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As of today, March 5, 2025, Microsoft has shut down Skype. I honestly thought Teams had already replaced it years ago. Still, reading the news made me nostalgic about how I, my friends, family, and colleagues once used Skype.

• I think my father was the one who first introduced Skype to our home as a cheaper way to make international calls from Belgium to our family’s landline in Germany. Back then, even calls within Europe were expensive, so this was pretty groundbreaking. But, I don’t remember us using it that much—probably because you had to sit behind a computer to make a call, and I vaguely recall some annoying echo issues.
• For a long time, Skype, for me, was a quirky but functional option for video and voice calls. I remember having some job interviews on Skype, but one awkward part was finding people. You couldn’t just use an email—you needed to know someone’s Skype nickname. Many people, as a workaround, added their Skype ID to their email signatures. Later, at the university where I worked, we used Skype for Business, which at least made it easier to connect with colleagues.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, my friends and I used Skype for a while to play online board games via Board Game Arena. But before long, Zoom became the go-to platform thanks to its smoother experience and better features. For work, however, Zoom didn’t last long—Microsoft Teams quickly took over, despite being clunkier. It won out mainly because it was tightly integrated with organizational tools.
• Furthermore, these changes are closely tied to technological advancements. Over the years, there has been a shift away from peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, which rely on a decentralized communication model where participants connect directly. However, these systems often struggle to scale effectively. This became evident once during an academic workshop that attempted to use the P2P-based platform BigBlueButton but quickly had to switch to Zoom. In contrast, modern applications leverage centralized servers or cloud infrastructure to enable to communication among participants.

I’m disgusted by the White House’s official account posting an ASMR video on deportations.

To better understand, let’s revisit sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s perspective on the Holocaust. His argument was that the Holocaust’s origins were in modernity itself, not only in the unique histories of Germany and the Jewish people.

Similarly, we should examine how contemporary techniques are being used. This case shows how social media’s tools are used to dehumanize and morally neutralize through ASMR, memes, and irony.

Via kottke.org.

A Tedium article by Ernie Smith reveals a potential connection between a technical Linux kernel coding issue and the influence of the creator economy on open-source development.

In this way, there may be a clash between established maintainers who have stable job situations, versus younger developers who focus on “monetizing” their roles as software developers.

Interesting article from MIT Technology Review on how the Chinese government is setting up artificial marine habitats to combat the collapse of natural fisheries.

Ars Technica has compiled a list of products and services that exemplify the worst examples of “enshittification”. The term, coined by Cory Doctorow, describes the common pattern of online products and services that start user-friendly but deteriorate due to the pursuit of profit.

Responding to the devastating accident at Muan International Airport, Dr. Nial Moores (National Director, Birds Korea) points out the recurring problem of Korean airports being built near wetlands that are important habitats for birds.

It is appalling that even more regional airports are planned to be built in such ecologically important wetlands. Given the high cost and safety risks, can this crash lead us to reconsider their need?

See also this article from The Korea Times.

Nadia Plesner’s captivating “Colony Collapse Disorder” (2020) series features oil paintings on beehive frames, incorporating imagery of vintage canned food. I see the artwork as representing the precarious relationship between food systems struggling under climate change (in this case, the role of pollinators) and the emergency connotations of canned goods.

It looks like the U.S. will enter a new age of advanced semiconductor chip manufacturing now that the TSMC’s Arizona facility will start producing chips. The geopolitical implications for Taiwan, as highlighted by an analyst in this IEEE Spectrum article, could be substantial:

[TechInsights semiconductor analyst Dan Hutcheson] says having TSMC fabs outside Taiwan is good for the company’s customers and good for Taiwan. The island’s “ silicon shield” against China has done its work—TSMC’s dominance in advanced chip manufacturing gives the United States and other countries a reason to support Taiwan. But going forward, Hutcheson says the shield could turn into a target. If the United States and its allies are increasingly dependent on chips made only in Taiwan, then China can cause major damage to the U.S. economy by targeting Taiwan. Hutcheson says TSMC’s geographical diversification will make its home country less of a target. The company has also opened a fab in Japan and is building one in Germany.

I wonder if we can draw a parallel with the U.S. becoming a net exporter of petroleum, reducing reliance on Middle Eastern oil. Similarly, as the U.S. invests in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, what might this shift mean for geopolitics?

I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts this year, but it’s often hard to recall what stood out. So, I went back to my favorite app, AntennaPod, and picked some highlights worth sharing:

• NPR Radiolab
  • “How Stockholm Stuck”: The origin story of how the myth of “Stockholm syndrome” began, what aspects of the story (such as the actions of the police) are often left out, and why the narrative may be misleading.
  • “Memory and Forgetting”: Explores how memories are made, re-made, and forgotten. This quote really stuck with me: “The act of remembering, on a literal level, is an act of creation. Every memory is rebuilt anew every time you remember it. […] Every time you remember something you’re changing the memory a little bit. We’re always changing the memory slightly.”
  • “Stochasticity”: A series of stories exploring randomness in our everyday lives. (For a similar theme, check out the Flemish podcast “Wereld van Sofie: Dit kan geen toeval zijn!” featuring how the phrase “this can’t be a coincidence” is a favorite in soap operas.)
• Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
  • “Murder at Halloween: The Edinburgh Body Snatchers”: Discusses what makes econimic markets acceptable.
  • “Flying Too High: AI and Air France Flight 447”: Examines the dangers of automation and the deskilling of workers.
  • “The Revenge of the Whales”: Explores how we interpret intentionality and meaning in animal behavior.
• Medieval Podcast
  • “Medieval Fish with Richard Hoffmann”: Fascinating insights into medieval fisheries and research techniques, such as on how researchers can analyse diets by identifying whether people consumed freshwater or saltwater fish.
  • “How to Focus Like a Monk with Jamie Kreiner”: A humorous look at how monks dealt with noise and distractions—and the strategies they used to maintain focus.
• Tech Won’t Save Us has been a fantastic discovery for me this year. The “Data Vampires” series, for example, was eye-opening about the energy and resource costs of building massive hyperscale data centers—and the opposition to them. Episode 1 Link
• 99% Invisible: Their series “Not Built For This” was especially memorable. While it focuses on the U.S., I still found it fascinating to hear about the real struggles arising between the built environment and the impacts of climate change.
• History Extra: I enjoyed their episodes on Tudor England, particularly because I’m also currently watching the phenomenal Wolf Hall and The Mirror and the Light TV series.

To combat dropping user engagement on older social media platforms, it appears Meta/Facebook plans to add AI-generated users that will post AI-generated content. Below is a quote from an article in the Financial Times:

“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going,” he added.

A social network for interacting with bots, called SocialAI, already exists. However, on a platform where both function concurrently, differentiating between them will likely become increasingly difficult. In the end, a stale, lifeless feeling already pervades the internet. Drowning in information overload, perhaps only bots will survive, quietly processing through the digital debris.