Links

The security paradox  densediscovery.com

Living in 2026 consists of fighting with other people on multiple fronts, which has become normalized as “competition.” This applies to everything and always generates a paradoxical effect: the intensification of our private daily wars worsens everyone's lives.

In the latest edition of the Australian newsletter Dense Discovery, Kai drew attention to the book Trapped: Life under security capitalism and how to escape it, by Setha Low and Mark Maguire.

The authors argue that “security has morphed from an inalienable right into a commodity hoarded by those who can afford it,” stimulated by an industry that continues to invent increasingly invasive gadgets and software under a promise that is never fulfilled. This macabre market no longer generates security; it generates fear:

The more you securitise your life, the more those walls and gates and guards make your life all about fear rather than less about fear. And so, as the fear grows, then you want more security, you buy more gadgets, you support all kinds of policing initiatives.

The paradox appears when you take your head out of the ground. The apparatus, delusional in essence, ultimately makes the world worse for everyone:

“[This creates] a self-fulfilling prophecy of fearful people wanting more security, the state and private sector producing it, only to make the world more fearful for some and poorly protected for others.

I think about this every time I pass walls with electric fences and barbed wire, affluent residential condos, CCTV cameras, and ostensive policing. This means that I have been thinking a lot, and increasingly, about the subject.

Diplomacy by WhatsApp  newcartographies.com

Nicholas Carr, author of the excellent Superbloom, argues that:

Texting turns everyone into a semiliterate twelve-year-old, and presidents, prime ministers, and secretaries general are no exception.

In this article, he opposes the widespread practice of conducting diplomacy via WhatsApp. Which, obviously, does not work.

In general, a medium’s speed of delivery is inversely correlated to the thoughtfulness and nuance of the messages it carries. The growing hegemony of the instant message, it seems fair to say, is not fostering eloquence in either private correspondence or public speaking. Texts are great for quick, offhand exchanges. They debase pretty much everything else.

He draws an example from the aforementioned book to demonstrate that speed in communication has long wreaked havoc on diplomacy.

The arrival of the telegraph in the late XIX century was the hope for an end to war. Nikola Tesla and his rival, Guglielmo Marconi, both researchers dedicated to the development of the wireless telegraph, had this expectation.

In 1912, Marconi declared that the wireless telegraph would “make war impossible.” Two years later, World War I broke out.

He quotes French historian Pierre Granet, referring to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870:

The constant transmission of dispatches between governments and their agents, the rapid dissemination of controversial information among an already agitated public, hastened, if it did not actually provoke, the outbreak of hostilities.

If it is difficult for an individual with a great deal of freedom to choose which groups to participate in, imagine how difficult it must be for statesmen and government officials, who have to deal with unpleasant people and make decisions that impact millions of people? As Carr says at the end of the text,

Successful statecraft requires deliberation, discretion, and discernment, qualities rarely evident in messages thumbed out through apps on phone screens.

Firefox joins Chrome and Edge in the problem of dormant extensions that spy on users  malwarebytes.com

The Malwarebytes blog warns of a new wave of compromised browser extensions. The technique used, called steganography, is ingenious:

The use of malicious code in images is a technique called steganography. Earlier GhostPoster extensions hid JavaScript loader code inside PNG icons such as logo.png for Firefox extensions like “Free VPN Forever,” using a marker (for example, three equals signs) in the raw bytes to separate image data from payload.

Newer variants moved to embedding payloads in arbitrary images inside the extension bundle, then decoding and decrypting them at runtime. This makes the malicious code much harder for researchers to detect.

A group of researchers found 17 new contaminated extensions in Firefox. They have attractive names, such as “Ads Block Ultimate” and “Youtube Download.”

The focus of malicious actors on browser extensions is understandable. They have privileged access to the most intimate app we use on a daily basis, update automatically, and, with few exceptions, aren’t household names — I believe that extensions are searched for more by purpose than by name. Another problem is the market for buying and selling popular extensions, which change owners with no transparency.

A good way to mitigate damage is to limit yourself to extensions endorsed by browser stores. In Firefox, they have a "Recommended" seal. In Chrome, extensions reviewed by Google get a green “Featured” seal, according to the store's help section. In search results, you can filter them to display only featured extensions.

Emoji design convergence review, 2018–2026  blog.emojipedia.org

If emojis are a new language, divergent representations can render meaning lost in translation between platforms. In 2018, Emojipedia hypothesized that different emoji vendors would converge their designs. The prediction came true with Apple as the benchmark. Why?

