Category Archives: Architecture

Is Mastodon a commons?

Glenn Fleishman has a lucid and helpful introduction to Mastodon in TidBITS that opens with this: Cast your mind back to the first time you experienced joy and wonder on the Internet. Do you worry you’ll never be able to … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Commons, community | 2 Comments

From Hollywood Park Racetrack to SoFi Stadium

Hollywood Park Racetrack is gone. In its place is SoFi Stadium, the 77,000-seat home of Los Angeles’ two pro football teams and much else, including the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater. There’s also more to come in the surrounding vastness of Hollywood Park, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art, Aviation, Awesome, Business, california, data, infrastructure, Photography, Places, Technology, Travel | 4 Comments

Is there a way out of password hell?

Passwords are hell. Worse, to make your hundreds of passwords safe as possible, they should be nearly impossible for others to discover—and for you to remember. Unless you’re a wizard, this all but requires using a password manager.† Think about … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, infrastructure, Internet, privacy, problems, security, Technology | 5 Comments

Beyond the Web

The Web is a haystack. This isn’t what Tim Berners-Lee had in mind when he invented the Web. Nor is it what Jerry Yang and David Filo had in mind when they invented Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, history, Ideas, Internet, publishing, Technology | 5 Comments

How the cookie poisoned the Web

Have you ever wondered why you have to consent to terms required by the websites of the world, rather than the other way around? Or why you have no record of what you have accepted or agreed to? Blame the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, history | 4 Comments

On Dion Neutra, 1926-2019

The Los Angeles in your head is a Neutra house. You’ve seen many of them in movies, and some of them in many movies. Some of those are now gone, alas, as is the architect and preservationist who also designed, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, history, Photography | Leave a comment

On Amazon, New York, New Jersey and urban planning

In a press release, Amazon explained why it backed out of its plan to open a new headquarters in New York City: For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Business, Culture, Ideas, infrastructure, Internet, new york, Past, Photography, problems | Leave a comment

The biggest bust in Santa Barbara is about to go down

Emanuele Orazio Fenzi, better known as Francesco Franceschi (1843-1924), was an Italian horticulturist responsible for vastly increasing the botanical variety of Santa Barbara (introducing more than 900 species). He was also for awhile the primary landowner on the Riviera, a … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Geography, Geology, Santa Barbara | 2 Comments

The Internet deserves its proper noun

The NYTimes says the Mandarins of language are demoting the Internet to a common noun. It is to be just “internet” from now on. Reasons: Thomas Kent, The A.P.’s standards editor, said the change mirrored the way the word was used in dictionaries, … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Cluetrain, Future, history, Ideas, infrastructure, Internet, problems, Technology | 2 Comments

How #adblocking matures from #NoAds to #SafeAds

Take a look at any ad, for anything, online. Do you know whether or not it’s meant for you personally — meaning that you’ve been tracked somehow, and that tracking has been used to aim the ad at you? Chances … Continue reading

Posted in adtech, Architecture, Business, Cluetrain, Internet, Links, problems, publishing, Social, Technology, VRM | 20 Comments