This article was originally published at blog.vrypan.net on 06-Nov-2019. — This article was originally published at blog.vrypan.net on 06-Nov-2019. Microtargeting is the ability to target a very small segment of people with a tailor-made message. You want to promote a snack that contains no sugar and no salt? Create different ads that target teenagers, young adults, parents, grandparents, and diabetics…

Monolithic, centralised social networking sites do not scale socially. — In the physical world we use physical boundaries to define areas where a set of behaviours are allowed or prohibited. For example, national laws define what is allowed (what is legal) and what not inside the borders of a country. Of course laws are not the same for all countries…

ERC721 describes a standard interface for non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. ERC721 calls this kind of tokens “NFT”… — ERC721 describes a standard interface for non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. ERC721 calls this kind of tokens “NFT” (Non-Fungible Tokens). “NFT” Word Choice “NFT” was satisfactory to nearly everyone surveyed and is widely applicable to a broad universe of distinguishable digital assets. We recognize that “deed” is very descriptive…

I’ve been listening to podcasts since 2004 — Scripting News, the Daily Source Code, IT conversations and the like — I even had my own… — I’ve been listening to podcasts since 2004 — Scripting News, the Daily Source Code, IT conversations and the like — I even had my own podcast for a couple of years. …

According to torrentfreak.com, “the Pirate Bay tested for a short period (~24 hours) a new way to generate revenue that could eventually… — According to torrentfreak.com, “the Pirate Bay tested for a short period (~24 hours) a new way to generate revenue that could eventually replace the ads on the site.” This “new way of generating revenue” is actually a javascript-based cryptocurrency miner. This practically means that when you visit a page with…

So far, Apple has tried a couple of times to enter the “social network” scene — and failed spectacularly. But Clips is an interesting… — So far, Apple has tried a couple of times to enter the “social network” scene — and failed spectacularly. But Clips is an interesting approach (and the right one IMHO). Right now, social content creation and distribution is tightly coupled. We use each social platform’s app to generate the content…

What if we have to use encryption not to hide our data not from someone but from something? What if we started acting as if the entity interested in processing our private data is not a person but a computer system?

If you miss the freedom RSS used to give us before we started relying on Facebook, read on. — If you miss the freedom RSS used to give us before we started relying on Facebook, read on. Not so long ago, I used to rely on RSS feeds to get my news and discover interesting things. Now days, RSS feeds have been replaced mostly by Facebook or Twitter. They…

I was listening to the latest Note to Self podcast, where they discussed how distracted driving (a.k.a “texting and driving”) is causing a significant number of accidents and they compared it (quite reasonably) to drunk driving. This is a real problem, one that is causing many lives to be lost…