The Online Safety Bill is a proposed Act of the Parliament intended to improve internet safety. UK online safety bill could set tone for global social media regulation – The GuardianEven before the arrival of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, social media companies were feeling the heat from regulators and politicians. It is white-hot now. We … Continue reading “Lessons from social media’s predecessors”
Another set of reactions to Meta’s easy-to-mock metaverse announcement, and reminders that its sci-fi inspirations were dystopian novels. Mocking Meta: Facebook’s virtual reality name change prompts backlash – The GuardianSatirical late night news programme the Daily Show tweaked Zuckerberg’s Meta presentation video by superimposing the tech billionaire onto footage of the January 6 Capitol riots … Continue reading “Metaverse schmetaverse”
Breathing new life into old games. “Ew,” “yowza,” and “OK” are now fair to play in Scrabble“Ew,” for instance, is a newly added word and an example of what lexicographer Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam-Webster, calls “transcribed speech.” This refers to expressions, such as “mm-hmm” (not playable) that are colloquial and used frequently … Continue reading “The game is on”
A quite different take on Google’s AI demo from the other day. Rather than be impressed at how clever the bots appear, because they sound like us, we should be sad at how inefficient we’ve made them, because they sound like us. Chatbots are saints Pichai played a recording of Duplex calling a salon to … Continue reading “Dumbing down the chatbots”
The ebook equilibriumIf you have a smartphone or a tablet or a laptop with you this morning — and I’d be aghast if any of you didn’t — you know very well that the computer is not a tool for removing yourself from the busyness of your lives. It’s a tool for plunging you more … Continue reading “The ebook equilibrium”
Interesting post from Nicholas Carr about the state of the e-book business. As The Browser puts it, “We say we like books. And it turns out that we do. Sales of e-readers are slowing. Early adopters have adopted. Print sales are holding up well. Printed books may have more of a future than seemed probable … Continue reading “Will Gutenburg have the last laugh?”
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