onfocus

Not following the daily long scream of social media news? This article is a good way to catch up on the fresh horrors. Facebook is really leading the way in ethical absence:

• TechCrunch: Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them
• Mashable: Facebook employees react to scandal on gossip app
• ProPublica: Facebook Moves to Block Ad Transparency Tools — Including Ours

But don't count Google out yet! The Verge: Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps. And why is Apple suddenly the arbiter of justice? Shouldn't that be the role of our government? Yes, says Apple: Tim Cook Calls for ‘Data-Broker Clearinghouse’ in Push for Privacy Rules. This is all happening while Facebook's stock is soaring: Facebook keeps growing despite scandals and privacy outrage. The Market will not fix this. I guess there's nothing anyone can do. Let's just get weird again.

"If you fell asleep in 1945 and woke up in 2018 you would not recognize the world around you." I've been thinking about this quick essay about the evolution of the American economy quite a bit since I first read it.

Dear nerds, please do not ruin this problematic yet delightful 80s pop tune with any more of your overwrought nonsense. I think we have mined this vein enough.

10. We need strong regulation to protect our privacy
20. Goto 10

I think every large company has violated our privacy now—selling user data is the culture! So we need to change that culture via regulation. Congressional investigations with no follow-up are not scaring companies; so promises like this ring hollow: AT&T says it'll stop selling your location data. The week before it was IBM selling Weather Channel app location data: Los Angeles Accuses Weather Channel App of Covertly Mining User Data. With no repercussions we'll see these headlines over and over.

"...somehow you have been transported to a parallel future where everything is more alien than familiar." I love his limited palette here. They remind me of Masashi Wakui's night photos of Tokyo that I stumbled across on Flickr years ago.

This really rang true for me, especially: "I don’t sit there and think about what other people might think about what I’m writing — just the person who emailed me. To me, this is closer to what true friendship is like." I feel like we've collectively forgotten what private one-on-one relationships are.

We have recently had regular E. coli outbreaks while the FDA was fully staffed. It seems like a bad idea to understaff them right now.

Update (1/11): Oh good.

This looks like another great day-by-day project to follow in 2019. This is my favorite year in jazz music and it's already fascinating a few days in. [via kottke] I mean look at these albums! Don't like jazz? That's jazz!

The details in Red Dead Redemption 2 are part of what makes it so fun to play. The Audubon Society sees what they've done there. I agree on the sound design—as you change environments, the sounds of the natural world change. The game simulates 178 different animals: Red Dead Redemption 2 Full Compendium and constantly catching glimpses of them makes the world feel more real. I don't spend time birding in RDR2 but it's fun to know I could if I wanted to.

I got this fun nostalgia bomb of a book as a Christmas present. It includes the visual history of iconic D&D monsters, campaign settings, and pop culture crossovers. I'm probably the target market. I grew up in the 80s playing this game and I play the latest version today. Seeing the evolution of the game over time is fascinating.

For an online equivalent, follow Old School FRP which posts art and ephemera from 80s role playing games.

Some art from 1923 is finally entering the US public domain after a 20-year extension passed by congress in 1998. In addition to a partial list of works here, check out the What Could Have Been section to feel the impact of that 1998 decision. They also have a good page about Why the Public Domain Matters.

Really looking forward to following along with Darius Kazemi's year-long dive into tech history via RFCs. He kicked things off today with his look at RFC-1 about how host servers should communicate. (Also my first look at Write.as which looks like a nice blogging platform with fediverse support.)