Links I’d share in private #15

Welcome to another edition of Links I’d share in private, a (bi-)weekly blog post about all the things and content I come across the Internet during my intense web binging, worthy of being shared to you all (instead of in all of my private group chats 🤣). It is available for free to anyone accessing my website.

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It’s Baaaccccckkkkk to School time, baby, and I’m so full of energy! This time of the year is where I am at my PEAK in terms of energy and hyperactivity. And who says hyper also means: I have to watch out to not over-exert myself too thin when November hits 😬 I’ve been aware of my patterns for the last 8 years now, and thanks to therapy, I am more cautious over where I spend my time and energy. I know my mental health cycles, and being aware of my hypomaniac phase in the year helps me stay calm and on top of it. Thanks to my therapist and tons of conversation with my friends, I was able to stop bad behviours I used to have, and stopped overpromising myself in a thousand projects and activities that I would have cancelled anyway near the end of the year. Who says therapy is worthless? LOL

That being said, I do like this time of the year, because it is the time where I reflect the most over what I want to achieve in the next year. I love thinking about new potential projects, or just improving what is already in my life, and the cozy mood of the autumn season coming over helps me settle in my routine. So yeah, I do ‘new year’s’ resolutions in September! Kinda ironic, since I really hate the resolutions people takes on New Year time, but I do it myself when it’s Back to School time…I know, it’s funny how I am sometimes 😹

Keywords: This week’s Links I’d share in private touches on various topics, including: Internet Nostalgia, Justin Hall, Capitalism Critique, Accessibility Advocacy, Youth Anxiety, AI and Humanities, Remote Amazon Tribes & Internet Connectivity, Outbreeding Liberals & Family Planning Debates, The Bro Science Delusion, De-Googling, DEF CON Soundtrack, Israeli Army Unit 8200, OSINT Tools, Google Reader Alternatives, Kitten App Framework

