Liam Robertson

Every Reason Why I Hate AI and You Should Too maybe it's anti-innovation, maybe it's just avoiding hype. But one thing is clear, I'm completely done with hearing about AI.

Every Reason Why I Hate AI and You Should Too

malwaretech.com/2025/08/ever...

Paying geeks $200m but slashing jobs – this is what an AI... The tech giants are spending fortunes on ‘ultra-smart’ algorithmic experts – but to the cost of other staff

The tech giants are spending fortunes on ‘ultra-smart’ algorithmic experts – but to the cost of other staff

observer.co.uk/news/columni...

I Miss Actually Owning Stuff "You'll own nothing and you'll hate it"

My latest newsletter is about how Big Tech killed the concept of ownership, in the process turning consumers into digital serfs.

whatwelost.substack.com/p/i-miss-act...

The police militarization debate is over Quaint disputes about the proper role of police and military have been superseded by a more urgent threat: Donald Trump is creating his own, personal paramilitary force

Radley Balko is always worth reading, but when he talks about police militarization, he’s speaking as one of the most qualified journalists we have. He’s rather apocalyptic about where we are with a huge ICE force. He’s right.

open.substack.com/pub/radleyba...

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me.

freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

Keir Starmer's Reality Avoidance Field It's Almost Like He Didn't Listen To Me

From this excellent analysis by @ianleslie.bsky.social www.ian-leslie.com/p/keir-starm...

A little perspective

apenwarr.ca/log/20250711

The surprising revival of road bowling, Ireland's ancient sport From Cork and Armagh to TikTok and Instagram, young and old road bowlers are taking up the bowl and keeping this unique tradition alive

The surprising revival of road bowling, Ireland's ancient sport. From Cork and Armagh to TikTok and Instagram, young and old road bowlers are taking up the bowl and keeping this unique tradition alive. By @physcstudy.bsky.social @ulsteruni.bsky.social @researchireland.ie www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Gabbard’s team has sought spy agency data to enforce Trump’s agenda A team created by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has sought access to emails and chat logs of the largest U.S. spy agencies to root out “weaponization.”

“In her five months as intelligence czar, Gabbard has fired or reassigned top intelligence analysts, mischaracterized declassified intelligence reports to make political points and called for leak probes of news stories that ran counter to Trump’s agenda.”

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Who Goes MAGA?

With apologies to Dorothy Thompson, whose 1941 essay in Harper’s, “Who Goes Nazi?” remains a worthwhile read on the cultural archetypes of who is drawn to fascism, and who would never go down such a path. It felt like it could use a modern updating, however. Update: Just after I…

Microsoft developer ported vector database coded in SAP’s ABAP to the ZX Spectrum The mighty Z80 processor ran the code at astounding speed, proving retro-tech got a lot of things right A Microsoft senior software engineer named Alice Vinogradova has ported a database she wrote in SAP’s ABAP language to the venerable Z80 processor that powered the Sinclair ZX Spectrum – and marveled at the results.…

Microsoft developer ported vector database coded in SAP’s ABAP to the ZX Spectrum

Anthropic and OpenAI Have Begun The Subprime AI Crisis Hello premium customers! Feel free to get in touch at ez@betteroffline.com if you're ever feeling chatty. And if you're not one yet, I'm sorry that I paywalled this, but it took me so much effort and ...

A 9500 word Premium newsletter: I have discovered that OpenAI and Anthropic have both jacked up prices for their largest customers, with Anthropic's changes directly harming Cursor, their largest customer, who have had to change their pricing as a result.
www.wheresyoured.at/anthropic-an...

Vashti (@vashti@hachyderm.io) Attached: 1 image Why #Ao3 was down yesterday:

Omg, absolutely incredible reason for AO3 to have been down hachyderm.io/@vashti/1147... (alt text at original)

Moving to The Economist (from 1994 as political editor), Lipsey felt he had "died and gone to heaven". His "Bagehot" column won an Orwell Prize in 1999, having been runner-up three times. One such column, "Reinventing Michael Portillo", was plagiarised by a 15-year-old schoolboy to win The Guardian's Young Journalist of the Year award. When challenged, the boy said: "I didn't think The Economist was widely read".

