diff --git a/_posts/2025-11-26-time-person-2006.md b/_posts/2025-11-26-time-person-2006.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..267480e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2025-11-26-time-person-2006.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: Person of the Year 2006 +layout: post +--- + +If you need a fun fact for a corporate icebreaker activity, you can always say, +"I was *Time* magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006," then stand around +awkwardly waiting for someone to Google it. + +The +[official announcement](https://time.com/6258607/you-time-person-of-the-year-2006/) +of "your" accomplishment makes for good reading in 2025. In tech circles, we +often regard the early days of Web 2.0 as a time of naivety when we thought that +letting anyone post on the internet would democratize media and unlock an era of +creative expression. Of course, we know now that it isn't so simple—that open +platforms can amplify extreme views, for example, or serve as vectors for +misinformation. But apparently we *also* knew this then, in the earliest days of +YouTube and Facebook: + +> Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the +> comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the +> spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred. +> +> But that’s what makes all this interesting. Web 2.0 is a massive social +> experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. + +Obviously, the course we chose twenty years ago led us to the world of today. +But we didn't select this path arbitrarily, or without regard for the challenges +it would present; we examined the risks and decided the experiment was worth it. + +I got a similar sense from reading Thomas Friedman's *The World is Flat* (2005), +which lays out a theory of globalization based on the convergence of +technological development (the internet) and trade liberalization. Some of the +passages feel quaint: + +> If there is a skilled person in Timbuktu, he will get work if he knows how to +> access the rest of the world, which is quite easy today. You can make a Web +> site and have an e-mail address and you are up and running. (Ch. 3) + +(In the ebook, I commented, "Taxes? Immigration law?") But elsewhere, Friedman +anticipates critiques of globalization which have now become standard: + +> In the flat world, the balance of power between global companies and the +> individual communities in which they operate is tilting more and more in favor +> of the companies, many of them American-based. These companies command as much +> if not more power than many governments. (Ch. 13) + +Not to mention "What the world has never witnessed is an old-style pandemic in a +Wal-Mart world," later on in the same chapter. diff --git a/_posts/2050-06-28-timing-issues.md b/_posts/2050-06-28-timing-issues.md deleted file mode 100644 index 298361f7..00000000 --- a/_posts/2050-06-28-timing-issues.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,20 +0,0 @@ ---- -layout: post -title: Timing issues ---- - -1. The Android Clock app has a - [longstanding bug](https://forums.androidcentral.com/threads/alarm-clock-turns-off-by-itself-help.386881/) - where the alarm will randomly disable itself. It may have something to do - with the feature that shows a notification a half hour ahead of the alarm - that lets you turn off the alarm if you wake up early on your own—maybe the - button is clicking itself somehow? But this can’t be the full story, because - sometimes I double check the night before that my alarm is set and find that - it has instead been disabled for tomorrow and "will sound in 2 days." You can - find similar bug reports on Reddit, but the issue occurs sporadically and is - difficult to reproduce. -2. With the recent heat waves, my building has experienced several power blips - which reset the clocks on the microwave and oven. My coffee machine is able - to remember the clock time through each power blip, which is nice, except - that for some reason it *doesn't* remember the "brew later" time. Result: - fresh pot of hot coffee at midnight.