Werd I/O

"An interactive guide to rights the Supreme Court has established — and could take away." Published a few months ago, but completely relevant, on-point reporting (served as a fully-static web page). #Democracy

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Good overview. I think European tech regulations have been broadly good, establishing the anti-competitive and pro-privacy rules that US legislators have failed to enact. If we could only all be so protected. #Technology

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It makes sense that oil companies would try to frame driving a gas car as freedom. As an EV driver, I can tell you that it is not. I would prefer if we all had great, integrated public transit - but for the moment, at least, it has been an improvement in every way for me as a driver. I'll never go back. #Climate

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A really great list of foundational and/or influential writing about how to build the web, starting with Tim Berners-Lee's Cool URIs Don't Change post from 1998. #Technology

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It says a lot that in areas where officers aren’t allowed to put schoolchildren in holds that restrict breathing or their ability to speak, departments take officers out of schools in protest. These laws should be in place everywhere, and police officers should not be in schools. #Society

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I certainly have some thoughts that I will share. Imagine if you could allow an AI agent to create copyrighted works at scale with no human involvement. It would allow for an incredible intellectual property land grab. #AI

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I’m surprised that mandatory disclosure of carbon emissions isn’t widespread - it does seem like the prerequisite to making any change. And yeah, these companies should pay. And be forced to reduce their emissions. And be fined heavily, and prosecuted, when they don’t. #Climate

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Remote workers feel less connected to company missions, but the big message here is that nobody really feels all that connected. There are no superficial answers here: the real differentiators are better company cultures where people feel truly valued, much stronger communication, and better missions. #Labor

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Good commentary on the dissonance between vendors like Microsoft banning scraping of their platforms while simultaneously releasing products that depend on scraping other peoples' data. Some sort of commons agreement would go a long way here, but it won't happen while platforms can get away with this one-sided relationship. #Technology

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A neat rule: union-busters must recognize the unions they're trying to undermine. The union rebound continues. #Labor

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I'd love to understand what prompted Automattic to offer a hosting plan for $38K. On one level, I love it - it lasts for 100 years! and I love Automattic! - but I can't justify this, and I'm not quite sure who it's for? If this is marketing, what are the goals? #Technology

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Republicans think cities are much less safe than Democrats do. San Francisco and Philadelphia (my old neighborhood and new one) are notable here: Democrats agree that they're pretty safe, whereas Republicans seem to think they're war zones. I think we can solidly blame conservative media propaganda for this. #Democracy

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Less than a quarter of Americans know they don't have meaningful privacy protections on the internet. The first step to changing this fact might be to change this number. #Democracy

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Customs and Border Protection is using sentiment analysis on inbound and outbound travelers who "may threaten public safety, national security, or lawful trade and travel". That's dystopian enough in itself, but there's no way they could limit the trawl to those people, and claims made about what the software can do are dubious at best. #AI

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The UK seems to want to break international law to retain its ability to mass surveil by forcing software vendors to break their protections for users everywhere. It's an anti-democratic approach that puts journalists and vulnerable populations at risk. It also counter-productively undermines the UK's own technology sector. #Technology

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I'm a little bit suspicious that Apple is suddenly into right-to-repair, but broadly this is good. I just wish it was a nationwide law instead of one that is limited to California. Hopefully the idea can expand to the federal level. #Technology

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“White women founded companies comprise 79% of reported early-stage VC dollars going to underrepresented founders and 64% of investments made into companies with underrepresented founders by deal count. Ecosystem-wide, we need to up our game by investing seed money into a broader spectrum of founders of color.” #Startups

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Terrible website, very good idea. I would love to contribute to something like this. #Media

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A new, independent, worker-owned venture by ex-Motherboard journalists. I'm a subscriber. #Technology

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Interesting commentary on "economic theories that have led to government by markets, fuelling financial and other shocks, and the rise of authoritarian, and even neo-fascist regimes promising citizens ‘protection’ from ‘globalised’ markets.” #Climate

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It costs $15 to uncover an American's personally identifiable information illegally for potentially violent purposes. But also consider the number of entities that have access to this information legally, without any oversight. None of it should be allowable. #Technology

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A good rule of thumb is that if technology makes something feasible, someone will do it regardless of the ethics. Here, AI makes it easy to perform warrantless surveillance at scale - so someone has turned it into a product and police are buying it. #AI

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“RSS is not email. You don’t have to get to inbox zero!” is a correct take, in my opinion; that’s certainly how I approach my feed reader. But also, I’ve got bad news about my email inbox. #Technology

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Why the internet - as well as more traditional media like books - are a lifeline for kids hungry to learn about queer history. Of course, I'm sure the usual suspects will come for those too. #Equality

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This stance by the International Chess Federation is so transparently bigoted that it helps clarify other anti-trans measures happening across competitive sports. There's nothing here about fairness; it's all to do with conservative division and hatred. #Equality

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