Row It Back

The other week in my review of Day One app I said that I was a bit of an Automattic fan boy. This week I’m going to row that back. 

I do still like Automattic products, but I don’t think anyone should ever ‘be a fan’ of a business or a corporation. Apple fans, Disney, Tesla, BMW, OXO, whatever can go do one. They are companies, they are not your friends. 

I say all this because: Earlier this week Automattic chose to put Jetpack statistics behind a pay wall. 

Stats have been bundled free with Jetpack (an app I already pay for!) for as long as I can remember using WordPress. But since my site is as far as they are concerned, a commercial site, I have to pay pay. If your blog is running ads, has affiliate links, asks for donations (including non-profits), or promotes a business of any kind, you’ll need to pay for stats.

When I was moaning to Paul Graham Raven about it all the morning the changes went into effect, he said they may as well have just sent everyone an email saying “Enshittification will commence immediately”. 

This nickel and diming over stats is an interesting development and I’ll post some thoughts about Pay to Play web and the Alms Race soon.

I’m not prepared to pay Automattic any more money than I currently already do for Jetpack so they can go do one. So I’m now just going to be living my life, posting stuff on my website without any idea of how many people are looking at it.

So two things:

1. Remember comments are open below all posts – get in touch!
2. If you enjoy either of my podcasts, my blog etc please consider subscribing to my zine mailing list and support my work?

Sunday Sessions

Just a reminder, Dougald Hine is currently engaged in a live conversation series called ‘Sunday Sessions’ and I will be speaking with him next Sunday – 21st April about Solarpunk.

If you are a zine subscriber and would like to watch live / participate in the chat I can sort out the zoom link – email me you have my email.

Permanently Moved

AI Agent Metaphors

Like the Metaverse, history is repeating itself with zero contact with the last time a lot of smart people had conversations about AI Agents.

Full Show Notes: https://www.thejaymo.net/2024/04/13/2404-ai-agent-metaphors/

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Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Been away most of the week down on the chalk, But I did get some writing done on my train journeys
• Confirmed an event/talk

Terminal Access

Sam Kriss’ recent riff on ‘Phones are Bad’ was fantastic:

After a while without my phone, I started to really notice how much everyone else was staring at theirs. On public transport in particular. Every adult is sitting there, pushing around coloured squares and popping coloured bubbles. They are playing with toys for babies. Now look at their faces. These people are not being entertained. They’re not having fun. They are turning their brains off while they wait.

Not using a phone taught me what a phone is really for. It’s not for communicating with other people, getting directions, reading articles, looking at pictures, shopping for products, or playing games. A phone is a device for muting the anxieties proper to being alive.

Dipping the Stacks

Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone – Wikipedia

Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone (F.I.S.T.) were a series of single-player telephone-based roleplaying games launched by UK games designer Steve Jackson in 1988 through the company Computerdial

What on earth is going on with Second Life?

Five days ago, a Medium account named “Robert Bartos” posted an essay which makes serious allegations of inappropriate behavior by Linden staff, both within Second Life and in the workplace.

TinyLetter: looking back on the humblest newsletter platform – The Verge

“Blogs seemed over,” Shane says, recalling the decision to start a TinyLetter in 2014. “Also, I didn’t like the idea of being nailed in place, available to be pulled up at any time. I wanted something a little more temporal and intimate-seeming.” (TinyLetter allowed archives to be turned off. If you missed an email, you missed it forever — a more ephemeral experience than her Tumblr.)

Using Audio Dictation for Writing

The hunter-gatherers of the 21st century who live on the move | Aeon Essays

Now, in March 2023, the camp where we had spent so much time was little more than an empty forest clearing. As we passed through it, we saw abandoned possessions and residences: spears, woven mats and baskets, and huts with only a few leaves remaining in their roofs. The Mbendjele BaYaka had moved on with barely anything they had made during their stay. They had simply gotten up one day and walked into the rainforest. Where had they gone?

Reading

This week I finished Improvisation for the Theater by Viola Spolin on the train home this week. I read the first 1967 edition as I was reading it with an eye/view to what people familiar with her work would have experienced the first time they picked up D&D in 1974/5. In particular i’m interested in the philosophical role of improvisation and play, and the ‘elusive shift’ – to use Jon Petersons term.

I am still reading The Essential Letters 1936 – 2004 by Alistair Cooke. In a weird sync, I’ve just got to the 90’s and OJ Simpson has just been found not guilty.

Nordic Flora Series, Pt. 6: Outlaw Music – Varg²™

I checked out the new Varg²™ album. It’s alright. Varg²™ has been mining this particular sonic/musical vein for a good few years and I’ve seen them DJ. I think, I personally, have reached the end of my taste for it.

This track is nice tho 🙂

Remember Kids: