[nonostantement #164] - platforms vs phds / the pentagon vs memes / hackers vs sms
NOW with more ARMED robots!
Welcome to nonostantement: a weekly newsletter with sharp, uncivil and tantalizing stuff found all over the Internet.
Hello everyone, here we are again today for my weekly mail which contains the most interesting links found during the past week. For the uninitiated my name is Joele, I live in Barcelona and work online all the time.
Soundtrack for today? A nice track (Arrested Development – Ease My Mind) and/or a nice mix (The Gaslamp Killer - Spring Equinox Mix). Your choice.
#PEOPLE
Monocle’s digital decency manifesto. For work in recent months I have often found myself writing about how to be online in a more aware and polite way (do you remember when "netiquette" existed and the places we met online were ruled by mods and you could be kicked out if you behaved badly? Good times…)
Live feed from Iceland volcano. A webcam is broadcasting live from Fagradalsfjall, facing Geldingadalur, where a fissure eruption began Friday night, 19th March. Yes you can listen to Björk music while watching this if you feel the need.
Kevin Kelly, one of the cofounders of Wired, for years has photographed Asia's disappearing traditions and vanishing designs and is now crowdfunding a collection of his photos on this topic that will be published in three big books.
#SOCIALMEDIA
Platforms vs. PhDs: How tech giants court and crush the people who study them. How is it possible, in any practice or work that has to do with big online platforms, to trust the studies of those who deal with them, given that they do not have control of the data that is being released by the companies? In recent weeks I have often discussed this issue with collaborators (and with customers who ask for certainties in a world that does not have many)
[In Italian] [Video] - I recently found out that an Italian minister is on Twitch and she started being there by talking to gamers. I don't have a clear opinion yet but I think it's an interesting thing to do - it is important not to end up like this, though.
An Instagram account with 1M+ followers, and anyone can post on it via text.
It took The Pentagon 22 days to finalize and post a meme. Well, not bad for real time marketing.
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#TECH
A brief but interesting look at what Facebook Reality Labs are working on with AR: a new wrist control system based on electromyography. I hope to see some working examples live soon.
This is a topic that I face so often for work that I never post links here, but this article seemed too interesting not to share it and it is a theme that obviously will have an impact on normal users as well: Google’s tracking changes could be painful for marketers forced to break their retargeting and lookalike addictions
#THEDARKSIDE
Nothing strange to see here, just Human Right Watch asking “Don’t Arm Robots in Policing”.
A Hacker Got All My Texts for $16 - I knew very well that the SMS based authentication system is unreliable, but I didn't think it could be exploited so easily…
Take the popcorn because this is going to be good, what happens when in China they start using deepfakes with politicians?
That's it for now.
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