Author: Jake Russo

  • Amazon Halo Is Gone

    Even accounting for hindsight bias, I think Amazon’s nuking Halo might’ve been an easy call. I didn’t make it, and I didn’t think it’d come true so quickly — they just released a new device (Halo Rise) to the lineup earlier this year; this year isn’t half over!

    The bands were constantly on sale, and it seemed like Amazon was trying to liquidate them. One of the few things I actually remember from congressional hearings is that Amazon, somewhat unsurprisingly, does lose money on its in-house products like Kindle and (especially) Echo1, but only when they’re on sale (which is often).

    The Halo View was listed for a similar price as a Fitbit but looked much worse. Also, Fitbit is still around, and their app will still work after August 1st! I never found the View compelling; it was a poor knock-off2 of a Fitbit. The Band, however, was more interesting — it was different! I think it had a similar appeal as the Fitbit Flex, where there was no screen, no distraction, but the data was there when you wanted it. This has been my approach with sleep tracking — the Withings sleep tracker goes under the matress, silently and forgettably recording data. I can go weeks or months without looking at it; but when I’m curious, I can check on my sleep data. The Band had a gimmick — of course it did — it could analyze your conversations and record how you sounded. It was an entertaining gimmick! Its resolution was higher than I expected: “confrontational”, “reflective”, or “encouraging” instead of “sad” or “happy”. This wasn’t very insightful, though. I tend to have some idea what I sound like and of the emotions I’m conveying. The only value I found was in remembering moments throughout the day, based on the timestamped emotions.

    Amazon was almost giving the Band away when I bought it — $24.99. I don’t wear a fitness tracker, and smart watches annoy me; heartrate data3, though, was kind of interesting.

    I ended up with the Halo Rise a few months after its release after they discounted it like 30%. It’s surprisingly difficult to find internet-connected4 clocks that don’t look horrible — my other one is the Echo Show 5, configured5 only to show the current time — and this was one of those. The radar-based sleep tracking (similar to my now-broken-and-recycled Nest Hub gen 2) was interesting. It also seemed like it would make a good reading light. (It didn’t; the angle was weird.) The sunrise/smart alarm feature was cool and reminiscent of the Sleep Cycle app; it was useful for about a week.

    Amazon discontinued the entire Halo line a couple weeks ago; coincidentaly, this was right after I read The Composting Theory of Continuous Growth, which references Amazon’s seemingly-failed projects like the Fire Phone and presents them as proofs of concept for AWS services. Applied to this scenario, the health data systems Amazon built might6 be for sale to AWS customers.

    Conceivably, Amazon might not have turned all Halo devices to bricks as immediately as they have — app support ends in August, making the devices completely useless7. But supporting it was probably a complete waste of resources, and they’re refunding everyone! Yes, manufactured e-waste is bad; it’s annoying these products are disappearing. Companies like Amazon and Google, though, have the resources to make customers (almost) whole — Stadia refunded everything, so some customers got to use it for free. With Stadia, time and save data was lost; with Halo, health data is lost (it’s downloadable, but portability might be tough).

    I woke up this morning to a notification from Amazon, saying they’d processed my refunds. I’m sure(?) there are Halo customers out there who are more upset than I, but, selfishly, this worked out well; Halo was okay but unneccesary, and it’s nice that it’s free.

    Halo is off to compost.


    1Selling the latest Echo for $49.99 with a free color Hue bulb is clearly not profitable.

    2Amazfit, anyone?

    3My phone tracks my steps, apparently.

    4Because they keep time well and automatically adjust for daylight saving time (syncronization with time servers!)

    5Which likes to turn on other homescreen features and ads, even after I turn them off

    6Didn’t bother checking

    7We’ll see if the Rise still works as a light or clock, but the Alexa control seems to go through Halo, so I’m not hopeful.


    As always, let me know if I’m wrong. My nonchalance on this might make for a boring, meandering read.

  • On Banning Books

    I wrote this a few months ago, without publishing it. It hasn’t become any less relevant lately, so I’ll leave it here.

    It could be a little cleaner and more concise.

    I’ve never understood the point. Why? Isn’t the old adage about the positive correlation between banning things and the demand for and allure of those things true?

