Notices by Ernie Smith (ernie@writing.exchange), page 4

@feld I would argue that the existence of the newsletter highlights that RSS is not enough for everyone, hence why ActivityPub matters.

Both are necessary in this environment for different reasons.

@feld Newsletters, BTW, are built using 30-year-old tech that is extremely messy and broken, and is poorly optimized for distribution. Seeing ActivityPub as a replacement/improvement for newsletters, I think, offers a better frame of reference.

@feld Turning off/disabling/limiting comments on a feed is significantly easier to fix than resolving all the stuff that’s broken with old implementations, which leave publishers tethered to platforms that can change the contract on them at any time.

We shouldn’t have to worry about Google breaking our deliverability one day.

@feld We can plan for racist jackasses by architecting for it or building contexts where comments are minimized. Planning around non-standardized technology that we have to keep patching because it was built all wrong? Way harder.

@feld For one thing, I can’t customize the design, which matters to me as a publisher.

Had a friend soft-pressure me into posting on Threads in earnest

… but I don’t wanna

A point I want to make about this that can be taken for granted here: Often, the kind of person who gets screwed by #Adobe’s pricing is either someone who has lost their job recently or a recent graduate.

This pricing is predatory against the economically disadvantaged.

@chris @tedium This is a piece about the JPEG.

@chris @tedium I meant nothing by it. Not trying to be critical even. It just struck me as strange as it was not the focus of my post.

The JPEG is everywhere. It is brilliant. It made the visual internet happen as much as the GIF. If not more so.

Today’s @tedium celebrates it.

https://tedium.co/2024/06/16/jpeg-image-format-history/

So, @mattl totally twisted my arm and he convinced me to let him write a piece about the #Z80 for @tedium.

Admit it, you can’t wait to read it, either: https://tedium.co/2024/05/11/zilog-z80-history/

“In many ways, the Z80 being discontinued by Zilog only serves to highlight the resiliency of the chip.”

https://tedium.co/2024/05/11/zilog-z80-history/

Why does nobody talk about Deerhunter anymore? What a great band. Bradford Cox is the people’s champ.

Another sign of hot dog eating contest enshittification
https://newsie.social/@estherschindler/112600493259425412

Side note: I have written a profile of Major League Eating in the past. They don’t just focus on hot dogs.

https://associationsnow.com/2019/06/major-league-eating-media-coverage-lessons/

@dangillmor I think the best we can hope for is what Apple did today—admitting it’s following a new trend, but being careful to emphasize that it requires our trust to follow down this road.

You follow me—and know I usually hate whatever Apple’s doing. But I found myself feeling like they did a surprising job of maintaining a balance on a sensitive topic.

@lauren @dangillmor I’m not saying I *love* what they did or even trust them as far as I can throw them. Just that they nailed their messaging on this one thing.

@lauren @dangillmor On the one hand, yes, I agree with this. On the other, it’s hard not to look at the mess Adobe just created for itself, the mess Google just created for itself, and the mess Microsoft just created for itself … and not feel happy that someone appears to understand how to do this dance.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of reasons to be skeptical, but Apple is the only company that led with guardrails, and that means something.

Just updated https://dumbdomain.store to do two important things:

- Add more pricing transparency
- Added more domains (and cheaper ones from a renewal standpoint)

I left in .christmas because that’s funny but took out .baby, because holy crap that’s expensive.

You too can take frisky sausages to the cloud

Here’s what is happening: We are witnessing executives and managers make technology that sounds appealing *to them*.

Here’s the problem: Most people are not executives or managers. By nature of management, workers are trying to work.

This whole AI-clones-in-meetings subcategory exists because of this misunderstanding.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24168733/zoom-ceo-ai-clones-digital-twins-videoconferencing-decoder-interview