22 October 2019 | Spare Me! |
This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confused everyone (and especially himself) with a speech at Georgetown.
You see, now Facebook is all about free speech. He says we need to let politicians lie on Facebook without censoring or controlling their speech in any way.
Unless you’ve been dead recently, you’re no doubt aware that Big Tech essentially declared itself the Arbiter of Truth & Justice in a stunning effort to put Orwell’s 1984 to shame.
Unfortunately, this led to a few problems – including legal ones…
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27 August 2019 | Spare Me! |
Oh dear God, make it stop.
There was a time when American Big Tech was the end-all and be-all.
It seems those days are rapidly going the way of the dodo.
For sure, there will be many companies that survive – and even flourish.
But it’s becoming painfully obvious that certain political, social, and cultural influences are starting to crush innovation, cripple sales, and piss off a whole lot of ordinary folks…
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30 July 2019 | How Does it Work?, Spare Me! |
Back in my day, video games were simple.
You typed in some cheat codes, kicked butt, and you were done.
My favorite, of course, was Wolfenstein 3D. I remember playing Wolfenstein as a wee young man. There was just something about wiping out Digital Nazis that was sooo satisfying.
Then again, perhaps I should have gotten out more…
Anyway, nowadays, things are different.
You’re not allowed to cheat. Everything is an “open world”. And people get so addicted to video games that they ACTUALLY DIE while playing them for days on end!
So, what exactly went wrong?
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2 July 2019 | How Does it Work?, Spare Me! |
Oh dear god, make it stop…
It’s time once again for The Great YouTube Algorithm Tweaking!
This time, that means even more nonsense, even fewer recommended videos that you actually want to watch, and just general chaos.
Of course, what most people are concerned about is the “curating” of content. Naturally, it’s a bit more complicated than that…
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28 August 2018 | Spare Me!, Video |
Here we go again! From Alex Jones to Diamond & Silk to Telesur, suddenly social media is penalizing certain voices rather dramatically.
The majority of the people I talk to think that the whole thing’s ridiculous, and I tend to agree.
Most people are even afraid to say anything, or if they do, they excuse themselves by also declaring that they don’t necessarily agree with everything the censored person is saying.
But that’s totally messed up!
You either have free speech, or you don’t. Whether or not we agree is irrelevant.
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5 June 2018 | Spare Me!, Video |
Well, it’s that time again.
Some recent news items – and people’s reactions to them – have once again compelled me to foam at the mouth about Big Brother.
Every time one of these “revelations” like the Facebook data breach occurs, everyone gets all fired up…
And then many people usually do exactly the wrong thing in response!
Sure, the privacy thing is a problem. It’s prolly going to get worse before it gets better.
But here’s the thing: YOU help to decide how and when that happens.
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23 January 2018 | Gizmos, Spare Me!, Video |
In recent years, we’ve seen a huge upsurge in “political correctness” and certain “social movements”.
From James Damore being fired for speaking his mind in a very “leftist” corporate culture, to Amazon’s Alexa declaring that she is a feminist, to DNA testing services telling everyone they’re African to “combat racism”…
It seems that amidst all this political/social mayhem, our tech has essentially been weaponized.
We may still have separation of church and state, but it seems that the political and social views of tech corporations are being pushed onto people via their products.
I don’t think that’s a wise course of action…
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26 July 2017 | How Does it Work?, Spare Me!, Video |
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are the wave of the future, right?
So why is all the latest news about their value in US dollars? Isn’t that kind of backwards?
Obviously, these new digital currencies have a ways to go…
It doesn’t help that the systems in place are less than stellar, and we’re still seeing hacking resulting in people losing money.
But what about the future of blockchain technologies as a whole? Those are pretty awesome, right?
Well, yes and no. If you cut out the hype, you’ll have a much better idea about where all of this stuff is heading.
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27 March 2017 | Computers, Gizmos, Spare Me! |
People ask me, “Scottie, what’s the deal with technology?”
And I say, I say to them: “Technology is gonna be big this year. It’s already big, but it’s gonna get bigger. So big! Technology is gonna be so big, you won’t fit into your house anymore. And it’s coming soon. It’s already here, but it’s coming more soon. BIG, so big.”
You may now attempt to discern if I’m making fun of Trump because I don’t like him, or because I DO like him. Naturally, it may surprise you to know that my answer is neither black nor white.
And that’s exactly the state of technology right now…
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22 March 2015 | Networking, Spare Me! |
Oh frabjous day!
At long last, I have managed to figure out why Yahoo enjoys rejecting lots of mail that is sent to its users.
You have probably encountered this problem before, especially if you happen to manage any kind of mailing list that sends HTML messages to even one or two people with Yahoo e-mail addies.
Yahoo bounces messages back at you with the message, “554 Message not allowed – [PH01] Email not accepted for policy reasons.”
What gives?
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This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confused everyone (and especially himself) with a speech at Georgetown.
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