Reading List 357
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. We’ve just released Vivaldi 7.9, with even more personalistion and zero “A.I.”, because it’s cream of the crop, not a stream of the Slop.
- HTML in canvas – “There’s a new WICG proposal that lets you render real, interactive HTML elements into a <canvas>. including WebGL and WebGPU contexts. I spent a few days building demos with it.”
- Webloc uses ad-based data to monitor hundreds of millions of people across the globe – Customers include ICE, Hungarian domestic intelligence, El Salvador national police. IDF received training on it. Other EU governments were “coy”. Hurray for Ad Tech.
- Federal cyber experts called Microsoft’s cloud a “pile of shit,” approved it anyway
- Amazon is cutting off support for older Kindles – but don’t worry! Bountiful beneficent Bezos is “encouraging” you to buy a new one with a 20% discount, so just drop your old one in a canal, or hoik it at a baby eagle, or bash an otter to death with it. Or, if you’re really evil, you could jailbreak it so you can continue to read books you already own on a device you already own.
- I Decompiled the White House’s New App – “The official White House Android app has a cookie/paywall bypass injector, tracks your GPS every 4.5 minutes, and loads JavaScript from some guy’s GitHub Pages”
- Commission presents proposal for EU Inc. – unlocking the full potential of the Single Market for Europe’s entrepreneurs – “a single harmonised set of corporate rules that companies can choose instead of navigating multiple national regimes, unlocking the true potential of the Single Market”
- The AI Great Leap Forward by Han Lee. “In 1958, Mao ordered every village in China to produce steel. Farmers melted down their cooking pots in backyard furnaces and reported spectacular numbers. The steel was useless. The crops rotted. Thirty million people starved.In 2026, every other company is having top down mandate on AI transformation.”
- Claude Code source leak reveals how much info Anthropic can hoover up about you and your system – “If you loved the data retention of Microsoft Recall, you’ll be thrilled with Claude Code”
- Quantum Computers Need 20x Fewer Qubits to Crack Crypto – “Google estimated the 1,000 wealthiest exposed Ethereum accounts, holding roughly 20.5 million ETH, could be cracked in fewer than nine days.” Awwwww.
- CSS or BS? – “We show you a CSS property name. You tell us if it’s real or made up. 20 rounds, five difficulty tiers, no mercy.”
Buy "Calling For The Moon", my debut album of songs I wrote while living in Thailand, India, Turkey. (Only £2, on Bandcamp.)