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1. Who rules us? Google changed its rules on what kind of behaviour it regards as “spam” and, of course, the impact on some companies will be pretty negative. The behaviour it is targeting is so-called “parasite SEO”, where a publisher allows a third party to create content for part of its website in return […]
7 months ago

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More from Ian Betteridge

Weeknote, Monday 23rd December

A week off work, yay! Obviously that has not stopped me checking and replying to a few emails. My team were also attempting to get me to help them cheat at the work Christmas quiz using WhatsApp. Shamefully, they didn’t even win. I had my first face to face physio session about my back. I […]

6 months ago 58 votes
When dealing with Musk, Labour needs to understand the world has changed

There are plenty of objections to preventing Elon Musk from donating to Reform. The first is it’s politically motivated. A party shouldn’t (the theory goes) use its power in government specifically to target another party. Of course, Labour could do this in a way which prevented all foreign donations to all parties, and thus side […]

6 months ago 65 votes
Ten Blue Links, “your time is up” edition

This week… But first, an announcement! TLDR: Over the holidays, I will be migrating this site from WordPress.com to Ghost. This may mean a little disruption, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. Why am I doing this? I’ve been a paying customer of WordPress.com for my site hosting for several years. I […]

6 months ago 88 votes
Weeknote, Sunday 15th December
6 months ago 55 votes
Ten Blue Links, “I am your BFDL” edition

1. Tech benevolent dictators are still… dictators in the tech community there is a concept of the “benevolent dictator for life”. This is a leadership model where one person, usually the founder, has the final say on decisions. They guide the project’s direction, relying on their expertise and vision to keep things on track, while […]

6 months ago 49 votes

More in creative

How 16th-Century Artist Joris Hoefnagel Made Insects Beautiful—and Changed Science Forever

In English, most of the words we’d use to refer to insects sound off-putting at best and fearsome at worst, at least to those without an entomological bent. Dutch, close a linguistic relation though it may be, offers a more endearing alternative in beestjes, which refers to all these “little beasts” in which the artists […]

21 hours ago 2 votes
Productivity, AI and pushback

Typesetters did not like the laser printer. Wedding photographers still hate the iphone. And some musicians are outraged that AI is now making mediocre pop music. One group of esteemed authors is demanding that book publishers refuse to use AI in designing book covers, recording audiobooks or a range of other tasks. As always, this […]

20 hours ago 2 votes
Iconic Animator Chuck Jones Creates an Oscar-Winning Animation About the Virtues of Universal Health Care (1949)

While our country looks like it might be coming apart at the seams, it’s good to revisit, every once in a while, moments when it did work. And that’s not so that we can feel nostalgic about a lost time, but so that we can remind ourselves how, given the right conditions, things could work […]

2 days ago 3 votes
Daydream fatigue

Spend enough time inventing possible futures in your head and you won’t have any time to build the future we will all share. Time to get to work.

3 days ago 3 votes
A Visualization of the History of Technology: 1,889 Innovations Across Three Million Years

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So holds the third and most famous of the “three laws” originally articulated by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Even when it was first published in the late nineteen-sixties, Clarke’s third law would have felt true to any resident of the developed world, surrounded by and […]

3 days ago 3 votes