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Added on 4 Jul 2013. Last read 6 minutes ago.

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    • Substantial drop in site: results at Mojeek; is Ecosia now Google?
      • I’m told by Mojeek that this should not happen but it has. In October 2023, it had 3,103 results for a site: search for the original Autocade website, beating Google at 2,910 and Bing at 2,170. Mojeek is meant to build on its index but earlier this year, it dropped into the 700s. Currently site:autocade.net [...] Read More... from Substantial drop in site: results at Mojeek; is Ecosia now Google?

    • Google searches aren’t straightforward any more
      • I haven’t used Google as a default search engine for 15 years, so odds are I haven’t witnessed its enshittification as gradually as most people. To me it is a surprise when I see new bugs and errors. Have these errors simply increased so imperceptibly over time that people just accept them? This [...] Read More... from Google searches aren’t straightforward any more

    • Granddad’s war stories
      • On this day of remembrance, some thoughts about my paternal grandfather, the last member of my family to see active service (thank God). Like so many veterans, he did have PTSD after World War II. The eastern theatre took him around China and to Malaya and Singapore. He never talked much about his experiences but [...] Read More... from Granddad’s war stories

    • Autocade at 42 million, kicked off Weibo, and random links
      • The anorak posts about Autocade milestones now appear on Autocade World, and we hit 42 million page views earlier this week. In other news, a pro-China political post saw my Weibo suspended ‘temporarily’, no sign on when this will be lifted. Hence the Weibo logo disappearing from the footer of this blog. It is a [...] Read More... from Autocade at 42 million, kicked off Weibo, and random links

    • Tariffs won’t make the Big Two great again
      • From me on Autocade World: President Donald J. Trump has been talking about tariffs for a very long time, even as a businessman back in the ’80s. Back then he lamented that the US was being hard done by Japan, with all the Japanese cars and VCRs that Americans were buying, and yet the reverse [...] Read More... from Tariffs won’t make the Big Two great again

    • How the search engines fared with a new site
      • As Autocade World is a relatively new site, it has been interesting to see how some of the search engines have fared. It is a Wordpress site, which experience tells me presents a set of issues when it comes to search. Mojeek: barely anything. Four links to date, though an interesting mix of the home [...] Read More... from How the search engines fared with a new site

    • Common-sense economics
      • I haven’t commented on US politics much lately, primarily because there are others who do it far better. If you want excellent insight without being weighed down in detail, read what Richard Murphy in the UK has to say on, say, US tariffs, or the madness of austerity economics. His blog Funding the Future has [...] Read More... from Common-sense economics

    • License from us, not from US
      • Anti-American sentiment harming sales of your licensed fashion magazine? We have a solution for that. We still provide US coverage but without being US-owned. But, importantly, we recognize that there are great fashion, beauty, lifestyle and travel stories the world over. I have had to think a lot about whether our country-of-origin effect is [...] Read More... from License from us, not from US

    • “AI” bots drive Wikipedia traffic up 50 per cent—as we already witnessed in 2023
      • Another thing I experienced before others: “AI” scraping causing a substantial increase in bandwidth, notably at Autocade in 2023. In Wikipedia’s case, this happened last year, as the “AI” bots sent their bandwidth up 50 per cent. Casey Newton writes: Post by @caseynewton View on Mastodon The bots steal, do not give attribution, and [...] Read More... from “AI” bots drive Wikipedia traffic up 50 per cent—as we already witnessed in 2023

    • Get your brand right and make it famous
      • There’s a lot of where advertising, marketing and tech have gone wrong on this blog, so what’s the right thing to do when you’re trying to sell your product? There’s the basic stuff we need to answer. We want people to buy our product, to solve a certain need, and they will do so because [...] Read More... from Get your brand right and make it famous

    • Ad tech is suspect
      • Got to love the irrepressible Bob Hoffman. In his March 23 newsletter, he notes that Adlook studied target segments from popular data providers, and asked the people in those segments about themselves. I won’t spoil Bob’s entire list but the top two are: 47 per cent of the people who the data said were women [...] Read More... from Ad tech is suspect

    • Baidu’s “AI” image enhancement tested: clever, but like a hallucination
      • Baidu has been offering “AI” enhancement of its images for a while, and yesterday I bit the bullet, created an account, and trialled it. It was a press image that I had in high-res, but Baidu’s image search, strangely, only had a low-res version of it. Could its “AI” turn it into a high-res image? [...] Read More... from Baidu’s “AI” image enhancement tested: clever, but like a hallucination

    • Civility and self-righteousness don’t mix
      • There may be a group of people today who are far more tolerant and accepting, their numbers increased by young people who have grown up in a far more connected world, and have been exposed to more creeds and races than their forebears. That’s a good thing. And we should, rightly, be intolerant toward the [...] Read More... from Civility and self-righteousness don’t mix

    • These covers could be hazardous to your eyes
      • Of the public-domain paperbacks we’ve published, I like to think we’ve done a very decent job. In the case of A Farewell to Arms, we’ve had some custom because no one has published the book in its uncensored form till now. We’ve given something to the literary world and we finally fulfilled Ernest Hemingway’s wishes. [...] Read More... from These covers could be hazardous to your eyes

    • Another advocate for non-tracking ads
      • Again, not alone here, just ahead of the game (at least ahead in terms of public pronouncements; I’m sure Jon has had this in mind for some time). Post by @jon View on Mastodon With an excellent reply by Dan Seitz further down the thread (a direct quote since Vivaldi Social isn’t displaying [...] Read More... from Another advocate for non-tracking ads

