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  1. https://blog.virek.net/2026/09/12/trickledown-economics-was-just-trickledown.html
    · original
    Trickle-down economics was just Trickle-down fascism. I hope you can see that now.
  2. Avignon : A photo essay
    · original
    I spend far too much time reading. Reading books, articles, blogs. So much so, I don’t produce enough of my own stuff. So, inspired by a blog I just read, I thought I’d write a quick photo essay. Recently, I had to make a journey to Avignon in the south of France. One day, I was at a loose end, and being not far from the center, and it also being the festival of Avignon, I took a couple of hours to have a walk around the old town and take a couple of street photos. I’m not a photographer, and I don’t have a decent camera any more. So the shots were all taken on an iPhone 14 Pro. Not the greatest in the world. To make things more interesting, I decided not to deviate from the default focal length and shot in black and white (set in the camera app), but in DNG in case I wanted to have an image in colour. All the photos have been cropped and only lightly edited to bring out shadows or highl
  3. https://blog.virek.net/2026/08/05/everyone-is-a-grifter-now.html
    · original
    Everyone is a grifter now. And I fucking hate it. If it’s not “merch”, it’s “Buy my course” (… on how to grift). It is “Go to my Patreon to get exclusive ‘content’”, who gives a fuck? Have you seen the tidal wave of videos on YouTube (and other video services) that basically lie to your face about what they are? “This one thing changes everything.” No, it doesn’t. “Hilarious …” (mildly amusing). “The truth about …” That’s a lie. “The genius morning routine that changed my life”. No, it didn’t. “First time hearing …”. No, it isn’t you liar. “Game changing …”. Slight improvement on something inconsequential. “… DESTROYS …”. Grow up, you fucking child. “World’s best EDC setup”. Scouts is for kids (and trainee perverts). Content creator has to be one of the most odious lies people tell themselves when putting out stuff on the Internet. You’re not a “content creator”. You’re not even a creato
  4. https://blog.virek.net/2026/06/24/just-when-you-thought-that.html
    · original
    Just when you thought that Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t possibly become a more odious specimen than he currently is… Zuckerberg wants Meta to launch its own prediction market, report says Prediction markets are the worst form of gambling that not only deliberately and systematically hide the consequences, funnel winnings to the top, buy they actively incentivise poor behaviour at the highest levels, with deathly consequences, creating self-fulfilling prophecies that have absolutely nothing to do with “prediction”. 1 I doubt they are legal in Europe. But I also doubt we are not doing enough to ensure their cancerous nature is not expanding in Europe, which is already polluted (beyond repair?) by irresponsible and dangerous gambling sites. We are in very dangerous times. https://prospect.org/2026/02/26/prediction-markets-kalshi-polymarket-casinos/ ↩︎
  5. https://blog.virek.net/2026/06/07/if-youre-offloading-meeting-transcriptions.html
    · original
    If you’re offloading meeting transcriptions to your ai of choice, you’d better be hyper-vigilant of the output generated, as it will inevitably attribute something it made up as your speech, and if it goes down in record you’re going to have a hard time walking that back. It could cost you dearly.
  6. https://blog.virek.net/2026/05/14/the-lowlevel-anxiety-that-todays.html
    · original
    The low-level anxiety that today’s tech causes is a problem that we should all be mindful of, and put in place strategies to deal with. I used to be enthusiastic when a new tech product was announced. Now I am immediately sceptical, looking for how it is going to lock me in, sell my personal information, trick me into ever-increasing payments, threaten me with DCMA if I dare to ‘modify’ it to my uses, … The list goes on.
