The whole video is a fascinating account of the design process, from idea to prototype to finished item, but if you're impatient and want to skip right to the eyeball kick, it's at 12:27-12:35. And if you want to print your own, the files are $12 (cheap!):

patreon.com/WorksByDesign/shop…

3/

Regrettably, not every tech project is a good one. This week, Google abandoned its AI ethics pledge. Unlike most AI ethics pledge, which are full of nonsense about not accidentally creating a vengeful god that turns the human race into paperclips, Google's AI pledge was actually very important, in that the company promised not to make AI that violates human rights, international law, or privacy.

4/

There comes a point where harping on Google's abandoned "don't be evil" motto can feel a little hacky, but in this case, I'll make an exception. My EFF colleague Matthew Guariglia tears Google a much-deserved new AIhole over this latest heel turn:

eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/goog…

Not all bad technology is evil. Some of it is merely very, very stupid. How stupid?

5/

Google is on the Wrong Side of History

Google continues to show us why it chose to abandon its old motto of “Don’t Be Evil,” as it becomes more and more enmeshed with the military-industrial complex. Most recently, Google has removed four key points from its AI principles.

^{Electronic Frontier Foundation}

Check out Thom Dunn's Wirecutter review of The Heatbit Trio, a space-heater that uses Bitcoin-mining GPUs to generate some of its heat, very slightly offsetting the cost of warming your room - but at a rate that would take *decades* to recoup the $700 price-tag. Thom got some spicy quotes from Molly White for this one - possibly the first time she's been cited in a home appliance review:

nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews…

6/

This Space Heater Mines Bitcoin While Keeping You Warm. (But Not Enough to Pay for Itself.)

The Heatbit space heater uses the excess heat from mining Bitcoin to keep you warm. Really.

^{Thom Dunn (Wirecutter)}

Staying with crypto freaks for a moment here, Adam Levitin dissects the cryptocurrency "industry"'s latest chorus of aggrieved whining over "debanking":

creditslips.org/creditslips/20…

As Levitin writes, banks aren't kicking cryptocurrency "companies" off their books because the government wants to punish them.

7/

Banks have a *very* good reason to want to avoid doing business with high-dollar scams that have highly correlated implosions, which is to say, times when *everyone* wants their money back from the cryptocurrency "company" the bank is handling charges for. For a longer explanation that gets into the nitty gritty of bank supervision, check out Patio11's excellent, detailed explainer:

bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/deb…

8/

Debanking (and Debunking?)

Crypto advocates kicked off a recent, somewhat politicized, discussion of debanking. Strap in for scintillating banking compliance trivia.

^{Patrick McKenzie (patio11) (Bits about Money)}

As all the real heads know, "crypto means cryptography," and cryptographers continue to contrive privacy marvels. This week, Kagi - the best search engine, a million times better than Google - released a Privacy Pass authentication plugin, which lets you login to Kagi and run searches without Kagi being able to connect any of the searches you make with your account:

blog.kagi.com/kagi-privacy-pas…

9/

As an sf/crime writer who sometimes (often) searches for information on committing ghastly crimes and 'orrible murders, the fact that my favorite search engine will be *technically incapable* of tying those searches to my identity is quite a relief. Read my review of Kagi here:

pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/tea…

10/

If you're one of those marvel-contriving hackers, cryptographers, security researchers or tinkerers, you should really consider attending this summer's Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), 2600 Magazine's (now) annual (formerly biennial) hacker con. They've just posted their CFP - get those submission in!

hope.net/cfp-talks.html

Well, I have to post this and get ready for this morning's virtual book tour event with Yanis Varoufakis:

youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4L…

11/

But before I go, one more link: Kevin Steele's 2005 essay on Hypercard, "When Multimedia Was Black & White," an absolute classic, and a beautiful meditation on the art and promise of early hypertext:

web.archive.org/web/2024021319…

I've known Kevin for most of my life, long before he helped found Mackerel, the pioneering Toronto multimedia company. Long after Mackerel,

12/

Kevin went on making wonderful things. In 2023, he published a monumental act of portraiture - a "sequential art" time-series of panoramas of Toronto's hip, ever-changing Queen Street West strip:

pluralistic.net/2023/09/13/spa…

Comparing Kevin's more recent work with that lovely old essay reveals deep correspondences and the progress of a unique and creative soul.

13/

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel *Picks and Shovels*.

Catch me TODAY (Feb 15) for a virtual event with Yanis Varoufakis:

youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4L…

And on MONDAY (Feb 17) in MENLO PARK for an event with Charlie Jane Anders:

keplers.org/upcoming-events-in…

More tour dates here:

martinhench.com

eof/