This week, we discuss what “enshittification” is, what causes it, and whether it can be prevented. Plus, stay tuned until the end to hear the Software Defined Talk origin story.

Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 451

Runner-up Titles

• Enshittification
• The Fahrenheit 451 Reorganization
• Wait for Wifi
• Taxes by beef rib
• It’s actually not fine
• Smoking crack in Disneyland
• AI is accelerating the crappiness.
• Why don’t you just sell more cloud?
• Generated Garbage
• I can’t tell if it’s a coffee mug or a ballistic missile.
• Accidentally upgraded
• Jury duty…”pretty cool.”

Rundown

• Airalo for mobile cell phones plans when traveling.
• How Google perfected the web
• AdNauseam - Clicking Ads So You Don't Have To
• Subprime Attention Crisis
• 2023 Word of the Year Is “Enshittification”
• Instagram’s co-founders are shutting down their Artifact news app
• Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find

Relevant to your Interests

• Tens of thousands of GPUs go under-utilized in the cloud
• Creating a Sales Commission Plan
• The Quiet Death of Ello's Big Dreams - Waxy.org
• Nutanix set to benefit most from Broadcom's VMware upheaval
• VMware is killing off 56 products amid "tectonic" infrastructure shift
• Taming the dragon - Chinese and US Semiconductor competition
• ‘I dreamed of blocky pixels’: the strange, sweaty, sociable early days of gaming – in pictures
• Lofree Flow — Keyboard Review via Tim Bray
• Remembering Bell Labs as legendary idea factory prepares to leave N.J. home
• IBM Consulting orders a return to office - and means it
• Apple Dials Back Car’s Self-Driving Features and Delays Launch to 2028
• Introducing Docker Build Cloud
• It's time to build
• "And we call it... the Vision Pro holster. We think you're going to love it."
• For a moment there, Lotus Notes appeared to do everything
• Campfire is ONCE #1
• Lessons learned: 1,000 days of distributed at Atlassian - Work Life by Atlassian
• Bosses want to work from home more than employees do, says new survey—but they're still pushing RTO requirements
• Nvidia, a $1 trillion AI powerhouse, is fine with remote work
• Why constant job cuts could be the new normal for Big Tech
• Culture Change at Google
• Frustrated Googlers are speaking out on the corporate dysfunction
• Bell Labs & Google: bookends of the same sad story?
• Mourning Google

Nonsense

• We lost some real stars this past year
• Startups Are Shutting Down!
• It’s Just a Water Bottle

Listener Feedback

• Robert recomends the Zojirushi SM-SR48E Stainless Mug

Conferences

• That Conference Texas, Jan 29, 2024 to Feb 1
• CfgMgmtCamp, Feb 5–7th — Coté speaking.
• The Uk's Open Technology Conference Open Source Software, Open Hardware Feb 6–7
• SCaLE 21x/DevOpsDays LA, March 14th–17th, 2024 — Coté speaking, sponsorship slots available.
• KubeCon EU Paris, March 19–22 — Coté on the wait list for the platform side conference.
• DevOpsDays Birmingham, April 17–18, 2024

SDT news & hype

• Join us in Slack.
• Get a SDT Sticker! Send your postal address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com and we will send you free laptop stickers!
• Follow us: Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads and YouTube.
• Use the code SDT to get $20 off Coté’s book, Digital WTF, so $5 total.
• Become a sponsor of Software Defined Talk!

Recommendations

• Brandon: Travis County Jury Duty
• Matt: Perplexity.AI
• Coté: Kantjil & De Tijger or Kartika — which is also good and less fancy in a good way.

Photo Credits

• Header
• Artwork