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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta name="generator" content="Hugo 0.91.2" />
<title>
joeross.me
</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="page-content">
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="h-feed">
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/18/michael-keaton-enters.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-18 21:20:14 -0400">Oct 18, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>“Michael Keaton Enters the SNL Ring”</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/CJGNX31DIwk">youtu.be/CJGNX31DI…</a></p>
<p>It’s one of the better films of the last several years. 10/10, no notes.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/18/sam-cole-writing.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-18 18:00:00 -0400">Oct 18, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Sam Cole, <a href="https://www.404media.co/automattic-buyout-offer-wordpress-matt-mullenweg/">writing at <em>404 Media</em></a> about Matt Mullenweg’s ongoing, unforced founder mode flameout:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We were unaware that Matt redirected sign-up emails until current Automattic employees contacted our support team,” a spokesperson for Blind told me, adding that they’d “never seen a CEO or executive try to limit their employees from signing up for Blind by redirecting emails.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is just gross. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would still want to work for him now that toxicity is the norm, but he still has fans inside the company:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There is a vocal group of sycophants who are cheering on Matt’s actions via Anonymattic,” [an employee] said, “drawing favorable comparisons to how Elon Musk and Donald Trump operate. Their morale seems high, but I can’t relate.” Screenshots viewed by 404 Media show some staff having changed their Slack usernames to include “[STAYING]” to signal their support of Mullenweg and intention to remain at the company.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The thing is, whether you agree with him or not, it’s not the rhetorical position he has taken that’s the problem, it’s the way he’s expressing and defending that position that is the problem. And it’s <em>such</em> a problem that it’s hard to see anyone defending his recent behavior as having much of a reputation left after all of this.</p>
<p>As I’ve <a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/05/matt-mullenweg-is.html">said before</a>, I don’t envy his/the company’s lawyers the job of litigating around his ongoing meltdown. I’ll be keeping an eye on <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69221176/wpengine-inc-v-automattic-inc/">the filings at CourtListener</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/14/abhorrent-ceo-or.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-14 19:45:47 -0400">Oct 14, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Abhorrent CEO or not, a lot of really incredible people at SpaceX achieved a really incredible thing with the Starship launch/Super Heavy catch, and it was awesome to show my kids and see the excitement in their eyes.</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/b28zbsnk-48">youtu.be/b28zbsnk-…</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/07/amazon-killed-api.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-07 10:02:24 -0400">Oct 7, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Amazon killed API access for one of my favorite apps, price tracker DropScout. Its developer, Daniel Kramer, <a href="https://mastodon.social/@_danielkramer/113264142218037075">writes on Mastodon</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Amazon has pulled my API access and the app is non-functional as a result. I’m looking for find a solution but the future doesn’t look good.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Apparently it’s against terms of service to track prices. There are other apps that do this so it’s a bit surprising. Apparently they’ve given other services permission and I’m trying to see if they will allow DropScout to do this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>DropScout is my favorite in its class of apps and I hope Daniel gets his API access back.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/07/the-movie-sleepy.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-07 06:51:00 -0400">Oct 7, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>The 1999 movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_Hollow_(film)"><em>Sleepy Hollow</em></a> is, to my mind, the film to watch during the transition from early autumn to the Halloween season.</p>
<p>It captures the dreary, de-saturated feeling you get, on the east coast of the U.S., anyway, when you realize there won’t be another day without a chill in the air for a few months.</p>
<p>It’s full of weirdness and dark humor, but one of my favorite exchanges in the movie is this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><em>Ichabod Crane</em></strong>: You have moved the body.<br>
<strong><em>Dr. Thomas Lancaster</em>:</strong> I did.<br>
<strong><em>Crane</em>:</strong> You must never move the body!<br>
<strong><em>Lancaster</em>:</strong> Why not?<br>
<strong><em>Crane</em>:</strong> … Because…</p>
</blockquote>
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<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/06/sometimes-when-ive.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-06 13:40:47 -0400">Oct 6, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
