Fyre!

April 23, 2018

Hello internet friends,

sitting comfortably? Great! Let’s look at the internet together for a while. (Or not. Just put your phone or computer away and go for a walk instead. You’ll not miss anything important and it is good for you.)

I’m not too sure articles like these don’t give the wrong people bad ideas: Hacking a satellite is surprisingly easy – I mean, sure, state-sponsored hackers probably know all about it, but Johnny Scriptkiddie next door?

Acquisition news! Valve buys Campo Santo, developer of Firewatch I really enjoyed Firewatch (go get it, if you like calm, meditative games with a great atmosphere and easy enough controls for everybody) and I’m sure In the Valley of Gods, their next title, will be great. But after this? Who knows with Valve.

Acquisition news! Again! Family-owned Smugmug acquires Flickr, rescuing it from the sinking post-Yahoo ship Weeeell, let’s see how this turns out. Haven’t heard much from Smugmug lately, either.
At least it’s not Zooomr.

(For some nostalgia: A Brief History of the Flickr Photo Page

Remember Fyre Fest? Well, turns out you might remember it again soon: Revive Your Addiction to Fyre Fest News With the Coming Docuseries

Toodles!

Harvey. Manfred… jen… sen… den.

April 16, 2018

Hello, so called “internet friends,”

so Jason Kottke was asking his readers for their favourite blogs and newsletters and not one of you thought about sending him this way? Shame on you. You’re all such a disappointment.

I’m pretty sure we all watched Wild Wild Country by now – the Netflix documentary on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers. If not, go watch it, it is very good: Wild Wild Country review – Netflix’s take on the cult that threatened American life
And now I wanted to to cleverly segue to a hot take that the whole post–60s-hippies thing was really the start of the current type of induvidualistic capitalism but it seems like they put it behind a pay wall by now. (Here, try it, maybe you’re more lucky than I am: The 1960s were about capitalism, not radicalism)

Still mad at you.

As if linking to the Financial Times isn’t bad enough, here’s a link to Business Insider: Hackers once stole a casino’s high-roller database through a thermometer in the lobby fish tank
Nice going there, securing your network, random casino.

I don’t have much to say about Jeff Goldblum Cooks With Jonathan Gold except that it is 12 minutes of pure Goldblum, which you’ll love if you like the guy and if not – what’s wrong with you? Not liking Goldblum and not telling Kottke about this newsletter?

I can’t really add anything to this take: MySpace Tom beat Facebook in the long run – he seems to have a pretty nice life these days.

Okay, okay. I can’t stay angry at you all for long. I know what it is. You’re like those hipsters who don’t want their favourite band to suddenly become big and share the auditorium with a bunch of normies. I understand.
Toodles!

Glitter

April 9, 2018

Hello internet friends,

let me ask you: Where is your data? Who knows.
An article that starts with the wonderful premise that data is like glitter. (Even though I can’t remember ever having data in my beard after a dinner party.)

Meet Fribo, a robot built for lonely young people – on the one hand: lulz, @internetofshit hashtag shit future on the other hand: I think I’d enjoy something similar. Maybe not a black ghost with two eyes that stare into my soul, but… you know.

To be honest, I’m still a bit unsure about VR and AR. Some people are really excited about it, but I’m still pretty meh about the whole thing. And yet this is pretty cool: Explore Edward Hopper’s “NightHawks” in VR! (↬ Teymur)

That weird sign just now? Don’t you remember the Curator’s Code? I still do. Mostly because it is probably one of the best jokes on the internet.

We’ve learned that farmers jailbreak their increasingly hyper-automated equipment so they can repair them in February but what we didn’t know is what they do when the machines work. Well, now we do: Farmer Uses Stardew Valley As An Escape
Farmers. They’re just like us.

Toodles! /me goes back to playing newsletter writer simulator

Re: Girl Stuff

April 3, 2018

Hello internet friends,

did you find your eggs? Great. Let’s move on. And let’s hope that this wasn’t a cruel April fools joke.

I’m not too sure if I’m interested in watching Ready Player One – I read a sample chapter of the book and oh boy, did that suck. But apparently the movie might be a tiny bit better: “Ready Player One” Is An Accidental Horror Movie About Fandom
But I’m pretty excited for that one: Excerpts from My Upcoming Novel, Ready Player Two: Girl Stuff

Remember phone booths? Now that we don’t have phone booth phones anymore what’s the next best thing? Phone booths without phones! And they seem to be great fun: I’m the man in the Jabbrrbox

There are a lot of fun things to put into your garden if you have a big one. Garden, that is. Gnomes. Flamingos. Fountains. But what weirdly has fallen out of fashion lately: The Strange, Short-Lived British Trend of Hiring Ornamental Hermits

If you do this I probably hate you: Re: The Stressful Email Marketing Tactic That Will Not Die
What kind of monster would do that?

Toodles!