    My school district, and its superintendent — Tim “I own this” Forson — just banned another 23 books. Until today, I didn’t appreciate one of the major effects.

    “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” ― Joseph Brodsky

    I was always of the opinion that, while restricting information is generally a negative, parents have competing interests that must be accounted for. The internet is a massive wealth of information, but many parents use parental control software to restrict their children from content they don’t want them to see. What’s so different about parents’ rights in school? Further, how much of a difference does banning books really make, when every book you could ever want is available through the internet — ecommerce, ebook, and the like? (Public libraries, both online and off, are also invaluable resources — at least, until they come for those, too.)

    Think of the teachers, the children, the librarians!

    But book banning does diminish access, and it does make a difference. School librarians must purge their shelves; teachers in my district can no longer teach the lessons these books hold; and if, say, a certain English teacher were leading his class on a deep analysis of, oh, I don’t know, The Kite Runner, well now he can’t.

    “Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won’t have as much censorship because we won’t have as much fear.” ― Judy Blume

    So it’s not just about access. I have access to ~any book I want, and so does most everyone else; but I might’ve never read Persepolis, or The Great Gatsby, or The Kite Runner, among others, on my own, and I almost certainly wouldn’t have the level of appreciation for and understanding of their ideas that I do now. This is about exposure to ideas: ideas that some people, some parents, and certain Ron DeSantises might not like.

    Maybe I should be more deliberate with what I read, and maybe I should try to seek out as much meaning as I can; there’s an immense collection of analysis online, and, I’m sure, self-study literature curriculums. But that’s not the point. We need exposure to other ideas; we need to realize that “America’s not always the good guy”; we need to think critically about life and identity and sexuality, socialism and Marxism and the American Dream.

    That exposure starts in the classroom.

    This is a drum that the right loves to beat — “they’re coming for your guns; they’re coming for your gas stoves”… but now, they’re coming for our books.

    And as for the allure factor, I guess I have a new reading list, courtesy of the Department of Education (School Board?).

    “Torch every book. Burn every page. Char every word to ash. Ideas are incombustible. And therein lies your real fear.” ― Ellen Hopkins

    I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. 🙂

  • A Review of the ThinkPad T480s

    The last time I had a laptop was late 2021, before I returned it and built a desktop. That was the right choice: the laptop1 was overpriced and underperformant, and the desktop turned out to be a much better fit.

    Not having a laptop, though, was annoying: I would have waste time, functionality, efficiency, and frustration using the computers at school. I would often have to worry about having access to a computer for sufficient time to e.g., write an essay the class before it was due.

    Coincidentally, I saw a YouTube video talking about ThinkPads, their low price, upgradability, durability, etc. People seemed to like the T4xx2 series, in particular.

    The heft of e.g., the T440 wouldn’t work for me. I have a spot in my bag that can fit a slim, 14-inch laptop, and that’s it. There’s some distain online for the ThinkPads ending in “s”, for slim: less of their components are easily replaceable.

    But that’s the tradeoff, I guess. And, realistically, I’m ever actually going to upgrade the thing.

    I ended up with the T480s that I’m using to write this post (and every other one on this site, so far). It wasn’t the product of much research; I just saw a listing for an OS-less (but entitled to Windows!) T480s on eBay one day, and bought it. It has an i7 from 2018, 16GB of RAM, an SSD, and a passable, 1080P display3. And the thing was <$300.

    The mouse buttons above the trackpad are nice, and I use them instead of the built-in trackpad click. The design is minimal, but businesslike and sharp. They don’t look ultra-premium, but they don’t look like they’re from Wish.com, either.

    I worried that the battery would be terrible, or the thing would look like it fell off a truck, but it’s not, and it doesn’t. There are, of course, signs of wear: some of the keys are shiny, and there’s a bright spot in the bottom corner of the display.

    But it runs well, the keyboard is quite good (I originally thought it was mediocre-at-best, but it’s really grown on me), and it lasts 5-6 hours, which is about how long you can expect this sort of laptop to last.

