Issue 15

"Mad" Mike finally launches his homemade steam rocket. Go for the gold my friend. 🌎 The average American adults stares at a screen for 11 hours a day, how about their kids?

Mar 27, 2018

🚂FROM MID-EARTH ORBIT

Hey, gotta be happy you don't work at Facebook, right?

It's like nothing happened in tech this week. Everyone just rubbernecked all week. Except, the community behind Mastodon; they bellowed (seems like something a mastodon would do).

More dumb names of pages sponsored by governments, cartography of the dark web, and, as always, the tasty robot links.

I am reading so many newsletters that I've added a section for newsletters I 😍. Check out this week's pick.

FInally, check out the latest from the limo drivin' flat Earther and his steam powered rocket.

📰 From the Newsroom

"Mad" Mike finally launches his homemade steam rocket. Go for the gold my friend. 🌎

This made me think of a bunch of images my older brother had which imagined the Earth in different shapes. Doughnut Earth was, obviously, my favorite.

engadget.com

The average American adults stares at a screen for 11 hours a day, how about their kids?

A survey of 400 parents on how kids are using tech, and how tech affects them. For the other side of the debate check out The New Yorker's article on philosopher Andy Clark which argues for seeing the smartphone as a tool, like any other, for expanding thinking.

fastcompany.com

📰 Newsletter of the Week

Sunday Interestingness for 21st century storytellers.

Sunday Interestingness is a curated newsletter full of interestingness. A weekly collection of awesome storytelling links. The newsletter also contains some tips and tricks for helping you craft actual meaningful content.

mentorless.com

🤖 Robots et. al.

L'Oreal buys augmented reality beauty app, allowing robots to point out every flaw.

Will we need to update our proverbs?

"Don't worry, beauty is in the processes of the algorithm."

"Hush now child, beauty is only a matter of operations and equations."

futurism.com

Soft robotic fish spies on real ones in coral reefs.

Turns out the fish are genuinely annoyed about the stereotypes and all the plastic crap in their driveway.

mit.edu

What will society look like when AI is everywhere?

Pretty much like in the public domain image. Book grinders don't need no educashun.

smithsonianmag.com

🤠Wanted: Robot wrangler. No experience required.

Get a job walking around monitoring the robots. Responsibilities include assessing their performance and reporting problems. Also, keep the autograph hunters at bay.

bbc.com

⚒️ Tools and Resources

WorldBrain's Memex Fewer bookmarks. You can just search for websites based on memory. 🤔

worldbrain.io

How to write future-proof code.

Get a time machine and don't squash the mosquitoes. You'll understand why later.

daftcode.pl

Transfer files over wifi from your computer to your mobile device by scanning a QR code without leaving the terminal.

github.com

Free customizable SVG backgrounds for your website.

svgbackgrounds.com

Legal Leaf uses AI to read, summarize and translate Ts&Cs into plain English.

leaf.legal

🥇 World of WordPress

How to take full advantage of WordPress automation. 🔋

wpmudev.org

Noteworthy changes coming in WordPress 4.9.5.

Bye bye to "Cheatin' uh?" and offensive lyrics. Recommended PHP version lifted to 7.2 which will make these guys happy.

wptavern.com

From humble beginnings to internet dominance: The rise of WordPress.

pagely.com

10 totally legitimate reasons why you should never use WordPress.

codeinwp.com

👩‍💻 Misc Tech

More great names from state-sponsored propaganda profiles. This week: Tumblr.

mashable.com

🐃 What is Mastodon?

A social network that's ready to slide into Facebook's shoes, that's what.

If you are looking for an ad-free, decentralized social network, then Mastodon could be the answer. It has been brewing for some time and claims 1000s of interconnected communities. Worth a sneaky peek when Facebook's not watching.

youtube.com

🕸️ The map of the dark web.

You could spend hours on this page. The best thing I saw was "This is Gary Busey. All Hail The Busey!" I genuinely don't understand why a page like this can only exist on the dark web.

hyperiongray.com

😱 Slightly Terrifying

Digital music and remix culture means genre is a meaningless term.

Streaming services are also helping music slip away from rigid genre definitions. Not to say that there is no differentiation of styles, but albums are no longer holistic generically speaking. You can even see this fluidity in Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam's work.

The shake-up of the music industry has also pushed Gibson to the edge of bankruptcy.

nationofbillions.com