2022 Tedium Highlight by Ernie Smith: Hive Social gets nailed on basic security flaws. 

Mastodon Bluesky No Man’s Land
Ernie Smith’s 2022 Highlights

December 2022

Why the Long Tail Didn’t Work

Our pick for best blog post this year comes from a music-industry writer who found something troubling about an industry trend.

Reshaping A Drummer’s Legacy

An uncomfortable retelling of a beloved rock star’s life soon after his passing offers insights few stories of its nature can—and it’s for that nature, despite said discomfort, that we rank it as MidRange’s feature article of the year.

August and Everything After

To start off the 2022 MidRange Awards, we give a nod to a guitarist who has taken music YouTube by storm over the last two years—all out of a sincere hatred of terrible pop songs.

White Elephant

A Web 3.0 company purchases Mastodon’s second-largest instance just before Christmas. What does that say about federated social media, anyway?

The Challenge of Correctness

A famed YouTuber reveals that a famous fact he uncovered is in fact totally wrong—and hires an archivist to do cleanup.

The Mental Block

This past weekend was assuredly the most chaotic in the history of social media, and all based on the whims of a hyperactive decisionmaker. I don’t know about you, but my brain is shredded.

Let’s Revue

Revue is shutting down, and as MidRange started on Revue, I feel a certain way about it—especially after learning that Revue’s owner also wants Substack.

Unfulfilling Pi

When a recent controversy blew up around the Raspberry Pi, the foundation implied shortages created a charged atmosphere. That might be an under-admission of culpability, but the fact is, high Pi prices and low availability are making x86 look good right now.

Left & Leaving

On The Weakerthans, a killer album about transitions, and the transition we’re seeing within our own online cultures.

Time for a Walkout

For the first time in decades, The New York Times sees its staff walk out. This is an important move for the labor movement when it comes to journalism. Take a break from reading the Times today.

A Case of the Mondays

We’re working in the office less, and that shift in work is changing the way that we handle Mondays. It’s only really a problem if you see it that way.

Don’t Let Him See You Mad

The recent leak of secret correspondence from Twitter’s archives seemed designed to anger a lot of people. You don’t have to play into the performative anger—even if there’s actual anger there.

Not The Bees

Hive Social’s bad security practices, which are dangerous enough that a security team fast-tracked disclosure, puncture a hole in the formative platform’s long-term prospects.
November 2022

Don’t Fall Into The Well

New social media networks put a lot of work into onboarding you with cool features. But what truly matters is what those networks look like over time—and open looks better than closed.

The Signs, They Aren’t A-Changin’

Bob Dylan learns the hard way that if you duplicate your autographs in a $600 book using an autopen, you will get called out for it. This is a story about the failures of capitalism, really.

The FrankenMac

Thinking back to a time in my life when an old iBook gave me a window into a broader world … and why I got rid of it.

Bobbing For Leaders

Bob Chapek’s departure from Disney was a bit of a surprise—but not as big of a surprise as his replacement, Bob Iger. What the heck happened?

This is Your Escape Hatch

If you’ve had an unhealthy relationship with social media for a while, the past month could offer an opportunity for a reset. Don’t miss it.

Is Mastodon Fetch?

As we close out the pop-up newsletter, let’s talk about the haters for a second here. Do they have a point? Or, are they missing the point?

With Mastodon, You Have Choices

While Mastodon releases features at a regular clip, its nature as an open-source tool means that you can ignore them if you’d like, or add your own. That’s a refreshing shift from closed social networks.

The Infernal September

The case that what Mastodon is experiencing isn’t so much an Eternal September but a trial by fire. Get to know the term “Infernal September.”

Why Mastodon Search Seems So Unclear

Explaining the cultural dynamics that have led Mastodon to have a search engine that barely works by traditional standards.

Does Mastodon Need a Buffer?

Breaking down a few more of the nagging Mastodon questions you might have—including why tools to schedule your posts aren’t common just yet.

This is a Mastodon Pop-Up

So, we’re doing something different for the next week or two, and we’re sacrificing MidRange for the task. The reason? There’s a heckuva lot of confusion about the suddenly popular Mastodon. Maybe we can help.

Past the Personality Cults

Many people on Twitter seem to be looking past the network they’ve made their digital home for more than a decade. I wonder if it’s because the cult of personality spell has been broken.

