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rsingel commented on Capital One to acquire Brex for $5.15B   reuters.com/legal/transac... · Posted by u/personjerry
stackskipton · 19 days ago
Most banks/CU will issue you ATM only card that cannot be used a credit card. Might require some wrangling with the bank.
rsingel · 19 days ago
These are increasingly harder to get, sadly. My credit union won't anymore. I have to keep a debit card locked
rsingel commented on Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation   hcn.org/issues/57-11/heav... · Posted by u/cdrnsf
jaggederest · 2 months ago
When I was in school, before the turn of the century, we were reading Johnny Got His Gun in English class and discovered that Metallica's One is about a very similar situation (though not apparently originally inspired by Johnny Got His Gun), so we got to play it in class and do a report on the two. Received some minor kudos from the class and a reasonable grade from the teacher.

It got slightly awkward as I believe that was just before the Columbine shooting, and after that metal had a more negative reputation for a while.

rsingel · 2 months ago
The video for that song uses excerpts from the movie version of Johnny Got His Gun. I don't know if the songwriting was inspired by it but the video certainly was. Because the video relied so much on the excerpts the band ended up buying the rights to the movie just to not pay royalties.

Hilariously, I won a writing prize about this connection as a teenager in 1989. Fun to see you had a similar experience

rsingel commented on Steve Cropper, legendary guitarist for Booker T and the MGs, dies aged 84   theguardian.com/music/202... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
rsingel · 2 months ago
What an amazing life

Booker T and the MGs also recorded one of the best Christmas albums of all time

https://tidal.com/browse/album/216317?u

rsingel commented on Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)   evanhahn.com/stopping-bad... · Posted by u/emschwartz
rsingel · 2 months ago
I agree and it's happening. I co-founded Outpost Publishers Cooperative as a member services co-op to provide enterprise-level subscription services to publishers on Ghost (which is a non-profit).

I'm biased but I think the model of member-service co-ops (like Ace Hardware) providing tailored software services to particular industries is fertile ground. Free of VC incentives, reasonably profitable, aligned incentives, and the state of software tooling makes this doable.

And since this model doesn't require capturing as much value as a VC funded venture, it's more sustainable.

But the hard thing is figuring out how to get to decent product without upfront investment, in lieu of investment models that don't require outsize returns.

I can think of ways to create early capital but I've yet to see an industry think through how to fund smart suppliers without falling into the trap of thinking they need to be VCs.

rsingel · 2 months ago
I'd say too we aren't the only ones. Plausible Analytics is a great, mission-driven, open-soutce non-profit providing cookie-free web analytics.

And they let us bulk buy for our member publishers.

There's so much potential in what you are suggesting!

rsingel commented on Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)   evanhahn.com/stopping-bad... · Posted by u/emschwartz
crabmusket · 2 months ago
Two thoughts.

Ben Thompson and James Allworth discussed an idea on an episode of The Exponent (https://exponent.fm/) the idea of a "principle stack", and at which "layer" of the stack it's appropriate to address different societal issues. I wish I could find the episode again, it was quite a few years ago. The upshot being... maybe software licensing isn't the right place to address e.g. income inequality?

On the other hand, I definitely encourage tech workers (and all workers) to think about their place in the world and whether their work aligns with their personal values. I think the existence of free and open source software is a fantastic thing, but I think we should continue to evaluate whether it is in danger, or whether it could be better, or whether our efforts might be applied to something else.

For example, I'd love to see co-ops developing shared-source infrastructure based on principles of mutuality, which the sector is built upon anyway. The co-op principles already include cooperative and communitarian ideas which mesh really well with some aspects of open-source software development. But co-ops aren't about just giving everything away either. There could be a real new approach to building a software commons for mutual businesses, rather than a kind of freedom-washed way for big tech companies to benefit from free labour.

rsingel · 2 months ago
I agree and it's happening. I co-founded Outpost Publishers Cooperative as a member services co-op to provide enterprise-level subscription services to publishers on Ghost (which is a non-profit).

I'm biased but I think the model of member-service co-ops (like Ace Hardware) providing tailored software services to particular industries is fertile ground. Free of VC incentives, reasonably profitable, aligned incentives, and the state of software tooling makes this doable.

And since this model doesn't require capturing as much value as a VC funded venture, it's more sustainable.

But the hard thing is figuring out how to get to decent product without upfront investment, in lieu of investment models that don't require outsize returns.

I can think of ways to create early capital but I've yet to see an industry think through how to fund smart suppliers without falling into the trap of thinking they need to be VCs.

rsingel commented on Analysis of Hedy Lamarr's Contribution to Spread-Spectrum Communication   researchers.one/articles/... · Posted by u/drmpeg
khazhoux · 3 months ago
It's a reference to a famous Mel Brooks cowboy comedy (Unforgiven, 1992)
rsingel · 3 months ago
Which itself was a sequel to Brooks's first and underappreciated Western, The Wild Bunch (1969)
rsingel commented on Vodafone Germany is changing the open internet, one peering connection at a time   coffee.link/vodafone-germ... · Posted by u/PhilKunz
stego-tech · 3 months ago
Not really, as US ISPs have been repeatedly trying to game the system into becoming landlords for decades. The difference is, ironically, their own self-imposed monopolies: Comcast may be a T1 ISP, but they’re largely a monopoly in the markets they serve. Same goes for Verizon, Spectrum, Cox, TDS, etc. The end result is a sort of “forced cooperation” with each other, though occasionally one will try to extort the others for cash (I seem to recall L3 and Cogent both engaging in this bullshit around the time streaming video got big).

Companies are extractive by nature, and they will always try to find new ways of squeezing blood from a stone absent regulations saying otherwise (and suitable punishments ensuring anyone caught violating them is crippled in the marketplace, if not outright destroyed). This has been going on for decades and will continue absent regulatory intervention. Just look at how the US Electrical grid bills to see how this could end up (higher prices, bullshit fees, redundant billing).

rsingel · 3 months ago
California's net neutrality law bans these kinds of paid interconnections, but they likely exist as all these deals are wrapped in 15 layers of NDAs

u/rsingel

KarmaCake day2613August 20, 2009
About
I'm the founder of Contextly and Outpost, which help indie publishers thrive. Formerly, I was a journalist and editor for Wired. E-mail me at ryan atoraround ryansingeldotnet or follow me on Mastodon at @ryansingel.writing.exchange
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