Notices by Ryan Singel (ryansingel@writing.exchange)

404 on why the work matters:

“[W]e cannot set the bar for our success at the systemic saving of democracy. Instead, we have found that our work can and does make incremental positive change at the local, state, and federal level, and that, over time, these small improvements become increasingly important.”

https://www.404media.co/why-the-work-still-matters-under-trump/

Support indie media. Preferably those not using tech that platforms Nazis and makes oligarchs richer.

Holy hell. This was inevitable.

Hackers, allegedly Chinese, got into the federally mandated surveillance backdoors of Verizon and AT&T's networks, snooping on everything.

The mandated backdoors were first required on phone systems in 1994 by the CALEA law, then controversially extended to broadband by the FCC in '04.

That's right folks. Broadband is so important that it must have backdoors for cops, but not important enough for the FCC to require consumer protections

https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/u-s-wiretap-systems-targeted-in-china-linked-hack-327fc63b?st=YTenau

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the ultra rich founders of the VC firm A16Z, threw a hissy fit on Twitter ahead of an SF Standard story following their public embrace of Trump.

Here's the story, which is a completely fair straightforward telling of the change in the Horowitz family's donations and politics
https://sfstandard.com/2024/08/16/felicia-ben-horowitz-party-switch/

Also if you publish on or subscribe to anything on #Substack, you're making these jackasses richer (and likely enriching the Saudi butchers of Jamal Khashoggi too)

@mathewi, one of the smartest chroniclers of online media, announced he's leaving Columbia Journalism Review:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/mathew_ingram_goodbye.php

In his going away post he writes about what he's optimistic about: small, independent sites. Of the 5 he listed, three of them use @ghost and @Outpost (which I co-founded)

@404mediaco, @caseynewton, and @flaminghydra
(Go subscribe!)

Nice validation of a new wave of media w/ indie publishers using indie tech to build sustainable businesses

Turns out Elon Musk is a rude dick even to his ideological allies. This is the right-wing activist attorney general in Missouri reaching out in the DMs. Via a sunshine request.

The moral bankruptcy of A16Z, also known as the primary investors in #Substack.

Choose your publishing tech and subscription dollars accordingly

https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/24/24204706/marc-andreessen-ben-horowitz-a16z-trump-donations

I still think the most under-reported, most holy shit tech story of the last 5+ years is how good e-bikes have gotten and how much more affordable a decent e-bike has become.

E-cars and trucks are a nice change but mostly meh. E-bikes, tho? They are magic.

They deserve subsidies and way more press attention.

@dneary @evan Repo Man

@evan
@dangillmor

BRAG LOUDLY!

And then say that you know my private and unlisted email address ryan@outpost.pub and for them to say Evan sent you which will get them hooked up (truth!)

@dangillmor
If anyone knows how to contact him, I'd love to pitch him on something better

I spent a good 30 minutes today trying to figure out why no videos would play for longer than 2 seconds on the Android. Closed apps, restarted phone, cleared caches, made sacrifices to tech deities both major and minor.

Finally disconnected Google Buds Pro from Bluetooth and that was it. The "transparency" setting on those headphones is so sensitive the tiniest noise was stopping video playback

I feel both dumb and angry. Which is about right for Gen X

Thank you for coming to my anti-TED Talk

This is always what #Substack has been.

Marc Andreesen pouring $85M in funding to Substack was the original Musk buying Twitter. It was an extension of his idea to build his own publication because he hated tech media.

It’s always been a grievance play, funded by white guy VC grievers, and run by a white guy griever.

@caseynewton is moving Platformer to the open-source Ghost membership CMS from Substack over its awful moderation

Glad to see more folks moving to an indie platform.

I founded Outpost.pub 2.5 years on the belief Ghost (open source, non-profit) is the future for membership-driven publishing, and that our co-op model for power services for Ghost publishers would succeed where VC $ floundered.

Still a long way to go but sticking with this bet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/11/substack-platformer-nazis/

Almost every day, I think about this story about Brown University throwing out dorm air filters en masse into a dumpster

Wanting a pandemic to be over so hard that you throw out clean air machines and paper towels. Could not even bother to donate them

#covid #AirQuality

Want to reduce household illness? Get a decent air filter.

Having people over to your house? Use a decent air filter.

Have a classroom full of kids? Use an air filter.

They work and are cheap.

https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/10/inconvenient-wasteful-frustrating-students-react-to-removal-of-paper-towels-air-purifiers-from-on-campus-housing

Indie creators ditching one VC-funded company for another one thinking it'll be different this time. It won't be. The incentives remain the same.

LiveJournal was a trap
Medium was a trap
Patreon is a trap
Substack is a trap
Etsy became a trap
Beehiiv...

The difference this time is that there are real indie alternatives

Ghost
WordPress
Transistor.fm
Fediverse
Outpost.pub (self plug)
Buttondown
And more

The hacienda must be built

#SubstackMigration #Substack

If you publish via #Substack and are looking to move to an indie platform, our publishers cooperative Outpost.pub can help.

We help power sites like 404 Media, Tangle, and The Lever.

We support sites using Ghost, an open source CMS.

Drop a note at support@outpost.pub for details

At the radiology clinic in Kaiser in Oakland. Only one tech because all the rest are sick. Staff not masking. Patients, including those clearly sick and coughing, not masking either.

Love being "post-pandemic".

Even if you don't wear a mask anywhere else, my god, put one on in a hospital full of sick people.

@ernie
It should but maybe these writers should use a different platform?

The Dutch are using AI to street shame the rest of the world

https://dutchcyclinglifestyle.com/

Here's a stretch of Telegraph in Oakland that's perfect for getting that treatment

Try it yourself

I appreciate the Washington Post story from Michael Coren on how to replace a car with an e-bike, but it's still stuck in car-centric thinking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/10/17/electric-bikes-cars-cost-testing/

E-bikes are electric vehicles.

E-bikes are the most popular electric vehicles.

E-bikes are the most revolutionary electric vehicles.

E-bikes rarely get subsidized, unlike giant e-cars and trucks, because lawmakers think of them as toys, not vehicles.

E-bikes are electric vehicles.