Apple is widely regarded as the “default” emoji design set in the West. This status dates back to 2008, when Apple introduced emoji support on the iPhone years before emoji were formally incorporated into Unicode in 2010.

[…]

Market realities for over a decade have also reinforced this influence. Apple continues to command a dominant share of the mobile phone market in the United States.

A reminder that big tech companies also shape much of our lives in the details.

The article is filled with examples of convergence, controversies (remember the bright green water pistol?), and a new wave of disruptions to the semantic unity of emojis (the culprit starts with “x” and ends with “x”), all richly illustrated.

iOS 26 still struggles to gain traction with iPhone users  cultofmac.com

Ed Hardy found some very interesting data in StatCounter's figures:

[…] Roughly four months after launching in mid-September, only about 15% of iPhone users have some version of the new operating system installed. That’s according to data for January 2026 from StatCounter. Instead, most users hold onto previous versions.

For comparison, in January 2025, about 63% of iPhone users had some iOS 18 version installed. So after roughly the same amount of time, the adoption rate of Apple newest OS was about four times higher.

The adoption curve for iOS 26 is atypical, and by a wide margin. Previous years (2023, 2022) delivered numbers more similar to those of 2024, for iOS 18.

I thank all my friends who remain steadfast with iOS 18. I couldn't resist and updated mine, and although I find iOS's Liquid Glass to be the least worst among all the devices I've used so far, it's still the weirdest version since I started using an iPhone over a decade ago.

I hope these numbers set off an alarm in Apple's design department.

Update (5h10 PM): It’s possible, though unconfirmed, that a change in Safari’s user-agent is messing with StatCounter’s numbers. Other sources, however, support the suspicion of slower iOS 26 adoption, albeit to a lesser degree.

Your digital life isn’t yours: The hidden battle for software freedom  fsf.org

I am very sympathetic to free software. (And I regret not using more software of this kind.) On the Free Software Foundation blog, Jason Self reinforces the importance of the four freedoms of FOSS in the face of machine learning — which, in this context, is confused with what is commonly referred to as “artificial intelligence.” He defines it as follows:

[…] software that doesn’t just follow instructions, but learns and makes autonomous decisions. It’s a powerful new kind of code, and it has become the most profound black box ever created.

His post uses AI as a threat to revisit the foundations of the movement. This is always a good thing and, from time to time (as in this case), reveals stories unknown to the public (or to me, at least). It is because of one of these — the creation of the concept of free software — that I brought this link here:

At MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, a programmer named Richard Stallman grew frustrated with a new Xerox laser printer that frequently jammed. His solution was simple: modify the program to automatically notify users on the network about the jam, saving everyone time and frustration. The problem was that he wasn’t allowed to; the source code of the program was a secret. Though a programmer at another university had the code, he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement and refused to share it. This wasn’t just an inconvenience; it was an ethical crisis in miniature. A practical problem had become impossible to solve, not for technical reasons, and most definitely not because it was better this way. A barrier was intentionally placed to deny users control over the software they used.

This moment of frustration ignited the spark for the free software movement.

The next time my printer jams, I will handle the situation with a little more enthusiasm. Stretching it a bit, it has a sacred quality, as it reproduces the moment of the creation of free software. Amen!

2025 has been a disaster for Windows 11  windowscentral.com

Zac Bowden wrote a long article stating that Windows fans (the author's definition) have been sold a “disastrous 2025 for Windows 11.” I haven't used Windows in many years and have barely touched version 11, so I read it with extra attention.

Anyway, I'm sure you can guess the most obvious problem with Windows 11 in 2025:

(more…)

As soon as you open the site allow.webcam, it requests permission from your…

As soon as you open the site allow.webcam, it requests permission from your browser to access your webcam. If you grant it, the site takes a picture of you and displays the pictures of all the other people who have also allowed themselves to be photographed. If you decline, you’ll be left with a black screen.

No Instagram, no privacy

As we become promoters of our own lives in the digital realm, new social dilemmas emerge. (At this point, they may not be so new, but they are still challenging to navigate.)

