Ars Technica: Information overload study we covered has been retracted. “In 2017, we covered a study that suggested information overload may be responsible for the viral spread of faulty information. The study was based on a mix of modeling of artificial ‘agents’ that forwarded information to their peers, and real-world data obtained from Twitter. In attempting to follow up on their own work, the researchers who produced it discovered two problems: a software bug in their analysis pipeline, and a graph that was produced using invalid data.”
Ars Technica
They’re dead to us: The Ars Technica 2019 Deathwatch (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica: They’re dead to us: The Ars Technica 2019 Deathwatch. “If you’re stumbling across Ars’ Deathwatch for the first time, this is not a prediction of the actual demise of companies or technologies. It takes a lot to actually erase a company or a technology from the face of the Earth these days. Even the worst ideas and businesses often linger on through inertia or get absorbed by some other company and metastasize in new and horrific ways—for example, Yahoo. (We’ll get to them soon enough.)”
License expired: The Ars Technica 2018 Deathwatch (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica: License expired: The Ars Technica 2018 Deathwatch. “Wow. That’s 2017, though. Quite a year. Let’s grab a Juicero and take a moment to reflect on the utter dumpster fires that we’ve witnessed over the past 12 months. No, we’re not talking about the political scene, though that certainly factors in here somewhere. But even in times with a somewhat upward economic trajectory, there are those in the tech industry that seemed to have existed solely to be a cautionary tale to others.”
Techdirt: Keeper Security Files Bullshit SLAPP Suit Against Ars Technica, Letting Many More People Know Not To Use Its Software
I beg your pardon for the expletive in the headline. Personally, I agree with it, but I try to keep this newsletter rated G or low PG. Also this article features at least one f bomb. Techdirt: Keeper Security Files Bullshit SLAPP Suit Against Ars Technica, Letting Many More People Know Not To Use Its Software. “If you’re a security software company and you want to know the best way to make sure that no security professional ever recommends your software ever again, you should do what Keeper Security did and sue a respected security journalist for reporting on your security flaws. As first reported by Zack Whittaker (link above), Keeper Security has filed a totally bullshit SLAPP lawsuit against Ars Technica and its widely respected security reporter Dan Goodin. Last week Goodin published a story about a major flaw in the browser extension for Keeper’s password manager, that was bundled with Windows.”
Ars Technica’s 2017 Tech Company Deathwatch (Sort-of)
Ars Technica has put together its 2017 tech company “deathwatch” (Though it’s really more like an obsolescence watch.) “This year, we’ve picked a magnificent seven companies for the Deathwatch. 2017’s list includes two (well, three, sort of) returning champions and a whole bunch of new contenders. Let’s kick things off by noting that it’s a bad year for companies whose names start with ‘Y.'”
