John Cox

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Tagged technology · everything

slate.com

Why Soylent Green Got 2022 So Wrong

A critic of science-and-society storytelling revisits Soylent Green on the 50th anniversary of its titular "future" year and argues the film's heavy-handed, dogmatic dystopianism actually undercuts its own message about overpopulation, corporate greed, and environmental collapse. He contrasts it unfavorably with Harry Harrison's more nuanced source novel Make Room! Make Room!, contending that preachy apocalyptic certainty tends to entrench existing beliefs rather than change minds, and champions ambiguous, conversation-opening sci-fi (Children of Men, Ex Machina) as a better model for grappling with real present-day crises like climate change and AI.

Permalink technologyenvironmentfilm1970s

Esquire

The 2026 Esquire Gadget Awards

This is Esquire's annual "Best Tech Gadgets" roundup of 91 products, presented as a guide for readers at every level of tech enthusiasm, from the eager early adopter to the cautious skeptic. Each entry gets a short, opinionated verdict from editors and testers, with the picks spanning phones, home appliances, audio, wellness devices, gaming gear, outdoor equipment, and knives. Its distinctive angle is the framing: a meditation on how quickly technology has become constant and unavoidable, paired with a pitch for choosing the products that actually make daily life better.

Permalink technologyreviewselectronicsgadgets

The Verge

Our minds aren’t equipped to handle AI | The Verge

Benjamin Riley argues that the dominant computational model of the mind, which treats thinking as input, computation, and output, is a warped mirror that helps explain why AI tools are so damaging. Drawing on Paul Cisek's feedback-control view of the brain and the cultural history of imitation, language, and schooling, he contends that AI is a "cognitive hot dog": tempting in the moment, but harmful when it becomes a regular part of how people learn. The piece is distinctive for grounding its critique of AI in evolutionary neuroscience and for calling for cognitive immunization, including school bans and protected spaces for unaided thinking.

Permalink technologyartificial intelligence

thehustle.co

Why barcodes are about to go extinct

This piece traces how the QR code, invented at Denso in the early 1990s and released royalty-free, is poised to replace the 50-year-old UPC barcode on retail products, driven by GS1's "Sunrise 2027" transition and by food-traceability rules that barcodes cannot meet. It makes the case that brands which wait for retailers to demand the switch risk expensive data and packaging problems, while noting that consumers want targeted information rather than more of it.

Permalink technology

nytimes.com

Forget Utopia. Ignore Dystopia. Embrace Protopia!

This New York Times piece traces "protopia," a term Kevin Kelly coined in 2009 for a third future between utopia and dystopia, marked by incremental, technology-aided progress over long stretches. It focuses on the disagreement among adopters: Kelly sees protopia as a natural product of technological acceleration, while Monika Bielskyte, who runs Protopia Futures, argues it demands deliberate social, political, and inclusive work, especially for marginalized communities. The article distinguishes these two strands from other practitioners and from Bielskyte's work in media and speculative fiction.

Permalink technologyphilosophy

Web Designer Depot

Traditional Web Development is Dead...(and Honestly? Good Riddance.)

Rather than traditional web development dying, AI and automation are simply the next layer of abstraction that will increase developer leverage—just as previous tools like frameworks and cloud services did before them. The real opportunity lies in shifting from "writing code" to "solving business problems," focusing on system architecture, product thinking, and AI integration rather than syntax proficiency. With AI handling routine boilerplate work, individual developers can now build complete products alone, making it feasible to launch micro-SaaS ventures or command premium consulting rates without needing entire teams.

Permalink technologyaiautomationcareers

How-To Geek

Your TV’s “Filmmaker Mode” still isn’t the best setting for movies—here’s what I do instead

This piece argues that Filmmaker Mode, though considered the gold standard for TV picture settings, looks too dim and flat in an ordinary lit living room, and offers a step-by-step way to rebuild it from Cinema or Movie presets. The author walks through adjusting color temperature toward D65, raising backlight and changing gamma to recover shadow detail, tuning motion smoothing to fix panning stutter on fast OLED panels, and disabling enhancers and noise reduction that distort the director's intended look.

