Feb 2020

"Commit: Update system" — Prototype Fund demo day #6

I’ve written about the Prototype Fund demo day before — hard to believe that was 2.5 years ago — and my second visit was equally pleasant. The theme of the funding period it concluded could not be more current: “Commit” was all […]
2020

Stop Using Encrypted Email

latacora.singles

An interesting perspective on “encrypted email” in this article. It is not so much concerned with the strength of encryption, but with the systemic insecurity inherent to the system of email as a by-default open and interoperable […]
2020

Museum of Obsolete Media

obsoletemedia.org

Another one for my collection of “museums” of historical forms of (digital) communication:
The home for over 600 current and obsolete physical media formats, covering audio, video, film and data storage. The Museum preserves the memory of those objects that held our memories, and every format listed in the Museum is represented by at least one example in the collection.
2020

Link Targets and 3.2.5

adrianroselli.com

I can’t even remember how many times I have engaged in the discussion why links on websites should not open in new tabs. Sadly, the number of times I had to surrender and spoil otherwise user-friendly and accessible designs with the client request to […]
2020

Wearable Microphone Jamming

sandlab.cs.uchicago.edu

A critical art project using a hack to jam microphones in the vincinity for increased privacy:
We engineered a wearable microphone jammer that is capable of disabling microphones in its user’s surroundings, including hidden microphones. Our […]
2020

Speaking at Think-About! 2020

I am humbled and beyond excited to be invited to speak at Think-About! 2020, the second edition of my favourite "tech" conference. I wrote about my impressions last year.
2020

A Data-Driven Guide to Effective Personal Climate Action

erikareinhardt.com

“46 minute read” is a commitment, but this thoroughly researched post by Erika Reinhardt has an incredible amount of food for thought, background data and tools:
This post details the most effective individual changes you can make to […]
2020

Google does not need a user agent header to track people

There has been quite some discussion (e.g. here) around the plan by browser vendors, led by the Google Chrome team, to essentially abandon the User-agent header they send with every request to identify version and make of the browser it is coming from. Not […]
2020

Hacking a traffic jam into Google Maps

Google Maps Hacks by Berlin artist Simon Weckert is performance art at its best: not only for the artifact it creates (in the most ephemeral way, in form of a live data stream on Google Maps), but for the awareness it creates.
99 second hand […]
2020