BRUCEB NEWS
Emus And Piracy: The Story Behind The Lord Of The Rings
The painting on the cover of the first US paperback edition of The Hobbit has a lion, a fruit tree, and a pair of emus. There are no lions in The Hobbit. There are no fruit trees or emus. J.R.R. Tolkien was baffled. He wrote to the publisher, “Where is this place? Why...
More Than Half Of All Internet Traffic Is Not Human
Humans are no longer the dominant force on the internet. Automated bots make up more than half of global internet traffic. Your instinct is that human beings visit websites and...
AI And The Future Of The Internet
The internet is splintering into pieces. This will seem like an unhappy story because I have to explain what’s happening and why and it’s kind of sad. But there’s a happy ending!...
Your TV Is Spying On You
[Click here for a NotebookLM audio discussion of this topic drawn from my source material.] If you’ve been reading Bruceb News for a while, then you know that occasionally I’m...
The Secret Life Of Smart TVs: Inside Badbox 2.0
[Click here for a NotebookLM audio discussion of this topic drawn from my source material.] Google and the FBI took down "Badbox 2.0" last month - ten million compromised TV...
Perplexity: From Searches To Answers
This is a love letter about my latest crush. I want you to try Perplexity when you look for information online. It’s my new best friend. It represents some important changes in...
The Edge Of Annoyance: Microsoft Hijacks Outlook Links
Microsoft added a setting to Outlook to open web links in the Edge browser, even if you’ve set Chrome as your default browser. This is not a recent change. You may have already...
How Philip K Dick’s Estate Found A Loophole In A Shoebox
I have a limited edition of Philip K Dick’s novel In Milton Lumky Territory with the legendary author’s signature on the first page. Only 50 copies were signed and bound with the...
Xreal One & The Future Of AR Glasses
I’m watching Love Death + Robots on a 191” screen hanging in the air four feet in front of me. That’s about the same size as an IMAX screen when you’re sitting in the middle of...
Decoding AI Hysteria: Hallucinations, Laziness, & Corruption
This is a story about lawyers and moronicans, laziness and greed, and why blame for bad AI results should frequently rest with people, not technology. You should be skeptical...
Jolly Tales & Funny Pictures By Mark Twain
Mark Twain fled to Berlin in 1891 with his wife and three little daughters. He had earned a great deal of money from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and his other writing and...
AI And The Gabbling Foreigner Illusion
Foreigners sure talk fast, don’t they? When you listen to someone speaking a foreign language, you’re sure they’re speaking very quickly, far faster than you speak in your more...
AI Slop And The Enshittification Of Everything
I’ve written about how AI is great and AI research will change the world and you should use it to plan your trips, while cheerleaders kick up their heels and wave their pom poms,...
Zero Click Searches & Google AI Mode
AI is taking over online searches. At the moment, that’s good news - the AI summaries are increasingly reliable and helpful. In the long term, they might be so good that...
From Waistline to Wallet: Weight Loss Drugs Will Slim Down Impulse Spending
Weight loss drugs effectively regulate impulse control - and the effects go far beyond snack food. Our economy is built on impulse purchases. The secondary effects of GLP-1 drugs...
A Trip Down The Rabbit Hole: Notes On Collecting Lewis Carroll
We’re going to dive down a rabbit hole into the world of collecting Lewis Carroll books. You know the phrase “going down a rabbit hole” comes from Alice In Wonderland, right?...