A bunch of things I’ve found on my digital strolls (which I added to my Tumblr) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on (as no longer on Twitter).
READ
“Ring is rolling back many of the reforms it’s made in the last few years by easing police access to footage from millions of homes in the United States. This is a grave threat to civil liberties in the United States. After all, police have used Ring footage to spy on protestors, and obtained footage without a warrant or consent of the user. It is easy to imagine that law enforcement officials will use their renewed access to Ring information to find people who have had abortions or track down people for immigration enforcement.”
Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance | Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that Meta would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on developing artificial intelligence products in the near future and, to that end, construct a data center planned to be nearly the size of Manhattan. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is among the large tech companies that have struck high-profile deals, and doled out multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers in recent months – some as high as $100m – to fast-track work on machines that could outthink humans on many tasks, a concept known as “super-intelligence” or “artificial general intelligence”.”
Zuckerberg says Meta will build data center the size of Manhattan in latest AI push | Meta | The Guardian
“The team concludes with a sentiment that is becoming more common in this field: It may be worse than we think. It’s not an uplifting thought, but one that should be confronted, especially since few people are able to travel to these remote communities to experience the changes for themselves. “The thaw event of February 2025 was not an isolated occurrence,” the team warned. “Witnessing it in real time served as a reminder of the accelerating pace of change, and made us wonder if we have been too cautious with our climate warnings.””
Scientists Report Surreal Scenes In the World’s Most Northern Town
“The future we envision is possible. It’s a future where your device is truly yours. It’s a world where you can speak, move, and organize without the threat of pervasive surveillance. Your technology helps you connect with the people you care about, wherever they might be. With support from members around the world, EFF uses law, technology, and activism to create the conditions for human rights and civil liberties to flourish, and for repression to fail. After all, how can we achieve democracy and equity if you don’t first have privacy, security, and free expression?”
EFF’s 35th Anniversary | Electronic Frontier Foundation
WATCH
EXPLORE
The Commodore 64 is back!
A simple site to ‘draw a fish’ then explore if it will swim (with others).
A really funky free typeface which responds to spatial changes that’s infinitely flexible.
Dimensions is a massive database of ‘dimensioned drawings’ of everyday objects, living things and spaces.
Opportunity to apply to be a speaker at this years IDG Summit 2025 (free pass / economy travel to Stockholm)—deadline August 29th 2025.