The Web as filtered (and hopefully enriched ;-) by Adrian McEwen
January 22, 2018
Interesting Things on the Internet: January 22nd 2018
- Google Memory Loss. Seems Google's mission to organise the world's information should have the caveat "where information is defined as things we can monetize". Who could've guessed. Still, a decent argument for joining me in switching to Duck Duck Go as your search engine.
- The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed. Lowering the barriers to global supply chains is good, but also makes it easier for a billion get-rich-quick chancers to join in too.
- Beyond the Rhetoric of Algorithmic Solutionism. "in a zero-sum context, that means that the resources to do something about the information that is learned is siphoned off to the technology. And, worse, because the technology is supposed to save money, there is no budget for using that data to actually help people. Instead, technology becomes a mirage. Not because the technology is inherently bad, but because of how it is deployed and used."
- The Last Chance Saloon. Good, if concerning, questions about whether Liverpool City Council should be involving itself so much in Everton's potential new stadium.
- The Social Workings of Contract. There are many times when it benefits both parties to a contract to not strictly enforce all the terms. "Smart" contracts, which pour all those terms into code, don't allow that, which makes them less useful. The sooner us computer geeks realise that messy and imprecise can be a feature, not a bug, the better.
January 15, 2018
Interesting Things on the Internet: January 15th 2018