In this solitary post (the first and only one on the blog), the author reflects on the situation where someone posts photos of themselves on Instagram, and a third party, known to both, becomes aware of their gathering:

Over the past few months, it has struck me multiple times how people know more about my life than I tell them or likely hear from others. Like: where we travelled last weekend and with whom. How can they know? Instagram. A post from someone else on that trip about that trip. Of course. You don’t have to be on Instagram, to be on instagram.

How do you meet the expectations of such a diverse audience, even if it consists of people from your own circle? Travel photos or pictures from a party are interpreted differently by your family, friends, coworkers, and boss.

I believe there are two paths: ignore the consequences (sociopathy?) or “pasteurize” the content in an attempt to please everyone (impossible, but you can get close).

And even then, you can’t escape other dilemmas:

Imagine a friend you were on a weekend trip with. This friend talks with another common friend. This common friend could have equally well been on that weekend trip because you like him or her but, due to circumstances, as is life, you did not invite him. You probably would feel uncomfortable with that first friend talking about that trip as if it was the most awesome trip ever, that everyone had non-stop fun and now everyone who was on that trip are best friends for life.

Yet this is the kind of impression an Instagram post or story typically evokes. It’s probably the content most of the first friends’ followers love to see. Except for maybe the few people who wonder why you didn’t ask them to join the trip.

They proposes, as a solution, a new etiquette that disapproves of posting about social gatherings beyond those involved. Instead of sharing a story for all followers on Instagram, one could restrict it to “close friends” or even share it in a group on WhatsApp/Signal.

No Instagram, no privacy
blog.wouterjanleys.com

The age of the double sell-out

Behavioral changes have been happening at such a rapid pace that patterns and assumptions that were common one or two decades ago completely elude me. W. David Marx’s article reminded me of one of them: the aversion to the mainstream, or the idea of not being a “sellout.”

In the last three decades, youth culture has moved from a deep suspicion of commerce to a passionate defense of anti-anti-commerce to an entire generation of “creatives” who leverage the commercial market… to do even more commerce

At what point did becoming a salesperson on Instagram (aka an influencer) become a life goal, a childhood dream? Or working proudly for large corporations? When did the all-consuming nature of mass-produced, canned culture (the “franchises”) take over the imagination of the masses?

The 20th century taboo against selling out was, at its heart, a communal norm to reward young artists who focused on craft and punish those who appropriated art and subculture for empty profiteering. Now the culture is most exemplified by people whose entire end goal appears to be empty profiteering.

Any hypothesis?

The age of the double sell-out (em inglês)
culture.ghost.io

End of 10: Replace Windows 10 with a Linux distro

Support for Windows 10 will end on October 14th, 2025, just a few months away. A group involved with Linux distros has launched the website End of 10 to assist those who want to switch from Windows to Linux, instead of following Microsoft’s guidance to discard a functional computer and buy a new one with Windows 11. End of 10 gathers instructions and information about locations and events where volunteers install a Linux distro on computers for those who are not familiar with the process.

End of 10
Switch from Windows 10 to Linux

Tiny Emulators brings together a handful of emulators for classic operating systems and games

Screenshot of several screens of emulators from old operating systems.

Tiny Emulators brings together a handful of emulators for classic operating systems and games, running directly in your browser. To play the games, use the arrow keys and the spacebar. Some OSs have special commands, which are listed here. I just spent a good few minutes playing the original Prince of Persia.

Hypertext TV is a celebration of small, handmade games and sites

Screenshot of the channel guide of the Hypertext TV website.

Hypertext TV is “a celebration of small, handmade games and sites.” The interface simulates an old tube TV, and the available “channels” (sites) vary depending on the day and time — come back on different days to receive different content. It serves as a kind of answer to the unlimited on-demand content offered by modern web. (The code is open source, and you can suggest sites to be added.)

The 404s website is an ode to the not found web pages.

Screenshot of 404s website's home page, entitled “Page not found”.

The 404s is an ode to the not found web pages. The name of the site refers to the standard response code of the HTTP protocol for pages not found. This site celebrates the error — and I believe that celebrating our mistakes to the point of taking pride in them is somewhat healthy.

I also think that the 404 page of this Manual could use a little attention, don’t you think?

Windows on Game Boy Color

The Spanish Ruben Retro has created a version of Windows for the Game Boy Color — the predecessor of the Nintendo Switch. You can play Minesweeper, listen to music, draw (and print your drawing on the quirky Game Boy printer)… even the infamous blue screen of death is there. Fascinating! I couldn’t find any technical details about this feat, and the cartridge is sold out.