/26/ftc-and-17-states-sue-amazon-on-antitrust-charges.html"> All sorts of governments in America sue Amazon. This is an attempt to get money, nothing more.

More details about how OpenAI's algorithms work or don't work so good. The "black box" nature of these things is just that. The builders don't know precisely how it works.

Microsoft is rolling out their Windows 11 update that contains CoPilot AI and such. I spent a while yesterday on my Windows machine trying to figure out where I was and when I would see the magic.

Details are emerging on the contract that will end the strikes in Hollywood.

The iPhone 15 has heat issues. These are not easy to solve after a product is on the loose.

More on Taylor Swift and the NFL. It is a relationship made in financial heaven.

I don't understand the financial system explained in this post. It seems like the airlines and the credit card companies are making money by doing nothing in particular.

First you build it, then you optimize it. We see this now in these chattering bots. The originals cost too much money to run. Microsoft and others are now building ones that deliver better value.

Joby Aviation delivers its first electric-powered "taxi" to our Air Force.

News flash (really): the Hollywood strike is over. Back to work on 27 September.

Apple releases macOS 14.0. Sonoma today.

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Thursday 28 September 2023

Take the personalities out of this. It is a pretty good process for almost any business that wants to perform better. (It comes from Elon Musk.)

Reddit begins to pay contributors for posts. Hey, this is like writing for money.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, where no one can afford a real place to live, they are renting "pods" or beds in boxes for $700 a month.

This is a good essay on packing software for delivery. There is "share everything" and "share nothing."

This is a good article on the emergence of the Cloud Development Environment. This is a result of technial and societal events (free network technology and the pandemic).

This is sort of the holy grail of geographers and the like. They want to make a detailed, 3D map of the earth. And all I had as a kid was a little globe with bumps on it.

Thoughts on organizing people and re-organizing people. Note, "managers must be able to explain both the charter and the seams in their org design in plain English." It is the "in plain English" where people stumble.

Thoughts on Agile Methods, Scrum, and the like. I guess we have beat this one to death. Let's move on.

Someone should go to jail for this: 56,000 veterans' claims were not processed due to a error by the folks at VA running the computers.

If you pay to use ChatGPT (I don't, yet), it is now up to date and no longer stops at 2021.

I'll just quote the headline, "Facebook and Instagram will soon get a slew of AI-powered creator tools" Translation, cool new picture editing tools.

Meanwhile at Meta, they built a bunch of AI chattering bots based on celebrities. It is more fun to chat with Snoop Dog than to just type in words in a blank space on the screen.

The folks at Raspberry Pi have released model number 5 at $60. This is the most successful tech-based education program in the history of history.

Meta releases its Quest 3 AR/VR headset at about $500. This beats Apple to the market, although Apple's market is at $2,000.

US and Japanese law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies claim that Chinese government hackers are breaking into Cisco routers which are used by just about everyone.

Here is a review of the new RayBan-Meta glasses with cameras etc. Walk around, look good, and take photos and record videos without being obvious.

Meanwhile at X (Twitter), they have cut half of the election censorship team. Can you imagine that political campaign ads might not be all truth?

SpaceX wins their first contract for the US Space Force. It isn't a big one, but it is a start for both parties.

Bigger $$$ are going to Palantir from our Dept of Defense for AI capabilities.

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Friday 29 September 2023

Someone is making a drug that tricks the body into thinking that it has been exercising. What could possibly go wrong?

Alchemy lead to what we today know as chemistry. Perhaps today's chattering bots will lead to something akin.

This is an idea that might catch on, I hope so: how to live within a five-minute walk of your friends. To friends in rural Tangipahoa Parish, this may not work.

Yet another prediction of the Computer Science field. These come along every few years as computer scientists break barriers and change the definition of their endeavors.

Yet another post decrying the morass that Agile Development has become.

Using an exosuit or exoskeleton to run faster. These machines, like all useful machines, augment human power. How much does it cost and what is the benefit?

Kia nd Hyundai have a problem. Their cars can catch fire. So don't park your car in the garage. And their cars are easy to steal, so don't park them outside your garage.

