Twitter 新政策禁止推廣其他社交平台的連結

看到 Paul Graham 這個宣告:

裡面提到的新政策在「Promotion of alternative social platforms policy」這邊,直接禁止其他社交平台:

At both the Tweet level and the account level, we will remove any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms, such as linking out (i.e. using URLs) to any of the below platforms on Twitter, or providing your handle without a URL:

  • Prohibited platforms:
    • Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr
    • 3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio

Hacker News 的討論上面,Paul Graham 有回應 (帳號是 pg),他又提出了一些猜測與見解,包含了他覺得這個新政策會被收回:「Paul Graham is leaving Twitter for now (twitter.com/paulg)」。

I'm not leaving Twitter. It seems more likely than not that Elon will reverse the ban on links to other social media sites. I just don't want to hang out there in the meantime. Plus given the way things are going, it seemed like a good time to learn about alternatives.

I still think Elon is a smart guy. His work on cars and rockets speaks for itself. Nor do I think he's the villain a lot of people try to make him out to be. He's eccentric, definitely, but that should be news to no one. Plus I don't think he realizes that the techniques that work for cars and rockets don't work in social media. Those two facts are sufficient to explain most of his behavior.

He could still salvage the situation. He's the sort of person it would be a big mistake to write off. And I hope he does. I would be delighted to go back to using Twitter regularly.

不過的確如他說的,這是個好機會嘗試其他的 social network...

美國人使用社群媒體的情況

在「Social Media Usage by Age」這邊看到的文章,把美國人使用社群媒體的情況做成圖,資料來源是 Pew Research Center 的「Social Media Fact Sheet」這裡。

很明顯的可以看到 Google (Alphabet) 基本上就是 YouTube 一個產品吃天下,而 Facebook (Meta) 有三個產品在滲透,包括 Facebook、InstagramWhatsapp

LinkedIn 在出社會後會開始用,另外 Pinterest 這麼多老人家在用到是很驚奇 XDDD

把中央社的 App 裝起來... (來推廣一下好了)

看到之前同事在 Twitter 上提到中央社的標題算是比較正常的,不是 clickbait (誘餌式標題) 走向,就裝起來收通知看一下國內的新聞:

到今天算是用了三四天,目前看到的標題都還不錯,從標題大概就可以抓到重點,不過好像沒看到付費的項目可以贊助 (也許可以提供 app 內去廣告?),寫一篇文章來推廣好了...

另外一個有付費的是 WSJ,USD$5/m,主要是桌機可以直接看內容,不過手機上也是讓 app 推播標題...

路透社的 RSS feed

翻資料才發現路透社的 feed 已經不見了,大概是去年 2020 年六月的事情:「Returning the "killed" RSS of Reuters from the dead」。

不過文章裡面提到的替代方案還蠻有趣的,Google News 上可以透過 filter 條件輸出:

https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=when:24h+allinurl:reuters.com&ceid=US:en&hl=en-US&gl=US

不過測了一下台灣自家的新聞媒體網址,看起來不會動... 把網站改成 news.google.com.tw 也不行,如果沒有提供的還是得自己寫...

美國媒體的偏好 (味道)

找資料的時候發現維基百科上面有一個條目是在說明美國媒體的偏好:「Media bias in the United States」,不過上面講的還是比較描述性,另外找了其他的研究來翻。

首先是在「"Fake News," Lies and Propaganda: How to Sort Fact from Fiction」這邊翻到的資料,是出自於「Ideological Placement of Each Source’s Audience」這邊,這是 2014 年的分析:

接著是翻到「News Literacy: News Views & Fact Checking Resources: Media Bias」這篇,出自「Media Bias Chart 4.0: Downloadable Image and Standard License」,這是 2018 年的分析:

再來是「Detecting Bias」,出自「Media Bias Ratings」,這是 2019 年的分析,原網站目前則是更新到 2021 年了:

透過這些資料可以很粗糙的抓一下這些媒體的 Political spectrum,在讀新聞的時候會更清晰一點。

Facebook 自己找人研究,Social Media 是否對人類有害 XDDD

之前看到「Hard Questions: Is Spending Time on Social Media Bad for Us?」這篇,一直不知道要怎麼吐槽... 然後看到 Twitter 上的這則 tweet XDDD

既視感太重了,找了一下其他行業對應的資料:

真的不知道怎麼吐槽 XDDD

Amazon Kinesis Streams 的 Video 版本:Amazon Kinesis Video Streams

這次 AWS 推出的 Amazon Kinesis Video Streams 在技術上看起來跟 Amazon Media Services 有不少重疊 (參考先前提到的文章「AWS Media Services 推出一卡車與影音相關的服務...」),但產品面上區隔開的服務:「Amazon Kinesis Video Streams – Serverless Video Ingestion and Storage for Vision-Enabled Apps」。

開頭介紹就有提到適合用在各種 IoT 裝置,用在一直有影像資料產生的設備上:

Cell phones, security cameras, baby monitors, drones, webcams, dashboard cameras, and even satellites can all generate high-intensity, high-quality video streams. Homes, offices, factories, cities, streets, and highways are now host to massive numbers of cameras.

像這張圖的所介紹的流程,以及可以保留天數的設計:

底層用了不少與 Amazon Media Services 相同的技術,但是包裝成不同的產品...

