It's not news that "AI" crawlers are an ongoing plague and that broadly the plague is getting worse. There seem to be more and more crawlers, and they're getting past more precautions. One possible future for the web in the face of this is websites with less features, at least for the general public, because fewer features means less to crawl and less crawler impact. Another possible web future is one of pervasive gatekeepers that must be satisfied to allow you access to many or most websites.
Technology
Privacy concerns put smart glasses under scrutiny as Norway seeks temporary ban
Norway’s government wants to get a handle on both the promise and peril of AI glasses and is proposing that parliament enact a temporary ban on them in some places.
Automatic Transmission â a data-privacy study of connected vehicles
We found that vehicles, under a variety of real-world settings, contact not only a wide range of first parties (i.e., manufacturer domains) and car-specific support parties, but also third parties that are known to provide advertising and tracking services. Our study revealed a large gap between what vehicle manufacturers publicly disclosed and how the connected vehicle ecosystem actually shares data over the Internet
The Ethernet spec was first drafted on this day in 1980 — DEC, Intel, and Xerox defined the standard several years before the internet existed | Tom’s Hardware
On this day in 1980, version 1.0 of the Ethernet specification was published by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Intel, and Xerox. This ‘DIX’ standard was established at a time still nearly three years before the modern internet existed. Nevertheless, Ethernet would become the default technology for connecting computers to each other in local networks – and all around the world. However, we must point out that Ethernet had existed in experimental form at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.
Battling an Army of Price-Setters – The American Prospect
In a seemingly constant audition for corporate funding, many (if not most) economists bend over backwards to defend personalized pricing, often by citing literature related to third-degree price discrimination, such as student or senior discounts. The problem is that personalized pricing is a form of first-degree price discrimination, and the benefits from third-degree price discrimination do not carry over. If we permit a company to charge price-insensitive customers more for the same product, the argument goes, the company can also reduce the price for price-sensitive customers, permitting for an expansion of output. Owens says, archly: “If that sounds like bullshit to you, you’re not alone.” What Owens doesn’t say—again, because she’s not trying to convince conflicted economists—is that so long as the company can charge the price-sensitive types one penny below their willingness to pay under a personalized-pricing regime, no consumer benefits from the exchange.
www.Sarsen.org: Historic England’s Vanishing Archive
Historic England’s photos didn’t vanish. SmartFrame did. Then they broke their own links.
US criticises Australia’s proposed algorithm opt-out laws as ‘censorship’
Under Australia's draft digital duty of care laws, tech firms risk hefty fines if they fail to give users the option to turn off algorithms in a bid to protect them from harmful content.
English professors double down on requiring printed copies of readings
English professors double down on requiring printed copies of readingsAmid the rise of artificial intelligence and concerns about distraction, more English professors are turning to no-technology policies that prioritize physical books and reading packets
One of the hardest problems in digital humanities has finally been solved
The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition
At this point, AI tools like Gemini should be able to make most digitized handwritten documents searchable and readable in transcription. This is, simply put, a major advance that we’ve been trying to achieve for a very long time, and a great aid to scholarship. It allows human beings to focus their time on the important, profound work of understanding another human being, rather than staring at a curlicue to grasp if it’s an L or an I. Could we also ask Gemini to formulate this broader understanding? Sure we could, but that’s the line that we, and our students, should resist crossing. The richness of life lies in the communion with other humans through speech, the written word, sounds, and images.
OpenAI desperate to avoid explaining why it deleted pirated book datasets
OpenAI desperate to avoid explaining why it deleted pirated book datasets
But the authors suspect there’s more to the story than that. They noted that OpenAI appeared to flip-flop by retracting its claim that the datasets’ “non-use” was a reason for deletion, then later claiming that all reasons for deletion, including “non-use,” should be shielded under attorney-client privilege.
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