Five links for the new year
I'm cautiously optimistic about 2023 but I've been wrong before
Here’s what I’ve been reading lately.
You knew it would be ugly, but you did not know it would be this ugly.
The Internet Archive is an intergalactic treasure.
The January 6th Committee has released 170 transcripts, a Final Report and a Summary Report.
Those files have been archived with the Wayback Machine and also uploaded to archive.org here.
Everyone should read at least the summary report, especially American voters who still don’t understand why Donald J. Trump is a threat to our way of life.
Recovering from Big Tech’s lost decade
Roger McNamee has been Silicon Valley’s Cassandra for a long time, arguing that the tech industry (which made him wealthy) has lost its way. He has been particularly brutal in his assessment of Mark Zuckerberg, for whom he was an early investor and mentor. This op-ed in the Los Angeles Times is a scathing assessment of how far off course the tech industry has gone.
For more than a decade after the financial crisis of 2008-09, the global economy was stable, with exceptionally low inflation and interest rates. Stability in international trade enabled supply chains optimized for short term cost. As a country, we might have used this environment to tackle the greatest challenges facing humanity, such as climate change and income inequality. Instead, we allowed corporations to set their own priorities. They pursued wealth and power, with strategies that aggravated every problem in society. No industry did more harm than tech.
Read, as they say, the whole thing.
The LastPass breach, explained
If you’re still using the LastPass password manager, maybe you should stop.
And by “maybe,” I mean, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING BUSINESS WITH THOSE PEOPLE?
It’s been a minute, as they say in my new hometown, since I saw Doc Searls, but this essay reminded me why I enjoy his perspective so much. Read this before you get on a big jet airliner and then share your pics with the rest of us.