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<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/10/05/matt-mullenweg-is.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-10-05 13:56:39 -0400">Oct 5, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Matt Mullenweg is a litigator’s worst nightmare — please <a href="https://ma.tt/2024/09/t3/">stop talking in public about the subject matter</a> of the litigation — but presumably Wordpress' lawyer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Katyal">Neal Katyal</a> knows what he’s doing and doesn’t expect the PR blitz to cause problems.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/09/23/im-no-conspiracy.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-09-23 20:01:23 -0400">Sep 23, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I find it strange that my Google TV with Chromecast started outputting green static and weird noises on every input of my LG CX the day before the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/23/24250684/google-tv-streamer-4k-review-smart-home-hub">all new Google TV streamer</a> is set to go on sale…</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/09/23/dear-watchos-i.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-09-23 15:56:41 -0400">Sep 23, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
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<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/09/21/watching-these-network.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-09-21 23:37:49 -0400">Sep 21, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Watching <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyl171lyewo">these “network state” clowns fail</a> will be fun, but that shouldn’t overshadow the predatory nature of their worldview.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/09/12/sometimes-im-writing.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-09-12 20:04:40 -0400">Sep 12, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Sometimes I’m writing a Very Serious Blog Post™️ and then I have an intrusive ‘90s thought.</p>
<p>For example, I love and hate the fact that, probably for the rest of my life, every time someone says “I don’t wanna wait” I have no choice or free will at all and I just sing</p>
<p>🎤 for our lives to be OH-ver 🎤</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/09/06/matt-webb-wrote.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-09-06 23:01:30 -0400">Sep 6, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Matt Webb wrote about his open source in-page chat tool, cursor party:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If you’ve visited my actual website, rather than reading by email or whatever, such as reading <a href="https://interconnected.org/home/2024/09/05/cursor-party">this very post</a>, you may notice somebody else’s cursor pass by as you’re reading.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a wonderful, playful, well-executed idea.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/09/03/today-there-was.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-09-03 22:12:16 -0400">Sep 3, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Today there was a cybertruck parked at the daycare where parents park to drop off their kids.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if I should put my tie on <em>after</em> drop-off because, like, how self-important do ties seem these days, right?</p>
<p>But then there’s a literal human person driving a cybertruck to drop off their kids.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/31/finished-reading-the.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-31 20:54:29 -0400">Aug 31, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Finished reading: <a href="https://micro.blog/books/9780547952017">The Fellowship Of The Ring</a> by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚</p>
<p>By the end you know all the players, some have already been lost, others have played out their parts, and still more have shown the true good in their hearts, and the depths of evil the Ring may inspire them to should they come to possess it.</p>
<p>This is probably my tenth or eleventh time reading these books, but my first time reading it with my kids. Sure, I’m editing on the fly because they’re both younger than five, but they’re loving it.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/29/blueskys-trust-safety.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-29 13:27:33 -0400">Aug 29, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Bluesky’s Trust & Safety decisions may not please everyone, but they’re <a href="https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-28-2024-anti-toxicity-features">clearly thinking them through</a> in good faith.</p>
<p>While nothing is perfect, a primarily public data store subject to moderation by obfuscation (requiring API work to get at certain moderated data) strikes a thoughtful balance.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/28/im-no-employment.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-28 22:32:48 -0400">Aug 28, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I’m no employment lawyer, but an (allegedly) inconsistently applied policy of ominous non-compete reminder meetings when your best creatives post stuff to their personal accounts sounds…problematic.</p>
<p>It’s also an efficient way to inspire them to leave, and <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=hjer379ONJo&t=280s">that’s exactly what Becca Farsace did</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/25/the-princess-bride.html">The Princess Bride, 1987 - ★★★★★ (contains spoilers)</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/25/the-princess-bride.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-25 22:33:30 -0400">Aug 25, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p><em>This review may contain spoilers.</em></p>
<p>This is the first time watching it with the kids. They were enthralled from the initial sword fight on, though we did skip the fire swamp, the “Booooo!” lady, some torture, and much of the burning-giant-in-a-trenchcoat scene.</p>
<p>To me, it’s still true that the idea that more than only a ver small handful of movies are better than this one is wholly, totally, and in all other ways…</p>
<p>Inconceivable!</p>
