pluralistic ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: They brick you because they can; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/

1/

The interior of a luxury sedan as seen from the driver's PoV, with the driver's hands on the wheel. Mounted to the vent is a Spotify 'Car Thing' - a $90 tablet designed to stream Spotify music. The image has been altered. The sky behind the driver's windscreen is animated TV static. The album thumbnail on the Car Thing UI has been replaced with a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. A skeletal robed figure, clutching a sheaf of documents headed with the Spotify logo, reaches out a bony finger to prod at the Car Thing from the left side of the image.

pluralistic OP ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel The Lost Cause (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-lost-cause-4

2/

18+ pluralistic OP ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

They brick you because they can: Samsung and Spotify are too big to care (and that's just the 'S'es).

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112498065635214965

3/

18+ pluralistic OP ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Star Wars with Chinese characteristics https://www.mcgreene.org/archives/296

North Korean science fiction and the Maoist road to Mars https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/abs/comment-on-lets-go-to-the-moon/51BE6920B1AAC3C8148188A2BC7EDBD6

Did GCHQ reveal secrets about computer insecurity when it exorcised the Snowden leaks from the Guardian’s laptops? https://web.archive.org/web/20150216192440/https://www.privacyinternational.org/?q=node/456

Study attributes mysterious rise in CFC emissions to eastern Chinese manufacturing https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48353341

4/

18+ pluralistic OP ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Big Tech: “If the USA enforces antitrust laws against us, it means China will win!” https://www.wired.com/story/big-tech-breaking-will-only-help-china/

Federal lawsuit calls college textbook/ebook packages a “scam” https://www.vice.com/en/article/pajze9/people-are-finally-fighting-back-against-the-college-textbook-industrys-scam

To chase out low-waged workers, Mountain View is banning overnight RV and van parking https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-05-21/silicon-valley-s-shame-living-in-a-van-in-google-s-backyard

The Oliver Twist workhouse is becoming a block of luxury flats with a “poor door” https://web.archive.org/web/20170726143443/https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/controversial-separate-entrance-planned-for-affordable-homes-at-oliver-twist-workhouse-luxury-flat-a112431.html

5/

18+ pluralistic OP ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

The Reality Bubble: how humanity’s collective blindspots render us incapable of seeing danger until it’s too late (and what to do about it) https://memex.craphound.com/2019/05/23/the-reality-bubble-how-humanitys-collective-blindspots-render-us-incapable-of-seeing-danger-until-its-too-late-and-what-to-do-about-it/

6/

18+ pluralistic OP ,
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Yesterday's threads: Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112490583701352406

7/

An old Red Lobster ad, showing a fisherman on a pier amid a bounteous catch, standing under an old fashioned . He grins and brandishes a large lobster at a grinning family. The image has been modified to add four symbols of rapacious capitalism. There is a dancing Monopoly Rich Uncle Pennybags with a skull-like face, his cane replaced by a scythe. There is a stern, impatient, grey-haired business-man looming over a rooftop, staring at his watch impatiently. There is a portly, shouting man in a suit and tophat, lugging a money-bag. There is a man in a suit with a money-bag for a head.
ALT
  • Reply
    • 18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Hey look at this

    8/

    18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    My latest nationally bestselling novel is "The Bezzle," an ice-cold revenge story of high-tech finance crime starring the forensic accountant Martin Hench:

    https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

    Signed copies from Chevalier's Books:

    https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/product-page/the-bezzle

    --

    My latest nonfiction book is "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" from Verso Books:

    http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

    Signed copies available from Book Soup:

    https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245

    Both are national bestsellers!

    9/

    18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

    https://craphound.com/shop/

    10/

    18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Upcoming appearances:

    11/

    18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Recent appearances:

    12/

    18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    You can follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

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    13/

    18+ pluralistic OP ,
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel The Lost Cause (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

    https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Cause-Cory-Doctorow-ebook/dp/B0BQGGP2XT/

    eof/

    steinarb ,
    @steinarb@mastodon.social avatar

    @pluralistic Secured a copy while the May offer was on.

    But reading it will have to wait until I've finished the Gunslinger/Dark Tower saga (I first encountered the Gunslinger in novellas in F&SF in the early 80-ies so I always think "gunslinger" first and "dark tower" second)

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