去電視廣告的服務又來了...

看到「Plex’s DVR now lets you skip the commercials… by removing them for you」這篇文章,介紹 Plex 要推出去電視廣告的服務...

維基百科上的介紹比較清楚:「Plex (software)」,主要有兩個元件組成,media server 與 player:

  • The Plex Media Server desktop application runs on Windows, macOS and Linux-compatibles including some types of NAS devices. The 'server' desktop application organizes video, audio and photos from your collections and from online services, enabling the players to access and stream the contents.
  • The media players. There are official clients available for mobile devices, smart TVs, and streaming boxes, a web app and Plex Home Theater (no longer maintained), as well as many third-party alternatives.

然後這次要推出的功能是直接在錄影的時候把廣告拿掉:

Plex confirmed it’s rolling out a new feature that will allow cord cutters to skip the commercials in the TV programs recorded using its software, making the company’s lower-cost solution to streaming live TV more compelling. Unlike other commercial-skip options, Plex’s option will remove commercials from recordings automatically.

這讓我有些印像... 當年 TiVo 也有類似的功能,不過文章裡有提到 TiVo 是提供 skip 而非直接拿掉:

The new feature works by locating the commercials in your recorded media. It then actually removes them before the media is stored in your library. That sounds like it could be even better than TiVo’s commercial skipping option, for example, because you don’t have to press a button to skip the ads — they’re being pulled out for you, proactively.

不過主要是認識了 Plex 這個軟體... 如果是電視兒童的話應該用的到 XD 台灣目前的電視節目好像看的比較少...

AWS Media Services 推出一卡車與影音相關的服務...

AWS 推出了一連串 AWS Elemental MediaOOXX 一連串影音相關的服務:「AWS Media Services – Process, Store, and Monetize Cloud-Based Video」。

但不是所有的服務都是相同的區域... 公告分別在:

不過這邊還是引用 Jeff Barr 文章裡的說明,可以看到從很源頭的 transencoding 到 DRM,以及 Live 格式,到後續的檔案儲存及後製 (像是上廣告) 都有:

AWS Elemental MediaConvert – File-based transcoding for OTT, broadcast, or archiving, with support for a long list of formats and codecs. Features include multi-channel audio, graphic overlays, closed captioning, and several DRM options.

AWS Elemental MediaLive – Live encoding to deliver video streams in real time to both televisions and multiscreen devices. Allows you to deploy highly reliable live channels in minutes, with full control over encoding parameters. It supports ad insertion, multi-channel audio, graphic overlays, and closed captioning.

AWS Elemental MediaPackage – Video origination and just-in-time packaging. Starting from a single input, produces output for multiple devices representing a long list of current and legacy formats. Supports multiple monetization models, time-shifted live streaming, ad insertion, DRM, and blackout management.

AWS Elemental MediaStore – Media-optimized storage that enables high performance and low latency applications such as live streaming, while taking advantage of the scale and durability of Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).

AWS Elemental MediaTailor – Monetization service that supports ad serving and server-side ad insertion, a broad range of devices, transcoding, and accurate reporting of server-side and client-side ad insertion.

引個前同事的 tweet,先不說 Amazon SWF 的情況 (畢竟 Amazon SWF 還可以找到其他用途),倒是 Amazon Elastic Transcoder 很明顯要被淘汰掉了:

這種整個大包的東西是 AWS re:Invent 才有的能量,平常比較少看到...

為什麼我還繼續用 RSS (Feed)

最近在一些地方冒出兩篇文章 (應該是 NuzzelHacker News,放在 tab 上好幾天,不是那麼確定來源...),一篇是最近發的「The Case for RSS」,另外一篇是五月的文章「RSS: there's nothing better」。這邊講的 RSS 比較廣義,不侷限於 RSS {0.91,1.0,2.0},而是包括了各式的 feed,像是後來標準化的 Atom

消息的來源大致分成兩種:

  • 已知的來源:這些人只要有新的文章你就會想看。
  • 未知的來源:你可能也會有興趣的文章。

前者你不會想要漏掉 (你就是想看才會訂啊)。而後者在早期有 Zite 這類用演算法推薦的產品,後來在 Zite 併入 Flipboard 整個爛掉後我就跳去用 Nuzzel (透過好友機制推薦,演算法相對單純)。

Facebook 將這兩者混在一起,讓「已知的來源」未必會出現,而是用演算法包起來並且用 PR 手段混淆:美其名稱為「個人化推薦」,實際上是想辦法讓內容提供者掏錢出來。這點在 Instagram 上也可以看到一樣的作法:把 timeline 打散,用演算法包裝起來,再美其名為「個人化推薦」。

而 RSS reader 可以避免「已知的來源」這塊漏掉。

另外也因為 RSS reader 因為設計的目標就是「有效率的閱讀」而不是「賺錢」,所以大多數都會有「已讀」與「未讀」的功能,這讓你同樣的資訊你不需要讀很多次。

而 RSS reader 容易分群閱讀 (有些 RSS reader 會提供 folder 或是 tag 的功能) 也讓你可以帶著不同的 mindset 看不同群的文章,像是科技類的文章與心靈雞湯文就可以分開。