In which I bark and growl about things that get under my fur.
This is less about the reasons why an app knows where I am and more how I/we are resigned to this as a new norm. And that yes, I do knowingly click the AGREE button to allow this to happen. I’m guilty. Yes, right now I am sitting in Australia. It’s beautiful. I have posted […]
In theory, their motto is about not doing evil, but Google sure does some smelly things that we can only guess at because of their opaqueness. Like giving favorable image search results to sites that obviously scrape content from other sites and serve it up as shoddy copies. I do a lot of searching of […]
I may be entering my curmudgeon era. On recent conversations with ed-tech friends, one in person, one by email, I recognize there are many things in our field that are likely very important, that, frankly I don’t give a damn about. These are things important to others that I find myself totally uninterested in: Virtual […]
At least in spoken form we no longer have to explain who “Earl” is. But still, the fundamental element of the web (which to be understood we used to have to name as “The World Wide Web”) on what is now the more common platform of access, is becoming harder to even find. It’s worth […]
It’s really not that difficult. If you can rationalize being part of an enterprise that profits from the sale of hate ads… provides a space for external entities to promulgate recruitment programs aimed at undermining our culture… can take millions of dollars aimed at influencing a political election… can compel media producers to create click […]
Oh twitter, Audrey truly wants to be verified https://twitter.com/audreywatters/status/906187941147549696 She has tried several times. In protest I am taking the bold move of adding my own signal of un-verifiability to my twitter name (and I loathe emojis) As if anything in twitter really matters…. Feature Image: Photoshop modified from Wikimedia Commons image by JJ12880 shared […]
Yes, I am no Obi Wan Kenobi, have no Jedi mind tricks, and am completely mangling the classic Star Wars line. But I like it. In the notification letter I received last month for the institution I am adjunct teaching for (remotely) this semester, there was an offer to complete a New Faculty Orientation that […]
Why do we always fall for the Kanamits? Respectfully submitted for your perusal, an animated GIF. Frames: seven. File size: in the neighborhood of only 860k. Origin: my wacky idea over breakfast. Motives? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment, we’re going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a self-absorbed Christopher […]
One more bang on my Always Be Attributing drum. I am going to try to make a case that if you “just follow the rules” for openly licensed images CC0 / public domain images interpreted as “I don’t have to attribute”, you are more or less advocating for grab and go regardless of license. And […]
For the second time (first was in 2014) I have deleted my Facebook account. It ought to be the last, but as they say about saying “never”. My reactivation in 2015 was a need to have an account for a course project, then I had a few web sites for clients where I needed to […]