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<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/18/jelly-roll-was.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-18 14:24:24 -0400">Aug 18, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Jelly Roll was a compelling interviewee on the <a href="https://overcast.fm/+AAoIe_ljQww">New York Times <em>Interview</em></a>, and while I haven’t listened to his music yet, I intend to.</p>
<p>But I’m posting to warn anyone who turned the interview off after Jelly Roll inveighed against voting: he walked that back in the final minutes of the podcast episode, which was a second interview session on a different day, telling the interviewer he was just messing with him.</p>
<p>The interviewer was probably right when he half jokingly asked whether the walkback was an attempt at revisionist history, but Jelly Roll jovially denied it.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, someone on his team likely told him between interviews that, when you don’t want to make political headlines, the only thing worse than endorsing a candidate is telling your millions-strong fanbase that their vote doesn’t count…</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/13/fun-milestone-my.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-13 21:31:12 -0400">Aug 13, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>Fun milestone: my son is exactly calling-every-man-with-a-white-beard-Gandalf years old. 🧙♂️</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/10/this-promotional-video.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-10 22:09:14 -0400">Aug 10, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>This <a href="https://youtu.be/pF6TPvxs95w">1956 promotional video</a> is a time capsule of New Jersey when my parents were kids.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This Technicolor color film was produced in 1956 for the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, and based on a 1953 John T. Cunningham book <em>This is New Jersey</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s surprisingly light on corporate propaganda. However, the mention that one third of the state was below the Mason-Dixon Line was a little too… wistful, especially given the paucity of people of color in the film.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="h-entry">
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/08/02/can-anyone-make.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-08-02 21:14:04 -0400">Aug 2, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Can anyone make an argument that the VP should be anyone <em>but</em> Buttigieg?</p>
<p>And I mean an argument that would make sense to someone who doesn’t listen to the Politico Playbook Daily Briefing every morning.</p>
<p>He has: ✅ name recognition, ✅ policy chops, ✅ resume, ✅ sparring experience, and ✅ a thick skin.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/07/24/today-after-a.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-07-24 17:23:14 -0400">Jul 24, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Today, after a typical barrage of dad jokes during a break from playing with my kids, my niece told me I am saved in her phone as “Joe Ross Cringe Uncle.”</p>
<p>She even showed me the contact card to prove it.</p>
<p>She and my wife both thought I would, and should, take it as an insult.</p>
<p>I did not.</p>
<p>🤪</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/07/22/linked-links-google.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-07-22 02:07:56 -0400">Jul 22, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Linked Links: <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/07/19/google-docs-can-import-and-export-markdown/"><em>Google Docs Can Import and Export Markdown</em></a> by Michael Tsai</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll use Google Docs more often now that it can copy/paste and import/export Markdown.</p>
<p>I still remember using it for <em>hours</em> at a time throughout law school, but most firms maintain their vise grip on Microsoft Word.</p>
<p><em>Linked Links is my term for posts where I’m linking to someone else’s link post. Maybe I’ll stick with it as a recurring post type. Maybe not. Blogs are weird, and so am I.</em> 🤷🏻♂️</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/07/19/i-never-found.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-07-19 03:46:21 -0400">Jul 19, 2024</time></a>
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<p>I never found Letterman funny, and he comes off as mean and a little bigoted in <a href="https://youtu.be/I4AflonZ6S4?si=QLkmjj6mHCNm1sE-">this clip with the late, great Richard Simmons</a>. But Simmons has a ton more charisma than Letterman, outshining him in a 4-minute clip produced <em>by Letterman’s own team</em>.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/07/17/everyone-who-has.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-07-17 16:41:56 -0400">Jul 17, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Everyone who has ever traveled by airplane has at least one infuriating story, including me. But when I missed a scheduled flight on American Airlines last week, the customer service person put me on the next flight with none of the fees, up-charges or judgment that I was expecting, and it was nice.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/07/05/oral-argument-for.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-07-05 15:28:12 -0400">Jul 5, 2024</time></a>
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<p><a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/audio/92800/hachette-book-group-inc-v-internet-archive/">Oral Argument for Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive – CourtListener.com</a></p>
<p>This oral argument before the 2nd Circuit about the legality of Internet Archive’s controlled digital lending program is a great listen, regardless of what side you support.</p>
