Highlights

 

Up Against The Limits ✋

10/18/2021 • #110

Discussing an annoyance of SaaS-based tools: Forcing users to make significant upgrades based on temporary surges. You broke my heart, Zapier.

I really like Zapier. I consider it an essential tool—one of the most essential I use, in fact. But it has a feature I don’t particularly love, and I’d like to discuss why real quick. Essentially, last month I had an unexpected period of… Read More

10/14/2021

Robin’s Viral Egg 🥚 : 

That impressive Robin Williams YouTube impression reflects a real shift in how people become famous in 2021: By ignoring the casting agents and going directly to the audience with a big idea. Still feels kind of icky, though, doesn’t it?

#109

10/12/2021

Porting A Port 📲 : 

An engineer wanted a USB-C port on his iPhone, so he hacked one in himself. It’s the ultimate manifestation of “if there’s a will, there’s a way.”

#108

10/11/2021

Your Plot Of Land ⛏ : 

If you care about freedom of speech on the internet, don’t expect Facebook, Twitter, or the law to give it to you. You have to build your free space and take it yourself. And that’s not as hard as it sounds.

#107

10/07/2021

Don’t Do This 🪛 : 

Computer companies are increasingly encouraging users not to open their devices … while still making it entirely possible to do so. This is actually a positive trend, and Valve’s Steam Deck is at the forefront.

#106

10/05/2021

Bring Back Personal Websites 🖥 : 

Facebook’s epic downtime on Monday is the best possible reminder we have that the native internet already does what Facebook promised us all. Let popular television actor Matthew Gray Gubler set the example for you.

#105

10/04/2021

Dead Link Department 🔗 : 

How a working link printed in an old newspaper got me thinking anew about the dead links that cover the internet.

#104

09/30/2021

More Thoughts on Ozy 🗞 : 

The problem with Ozy is that it existed to raise up one man’s career, and what helps raise profiles doesn’t convince people to click links.

#103

09/28/2021

The Art of Puffery 💨 : 

The website Ozy might have gotten a bit too bold with its claims of readership, as a New York Times column notes. For many site owners, large or small, it’s an understandable instinct best not acted upon.

#102

09/27/2021

Bless This Mess 🙏 : 

Why I spent the weekend cleaning my piles of junk by putting them into more intentional, somewhat organized piles. (Hint: I want to be creatively inspired.)

#101

09/23/2021

Staying the Course 🔧 : 

Perhaps the problem with the digital software we use (particularly of the software-as-a-service variety) is that there is no incentive to build things that continue to work well for long periods of time.

#100

09/21/2021

Thunder On The Surface 🌩 : 

Microsoft apparently is finally giving into all the complaining tech-heads and embracing Thunderbolt on its Surface line. Wonder if they fixed the security concerns.

#99

09/20/2021

Norm-Core 🤣 : 

Watching old Norm MacDonald clips on YouTube as a mental health aid.

#98

09/09/2021

Clues Blues 🦴 : 

Can we talk about how strange it is that, out of all the things original Blue’s Clues host Steve Burns could have talked to his audience about amid the show’s 25th anniversary, he chose student loans?

#97

09/07/2021

Open To Interpretation 💾 : 

There’s been a growing push by companies that produce open-source software to either modify the models or move away from them completely. How dangerous is this to the OSS ecosystem in the long run?

#96

09/06/2021

Let Us Have Our Holidays 🗓 : 

Ransomware attackers are specifically targeting long holiday weekends, like this one, to attack companies of all sizes. The result is that some people may be having to go in this weekend rather than enjoying a three-day break.

#95

09/02/2021

Small Concessions, Big Problem 🍎 : 

The series of concessions Apple has made over the past week feel like they’re bracing for a potentially even larger concession around the App Store. We should have never let it get to this point.

#94

08/31/2021

Make Louis Rossmann Famous 🪛 : 

The right-to-repair guru, already well-known on YouTube, has been gaining a reputation outside of the platform lately in part because he has been a willing voice for a budding movement. Right to repair needs him.

#93

08/30/2021

The Paywall Dilemma 📰 : 

News outlets are becoming more restrictive with their access than ever in an effort to make their paywalls stick, but it threatens to make misinformation far easier to access. A blogging pioneer has a great idea to potentially solve this problem.

#92

08/26/2021

Streaming Without Nuance 🎥 : 

The movie industry is finding their big blockbusters perform better on the silver screen rather than a small screen. But what if the lesson to take from that is that people want more nuance in their small-screen experiences?

#91