- It is a fascinating irony that Jack Dorsey, the man who created the world’s ultimate ‘always-online’ town square in Twitter (now X), is now championing technology designed to work when the internet goes dark. Dorsey has shifted his focus toward decentralized, off-grid communication tools—often referred to in the crypto-community under the umbrella of ‘Bit Chat’ or mesh-networking apps. Unlike traditional social media that relies on massive corporate servers, this technology allows smartphones to ‘talk’ directly to one another using Bluetooth and local Wi-Fi signals. It is a system designed for pure resilience; by allowing messages to hop from device to device, Dorsey is backing a future where human connection cannot be severed by a power outage, a fallen cell tower, or government censorship.”
- The “Crypto & Scam” Disasters
Web3 Is Going Great (by Molly White)
This is arguably the best “disaster tracker” on the internet right now. It is a timeline-based blog that tracks cryptocurrency scams, NFT rug pulls, exchange collapses, and hacks.
Why it’s good: It’s factual, snarky, and has a running counter of how much money has been lost to crypto grifts (usually in the billions).
- The “AI & algorithm” Failures
AI Weirdness (by Janelle Shane)
Instead of focusing on AI taking over the world, Janelle focuses on how bad and hilarious AI can be. She tests neural networks that try to name paint colors, write recipes, or generate pickup lines, usually with disastrously funny results.
Why it’s good: It’s a lighthearted look at “glitches” rather than a scary one.
AI Snake Oil
Written by Princeton computer scientists, this newsletter debunks the hype behind AI. When a self-driving car crashes or a facial recognition system arrests the wrong person, they explain the technical reason why it happened.
- The “Cybersecurity & Hacking” Breaches
Krebs on Security
Brian Krebs is an investigative journalist who usually finds out about major data breaches (like Target or Equifax) before the companies even admit to them. If a company gets hacked, he is the definitive source.
Why it’s good: Deep investigative reporting on the “underground” of tech crime.
BleepingComputer
This is a news site dedicated to ransomware, malware, and software bugs. If a Windows update accidentally deletes everyone’s files, this is usually the first place to report it.
- The “Coding & Engineering” Nightmares
The Daily WTF
This is a legendary blog for software developers. It features user-submitted stories of “Curious Perversions in Information Technology”—basically, horrible code, terrible management decisions, and IT systems that were built to fail.
Why it’s good: It focuses on the “accident waiting to happen” inside corporate IT departments.
- General Tech Snark & System Failures
The Register
A British technology news site famous for its biting sarcasm. They love covering server outages, expensive IT failures, and mocking tech CEOs who make bad decisions. Look for their “Bootnotes” or columns by “The BOFH” (Bastard Operator From Hell).
Pluralistic (by Cory Doctorow)
Doctorow writes daily about the “Enshittification” of the internet—how platforms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook are slowly degrading their services to squeeze more money out of users. It covers the “slow motion accident” of the modern web.