Remove
Month: August 2016

Bon Iver Announces New Album; Streams New Songs

Bon Iver
Jason Tate

Bon Iver will release 22, A Million on September 30th. Two songs are now up for your listening pleasure and pre-orders are as well.

22, A Million is part love letter, part final resting place of two decades of searching for self-understanding like a religion. And the inner-resolution of maybe never finding that understanding. The album’s 10 poly-fi recordings are a collection of sacred moments, love’s torment and salvation, contexts of intense memories, signs that you can pin meaning onto or disregard as coincidence.

Read More “Bon Iver Announces New Album; Streams New Songs”

Facebook’s Ad Blocking Cat and Mouse

Facebook
Jason Tate

Facebook:

We’ve designed our ad formats, ad performance and controls to address the underlying reasons people have turned to ad blocking software. When we asked people about why they used ad blocking software, the primary reason we heard was to stop annoying, disruptive ads. As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software.

Adblock Plus:

Two days ago we broke it to you that Facebook had taken “the dark path,” and decided to start forcing ad-blocking users to see ads on its desktop site. We promised that the open source community would have a solution very soon, and, frankly, they’ve beaten even our own expectations. A new filter was added to the main EasyList about 15 minutes ago. You’ll just need to update your filter lists (see below for how).

TechCrunch:

A source says Facebook is now rolling out the code update that will disable Adblock Plus’ workaround. It should reach all users soon.

Adblock Plus:

UPDATE: @TechCrunch @joshconstine say that FB had a workaround, but there’s already a workaround to that workaround. Just update filters ;)

TechCrunch:

And Facebook has already broken the new workaround from Adblock Plus, which vows to strike back soon.

Push that rock Sisyphus.

A Decade Under The Influence

Becky Kovach

For this week’s playlist I decided to celebrate some of the albums quietly turning 10 this year. The albums without anniversary tours, reissues, or major recognition. 2006 was a great year for music — it saw new releases from established acts like Yellowcard, Senses Fail, Brand New, Sugarcult, and debuts from bands like +44 (I’m still holding out for another album) and Cobra Starship (I will always love While the City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets).

You can check out the full tracklist below, and stream the playlist now on Spotify and Apple Music.

Read More “A Decade Under The Influence”

Remove
Remove
Remove

Twitter: “A Honeypot for Assholes”

Twitter
Jason Tate

Charlie Warzel, writing for Buzzfeed, with a massive condemnation of Twitter and their handling of trolls and abuse on their platform:

According to 10 high-level former employees, the social network’s long history with abuse has been fraught with inaction and organizational disarray. Taken together, these interviews tell the story of a company that’s been ill-equipped to handle harassment since its beginnings. Fenced in by an abiding commitment to free speech above all else and a unique product that makes moderation difficult and trolling almost effortless, Twitter has, over a chaotic first decade marked by shifting business priorities and institutional confusion, allowed abuse and harassment to continue to grow as a chronic problem and perpetual secondary internal priority. On Twitter, abuse is not just a bug, but — to use the Silicon Valley term of art — a fundamental feature.

If I had to venture a guess, I think an outside company buys Twitter within the next 8 months. I see the amount of fly-by bullshit in my @replies on a weekly basis and I know for a fact it’s not anywhere near what other people are getting. I hope someone buys them and makes a better community. Twitter could be, should be, a fantastic place online. It’s not.

Remove