Hello Recompilers, It's been a good week, which is a strange sentence to write. So far, no civil war. Trump is no longer in office. Without a doubt, Biden will commit war crimes and further the tendrils of American empire the same as every president, but Trump is out of office. The fight continues. For … Continue reading Newsletter #180: Bail is Bad Technology
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: So much is happening, all at once, that it's easy for my brain to lose track of it all. Was it really only a week or so ago that people stormed the Capitol? Did 2020 … Continue reading Newsletter #179: Oh No Someone Hacked Parler
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: It's hard writing a weekly newsletter when nothing of note happens. Like this week. I mean, sure, an angry pro-autocratic mob stormed the Capitol building after pushing past a lackluster and inconsistent police presence. Yeah, … Continue reading Newsletter #178: What a Boring Week With No News
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: Tabletop roleplaying over Zoom has been a pretty major part of how I'm keeping myself together. So it's heartening to hear that Wizards of the Coast is working pretty actively to address some of the … Continue reading Newsletter #177: Facial Recognition Against Police
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: Two of the most anxiety-inducing components of modern life--the pandemic and algorithms with real-world consequences--interacted this week, when Standford Medical Center used software to determine whom among their staff to prioritize for Covid vaccination. The … Continue reading Newsletter #176: The Great Vaccine Algorithm Debacle
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: For those of us who've been isolated or are especially vulnerable, vaccines are on our minds. How will the infrastructure be created to vaccinate millions of people? How do we convince people it's safe--or at … Continue reading Newsletter #175: Keeping Vaccines Cold
Hello Recompilers, Things are heating up again in Portland. For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: This week we learned more about Google's firing of Timnit Gebru, the ethicist, and what it means for the argument that "a seat at the table" is enough. … Continue reading Newsletter #174: More Sketchiness from Tech Companies
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: We're facing a grim winter. I know it hasn't even left our minds, but it's worth remembering that we're at more than 200,000 new cases of Covid per day in the US. Please keep that … Continue reading Newsletter #173: A Grim Winter of Unrest
Hello Recompilers, For updates about the Portland protests, Audrey is still maintaining a blog about what's going on there. Reading: Amazon has been hiring Pinkertons (a private security company known for the violent suppression of unions in the 19th century) to spy on labor rights groups, which, while evil as hell, shouldn't be too surprising. … Continue reading Newsletter #172: Of Course Amazon Wound Up With Pinkertons
Hello Recompilers, The weather's turning colder, at least here in the South where I'm typing this, and it's strange how "there might be a coup in the country with the most powerful military force on the planet" takes a back seat in some of our minds while "there's a pandemic raging at what is already … Continue reading Newsletter #171: Warehouse Workers Lead the Way
The Recompiler 