<p>Find all the litigation filings <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67801014/hachette-book-group-inc-v-internet-archive/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Edit: for my convenience as well as yours, I’ve embedded the audio below. Let me know if you have trouble playing it.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/28/sure-elon-ill.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-28 20:06:05 -0400">Jun 28, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Sure, Elon, I’ll go right ahead and disable my privacy related extensions…</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/21/laurens-hof-writing.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-21 04:36:35 -0400">Jun 21, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Laurens Hof, writing in <a href="https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-73-and-72/">Episode 73 of his Last Week in Fediverse newsletter</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What makes the situation with rumours of Mastodon leaking private messages so interesting to me is that the original posts that contained the rumours got significantly more engagement than the corrections. So it seems to me that the structural feature of decentralised networks that ‘significantly limits the reach of fake news’ can also work to limit the reach of corrections to fake news as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a good point, but the structural aspect of decentralized networks that makes it as difficult to circulate corrections as it is to circulate fake news is susceptible to some white hat manipulation. To paraphrase a misquote/cliché, we have to be the circulation we wish to see in the network.</p>
<p>Decentralization significantly reduces virality, allowing users to more carefully control the spread of information. We can spread corrections effectively, it just takes effort.</p>
<p>I don’t have a solution, but here’s something ive been thinking about: Perhaps there is some way of building corrections into ActivityPub as a special type of edit that triggers a notification to users who interacted with the original post.</p>
<p>I would advocate for making this mechanism opt-out to maximize the flow of corrections, but I know that may be naïve, and that perhaps I’m ignorant of the likelihood that some would find a way to abuse such a tool to spread fake news after all. It’s a fun thought experiment, and I’m open to discussing with other nerds who think about this stuff at weird hours of the night when they should be sleeping.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/19/louisiana-classrooms-now.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-19 19:14:01 -0400">Jun 19, 2024</time></a>
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<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/19/politics/louisiana-classrooms-ten-commandments/index.html">Louisiana classrooms now required by law to display the Ten Commandments | CNN Politics</a></p>
<p>I haven’t looked into yet, but my first thought is that this middle finger to the Constitution has the stench of Leonard Leo and his ilk all over it.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/17/what-are-some.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-17 18:19:47 -0400">Jun 17, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/12/rich-idiot-tweets.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-12 08:47:01 -0400">Jun 12, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://pxlnv.com/linklog/rich-idiot-tweets/">Rich Idiot Tweets</a></p>
<p>Nick Heer has a great post about the vapid coverage of vapid Elon Musk, but this bit from the end of Heer’s post struck me as the perfect Twitter bio for Musk:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>words from the fingers of a dipshit</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/04/now-that-spotifys.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-04 03:13:27 -0400">Jun 4, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Now that Spotify’s family plan <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24170301/spotify-us-price-increase-plans">costs $20/month</a> I don’t have much incentive not to switch to YouTube Music, which comes with the YouTube Premium I’m already paying for. I’m also giving the Tidal 30-day trial a shot, but that would be $22/month for a family plan.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/03/a-quick-ms.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-03 12:07:43 -0400">Jun 3, 2024</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/01/oliver-amp-company.html">Oliver &amp; Company, 1988</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/01/oliver-amp-company.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-01 19:40:48 -0400">Jun 1, 2024</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/01/alitos-intellectual-honesty.html">Alito's intellectual honesty</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/06/01/alitos-intellectual-honesty.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-06-01 18:15:17 -0400">Jun 1, 2024</time></a>
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<p>I’m in a weird headspace about the Supreme Court’s right wing wearing their partiality on their sleeves. I’m supposed to be mad about it, like lots of liberals. But I think it’s a kind of honesty and, in its hubris, exposes the vulnerabilities of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/09/revolutionary-conservative-legal-philosophy-courts-00069201">the right’s more longterm</a> jurisprudential projects.</p>
<p>(<em>Takes a deep breath, hopes people read all the way through, or at least halfway through…</em>)</p>