Crocheting on a Tightrope

The challenge of real-time reporting is that doing it well is really hard. But coming up with some made-up facts about the victim of a crime? That’s the easy part.
October 2022

See What Sticks

Elon Musk appears to be taking a “let’s see what we can get away with” approach to running the large social network he just bought. Whiplash impending.

Normalize Imperfection

John Fetterman, managing an auditory processing disability caused by a stroke, should be appreciated for the bravery of what he did on the Pennsylvania Senate debate stage the other night.

Splitting the AI Fork

Not long after Getty Images comes out against AI-generated art, a major competitor decides to wholeheartedly embrace it—including as a source for royalties.

Pulling a Bono

In its fight to win some ground on the messaging ecosystem, Google appears to be intentionally borrowing from the stupidest idea U2 ever came up with—upsetting the iPhone user base.

Meet Lex

The new AI-helped word processor Lex has been getting a lot of attention this week, and I have to admit I was curious how the word processor felt about all the attention, so I did an interview. With Lex.

Dressing Up The News

On Olivia Wilde, Kanye West, and why a solid news diet needs to go beyond special salad dressing. Not every important story will have an interesting hook.

Podcast Risk

The consolidation of the podcasting space, as highlighted by the plight of Gimlet, raises concerns about whether large acquirers are as committed to the creative work as much as the reach.

Fake Leg Empire

Why is Meta spending so much money trying to make legs happen? And what lessons can you learn from this so that your own projects maintain a reasonable scale?

The Plastic McRib?

McDonald’s brings back one of its standby Happy Meal classics just in time for Halloween, which makes one wonder why they got rid of them in the first place. They should offer them every year from now on.

Burning the Beans

The ready-to-retire Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has had a respectable career, but his hard-line stance against unionization, and the fact that he’s making it about him, seems destined to leave a permanent mark on his legacy.

No More Walled Gardens

Amid Twitter’s forthcoming purchase, I find myself wondering if platforms like Substack, which appear to be moving in a walled-garden direction, can be discouraged from doing so for the public good. We saw the mistakes of the Web 2.0 era. No need to repeat them.

The Power to Change Things

Contrasting the tough actions of the FCC in light of a Supreme Court case that potentially threatens Section 230. It’s a great reminder of the power the government wields to change our communications.

Why I Signed

A quick explanation of why I broke a decades-old rule for myself and signed an open letter to support libraries and the Internet Archive.
September 2022

Fast Hack

The popular business magazine Fast Company is smarting from a brutal hack this week—an incident that highlights the need for stronger security, but also a strong dose of empathy.

It Came From an Old Patch

A decades-old workaround in the Linux kernel held back the full potential of modern AMD chips—until recently, when it was caught by AMD.

Shoryuken Slots

Trying to make sense of the fact that the Virginia Lottery now offers an online lottery game based on Street Fighter II.

Not Too Artificial

Getty Images sets a line in the sand on AI-generated images, citing copyright concerns. The image it presents of itself to its customers might also be a factor.

Serial Disconnect

Adnan Syed’s conviction was vacated, and a podcasting giant returns to the case after many years away. What should we make of the sour feelings some listeners have about Serial?

The Suicide Cable

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns the public about a very specific kind of cable being sold on Amazon that has a telling nickname.

Work History Go Poof

Legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher reveals that even she is not immune to having her old work removed from the internet by short-sighted content management.

Pixelbook on Pause

Google’s decision to stop development on a new Pixelbook and disband the team working on the hardware line highlights how the strategy never gelled—despite the original model still having a head-turning design all these years later.

Wiki-Defense

A high-profile history and politics YouTuber takes direct aim at Wikipedia. I’ve taken my own jabs over the years—but I’ll be quick to defend it.

Mutiny on Dynamic Island

Rather than minimizing its camera punch, The iPhone 14 Pro comes with a new user interface option to draw attention to it. Eh, here’s a hater’s take.

Assessing CloudFlare’s Hand

CloudFlare lost the PR battle in the Kiwi Farms situation, in large part because it mostly ignored the legitimate concerns that led to the campaign in the first place.

Shrinkage

Understanding the odd status of the small phone, which Apple is moving away from and Android seems to finally be embracing once again. Carriers might be getting in the way of your next one-handed device.

Regulation Without Regulation

If CloudFlare wants to stay out of content debates, it needs to reconsider its relationship with the government. Being a pseudo-governmental body is no longer enough.
August 2022

An Optimization Too Far

There is a genuine risk that search engine professionals will attempt to use AI images as an SEO tactic. We should prevent this from happening now, before it turns Google Image Search into mush.

