Reading List 346
This reading list is courtesy of Vivaldi browser, who pay me decent money to fight for a better web and don’t moan at me for reading all this stuff. If you prefer to keep browsing human, without planet-burning plagiarism-fulled Generative AI inserting itself between you and the Web, Vivaldi has you covered.
- Very Early Playing with random() in CSS by Chris Coyier
- Firefox is experimenting with PWAs on Windows
- No, Google Did Not Unilaterally Decide to Kill XSLT says Mr Eric Meyer, quite correctly
- Web Install API – this proposed new API aims to standardize the way installations are invoked by end users, without proprietary “smart” banners, UA prompts, hidden UX etc. It allows web-based catalogues that can install PWAs directly into multiple platforms. Yes please!
- Meta might be secretly scanning your phone’s camera roll – how to check and turn it off – “Some Facebook users have noticed new settings that let Meta analyze and retain your phone’s photos. Yes, you read that right.” Hurrah for the security and privacy of Native apps!
- MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing – Schadenfreude klaxon!
- UK backs down in Apple privacy row, US says – It’s rare that I find myself agreeing with Apple and some horrible MAGA weirdo, but it’s good that the UK (reportedly) dropped its so-secret-we-won’t-even-confirm-its-existence demand to access global Apple users’ data if required. This and the risible Online Safety Act shows that UK gov really needs some actual tech-literate advisors.
- Apple vs. Facebook is Kayfabe – “How do we know? In-app Browsers”. Big Al (to use Alex Russell’s wrestling name) blogging with righteous fury, and words that nobody else knows
- Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task [PDF]. Using AI rots your brain. “over the course of 4 months, the LLM group’s participants performed worse than their counterparts in the Brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring.”
- Google will block sideloading of unverified Android apps starting next year – imagine if Big Tech just allowed you to install whatever you wanted to on a device that you own?
- Mexit, not Brexit, is the new priority for the UK – “A Microsoft Exit strategy isn’t just a good idea, it’s vital. It must go a long way beyond a farewell to Redmond … The current UK government [mistakes] a fondness for magical AI and datacenters for a digital strategy.”
- Play by the rules’: Fortnite developer Epic Games wins partial victory in Australian court against Apple and Google – “Fortnite was kicked off Google and Apple app stores in 2020 after Epic Games offered its own in-app payment system”
- Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info – An internal Meta Platforms document detailing policies on chatbot behavior has permitted the company’s artificial intelligence creations to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.”
- It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes
