Matt C. A. Smith

Cyber security professional writing about technology, business, and culture.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

Will you do the right thing when nobody's watching and there's no penalty for cutting corners? That question sits at the heart of everything I find interesting about creativity, technology, and business. https://t.co/pzvLjTU6gL

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

June's edition of Field Notes covers the art of caring, a memorable Studio Ghibli stage adaptation, and an intricately crafted dolls' house.

📥 July's edition lands this Wednesday – subscribe now to have it delivered to your inbox, weeks before the blog.
https://t.co/e3wMaWM2Ra

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

@RRamsayauthor Also true – there's definitely a tradeoff.

In an ideal world, the algorithms would be smart enough to identify insightful/interesting posts that are gaining traction while filtering out the rage bait.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

I agree social media is bad for children, but there are ways to mitigate its effects without mandating ID checks for everyone else in the UK. 🧵 [1/6]

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

@prestonjbyrne Yes, and even if we wanted to tackle social media directly, it would be much less intrusive and more effective to go after features like algorithmic feeds and infinite scroll. https://t.co/xwvXEVNYPZ

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

I agree social media is bad for children, but there are ways to mitigate its effects without mandating ID checks for everyone else in the UK. 🧵 [1/6]

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

Combined with informed media literacy lessons in schools, this would equip young people with the skills they need to handle the online content they will inevitably find, ban or no ban. [6/6] https://t.co/Ycthg4l15b

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

A return to the social media of the early 2010s – a chronological feed with updates from friends and profiles you actually chose to follow – would benefit the entire population, not just kids. [5/6]

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

Further deterioration of physical media ownership. GTA VI is big enough that Take-Two know they can get away with it.

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

GTA 6 will cost $80 - and physical edition will not contain a disc https://t.co/wZkqKbJBua

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

There are alternatives to the UK social media ban that reduce its harm without mandating mass ID checks to access information. https://t.co/Ycthg4l15b

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

It’s a bit cooler this morning, but it’s certainly no less humid. I managed to run 10km before collapsing in a puddle of sweat.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

It’s worrying how much of the response to criticism of the UK social media ban and device scanning plans is essentially: “Oh, so you DON’T want to protect the children, huh?” 🧵 [1/7]

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

The European Parliament has just tanked productivity by forcing everyone to type "google dot com" before searching.

[Pieter Garicano @pietergaricano]

To reduce European dependence on American technology firms, the European Parliament has replaced Google with a French search engine, Qwant.

Qwant generates its search results by querying the Microsoft Bing API.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

@javiqm94 Completely agree. FIFA shouldn’t be telling certain players: “You’re more special than everyone else.”

I wonder if it’s all a plan to put them in some of those expensive trading cards after the tournament.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

Keep getting ads for nutrition drinks that don’t say much more than: “It’s not stinky so you can drink it on the train.”

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

The government's latest online safety proposals threaten ID checks built into your phone's operating system. The stated objective is to protect children, but we're throwing away online anonymity in the process. https://t.co/JY4vg77oN4

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

@samsheffer I completely forgot about this. It feels too recent to be feeling such strong nostalgia.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

Claude said something I was writing "read like a LinkedIn thought leader post" and I had no choice but to delete the whole thing.

[Matt C. A. Smith @MattCASmith]

Just saw an ad that wanted £50 to generate a professional LinkedIn profile photo for me using AI.

Even as a completely non-technical user, what’s preventing me from uploading photos to ChatGPT and asking it to do exactly the same thing?