Off-Grid Nerdery

An interesting thing I’ve noticed about small talk in recent years: The more niche your interests are, the harder it is to have it. This one’s for the nerds not into Marvel.

The Other Slippery Slope

Companies like CloudFlare often avoid trying to get involved in content issues out of a concern of setting off a slippery slope. But looking at their recent actions in the context of their original stated goals, it feels like they let something else more fundamental slide.

Don’t Mess With Mudge

A shocking whistleblower report on Twitter’s security issues—from a legendary whistleblower—paints a company disinterested in repairing its significant infrastructure challenges.

Gimme Stelter

If CNN doesn’t want Brian Stelter, fine, whatever. But I think Brian Stelter is an important voice and our culture needs a place for a journalist who reports effectively on journalism.

Pizza Punchline

The pizza chain Papa John’s sets itself up as a source of mockery by launching a new product while implying pizza is somehow in decline.

If You Love a Newsletter, Set It Free

A suggestion to Substack, which seems to get upset whenever a popular paid newsletter leaves its platform for outside pastures: Don’t get mad when people leave.

We Can Harness AI to Create New Things

A lot of ink has been spilled on the potential destructive effects of AI-based art. But in the hands of the right kind of creator, it can actually expand their reach—rather than shrink it.

4 Minutes, 54 Seconds, 798 Milliseconds

A speedrunner breaks the Super Mario Bros. record at a time where it seems like there may not be many more records to squeeze out of it.

Toys, Take Two

Toys “R” Us gets a second lease on life in Macy’s locations across the country. It may not match the chain’s former glory, but at least they held on somehow.

Avoiding the Copyright Trap

Creators are getting nailed by photographers for simply wanting to celebrate the creative works of another person. This is backwards, and collectively, we should solve for it. Here’s one idea.

Minimizing HBO Max

For some reason, the incredibly popular HBO Max service appears to be going through some things—and it feels like creators are left holding the bag once again.

Return to Sender

A recent GOP political campaign around email deliverability could force spammy political messages into your inbox—despite strong evidence that user error and ineffective marketing might be the real issue.

Niche Problem Solving

Showcasing my deep respect for a food writer who decided to take a layer cake on a plane for some reason. Surprisingly, it went off without a hitch.
July 2022

Facebook Broke the Contract

Ultimately, we signed up for specific experiences when joining a social network. When we no longer get those experiences, even in a small way, we should not be expected to stick around.

Where the Paths Diverge

Ten years ago this month, I started a new job, where I’m still at—and a well-known creator in the retro community quit his. To me, the diverging paths are too interesting to ignore.

NFT Toxicity

A bad NFT published on GameStop’s new service drew controversy over the weekend, but the real story might have been the trolls going out of their way to defend it.

I Can’t Stop Thinking About This Song

How a song by an unknown singer, posted over the weekend, led me on a journey to learn more about who he was. Meet Joey Wilson, a Philly songwriter whose songs will haunt you.

Benchmark-Gate

A longtime Apple journalist’s takedown of the culture of performance benchmarking on YouTube might have been a little too sharp. Is there room for less drama?

What a Guarantee Means

The outdoors brand Bass Pro finds itself the target of a class-action lawsuit because it apparently didn’t follow the rules of its own lifetime-guarantee socks.

What Did Medium Solve?

Medium in many ways helped workshop the modern writer economy. The problem is, most of the solutions Ev Williams landed on found better homes in other places—and were the product of chaos on his own platform.

Inflated Grades

Columbia University gets caught puffing up its numbers on a prestigious ranking—which raises the question about what the people running said list were doing.

ERNEST Goes to Nashville

There’s a guy named Ernest Smith who has a current hit on the Hot 100, and I didn’t notice until now because his stage name is a mononym. Shout-out to ERNEST.

On “Manchild”

A defense of learning to embrace whatever you’re into, even if it doesn’t match the norms of your age range. Nothing wrong with being a nerd.

Web3, in Console Form

If you’re going to try to convince gamers your hilarious-looking Web3 console is worth checking out, you need more than a render and the promise of the blockchain.

