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Cory Doctorow

21 Jun, 14 tweets, 11 min read

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Podcasting "Inside the Clock Tower"; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/06/21/int…

#Pluralistic

1/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1406989066843815938

Podcasting "Inside the Clock Tower": Reading my Consumer Reports story about an interoperable future.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1406989066843815938

#5yrsago Dieselgate for GPUs: review-units ship at higher clockspeeds than retail ones theverge.com/circuitbreaker…

#5yrsago Phones without headphone jacks are phones with DRM for audio theverge.com/circuitbreaker…

3/

#5yrsago Donald Trump sources $6M worth of campaign expenditures from companies he and his family own web.archive.org/web/2016062114…

#1yrago The Case for a Job Guarantee pluralistic.net/2020/06/22/job…

4/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1406659006144278530

Yesterday's threads: How to cheat on your taxes; and more!

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1406659006144278530

@washingtonpost

My latest novel is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books. @washingtonpost called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance."

Get signed books from @darkdel: darkdel.com/store/p1840/Av…

6/

My book "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" is a critique of Big Tech connecting conspiratorial thinking to the rise of tech monopolies (proposing a way to deal with both) is now out in paperback:

onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy…

Signed copies here:
darkdel.com/store/p2024/Av…

7/

@torbooks

My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, 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."

craphound.com/shop/

8/

@ConsumerReports

Recent appearances:

* The ACCESS Act, @ConsumerReports:
consumerreports.org/digital-rights…

* Raging Chicken @rcpress podcast:
rcpress.podbean.com/e/out-dcoup-li…

* Darts and Lasers podcast:
dartsandletters.ca/2021/06/11/ep2…

9/

My first picture book is out! It's called Poesy the Monster Slayer and it's an epic tale of bedtime-refusal, toy-hacking and monster-hunting, illustrated by Matt Rockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe…

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

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2021/06/21/int…

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@Medium

If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is "The EU, tech trustbusting and trade-wars": doctorow.medium.com/the-eu-tech-tr…)

12/

If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🙅🏾". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: pluralistic.net/plura-list

13/

Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr.

Here's today's edition: mamot.fr/@pluralistic/1…

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

22 Jun

Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Improving the ACCESS Act; Juul's junk science; Peloton bricks its treadmills; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vap…

#Pluralistic

1/

@locusmag

This Saturday, I'm appearing on a panel at the #LocusAwards for @locusmag. @WTalabi, @UnlikelyWorlds, @karenthology and I will discourse on "Future Tech: Working the Science into Your Fiction" at 13h Pacific.

locusmag.com/2021-locus-awa…

2/

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1407111795894980629

Improving the ACCESS Act: Six ways to make the most important tech law of the legislative season even better.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1407111795894980629

Read 22 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

22 Jun

@onepeloton

"Tread," a $3000 "smart" treadmill from @onepeloton, is a deathtrap. 125,000 Treads have been recalled after the devices injured 72 people and killed a child.

bbc.com/news/business-…

1/

Say what you will about Peloton's safety engineering, but never fault the evil genius of its strategists. The company responded to the news by bricking the Treads in the field and demanding $40/month "subscriptions" from owners to continue using them.

bleepingcomputer.com/news/technolog…

2/

The pretense here is that the subscription comes with safety software that means that you treadmill will not maim you or murder your children.

This raises an obvious question: why not just put that software into all the existing Tread devices for free?

3/

Read 13 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

22 Jun

Every time I write about vaping and the extraordinary lengths that the tobacco industry (epitomized by Juul, a sister company to Marlboro) has gone to in order to convince children to vape, I hear from people who tell me that vaping is safe, especially compared to smoking.

1/

This month, I wrote "I Quit," about my own smoking cessation, with some of Juul's dirtiest tricks, including increasing the nicotine in its child-targeted fruit flavors and its fake "mental health seminars" in schools where they promote vaping.

doctorow.medium.com/i-quit-9ae7b60…

2/

One Juul trick I wasn't aware of at the time? Faking the research on the safety of vaping.

In a just-published paper for BMJ Tobacco Control, a group of evidence-based medicine specialists document Juul's safety research fraud.

tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/…

3/

Read 16 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

21 Jun

Last week, Congress introduced the #ACCESSAct, one of the most significant, pro-competitive, pro-user tech laws in American legislative history.

eff.org/deeplinks/2021…

1/

It will require large tech platforms to open up to interoperability, so you can leave the platform for a rival without losing contact with your friends, communities, audiences and customers.

2/

By lowering the switching cost of walking away from Big Tech, Congress could create space for co-ops, tinkerers, nonprofits, startups and public services to create small, user-centered communities built on giving people technological self-determination.

3/

Read 26 tweets

Cory Doctorow

@doctorow

21 Jun

@consumerreports

Today on my podcast, I read "Inside the Clock Tower," a short science fiction story for @consumerreports that depicts a future of interoperable social media (as contemplated by the recently introduced #ACCESSAct).

digital-lab.consumerreports.org/2021/06/15/ins…

1/

(If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:)

pluralistic.net/2021/06/21/int…

2/

The ACCESS Act would require large social media platforms to create gateways (APIs) that new services could plug into, so that users who quit the monopoly services would still be able to talk to the friends, customers and communities they left behind

eff.org/deeplinks/2021…

3/

Read 19 tweets