Profile Banner
Matt Haldane

Matt Haldane

At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona

matthaldane.com Mastodon Bluesky
Bluesky
Om Malik has passed away at the age of 60: om.co/2026/06/24/1.... I don't think I know anyone my age who went into tech journalism who wasn't reading Gigaom back in the day. RIP https://om.co/2026/06/24/1966-2026/
Om Malik, 1966-2026

Om Malik, 1966-2026

Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart. He was surrounded by family and friends. We invite you to share your remembrances of Om in th…

https://om.co/2026/06/24/1966-2026/
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
local

I've redesigned this social page to pull in posts from multiple sources and serve more as a central hub for my online activity (not counting my work). The goal here is to produce an IndieWeb version of my social activity to be less beholden to third-party platforms. Do check back and engage if you're so inclined.

no interactions
💬 Comments & Likes
Bluesky
A Shenzhen in the desert? SoftBank wants to turn Phoenix into a US AI and robotics hub. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-20/masayoshi-son-s-next-bet-a-1-trillion-ai-robotics-hub-in-arizona
Masa Son Pitches $1 Trillion US AI Hub to TSMC, Trump Team

Masa Son Pitches $1 Trillion US AI Hub to TSMC, Trump Team

SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to team up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to realize what could be his biggest bet yet — a trillion-dollar industrial complex in Ariz...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-20/masayoshi-son-s-next-bet-a-1-trillion-ai-robotics-hub-in-arizona
💬 1
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
It will use T-Mobile, the largest MVNO provider in the US, which is majority-owned by the German company Deutsche Telekom and whose second-largest shareholder is Japanese investor Softbank.
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
> “But the British couldn’t break Boston, the New York Yankees couldn’t break Boston and neither can Trump,” [Michael Goldman] says. It is not just Bostonians who should hope he’s right. www.economist.com/united-state... https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/05/18/the-maga-revolution-threatens-americas-most-innovative-place
The MAGA revolution threatens America’s most innovative place

The MAGA revolution threatens America’s most innovative place

Cuts to funding risk hobbling Boston’s science establishment

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/05/18/the-maga-revolution-threatens-americas-most-innovative-place
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
Hong Kong News Awards time again. Our story on how China missed the bitcoin boom after chasing the industry out was second runner up in English business news writing.
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
"For my kids, when every show is national and everything can be seen everywhere all at once, there can be no such rent in the fabric, no hole through which, seeing Milwaukee Bozo, they can recognize the phoniness of their own. To them, all the clowns are real." https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/television/tv-before-cable-was-a-barren-landscape-it-was-also-magical-8406504a
TV Before Cable Was a Barren Landscape. It Was Also Magical.

TV Before Cable Was a Barren Landscape. It Was Also Magical.

We jammed forks into the antenna, tuned the dial like a radio and stumbled upon unexpected wonders.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/television/tv-before-cable-was-a-barren-landscape-it-was-also-magical-8406504a
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
Duterte has been out of office for less than three years. Attitudes change fast. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3306488/majority-filipinos-back-icc-trial-duterte-citing-need-accountability-survey
Majority of Filipinos want Duterte held to account in ICC drug war case: survey

Majority of Filipinos want Duterte held to account in ICC drug war case: survey

Support for Duterte’s drug war once exceeded 80 per cent, but a new poll indicates 62 per cent now want him to stand trial for it.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3306488/majority-filipinos-back-icc-trial-duterte-citing-need-accountability-survey
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
"President Xi Jinping has long argued that America is too polarised and overstretched to sustain its global role … His paranoid nationalism used to seem like dystopian hyperbole. Now that Mr Trump is committing such wanton self-harm and general destruction, it looks ahead of its time." https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/04/03/how-america-could-end-up-making-china-great-again
How America could end up making China great again

How America could end up making China great again

A big beautiful opportunity

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/04/03/how-america-could-end-up-making-china-great-again
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
I think crypto companies are interested in the idea of fast, anonymous microtransactions for porn over social media. But I've also heard pitches for "OnlyFans on the blockchain". Among things you probably don't want to be "immutable", I imagine a public ledger of past sex work is up there. https://www.reuters.com/technology/onlyfans-founder-crypto-foundation-submit-late-stage-bid-buy-tiktok-2025-04-02/
OnlyFans founder, crypto foundation submit late-stage bid to buy TikTok

