A linkdump that explores the lovely new web, the Vietnamese chip news cycle, and ambivalent ecological developments
“Where have all the websites gone?” is the question posed by blogger Jason. And he sends us a link with a marvellous list. Let’s go down this path.
It’s a technical marvel, that internet. Something so mindblowingly impressive that if you showed it to someone even thirty years ago, their face would melt the fuck off. So why does it feel like something’s missing? Why are we all so collectively unhappy with the state of the web?
Take the Grumpy Website:
Or the manifest for a cheap internet. Sweet.
So, work on your own website and be sceptical of the containers of modern social media (or whatever, do what you want with the web, it’s just in another exciting new phase). The topic has been nicely summarised here:
I’ve started exploring RSS feeds in creative ways, which is also how I came across the “where have all the websites gone” topic via No Tech Magazine. Not only is there the interesting (if sometimes flawed) Low Tech Magazine, but there’s also No Tech Magazine, yes. Check out the recent post about various interesting meta links,
www.notechmagazine.com/2024/01/n…
As a science and technology scholar who studies digital infrastructures and ecology (and happens to be in love with photography), this post is well worth reading, too:
The History and environmental impact of digital image formats [By Unthinking Photography].
As the ecological footprint of photography shifted from film rolls and developing chemicals to digital storage, network transfer and processing power, I see only three ways to reduce our footprint: making fewer pictures, reducing their quality, or using better image formats. Which of these options do you prefer?
What is actually the value of photography in research, how does it come about, how can (must!) it be done differently? This is something I’ve only thought about superficially in the past (and websites have piqued my interest in kbs and the carbon footprint of megabytes). However, I have a feeling that there is still a lot of discussion to be had here.
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Moving on. We’re still deep in the fog here in Vietnam. But it’s an exciting time. I’ve been working on a commentary about the ongoing chip rush, and every week there’s new material in the form of hot news. (On a side-note: my commentary has just been desk-rejected by the first journal I submitted it to. But it has been such a nice comment that helps me put out the text somewhere else, or expand on it in a longer piece. Cultivate friendly terms of rejection, and academia becomes a happier place!).
Vietnam speaks money: German chipmakers want to take part. And American investors have raised billions (!) of dollars. With a big if: Eight billion if the local government invests in renewable energy, which it finds difficult – and will not tackle to quickly because of a) fear of too risky investments leading to accusations of corruption and landing in a local jail or worse (yes, that’s exactly what happens in the context of wind and solar certificates very recently), b) the strong coal lobby and c) the enormous task of maintaining and expanding infrastructure. The past wars have destroyed a lot which still hinders development. Nevertheless, the Vietnamese government is sending strong signals, just this week in Davos.
asia.nikkei.com/Business/… asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight… vietnamweekly.substack.com/p/strivin…
To cite Mike from his Substack:
[Prime minister] Chính guaranteed government support for investors in these fields while noting that the government views semiconductors as a driving force for development, with VnExpress quoting him as saying:
“To develop these fields, Vietnam will promote three strategic breakthroughs: strategic infrastructure, training high-quality human resources and perfecting institutions."
Once again: This topic should always be covered with a hint towards a struggling civil society. Here is one.
www.thevietnamese.org/2024/01/l…
I not only try to take stock of high-tech chip developments in Vietnam, but curious developments in other sectors concerning socio-ecological transitions more broadly. Two links were just remarkable during the past week.
One, look at this feature on parcels stolenfrom train carriages in the US. It’s a wild ride with lovely (friendly gangster-type) characters.
Of all the dozens of suspected thieves questioned by the detectives of the Train Burglary Task Force at the Los Angeles Police Department during the months they spent investigating the rise in theft from the city’s freight trains, one man stood out. What made Victor Llamas memorable wasn’t his criminality so much as his giddy enthusiasm for trespassing. He was a self-taught expert of the supply chain, a connoisseur of shipping containers. Even in custody, as the detectives interrogated him numerous times, after multiple arrests, in a windowless police-station room in the spring of 2022, a kind of nostalgia would sweep over the man. “He said that was the best feeling he’d ever had, jumping on the train while it was moving,” Joe Chavez, who supervised the task force’s detectives, told me. “It was euphoric for him.”
Second, and not so funny, the transition to low-carbon energy grids is being thwarted by finance capitalism. That’s a bit of a non-surprise. Still, the details of the new scams are (sorry for the uncreative repetition) wild.
The government created subsidies – tax credits, direct cash, and mixes thereof – in the expectation that Wall Street would see all these credits and subsidies that everyday people were entitled to and go on the hunt for them. And they did! Armies of fast-talking sales-reps fanned out across America, ringing dooorbells and sticking fliers in mailboxes, and lying like hell about how your new solar roof was gonna work out for you.
These hustlers tricked old and vulnerable people into signing up for arrangements that saw them saddled with ballooning debt payments (after a honeymoon period at a super-low teaser rate), backstopped by liens on their houses, which meant that missing a payment could mean losing your home.
To finish with multimedia: watch this episode about “The KGB, The Computer and Me - The Cuckoo’s Egg Story”
