Notices by Ian Betteridge (ianb@mastodon.well.com)

Antitrust action is like a controlled burn for forest management: it looks destructive, but it ensures new growth can happen. Without it, the tallest trees end up as the only trees.

Listening to Stratechery and Ben *again* tries to argue that if you built it then you deserve to do what you want. Yes, Google built Chrome. Standard Oil also built their success. So did IBM. So… what? Fundamentally misreading the point of antitrust.

It’s astounding how interlinked the worlds of technology, media and politics have become, which is how I end up writing nearly 1000 words ostensibly about tech which is mostly politics.

https://ianbetteridge.com/2024/11/16/ten-blue-links-im-sorry-about-the-politics-edition/

When you believe - as Trump, Musk and the billionaire class do - that ordinary people are irrelevant to the great future where they live to 700 and go to mars, why should they care if we suffer, have miserable lives, and die young? Why vaccinate people they despise?

No.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/nov/13/is-john-krasinski-from-the-office-really-the-sexiest-man-in-the-world

Well now this is rather useful.

HTTPS://european-alternatives.eu/alternatives-to

Oh oh is the answer “by continuing to publish the kind of transphobia which provides support to Trump’s culture wars agenda”?

Whoa.

https://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2024/11/01/a-new-home-for-pixelmator/

Siri, show me what happens when a company purges dissenting voices and becomes a cult of personality.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/28/wordcamp_password_sharing_requirement/

@FediThing @Polychrome @Colman That's impossible, but also... LLMs don't really store anything they have been trained on. It's an abstraction, not a database

@FediThing @Polychrome @Colman Ahh, not really true: Copilot links to sources when asked for factual queries.

One of the most laughable things about the LLM bubble has been the way it ignores about 50 years of cognitive science research, philosophy of mind, etc. Language models are not reasoning engines. Full stop.

https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/llms-dont-do-formal-reasoning-and

Annoyingly, Apple Maps will not tell me how long it takes to walk from Milan to Canterbury. Just another example of Apple’s “we know best” attitude

Gosh this is really quite useful

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/croissant-cross-posting/id6670288979

No

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/technology/apple-social-apps-contacts-change.html

The strange and wonderful story of David Bowie’s ISP. https://www.techradar.com/pro/cyberspace-oddity-the-story-of-bowienet

Remember everyone: if your CEO insists that you can only work at the office, only work when you’re at the office. Leave when your contracted hours end. Do not work at home. Take whatever your contracted breaks are.

Oh and join a union.

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/ceo-andy-jassy-latest-update-on-amazon-return-to-office-manager-team-ratio

I am shocked, shocked I tell you that "go woke go broke" turned out to be nonsense made up by regressive right wing echo-chamber dwellers who are desperate to cling on to their right to be vile people at work.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/sep/15/go-woke-go-broke-not-true-for-brands-says-global-advertising-study

Another thing about the Apple Ireland tax case you won't read: Apple isn't the only company (and Ireland isn't the only country) that's been investigated for this kind of favourable deal. Both Starbucks (in the Netherlands) and Fiat (in Luxembourg) have been subject to the same kinds of investigation. Starbucks won its case, but the Netherlands is appealing.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_14_663

No.

https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram-is-not-really-an-encrypted-messaging-app/