<p>Obviously, I’m talking about the most recent example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html">reported by Jodi Kantor</a> at <em>The New York Times</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias, and could sow doubt about Justice Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There have been several developments since I first started writing this post in mid-May when the upside flag story first broke. None of those developments changes my perspective. In fact, they all reinforce it. Anyway, to catch up and stay caught up on the Alito/flags stuff and all else SCOTUS, I recommend reading the work of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/profiles/john-fritze">John Fritze at <em>CNN</em></a>, <a href="https://www.lawdork.com">Chris Geidner’s <em>Law Dork</em></a>, and the <a href="https://slate.com/tag/supreme-court">SCOTUS team at <em>Slate</em></a>.</p>
<p>I’m not as worked up about this one because it doesn’t involve direct or indirect financial incentives, or a spouse inserting themselves, however superfluously, into schemes resembling a coup. And it shouldn’t change the assumptions of anyone who has been paying attention to Alito for the past many years. Yes, it’s infuriating and concerning and beyond anything I would hope for our highest court. But it’s not a surprise.</p>
<p>Of course, I don’t believe he didn’t know about the flag hanging <em>outside his house</em>, or its meaning as a sign of solidarity with “stop the steal” whackos, and of course, blaming your spouse in the national press is… a choice, and of course “my neighbors were teasing me first” isn’t an appropriate reaction for a Supreme Court justice to the political speech of his neighbors, however performative and counterproductive that speech may be.</p>
<p>But the handwringing over this flag episode is based on the idea that anyone paying attention could take seriously the proposition that Alito lacks bias or could possibly be impartial in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot, or really any issue of importance to, eh, people of his political ilk. Impartial people, and people worried about at least appearing impartial, do not <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/at-federalist-society-convention-alito-says-religious-liberty-gun-ownership-are-under-attack/">give the keynote speech</a> at Federalist Society conventions.</p>
<p>(Nor do they <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/05/supreme-court-south-carolina-redistricting-ruling-clarence-thomas-brown-v-board.html">inveigh wholeheartedly against a Constitution protective of the rights of all Americans</a>, but that is beyond the scope of this post…)</p>
<p>Usually, this is where I would admit my own outsize portion of cynicism, and caution Dear Readers to consider this screed in that light, but this time I do the opposite: the fact is, the suggestion that Alito has any impartiality to preserve is, at this point, blatantly dishonest or an inadvertent admission of naïveté. As just one recent example, he openly treats the First Amendment as if it applies to conduct by private companies moderating their users' speech (it does not) and then has to be <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/free-speech-internet-big-tech-scotus-case.html">called out on it</a> by Justice Kavanaugh.</p>
<p>Next, I’m going to say something (else?) people may not like, and that I may regret someday:</p>
<p>I actually appreciate Alito’s intellectual honesty, though query whether it’s deliberate or the result of too much rhetorical laziness to be more insidious about his intentions. Because <em>there are</em> more measured, insidious ways to drag the nation backward, under the guise of faith to the Constitution <em>qua</em> <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/the-history-of-history-and-tradition-the-roots-of-dobbss-method-and-originalism-in-the-defense-of-segregation">“history and tradition”</a>, as close as posible to a time when people who looked like Alito, and me, for that matter, held all the power, and there was no immediate risk of having to share it.</p>
<p>History and tradition, indeed.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/24/tenbluelinksorg-shows-you.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-24 05:30:16 -0400">May 24, 2024</time></a>
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<p><a href="https://tenbluelinks.org/">TenBlueLinks.org</a> shows you how to make Google’s old school, AI-free search filter, called, and this is true, Google Web, the default.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of Chrome on iOS, or anywhere really, so I added the &udm=14 suffix to the Google action I use in Drafts and <a href="https://directory.getdrafts.com/a/2S3">shared it to the Drafts directory</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/18/this-is-only.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-18 21:30:49 -0400">May 18, 2024</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/15/godzilla-kong-the.html">Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire, 2024</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/15/godzilla-kong-the.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-15 10:07:20 -0400">May 15, 2024</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/13/my-neighbor-totoro.html">My Neighbor Totoro, 1988 - ★★★★★ (contains spoilers)</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/13/my-neighbor-totoro.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-13 09:55:15 -0400">May 13, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/12/apple-will-revamp.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-12 12:46:38 -0400">May 12, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>🔗 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/business/apple-siri-ai-chatgpt.html?unlocked_article_code%3D1.q00.NlEa.TZR9DORdS4C-%26smid%3Durl-share">Apple Will Revamp Siri to Catch Up to Its Chatbot Competitors</a></p>