    Maybe I should’ve gone for an X1 Carbon; it’s basically this laptop but better. But this thing works! My only complaint is the screen, since I think a 3:2 aspect ratio is preferable (though all my screens have been 16:9, and I don’t have the weird LG one) and 2K with a little more vibrancy thrown in would be a welcome improvement. There are also some weird lags, sometimes, but those seem like a feature common to laptops, rather than a problem with this one in particular.

    The experience of using my desktop is better (for reference, the keyboard cost more than the laptop), but using my laptop is lower-friction. It means I do interesting things, like writing this post, more often. It also means that things I’d write down and put off until I felt like walking over to the computer and turning it on (yeah, it’s just as easy as it sounds — it’s like eight feet away from me as I write this) got done a lot sooner and more often. I’ve subscribed to GeForce now for a few months now (the 4K tier, since I tell myself I need it for my desktop), and don’t use it much. I’m falling for the sunk cost fallacy, since I’ve spend some amount of money on Steam games, and losing GeForce Now (though I could immediately resubscribe and be fine, when I actually want to play) would mean I lose access to those games. But having the subscription means I one of the things I can do more often is game, since I can open it on this laptop. I might write at more length about GeForce Now, but maybe it’d be after I get a GPU and finally cancel the subscription4.

    I’m thinking about preordering a Framework Ryzen 7040 series (Ryzen 5) because of their famed efficiency, and because it’d be a nice upgrade, a laptop that I could daily drive for years, easily refurbishing when needed. It’s been a while since I built my desktop, and the DIY version seems fun. It would also be a nice gift to myself for my last year of high school, shipping late Q3 of this year.

    But the ThinkPad is excellent, and the more I use it, the more hesitant I become to preorder a Framework. This thing works pretty well! And if it stops working, I can cheaply repair or replace it. That also means I don’t have to worry too much about it: I can just throw it in my bag without worrying. Of course, the easy repairability of the Framework might have the same effect, but it doesn’t seem the same.

    I guess we’ll see. The Framework improves on almost every one of my gripes with the Thinkpad, but they’re mostly luxury, quality of life improvements.

    If you’re looking for a laptop, don’t get one from Best Buy for $300: it’ll almost certainly be terrible. Look for ThinkPads for that price; there are plenty, and they’ll probably actually work. There’s a prolific ThinkPad community5 on the internet, and it’s fun to see their passion.


    1It was a Lenovo IdeaPad, which cost 3x as much as this thing, and was much worse.

    2jvscholz on YouTube makes different, interesting videos. I think he has a few other channels, too. Definitely worth a watch.

    3 The screen is 14″ (perfect size!) and 1080P, which, coincidentally, evaluates to the same PPI (and, thus, same perceived sharpness) as my 28″, 4K desktop monitor. (I actually don’t miss the high refresh rate as much as I thought I would, but the higher resolution and much better colors always make me glad to be back on the desktop.)

    4I try to vary my entertainment — games, books, movies, TV, podcasts. I like to feel multifaceted in that sense. It’s often difficult for me, though; maybe I’ll write about this.

    5Reddit and YouTube are good starting places.

  • Yes, I Know Where the Comma Goes

    Most of my writing these days (at least, until this site) is literary analysis for my (excellent) English teacher. Predictably, I frequently use quotes, and often, those quotes will come at the end of a sentence or before a comma.

    For fear of seeming ignorant: yes, I know that in American English, the comma or period goes inside the quote. For example,

    • Tom, “forc[ing] him out of the room,” demonstrates his violent assertiveness.
    • Torvald was not “the man [she] could bind [herself] to.”

    Sorry for the examples being a little poor; I tried making them up, instead of actually finding them in past essays. They should be more than sufficient to demonstrate my point, though.

    I don’t like that; I think it’s annoying. If the punctuation is mine, it goes outside the quotes; if it’s the author’s, it goes inside. This is the case in British English, which I like. Unfortunately, I’m not into the whole “flavor” / “colour” thing. Waste of letters.

    Except if the punctuation is an exclamation or question mark or something, in which case, if it’s yours, it goes outside the quotes, even in American English. That’s actually good, and I can see the argument concerning the comma and period: they’re neutral; they don’t change the meaning of the quote; it looks better when they’re enclosed, so keep them there.

