Beeper connects to a large range of messaging services – including iMessage, Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Instagram DM, Twitter DM and more – and pulls them all into one central messaging interface using so-called ‘bridges’.

Generate website screenshots and control a range of settings via a simple API. I’m using this tool to automatically show a screenshot of the latest issue of DD on the homepage.

In my view, the cookie permission popup is the right step towards more privacy wrongly executed. If you just want to make the annoying popups disappear, give this browser extension a try. (Safari users go here.)

Spin the globe and tune into one of thousands of live radio stations – from Tehran in Iran to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. Here’s my hometown in Germany and my current home, Melbourne.

The Trust Manifesto →

An alternative internet, built on trust

The co-founder of WeTransfer, Damian Bradfield, with a new book highlighting the wealth of data we un/knowingly share every day and what it means for the future of the internet. “We’re living in an extraordinary age: the age of trust. We trust the language of algorithms and the intentions of tech giants. The Trust Manifesto is for anyone how has started to question that trust; who worry where it might end, who fear ‘The Black Mirror Effect’. It is for those who wonder what an alternative internet would look like, built on trust, that works for all of us.”

Future of Masculinity Zine →

A progressive vision for men

A recently got a lovely email telling me that my Indie Magonomics booklet inspired the creation of this little zine on masculinity: “Featuring news-you-can-use and fresh views on how reimagining a plural, positive, progressive vision for masculinity can help each of us where we need it most – at home, at work, in our relationships, in our heads, and in how we engage with the turbulent world around us.”

Beau Miles has quickly become one of my favourite Australian storytellers. His archetypical Australian no-bullshit approach to making is so refreshing, especially if you work in the digital world where every day I come across another buzzword-heavy fluff piece about ‘the potential of the new maker economy’. Beau couldn’t care less. He wakes up, finds some wood around the place, and builds a cabin – and while he’s hammering away shares some genuine insights about what it means to be human.

A wonderful essay about what we don’t find when we ask Google for answers. “Science, art, religious practice, relationships with other people, attempts to understand politics or history: all arise from the kind of curiosity we ask Google to release us from. To the extent that it hides the unknown behind a scrim of facts, and encourages us to see the world’s plurality as something we can skim, Google also reduces our equipment for living.”

As an areligious person I always felt that Buddhism (what little I know of it) had the strongest appeal to me as a less organised but widely applicable life philosophy. A notion that is reinforced by this argument to let AI be guided by Buddhist teachings: “Buddhism proposes a way of thinking about ethics based on the assumption that all sentient beings want to avoid pain. Thus, the Buddha teaches that an action is good if it leads to freedom from suffering. The implication of this teaching for artificial intelligence is that any ethical use of AI must strive to decrease pain and suffering. In other words, for example, facial recognition technology should be used only if it can be shown to reduce suffering or promote well-being. Moreover, the goal should be to reduce suffering for everyone – not just those who directly interact with AI.”