Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Oct 13, 2021 22 tweets 19 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Charter uses bad credit threats to corral ex-subscribers; Adobe uses copyfraud to preserve spyware; India funded a starving kids' app, but not food; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/the…

#Pluralistic

1/
The paperback for Attack Surface - a standalone Little Brother book for adults - is out!

us.macmillan.com/books/97812507…

Signed copies:

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co…

One-month only audiobook sale with Little Brother and Homeland:

sowl.co/uqT2G

2/
Charter uses bad credit threats to corral ex-subscribers: "Resubscribe or we'll keep trashing your credit report."



3/
Adobe uses copyfraud to preserve spyware: A free-as-in-surveillance-free Flash installer is gone thanks to a bogus copyright claim.



4/
India funded a starving kids' app, but not food: Solutionism at its worst.



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#10yrsago Ryanair declares war on bodily fluids, vows to remove toilets independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

#10yrsago Agatha H and the Airship City: Girl Genius book is a cross between a comic and a prose novel memex.craphound.com/2011/10/13/aga…

6/
#5yrsago Bob Dylan is the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for literature csmonitor.com/Books/2016/101…

#5yrsago Hungary’s Prime Minister shuts down opposition press, then goes after everyone else theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

7/
#5yrsago Talking about Allan Sherman on the Comedy on Vinyl podcast stolendress.com/comedyonvinyl/…

#5yrsago AI’s blind spot: garbage in, garbage out nature.com/articles/53831…

7/
#5yrsago Wells Fargo’s new CEO previously denied that the bank’s sales culture had any problems consumerist.com/2016/10/13/new…

#1yrago SF as intuition pump pluralistic.net/2020/10/13/hop…

#1yrago Beyond Cyberpunk pluralistic.net/2020/10/13/hop…

8/
Yesterday's threads: This Thing Between Us, a neck-hair-stand-up cuycuy horror; There are no corporate criminals in America; and more!



9/
My latest book is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books, now in paperback, wherever books are sold.

Signed copies at @darkdel:

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co…

One-month, $30 audiobook bundle with all three Little Brother books:

sowl.co/uqT2G

10/
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…

11/
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/

12/
Upcoming appearances:

* From Wayback to Way Forward: The @InternetArchive turns 25, Oct 21
eventbrite.com/e/from-wayback…

* Lessons from the First Internet Ages (@knightfdn) Nov 2-3
blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2021/…

* Keynote for @SeaGL 2021, Nov 5-6
seagl.org/news/2021/06/0…

13/
Recent appearances:

* Community & Technology


* Infosec Apocaylpse (We're In podcast)
were-in.simplecast.com/episodes/cory-…

* @WalledCulture


14/
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 @mcRockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe…

15/
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/2021/10/13/the…

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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.

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My latest @Medium column is "Dead Letters," how the spam wars and corporate concentration killed open email.

medium.com/@doctorow/dead…

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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

19/
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…

20/

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More from @doctorow

May 17
As a science fiction writer, I find it weird that some sf tropes - like space colonization - have become culture-war touchstones. You know, that whole "we were promised jetpacks" thing.

1/ A cartoon image of a jetpack-flying man waves hello at a gap-toothed, awed young boy. Beneath them in the corner, a sinister figure with huge, hypnotic-spiral eyes works the switches on an imposing control panel. On his desk is a copy of Amazing Stories with the same rocketeer. In the image background is a faded, halftoned image of the NYC 1964 World's Fair.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/17/fak…
I confess, I never looked too hard at the practicalities of jetpacks, because they are so obviously either used as a visual shorthand (as in the Jetsons) or as a metaphor.

3/
Read 49 tweets
May 16
Residents of 21 Utah cities have some of the fastest, cheapest broadband in the country, at speeds up to 10gb/s and prices as low as $75/mo. It's uncapped, and the connections are symmetrical: perfect for uploading *and* downloading. And it's all thanks to the government.

1/    The cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Thomas More's 'Utopia.' It has been altered to add a glowing halo of fiber optics around the central tower. The Penguin logo has been replaced with the beehive from the Utah state flag.  Image: 4028mdk09 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rote_LED_Fiberglasleuchte.JPG  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/16/sym…
Of course this is delivered via fiber optic. Fiber is vastly superior to all other forms of broadband, including satellites, but also cable and DSL. Fiber caps out at 100tb/s, while cable caps out at 50gb/s - fiber is *1,000* times faster:



3/eff.org/deeplinks/2019…
Read 64 tweets
May 13
When it comes to AI art (or "art"), it's hard to find a nuanced position that respects creative workers' labor rights, free expression, copyright law's vital exceptions and limitations, and aesthetics.

1/ An old woodcut of a disembodied man's hand operating a Ouija board planchette. It has been modified to add an extra finger and thumb. It has been tinted green. It has been placed on a 'code waterfall' backdrop as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spo…
I am, on balance, opposed to AI art, but there are some important caveats to that position. For starters, I think it's unequivocally wrong - as a matter of law - to say that scraping works and training a model with them infringes copyright.

3/
Read 98 tweets
May 11
Like Oscar Wilde, "I can resist anything except temptation," and my slow and halting journey to adulthood is really just me grappling with this fact, getting temptation out of my way before I can yield to it.

1/ A complex control panel whose knobs have all been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' A skeletal figure on one side of the image reaches out a bony finger to twiddle one of the knobs.  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en  --  djhughman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modular_synthesizer_-_%22Control_Voltage%22_electronic_music_shop_in_Portland_OR_-_School_Photos_PCC_%282015-05-23_12.43.01_by_djhughman%29.jpg  CC BY 2.0 https://cr...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for…
Behavioral economists have a name for the steps we take to guard against temptation: a "Ulysses pact." That's when you take some possibility off the table during a moment of strength in recognition of some coming moment of weakness:



3/archive.org/details/decent…
Read 86 tweets
May 9
Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people.

1/ A lonely mud-brick well in a brown desert. It has been modified to add a 'caganar' - a traditional Spanish figure of a man crouching down and defecating - perched on the edge of the well. The caganar's head has been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The sky behind this scene has been blended with a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies.  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en  --  Cathe...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shi…
The "Tragedy" hoax said that moving land from collective ownership "rescued" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who cared for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":



3/pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/ana…
Read 50 tweets
May 6
Amazon is very good at everything it does, including being very bad at the things it doesn't want to do. Take signing up for Prime: nothing could be simpler. The company has built a greased slide from Prime-curiosity to Prime-confirmed that is the envy of every UX designer.

1/ A hand depositing a ballot in a perspex ballot box on a black background. The box is full of yellow-green piss and the ballot features an angry robot made from Amazon boxes and the phrase 'I am not a robot.' The box has an Amazon logo across its top.   Image: Isabela.Zanella (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballot-box-2.jpg  CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one…
But *unsubscribing* from Prime? That's a fucking *nightmare*. Somehow the company that can easily figure out how to sign up for a service is totally baffled when it comes to making it just as easy to leave.

3/
Read 49 tweets

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