The View From RSS. What the web looks like when you subscribe to 2,000 RSS feeds. I am not tempted to try this. ♦︎

Cory Doctorow: The web is bearable with RSS. Also, a brief history of Google Reader, Google+ (which Cory doesn’t think much of but which I loved and still mourn), and tips for customizing Firefox for avoiding nag screens and other annoyances. I’m using a Chrome-based browser; hopefully the plugins he recommends have parallels in the Chrome universe.

I am a die-hard RSS user and have been for more than 20 years. I have a love-hate relationship with Inoreader — I am perpetually looking for alternatives and keep coming back to it. Right now, I’m actually looking to use RSS less, and unsubscribe from high-volume feeds, viewing those websites in the browser instead. ♦︎

Regarding breaking news, I used to say that if I don’t hear the helicopters circling over the house, I can wait to find out about it. ♦︎

What do you use for breaking news? I check in with a few sources a few times a day to see what the latest crisis is. I check Google News, Apple News and my RSS reader. How about you?

It would be better for my mental health if I did not check the news as often as I do. Surely I am the first person ever to have had this insight. ♦︎

Stories about celebrities being nice. ♦︎

The Verge: Grammarly is using our identities without permission: Grammarly’s AI agents make suggestions for improving writing supposedly inspired by subject matter experts, including prominent tech journalists, without permission.

I stopped using Grammarly earlier this week, unrelated to this incident. It’s too intrusive with popups and insists I add Oxford commas, which violates my employer’s style guidelines and annoys my editors. I’m using a Claude project for proofreading instead and it seems to work better while being less annoying. ♦︎

Meet your new phone away from phone

A roundup of phones designed to be used as second phones, to minimize distraction. By Allison Johnson at The Verge.

This is an idea that seems stupid to me at first, but now I find it intriguing.

I do not see something like this as a solution to the distraction problem. If you’re distracted by your phone, the problem is not with the phone, it’s between your ears. (Says the guy who is 100% too distracted by his phone.)

But maybe we’d be better off with something limited-purpose but elegant, like these devices, to use as phones, and something like an iPad mini for video, gaming, apps, etc.? ♦︎

A fun read about Burger King president and viral video star Tom Curtis, who presents a down-to-Earth image: The Burger King President Who Took a Bite Out of McDonald’s. Also a fun read, about the viral McDonald’s video that Burger King responded to. Here’s the video of Curtis taking a big hearty bite from a Whopper. And the McDonald’s CEO takes a prissy nibble from the Big Arch. He calls it a “product!” Good grief! ♦︎

Do You Back Into a Parking Spot or Back Out? ♦︎