Doc Searls's Blog, page 6

Friday, June 27, 2025

And, by making it personal, it's a story after all.  For every person we know who has had trouble getting into the U.S. from Europe, Asia, Canada, or elsewhere, we know dozens who have experienced the opposite. Since there are only facts in "no trouble at all," and no story, the no-trouble non-story tends not to get reported. (For more on why, see Where Journalism Fails.) In I'm at the US border—but will the guards play ball, Martin Samuel of The Times shares his own experience (of entering the U.S. for a World Cup match). It's a good short read.

What? Oh that, yes. ChatGPT just interrupted my experience of it to tell me about its memory: how it works, and how best to use it. Since ChatGPT is the one chatbot I pay for,  and there are lots of past chats I would like ChatGPT to recall, I'll save this link and hope its parents don't 404 it.

Thursday, 26 June 2025

A history lesson. A neighbor who works in tech asked me what my new outdoor TV antenna was for. I told him it was for watching TV stations, mostly from Indianapolis, where the transmitters are about 60 miles away. "Don't you have cable?" he asked. I said no, we only have Internet service, which for TV only gives us what we can stream, which doesn't include cable stations. "Which stations do you get?" He asked. "NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, plus a few others." "Only those?" "Yes," I said. "When did that start?" He didn't know that over-the-air TV preceded cable—or was a thing at all.

That's new, at least for me. I just scanned my credit card with my own phone to make a payment for something.

Nothing in Indiana. Having fun looking at Michelin's top restaurants in California, then everywhere. Nearest to where I'm at are Indienne, Roop, The Coach House by Wazwan, and Superkhana International in Chicago. The LA Times does some bragging too.  Bonus link: 21 best croissants in New York.

They agree to your terms, rather than the reverse. Nothing will be more important for MyData and its [conference in Helsinki in September](MyData 2025 conference) than MyTerms. Iain Henderson will be representing MyTerms and Customer Commons there. Why is MyTerms so important? It flips the script for online engagements.

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

A question: For iCloud Photos on Apple's Photos app (on the computer), what are the differences between what you get with Download Originals to this Mac and Optimize Mac Storage? I've tried it both ways, and the sizes of the photos are the same. I've asked this question to ChatGPT (which I pay) and Claude. ChatGPT seems not to be working at all for some reason, and Claude's answer is full of "it might be" possibilities. Nothing clear.

Tuesday, 24 June 2025

Truth. I first set foot on Harvard soil (well, a brick sidewalk) in October 2003, while walking to the first BloggerCon. The event was hosted by Dave Winer, then a fellow at what’s now the Berkman Klein Center. I knew no more about Harvard, I suppose, than any other normal American. But, strangely, I felt at home there, as if I somehow belonged. Three years later, I was a fellow at the Center, following in Dave’s footsteps. That fellowship lasted four years, and the project I started there is still going. So are two of its offspring: Customer Commons and MyTerms (IEEE P7012). I still love Harvard, but less for any of those reasons than the simple fact that it matters in countless good and important ways. Larry Lessig visits some of those in Veritas: We are still here. Pull quote: “Veritas is not just the motto of America’s oldest university. It is an ideal that each of us, whether Red or Blue, teach our children every day of our lives. It must now become the motto of the movement to make America great again.”

Check your dependencies. If you depend on iCloud for anything—and if you have a Mac plus an iPhone and/or an iPad, you do—iCloud has problems right now. This was explained to me by an AppleCare guy about an hour ago, and the problems are still there. (For example, trying to copy photos from Photos to a folder on my Mac causes an error message.) Just letting ya’ll know. It’ll clear up.

Monday, 23 June 2025

Source: Hajoon0102 via Wikipedia

I hope they haven’t moved elsewhere by then. My 2nd Generation AirPods Pro pair, nestled in their little white case, fell out of my pocket in the waiting room at the VW dealer here in Bloomington. At least that’s the last place I knew I had them. According to the Find My apps on both my laptop and my phone, they are at an address 21 miles southwest of here on state road 54. They have been telling me that for hours, and just the things were still there 10 minutes ago. Problem is, I can’t go there to say “Hi, my Air Pods are at this address,” because I won’t have the car until midday tomorrow.

In a world of infinite media choices, I consider these stats a success. Linkedin tells me this post, which pointed to Toward a Personal AI Roadmap for VRM on the ProjectVRM blog, had 395 impressions. On Linkedin, that is. The ProjectVRM post has had 85 views so far. Not sure how many of those are among the 30 who came from Linkedin to the blog. One reader responded in the comments below the piece.

