Crazy week for tech news, one guy goes to space, crypto prices dropping and then rising, and privacy concerns surface again.
Will be putting together some bookmarks I've collected over time on privacy and posting them separately.
For now, here goes.
As always, all links on this newsletter can be found here.
History, Culture, and Religion
The Cuban people recently started protesting against their Government and there's a lot to read about that, one of the things I found interesting about Cuba was how they got the Internet, something I saw in a comedy sketch a long time ago but, this article is a well done deep dive on this topic.
Inside Cuba’s D.I.Y. Internet Revolution ● Leer en español
In Havana, where data trickles in via overloaded, government-controlled networks—if at all—the people have taken matters into their own hands.
The plight of the Uyghur muslims is tragic and it's sad that we're repeating the mistakes of the past, this article's headline could be placed in the 40's or the 60's and it would still hold.
One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps - The Atlantic
What is it like to live through—and escape—the Uyghur genocide? Tahir Hamut Izgil tells his family’s story in an unprecedented, five-part series.
Continuing on my theme of putting interesting articles on Influencers, Social, and Friendship here, a couple of interesting articles - one about all three, one about Instagram.
The Blurred Lines of Parasocial Relationships - Cybernaut - Every
The disappearing divide between “followers” and “friends”
If you flew during the 90s and 00s, you probably remember SkyMall. It was a catalogue of completely loony products — often high-tech gadgets of dubious promise, such as “a vacuum cleaner to catch…
Tech, Science, and Math
I have 2 twitter threads in this weeks set of bookmarks, this one is by one of the co-creators of Dogecoin. He makes some interesting points, clearly highly opinionated, worth going through the thread.
Link rot is read, as someone who keeps adding links that get broken, I'd know. But, even more crazy is the fact that a lot of data is just being deleted. In general, the digital world still sucks at archiving data.
The online data that’s being deleted - BBC Future
For years, we were encouraged to store our data online. But it’s become increasingly clear that this won’t last forever – and now the race is on to stop our memories being deleted.
The second twitter thread from one of the most pro-crypto people I am aware of, this one is about NFTs.
“1/ NFTs grew dramatically this year, finishing the first half of 2021 with over $2.5B in sales https://t.co/JVWKnj8vtq”
Breaking free from the seriousness, a history of the Iconic Floppy disk. (gentle Windows 95 sounds ring in the background)
From Idea to Icon: 50 Years of the Floppy Disk
Fifty years ago, IBM introduced the first-ever floppy disk drive, the IBM 23FD, and the first floppy disks. Floppies made punched cards obsolete, and its successors ruled software distribution for the next 20 years. Here’s a look at how and why the floppy disk became an icon.
Fred Wilson is a super smart guy, I like reading what he writes, he wrote about the fundraise craze that's been going on over the last 18 months and possible fallouts in the near future.
The Bad Marriage Problem - AVC
Over the last 18 months, the early-stage financing market has seen dramatic changes characterized by these three things: A shift from in-person fundraising to virtual fundraising A reduction in financing process timelines from months to weeks A continued increase in the amount of capital available for early stage companies I believe that for the most […]
Finally, this super interesting video about "Fundamental theorem of algebra", not super easy to follow, but, helped when I followed it without distractions.
Fundamental Theorem of Algebra - Numberphile
Catch David on the Numberphile podcast: https://youtu.be/9y1BGvnTyQAPart one on odd polynomials: http://youtu.be/8l-La9HEUIU More links & stuff in full descr…
Everything else
I haven't read this book either, but, I'm now incredibly motivated to read it. This article is in essence a review of the book itself (read the article to get the name of the book)
The Book No One Read - Issue 28: 2050 - Nautilus
I remember well the first time my certainty of a bright future evaporated, when my confidence in the panacea of technological progress…
I've been meditating for a while now, I've even done Vipassana in the past, but, I very rarely recommend it to people. I've often felt that the practice itself has consequences that are barely talked about, the following article does a good job of it.
When Buddhism Goes Bad - by Dan Lawton - Dan Lawton
How My Mindfulness Practice Lead Me To Meltdown
I hate that we're here again, the world sucks at privacy and governments suck at lying and letting citizens be.
Apart from this article I would also recommend the twitter thread by MediaNama and Nixxin who have been pro-privacy for as long as I can remember.
Apple iPhones were successfully hacked by NSO’s Pegasus surveillance tool - The Washington Post
An international investigation found 23 Apple devices that were successfully hacked. “Zero-click” attacks, as they are called within the surveillance industry, can work on even the newest generations of iPhones, even after years of effort in which Apple attempted to close the door against unauthorized surveillance.
“MediaNama’s Pegasus 2021 coverage is public for now. A thread for you to navigate what all we’ve done so far:
- We compiled all the facts, so you get a lowdown on what’s going on: https://t.co/DKO1Nq9cl2”
Imagine cancelling on flight to space with Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos Picks 18-Year-Old Dutch Student for Blue Origin Rocket Launch - The New York Times
Oliver Daemen will fly to the edge of space after another passenger who paid $28 million for the seat had a scheduling conflict.
Book
This weeks book reco is from George Orwell, another set of essays.
All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays by George Orwell
All Art is Propaganda book. Read 124 reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. As a critic, George Orwell cast a wide net. Equally at home …
Thank you for reading
That's all I have for this week.
Do subscribe if interested and do reply with interesting stuff
Sainath