    • No matter how bad you had it, someone had it worse
      • Two things: I did say “AI” programs would ultimately make up false stories about us all. And what happened to me in 2024 was not as bad as what happened to Arve Hjalmar Holmen in Norway. There are still a few disinformation stories left about me—about four more where companies who would normally enforce their [...] Read More... from No matter how bad you had it, someone had it worse

    • Autocade turns 17
      • March 8 isn’t etched into my memory as much as October 20—the birthdays of Autocade and Lucire respectively. Autocade, therefore, has just turned 17, and back in 2008, I certainly never expected it to exist as print yearbooks come the mid-2020s. As mentioned, I had toyed with doing a print version and Keith Adams (AROnline, [...] Read More... from Autocade turns 17

    • If you want a slice of the pie, then compete
      • A very interesting analysis on Crikey by Bernard Keane on the turmoil the occident finds itself in. In the opening paragraphs we find this zinger about what the right wing believes it was to protect the west from. Protecting from whom? Name your favourite other—the Soviet Union. Islam. China. Declining birth rates. Secularism. Immigrants. Globalism. [...] Read More... from If you want a slice of the pie, then compete

    • No one is an island, not even when on an island
      • With the dismantling of the US by Lone Skum and others, Mike Masnick wrote in Techdirt: ‘And now we’re watching Musk, Trump, and their allies destroy these foundations. They operate under the dangerous delusion of the “great man” theory of innovation—the false belief that revolutionary changes come solely from lone geniuses, rather than from the [...] Read More... from No one is an island, not even when on an island

    • I’m no longer alone in calling for Big Tech to face bans
      • I’ve been saying this for many years, certainly for at least five, but the most ready example I can find on my blog was from August 2024: we have seen repeatedly how dishonest Big Tech conduct, which is often left unchecked, festers into something appalling, whether it’s anticompetitive conduct or the genocide of Rohingya Muslims [...] Read More... from I’m no longer alone in calling for Big Tech to face bans

    • The end of US free shipping at Libriz (hopefully just for now)
      • With regret, we’ve had to remove free postage for US customers at Libriz. The price had shot up considerably for us, and those of you who have been checking out the site will know that this was carried out last week, and has nothing to do with a certain meeting at the White House. Compounding [...] Read More... from The end of US free shipping at Libriz (hopefully just for now)

    • It’s finally mainstream to report what Big Tech has been about for over a decade
      • Now that the world is waking up to Big Tech and its shenanigans, there is less need for me to post about them. Finally, what was once very evident to me is becoming mainstream thought, from Big Tech’s kowtowing to the suppression of a free press. I posted because it was frustrating to see everyone [...] Read More... from It’s finally mainstream to report what Big Tech has been about for over a decade

    • The beauty of not having something
      • I’ve told the story about not having Noelene Morris’s The Lettering Book as a child, because I knew the NZ$5 was outside my parents’ budget. Ultimately, this was a good thing and it led me to remember and create typeface designs, later becoming the first digital font designer in New Zealand. Another item came to [...] Read More... from The beauty of not having something

    • A new edition of Confucius’ 論語, The Analects
      • Our third random paperback is out: 論語 (The Analects), as recorded by the followers of Confucius. After this, we’re likely sticking with our usual Lucire and Autocade brands in our publishing business for the remainder of 2025. The decision to do The Analects came from inspiration from one of my closest friends in London, [...] Read More... from A new edition of Confucius’ 論語, The Analects

    • We do not do paid or guest posts—and here’s why
      • I don’t know how much more abundantly clear we can make things on our sites when we say, for instance, at Lucire: ‘We receive multiple enquiries from SEO or “outreach” companies enquiring about paid or guest posts each day, and if you fall into this category, please do not contact us: it’s going to be [...] Read More... from We do not do paid or guest posts—and here’s why

    • A decade on AWS stagnated this company
      • For many years (2002–12), we hosted with a US company that gave us a Plesk front end. That meant we did a lot in-house: create PHP and MySql databases, started up hosting environments for new domains, even managed our own email server. That company eventually opened up an Australian branch and my appointed customer manager [...] Read More... from A decade on AWS stagnated this company

    • Everyone now sees the rot economy—and we’re beginning to understand what’s behind it
      • Again, things I’ve been pointing out for over a decade—heck, even over two decades, if you consider early concerns I had over Yahoo!—are now mainstream thought. Ed Zitron’s latest newsletter begins: A great deal of what I write feels like narrating the end of the world—watching as the growth-at-all-costs, hyper-financialized Rot Economy seemingly tarnishes every [...] Read More... from Everyone now sees the rot economy—and we’re beginning to understand what’s behind it

    • The public is waking up about Google
      • Former journalism academic Dan Gillmor writes: Post by @dangillmor View on Mastodon People are waking up. Such warnings have been on this blog for over 15 years. The Facebook ones started a bit later when it became evident that they were a bug-filled privacy danger zone, then Twitter. Dan is right: ‘You never [...] Read More... from The public is waking up about Google

    • Lucire receives second honour from Luxlife; Autocade reaches 41 million page views
      • Two items of good news on the digital end: Luxlife has named Lucire its best digital fashion magazine as part of its Style and Apparel Awards 2024; and Autocade, buoyed by some positive press coverage in Octane for our Year of Cars 2025, has reached the 41 million page-view milestone in just two months. The [...] Read More... from Lucire receives second honour from Luxlife; Autocade reaches 41 million page views

    • X-odus
      • This was already in the air in 2019: Platforms can run their course and to me, Twitter had already jumped the shark by 2019. By then I had had three years on the fediverse, two on Mastodon. Who needed Twitter? And who needs it now? [...] Read More... from X-odus

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