|
Howdy and welcome back to the weekly roundup. On the podcast this week: Landlords and income verification companies demanding login details from potential renters so the companies can log in and scrape their paystubs, and lawyers explain why they used AI. In the section for supporters, massive drama around Ruby. In case you missed it, 404 Media sued ICE last week for its $2 million spyware contract. But we’re not stopping there. We filed another lawsuit, this time in collaboration with the Freedom of the Press Foundation against multiple parts of the U.S. government, demanding they hand over a copy of an agreement that shares the personal data of nearly 80 million Medicaid patients with ICE. Read more about the lawsuit here and become a supporter to help us keep doing this work.
|
|
|
This segment is a paid ad. If you’re interested in advertising, let's talk. This Fall, check out more than 6,000 plants to fit any space, from indoor
plants to fruit trees to full-sized privacy trees and more at Fast Growing Trees! They have the best deals for your yard, up to half off on select plants and other deals. 404 Media subscribers get 15 percent off your first purchase at fastgrowingtrees.com/404MEDIA
|
|
|
|
A bit of housekeeping: Do you (or someone you know) have experience with the world of ad sales? Reply to this email directly, or send a message to jason@404media.co.  Screenshot via YouTube THIS MEETING COULD HAVE BEEN AN EMAILLast week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called America’s generals to Quantico to meet for an unannounced reason. During a bizarre, unhinged speech before America’s military leadership, Hegseth focused almost entirely on the culture wars and called for the restoration of what he called a “warrior ethos.” He said some of America’s generals are fat, demanded the Pentagon go all in on AI, whined about beards and accountability, told the troops they “kill people and break things for a living,” and plugged his book. “To our enemies: FAFO. If necessary, our troops can translate that for you.” (FAFO means fuck around and find out.)  Photo by Tania C / Unsplash OFF THE RAILSFor the past couple of weeks, a community of developers who use the programming language Ruby have been closely following a dramatic change in ownership of some of the most essential tools in its ecosystem with far reaching impacts for the worldwide web. On September 19, Ruby Central asserted control over several GitHub repositories for Ruby Gems as well as other critical Ruby open source projects; When these developers announced on social media that their access was taken away, many Ruby developers saw the decision as a betrayal of their years-long contributions to the Ruby ecosystem and open source principles more generally. EPIC KODAK MOMENTKodak announced two new stocks of color film on Wednesday, in a move that has excited the photography world and which indicates that the photography giant is directly distributing still photography film again. “To help meet the growing demand for film, Kodak is excited to announce the launch of two color-negative films, KODACOLOR 100 and KODACOLOR 200, in 135 format rolls,” Kodak said in an Instagram post. “For the first time in over a decade, Kodak will sell these films directly to distributors, in an effort to increase supply and help create greater stability in a market where prices have fluctuated. These films are sub-brands of existing Kodak films and offer the same high quality you’ve come to expect from Kodak.”  Image: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, via Flickr. COLD SHOULDERThe developer of ICEBlock, an app that lets people crowdsource sightings of ICE officials, has said he is determined to fight back after Apple removed the app from its App Store on Thursday. The removal came after pressure from Department of Justice officials acting at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to Fox which first reported the removal. Apple told 404 Media it has removed other similar apps too. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” developer Joshua Aaron told 404 Media. READ MOREReplying to 18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It, Tyler writes: “I think a lot about the workslop article from a few days ago that said one of the consequences of using AI tools is the distrust of the intelligence of the people who are caught using these tools to put out inaccurate work. You can blame your legal assistant all you want, but I imagine these lawyers all are suffering huge blows to the respect they get from their peers from being caught out in the courtroom. Here's hoping that the AI hype is self-correcting as people realize the social cost is higher than the productivity cost.”
And CJ Tweedie replied: “I agree with this. I also think the added time cost, of having to go through and verify everything is potentially a big drawback. It’s evident in the article that even if a cited case exists, it can still be misrepresented, and if the AI output has built the whole argument around the misrepresentated case, you’re going to have to start from scratch again. I just don’t see how this is all helpful, beyond maybe helping give a template or structural guide.”
BEHIND THE BLOGThis is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss characters in open source, that Saudi comedy festival, and asking ourselves if we're haters. EMANUEL: I swear I try my best not to use Behind the Blogs to pat myself on the back, but I’m very happy with how my piece about the recent Ruby Drama turned out. I got a lot of interesting responses to the the article, some of which I hope will result in new articles soon, but mostly I was happy that it appears I didn’t fuck up any of the details in what was a highly complicated, technical, and controversial story for people who care about this stuff. That is not to say that I didn’t get any constructive criticism, some of which I’d like to address here. One piece of feedback I got from multiple people in the camp that is angry with Ruby Central’s ousting of contributors is their view that the article underplays the role David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) played in this saga, and the political views he’s expressed on social media over the years. Read the rest of Emanuel's Behind the Blog, as well as Jason, Joseph, and Sam's, by becoming a paid subscriber.
|
