I’ve been comparing two Read-it-Later services, Omnivore and Matter. Omnivore had the head start with earlier integration with Logseq but now Matter also has that feature. Matter is more attractive. Omnivore is open source. If there is one thing that the recent Twitter/Mastodon comparison has reminded me of, is that open source is probably the safer long-term bet.
Microblogvember 2022, Day 14: It will be fascinating to see how Twitter evolves and if all the people and organisations who decided to leave, stay away.
Own Your Content (A Reprise)
Precisely two years ago today, I wrote this, in the context of Instagram.
Blog of Drew - Own Your Content:
A personal website and domain name remains the most reliable way to avoid your content serving as feed stock for a commercial enterprise.
Today, it holds up in the context of Twitter.
The more things change…
Microblogvember 2022, Day 13: My first experience with the game Deathloop left me unimpressed but after playing some more I may have to adjust my initial impression.
Shooting Hoops
Recently we have installed a cool basketball hoop in our front yard, ostensibly for our kids to play as they grow into their teenage and teenage years.
An unexpected benefit has been for me – Dad. I used to play basketball. You may be aware that I now host NBL Pocket Podcast, have media accreditation for NBL, and commentate games for NBL1.
When I was younger, I was an athletic guy who could slam dunk and knock down 3s. Age, however, shoots 1.000 and I no longer have the leap I once did. In fact, my knees are basically destroyed.
Installing this hoop, however, has proven to me that a jump shot (or maybe a standing shot now) is like riding a bike. You don’t forget how to do it. You also don’t forget the love. There is something about shooting a basketball that is immensely soothing for me. Nothing else eliminates the worries and stresses of day-to-day life than hearing the shwoosh of a basketball ripping through a net.
I wish I had installed this basketball system a decade ago. Nevertheless, I remind myself that while the best time was 10 years ago, the next best time is now.
I have my now. I am shooting hoops. In my mind, I am young once more.
Micro.blog has changed my life trajectory. It has given me connections with a range of people across the Internet. Without micro.blog, I would not have @HemisphericViews and the group of friends that are part of that community. M.b has changed my life. @manton @jean
One thing the whole Twitter saga has done is re-energised my use of my own blog, as well as getting into Mastodon. Happy with the changes and improvements I’m making to my own web sites.
Microblogvember 2022, Day 12: I have a suspicion that things at Twitter are going to get worse before they get better. If they get better.
Sorry, Crypto Bros
Molly White, reporting on her brilliant site tracking all the happenings in the crypto/NFT world.
FTX files for bankruptcy, Sam Bankman-Fried resigns:
Aaaand there it goes.
FTX announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.
I wonder how all the Diamond Hands crypto HODL bros are feeling.
There’s only one thing worse than a Ponzi scheme, and that is being the one holding the “asset” when the music stops and there is no next fool in line.
So uh, is Twitter Blue no longer available for purchase? Just when I thought things couldn’t get crazier over there.
More news from the front. Grey “official” check marks are back. Yes, Elon killed them yesterday. Now he has revived them.
This isn’t hard to follow at all, is it? I don’t know why you can’t keep up.
Twitter Loses Executives
So the Twitter executives responsible for selling ads and ensuring trust and safety have both left the company. You would think they’d be kind of important to the business?
In a normal company, two executives leaving would be bad, but maybe it would be an opportunity to promote others. Unfortunately, Twitter probably sacked those others a few days ago.
Musk is now talking about bankruptcy. I imagine this might be a way for him to wash his hands of the affair, and socialise the losses across his venture capital buddies. Remember that is a key edict of corporations: capitalise the gains and socialise the losses. It seems like Elon might be contemplating pulling an Adam Neumann.
The Twitter News Cycle Moves Fast
Not even a day, and there’s a new item of craziness I can add to my earlier list.
Elon Musk's First Email to Twitter Staff Ends Work from Home - Bloomberg:
The new rules, which kick in immediately, will expect employees to be in the office for at least 40 hours per week…
At least 40 hours per week? The standard working week in Australia is 38 hours. So if Twitter were an Australian firm (or perhaps for the remaining Australian Twitter staff), Musk is asking them to work in the office for more than the typical working week. And since it is “at least”, one presumes additional work would be required at home beyond those 40 hours?
Maybe he should have announced this before the firings. That might have minimised severance costs while still reducing head count.
Once again, we are provided evidence that wealth and intelligence are not inextricably linked.
With a massive thanks to @vincent I’ve got his new shoutouts.lol platform running on the homepage of my blog. I’m still tweaking the look but I’m loving the opportunity to promote things I like™.
Fun and Games at Twitter
Update 10 November: Now Elon is requiring employees to work at least 40 hours per week in the office.
Twitter is a clown show. But I have an irrational fear of clowns, and not Twitter, so maybe it’s better described as a dumpster fire.
Anyway, let’s see if I can get this straight. In a few short days, Elon has:
- Fired half the company, including ones who knew what they were doing.
- Introduced the blue tick for anybody - at a price ($20, nah, $8 - USD anyway).
- Seen impersonation happen (surprise!) and created random rules about not being allowed to do that.
- Implemented a new grey, “official” checkmark for people who sort of used to be the blue tick people (but not quite).
- Removed the grey official checkmark:
I just killed it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022
There’s move fast and break things, and then there’s fly by the seat of your pants doing random shit because you can’t think even 1 step ahead.
Further evidence that there is false equivalence between wealth and intelligence.
Microblogvember 2022, Day 10: My father-in-law was once Australia’s Minister for Defence. My father was an Anglican minister. Separation of Church and State!
The Great Correction?
Are we now experiencing “the great correction” in the tech world? Meta has announced layoffs of 11,000, we just had now privately-owned Twitter reduce headcount by 7,500. Stripe let go of 14% of its people, and Sketch had to let a bunch of it’s employees go recently as well. These are just the ones I recall off the top of my head - I’m sure there are others.
Higher interest rates reduce the availability of cheap venture capital; leading to increasing pressure to run a business to deliver profit and return to shareholders; and a number of these firms are behemoths that may have reached the end of their natural growth potential.
Social media in particular is a business that relies on ad revenue above all else. If interest rates continue to increase, people will buy less, and thus advertisers will have less free cash flow to put towards advertising. Ultimately this will result in more pressure on revenue for the social media companies.
Good luck everybody; I think the tech seas are about to get rough for some time.
Microblogvember 2022, Day 9: After virtually no sleep last night, I am certain to sleep well this evening.
You Get a Checkmark, and You Get a Checkmark!
Update, 10 November: Now the official checkmark has been unrolled out. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Twitter’s solution for ruining verification is another check mark - The Verge:
Twitter is rolling out another type of check mark to help distinguish accounts that users actually need to know are real. Although you can pay $7.99 per month for a blue check mark with the new version of Twitter Blue, select accounts for governments, companies, or public figures will get a gray “Official” check mark
Twitter is on the pathway to full farce. it reminds me of this clip from The Late Show:
Microblogvember 2022, Day 8: I truly hope that Australia reaches consensus regarding the need for — and value of — an indigenous voice to Parliament.
This submarine cable map is really cool!
I’ve set up shoutouts.lol by @vincent. For now it is running as the opening entry at canion.me or specifically at canion.me/shout-out… I’ve tried it on andrewcanion.com but the styling doesn’t look so nice and I don’t know how to fix that.
Microblogvember 2022, Day 7: With the amount of time spent in Microsoft Teams, surely I have gained enough insight for a single work day.