<p>Tripp Mickle, Brian X. Chen and Cade Metz report at <em>The New York Times</em> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The decision came after the executives Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks testing OpenAI’s new chatbot, ChatGPT. The product’s use of generative artificial intelligence, which can write poetry, create computer code and answer complex questions, made Siri look antiquated, said two people familiar with the company’s work, who didn’t have permission to speak publicly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apple can’t be serious here. My earliest <a href="https://ifttt.com/">IFTTT</a> recipes made Siri look antiquated. Siri has been, to put it as politely as Siri deserves, trash for years. The user experience of the earliest <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo">Echo Auto</a> was head and shoulders above Siri. If you need a reminder set, Siri will work more often than not. But that’s been its only viable use case since release.</p>
<p>Apple has been <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/apples-plans-to-bring-artificial-intelligence-to-your-phone/">marketing off of machine learning since 2018</a> and probably earlier, so it’s just bonkers that they didn’t decide to scrap Siri at least that long ago and turn their machine learning resources toward something better.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/07/does-the-statute.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-07 12:10:20 -0400">May 7, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://professionalliabilitymatters.com/legal-malpractice/does-the-statute-of-limitations-ever-apply-in-legal-malpractice/">Does the Statute of Limitations Ever Apply in Legal Malpractice?</a></p>
<p>Hey look, my employer has a blog about the kind of work I do, and I wrote a thing for it.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/05/05/i-wore-transitions.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-05-05 13:38:05 -0400">May 5, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>I wore transitions (™️?) lenses for a year and half in my late thirties and no one close to me loved me enough to punch me in the face and force me to replace them. I’m not saying I don’t take responsibility, or that I’m not loved at all, just maybe not enough.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/04/29/googles-connected-speakers.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-29 20:53:30 -0400">Apr 29, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/04/27/trump-vp-contender.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-27 05:01:35 -0400">Apr 27, 2024</time></a>
<div class="e-content">
<p>🔗 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/26/trump-kristi-noem-shot-dog-and-goat-book">Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog – and goat – in new book | Books | The Guardian</a></p>
<p>I’m not quoting from the review or her memoir because Noem is deplorable, and because, somehow, it’s worse than the headline suggests.</p>
<p>When people tell you who they are, believe them.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/04/16/about-to-watch.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-16 19:39:35 -0400">Apr 16, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/04/08/if-your-iphone.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-08 05:41:40 -0400">Apr 8, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/04/02/some-legal-malpractice.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-02 23:31:01 -0400">Apr 2, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 Some legal malpractice cases are bogus, and many are defensible. But some are, well, <em>not</em>, which is apparently how State Bar Court Judge Yvette D. Roland in California <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/just-in-ex-trump-election-lawyer-john-eastman-has-been-disbarred/">viewed the misconduct proceedings against John Eastman</a>, the now-disbarred architect of the 2020 fake electors nonsense. (<a href="https://joeross.me/uploads/2024/sbc-23-o-30029decisiontrial.pdf">PDF</a>)</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/04/02/manton-reece-an.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-04-02 09:41:13 -0400">Apr 2, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://www.manton.org/2024/02/27/an-update-on.html">Manton Reece - An update on the pricing update</a></p>
<p>Micro.blog is such a great value. Like <a href="https://omg.lol">omg.lol</a>, Micro.blog is a positive community built by people who didn’t see exactly what they wanted on the web, so they decided to make it.</p>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/31/bilby.html">Bilby, 2018 - ★★★★</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/31/bilby.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-31 08:00:48 -0400">Mar 31, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/30/that-feeling-when.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-30 11:39:22 -0400">Mar 30, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/26/quicklink-opener-flohgro.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-26 20:57:04 -0400">Mar 26, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://flohgro.com/drafts-actions/quicklink-opener/">QuickLink Opener – FlohGro</a></p>
<p>I do something similar (even in name), with <a href="https://quicklinks.lol/">quicklinks.lol</a>, but Floh Gro’s solution using an action in Drafts for iOS is faster, and private.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/25/manton-reece-recommendations.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-25 17:28:08 -0400">Mar 25, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://www.manton.org/2024/03/11/recommendations-and-blogrolls.html">Manton Reece - Recommendations and blogrolls on Micro.blog</a></p>
<p>I’ve long meant to get a blogroll up on this site, and it’s another testament to the fact that I’ve chosen the right community that it was recently integrated into Micro.blog, including auto-updating, public OPML and JSON exports.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/22/bilbo-is-ever.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-22 20:39:04 -0400">Mar 22, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Bilbo is, ever was, and ever shall be, my people.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Back now to the Mountain!” cried Thorin.
“We have little time to lose.”
“And little food to use!” cried Bilbo, always practical on such points.
