Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Iranian brickwork, arbitrated pillows, smothered comics, and aerogel desalination; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/26/manifolds/
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Discussion
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@pluralistic
This is a good one.
For the Air Canada stuff alone (a familiar story put in perspective), I first thought, but the whole column kicks hard to the end.
Hey, German-speakers! Through a very weird set of circumstances, I ended up owning the rights to the German audiobook of my bestselling 2022 cryptocurrency heist technothriller Red Team Blues and now I'm selling DRM-free audio and ebooks, along with the paperback (all in German and English) on a Kickstarter that runs until August 11:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-auf-deutsche-drm-freie
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Iranian brickwork, arbitrated pillows, smothered comics, and aerogel desalination: Also: bricked exercise gear, Air Canada luggage mystery, and praise for Enshittification.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114920825608042357
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#20yrsago Canadian telco that blocked union websites is breaking all kinds of laws https://web.archive.org/web/20051028181259/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=914&Itemid=85&nsub=
#20yrsago Damning Sony payola memos: “I’m a whore this week” https://somafm.com/payola/payola2.pdf
#15yrsago What “curated computing” can and can’t deliver https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jul/27/curated-computing-environment-apps-choice
#15yrsago UK govt proposes volunteer “police reserve” https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jul/26/cameron-budget-cuts-diy-policing
#15yrsago Street-Fighting Math: down and dirty guide to approximation and problem-solving https://web.archive.org/web/20100605090020/https://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12156
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#15yrsago EFF wins enormous victory against DRM: legal to jailbreak iPhones, rip DVDs for mashup videos https://memex.craphound.com/2010/07/26/eff-wins-enormous-victory-against-drm-legal-to-jailbreak-iphones-rip-dvds-for-mashup-videos/
#5yrsago Lovely video review for Poesy the Monster Slayer https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/26/fierce-slayer/#fierce-poesy
#5yrsago Green Growth https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/26/fierce-slayer/#green-growth
#1yrago Fintech bullies stole your kid's lunch money https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry
#20yrsago How Craigslist changed NYC https://web.archive.org/web/20050727011010/http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/12348/
#20yrsago Game-modder rips into anti-modder US politicos https://web.archive.org/web/20050728003228/https://illspirit.com/press_release.html
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#20yrsago War on Terror as a series of Unix shell interactions https://web.archive.org/web/20050806083457/http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/ThinGuy?entry=the_war_on_terror_as
#20yrsago TSA Secure Flight: criminal disaster https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/07/secure_flight.html
#20yrsago Promise TV — PVR records a month’s worth of shows from all channels https://web.archive.org/web/20050811011823/http://promise.tv/
#15yrsago Federal judge says you can break DRM if you’re not doing so to infringe copyright https://web.archive.org/web/20100728090500/https://www.courthousenews.com/2010/07/23/29099.htm
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#15yrsago Existential D&D comedy: when characters realize they are trapped in adolescents’ imagination https://carltonmellick.com/2010/07/01/out-now-the-kobold-wizards-dildo-of-enlightenment-2/
#15yrsago Terrified guardians of public safety protect kids from rocks, other imaginary dangers https://www.forbes.com/2010/07/21/consumer-product-safety-hazard-opinions-columnist-lenore-skenazy.html
#10yrsago Chrysler has to recall its cars due to security vulnerabilities https://web.archive.org/web/20150728041105/http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_28532995/fiat-chrysler-recalls-1-4m-vehicles-prevent-hacking
#10yrsago Jamaica’s new copyright means Jamaicans pay for reggae the rest of the world gets free https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/anatomy-copyright-coup-jamaicas-public-domain-plundered
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#10yrsago Georgia sues Carl Malamud, calls publishing state laws “terrorism” https://www.techdirt.com/2015/07/24/state-georgia-sues-carl-malamud-copyright-infringement-publishing-states-own-laws/
#10yrsago Explosion at NIST offices was a meth lab https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/07/meth-lab-explodes-inside-government-building.html
#10yrsago If phones were designed to please their owners, rather than corporations https://vimeo.com/134128443
#10yrsago London terror cops forced to admit they’re still investigating journos who reported Snowden leaks https://theintercept.com/2015/07/24/uk-met-police-snowden-investigation-journalists/
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#10yrsago Darth Vibrader: a Vader mannequin made from sex toys https://www.huffpost.com/entry/porn-star-kayla-jane-danger-builds-sex-toy-darth-vader-nsfw_n_55afdbc3e4b0a9b948535810
#10yrsago How .uk came to be (and why it’s not .gb) https://web.archive.org/web/20150910044243/https://30yearsof.uk/the-birth-of-uk-an-oral-history-ab3ebc0e499f
#5yrsago Mass market book sales surge https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/24/software-is-cake-too/#massmarket
#5yrsago Private equity doesn't create value, it destroys it https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/24/software-is-cake-too/#looters
#5yrsago Changes coming to UK's feudal "leaseholds https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/24/software-is-cake-too/#neofeudalism
#5yrsago Facebook's morale problem https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/24/software-is-cake-too/#eichmanns-and-oppenheimers
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#5yrsago 401(k)s are a scam https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses
#5yrsago Central London property prices tank https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#innit
#5yrsago US copyright is a disaster for Mexico https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#hecho-en-mexico
#1yrago AI's productivity theater https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter
#1yrago FTC vs surveillance pricing https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy
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Thursday's threads: Trump's FCC abandons the future; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114909532798456429
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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
--
My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
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