I’m annoyed, not for the first time, by something Sam Altman has said. But this time it’s because I’m annoyed at how much I agree with what he’s saying – even though I think his statement is kind of bullshit. In a recent interview, journalist Cleo Abram asked Altman how people will be able to […]
For Matter, this year was never going to be about flashy new features. Other than support for security cameras, which I hear should finally arrive this fall, 2025 is all about fixing problems. And with Matter 1.4.2, announced today, the smart home standard is taking an encouraging step forward. Back in January, Tobin Richardson, president […]
Passwords still seem to be the most popular method of ensuring that the right person is using the right app or service, despite the slow adoption of passkeys, which are considered more secure. And because we should be using different ones for each device and/or app, the best way to track all of them is […]
It’s the lack of noise you notice first. There’s no clatter of equipment, rumble of engines, or chatter of coworkers. Only the low hum of electronics. For an industrial space, this is eerily quiet, but it makes sense in a building where robots might outnumber people. I’m at a warehouse – or customer fulfilment center […]
In the fascinating new reality of the internet, teen girls can’t learn about periods on Reddit and indie artists can’t sell smutty games on Itch.io, but a military contractor will make you nonconsensual deepfakes of Taylor Swift taking her top off for $30 a month. Early Tuesday, Elon Musk’s xAI launched a new image and […]
I keep hearing the same sentence repeating in my head. “My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years.” RFK Jr., our current secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said this at a congressional hearing at the end of June. Wearables, he said, are key to the MAHA […]
Now that we’re about halfway into the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, we can take stock of his administration’s destruction of online environmental resources. It’s worse than last time. It’s also, seemingly, just the beginning – paving the way forward for the president’s polluting agenda. A watchdog group that monitors publicly-available environmental […]
In the aftermath of itch.io pulling the sale of over 20,000 pages of adult content, the creators of that work are left feeling betrayed, exhausted, and fearful. The number of platforms that permit the sale of adult material is shrinking, and there’s no guarantee the ones that remain will still permit it in the future. […]
With the rise of AI writing tools, Wikipedia editors have had to deal with an onslaught of AI-generated content filled with false information and phony citations. Already, the community of Wikipedia volunteers has mobilized to fight back against AI slop, something Wikimedia Foundation product director Marshall Miller likens to a sort of “immune system” response. […]
During today’s Nintendo Indie World showcase, I had two epiphanies. The first was the realization that friendslop games are about to hit the Switch 2 like a falling piano in a Road Runner cartoon. The second was that I love that for me, because that means I can finally play them. My friends love “friendslop,” […]