Matt Haldane

Ha! It's a good year for tech dystopia.

Nice to see Deerhoof is still active. Saw them live in Tokyo ages ago in what was a pretty intimate set compared with what I've experienced in Hong Kong. BTW, been slowly making my way through the audio book of Mood Machine. Highly recommend it if you haven't checked it out yet.

That's a very low bar. But this discussion reminds me of the rumor that Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko quit the book because he wanted the big Green Goblin reveal (in 1966) to be some nobody. Stan Lee wanted him to be the father of Peter's BFF. Steve wanted realism. Stan wanted drama.

OnlyFans founder, crypto foundation submit late-stage bid to buy TikTok A startup run by Tim Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to acquire short video app TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance, the two said on Wednesday.

I think crypto companies are interested in the idea of fast, anonymous microtransactions for porn over social media. But I've also heard pitches for "OnlyFans on the blockchain". Among things you probably don't want to be "immutable", I imagine a public ledger of past sex work is up there.

You mean the answer isn't universally Scarlett Johansson?

He got lost while trying to go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters.

Inquiring minds want to know

Amazon is closing another loophole for people who strip DRM from their ebooks to use on other devices. Publishers may appreciate the move, but it's a blow to open platforms.

> "The show continued without interruption, and it did not seem as though the person was shown on the broadcast of Lamar’s performance."

And it would seem there are no damages.

The bipartisan nature of the TikTok ban has become a rorschach test for politically disengaged Americans. Reddit is full of comments blaming Trump for the ban because they think the law started under him (he tried to ban it by executive order, on weak legal footing, which was reversed by Biden).

I'm guessing a lot of journalists don't want to be seen as prognosticating, but I'd bet most people writing about XHS could rattle off a bunch of reasons why this trend cannot last—not the least of which is that it's a liability for XHS unless it splits the platform.

This is correct, the app will still work. The text of the law is pretty clear on what it does: bars companies from hosting the app or TikTok services. It does not bar ISPs from serving TikTok domains. TikTok could offer a web app hosted overseas to access US users.

The premise of this article is incorrect. The ban does not apply to ISPs, as mentioned to SCOTUS today. But if TikTok blocked US connections, they presumably would use the same measures they already have in place in Hong Kong, which also uses SIM cards to identify location, which VPNs don't affect.

It's never too late

I agree! As someone who does tech reporting, I'm a big fan of open source info. As an editor, I also know how quickly these stories can be tagged and rushed out. But of course in this case, Beijing is actually the one linking open source intel to spying (and their definition seems to be broadening)

That just means it's the topic that was tagged first (only topic in this case, it looks like). The topics are mostly for SEO. I'm sure very little thought went into that.

*Bitcoin had a wild decade in China.

As has happened in a lot of markets, China cornered it by being the "world's factory", giving rise to dedicated bitcoin mining machines. Many Chinese crypto entrepreneurs from this period remain influential, including Binance's CZ after his prison stint.

Decentralised kingdom: bitcoin’s Trump bump and how China lost its crypto crown As the world’s factory, China cornered the market on bitcoin mining, leading to a flurry of crypto business activity before a harsh crackdown in 2021.

Bitcoin had a pretty wild in China: It once had the market cornered, producing the most bitcoin globally, then it banned cryptocurrencies in favor of blockchain sans crypto. Now Xi Jinping doesn't talk about blockchain anymore and Trump fever has enveloped the industry. www.scmp.com/tech/blockch...

Saw Wicked opening weekend and Gladiator II last night. I approve of this message.

I always viewed the bulk of the credits as mainly for others in the industry, not for an apathetic audience. Is anyone waiting for an end-credits scene actually *reading* the credits? But I often sit through them because it's a nice opportunity to reflect on a good film.

If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

Why are Chinese censors editing Kiwi books? A New Zealand writer and an anthology of Kiwi writing have been caught up in China’s new security law, with a short story edited by Chinese censors.

The Penguin New Zealand Anthology, printed in Hong Kong by Penguin Random House, was printed with clearly censored passages in one author's story, including "Taiwanese flag" and "first Republic of China."

Sometimes I write about tech's impact on my profession. From FCC Hong Kong's October issue of The Correspondent.

And this is still a common misperception about the program.