Newmark's Door

Suggestions for how to find useful, interesting stuff on the Net.

I've noticed this only a little, but if it gets bad, the market should provide many excellent alternatives.

Yes, the Internet has not worked as expected in several important ways.

'The Long Tail' was supposed to boost alternative voices in music, movies, and books—but the exact opposite happened.

I hope Anil Dash is right. (But I wouldn't bet on it.)

I haven't noticed this, but I haven't Googled "best laptop for working from home" either. (And the article gives a nifty way for avoiding the problem that works as of early May.)

Excellent question. Thanks goodness for caller ID, though.

They made a Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year, but I still get robocalls.

Some clever and some I had not heard before. Three examples:

Shaker’s Law of Departure – “Those who egregiously announce their imminent departure from an Internet discussion forum almost never actually leave.”

Shank’s Law – “There is no idea so batshit insane that you can’t find at least one PhD scientist to support it.”

John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory – Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad

And one I had and still like:

Brandolini’s Law - "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it."

I can recommend, "Eponymous Laws Part 3: Miscellaneous," too.

Consistent with what I've read before: the great majority of social media is begin generated by a small fraction of the users.

How much longer does COBOL last and what does that say about the institutions that still rely on it.

What's especially interesting here is how the free market has produced--without any government mandate to do so--a whole lot of resources to help "influencers".