onfocus

Remember podcasts? They're an industry now where people have careers and businesses grow and thrive. Hot Pod tracks this burgeoning industry so you don't have to. I like to pick up suggestions for podcasts I might be interested in, but hearing how companies are investing (or not) in podcasting is also interesting and I don't see this news covered anywhere else. This Newsletter Wednesday was brought to you by Squares...sorry, can't do it.

I’m on team space probe though I’m sympathetic to team hubcap. Looking at the path it carved through our solar system it just has to be a drive by.

I like this framing of the Mastodon vs. All Social Media story. Mastodon doesn't have to supplant Twitter to be a success. If people like me enjoy using it (and I do!) then it's working on some level. Yet every article about Mastodon says, "it has a long way to go to supplant Twitter." When you look at raw number of users, that's true, but do we need massive centralized networks? This recent Mastodon 101 article falls into the same framing trap, but it's a good summary nonetheless: The quest to design an ethical social media platform.

This is the 2nd Podcast Saturday and I might as well jump straight to my desert island choices. I have been a fan of PJ and Alex since they were an offshoot of On the Media called TLDR back in the aught-fourteens. They report about Internet culture and it's the one podcast I look forward to the most. If you're reading this you've probably heard Reply All and I'm preaching to the choir. But if not, go ahead and dig into their catalog. I have a few favorites: #109 Is Facebook Spying on You?, #78 Very Quickly to the Drill, #102 Long Distance, #96 The Secret Life of Alex Goldman, and #44 Shine On You Crazy Goldman. And the Best Episode (once you're a hardcore fan): #36 Today's the Day. I still remember when & where I was driving when I heard this episode. Is that weird?

I really enjoyed this 60 second music lesson about the way chords color a melody. It made me think of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. So if you like this thing you might like that thing too. [via mefi]

“The data we are shown is not the only data there is.” A good description of a statistical analysis problem and a reminder to think about causes of data not just data you see in front of you. This reminds me of that old zen saying don’t confuse the moon with the finger that points at it.