Permalink technologyvideohometv

YouTube

Fosi Audio

Esquire

The Best Kindle and E-book Readers of 2026

This Esquire buyer's guide reviews e-readers across different price points and use cases, comparing Amazon Kindles (Paperwhite, Colorsoft, and standard model), Kobo devices (Libra Colour and Clara), and specialty options like the Boox Palma Pro 2. The guide emphasizes that Kindles dominate the market for their reliable ecosystem and battery life, while Kobo offers better note-taking and library borrowing features, and niche devices like Boox provide unique form factors for specific needs. The reviewer prioritizes comfort, long battery life, e-paper displays, and content access as the key criteria for choosing an e-reader.

Permalink technologybooksreviewsgadgets

mahmood.tv

From the Cockpit to Code: Mahmood Al-Yousif’s Journey from Aviation Engineer to Bahrain’s “Blogfather” – Mahmood's Den

Mahmood Al-Yousif discusses his seemingly disparate careers—from aviation engineer to blogger to app developer—as chapters of a single story unified by an engineer's problem-solving mindset. His apps like Masadir Child Health Tracker and My Medical Vault emerged directly from observing real frustrations (his wife's notebooks tracking their daughter's health, his mother's medical information scattered across hospital systems), demonstrating his philosophy that technology should serve genuine purpose rather than chase profit. He advises aspiring entrepreneurs to stay employed until they discover a problem that genuinely haunts them, emphasizing that curiosity and solving real problems should precede financial ambition.

Permalink technologyengineeringaientrepreneurship

The 5 W's

Note

Search Engine Land

11 new social media platforms in 2026

This article surveys 11 emerging social networks launched between 2017 and 2024, ranging from niche platforms like Noplace (a Gen Z-focused Twitter/MySpace hybrid) and BeReal (daily unfiltered photo-sharing) to better-established alternatives like Bluesky and Threads. Each entry includes basic data on the platform's release date, headquarters, user count, and core functionality, positioning them as responses to dissatisfaction with existing social media giants. The list captures a diverse ecosystem focused on specific demographics and use cases—from anonymous college networks (Fizz, Yik Yak) to voice messaging (Ten Ten) to disposable camera aesthetics (Lapse).

Permalink social mediatechnologynews2020s

sixcolors.com

Migrate to Apple Passwords from your current secret-keeper – Six Colors

Apple's Passwords app has matured to feature parity with third-party managers for core password functions, but migrating to it requires careful planning because it doesn't support tags, structured data storage, or access for legacy contacts, and it only works across Apple devices and Windows (not Android or Linux). The migration process involves pruning old entries, exporting securely via iPhone/iPad to preserve passkeys, manually adding payment cards and identity information to separate Apple systems, and potentially using a secondary app like Strongbox to retain structured data like driver licenses or memberships that Passwords can't handle.

Permalink productivitytechnologysecurityapple

overcast.fm

How-To Geek

thelede.info

WIRED

Stop Touching Your Keyboard. Use This AI-Powered Microphone Instead

Relay is a London startup building dedicated hardware and software for voice-to-text dictation, addressing the problem that existing transcription tools work poorly in shared office spaces where whispering is too quiet and normal speech is too loud. The company's Relay Q microphone, launching in early 2027 at $150, is designed to capture accurate dictation at any volume, while the accompanying macOS software (arriving today) uses Google's Gemini models to transcribe, clean up speech, and execute contextual actions like scheduling calendar events or drafting messages in apps like Slack and Gmail. The software's transcription accuracy is respectable but not yet matching Google's latest offerings, though the dedicated hardware should improve performance compared to using standard computer microphones.

Permalink productivitytechnologysoftwareartificial intelligence