TO READ

• You want to know how the Internet from the early 1960s or 1990s looked like? Look no more than the Internet Artifacts! You’ll be amazed by how ugly it was 🤣 It gives a lot of flashbacks from important and popular websites in the Internet history, which will make you go back in time and make you feel old!
• On Internet Nostalgia, the story of the first Online Writer, Justin Hall. What a fascinating read!
• Breaking Up With Capitalism: Ever felt like the economic system just isn’t working for you? Well, you’re not alone. Let’s dive into some eye-opening ideas from an article that’s got people talking. So, here’s the deal: Our current economic system, good ol’ capitalism, is starting to lose its shine. More and more folks are questioning whether it’s really the best way to run things. But here’s the kicker – it’s not just about building alternatives. It’s about changing how we think about the whole shebang. The big takeaway here is that we need to start talking about these issues. We need to connect the dots between things like unaffordable housing, climate change, and this system that prioritizes financial wealth above all else.The very heart and soul of the system is the idea that our economy exists to serve the wealthy, to allow them to extract limitless, maximum amounts from the rest of us, and from the planet. Protecting and growing their financial wealth—called “capital”—is the aim of the whole system. As such, it is contrary to our democratic values. It means in a democratic society founded on the truth that all persons are created equal, we have permitted an economic system based on a directly contrary principle: that the wealthy matter more than the rest of us.
• Outbreeding the liberals: From religious movements to tech billionaires, some folks are pushing the idea that having more kids is the way to go. But here’s the thing: this isn’t just about family planning. It’s got a darker side, echoing old ideas about eugenics and who “should” be having kids. The author of this text shares her personal experience with this mindset, growing up in a movement that encouraged large families. She points out how this thinking often targets specific groups (usually white, well-off families) while ignoring or even criminalizing others. It’s a complex issue that touches on everything from reproductive rights to childcare costs. The kicker? Kids grow up to be their own people with their own ideas – sometimes very different from what their parents hoped for! It’s a thought-provoking look at how personal choices about family can get tangled up in bigger social and political issues.
• This is NUTS🤯: A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed
• America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety: Ever wondered why it seems like anxiety is on the rise, especially among English-speaking teens? Well, Derek Thompson’s article dives into this topic. Here’s the scoop: while smartphone use is global, the surge in youth anxiety seems to be mostly happening in English-speaking countries. He suggests this might be due to what he calls “anxiety inflation” – a combo of expanding mental health diagnoses, the prevalence of anxiety content online, and increasingly negative news coverage. The kicker? The U.S. might be exporting its approach to mental health, spreading a hyper-focused, individualistic view of anxiety and depression to other English-speaking countries. It’s like we’re globalizing our mental health culture along with our pop culture! This doesn’t mean smartphones are off the hook, but it does add a new layer to the conversation about teen mental health. A thoughtful article to reflect upon…
• The Fast-Slow Problem: We’ve become so obsessed with fast pleasures that we can’t enjoy slow ones anymore
• Revenge Of The Humanities: Buckle up for a mind-bending twist in the AI revolution saga. Remember when everyone thought STEM was the only way to go? Well, plot twist: the humanities are making a comeback, and it’s all thanks to AI! Steven Johnson drops some serious knowledge bombs in his latest piece, arguing that skills honed in writing workshops and philosophy seminars are becoming hot commodities in the tech world. Why? Because interacting with language models like GPT-4 is more about clear communication and ethical reasoning than pure coding skills. Guess my History degree will FINALLY be profitable 😆Anyway, Johnson showcases this idea through a cool collaboration using NotebookLM, where humanities-style thinking unlocks the AI’s potential in unexpected ways. The takeaway? We’re not just dealing with artificial intelligence, but a new form of collective intelligence that blends human creativity with AI’s processing power. So, whether you’re team STEM or team humanities, it looks like the future’s gonna need both!
• The Internet’s Final Frontier: Remote Amazon Tribes: as much as Elon Musk turned out to be a massive asshole, his Starlink network is pretty useful. In this case, as told in the article, it has connected an isolated tribe to the outside world — but also divided it from within. It’s a pretty interesting story about how the Internet can bring a lot of good AND bad aspects into humans’ lives.
• I wanna plaaayyyyyyyyyyyy: the cards from this old Ganjifa game are pretty! Old games have always intrigued me, and I wish I can try them in the future!
• The People Who Quit Dating: I must admit that after reading this article, I recognized myself a lot in the stories from people who, like me, decided to quit dating, especially dating apps. Life have become so much more interesting now that I got rid of this “quest” for a partner in my life. It’s now more of an “IF I find someone one day, good. If not, it’s ok too!”. Reading this made me see that I was not a weirdo to refuse to get into the dating scene.
• The Bro Science Delusion: Navigating the Murky Waters of Men’s Health Media, an fascinating read about the online presences of Mens’ health influencers, their negative impacts on men in general, and how we need to find other sources of positive influences for the men in our lives
• Everyone Into The Grinder: It is good to make powerful people participate in public systems – I kinda agree with the text: we need to make rich folks care about public services again, abolishing their two-tier “VIP” systems so they have to care about public services like education and hospitals again. The author suggests tossing the rich and powerful into the same public systems as the rest of us. It’s like a nationwide “Undercover Boss” episode, but for everything from schools to subways. The secret ingredient? A dash of discomfort for the elite to spice up public services. Nolan argues that nothing motivates improvement quite like personal inconvenience. “The degree to which we allow the rich to insulate themselves from the unpleasant reality that others are forced to experience is directly related to how long that reality is allowed to stay unpleasant. When they are left with no other option, rich people will force improvement in public systems. Their public spirit will be infinitely less urgent when they are contemplating these things from afar than when they are sitting in a hot ER waiting room for six hours themselves.”
• My Year of De-Googling – Chronicling my noble, doomed quest to leave all Google platforms: reading this made me realized it was a near impossible task of de-googling my digital life, as I saw that I was not alone in finding it hard to NOT use the Google apps ecosystem. What really made me switch right now to the Proton suite was the arrival of AI in the Google ecosystem, and its forced imposition in our digital lives: it just became the kicking push to slowly find alternatives to my usage of Google apps. That, and the fucking insane price of a monthly plan: Google has pushed their new Google One subscriptions models, so they increased their cloud services’ prices and ‘hid’ their less-pricey monthly subcriptions in a way to tire us from finding the cheap fares, and force us to buy into their AI/Gemini-included subscriptions. It pissed me of. This article made me realized I was not alone in finding it hard to get out of any GAFAM ecosystem, but there are ways to get out, and it demanded that I reassess my digital life’s apps usage.

