Clive Thompson / is on Nostr

Writer, musician/songwriter, hobbyist coder. Contributing writer to New York Times Magazine and Wired. Author of "Coders". Blogging at clivethompson.medium.com, archive of writing at www.authory.com/clivethompson #science #technology #coding #software #writing #literature #poetry clive@clivethompson.net

Blogging: https://medium.com/@clivethompson
Music: https://lipstickdriver.bandcamp.com
Writing archive: https://authory.com/clivethompson
Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson

Last Notes

2024-07-07 22:39:17

I have my laptop at a bar where I'm working today
"Cars" by Gary Numan just came on
what a gorgeously weird tune
love it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im3JzxlatUs

2024-07-07 17:03:05

I'm reading the entirety of the Project 2025 book: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
The intro lays things out very clearly -- full-blown attacks on trans and queer folks of any stripe; utter dismissal of climate change; disdain for any form of expertise and education (wonderfully incoherent, given the sparkling pedigrees of the document's many authors); economic thinking that's equally incoherent, if not at times magically-realistic; christian nationalism; and incessant, self-pitying grievance politics

2024-07-04 20:03:33

Proton Docs launches - privacy-focused alternative to Google Doc
I’m in
https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/3/24190732/proton-docs-document-editor-privacy-google

2024-06-30 15:39:49

Navy SEALs have disproportionately been dying by suicide …
.. with a similar pattern: Each seemed healthy until their early 40s, when — abruptly — a host of severe mental health issues arose
One wife suspected brain damage, and had her husband’s brain quickly frozen
She unlocked it all
it’s a new form of damage caused by repeated exposure to small blasts
You can read about her story in this superb investigation by Dave Phillips in the New York Times;
gift link here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/30/us/navy-seals-brain-damage-suicide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3k0.DGwe.i3OzX90az7c6&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/706/320/168/023/724/original/f25cfc6cd932f6a2.jpeg

2024-06-28 20:17:52

I'm about to watch "Alien" with my 16 and 18 year old sons
I told them my favorite part of the movie ...
... is that even though it's set on a hermetically sealed spaceship ...
... everyone is chain-smoking. Like, ALL the time
😂
Back in 1979, Ridley Scott could more readily imagine a world with interstellar travel than one in which people didn't constantly smoke

2024-06-27 13:06:15

In 1969, a teenager created the first “lunar lander” game
entirely text-based gameplay!
Decades later, after an interview with ace games journalist @npub1f3d…yk3x, the now-adult game developer puts that old code online
People start playing it
… and one engineer finds a bug — previously un-noticed in 55 year old code
I love stories like this
Item #4 in my latest “Linkfest” newsletter, free to read and subscribe here: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-22-dragon-biology-soviet-food-kiosks-and/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/688/704/071/925/837/original/d2a77a0dd62e6420.png

2024-06-19 15:57:47

A terrific investigation at @npub1ejm…4j05 finds that Perplexity scrapes and (sometimes with bullshit added) summarizes web sites that it has been explicitly told, by those web site owners, not to visit
https://www.wired.com/story/perplexity-is-a-bullshit-machine/
Excellent work by @npub1ry5…n4f0 and @npub1c2e…llud

2024-06-17 00:39:51

I'm beginning to think the smaller set of digital devices is the group of things that *can't* run Doom

2024-05-30 21:11:38

Whoa
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/532/091/740/932/376/original/f87d889503d24976.jpeg

2024-05-28 05:00:58

- reply

I use scrivener!
I’m not sure it’s future proof though. You can (and I do) export projects to rtf files to save in case the software and/or the firm goes poof … but it’s arguably not as portable as markdown with Obsdian
But! The reason I stick with Scrivener is I’m a non fiction writer — while researching a book I might take 2 million words of notes, in thousands of note-files. While writing, speedy search is crucial …
… and Scrivener’s search is LIGHTNING fast

2024-05-24 01:06:31

If you haven't seen it yet, go check out @npub1v23…6xmy's new search engine ...
... which automatically appends "&udm=14" to the end of your search query ...
... thereby triggering Google to give you your results with no AI answer at the top, and (for me, anyway) no ads
It's like google from 2004 or something
https://udm14.com

2024-05-23 03:58:04

Know any NYC students, or their parents?
The mayor closed the libraries on Sundays, and is set to close them Saturdays too -- citing budget constraints 📚
The budget's being debated right now!
So, if you live in NYC?
Here's a form that'll auto-send a letter to your city councillor telling them to vote to "keep the libraries open sundays": https://actionnetwork.org/letters/open-the-libraries-nyc/
Forward it to any students in NYC 🤘
Parents can use it too -- just rewrite the opening salutation to say "I'm a parent"

2024-05-21 15:45:18

People of Mastodon!
I'm researching the growth of ebikes ...
... in cities around the US
I've talked to many people who love them!
But also want to include the perspective of folks who have concerns ...
... i.e. about the speed and weight of ebikes in accidents with pedestrians or other cyclists, and the like
If anyone has thoughts they wanna share, ping me! I'm all ears: clive@clivethompson.net
Pass this along if you know anyone else with perspective they want to share
#fedibikes

2024-05-20 15:43:47

How to make Google more usable with this One Weird Trick
By @npub1v23…6xmy: https://tedium.co/2024/05/17/google-web-search-make-default/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/474/175/565/856/566/original/7a7d2e073a1a18b3.jpeg

2024-05-10 00:50:39

Another Boeing plane catches fire: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/09/defective-boeing-flight-catches-fire-hospitalizing-10-victims-on-board-video.html
holy crap this company is unRAVeling

2024-05-08 23:50:31

As I behold "Crush!", the new Apple ad for their Ipad Pro ...
... I fluctuate, with heisenbergian indeterminacy, between "they are clearly trolling us" and "they are totally earnest and have no idea how completely sociopathic they appear"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

2024-05-01 12:18:02

“How could so many people accidentally start a campaign for President of Iceland?”
A truly wild tale of UX gone awry: https://uxdesign.cc/how-do-you-accidentally-run-for-president-of-iceland-0d71a4785a1e
Via [@baldur](https://toot.cafe/@baldur)

2024-04-08 15:57:45

I just pre-ordered "Seeing Red", [@benjedwards](https://mastodon.social/@benjedwards)'s upcoming cowritten book about Nintendo's Virtual Boy ... one of the strangest episodes in the history of VR
this is gonna be fun
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262045063/seeing-red/
https://sb-9g02l2bbpw.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/112/236/415/368/846/980/original/6e5d25105240f58c.png