Collapse OS + more things

2 minutes estimated reading time

Collapse OS — Bootstrap post-collapse technology  – a vision of dystopian technology that fits right in with William Gibson’s more recent views of the future with the Jackpot. A slow moving systemic collapse due to global warming, flooding, pollution, global conflict, terrorism and pandemics

The battle inside Signal – Platformer – Casey Newton has pulled together an interesting portrait of Signal and how its developing as its user base scales

Gay Dating App “Grindr” to be fined almost € 10 Mio by Norway due to passing on information to a variety of services

Myopia correcting ‘smart glasses’ from Japan to be sold in Asia – Nikkei Asia – interesting design approach

$2 Million for T-Shirts? How Supreme and Nike Cracked the Auction Market – WSJ – natural extension in the change in luxury consumers

Online retailers are playing a risky game with the UK high street | Financial Times – like Arcadia and countless rivals, Debenhams had underlying conditions stemming from over-enthusiastic cash extraction. CVC, Texas Pacific and Merrill Lynch acquired Debenhams in 2003 in a £1.8bn leveraged buyout that needed just £600m of equity. The trio then extracted more than £1bn via property sale and leaseback agreements and floated it again for almost the same price in 2006 – the Times makes a really good case with regards private equity excesses. Other examples outside the retail sector include TWA and Eircom

Hacker leaks data of 2.28 million dating site users | ZDNet – another day, another site hacked

Element sees fivefold increase in signups after Whatsapp privacy debacle | Sifted – its more like a Slack or Teams rival

Japan’s anime goes global: Sony’s new weapon to take on Netflix | FT 

Sony Tries Sink-Or-Swim EV Gambit  | EE Times 

Jim Slater and the warning from the 1970s that we ignored – BBC News – a very brief piece in the BBC Online reflecting on the legacy of Slater Walker. The reality is that there needs to be a far deeper reflection on the effect of his asset stripping model had lighting a touch paper that led directly to deindustrialisation, populism and Brexit.

“Marketing is what you do when you have a sh#tty product.” – Christopher Lochhead – not particularly smart viewpoint, though great product and service design really helps marketing and helps reduce the amount that needs to be spent due to word of mouth. A second thought occurred to me, people with this mindset are building the entire martech stack….

WHO Caught Between China and West on Frozen-Food Coronavirus Transmission – WSJ – the irony of the cold chain also distributing vaccines as well as the virus is an interesting one