OnlyFans founder, crypto foundation submit late-stage bid to buy TikTok

A startup run by Tim Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to acquire short video app TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance, the two said on Wednesday.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/onlyfans-founder-crypto-foundation-submit-late-stage-bid-buy-tiktok-2025-04-02/
★ 2
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
Some in China once lamented that the country's TV and movies were too backwards-looking, celebrating its imperial history but not possible futures. As the US increasingly romaticizes it's own past, it's worth remembering that having hope in the future first requires imagining one.
Excerpt from Abundance by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein: The nostalgia that permeates so much of today's right and no small part of today's left is no accident. We have lost the faith in the future that once powered our optimism. .We fight instead over what we have, or what we had. Our era features too little utopian thinking, but one worthy exception is Aaron Bastani's Fully Automated Luxury Communism, a leftist tract that puts the technologies in develop- ment right now-artificial intelligence, re- newable energy, asteroid mining, plant- and cell-based meats, and gene editing-at the center of a post-work, post-scarcity vision. The cover of the book Abundance by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein
★ 1
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
"Twain is funny and important today because his comedy is a hilarious celebration of our fears, our ineptitude and the glorious mess of being human. When we celebrate Twain, truly see him for who he was, we acknowledge our commonality and we move just a little bit closer together." https://youtu.be/Yr8qPKTo8yA?si=vyLWZCW7vIE9w02U
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
Dune was great, and I love a good Denis Villeneuve film, but if I'm being honest about the sci-fi film I had the most fun watching last year, it would definitely be Molli and Max in the Future. And the full film is on YouTube apparently. youtu.be/_i_bdv3Ziww?... https://youtu.be/_i_bdv3Ziww?si=kHl7lVwn7QVh-ia7
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
While at a microbrewery in Tainan, a guy who works for TSMC walked in. He had just gotten back from a stint in Phoenix where he was doing work for the new plant. He brought the bar's owner a @dbacksbot.bsky.social hat. Rare to see gear from my favorite National League team on this side of the world.
Owner of a microbrewery in Tainan, Taiwan, wears a baseball cap for the team Arizona Diamondbacks while smiling at patrons.
★ 1
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
Amazon is closing another loophole for people who strip DRM from their ebooks to use on other devices. Publishers may appreciate the move, but it's a blow to open platforms.
★ 2
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
The bipartisan nature of the TikTok ban has become a rorschach test for politically disengaged Americans. Reddit is full of comments blaming Trump for the ban because they think the law started under him (he tried to ban it by executive order, on weak legal footing, which was reversed by Biden).
no interactions
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Bluesky
Bitcoin had a pretty wild in China: It once had the market cornered, producing the most bitcoin globally, then it banned cryptocurrencies in favor of blockchain sans crypto. Now Xi Jinping doesn't talk about blockchain anymore and Trump fever has enveloped the industry. www.scmp.com/tech/blockch... https://www.scmp.com/tech/blockchain/article/3288731/bitcoin-was-once-dominated-china-trump-bump-shifting-momentum-us?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article
Decentralised kingdom: bitcoin’s Trump bump and how China lost its crypto crown

Decentralised kingdom: bitcoin’s Trump bump and how China lost its crypto crown

As the world’s factory, China cornered the market on bitcoin mining, leading to a flurry of crypto business activity before a harsh crackdown in 2021.

https://www.scmp.com/tech/blockchain/article/3288731/bitcoin-was-once-dominated-china-trump-bump-shifting-momentum-us?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article
★ 2 💬 1
💬 Reply on Bluesky
Mastodon

@arroz I don't think I know a single person who owned a LaserDisc player, but I remember watching Speed on LaserDisc at CircuitCity. A few years later I bought the Star Wars trilogy on LaserDisc at a yard sale for $1 per disc. I liked the cover art.

I'm sometimes surprised how much of Asia skipped VHS, though, and went straight to VCD, something else that never caught on in the US.

★ 1
💬 Reply on Mastodon
Mastodon (Boost)
Boosted @KimPerales@toad.social

Corrupt, self-serving, & dangerous #AI tech titans are influencing MOC. Horizon is part of AI influence that Open Philanthropy has built *closely aligned with effective altruism (SBF)... Read:

politico.com/news/2023/10/13/o

How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington

How a billionaire-backed network of AI advisers took over Washington

A sprawling network spread across Congress, federal agencies and think tanks is pushing policymakers to put AI apocalypse at the top of the agenda — potentially boxing out other worries and benefiting top AI companies with ties to the network.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/open-philanthropy-funding-ai-policy-00121362
★ 3 ⇄ 6 💬 1
💬 Reply on Mastodon
Mastodon (Boost)
Boosted @sarahemclaugh@mastodon.ngo

the latest "you couldn't even make this up" out of Hong Kong hongkongfp.com/2023/03/10/stan

Stand News sedition trial: Ex-editor questioned over op-ed likening Hong Kong to Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’

Stand News sedition trial: Ex-editor questioned over op-ed likening Hong Kong to Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’

A former editor of defunct Hong Kong independent news outlet Stand News on trial for sedition has been questioned over an op-ed that compared Hong Kong to the fictional totalitarian regime in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Meanwhile, the judge presiding over the trial asked whether Nineteen Eighty-Four was a book, and what it was about. […]

https://hongkongfp.com/2023/03/10/stand-news-sedition-trial-ex-editor-of-questioned-over-op-ed-likening-hong-kong-to-orwells-nineteen-eighty-four/
A former editor of defunct Hong Kong independent news outlet Stand News on trial for sedition has been questioned over an op-ed that compared Hong Kong to the fictional totalitarian regime in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Meanwhile, the judge presiding over the trial asked whether Nineteen Eighty-Four was a book, and what it was about.
★ 10 ⇄ 17 💬 1
💬 Reply on Mastodon