Travis ‘Nep’ Smith
@unvarnished.com
Entrepreneur, Speaker. 🤓 Owner HopStudios.com web-design-dev. ExpressionEngine++ CraftCMS #eecms #craftcms 🌐 OpenMedia.org board president #YVR #YYC 🥏 Spirit of the Game wonk (VUL/ UC/ WFDF/ USAU) #Ultimate #SOTG @nep@mstdn.ca #2SLGBTQ they/them
Shortcuts have been around for a while, but they used to be confusing to create. With the release of iOS 27, shortcuts are no longer as difficult to make as they once were. Now you open the Shortcuts app and answer the simple question: “What do you want your shortcut to do?”
Apple Shortcuts Used to Be Weird and Confusing. Now It’s the Best Way to Use Your iPhone.
Apple’s Shortcuts app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is easier to use thanks to AI.
nyti.ms
Tim Curry and Dolly Parton have taught us not only that you should be bigger, weirder, gayer, and freakier, but also that those qualities are what people will love about you. The things that make you strange and amazing are the things that will resonate with other strange and amazing people
“The spy-tech subplot in Swift’s love story reminds us that artificial intelligence has radically & rapidly rewritten the rules of privacy. “ @evangreer.bsky.social @msnowreports.bsky.social www.ms.now/opinion/tayl...
Opinion | Taylor Swift was able to buy her privacy at MSG. What about the rest of us?
Reports that Madison Square Garden temporarily shut off its facial recognition system for Swift’s wedding expose a glaring problem with how the elite wield and control mass surveillance.
ms.now
I'll tell you why. Because corporate surveillance has never been about safety or security. It has always been about the consolidation of power, protection of profit, and the petty grievances of the super-rich. Join @fightforthefuture.org's campaign to ban the use of AI surveillance at concerts!
Ban Facial Recognition at Live Events
Artists and venues take the pledge: no facial recognition at shows.
banfacialrecognition.com
WIRED@wired.com · 3mo agoMSG owner James Dolan insists that the facial recognition system deployed at his venues is an essential security measure. So why was it disabled during one of the year's most high-profile events: the pre-wedding celebration of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? www.wired.com/story/for-ta...
Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.
We are given only a limited number of truly perfect summer days in our time on Earth. One of the more insidious cruelties of fossil fuel greed is how it slowly strips those days from us, more and more throughout our lifetimes, perhaps without us even realizing what we have lost.
Another stolen summer day
What are we still waiting to learn?
heated.world
The public reaction to Instagram’s “opt-out” default for a new AI feature was notable for its swiftness. “That was a clear and immediate pushback,” EFF’s @thorinklosowski.com told @WIRED.com. “Honestly, it was great to see how quickly that happened.”
Please Stop Making Me Opt Out of AI
I’m sick of “opt-out” toggles for automatically enabled generative AI features. It’s past time to make “opt in” the default setting for sensitive features.
wired.com
The Reddit web site is now giving me a blocking popup after I’ve been reading just a few posts, telling me I need to download and switch to the Reddit app to continue using Reddit. What a great way to get me to break my Reddit habit.
New: cops are using Flock to track people, not cars. We reviewed Flock search data and found many, many cases of cops searching for people based on their appearance, race, tattoos, etc. Some searches are so vague like "tall man" that innocent people likely swept up www.404media.co/how-cops-use...
How Cops Use Flock to Track People, Not Cars
Cops have used Flock's FreeForm search feature to look for people with tattoos and wearing specific sport shirts, and searches sometimes include the target's race, according to data reviewed by 404 Me...
404media.co
Since folks have been asking: Yes, I am in fact in the recent and final Jackass movie.
In honor of it being Friday, here's something light to make you laugh, about a cat that was summoned for Jury Duty. The comments are equally hilarious. www.reddit.com/r/cats/comme... (Should we tell him it's Thursday?) (....shhhhhhh)
From the cats community on Reddit: A very interesting series of events y'all should read.
Explore this post and more from the cats community
reddit.com
If you live in L.A., I totally recommend checking out this daily news brief email. Well-written, blessedly short, very curated. If you sign up with this referral link, I'll share the bonus tote bag with you. But honestly, I just like supporting independent media. lamaterial.com/subscribe?re...
I wrote about the Supreme Court's latest disgusting anti-trans ruling. I wrote about it because I refuse to act like taking away constitutional rights and allowing legal discrimination is okay just because it's happening to people who don't poll well in a diner in Ohio. In @thenation.com
The Supreme Court’s Anti-Trans Ruling Goes Well Beyond Sports
The ruling is about whether trans people have the same rights as everybody else—and the Court said they don’t.
thenation.com
How to fix soccer: 1. The field is too wide. Narrow it. 2. Too many players on the field. Limit it to five forwards and two who stay back. 3. Players should get to sub whenever a point is scored. Don't stop the game. 4. Ball is too bouncy. Make it flatter. 5. You can throw the ball too. 6. No refs.