– <em>The Hobbit</em>, Chapter 15, The Gathering of the Clouds, by J.R.R. Tolkien</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/21/no-title.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-21 18:03:19 -0400">Mar 21, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2024/03/u-s-versus-apple-a-first-reaction/">U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction – Six Colors</a></p>
<p>I haven’t read the <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.njd.544402/gov.uscourts.njd.544402.1.0_3.pdf">complaint</a> yet, but this was… not what I expected Attorney General Merrick Garland to have his people focused on…</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/21/scholarfy-google-scholar.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-21 14:15:12 -0400">Mar 21, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/~jugander/bookmarklets/scholarfy.html">Scholarfy | Google Scholar bookmarklet by Johan Ugander</a></p>
<p>This is a useful bookmarklet to move a standard Google search to Google Scholar. I use it with modified version I made with ChatGPT to search an exact phrase, for use in searching for legal opinions.</p>
<p>Here’s “my” code:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>javascript:location = ‘<a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=">scholar.google.com/scholar</a>"’ escape(document.forms[0].elements[‘q’].value) ‘"';</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/14/bit-cafe.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-14 15:34:36 -0400">Mar 14, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://32bit.cafe/mission/">32-Bit Cafe</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best part about the 32-Bit Cafe is that we’re trying to move the internet forward productively in the ways we can make an impact, participating in the creation of web services, websites, and weird, wacky web projects. We want to bring back the idea of personal websites to the many of us who have been stuck in social media cycles since the emergence of Web 2.0. Not to mention, we’re not just helping people build their first websites; we’re also making our own hosted services for anyone to use and participate in to help with decentralizing hosted services.</p>
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<p>This is exactly the kind of thing I love to see.</p>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/12/the-hobbit-the.html">The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, 2013</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/12/the-hobbit-the.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-12 19:41:13 -0400">Mar 12, 2024</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/12/the-hobbit-an.html">The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 2012</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/12/the-hobbit-an.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-12 19:40:28 -0400">Mar 12, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/03/06/it-is-an.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-03-06 17:37:42 -0400">Mar 6, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/02/23/yahoo-is-accelerating.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-02-23 15:20:42 -0400">Feb 23, 2024</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/02/17/chris-geidner-at.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-02-18 00:03:47 -0400">Feb 18, 2024</time></a>
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<p>Chris Geidner at Law Dork has <a href="https://www.lawdork.com/p/fifth-circuit-mad-vibes-judges">the best explanation</a> of why the 5th Circuit’s jurisprudence has become so, to use a legal term of art, whacky:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At the end of the day, there are essentially three groups of active judges on the Fifth Circuit: There are “mad vibes” judges, legally conservative judges, and legally moderate (or more left) judges.</p>
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<p>Geidner is so insightful and prolific that, and I mean this as a high compliment, it irritates me a little.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/01/30/the-top-seven.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-30 22:32:59 -0400">Jan 30, 2024</time></a>
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<p>The top seven free apps in the news category of the iOS App Store are a mix of proudly user-hostile mismanagement, fear mongering, hyperlocal hate, and Nazi monetization.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/01/18/haier-hits-home.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-18 22:12:43 -0400">Jan 18, 2024</time></a>
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<p>🔗 <a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/haier-hits-home-assistant-plugin-dev-with-takedown-notice/">Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice</a></p>
<p>Bill Toulas, writing at <em>Bleeping Computer</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Targeting open-source software developers tends to backfire for companies, as others fork or clone the code repositories to prevent the projects from disappearing.</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>At this time, the Haier home assistant plugins have been forked 228 times, many occurring since the news of the legal threats.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now?</p>
<p><em>1,462</em> forks.</p>
<p>These were niche plugins for niche software for a niche audience before Haier let the lawyers loose.</p>
<p>Hey Haier, Ms. Streisand called… she wants <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">her effect</a> back.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/01/14/im-watching-this.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-14 05:31:35 -0400">Jan 14, 2024</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2024/01/13/stop-turning-awesome.html">Stop turning awesome apps into internet noise machines</a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2024/01/13/stop-turning-awesome.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-13 13:19:09 -0400">Jan 13, 2024</time></a>
