-principal calls the bomb squad over an 11-year-old’s science project, recommends counselling for the student https://web.archive.org/web/20100117141404/http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-school-chollas-view/
#15yrsago Electrosensitives tortured by a radio tower that had been switched off for six weeks https://mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/11099-massive-revelation-in-iburst-tower-battle.html
#15yrsago US to Costa Rica: you want sugar markets? We want maximal copyright https://web.archive.org/web/20100118132004/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4697/125/
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#15yrsago Charities that AT&T donated to support AT&T’s anti-Net-Neutrality position at the FCC https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/01/why-the-kankakee-county-farm-bureau-hates-net-neutrality/
#10yrsago Vox received no threats for supporting Charlie Hedbo, many threats for covering Islamophobia <a
#10yrsago 3D printed blooming Fibonacci zoetropes https://vimeo.com/116582567
#10yrsago Pacific Edge, the most uplifting novel in my library https://memex.craphound.com/2015/01/15/pacific-edge-the-most-uplifting-novel-in-my-library/
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#5yrsago McMansion Hell awards its annual prize for the best gingerbread McMansion! https://mcmansionhell.com/post/190275299846/announcing-the-winners-of-the-2019-mcgingerbread
#5yrsago Rating the 30 most evil tech companies https://slate.com/technology/2020/01/against-the-cult-of-apple.html
#5yrsago Security expert offers hacking advice to students whose campuses have implemented pervasive wireless surveillance https://gizmodo.com/how-to-hypothetically-hack-your-schools-surveillance-1840680142
#5yrsago Kentucky’s Whitefield Academy expels student for wearing a rainbow shirt in a Facebook photo https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/01/15/rainbowcakewhitefieldacademy/
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#1yrago Sympathy for the spammer https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-/#four-hour-work-week
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Yesterday's threads: They were warned; Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 4); and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113822397380679709
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My last nationally bestselling novel was "The Bezzle," an ice-cold revenge story of high-tech finance crime starring the forensic accountant Martin Hench.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle
Signed copies from Chevalier's Books:
https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/product-page/the-bezzle
--
My latest nonfiction book is "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" from Verso Books:
http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org
Signed copies available from Book Soup:
https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245
Both are national bestsellers!
11/
My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
12/
Upcoming appearances:
* Picks and Shovels with Ken Liu (Boston), Feb 14
https://brooklinebooksmith.com/event/2025-02-14/cory-doctorow-ken-liu-picks-and-shovels
* Picks and Shovels with Charlie Jane Anders (Menlo Park), Feb 17
https://www.keplers.org/upcoming-events-internal/cory-doctorow
* Picks and Shovels with Wil Wheaton (Los Angeles), Feb 18
https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Cory-Doctorow-Wil-Wheaton-Author-signing
* Picks and Shovels with Dan Savage (Seattle), Feb 19
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-with-dan-savage-picks-and-shovels-a-martin-hench-novel-tickets-1106741957989
13/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* Picks and Shovels with John Hodgman (NYC), Feb 26
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-john-hodgman-picks-and-shovels-tickets-1131132841779
* Picks and Shovels at the Doylestown Bookshop (Doylestown, PA), Mar 1
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-picks-and-shovels-a-martin-hench-novel-tickets-1146230880419
* Cloudfest (Europa Park), Mar 17-20
https://cloudfest.link/
* Picks and Shovels at Imagine! Belfast (Remote), Mar 24
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctorow-in-conversation-with-alan-meban-tickets-1106421399189
* DeepSouthCon63 (New Orleans), Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/
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Recent appearances:
* Just Say It's Capitalism (This Week in Tech)
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/1014?autostart=false
* Lost Dollar Business Club
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuLGgMQfFCk
* Fighting Billionaire Control with Yanis Varoufakis
https://www.youtube.com/live/I0kvjNh7czM
15/
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16/
*Picks and Shovels* is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton:
eof/
@merc That's a brilliant idea!
@pluralistic If you ever make a proper website for martinhench.com, not just a redirect to kickstarter, I have a suggestion: a user-choosable stylesheet that shows the page either as a modern page (Red Team Blues), a MySpace, construction-gif version from the 2000s (The Bezzle) or a BBS-themed one (Picks and Shovels).
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