Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with dementia, his family announced. Last year, they announced Willis was retiring from acting due to aphasia. (CNN)

Sad and troubling news. I’m a fan, and he’s not that much older than I am.

Stifling Free Speech Is Now A Core Plank Of The Republican Platform (Mike Masnick / Techdirt) Clarence Thomas, Devin Nunes, Sarah Palin, and Ron DeSantis support laws that would enable politicians to harass critics with punitive lawsuits.

Google’s chatbot panic

Cory Doctorow:

The really remarkable thing isn’t just that Microsoft has decided that the future of search isn’t links to relevant materials, but instead lengthy, florid paragraphs written by a chatbot who happens to be a habitual liar – even more remarkable is that Google agrees.

Also:

Every successful Google product except search and gmail is an acquisition: mobile, ad-tech, videos, server management, docs, calendaring, maps, you name it. The company desperately wants to be a “making things” company, but it’s actually a “buying things” company.

The last time Google went into full-on panic mode, the result was Google+, which was actually a great product that Google bungled spectacularly.

Honestly, I don't need reporting to the Social Media Mental Health Police

I received this message when I logged in to Facebook just now, and I find it sweet (aww, somebody is concerned), ridiculous (I’m fine, aside from the normal amount of stress from living in the 21st Century) and creepy (Facebook, you’re not my Mom).

According to the explainer, the message comes up when someone has flagged one of my posts as concerning, involving self-harm or suicidal thoughts. None of which I am remotely having or sharing.

I received a similar message a few months ago, on Reddit, where I rarely post, though I do read and upvote a lot.

WTF is going on here? Are people misinterpreting my posts? Are Facebook and Reddit algorithms reviewing my activity and finding my interest in memes and vintage photos disturbing? Why am I not getting these messages on Tumblr, micro.blog, or Mastodon—do those platforms not love me?

The FTC wants to ban non-compete contracts, which are exploitative and unfair to workers. (Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / Computerworld)

Workplace coffee gets weird and ugly. the $15,000 coffee fund, the cheapskate executives, and other stories of office coffee wars (Ask a Manager)

I went indy three weeks ago and since then I’ve had many discussions about about potential full-time and freelance opportunities.

Pluses:

  • Exciting new opportunities
  • Income means we can buy proper food and not have to eat the dog or cats.
  • Videoconferencing shirt is getting a good workout.

Minus:

  • I have to shave every day.

Teaching generative AI to give factual answers is going to prove as difficult as teaching it to write credible answers has been.

Even human beings have difficulty distinguishing information from bullshit on the Internet. We can’t even agree which is which.

I’m continuing my project of relearning how to read books. Remembering that as a voracious teenage reader, I would discover an author and read everything I could find by him, until I was caught up or had at least read everything by that author in the local mall bookstores and libraries. Asimov. Clarke. Heinlein. Ellison. Niven. Joe Haldeman.

I am adopting that strategy now, starting with Michael Connelly. He’s written about 40 books. I’m now reading his fourth. This is going to be a while.

In 30 years as a journalist, I’ve never been part of a crowd of reporters shouting questions while chasing a public official or other famous person. I’d probably trip and fall down.