Glad someone else noticed this. I don’t care that the “small” web isn’t as extensive or as polished as the corporate web, but all the anti-scraper stuff and cookie pop-ups are the actual death. It’s horrible.
Off to gopher and Gemini I guess.
Then how would they email you?
Look at addy.io and similar.
Great list and you are right. The other thing I would mention is the option to sometimes “go without”. Take a look at the popular items on Amazon and a good chunk of that list are not strictly necessary for a good life.
Amazon charged that vender 40-50% in fees for using their marketplace. You didn’t get “free shipping”.
Wow, my brain really failed me here! I ALSO listened to Picks and Shovels recently, which was narrated by Will Wheaton, and somehow the voices got switched in my memory. You are correct, Cory recorded this himself.
Wow, til I learn about WKD! I used to have a key on keyservers, but hated how that was basically a spam trap and the fact that anyone could upload a key there for my own address. It was easy because I own my own domain and already have a web server there.
I set it up and tested it with help from https://www.webkeydirectory.com/
Looks like it’s being added to clients: https://wiki.gnupg.org/WKD/DistributionOfWKD
I wouldn’t say you have gained nothing. The amount of data provided to google or microsoft when using their email is significantly more. For example, your app or client is checking email all of the time, giving them telemetry on your location and activity, all your devices, 24/7. Google logs and analyzes all of your interactions with Gmail’s web pages, how long you have certain emails open for, what you don’t bother to open, what you tag as important, etc.
Much of the one-way email you sign up for from companies and organizations come from smaller outfits like sendgrid or their own infrastructure, so you are cutting google out of information about your associations and interests.
Also, in regards to that 90%, you can either be part of the problem for all your contacts, or part of the solution. The network effect is huge.
He has the first hour and a half (of 9) in his latest podcast, if you want a real preview: https://craphound.com/podcast/2025/08/28/enshittification-episode-500/
I decided to order the epub because no matter how I try, I can’t enjoy Wesley’s voice (sorry Will).
It’s always projection. They always assume the other side is doing what they do or plan to do. They tell on themselves years in advance.
I wonder how many of those 164k are people who are still being billed for a service they no longer use.
The post isn’t a sound legal argument, but it is an ethical one.
Ideally, the cellular modem just looks like a network device and usb sound card to the OS. Jail it as much as possible.
Cloudflare is a protection racket. They cover so many websites because it’s easier to pay the mafia.
Yeah, it’s just recovering a little of the energy spent in desalination, making it slightly less energy consuming.
Amazing that mass downloading of scientific databases turned out to be “just fine”, when big money wanted to train AI. What he downloaded was nothing compared to the scrapers running amuck now.
It’s the misleading “generated” electricity headline. It just re-captures some of the spent energy to be slightly more efficient.
They are just re-capturing some of the energy the system spent turning salt water into fresh. Because that results in extremely salty brine water waste, you can get some energy as it gets diluted back down to sea water concentration.
There no “new” energy in the system, it’s just wasting less.
That’s why I find systems designed for high latency by being “offline-first” interesting. Sync large quantities of information when you can, then consume offline. Like Usenet and email used to be. Most things don’t actually need to be “instant”.
Sneakernets, my friend. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a pocket full of microsd cards traveling on the subway.
Since wireguard only awks connections with matching keys, on a private lan, I bet you could just scan the network for all hosts and try the wireguard connection. A hack, but might work.