The Byteside Newsletter
"Why Are You The Only One?"
My son is at that threshold where he wants to align his own opinions and fandom with his peers, and I’m one of the ‘weird’ parents who is telling him that some YouTubers are OK and others are not.
A Better Internet
The internet is a mess. But is it the internet’s fault? Thinking about climate change arguments and UK projected election results and measles outbreaks, they all have problems that are exacerbated by the state of today’s internet. Bad ideas can propagate faster than ever, and the unsubstantiated can
Rewriting the rules again and again
Google. Facebook. Uber. Ring. So many of this week’s stories point out how many services start with great intentions but end of doing whatever it takes to get big and make all the money. When you’re big enough, you can just change your mission statement, change your terms
We Can Be Better
There’s so much ‘bad faith’ argument and activity in the world right now. So few political leaders actually doing any leading. Most just doing a lot of protecting and avoiding. It’s bollocks. But this week it’s been great to see Cannon-Brookes and Twiggy Forrest get behind an
On Quitting Facebook
This week I decided enough was enough. The mental gymnastics around why I *must* stay on Facebook came to an end. I’m not exactly deleting Facebook, but I am done using it as a place to offer up my attention as a commodity. Instead, I will use it as
Back from BlizzCon
Last week I was at BlizzCon in the USA, so we skipped an issue of the newsletter. It was my first time at the event and as a long-time fan and writer about all things Blizzard games (makers of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone) it
Critical mass hysteria
Nothing digital succeeds anymore without a big enough snowball to propel it forward. It’s kind of obvious. But it underpins everything today, and a lot of this week’s stories. From Microsoft’s game streaming service Mixer wooing another big Twitch streamer to change platforms, to TikTok deepening its
From Space Daks to Afterlife Pranks
Great seeing a bunch of you at PAX Australia last weekend! It was my first time with the family and it changed my perspective in amazing ways. The kids loved it on the ‘life changing’ end of the scale. I felt like they really felt more validated in their love
Newsletter with a hint of podcast
Quick one this week! I’m at PAX Aus! If you’re here please say hello! I’m hosting a panel for young folks and families on how to pursue esports in ways that don’t throw the rest of your life away (Sat, 11.00am), and also appearing on
The Goose That Honked The World
PAX Australia has really carved out a special place in the local event landscape. I’ve never missed one, and, for me, it shows the best of what the local games community can be. Not just videogames, the event is about boardgames and card games and RPGs and, yes, lots
Bot Fight: Activate!
It felt like a quiet week in tech news on the surface. But that’s mostly because global politics had a very loud one. There’s actually been a lot of interesting stuff going on. And here’s your weekly newsletter to catch up on it all! A lot of
Digital Brian Blessed
Through the calendar year there’s a few different times of year when it’s ‘new thing’ season. Right now it’s phones. Samsung landed a little while ago, Apple lands this week, and Google lands in October. We’re also getting lots of other new things soon too. Apple
Less Gravity, More Personality
Let’s skip the iPhone launch chat. You’ve heard about that everywhere, I’m sure. I’m planning a special edition to round up the state of phones at the moment very soon. Seems a good time off the back of iPhones and the new Android 10 launch. Cameras
Factory Default Suckage
Happy Friday! It’s been an interesting week after I spent the weekend down in Melbourne covering the Melbourne Esports Open. The big tech show IFA has been taking place in Berlin. I realised it’s been about five years since my last visit. Sad face. I was invited, so
Subject line real estate is crucial if you want to fit a complicated message into a very limited amount of available sp
I’m going to stop writing ‘Byteside [issue #] in the subject headings from now on. But I’m adding the lightbulb emoji to kick off the subject line. Give it a little 'pop’ in the email list while adding some Subject uniformity without eating up valuable readable space. Make
Tangled Webs
I heard a great podcast over the weekend speaking with a journalist about his time covering technology. The host actually hit on an interesting concept - that the history of technology in recent times is one of a shift from science to business to politics. It rings very true. But
Assorted brain food
No themes are leaping out this week. It’s a mixed bag of interesting that, thankfully, has more nourishing discussions than bad news this week. Not that there’s no bad links… I’m still looking for input on the tech parenting newsletter / podcast concept, so if you can spare
Should I do a tech parenting newsletter too?
Games don’t cause gun violence. It’s old news. It’s not a statement worthy of rebuttal. In one of the many debates of this topic over the years - back when the games industry was arguing to get R18+ ratings for games in Australia - one expert pointed
Manifestos and memes side-by-side
8Chan is getting some news coverage right now. Not for good reasons. It’s now been associated with three recent white-supremacist terrorist attacks, manifestos and memes living side-by-side. It emerged in the wake of Gamergate five years ago, when 4chan started to crack down on moderation. And 4chan was already
Fortnite World Cup Feels
The hallmark of every kid succeeding at the Fortnite World Cup is supportive parents who saw their talent for a videogame was worthy.
