Ethan Marcotte
@ethanmarcotte.com
designer, writer, roommate to two kittens. here’s my website: https://ethanmarcotte.com/ I think you deserve a union, and I wrote a book about that: https://youdeserveatechunion.com/ hi friend (headshot by @elaina.bsky.social)
Terrible news, especially for their workers. Just a deeply disappointing ending for such a promising company. I hate this.
Techmeme@techmeme.com · yesterdayBending Spoons agrees to acquire Airtable in an all-cash deal valuing the US software company at $1.285B, set to close by 2026-end, its first post-IPO deal (Reuters) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
PSA: Chris Onstad is still doing Achewood, putting out a frankly ridiculous amount of new stuff every week, and it’s beautiful as ever. www.achewood.com
We heard you like podcasts so here's another excellent listen with the always delightful @ethanmarcotte.com
AT Protocol Developers@atproto.com · 2d agoWhat does it mean to design for uncertainty? Coiner of the phrase “responsive web design” @ethanmarcotte.com joined Off Protocol with some thoughts. atproto.com/off-protocol...
Had an absolutely *wonderful* time chatting with my old friend @jimray.bsky.team about uncertainty: how to plan for it, how to design for it, and—especially when struggling with it at work—how to repair it.
AT Protocol Developers@atproto.com · 2d agoWhat does it mean to design for uncertainty? Coiner of the phrase “responsive web design” @ethanmarcotte.com joined Off Protocol with some thoughts. atproto.com/off-protocol...
The Wikimedia Foundation hasn’t just refused to recognize their workers’ unions; they’ve also hired one of the most notorious union-busting firms out there. medium.com/regarding-wi... #1u #unions #TechUnions
The Wikimedia Foundation Hired the Union Busters Its Own Encyclopedia Warned About
A federal docket shows the Foundation retained Littler Mendelson, the firm Starbucks used against its baristas, to face its employees’…
medium.com
Because I see climate crisis going around today, I turned our recent relevant newsletter issue into a handy blog post. I went around on the title and landed on the thing I wanted to get into everyone's head. What to do instead? Read the blog. www.muledesign.com/blog/stop-ra...
Stop Raising Awareness — Mule Design
Raising awareness might be the worst thing you can do
muledesign.com
imagine if the bennet sisters had experienced garlic bread
@phirephoenix.com is doing such good work with Show Up Toronto, y’all.
jenny (phire)@phirephoenix.com · 6d agoThis week's Show Up Toronto is a little late, due to life, but we've got a fun little write-up of the Billy Bishop saga and a ton of organizing and mobilizing events around the city as per usual! Thanks to @ruhee.ca for the photo buttondown.com/showup/archi...
okay everything might be crap but HEY @propublicaguild.org WON THEIR FIRST CONTRACT THAT’S GREAT www.propublicaguild.org/updates/prop...
ProPublica Guild Ratifies First Contract — ProPublica Guild
Members of the ProPublica Guild, which represents more than 150 workers across the nonprofit investigative newsroom, overwhelmingly voted to ratify our first contract on Friday, exactly three years si...
propublicaguild.org
ANTHROPIC: Our son loves humanity and for the low price of trillions and trillions of dollars will usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity! OPENAI: Our horrible oafish son is hacking web sites without our permission. ANTHROPIC: (eyes narrowing) Our son is also evil
@phirephoenix.com is doing such good work with Show Up Toronto, y’all.
jenny (phire)@phirephoenix.com · 6d agoThis week's Show Up Toronto is a little late, due to life, but we've got a fun little write-up of the Billy Bishop saga and a ton of organizing and mobilizing events around the city as per usual! Thanks to @ruhee.ca for the photo buttondown.com/showup/archi...
I know bosses are bosses everywhere but there's something particularly silly about wikipedia specifically being like "nah" when offered the opportunity to take the side of collective action cwa-union.org/news/release...
Wiki Workers United US/CWA Will File for NLRB Election After Wikimedia Foundation Declines Voluntary Recognition
Wiki Workers United U.S. (WWU-US-CWA) has released a statement after announcing today that it will file for a union election with the NLRB after the Wikimedia Foundation declined the union's request f...
cwa-union.org
modern computing is just repeatedly muttering “no, i do not want to click the sparkle button” to yourself as you try to get your work done
Somerville PD: We hear you're holding a rally tomorrow. Me: Yes. Somerville PD: We think there will be a thousand people there. Better not disappoint the police. 😉 See you tomorrow (Thursday) at 6.
