Marshall Kirkpatrick joins Read/WriteWeb in September 2007, which helps us crack the top 20 blogs in the world. The following month, I attend the Web 2.0 Summit and experience the start of hustle culture, through chats with GaryVee and a hungry (and muscly) kiwi entrepreneur. https://cybercultural.com/p/024-readwriteweb-key-hire-hustle-culture/ #InternetHistory #Web20
Unsurprisingly, #Web3 has an astronomical failure rate. 65% of crypto projects have died in 2023, according to this report. It also says that 72% of crypto projects "born in the 2020-2021 (bull run) have died." Not so much 'to the moon' as 'to the morgue'! https://alphaquest.io/blog/dead-coins-report-2024/
Just before I deleted the Substack app from my phone, I saw that Stephen Fry joined Substack today. Oh Stephen…and he was one of the first celebs to join Mastodon too :(
@79067dd7 ah yes, old CDs that no longer work…alas I have a couple of those too. I also have all the old files (Movable Type and even Radio Useeland), but the one thing I wish I’d done more in the old days was save screenshots. One day I might try and reconstruct some of the early versions of RWW.
I just discovered, thanks to @09c6e1eb from The Wayback Machine that there is a button, "About this capture", that actually details the 'files from the future' in a Wayback copy of a webpage. I had never clicked that before! For my Cybercultural post today, I had manually inspected the source code to see which files were from the future. But this button is very useful going forward.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/177/694/459/021/942/original/c85b571fd89c7e2c.png
@09c6e1eb@30e515be Thanks Mark! btw, it's by no means a criticism of Wayback Machine, which I love. Indeed, I blame myself for the CSS issues I caused myself 18 years in the future ;)
As I get ready to launch the serialization of my Web 2.0 memoir, I discover that old Wayback Machine copies of ReadWriteWeb aren't always reliable. (this post includes some @30e515be forensics; so if anyone here is an expert in this area, I'd love to get your feedback). https://www.cybercultural.com/p/wayback-machine-vs-screenshots #Wayback #InternetHistory
This wins my award for most useful webpage of the month. I wish I’d discovered the if_ flag in wayback urls much earlier (hides the toolbar when you are saving pages). Now all I need is a plugin to fix up wonky stylesheets! #TechHistory #WaybackNerds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Using_the_Wayback_Machine
"Next up, it's time for a vibe...and that vibe is called Rainy Day. It's time for some Nick Drake!" That's my Spotify AI DJ, picking an artist who I do indeed like (and it was raining here 10 minutes ago), but it almost seems too obvious... Surprise surprise, this AI playlisting feature of Spotify doesn't quite have the spark and originality of a human DJ.
If anyone is curious how I use AI in my job as a tech journalist, I go through part of my process in my latest newsletter. Specifically, I tested out Perplexity while researching an upcoming article for my employer The New Stack. Let me know if other journos out there have any thoughts / feedback re AI tools. https://www.aiwriterworld.com/p/perplexity-ai-journalism
Some of my fellow journalists have been talking up Perplexity.ai as an alternative to ChatGPT, so I checked it out for this week's AI Writer World newsletter. Also: latest #aiwriter news and opinions. #journalism #ai https://www.aiwriterworld.com/p/perplexity-ai-journalism
Who would’ve thought I’d be on Elon Musk’s side in 2023, but I totally back him in this argument he apparently had with Google’s Larry Page in 2013:
He [Page] accused Musk of being a “specist,” someone who was biased in favor of their own species. “Well, yes, I am pro-human,” Musk responded. “I f-cking like humanity, dude.”
https://time.com/6310076/elon-musk-ai-walter-isaacson-biography/
The latest edition of AI Writer World features my review of Sudowrite, an AI writing tool for authors. Also, as usual, my roundup of the week’s relevant #AI news, opinions and research. https://www.aiwriterworld.com/p/sudowrite-review
Of course I know the reason my articles aren't getting distributed on Twitter: it's *because I don't pay for it*. I just don't want to live in a 'pay for play' social media world, which is why I am increasingly rejecting X/Twitter. I guess I'm saying...I'm REAL close to quitting the platform altogether, except that I do still find it useful as research for my work.
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