MidRange’s New Digital Home

My secondary newsletter finally has a place to live after a couple of months off the newsletter grid. Sure took long enough, didn’t it?
June 2022

Repeating In The Name

The radio station replaying Rage Against the Machine’s signature song over and over is doing its best to devalue the work for purely corporate reasons, but the song is too good to be diluted.

Turning Heel

As proven by Kraken’s leadership manifesto and other recent leadership dramas, it’s now cool to be a total jerk even if it makes you insufferable. You’ll still get plaudits anyway. From somebody.

Tech’s Role In Stacking The Deck

There are a lot of issues that Friday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion exposed. One that shouldn’t be ignored? The role that big tech may have played in the decision.

Monocultural Studies

A debate kicks up about whether the browser universe would benefit from a single dominant browser. We’re not in the Internet Explorer days anymore, but the choice still doesn’t makes sense.

The Bad Default

A big reason why Internet Explorer limped into the history books comes down to Microsoft’s slow upgrade strategy at a time when the browser was dominant.

The Fingerprint You Leave

As third-party cookies go the way of the dodo, digital fingerprinting is going to become an increasingly prominent tactic for tracking users. As a new website suggests, your taste in browser extensions alone can be enough to identify who you are.

Meet Your Heroes

On the time I met Zophar, the guy from Zophar’s Domain, a quarter century after I first worked on his site.

Netflix’s Timing Problem

In a world of Barry and Severance, the once-innovative model of dumping a whole season at once feels kind of old hat. And the best example of this might be Netflix’s crown jewel, Stranger Things.

The (Artificial) Truth Is Out There

A Google employee sticks his neck out for the idea that bots may have souls. He’s probably wrong, but it’s still a big problem for Google.

Absurd Images From Thin Air

Pondering the cultural value and obsessive nature of using Dall-E, the tool that generates images from whatever weird ideas you can conceive.

Open-Tent Policy

Why you shouldn’t take a combative tone when it comes to explaining an expert topic to someone else. Don’t be a keeper of the gate.

Past the Expiration Date

Old hardware that isn’t being actively updated anymore is often still useful—as long as those who own it have the option to figure out an upgrade path. Old iOS devices don’t have a path forward.

The Other Side of the Lens

Sony, which produces a number of camera components for smartphones, implies that the DSLR might soon meet its match in the form of a smartphone camera. Cue skepticism.
May 2022

Jailbreakers’ Revenge

A famed jailbreaker is making headway in an antitrust case involving the famed Cydia app store. His argument: Apple made so many changes that it was infeasible to keep the store running.

The Hyphens are Load-Bearing

Why there’s a new slasher movie coming out based around the Winnie-the-Pooh cultural franchise—but not the Winnie the Pooh cultural franchise.

Take Care When Speaking Up

Politically charged public tragedies like the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, can lead to poorly timed messaging when not thought through. Don’t be afraid to give yourself a moment of discussion.

The Missing Second Factor

Google, for some reason, let its Authenticator app break for a sizable chunk of its Android users over the weekend, leaving at least some of them without an easy way to log into their accounts. WTF, Google?

An Open-Window Admission

After years and years of basically being Mac and Linux only, I admit that I’ve grudgingly come to appreciate Windows. I would appreciate it a lot more if it had an easy-to-access third level key to type em dashes and curly quotes, but it’s better than I’ve given it credit for.

Time of No Reply (All)

The iconic podcast Reply All is ending its original format after an eight-year run. Drama nearly consumed it near the end, but for a long time, it was one of the greatest podcasts out there.

Rich Guy Causes Chaos

On Elon Musk and his strange attempts to (apparently) weasel out of the Twitter deal. It reminds me of a movie character who immediately ditched something he wanted as soon as he got it.

eInk on the Cusp?

If you haven’t been watching what’s been happening in the eInk space of late, you’re potentially missing out on some interesting innovations.

Pale Green Ghost

NVIDIA—finally—embraces open-sourcing its drivers for Linux, a long-lingering source of tension within the open-source community. And it may not be because of gamers or desktop users, either.

A User’s Guide to MidRange

As I’ve been doing a bit of site-moving of late, I wanted to honor some of MidRange’s best, most unusual pieces. Hope you agree.

Shout-Out to Todd Rundgren

Discussing the sun-kissed violence around what is arguably Ozark’s best scene, one soundtracked by a Laura Nyro fanatic.

Pound of Flesh, Returned

The Intuit TurboTax settlement reflects a high-profile example of what happens when a company weasels out out something it agreed to do … at least for a while.

Resistance Through Inconvenience

If there’s something that you don’t want to do, the most effective way to prevent people from doing it is to make it so challenging and frustrating that no person will want to.

Free Speech Disconnect

A common explanation for how free speech works on the internet doesn’t seem to be connecting with the public. Perhaps we need to use a Tim Robinson sketch to make our case instead.
April 2022

Dude, You’re Getting a CAMM

Pondering the unusual new kind of memory Dell randomly foisted onto the world this month. Despite rumors of its proprietary nature, it’s actually a smart idea.

The Internet of Jerks

When it comes down to it, the thing that makes a lot of people nervous about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is that it seems like he favors the jerks—which isn’t fun for those who prefer a jerk-light internet.

The Path to Ridiculousness

Netflix is built around content that aims broad, rather than the more narrowly tailored stuff that builds passion but perhaps starts out with smaller audience bases. It needs to make the niche work in its favor—by making it good enough to pay a little extra for.

Lightning Sputters

Apple’s long-in-the-tooth approach to ports and charging cables is feeling pressure on all sides these days, including from a Brazilian judge.

New Slang

Taking a quick look at the world’s greatest FOIA request, an 83-page document listing the FBI’s attempt at capturing the internet’s slang.

A Belated Modern Embrace

For decades, I wasn’t really much of a modern gamer at all. But now, I’m dipping my toes into a new area. Stress will do that to you.

Should Elon Musk Buy Twitter?

Taking on the question that’s been on every Twitter user’s mind this morning.

Bad Subliminal Work

The new Baskin-Robbins logo falls into the trap of trying to aim for a new demographic while not properly integrating visual elements that made their old look iconic.

The Room to Speak Up

Lost in our recent debates on free speech is the context around what created the circumstances for you to speak up. As long as that context is missing, the discussion will always remain hollow.

The Cult of Corporatism

Two hit shows on Apple TV+ have a hell of a lot to say about corporate culture right now, and it feels like just the right time to hear it … even if the source of said commentary is interesting.

Your Way Or The Highway

You might have heard Burger King is getting sued over the size of its burger patties. If you’re at all offended by this, do you think you would get absolutely anything from that class-action suit?

The Centralizer’s Lament

The guy who helped created Twitter, Jack Dorsey, seems to be regretting his work around that these days. Is this an opportunity for the open internet to get back into the conversation?
March 2022

Mark One Off

No, it’s not the world’s biggest deal that Google Docs now supports Markdown. But it certainly feels like a friendly nod to the numerous writers that use it.

How Fast Is Too Fast?

Over the last decade, solid-state drive technology has improved to the point that it’s now significantly faster than any traditional hard drive. New generations of SSDs promise to be even faster—but require active cooling to do the job, which may be too big a tradeoff for most users.

Remove the Screen

The fad of removing monitors from MacBook screens to use them as a de facto desktop machine seems a little silly to me, but it does feel like it’s pointing out a potential market for Apple.

Dial Up the Nostalgia

Old landlines are starting to gain a bit of old-school nostalgia, per the New York Times. The reason? Simply put, smartphones simply don’t feel as creative or eye-opening by comparison.

An !important Distinction

A co-creator of CSS comes out of the woodwork to explain that the !important tag is being used incorrectly by most people.

A Senseless World

A reporter’s tragic death in a nightclub shooting over the weekend—at a paper I used to work at—has left me grasping for words.

A Difference of Opinion

Just to clarify, I do respect what Substack has created. My challenge is that I want to see what that ecosystem model looks like without being so distinctly built around a monolithic platform.

Vanced and Vanquished

Google’s problem with YouTube Vanced reflects the fact that first-party mobile apps don’t allow for enough customization. Fix that, and minimize the number of people moving into gray areas.

Domain Transfer

How a small personal gesture gave me a different perspective on the Russian sanctions.

Congratulations, You’ve Been Platformed

Substack’s new app, no matter the justification, changes the rules around the pledge the company made to its customers—and puts up a fresh barricade to the openness of the open internet.

The Unwanted Supergroup

Epic Games’ deal to purchase Bandcamp is a weird one, but in a way, it harkens back to where Tim Sweeney first started. However, it will break if Sweeney’s megacorp forgets that.

Journalistic Calvinball

Let’s stop pretending that there is one traditional path to becoming a successful journalist. That ship sailed long ago.