  7. https://blog.virek.net/2026/04/22/the-irony-of-the-meta.html
    · original
    The irony of the Meta (née Facebook) employee’s outcry at being surveilled by their employer is fascinating. What did you think you were building? “… And then they came for me And there was no one left …”
  8. https://blog.virek.net/2026/04/12/just-wait-and-see-once.html
    · original
    Just wait and see. Once the current era of political turmoil in the US is over, the Cyberlibertarians will use the authoritarian bent of this government as a ‘proof’ that governments should stay away from them, using the same sleight of hand of that idiotic Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace “… I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” 1 But they are hoping that you forget that they themselves were the biggest enablers of an authoritarian and neofascist government. Don’t let them. Call them out at every opportunity. Laugh in their faces at their abject stupidity. Castrate them financially. Actively boycott anything that they are involved in. They deserve worse, but we can only exercise the legal tools we have at our disposal. Never forget. The fact that the EFF still uncritically publish it on their website
  9. https://blog.virek.net/2026/03/30/just-a-timely-and-helpful.html
    · original
    Just a timely and helpful flow chart, if you’re thinking of doing it:
  10. https://blog.virek.net/2026/03/13/the-silicon-valley-types-along.html
    · original
    The Silicon Valley types, along with the tech bros, are showing us that they are actively trying to re-instate slavery, through robotics and Agentic AI. It is a demonstration of their disdain of anything that isn’t of their class and their need to be “served” anything and everything, at anytime. It exposes their belief in an imaginary hierarchy of society and the logical conclusion of the Ayn Rand philosophy of individualism put in practice. It is a violent assault on humanity. Welcome to the Digital Plantation. In Martinique in the 19th Century, a statue was erected to celebrate the life of Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. She was born on the island into a rich slave-owning family. Slavery was not her fault. Of course, she had no choice into which family she was born. But she decided to do the unthinkable. She lobbied for, and obtained, the re-instatement of slavery
  11. Growing up around a museum
    · original
    When I was very young, I have a couple of distinct memories that have since faded somewhat, but they are still there and appear when something triggers them. The trigger in this instance was my stumbling on the IndieWeb Carnival March 2026 : Museum Memories . It was going to about one of those memories recanting my chance relationship to one of the most interesting museums in the UK, the Science Museum in London. My elder brother was school friends with the son of the director of the Science Museum at that time, and a memory of our two families strawberry picking and then eating lunch at their house. It was where I first tasted Spaghetti Bolognaise. The memories came flooding back to me when I read the subject. 1 But I think a more interesting story about my memories of a museum is to be told. I grew up in the 70s on a modest housing estate in the West Midlands that was located not too f
  12. https://blog.virek.net/2026/03/05/i-mean-how-could-we.html
    · original
    I mean, how could we have known that using glasses with cameras in them to record everything you see, actually recorded everything you saw and then uploaded some of it to be seen by other humans, that saw everything you saw? From the company that has the most disgustingly poor record on privacy, possibly in history —“ dumb fucks ”—, it was just impossible to tell that they would do this. How many more scandals is it going to take to hold Mark Zuckerberg responsible? Oh, and by the way, you should absolutely challenge anyone wearing those godawful things around you. If you happen to punch them in the face, that’s your decision, but I won’t shed a tear.
  13. https://blog.virek.net/2026/03/02/you-built-the-absolute-best.html
    · original
    You built the absolute best app in its field. 1 The most useful and helpful to use with a genuinely delightful interface, all for a reasonable price that fitted so perfectly into the category that you practically single-handedly owned the space. True, it was a relatively small market, but you were making a healthy profit and were highly respected by the large group of users you served. 2 So much so, users would volunteer help and advice, knowing that their contributions would be taken seriously and possibly even further developed and integrated into the app for the benefit of all. Given that your app is a security app, this invaluable feedback helped ensure your app didn’t falter badly like others in the same category, the category you essentially created. But you couldn’t leave it there, could you? The lure of MOAR just kept eating away in your mind. Eating like a cancer, growing unseen
  14. https://blog.virek.net/2026/02/21/if-theres-anything-that-the.html
    · original
    If there’s anything that The Rest is History has taught me, it is that royalty and the noblesse are nothing more than violent, racist, lying, thieves and gangsters. 1 They exist today, purely on the fruits of their ill-gotten gains, and it is past time to correct that error. The current events of the British Monarchy are only a tip of the iceberg of foul play they are responsible for, or at the very least, have handsomely benefitted from at the expense of many millions of others. If there is any justice, not only should Andrew be jailed for a string of offences that merit a dedicated website, but the enabling family and associated apparatus constructed and maintained specifically to hide, absolve and otherwise protect that entire institution should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. What a deeply shameful past Britain has. But. What an opportunity it has been presented with at th
