On the Future of MetaFilter – Marco.org Marco Arment discussing the Google-inflicted problems MetaFilter are having, pretty much nails what I consider a reasonable and sane attitude to Google: "People wonder why I’m so skeptical of Google and careful not to rely on them for too much. This is why: they’re in this unassailable position of absolute monopoly power for such a massive part of web publishing because too many people aren’t so skeptical."
Signs from the near future On the one hand, this is interesting because it's about the practical applications of design. On the other, quite a lot of these feel a bit retro-future to me. Which is kind of weird, and an idea I probably want to explore a bit in some form when time permits.
On the Future of MetaFilter — Technology Musings — Medium Relatedly to one of today's other links here's a write up of what's going on with Metafilter, which basically comes down to "it's business model is built on Google being helpful in a specific way". Which is a flaw in their model, but it's also an interested outside perspective on things changing inside the Google black box.
Jeremy Palmer — Google is Breaking the Internet This is insane to me. I know I'm on record as not being a Google cheerleader, but this is weird, even for them – their business is built on accurately rating the trustworthiness of links, and yet they're mis-classifying trustworthy links as untrustworthy? This says to me that something is broken internally in Google, and if they don't get if fixed, it's going to be long-term bad for *everyone*. I'd like to see this do the rounds and get outcry about it, not because I believe Google are being Evil here, but because I think they need to be made very aware of the mistake, for everyone's good, including theirs.
Matthew Irvine Brown » Little Printer "New British Modern". Or, put another way: a great many of my favourite things rolled up into one. I recently wrapped up a (completely unrelated, absolutely nothing to do with technology) project that was drawing on a similar aesthetic, and reading this has got me thinking about how I'd put a similar set of notes together for a moodboard/design manual for the next one.
Programming Sucks If you ever wonder what it is I do all day (and I don't blame you, a lot of the time I wonder the same thing), then I suggest you read this. It is pretty much the most perfect encapsulation of my daily working life I have ever encountered, and, I should point out, has been true everywhere I have worked. Warning: after read this, you may never wish to use the internet again.
Another Way To Breathe – WicDiv Playlist: Alice Kieron on The Sisters of Mercy, their place in his life (a very similar one to mine, and a lot of other people, I suspect), and their place in his upcoming work. Well worth a read.
The ComiXology Outrage Marco Arment on Gerry Conway on Comixology and Amazon. Specifically, he's making the point while Conway is correct to blame for the changes, the changes are nevertheless simply Amazon doing what it always does, and the Comixology were irresponsible in selling out a behemoth with a proven track record of being bad for publishers and independent creators.
Sheikh Nasr – Elephant painting an elephant. I am not 100% sure what I'm looking at here. As in: it is obvious that an elephant has just painted a picture of an elephant at least as well as I could. I'm wary of ascribing particular intentionality to that. That is to say I don't think it's done that because that's what it wants to paint, I think it has been trained to produce that specific painting. Which does not make it less impressive, or the elephant less majestic or intelligent, but I would like to be more sure of how the ethically the elephant was trained. But however it was trained, I think the lesson here is: Elephants are awesome, and we should leave them alone to get on with their own Elephant Business, instead of fucking up their habitats, domesticating them, and generally messing them about.
How to drink all night without getting drunk I might actually have to give this a go at some point, just to see if it's true. Although five or six teaspoons of yeast seems like an awful lot to consume at one sitting – surely that can't be good for you? Mind you, neither's beer, really…
