My Front Page Went Dark and I Had No Idea Why
A bunch of my favorite subreddits went private out of nowhere last week. Here's what the AMAgeddon mod blackout actually looked like from the reader's side.
The Hacking Team Leak and a Very Bad Week to Sell Spyware
Hacking Team, the Italian firm that sells intrusion software to governments, got hacked itself over the weekend, with 400GB of its internal files dumped for anyone to grab.
Apple Music, Five Days In: My Library's a Mess
Five days into the Apple Music free trial and iCloud Music Library has already scrambled half my carefully ripped collection. Some early impressions, good and bad.
My Reddit Front Page Just Disappeared
Half of Reddit's biggest subreddits went private overnight after the company fired its AMA coordinator with no warning to mods — a look at what that reveals about who actually runs these platforms.
Jack Dorsey Is Back (Interim, Wink Wink)
Jack Dorsey officially becomes Twitter's interim CEO today while somehow still running Square. Some thoughts on why that's a strange arrangement and what actually needs fixing.
Reserved My Windows 10 Upgrade
I finally clicked reserve on that little Get Windows 10 icon, and a few thoughts on the Insider builds I've been running for months, plus a small rant about email confirmation delays.
The Tumblr Post That Made Apple Blink
Taylor Swift's Tumblr post about Apple Music not paying artists during the free trial got Apple to reverse course in about a day, and that's a more interesting story than the launch itself.
I Finally Backed Shenmue III (And I Have Feelings About It)
Ten days after Yu Suzuki announced Shenmue III onstage at E3, I finally caved and backed the Kickstarter — some thoughts on nostalgia, nostalgia-tax, and my Dreamcast still sitting in a closet.
The Ok Google Blob Hiding Inside "Open Source" Chromium
Chromium's been quietly downloading a closed-source voice-hotword module, and the real story isn't "Chrome spies on you," its that "open source" apparently comes with an asterisk now.
What the Apple Music Reversal Actually Proved
Taylor Swift called out Apple Music's plan to not pay artists during the free trial, and Apple reversed course in about 18 hours. The speed of it says more about leverage than fairness.
Amazon Made Up a Shopping Holiday
Amazon announced Prime Day yesterday, a one-day sale on July 15th tied to Amazon.com's 20th anniversary. Some thoughts on why a made-up shopping holiday still works on people like me.
Shenmue 3 Broke Kickstarter and I Have Feelings About It
Shenmue 3 got Kickstarted at E3 this week and blew past its goal in hours. Some thoughts on that, a broken Dreamcast, and why fan money isnt the same as a guarantee.