Today’s links Petard, Part IV: Smart is at least as important as evil. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2024 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. Petard, Part IV (permalink) Last week’s announcement that Trump’s FCC was going to once again allow ISPs to bribe landlords to force you to use their service was easy to miss, amidst all the chaos: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/fcc-chair-nixes-plan-to-boost-broadband-competition-in-apartment-buildings/ But it sure got my attention, since that was the plot of “Petard,” a techno-Lovecraftian sf story I wrote for Bruce Sterling’s “Twelve Tomorrows” anthology for MIT Tech Review in 2014: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535595/twelve-tomorrows-2014/ Some years ago, I read it aloud for my podcast: https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_278 https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_292 https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_293 https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_294_-_Petard_04 I’ve been serializing the story in the last three editions of my newsletter, and I’m finishing it today. Here’s part one: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/30/landlord-telco-industrial-complex/#part-one Here’s part two: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/31/the-blood-speech/#part-two Here’s part three: https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/01/miskatonic-networks/#part-three And now, for the thrilling conclusion! Kadijah didn’t buy the coffee this time. And I bought my own banana bread. “I met that Sergey dude,” she said. “Creepy, huh?” She blew on her coffee. She drank it black. “Wicked smart, I think. And it looks like he’s got your number.” Kadijah heard about the mass evictions through Ftp — she’d been watching our campaign carefully. When she messaged me, I assumed that she was outraged on all our…Pluralistic: Petard, Part IV (03 Feb 2025)