The Telegraph obit for Lord Lipsey is excellent and contains this corker
www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...

Title card for the article: "Goodbye to All That"

"I had made a terrible mistake: I had remained friends with someone who had appeared on Kash Patel’s enemies list." @michael-feinberg.bsky.social on his resignation from the FBI: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/good...

Android user? Learn how to avoid the new Gemini incursion into your privacy—one that overrides your previous preferences.

tuta.com/blog/how-to...

Trump Is Breaking American Intelligence “Speak plainly!” Russian President Vladimir Putin snapped at his foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, at a televised security council meeting on the eve of his shambolic full-scale invasion o...

Politicizing the System Makes Dangerous Failures More Likely

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

DHS plans to shed most of its intel office workforce The Office of Intelligence and Analysis plans to reduce hundreds of its staff, per people with knowledge of recent plans communicated to employees. It’s faced scrutiny over past domestic surveillance ...

ICYMI from last night - DHS I&A plans to shed a majority of its workforce, people familiar tell me:
www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum Outdated science fiction is hobbling our dreams.

We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum. How @greatdismal.bsky.social 1980s short story anticipates the dreams of Silicon Valley today.

The Death of the Student Essay—and the Future of Cognition One professor's reflections on the end of an era, as AI tools such as ChatGPT have murdered the student essay (RIP). Here's why that threatens the future of human cognition—and how to save ourselves.

After the latest round of grading papers, I wrote about AI, ChatGPT, the death of the student essay, and what it means for the future of human cognition.

A Military Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest Over the course of several months, Pauline Shanks Kaurin concluded she no longer had the academic freedom necessary for doing her job.

Seven years ago, Pauline Shanks Kaurin left a good job as a tenured professor, uprooted her family, and moved to teach military ethics at the Naval War College. Now she's leaving in protest of policies she can't support and that make her job impossible.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The definition of madness Governments need to stop making the same incredibly expensive mistake over and over again

As it's in the news again - this is the post I wrote a few months ago on why the disability benefits bill has been going up.

Essentially, you can't remove need by removing support - it just pops up as a cost somewhere else.

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

Sadly not a new phenomenon. Many veterans have been deported over the years, often because of drug problems they acquired after PTSD from their time in the service.

The Black Box Myth: What the Industry Pretends Not to Know About AI | TechPolicy.Press Tech Policy Press fellow Eryk Salvaggio says it's a problem is that those of us outside of the AI industry don’t know what rules they are following.

The Black Box Myth: What the Industry Pretends Not to Know About AI: www.techpolicy.press/the-black-bo...

Well it’s official. Not matter what the real cybersecurity experts say, Cybernews’ phony baloney story of the 16 billion logins breach has now reached the status of “truth.”

Women are lagging behind on AI but they can catch up Curiosity, experimentation and learning are crucial if women are to shape the future of work

Counterpoint: Women are ahead of the curve on knowing AI is bullshit.

www.ft.com/content/7f0f...

RBAC like it was meant to be Learn about role-based access control, its use cases and benefits.

Everywhere I work I end up sharing this article on RBAC from @apenwarr.ca tailscale.com/blog/rbac-li... every time.

A Brief Ode to Data Minimization Data is real, and it can hurt you. Conversely, data cannot hurt you if you do not pluck it from the ether and rudely force it into existence in the first place. Let's talk, briefly, about data minim...

Dumpsters attract raccoons, dead zebras attract hyenas, and huge stores of data will inevitably attract Elon Musk and violence-minded feds.

And that's why I think data minimization is really important, as I explain in this newsletter article:

little-flying-robots.ghost.io/a-brief-ode-...

An Ugly New Marketing Strategy Is Driving Me Nuts (and You Too) That's its purpose

The goal now is merely to ANNOY. The big companies do it on purpose.

www.honest-broker.com/p/an-ugly-ne...