  15. https://blog.virek.net/2026/02/05/i-mentioned-that-id-been.html
    · original
    I mentioned that I’d been using the new Journal.app on the Mac for a while and from the beta cycle of macOS Tahoe. That’s changed (again!). Ultimately, the app felt like it was getting in the way of writing my thoughts down. It was also geared to a certain type of performative journaling that doesn’t sit right with me. That type of journaling, with scrapbook properties, places, and photos, etc., is all well and good if it works for you. And who am I to judge? It just doesn’t work for me. In fact, it’s quite off-putting for me. I’m more of the start-with-blank-page and vomit-straight-from-the-brain type of journaliser. So I went back to plain markdown files and set up a couple of text shortcuts to automate things like the date and time. I’m back here on Ulysses, and it is tweaked just they way I like it to help me with my writing, not against it. You don’t need to pay for a fancy app that
  16. https://blog.virek.net/2026/01/28/adblocking-went-from-being-an.html
    · original
    Ad-blocking went from being an ideological choice, to a personal secrecy-preserving decision, to a brain-jacking-casino blocker, to helping prevent the destruction of democracy itself, to now, being an absolute imperative for cybersecurity reasons. 1 Online advertising and the associated adtech companies are a cancer and they need to be dealt with. Do not feel any shame blocking ads anywhere and everywhere you can. Tell the advertisers to use non-intrusive ad systems or fuck off. To the advertisers: you know you don’t have to use their rigged racket. 2 Bonus, you get to take part in the downfall of the odious creeps like Zuckerberg. https://mackeeper.com/blog/suspicious-ads-on-google-which-contain-harmful-content-for-mac-users/ ↩︎ https://www.epceurope.eu/post/european-commission-publishes-their-decision-on-the-google-ad-tech-investigation-epc-calls-for-stro ↩︎
  17. https://blog.virek.net/2026/01/26/it-would-be-funny-if.html
    · original
    It would be funny, if it wasn’t so grotesque, deceitful and insincere. Tell us Tim, who are you really standing with? Source: [ www.apple.com/newsroom/…
  18. https://blog.virek.net/2026/01/20/you-used-to-pay-apple.html
    · original
    You used to pay Apple, happily, and their devices and applications worked for you. Now you pay Apple for something substandard that sometimes actively work against you. And they still want more money from you. A couple of examples of this, are the iTunes app (now Music) and Aperture. Apple Music app, especially on the Mac, is not fit for purpose. It is buggy, temperamental, and actively hostile to a good user experience. Aperture is probably the definitive example of a company making things worse over time. It was the best photo management, editing and publishing app on the planet. It ran rings around Adobe’s bloated Lightroom. I used to take photos of local trail races, around 1200 to 1500 per race then, with Aperture, import, triage, edit, and publish them to Flickr in a matter of a couple of hours. When Apple killed Aperture, I resisted but was eventually forced (by Apple no less) to
  19. https://blog.virek.net/2026/01/17/ive-been-using-the-journal.html
    · original
    I’ve been using the Journal app on macOS since it was in beta, as a test to see if it could replace the text documents I had been using up until then. I’d migrated from Day One a couple of years ago, having become less than enthusiastic about its owners once it was sold on. I migrated everything to Ulysses, and made each entry an .md file and stored them on a synced and encrypted drive so I could always find them again if needs be and have peace of mind about security. There are very private thoughts, remember. When the Journal app came along, I wanted to give it a try to see if it would work for me. The type of journaling I do is basic and is easily suited to plain text files. But I wanted something that had a few bells and whistles to help get me into the mindset to use it, and using the same editor I use for long-form writing was fine, but it didn’t really gel. I checked that I could
  20. https://blog.virek.net/2026/01/16/like-a-lot-of-people.html
    · original
    Like a lot of people, I have had an interest in photography for many years. I had some projects that spanned over six or seven years and I’m pretty happy with some of the outcomes of those photos. I’m trying to archive them better for posterity and future use. I briefly mentioned on my Now page. A couple of weeks ago, I had a catastrophic failure of my last remaining Nikon DSLR camera —with a little luck should be repaired soon— which has provoked me to look into replacing it. I’m moving off DSLRs to Mirrorless cameras. There’s probably a couple of camera brands I would like, Nikon, Sony and Panasonic, but I have a strong pull for Fuji cameras. Diving into this rabbit hole, I came across some videos from a photographer and professional colourist in the film industry. GxAce . The production quality of these mini films is just stunning. The look, the ideas and the attention to detail to th

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