TO SEE

• Wanna see pretty fireworks pictures? Go HERE
  

TO FOLLOW

• This week, I’m sharing a couple of newsletters that I like to read in my inbox. The Good Trade is one of them: they always share very tasty recipes; have interesting blog posts about what women want to know about in terms of lifestyles and easy/slow living; and shares beautiful products for your home and wardrobe that are sustainable and ecological.
• One of the rare newsletters that I have a monthly subscription, The Culture Study by Anne Helen Petersen is so full of thoughtful insights on our North American culture & life, its impacts on us, and the cultural zeitgest of the moment.
• The other newsletter that I have a monthly subscription: After School, by Casey Lewis. My go-to for anything Gen Z’ youth cultures & lives. Tons of daily links and thoughts on the younger geenrations, giving us the ability to understand them better, and see what motivates them. My Millenial brain loves to understand other generations well, and After School has given me hope in our youngs’ future.

TO HEAR

• This week, I’m sharing a playlist I created on my profile on YouTube Music: New Discovery – Back to School edition 2024. A very folksy, soft rock & pop vibe to this period of the year. Enjoy!
• Another playlist from the MixCloud website, by Paul Squires. A lot of deep techno, hypnotic beats and bass this week, all mixed up for just over an hour.

• Ohhhhhhhhh there’s a SECOND DEFCON Playlist! An extension! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, more music to listen while hacking away!

RECIPES

• En Français: it’s back to school time, and it means LUNCH are back! Urghhhhh finding new original meals for our kids’ lunchbag can be tiresome, so this link gives away 8 easy and fast recipes to make for their thermos bowl.
• No-Knead Focaccia Rolls: for your easy to bake foccacia!

DESIGN

• Very creative note cards of food
• Ohhhhh, I love everything from this house, from its cozy woody kitchen, to the big windows giving natural lighting into the rooms. I love seeing brick walls in a house.
• The interesting touches of colours in this house‘s interior decor makes me salivate! I wanna redecorate my apartment now!

CYBERSECURITY & INFOSEC

• Ohhhhh, this is really helpful: your personal guide to securing your online & offline presences, in a checklist way! If you want help along the way to secure your digital life, and make sure everything is safe, follow this guide. If you don’t know how to start, there are tons of help, explanations and links on that website that will help you secure your digital life online. Try it 🙂
• Silicon Valley’s Hot Talent Pipeline Is an Israeli Army Unit: Interesting piece of information in the cybersecurity field: “Venture capitalists are now coveting a new class of founders—those who served in a specialized unit of the Israeli army. Members of Unit 8200, known for its advanced cybersecurity and cyberwarfare capabilities, have founded dozens of cybersecurity companies. Others have become influential venture capitalists in their own rights and are mentors to entrepreneurial graduates. “
• OSINT Investigation assistant: a list of tools and ressources for all thing OSINT on the web. Very useful list!

WEB & TECH

• Glance: what a WONDERFUL web app! I’ve been using it for a couple of days now, and I love to have in one place a custom dashboard in Go that can fetch all the updates from different sources, like my different Reddit subreddits, RSS feeds, YouTube channels that I follow, Twitch channels, etc. It is easily configurable, and easy to install. Just need Go installed, and voila! You open your Terminal in the folder where you installed the files, and up you go: you run your own Dashboard! I love it, and I am tempted to experiment a little and add more widgets to this GitHub project. That would mean to learn Go, but…I’m up for the challenge! NOTE TO THOSE WHO LOVED GOOGLE READER: You can reproduce it with Glance!!! 😱
• A thoughtful blog post about work: It is just work. Learn to stop before it gets you into burnout.
• A nice refresher on Anchor Links and How to Make Them Awesome, with tons of very cute and beautifully crafted HTML & CSS code for making your anchor links pretty and usable.
• Sumo apps: if you want free apps for your creative side hustles, these apps can be a good alternative to the expensive Adobe suite. Video editing, photos, painting, sound editing, and more…the apps are very easy to use, and for a really small fee, you have access to the Pro features.
• Framework of the week: Kitten App, A small web development kit build using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, that is rogressively enhance with Streaming HTML and htmx and goes beyond traditional web apps to create peer-to-peer small web apps. Their documentation and tutorials are quite simple and easy to understand.