In the heyday of the net-neutrality fight last decade, tech activists and companies warned of a doom scenario without it: Internet toll lanes, blocking of data and slower speeds. If Washington didn’t reclassify internet service providers as public utilities and give the Federal Communications Commission oversight, they argued, our entire online experience would change for […]
Heard Tell Radio: Ukrainian Refugees, EU POV of Russia’s Aggression, & Technology Adapting To Crisis
Broadcasting extraordinaire Andrew Donaldson invites me on his excellent program Heard Tell to discuss the latest in Ukraine, the EU POV, and some finer points of technology. Subscribe to his show here. “On this Heard Tell Good Talks, guest Yael Ossowski joins to give a European point of view to the crisis, and how being […]
Why Consumers Should Oppose the Latest Senate Antitrust Actions
The U.S. Senate is considering two antitrust bills by Sen. Amy Klobuchar that would significantly harm both consumer choice and innovation. Unfortunately, these bills have been co-sponsored by members of both political parties, creating what looks like a bipartisan consensus in the Senate chamber, but not one favored by the vast majority of American consumers. […]
Halting Targeted Advertising Kills Industries and Dumbs Down Tech
When we hear gripes about social media, one of the top concerns is targeted advertising. On any given day, this type of segmented advertising is used by the local hair salon searching for new clients, an environmental group asking for signatures on a petition and a city council candidate seeking your vote. These are all […]
6: Technology as Pharmakon
The question of the impact of technology is a major theme in today’s culture. TV shows, books, and even entire fields of philosophy are dedicating to exploring the positive and negative impacts. Social media, an important method of communication for a large portion of Earth’s population, is very much an extension of this. In a […]
Facebook Trustbusters Are Motivated by Partisan Politics, Not Concern for the Consumer
Channeling the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt and nostalgia for the early 20th century Progressive Era, the latest bad idea being circulated in elite circles is to use the trust-busting power of the federal government to break up the social network Facebook. The idea has been promoted by the likes of Democratic politicians like senators Elizabeth […]
Crypto Imagination and the Coming Nightmare
In one of the episodes in the newest seasons of Netflix’s Black Mirror, a young woman visits a strange museum across the way from a gas station in the hot desert. Inside, she meets the museum’s proprietor who offers her an early tour. The exhibitions preserved onsite include eccentric artifacts viewers of the series recognize […]
The Innocents Abroad Episode 14: Ruled By Algorithms
On this episode, Todor and Yaël debate Man versus Machine. What happens when the machines take over? What about our simulated realities? Are we already taken over by algorithms? Are social networks actually expanding, or are we filtering them even more to cater to only specific interests and people? Plus, some thoughts on the dystopian […]
Technological literacy is doomed
My debut fiddling with computers was about 20 years ago, in 1996. My dad bought us a Compaq Presario running DOS. My brothers and I were able to learn a few pivotal lines of code, allowing us to boot from the disk and play games like The Incredible Machine, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem. After […]