    But I’ve dug the whole too deep, and I’d seem clueless if I suddenly switched. And I still think my (the British, I guess) way is more precise.

  • Producing More: Quantity Over Quality, and My New Podcast

    Something I read on Read Max a few months ago stuck with me. He wrote about how actually writing, or actually producing is what makes you better; what really matters is that you produce at all.

    I didn’t act on it at the time, but it stayed in the back of my mind, as I was thinking about (but not actually writing) my blog. The thesis of that post is essentially the rationale behind this blog, much of which I detailed here and here.

    This applies broadly, though, and just as easily to podcasts. The relationship between this (“notes”) blog and my “main” blog is analogous to that between my Anchor (now Spotify Podcasts) show and my main (“Jake Russo Podcast”) one.

    I just started this podcast in the car, outside of a restaurant. I’ve been thinking about doing just that for a week or two, now, and I finally did.

    And it went well. It was fun, and, knowing that I only had one take, it was much quicker and more enjoyable than recording for my other podcast (which, unsurprisingly, only has two episodes — one of which is a trailer). My attitude with that podcast and this blog is similar, if not the same: I record something, don’t listen to or edit it, and publish. The goal is similar, too: I’ll never get better at blogging if I don’t do it often; I’ll never get better at podcasting if I don’t do it often. The only way anyone could possibly hear or read what I have to say is if I actually say it. And saying more is better than saying less — more chances.

    I write this as I’m going through still somewhat manual process of submitting podcast RSS feeds to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other distributors.

    You can listen to the episode I just recorded here.

    It’ll eventually get its own page on this site.

    If you’re interested in making content for the internet or need something interesting to do (both of which exist in my reason set), give the aforementioned article a read. We’ll see if this lasts; it’d be good if I were actually consistent with it!

  • PechaKuchas and Mind Expansion

    Last week, a friend and I attended PechaKucha night, which happened to be hosted by our favorite teacher. We didn’t know exactly what to expect — we had never before been — but were confident, at least, that we might be entertained for the few hours it occupied.

    It was great! From monologues on the “transformative power of music”, to orations on the power of reading and the danger of banning books, the passion in each of the six-minute, forty-second presentations was contagious.

    The experience reminded me how much I don’t know, the breadth of experience and thought. Some presentations brought words to feeling and sentiment I possess but haven’t executed on — “buy the ticket”, for example, “leave home, and experience other cultures” for another. There were nine presentations in total, and my brief survey here obviously doesn’t account for all of them, but I enjoyed every one of them; they each had their unique insight and poignant moral.

    The experience comes shortly after my discovering Gurwinder’s Substack and his periodic “Mind-Expanding Concepts” posts. There’s a certain kind of fulfillment I get from learning different, sometimes idiosyncratic ideas; PechaKucha night was a Gurwinder post on steroids. And I’m certain this fulfillment isn’t unique: if you’re interested, look for new experiences, perspectives, and opportunities for thought. I don’t pretend to be some sort of authority on the subject, but it seemed important enough to write down. At the very least, I’m going to increase the frequency of these sorts of experiences in my own life.


    Philosophy seems interesting and unlike much of what I’ve been exposed to. That’s probably next for me, but it’s a huge area of study, with so much to learn, and I haven’t even started. According to Jared Henderson, Plato’s Dialogues is a good place to start.

  • Verizon, AT&T, and Related Annoyances

    Verizon is supposed to be the best, and the data supposedly backs that up. Their coverage is, in my convenience-sample1 backed estimation, the widest ranging. I’m ~never somewhere where I cannot make a call on Verizon. But I’m frequently unable to connect to the internet — on LTE!

    I prefer MVNOs

    They’re cheaper and easier to switch between, but the best plans (without considering price) are post-paid through the major carriers. But approximately or effectively equivalent plans are often MVNO options. For example, my Verizon coverage is via Verizon Visible’s Plus plan — an excellent plan, with 50GB of prioritized data (which is of outsized importance on Verizon, because of their annoying network management3 and often low capacity) and unlimited data thereafter. They also include some free international roaming4, which, at this point in my life, isn’t of much consequence. They also include 5G UW access, which is nice but unnecessary: I’d prefer solid LTE that actually works most of the time.

    Comparing networks

    Arguably, the ability to make calls is more important: it’s better to be without internet communication than without communication altogether. But in practice, Verizon’s zero or near-zero internet speeds are the most annoying.

    I live in an area with good coverage (often low- or mid-band 5G) from all three carriers2, and where Verizon is good, it’s really good. I’ve never been in a situation where I’m so far outside of a Verizon coverage zone that I’m unable to place a call, but I’m frequently unable to connect to the internet, which I do much more often than talking on the phone.

    One of the places where Verizon doesn’t work is school — obviously, somewhere where I spend a significant amount of time. Because of this, I got a cheap Boost Mobile (AT&T) SIM, on their $25 for 35GB plan, as a second line on my iPhone.

    I’ve been dual SIM for about six months now, and it’s time to pull the plug on my Verizon (Visible) service. AT&T often feels slower (which is likely because Boost is deprioritized) than Verizon (when it works), but I’ll take “slower and more consistent” over “faster, except when it’s slower than dial-up”. And almost every time I lose internet connectivity on Verizon, switching data to AT&T gets me back online. I’ve experienced this around my town and neighboring ones, on long drives, and in other states.

    Alternatives?

    I’m looking for an alternative, preferably on AT&T. The tech media seems to be running a marketing campaign for T-Mobile, insisting they’re the best carrier overall. Admittedly, I haven’t used T-Mobile for a few years, but the coverage wasn’t great5.

    I’m considering AT&T Prepaid’s Unlimited MAX (though the 5GB of hotspot5 might not be enough), Cricket’s unlimited plan (though I don’t love Cricket), and Google Fi7.

    I like Google Fi for the price — $20/month per line with a family8 plan. Its being a Google product is also nice, since I would prefer dealing with them than e.g., AT&T’s antiquated PayGo portal.

    The problem with Fi is its using T-Mobile. As I mentioned, it’s been a few years since I daily drove their network; I’m willing to give it another shot, though, and they’re (T-Mobile) offering a trial!

    Speaking of, T-Mobile’s post-paid plans are good both in features and in price.

    Domestic roaming?

    I’ve wondered about this for a while without finding a decent answer9: doesn’t the existence of domestic roaming agreements between US carriers mean Verizon’s advantage — calling — is moot? If one network’s data coverage is better, more consistent in areas you frequent, wouldn’t domestic roaming fill in the gaps?

    It turns out domestic roaming agreements are weird, and the agreements between carriers are very location specific. Just because there’s AT&T coverage in an area without e.g., Verizon or T-Mobile coverage doesn’t mean you can roam on one of those networks. It seems like it’s more of a thing in rural areas with hyper regional carriers — thus, LTEiRA agreements.

    Domestic roaming is also, traditionally, a feature of the big three’s post-paid plans (though Visible began offering it recently).

    Stasis

    That’s where I am with my wireless providers. I’ve been meaning to switch for some time but have been carried by the inertia of my Boost/Visible+ combo working. I almost never have a problem with coverage, because when I do, I can switch to Boost from cellular settings, and continue. But this setup is overpriced and unnecessary; it’s annoying that Verizon’s subsidiary MVNO offers such a compelling plan, and AT&T’s doesn’t.

    I might post an update here, if/when I find and switch to a better plan. But for now, I’m tired of opining on cell phone service.

    I went through a period of being intensely interested in cell phone carriers, MVNOs, plans, etc. If you’re interested and want to learn more (you can get much more into the weeds than I did) or keep up with industry news, take a look at Sneed Mobile Tech and Light ReadingStetson Doggett does a fantastic job covering plans in particular.


    1A less clear way of saying “completely anecdotal”, which I left in as a relic of AP Statistics that other students might appreciate.

    2My experience with T-Mobile is less recent, but their coverage seems fine in most areas I frequent. There is one area in particular, though, where the three carriers are co-located, all except Verizon with usable internet access.

