Welcome back! I hope you were able to enjoy the holidays and get some time off to rest and to be with those closest to you. I don't know about you, but I was glad to see the back of 2025. Here's hoping 2026 is a better year!

With that out of the way, let's get Monday started with these links:

Do we still need to write by hand? Use a compass? Read a map? — When you think about it, we've outsourced a lot of what used to be considered basic, practical skills to technology. You can argue about whether or not that's a good thing, but maybe (as this article suggests) there's a middle ground.

From the article:

Jordan argues traditional books hold a fixed, unchangeable truth that online sources can’t. “A book's knowledge is fixed. You can't modify it to suit the political climate. You can't change it.”

Don’t Touch That Dial! — Who still thinks about or listens to terrestrial radio? More than a few people, as it turns out. And there's a growing argument that radio, specifically AM radio, is also an essential service in times of disaster or crisis.

From the article:

AM radio technology is reliable, affordable, and easy to fix. Unlike the internet, which can lag and hitch when too many users log on, radio can accommodate an unlimited number of listeners. That’s why, despite a century of advancements in cellular technology, the nation’s Emergency Alert System—which can broadcast warnings about missing people, severe weather, or nuclear attacks to 90 percent of the population in a single transmission—still relies heavily on AM radio stations.

Everything Is Becoming a Bank — Should, say, chains of coffee shops and grocery stores, or airlines and technology companies also act like unregulated financial institutions? And what are the potential consequences, both to consumers and the wider economy, of allowing that happen. It looks scary. Very scary.

From the article:

Financial regulators estimate that these payment apps are holding billions of dollars of completely uninsured deposits. If the apps suffered a technical glitch, got hacked, or unexpectedly went bankrupt, customers could lose their money. This happened in 2024 when Synapse, a technology company connecting fintech apps like Juno and Yotta with banks, suddenly collapsed, putting nearly one hundred thousand customers at risk of losing their life savings. Thousands did.

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games — Who says that a ruthless state police agency doesn't know how to have fun? But, as everything with the Stasi, this embrace of the 8-bit had two facets, both of which served the state's interests.

From the article:

A DIY approach to computing was thus in keeping with the state’s policy of self-reliance, where civilians were encouraged to knit, build, tinker and repair all they could. Official magazines such as FunkAmateur and Jugend und Technik responded by promoting games – which they called “computer sports” – and publishing programming code. “The GDR was very aware of the constraints it had in technology,” says Seiwald. “People educating themselves in technology, or pushing the boundaries of what was available, was viewed positively.”