The tech industry laid off massive numbers earlier this year. That has greatly decreased. The fired have not been rehired. Gas prices stopped rising, but have not come down. And we are to believe that the Bidenonomy is fine.

Code.org extends is training materials to the Farsi language that is most-used in Iran. They had to have a team of lawyers okay this move so that our government wouldn't jail them for educating people.

Food delivery robots have cameras. And, yes, all that video is stored and can be accessed by law enforcement agencies as evidence. We hope the proper procedures are used and folks don't abuse such.

A little insight into the X-59 supersonic aircraft that flies remarkably quiet.

After losing billion$$$ on the MetaVerse idea, Mark Zuckerburg still sings its praises.

Everyone wants to buy the Jensen Huang black leather jacket. He is founder and CEO of Nvidia and has lots of money. He always wears that jacket. He doesn't live in Louisiana in the summer.

Epic Games is cutting jobs and selling divisions.

Real news that isn't news: French law enforcement raid offices of successful American company so they can fine the American company.

And in America, law enforcement continues to subpoena Google data as evidence. Often, this spans beyond suspects and gathers data on citizen bystanders.

Amazon announces the general availability of Bedrock which is a fully managed generative AI service. Companies can pay for access to an API and build their own applications.

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Saturday 30 September 2023

AMEN! Good to see that someone else has a grasp of reality. Large language models do not encompass all of AI. Sorry for those who have accepted the hype.

Thoughts on open-source software and how non-profit organizations must make a profit (to pay salaries).

Engineering salaries, for those who have jobs and salaries, have not risen with inflation. Engineers are paid less now than when Mr. Biden took office.

Comparing working at a startup and working at an established company. The established company sounds much like government work, but not quite as bad. There is security in a job and there are many other things. Sometimes you settle for security.

Thoughts on AI and hardware and what may be next.

Cover a blimp with solar cells and fly around the equator nonstop. Why not? A somewhat useful experiment coming in 2026.

The smartest man in the world, that is Jony Ive, is working on the iPhone of AI or something that will make it all magically magic.

Intel claims major progress at its chip-making factory in Ireland.

Meanwhile at YouTube, things are going quite well with the NFL Sunday Ticket and other recent business ventures.

Meanwhile in Slovakia, deepfake videos are plaguing campaigning politicians. There are simple things that defeat such.

Meta trained its Llama2 language model with much, much longer sequences. The result is much better performance on long input sequences. Feed a long book into it in one jump and there you have it.

BIG NEWS! Toys-R-Us is returning with new stores across the US. They had closed six years ago.

A historical marker as Senator Dianne Feinstein of California dies at age 90. She was a US Senator for 30 years.

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Sunday 1 October 2023

Meanwhile in America, Congress critters act like public servants for a short while and pass a continuing resolution which prevents the Federal government from "shutting down." The government would not have shutdown, but that was what the headlines would say. Please note that Federal government agencies spent billion$ preparing for a possible shutdown. You would think by now these things would be routine and inexpensive, but this is government.

Here is a look at Magic School AI. It is a tool for teachers. Of course it claims all sorts of AI magic stuff.

Fear and loathing in generative AI and jobs and all that stuff.

This is a good explanation with famous photos discussing data bias in images.

A small study shows that business consultants using GPT-4 performed better than consultants who didn't. Great advertisement for OpenAI.

The New York Times bemoans the fact that "fact checkers" are going away. The New York Times never bothered much with fact checking itself.

Real news that isn't news: Canadian court rules that successful American company should be regulated and taxed more in Canada.

It has come to this. Not having much to do with their time, a generation of Americans is posting photos and videos of how they have spruced up their laundry rooms.

Now here is something to do with your spare time and money: buy your own little submarine.

The Free Software Foundation celebrated the 40th anniversary of the GNU operating system. It changed everything.

Microsoft looks to owning nuclear reactors to power the computers needed for AI.

There is some scientific evidence that near-death experiences are real. Some evidence. Let's not run wild with this.

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