Anna Meier@annameier.bsky.social · 7d agoIf you're in the Boston area, you're also very welcome at our rally tomorrow. 6 pm, Powder House Park, Somerville. Screaming feels good! It is warranted! Come scream! (on the side of the park facing the traffic circle)
Reo does incredible work here if you’re in the Bay and you’re not checking this out you’re missing out!!!
Reo Eveleth@reveleth.com · 7d agoIf you know someone who lives in the Bay Area can you do me a favor? Send them this calendar? I work really hard on it every week and think it's a genuinely useful thing, but I feel like it's so hard to get the word out!!! www.coyotemedia.org/coyote-calen...
having updated my headshot for the first time in years, i have spent the last twenty minutes in a state of Wait Who The Hell Is That whenever i see one of my own posts
Erin is the best person to do this kind of work. Not only because she has the aptitude and care, but also because she is in the right place to both observe the clouds and report back to those of us on the ground. Everyone should throw money at her! https://www.wrecka.ge/launching-a-cloud-atlas/
Launching a Cloud Atlas
The right questions to arrive with—and the right structure for what comes out of the interviews—are not completely obvious. So I’ve been spending some time thinking about clouds.
wrecka.ge
If everybody did this, even places where people can't mask effectively (restaurants, bars, etc.) would get safer for everyone because transmission would be lower overall. Audiences mask = performers are safer. Students mask = teachers are safer. We have fuckin' got to learn to help each other out.
okay have a good weekend everyone don’t forget to plug in your mouse butts
Hey nerds, I'm applying for this cohort specifically to think about network things, do you want to join me?
mandy brown@aworkinglibrary.com · 2w agoVery excited to be opening the sf work/shop for this fall. Applications are open now: everythingchanges.us/workshop/sf
even if gen AI as currently being shoved on us was a lovely technology it would still be violently unethical due to emissions
Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · 3mo agoChips used to be considered the limiting factor to meeting AI demand but electricity has proven to be an even bigger factor. The cost to build new gas power plants has gone up 66% in two years given larger demand from datacenters and the waiting list for gas turbines now stretches into the 2030s.
We posted a special edition briefing from @unbreaking.org today, bc we couldn't fit this much ICE bullshit into our regular ones. (This week's normal briefing arrives tomorrow.) unbreaking.org/blog/briefin...
Special Edition: ICE Is Still Everywhere — Unbreaking
A special briefing from the Immigration team on what's changed—and what hasn't—since ICE reduced its emphasis on named, military-style operations.
unbreaking.org
There’s a quote I’ve had tattooed at the top of the work/shop page for a while, from Martín Espada: “No change for the good ever happens without being imagined first, even if, at the moment we imagine this great change, it seems absolutely impossible.”
"Just to be clear: I don’t think LLMs will be with us for long, at least not in their current form. But I do think that we’re living through a period of generational damage, one that will take years to repair, if not decades."
All tomorrow’s parties. — Ethan Marcotte
What happens next? Well, you tell me.
ethanmarcotte.com
There were two big lapses in the Hugging Face / OpenAI hacking story: the lack of security protections on OpenAI's end, and Hugging Face's vulnerable production database. That should worry anyone who uses AI with sensitive data. werd.io/ai-vendors-c...
AI vendors can't be trusted to secure their systems. Newsrooms need to act accordingly
There were two big lapses in the Hugging Face / OpenAI hacking story: the lack of security protections on OpenAI's end, and Hugging Face's vulnerable production database. That should worry anyone who...
werd.io
atproto.com/off-protocol... obviously a @kissane.myatproto.social interview is always a treat but this was so grounding. got me thinking about how "responsible" tech isn't just about prior consultation or design, it's the capacity to act when that design breaks and fucks things up for people
“Nothing Is Ever Over” - AT Protocol
Writer, speaker, and researcher Erin Kissane joins Jim to trace how the social internet got here, what’s worth salvaging, and how we can do better by listening to people.
atproto.com
Imagine thinking graphic design could get better than this
