Things I read in February.
Yanis Varoufakis on Crypto & the Left, and Techno-Feudalism
The trouble with Roblox, the video game empire built on child labour
Robolox is not a game that I was only aware of in the periphery until its IPO because it was aimed at younger children. Simon Parkin in The Guardian compares the use of virtual assets and trading in the game to child labour and financial exploitation.
The anti-crypto backlash continues to gain momentum
Christomer Mims in the Wall Street Journal writes that NFTs, Cryptocurrencies and Web3 Are Multilevel Marketing Schemes for a New Generation
What Does A Platform Look Like When It’s Dying?
Ryan Broderick looks at how MySpace responded to the rise of Facebook.
“The early days of Unix at Bell Labs” - Brian Kernighan (LCA 2022 Online)
The Hidden Image Descriptions Making the Internet Accessible
Meg Miller and Ilaria Parogni in the NY Times discusses the rise and drawbacks of AI based systems for writing alt text.