    3Carriers use QCI (quality control index) numbers to prioritize network activity — some are GBR (guaranteed bitrate), which is reserved for live audio or video (e.g., phone calls); others are for diagnostics, etc.; but the higher (and, thus, lower priority) indexes are for data. On Verizon, there are three: 7, 8, and 9. 7 is Frontline, Verizon’s first-responder plan. 8 and 9 are for the consumer plans, 8 being “prioritized”, 9 being “deprioritized”. The prioritized plans are relatively few — mostly comprising of Verizon’s own first-party, post-paid plans (except the recent, terrible Welcome Unlimited), and the Spectrum/Xfinity Mobile plans (which, interesting, are also postpaid). Almost every Verizon MVNO is deprioritized — the likes of TracFone, etc. — and prioritization can be the difference between usable internet and “have fun with 2G”.

    4I think AT&T has the best (but not the cheapest — that might be T-Mobile) international roaming. I don’t remember the details exactly, but it’s worth googling, if you’re interested.

    5T-Mobile’s advertising makes me laugh: they call themselves the “best 5G network”, carefully distinguishing their claim from that of “best network”.

    6You change some network settings on your tethered device — ttl — to mask your traffic as coming from the phone, which should bypass the cap.

    7Google Fi on iPhone is annoying to set up, and Google doesn’t seem to care much.

    8My family is mixed across cell phone plans and providers, so it’ll be annoying to switch, but the savings make it worth the trouble.

    9I’m sure there’s one out there somewhere; my trouble is probably a product of my not knowing how to phrase my question for Google.

  • Linus Tech Tips was hacked!

    I’m a little late on this one — everyone else has already had their say. And, quite honestly, I don’t have much to add.

    LTT, and some of its sister channels, were hacked late last week by actor(s?) who transformed them into “Tesla” outposts, featuring Elon Musk giving away free crypto.

    I found the attack vector interesting — something I’m more used to hearing about on Security Now, than seeing actually happen. tl;dr: someone opened an infected PDF with a tool that grabbed browser cookies, allowing session hijack attacks for logged-in accounts. I guess it’s not the most sophisticated attack, but it seems like it would require some reasonably intermediate skill.

    The WAN Show is one of my favorite podcasts, and I appreciate its growing duration — four-hour WAN shows are becoming the norm! Last week’s1 was great; it was interesting hearing Luke and Linus discuss the damage of and their response to the attack.

    The community support was nice to see — it’s nice to feel like a part of it — and Floatplane subscribers soared — finally passed 40k!

    I’ve been somewhat in the market for a metal reusable water bottle for some time — plastic gets annoying2 — but indifference and inertia for using single-use plastic bottles stalled me.

    Linus and Luke mentioned they thought the best way to give the attackers the metaphorical finger was to make as much out of the incident as they could — Luke even mentioned thoroughly enjoying the excitement and long hours — and made a “Gone Phishin’” shirt to commemorate it. It’s filled with subtle details, like the cookie basket, a floatplane, and a “2FA” heart. I’ve never tried one of their shirts, but the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. And indigo looks nice.

    I upgraded my LTT Floatplane subscription to the 4K tier — the softness of 1080p often drove me to watch the videos on YouTube instead3, if I was using a 4K display or TV — and finally ordered a water bottle and T-Shirt from LTTStore.

    And it seems like LTT is back in full swing, and Friday’s WAN show was another record.

    These sorts of businesses, communities and creators are one of the wonderful things about the internet.

    I’ll write about some of my favorite blogs, podcasts, books, other internet things later.


    1Relative time in this post is a little weird because of when I started and finished it.

    2Cleaning metal bottles can be annoying, too, but this doesn’t seem like much of a problem when you, like me, drink ~only water. They’re not generally dishwasher safe, spawning a market for Shark Tank products like this one.

    3And the app doesn’t support background play, which rules out The WAN Show. And downloads are broken so I can’t push it to my podcast app. The audio quality seems (to me, but this might be total placebo) noticeably higher fidelity on Floatplane, which is why that version is worth mentioning. It also includes the pre-show.

  • Initial Thoughts on the TikTok Hysteria

    Is TikTok anything more sinister than a benign waste of time?

    Why the outrage over TikTok? It seems that those who are outraged aren’t TikTok users, and to the extent they are, they’re sympathetic to a forced removal of their biggest time sink.

