JS is 22 years old today.

I joined Netscape on 4 April 1995, lured by jg&mtoy to "do scheme in the browser". Upon joining I found (1) headcount wars in pre-IPO NSCP left the client group unable to hire me as planned, so I joined the server team; (2) Sun was doing the Java deal with Netscape. Sun viewed Netscape as the vector for its Java virus, didn't care about integration with HTML -- but Bill Joy "got it" and along with Marc Anddressen supported me doing "Mocha". After a month on server side

[my impression of the state of AI in pop culture, snarky, sorry]

RESEARCHER: I have made yet another somewhat interesting way to transform one spreadsheet into another spreadsheet

JOURNALISTS: we're all doomed by robots lol

[fin]

With the debut of Amazon Echo Look and Facebook Spaces, the ratio of "references to Black Mirror per tech announcement" is rising dangerously high:

- https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/amazon-echo-look-bedroom-camera
- https://news.fastcompany.com/facebook-spaces-is-reminding-everyone-of-that-black-mirror-episode-with-the-creepy-avatars-4035111

With news of Unroll.me selling user inbox info to Uber, lots of people are repeating "if you're not paying for it, you're the product."

I've said before, and will continue to say, that that is the wrong formulation. Sometimes you pay for it and you're still the product – look at US ISPs. Sometimes you don't pay for it and you're not the product – free software.

The real question is whether a software or service empowers users, which can't be boiled down to whether you paid.