May the least injured win. In the seventh and final game of the NBA Finals yesterday, the Oklahoma City Thunder won. They deserved to win, having the best overall record in the league, the best combination of scoring and defense, and the league MVP. But the Indiana Pacers deserved to win as well. They were an even match for the Thunder, and might have won had their star player, Tyrese Halliburton, not gone down with a torn Achilles just seven minutes into the game. This game, and the whole series, will be remembered less for the Thunder’s achievements than for the Pacers’ grit, determination, teamwork and exciting brand of play, led by Halliburton’s extreme selflessness. Here is a weird and haunting fact for you: All three stars that went down with Achilles injuries in the playoffs—Damien Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, and Tyrese Halliburton of the Pacers—wear the same number on their jerseys… 0 (zero).

We’ve Had Enough of This Shit

I was going to source this Bloomberg story about AI-related Microsoft Layoffs, but the interruptive popover said,

I didn’t accept that, and suggest you don’t either. I just checked in another browser, and in Europe (or at least in The Netherlands, where I am VPN’d right now), Bloomberg gives you these choices:

That’s because Bloomberg tries to obey the GDPR in Europe, and says hell with it in the U.S.

Or maybe they aren’t so obedient, because this just popped up on the EU page (where I’m using the Tor Browser, and just tried to expand the six variables you might “manage”—not that you’ll have any record of what you agreed to, or way to audit the site’s compliance):

With this we see how adtech has now achieved maximum enshittification.

The only cure for this is MyTerms. Full stop. Let’s make it happen.

Friday, 20 June 2025

In Paris, April 2005, in a moment when I still had hair, wore glasses, and drank caffeine. All of which is mostly irrelevant to the top item below, but it’ll do.

Convenient. The 50 Best Restaurants include:

Six in Bangkok

Five in Tokyo.

Four in Paris.

Four in Lima.

Four in Copenhagen.

Three in New York.

Two in Munich.

Two in London.

Two in Mexico City .

Two in Dubai.

Two in Seoul.

Two in Barcelona.

One in Gardone Riviera.

One in Alba.

One in Singapore.

One in Castel di Sangro.

One in Senigallia.

One in Brunico.

One in Getaria.

One in Rubano.

One in Skillinge.

One in Rio de Janiero.

One in Stockholm.

One in Santiago.

One in Atxondo.

One in Cartagena.

One in Alba.

One in Vienna.

None in Bloomington.

None in Los Angeles.

And the Winter One, down unders. The Summer Solstice arrives (or, depending on when you read this, arrived) at 10:42 PM today, Eastern time.

Adtech has now achieved a state of pure enshittification. I first wrote We’ve Had Enough of This Shit here, but moved it to a solo post because I needed to show why.

Pacers in Seven. I predicted here in 2016 that the Cleveland Cavaliers would beat the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. That was the year that the Warriors had a still-unbeaten regular season record of 73 wins and just 9 losses. But the Cavs had the better story, plus LeBron James. There is no equivalent of LeBron on the Pacers. But the Pacers are out-hustling and out-defending the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have the best regular season record, plus the league MVP. They’ll have a great story too, if they win. But the Pacers’ story is just a little bit better. And you know (or should know) what I say about stories.

Thursday, 19 June 2025

It's also  home to the Underground Railroad Tree. My college has saved the woods it owns. I used to enjoy wandering around in there, five decades ago.

Miami, for example. Says here there are places where the real estate market is collapsing.

AI answers may vary, but less so over time, maybe. Some moral puzzles and answers to them.

Good read. Lenin Peak (Қуллаи Ибни Сино) is a  7,134 m (23,406 ft) triangular prominence in the Trans-Alay Range that divides Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, but was still in the Soviet Union when an avalanche killed forty-three climbers. A Crushing Wave of Snow is the disaster story told by Miguel Helft, a climber who was witness to it. From what I can tell, there's no paywall if yours is a solo visit.

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

A summer lamentation. Yesterday was the 69th birthday of Sparky, the puppy I got for my 8th birthday in 1956. He died at age one, and is buried under the parking lot at the Boulevard Square strip mall that paves the paradise of scrub oak and pitch pines that was our summer playground at the edge of New Jersey's Pine Barrens in what is now the 13th-largest municipality in the state. Sparky was hit by a car while hunting for love. Beside Sparky lies Kim, another "intact" male dog who died a year before we got Sparky, and a parakeet named Poco. Kim was also killed by a car. Poco fell behind a spare door that partly covered the studs of an open wall in our summer home, and was found years later when we needed the door. We buried him in an empty cereal box.

Tuesday, 17 June, 2025

It's not the heat (though we have that too). Humidity is 85% here right now. Everything is sticky. Summer in the Midwest. Also the East. And the South. Only more of it. And worse. Interesting: warmer oceans are a cause. The WaPo explains. (Sorry, paywall.)