    Their appearance before Congress was riddled with near-incomprehensible questions and legislators thinking they were clever.

    The CEO was asked such ridiculous questions as, “have you directed them to change the source code,” and similarly absurd accusations that TikTok is spying through our phones’ cameras to capture our facial expressions.1

    The real threat TikTok poses, if any, is hardly articulated.

    Yes, it’s probably bad for a foreign government, especially the Chinese, to have access to the sorts of data TikTok does — preferences, demographic and other inferential data.

    Why? A tap into the obscene number of collective hours we collectively spend on TikTok could be invaluable.

    Could the Chinese government use TikTok to influence Americans’ thoughts or behaviors? Maybe, but probably not in an obvious way.

    Facebook, Google, and other adtech are necessarily good: they wouldn’t survive otherwise. Yes, there are the predictable ads that follow you around seemingly forever after visiting e.g., Allbirds and viewing a single pair of shoes.2 But for every one of those instances, there’s a matching one of incredible prediction and statistical maneuvering.

    My favorite illustrative example is this: Target knew a teenage girl was pregnant before she did. And this is obviously not because she searched for e.g., diapers. The short version is this: people who are pregnant, whether they know it or not, tend to act slightly differently than other people. This, apparently, extends to their shopping behavior at Target. They used an algorithm that could parse purchase habits and determine, with apparently great accuracy, whether a customer was pregnant.

    It doesn’t take much imagination to believe companies, with considerably more tech prowess than Target, use techniques similar to these to predict demographic, health, interest, etc. information. People who are, eventually, known to be members of a certain group or have a certain attribute might act in certain, slightly different ways on Instagram or Google or… you get the idea.

    This is why it might seem like Facebook is listening in through your phone’s microphone. But they aren’t. If they were, they’d (1) have to keep it very quiet, and (2) exploit a horrible bug in iOS (or Android), since Apple certainly wouldn’t be on board — they cost Facebook millions because of their App Tracking Transparency popups, which allow users to opt out of cross-app tracking. Unless this is some sort of 4D chess. 😉

    So the influence TikTok might exert would be more sublime: it’s much more powerful when someone draws the conclusion you want them to — it’s ‘their idea’ — than to overtly try and convince them. Maybe there are certain types of videos their recommendation system could prefer that would subliminally promote e.g., feelings of resentment of or distrust in government. The usefulness of such an effect is clear.

    Whatever the case, our legislators are sorely ill-equipped to handle such a matter of technology. Even the Supreme Court admits they “really don’t know about these things [… we’re] not like the nine greatest experts on the internet.”

    I might think differently after reading some more about this. Noah Smith wrote a piece arguing that “of course we should ban TikTok,” and Platformer just published a critique of the CEO’s performance before the House committee. Maybe I’ll revisit this topic.


    1I got this from a video on TikTok. An interesting meta argument is that videos ridiculing Congress seem to be doing well on TikTok. But is that because of their manipulation? Maybe it is, but maybe it’s what the median TikTok user agrees with.

    2I can’t stand ads and have removed them (as much as reasonably possible) from my life. But that’s a topic for another post.

  • Modus Operandi

    This post is from my former “notes” site.

    This isn’t polished — it’s not supposed to be.

    Here, I’m recording things on my mind that I find (at least somewhat) interesting.

    This is the only common theme to this blog: I won’t follow a particular ‘beat’, though my writings will probably skew tech-focused.

    My posts here will not be as polished as they could be. Sometimes it’ll seem like I didn’t bother to proof them — I probably didn’t. That’s the point.

    The point of this is to write, and to write more, without pressure; to record and crystalize my thoughts. The posts I wrote today were written during History and Spanish classes. 🙂

    I am also working on a sort of “favorites” page, where I’ll log my favorite blogs, books, podcasts, movies, shows, etc.

    Writing this way — in the distraction-free Write.as editor — does for blogging what Anchor did for podcasting: it removes the friction.

    I might update this page with more information as I finish more posts. Read Why? for more about the impetus behind this blog.

    If you find anything I discuss interesting or have any questions, please write to me.

    If you want to hear from me next time I post, leave your email here.