Category: Facebook

the future of the NEWS

What will the most popular news sources of the future look like?

I’m hopeful for the soon to be launched Wikitribune.

Evidence-based journalism

People today mostly get their news from TV (not bad) and social media (terrible).

My favourite news source right now is Axios, just 6 months old.

Smart brevity.

Axios covers 7 areas: politics, tech, media trends, health, science, energy, and future of work (AI, robotics, etc.).

They want to deliver the cleanest, smartest, most efficient and trust-worthy experience for readers and advertisers alike.

It was founded by Mike Allen, former chief political reporter for Politico. I like Politico too, founded in 2007. And  Jim VandeHei.

John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei left The Washington Post to become The Politico‘s editor-in-chief and executive editor, respectively.

So … Washington Post begat Politico begat Axios.

If interested, start by signing up for any of the Axios email newsletters.

 

 

STOP Facebook videos from playing automatically

One of my rules of good web design is that nothing should happen on the page unless I ask it to happen.

This is a BIG improvement to my experience on Facebook.

A simple extension called Disable HTML5 Autoplay for Chrome and Opera — and coming soon to Firefox — stops those videos from playing automatically. They will still appear in your Facebook News Feed, but they won’t start unless you click on them.

Cult of Mac

disable-html5-autoplay

I’m unfollowing Trump supporters on Facebook, Twitter

Only 1 in 4 Americans voted against Donald Trump. I blame 75% of Americans for letting that psychopath get elected.

Depressing. 😦

I’ve stopped following American politics. And don’t want to hear from anyone telling me he’s not as bad as you think. He is.

As always, I encourage you to unfriend me if you don’t like my point of view. That’s freedom from speech.

Click PLAY or watch Hillary sing Hallelujah on YouTube.

AdBlock or Adblock Plus?

I hate 99% of advertisements. All businesses that rely on advertising dread me.

Google and Facebook hate guys like me. Apple and Amazon don’t much care.

All companies should evolve to be less reliant on advertising. Micropayment are the best alternatives still, I think.

My online life is greatly enhanced with extensions that block advertising. Right now I have AdBlock installed on Safari. Adblock Plus installed in Chrome.

AdBlock vs. Adblock Plus: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

AdBlock-vs-Adblock-Plus

I don’t really have much of a preference between the two.

should we pay for the New York Times?

Yes. Otherwise we’ll have nothing but Facebook.

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… the advertising business, especially on mobile, is increasingly in the hands of one company: Facebook. In the last quarter, Facebook made $1.5 billion in profit. Not revenue. Profit. …

Facebook’s command over everyone’s attention span, as well as its deft use of your personal data, has turned it into a money-spinning machine. We may well look back and see Facebook as the most consequential development in publishing since the invention of hot type …

So where does that leave old fashioned news organizations like The New York Times? Surveying this seemingly terrifying landscape, I am cautiously optimistic. The successful rollout of our paywall in 2011 was crucial in resetting the conversation with readers about the value of the journalism we produce. The Times now has 1.2 million digital subscribers worldwide, with the fastest growth coming from outside the United States. …

Why people pay to read The New York Times

I’m paying for Economist now. Seems I should suck it up and start paying for others of my favourite news sources.

Viscount Bennett High School

VB Highschool in Calgary is no more. It’s now something called Chinook College.

Brian Mason’s VBreunion.com website no longer works, either. But you can still see what it looked like by searching for “vbreunion.com” on the internet archive wayback machine.

VB Reunion website

If you attended Viscount Bennett, as I did, you could join the Viscount Bennett High School Alumni Facebook page.

Viscount Bennett High School