Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales on how to build institutional trust. These insights will be important to rebuilding United States institutions (whose decline was well underway before Trump occupied the White House, though Trump accelerated the process drastically).
Tech Startups Are Handing Out Free Nicotine Pouches to Boost Productivity. I read this article to scoff at this as yet another example of toxic hustle culture. But how are nicotine pouches different from my own coffee habit?
The rise of the troll state. Maduro Was Offered Up To The Algorithm. By Ryan Broderick at Garbage Day.
Grok creates non-consensual porn as regulators circle. According to the Financial Times, X is now “the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter.”
A list of predictions made in 1926 about 2026. Marriages will be easy to cancel, beef will disappear, there will be so many cars none of them will be able to move, people will work to age 100, breakfast will be summonable by the touch of a button (hello, Doordash) and Americans will get rid of politicians and enjoy having less money. “… the American is going to learn that it is better an easier to enjoy a little money than to turn a lot of money into more money still.” Oh, 1926, you had such high hopes for us.
Data centers manifest their destiny in middle America. Data center developers are heading west to find land and power for their projects. Companies like Meta have launched PR campaigns in an apparent attempt to get ahead of local opposition. They’re running ads to pitch data centers as great for local communities. Job growth is a key part of the pitch — thousands of contractors are needed to build a facility. But those jobs may not last long-term once the data center is operational.
The Clicks Communicator is a BlackBerry for your phone The Clicks Communicator is a simplified phone that’s a reminder of an old-school BlackBerry. It has a physical thumb keyboard, and it’s designed for communications. It’s expensive, though — $499. I am skeptical that people are willing to spend that much money for a phone that does less.
Brown Stage Capitalism. Cory Doctorow’s ‘Enshittification’ describes how tech platforms (and everything else) went down the sewer.
Telcos brace for coming AI storm. Operators like Orange Business and AT&T are bullish on AI, despite talk of a bubble. Successful operators focus on a disciplined approach based on prioritizing ROI, business value and controlling data. AI “Pacesetters” that maintain business discipline “outperform their peers across every measure of AI value,” according to a Cisco report. My latest on Fierce Network.