The ebook of my novel #RedTeamBlues is only $2.99 today! (US only, sorry!)

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865861/redteamblues

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To #SeizeTheMeansOfComputation," a #BigTech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It's a #DRMFree book, which means #Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🔝". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: https://mail.flarn.com/mailman/listinfo/plura-list/

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You can also follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/

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If you're a nostr:npub1u00djvjjpk6vm09z8vrrkjpnj0s9favacchm00w8qw4ae4ptussq8upzgc subscriber, you can read these essays - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is "Fool Me Twice We Don't Get Fooled Again: There's a crucial difference between federatable and federated"

https://doctorow.medium.com/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again-20074e311f1f

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Recent appearances:

* #HauntedMansion #GhostPost Panel Live From #MidsummerScream

https://dizneycoasttocoast.libsyn.com/haunted-mansion-ghost-post-panel-live-from-midsummer-scream-disney-podcast-episode-1027

* how big tech makes the internet worse (What's Gonna Happen)

https://www.stitcher.com/show/what-s-gonna-happen/episode/how-big-tech-makes-the-internet-worse-with-cory-doctorow-305645071

* Let The Platforms Burn: Bringing Back the Good Fire of the Old Internet (#IETF 117)

https://youtu.be/nK7JoGhF338?t=737

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Upcoming appearances:

* #MediumDay (online), Aug 12

https://medium.com/tag/medium-day

* nostr:npub14qsg3uuyk2qehlcamwlsjl4caxrf25h72w4mk0p5ty3vtwg2fnns75qwuh (#LasVegas), Aug 12

https://defcon.org/

* #BurningMan Center Camp, 1430h, Aug 29

https://playaevents.burningman.org/2023/playa_events/03/

* nostr:npub1sqfnxau480pnvm0t258kdrj5u2u72zwm2kh7tk3qf6lxtqkwvlmqgn5skr Awards (#SanFrancisco), Sept 14

https://www.eff.org/awards/effawards/2023

* An Evening with #VESchwab (#DesMoines), Oct 2

https://www.thecabinidaho.org/all-events/ve-schwab

* 26th #ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing keynote (#Minneapolis), Oct 16

https://cscw.acm.org/2023/index.php/keynotes/

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My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

https://craphound.com/shop/

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My latest book is Red Team Blues, available wherever books are sold!

Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US):

https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2873/Wed%2C_Apr_26th_6pm%3A_Red_Team_Blues%3A_A_Martin_Hench_Novel_HB.html#/

and Forbidden Planet (UK):

https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/

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My latest nonfiction book is Chokepoint Capitalism (with Rebecca Giblin), nonfiction about monopoly and fairness in creative labor markets.

https://chokepointcapitalism.com

Signed copies available from Book Soup:

https://www.booksoup.com/book/9780807007068

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Yesterday's threads: Private equity plunderers want to buy Simon & Schuster; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/110855606183160630

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#5yrsago Defective #Comcast security exposes 26.5m customers’ partial Social Security Numbers and addresses https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/a-comcast-security-flaw-exposed-millions-of-customers

#5yrsago State of Georgia goes to court to defend #VotingMachines that recorded 243% voter turnouts https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article216056560.html

#5yrsago Everybody hates their cable company, unless the company is Google, or the city, or a tiny mom-and-pop https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics-computers/telecom-services/best-and-worst-home-internet-providers-a2853390170/

#5yrsago What should go in an #IoT safety-rating sticker? https://memex.craphound.com/2018/08/09/what-should-go-in-an-iot-safety-rating-sticker/

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#5yrsago My closing keynote from the second #DecentralizedWebSummit https://archive.org/details/decentralizedwebsummitmedia-2018-courtyard-2?start=475

#5yrsago Bad infrastructure means #pacemakers can be compromised before they leave the factory https://www.wired.com/story/pacemaker-hack-malware-black-hat/

#5yrsago Florida’s #prisons change tech providers, wipe out $11.2m worth of music purchased by prisoners https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/08/captive-audience-how-floridas-prisons-and-drm-made-113m-worth-prisoners-music

#5yrsago Kill sticky headers: a bookmarklet to get rid of the web’s static blobs https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/

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#10yrsago Assault on Equestria: #MyLittlePony themed #DandD game with a young kid! http://www.chippewavalleygeek.com/2013/07/assault-on-equestria.html

#10yrsago Court finds for man who rewrote the credit-card fine-print to give himself unlimited, interest-free credit https://consumerist.com/2013/08/09/man-tries-to-beat-bank-at-its-own-game-with-fine-print-that-gives-him-unlimited-credit/

#10yrsago #NSA leak: US can spy on Americans, despite direct statements of President, Congress, top spooks https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/nsa-loophole-warrantless-searches-email-calls

#10yrsago Animatronic #HatboxGhost https://insidethemagic.net/2013/08/haunted-mansion-hatbox-ghost-reanimated-at-2013-d23-expo-as-disney-imagineers-demonstrate-audio-animatronics/

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#10yrsago #Lavabit competitor #SilentCircle shuts down its secure email service, destroys servers https://silentcircle.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/to-our-customers/

#10yrsago Bikram “Yoga” Choudhury accused of rape, sexual harassment, racism, homophobia, and unsafe practices related to the color green https://jezebel.com/bikram-yoga-founder-hates-sluts-and-fatties-loves-talk-1068127138

#10yrsago More on the #NSA’s weird, deceptive, indefensible definition of “#TargetedSurveillance” https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/what-it-means-be-target-or-why-we-once-again-stopped-believing-government-and-once

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Hey look at this

* #LaborNotes 2023 Tech Organizing Conference https://labornotes.org/techcon2023

* Star Wars: #GalacticStarcruiser https://adrianhon.substack.com/p/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser (h/t Super Punch)

* 'Unpatchable' vulnerability in #Tesla's AMD chips allows free access to the cars' paywalled features https://www.pcgamer.com/unpatchable-vulnerability-in-teslas-amd-chips-allows-free-access-to-the-cars-paywalled-features/

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No, Uber's (still) not profitable: A relentless, world-leading innovator in ever-sweatier balance sheet tricks, accounting gimmicks and hopium.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/110860229829095420

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Going to #Defcon this weekend? I'm giving a keynote, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse," on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

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Even if Lyft goes under - as seems inevitable - Uber can't attain real profitability by scooping up its passengers and drivers. When you're losing money on every ride, you just can't make it up in volume.

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Image:

JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD (modified)

CC BY-SA 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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Put it all together and you get a picture of the kind of taxi company Uber really is: one that charges more than traditional cabs, pays riders less, and has fewer cars on the road at times of peak demand, especially in the neighborhoods that traditional taxis had always underserved. In other words, Uber has broken every one of its promises.

We replaced the "evil taxi cartel" with an "evil taxi monopolist." And it's still losing money.

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Uber CEO #DaraKhosrowshahi himself says that this is as high as the take can get - over 30%, and drivers will delete the app.

Uber's food delivery service - a baling wire-and-spit Frankenstein's monster of several food apps it bought and glued together - is a loser even by the standards of the sector, which is unprofitable as a whole and experiencing an unbroken slide of declining demand.

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All told, wage theft and wage cuts by Uber transferred $1b/quarter from labor to Uber's shareholders. Historically, Uber linked fares to driver pay - think of #SurgePricing, where Uber charged riders more for peak times and passed some of that premium onto drivers. But now Uber trumpets a custom pricing algorithm that is the inverse of its driver payment system, calculating riders' willingness to pay and repricing every ride based on how desperate they think you are.

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