I've been fixing bugs that affected, among other things, the RSS feed. Sorry if some of you are seeing duplicate content. It should be fine from now on.
I didn't know the U.S. Capitol had its own mini underground rail network to shuttle people between buildings. I'm always fascinated by these independent networks.
An interesting deep dive into how your geolocation data gets exfiltrated by advertising networks via apps on your phone and sold to, not only the highest bidder, but basically any data broker, government agency, or other organisation that can afford it.
All of this, of course, despite you setting your phone to not allow these apps to track you.
By the way, the list of apps that do this (Google Docs) contained 2 apps I had installed on my phone. I'd take a look and see what apps you should be removing from yours.
This piece, from Ed Zitron, is one of the best things I've read in a while. It puts into words what I've been feeling about tech recently better than I ever could. He's angry, but rightly so.
The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products.
A former Boston Globe reporter on his now homeless life. A tense and depressing read.