It’s a Creator’s Market

The fact that G/O Media let a strike happen on its watch is a massive miscalculation in an era when readers are more likely to follow individual journalists than brands.

Solving the Brand Safety Problem

Advertisers specifically avoid showing up next to big news stories. This is a big problem that threatens the long-term future of news. And we need to build creative solutions—with the help of advertisers.
February 2022

The Death of Consistency

Being great and consistent at what you do is an excellent way to build a track record, but what happens when that’s no longer enough? Consider another buzz strategy.

Don’t Tune It Out

Thoughts on how to parse what’s happening in Ukraine right now, for external observers who may all-too-easily be tempted to tune it out.

Redesigning the Nail

On the ultimate failure of Apple’s Touch Bar as a laptop feature, contrasted with the unqualified success of the Elgato Stream Deck.

Who Owns Markdown?

Writers do, not developers. If your argument against Markdown starts with the needs of developers rather than content creators, you’ve already missed the boat.

Century Club

Why the makers of three major web browsers, nearing a very large version milestone, are suddenly worried about a bunch of sites breaking. (Hint: It’s kinda like Y2K.)

Vindication At The Source

A journalist falsely accused of being a hacker by a governor for political reasons finally gets the last word.

Tales From The Crypto

Cryptocurrency understandably took a big leap into the public eye with this year’s Super Bowl, but the way it did really raises questions about the level of risk we’re encouraging regular people to take.

The Monoculture Lost

Our culture is less collective than it was a few decades ago … and really, is that a bad thing? Some thoughts on embracing the small pockets.

Semiconductor Second Chance

The chip manufacturer ARM, with its NVIDIA acquisition cancelled, appears to be going public at a time when the EU really wants a larger share of the semiconductor market. Maybe the homegrown ARM could help?

Tied Up in Contracts

As phone providers start pushing three-year device contracts, the question becomes when phones hit the price-performance level that a contract isn’t actually necessary.

Frustration Provider

Apple’s unusually aggressive push to retire widely used kernel extensions has caught a lot of cloud providers on their back feet—and the laptop-maker might be causing a lot of unnecessary headaches for end-users in the process.

Wordle Wars

The fact that even a simple, successful word game has at times felt divisive says something deeper about our society. Collectively, we have no chill.
January 2022

Free Speech Zones

An exchange between the founder of Twitter and a number of loud critics secretly highlights what the broo-ha-ha about free speech has really been about.

The Idea Generator

The great secret of this newsletter is that, often, I have no idea what I’m going to write about before the timer starts. Yet, I somehow finish the piece. If you want to do that, you need practice.

The Question I Keep Having

Considering what MidRange is going to become, and how that ties into what Tedium currently is. Real talk: I’m going to be honest about the road I see going forward.

The Power of Rhythm

The nice thing that writing a newsletter around a timer is that it really focuses your writing. The challenge is trying to apply it elsewhere.

The Long Tail Whips Back

The music industry’s deep legacy might have dampened the prospects for new musicians going forward, a prominent music critic suggests. The problem might reflect deep problems with copyright law.

The Culmination

Reflections on a source code release 25 years in the making, something that came about thanks in part to a spare detail in a story that I wrote half a decade ago.

Filling a Quota

One of the most controversial networks on the cable dial came into existence for reasons of perceived balance. As that network loses its main funding source, it raises questions about why a big media company could make that call in the first place.

When the Compass Breaks

Thinking about an individual developer’s unearned greed in the context of an App Store’s unearned greed.

Cloudy With a Chance of DIY

After a couple of frustrating experiences with high-profile cloud services, I’m giving the open-source option a shot. Here’s why I’m giving NextCloud a go.

Advertising Airball

Can you write a more dystopian marketing phrase than “the official COVID-19 home test of the NBA”? God, I hope not. No, it was not a slam-dunk partnership.

We All Live in Ryan’s World

A New York Times Magazine piece makes the case that the toy-driven empire of Ryan’s World, the YouTube-forged success story led by 10-year-old boy Ryan Kaji, is fascinating even beyond the unusual surface details.

The Device Graveyard

The reported end of life for classic BlackBerry devices makes me think that we’re about to see a lot of dated-but-not-forgotten devices grow useless as networks improve and technologies fail to keep up. Not just BlackBerry phones, either.

On Friendships And Seekers

Comedian Patton Oswalt chooses an interesting time to highlight his friendship with Dave Chappelle.

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