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<p>The news aggregating app <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/artifact-feed-your-curiosity/id1572927568">Artifact</a> is <a href="https://medium.com/artifact-news/shutting-down-artifact-1e70de46d419">shutting down</a>.</p>
<p>Jarrod Blundy wrote <a href="https://heydingus.net/blog/2024/1/artifact-shuts-down-just-as-i-was-getting-into-it">at his blog HeyDingus</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I do wonder if it would have had a brighter future <em>without</em> the ability to add comments. I never engaged with that social aspect of the service, and I expect it contributed massively to its complexity and moderation costs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I think about this every time a good news or link aggregation app goes away. These apps are, fundamentally, trying to help you sort the signal from the noise in an overwhelming “media ecosystem” or whatever we’re supposed to call it these days.</p>
<p>As soon as they add their own social layer on top of the news and the links, they have betrayed their best use case and their most loyal users. It’s like buying a pair of earplugs, only to have them turn into in-ear headphones or hearing aides you don’t need and never asked for.</p>
<p>Engagement, which they thought would spike after going social, craters. Resources, which were optimized and sufficient and scalable with increasing revenue over time, are siphoned off, as Jarrod wrote, into moderation and increasingly complex development cycles.</p>
<p>It’s a kind of death spiral that most founders notice too late, so kudos, of a sort, to Artifact’s founders for knowing the telltale signs of a terminally ill app, and letting it die with some dignity.</p>
<p>There are already plenty of places to share links and half-baked hot takes. The real challenge, for Artifact’s founders and anyone else with the leadership, technical and fundraising skills to tackle it, is to build something extremely useful to individuals <em>without draining all of its lifeblood into a push for “social”</em> that ultimately just turns it into another internet noise machine.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/30/finished-reading-charlottes.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-30 21:05:21 -0400">Oct 30, 2023</time></a>
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<p>Finished reading: <a href="https://micro.blog/books/9780062406781">Charlotte’s Web</a> by E. B. White 📚 — ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Skip and dance, jump and prance! Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods! The world is a wonderful place when you’re young.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It sure is.</p>
<p>What a hell of an amazing book to relegate to the unjustly dismissed “children’s” shelves. This book gets five stars, no question about it.</p>
<p>White manages to address, in my opinion, so many of The Important Things We All Should Learn About Rather Young If Possible, including misogyny/clueless men, bullies, transactional acquaintances, competition, the joy and sorrow of freedom, the dilemma of the naive but intelligent, parenting (well, let’s be honest, mostly motherhood), the distinction between pathology and an innocent’s rational-from-their-perspective perceptions, the rarity and value of adults who are aware of the immediately preceding concept (like the inimitable Dr. Dorian), evolution, religion, birth and death, and, of course, the intergenerational power of real, no-but-seriously-really-real friendship that reaches out beyond its originators and enriches those who come after, in ways known and unknown, for years or decades to come.</p>
<p>Like I said, just a hell of a book.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/24/someone-please-tell.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-24 04:57:03 -0400">Oct 24, 2023</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/21/dont-bother-giving.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-21 16:07:54 -0400">Oct 21, 2023</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/13/thanks-to-casey.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-13 23:22:26 -0400">Oct 13, 2023</time></a>
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<h1><a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/12/iphone-as-geek.html">iPhone as geek guardrails </a></h1>
<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/12/iphone-as-geek.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-12 05:12:24 -0400">Oct 12, 2023</time></a>
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<p>Here’s a reply I posted to someone I follow on Mastodon who, on being issued an iPhone by their employer for work calls, was wondering why anyone chooses it over other options when, for example, it’s hard to sideload something as simple as a custom ringtone:</p>
<p>Look I need guardrails and I’ve known that ever since I was bopping around the command line on my HTC Evo 4G.</p>
<p>Some of us stopped headbanging not because the music left our hearts, but because if you feel something too deeply for too long it can destroy you.</p>
<p>That’s what was happening to me in the bowels of my root-and-rom addiction.</p>
<p>Now I pay 0.99 for a ringtone to Tim Apple and say thank you sir may I have another because I’m safe from sudo-ing on my phone.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/10/01/is-it-true.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-10-01 12:02:06 -0400">Oct 1, 2023</time></a>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/09/30/princeton-public-library.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-09-30 11:33:28 -0400">Sep 30, 2023</time></a>
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<p>Princeton Public Library.</p>
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<a href="https://joeross.me/2023/09/20/dear-lawyers-still.html" class="u-url"><time class="dt-published" datetime="2023-09-20 12:46:06 -0400">Sep 20, 2023</time></a>