After a decade lost to indecision and treading the perceived high ground, the Democrats are finally ready to redistrict like our lives depend on it.
Battle Maps - Truthdig
After a decade lost to indecision and treading the perceived high ground, the Democrats are finally ready to redistrict like our lives depend on it.
truthdig.com
I get the hate for AI but I was able to use Claude to build tools to get access to hundreds of court records via courtlistener API, hundreds of 990s via Propublicas charity navigator, and thousands of political campaign spending records via FEC and Google to measure anti-trans political spending.
It’s official: I’m now powered by 100% all-natural single-origin locally sourced cruelty-free fusion reactor photons. Yes, my house is now energized by The Sun. 🌞 I’m a solfarmer! I’m off the grid, baby! (It’s just nice to have something on the roof other than a frisbee.)
I love hearing about OpenMedia doing what it does best
OpenMedia@openmedia.org · 4mo agoGlad to speak with MPs about #BillC22's many problems today; but good intentions are not enough, only massive amendments or striking Part 2 can save this bill and make it safe for rights in 🇨🇦. cheknews.ca/mps-get-an-e... #cdnpoli
Of course you can’t ascribe every error or bad thing to one person or thing, but there’s a general sense of an overflowing of hubris coming from the US, be it from the government, their supporters, tech-bros, the wellness snake-oil peddlers, and even guitar-makers.
altNOAA 🇺🇸@altnoaa.bsky.social · 4mo agoGuitar players across the globe are vowing to boycott Fender guitars. Fender has announced a new project to try and win them over, it's called the Fender Disastercaster. It's actually a shame to see an American business with a lot of great history take this step and destroy itself.
Thousands are marching in Selma calling for a full restoration of the voting rights act.
From @openmedia.org www.openmedia.org/StopC22-bsky
Stop the Surveillance State: Stop Bill C-22!
🚨 Bill C-22 forces every Canadian internet provider, messaging app & cloud service to build surveillance backdoors and store a year of your data. Foreign state hackers exploited similar legislation in...
openmedia.org
BREAKING: Signal, the #1 privacy protecting messaging app, is saying they will pull out of 🇨🇦 ENTIRELY if they're scoped into #BillC22 without large changes. This should be our final alarm bell:.We can have privacy or we can have C22, not both! #cdnpoli www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
Signal warns it would pull out of Canada if made to comply with lawful access bill
Secure messaging service says it will not weaken its encryption, privacy safeguards for government
theglobeandmail.com
The panel about Spirit of the Game went so, so well. Shoutout to Wolf for moderating and gratitude to great co-guests Buddha, Sofia and Gabi who have so much head and so much heart all full of Spirit. #SpiritBeyondSports #sotg www.youtube.com/live/va7uW2g...
Spirit Beyond Sports: How has SOTG made YOU a better person? (Session #3)
YouTube video by World Flying Disc Federation
youtube.com
Travis ‘Nep’ Smith@unvarnished.com · 5mo agoOn International Spirit of the Game Day (May 10), I'll be part of a panel of international experts speaking about how Spirit has made us each better people overall. I'd love it if you watched the live stream: 11 PT 12 MT 14 ET 18 UTC #SpiritBeyondSports #SOTG www.youtube.com/live/va7uW2g...
Please join me virtually on Sunday. There’s now an official press release, even! wfdf.sport/2026/05/spir...
Spirit Beyond Sports. Join the #iSOTGDay 2026 Webinar Series on May 10 | WFDF
wfdf.sport
Travis ‘Nep’ Smith@unvarnished.com · 5mo agoOn International Spirit of the Game Day (May 10), I'll be part of a panel of international experts speaking about how Spirit has made us each better people overall. I'd love it if you watched the live stream: 11 PT 12 MT 14 ET 18 UTC #SpiritBeyondSports #SOTG www.youtube.com/live/va7uW2g...
On International Spirit of the Game Day (May 10), I'll be part of a panel of international experts speaking about how Spirit has made us each better people overall. I'd love it if you watched the live stream: 11 PT 12 MT 14 ET 18 UTC #SpiritBeyondSports #SOTG www.youtube.com/live/va7uW2g...
Spirit Beyond Sports: How has SOTG made YOU a better person? (Session #3)
YouTube video by World Flying Disc Federation
youtube.com
A friend asks: “Has it occurred to anyone that the MAGAs think you have to show IDs at restaurants because they’ve been eating all their meals at strip clubs? This isn’t even an unreasonable theory”
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5mo agoBlanche: "There's a lot of things we can be doing, like voter ID. Every time you walk into a restaurant you have to show ID. How about you have to show your idea to vote? That's not anything that's crazy."
