174 Posts under Mango Linked
∞ Highlighting Journalism on Mastodon
From Eugen Rothko,
To reinforce and encourage Mastodon as the go-to place for journalism, we’re launching a new feature today. You will notice that underneath some links shared on Mastodon, the author byline can be clicked to open the author’s associated fediverse account, right in the app. This highlights writers and journalists that are active on the fediverse, and makes it easier than ever to follow them and keep up with their future work—potentially across different publications. Writers often work with different publishers over the span of their careers, but Mastodon is the perfect platform to amass a loyal audience that you, as the author, truly own, and can take with you across the fediverse.
This is such great news. I love blogs and journalism, and I hope this can help authors to reach more audiences.
Technically it's simple to enable for your website:
We’ve decided to create a new kind of OpenGraph tag—the same kind of tags you have on your website to determine which thumbnail image will appear on the preview for the page when shared on Discord, iMessage, or Mastodon. It looks like this:
<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@Gargron@mastodon.social" />.
Of course I just added my fediverse:creator tag to mangoumbrella.com adopting this feature. It's allowlist only though. Let's find out when it's rolled out to Mango Umbrella or everywhere else.
∞ Jeremy on Trust
Jeremy Keith writes,
In their rush to cram in “AI” “features”, it seems to me that many companies don’t actually understand why people use their products.
Google is acting as though its greatest asset is its search engine. Same with Bing.
But their greatest asset is actually trust.
This is spot on.
When I need to search for good Asian restaurants in Bay Area, I don't trust Google nor Yelp. I open 小红书 (RED)'s search box by default. I trust it to have the results I need.
If I use a search engine I need to be able to trust that the filtering is good.
Small difference: it's not about the filtering. It's simply about the results. Not all results nowadays are indexed or even indexable by Google.
∞ Amazon Takes On Chinese Rivals Temu and Shein With Plans for New Discount Service
Tracy Qu and Sherry Qin write for WSJ:
Amazon.com plans to launch a service focused on shipping cheap fashion wear, household goods and other products directly from warehouses in China, as it faces growing competition from low-cost e-commerce platforms Temu and Shein.
In other words, Amazon to launch a Temu clone.
I have bought many things on Temu: cable organizers, painter's pyramids, craft papers, cute stickers, sanding blocks, shelf pins, a watering can, and many more. They are all expected quality for the price and I have no complaints.
∞ Juno 2.0
Christian Selig just released a jam packed update to the Juno for YouTube app:
Today I’m releasing Juno 2.0, which incorporates a ton of that community feedback, and truly brings the app to the next level through extensive improvements and new features. Using it over the last little while I have had so many moments where I catch myself smiling. Browsing and watching YouTube on visionOS through Juno is honestly just so fun, immersive, and downright futuristic, and I genuinely think the best way to watch your favorite videos.
This update also answers Google/YouTube's letter:
In April, YouTube announced it would be cracking down specifically on ad-blocking third-party apps, and weirdly, Juno got an email at the end of April from YouTube Legal that voiced some concerns. You can view the full contents of their email here: https://christianselig.com/juno-youtube-email-april-26-24.txt
Now that this update is out, hopefully this appeases Google, as they have also (as of a few days ago) filed a complaint with the App Store directly. I’ll obviously push back, as I believe Juno is just getting caught up in the crosshairs of Google’s targetting of apps that do have ad-blocking, and an app that fundamentally themes a website is nothing new, novel, or insidious.
I too don't see how Juno 1.0 violates YouTube's policy. Christian being so nice went out of the way to put extra work to appease Google, I sure hope Google isn't that stupid to shutdown Juno.
∞ How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power?
Stephen Ezell writes for ITIF:
Though China built upon a foreign base of technology, it has become the world’s leading proponent of nuclear energy. Chinese firms are well ahead of their Western peers, supported by a whole-of-government strategy that provides extensive financing and systemic coordination.
I grew up in the 90s next to China's first nuclear power plant Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant. I felt forever educated that Qinshan was one of the only two nuclear power plants in the country. It's certainly a different era now.
∞ Ted Chiang Wins the 2024 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story
From the PEN/Faulkner Foundation:
The PEN/Faulkner Foundation announces that Ted Chiang has been selected as the winner of the 2024 PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.
“Ted Chiang’s stories are an absolute wonder to behold,” said PEN/Malamud Award Committee Chair Jung Yun. “Not only do they demonstrate his exceptionally high standards for creativity and construction, they also invite readers to think, imagine, and explore unique worlds beyond their own. Whether set in an alternate version of the past, or one possible version of the future, his work prompts important questions that are deeply relevant to how we live today. In doing so, Chiang exemplifies Bernard Malamud’s belief that a short story can produce ‘the surprise and effect of a profound knowledge in a short time.’”
One of my favorite authors. Ted Chiang is so well deserved!
∞ The Weird Fish and Connected Trivia Made to an WWDC session
Federico Viticci:
Friends, we did it:
The Weird Fish 🦠 and @connected trivia have officially made it to a WWDC session: https://developer.apple.com/wwdc24/10117
I'm loving this so much 😂
The WWDC 2024 Meet the Translation API session has included this content for Connected and fans:
The WeirdFish's post translates to:
The hike was great, but it was so difficult that I had to pause the podcast. And I was an experienced hiker and hiked all over Rome, London, and Memphis.
Wholesome content like this warms my heart.
∞ Saying Thanks to Open Source Maintainers
Brett Cannon writes,
After signing up for GitHub Sponsors, I had a nagging feeling that somehow asking for money from other people to support my open source work was inappropriate. But after much reflection, I realized that phrasing the use of GitHub Sponsors as a way to express patronage/support and appreciation for my work instead of sponsorship stopped me feeling bad about it. It also led me to reflect on to what degree people can express thanks to open source maintainers.
Be nice
[...]
Be an advocate
[...]
Produce your own open source
[...]
Say thanks
[...]
Fiscal support
What a fantastic list of ways how you can thank open source maintainers.
∞ A Link Blog in the Year 2024
Kellan Elliott-McCrea writes:
Like many people I’ve been dealing with the collapses of the various systems I relied on for information over the previous decades. After 17 of using Twitter daily and 24 years of using Google daily neither really works anymore. And particular with the collapse of the social spaces many of us grew up with, I feel called back to earlier forms of the Internet, like blogs, and in particular, starting a link blog.
This is the very definition of something that no one needs. Technology doesn’t work like this, you can’t solve today’s problems by slavish devotion to earlier forms, its one-way doors all the way down. And certainly no one needs my link blog. I don’t really consume that much media from that many varied sources.
But I’m impressed by the folks who never stopped, Nelson, Simon, Andy, Jason, and figure that there is value in the doing, for myself if no one else.
My first linked post was written in 2012. Even though my website went through a few revisions, and I haven't been consistently blogging, I'm glad I haven't given up 12 years later today. We need more link blogs, or just blogs.
∞ Apple Held Talks With China Mobile to Bring Apple TV+ to China
Wayne Ma writes for The Information:
Apple was in talks last year to launch its Apple TV+ video streaming service in China via a deal with China Mobile, the country’s largest telecommunications provider, according to people with knowledge of the matter. If successful, the talks would make Apple TV+ the only U.S. streaming service to be available in China, one of the world’s biggest markets.
No wonder it was reported earlier that The Problem With Jon Stewart ended because of intended discussions with guests about AI and China.