mesh

>That is, these companies are largely not doing the hard part, which is creating and training these models in the first place.

fyi, for Adobe Firefly, we are training or models. From the FAQ:

"What was the training data for Firefly?

Firefly was trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content and public domain content, where copyright has expired."

https://firefly.adobe.com/faq

(I work for Adobe)

Ahh, you are saying the Economists app just uses RSS behind the scenes? Why didn't I think of that!?!

This actually solves real problems for me as I have to often drive through areas where I have no coverage, and I listen to the economist (much to the chagrin of my wife who is riding with me).

Thanks!

edit: Found the info, its actually on the Economists site (looks like you have to login):

https://www.economist.com/audio-edition

fyi, if you have a subscription to the Economist, you can read each edition offline via their mobile app. Available every Thursday.

You can also listen to it, but that doesnt work offline.

It really cool to hear from you. Was excited when I saw your post. Such amazing times!

Well, now, those images bring back a lot of memories.

I was in a similar boat. My early blog made money for me through affiliate sales for books about Flash, which eventually led to me writing books on Generator / Flash, which led to a job at Macromedia, which led to me reaching out and recognizing people in the community!

Miss blogs and the culture around them so much.

Here are some more images of some of that Macromedia swag: https://flickr.com/photos/mikechambers/albums/72157594191144...

The economist has an article this week that discusses this on a broader Japanese economic level:

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/01/31/i...

>Japanese firms have long been reluctant to raise pay. But in the face of protracted inflation, leaders have begun to change their tune. Keidanren, Japan’s business federation, has urged members to give consideration to rising prices. Some multinationals and big regional firms promise hefty pay increases. Fast Retailing, parent company of Uniqlo, a clothing giant, announced raises as high as 40%; Higo Bank, a lender in Japan’s south, plans to lift base salaries by 3%, the first such rise in 28 years. The question is whether the smaller firms that employ 70% of Japanese workers will follow suit.

I wonder if Twitter considered charging users of third party apps to be able to use them? i.e. in order to access Twitter via a third party app, you have to pay a monthly subscription to twitter.

I know Twitter has discussed subscriptions, and this seems like a way to leverage the value of third party apps to directly drive revenue. Maybe even give the third party app developers a cut. Then you have a situation where your developer ecosystem has incentives to drive usage and revenue for you.

> I still believe that Flash conceptually was a brilliant idea done terribly. It was slow, buggy, under developed functionality and a security nightmare.t

Relative to what though? There was nothing else with its ubiquity, ease of use and deployment, and breadth of functionality.

It pioneered and enabled so many things that we take for granted on the web today.

Personally, as someone who used it extensively, I don't feel it was particularly buggy, especially relative to the alternatives or developing in the browser. It could have performance issues, if developers did bad things or pushed it too hard, but you could say that for just about anything.

As far as security, it was the single most ubiquitous runtime on the web, and thus was a prime target for hackers. Yes, it had security issues (although every web runtime did), but its not like the rest of the web / browsers were particularly secure themselves.

fyi, I worked for Macromedia and work for Adobe now, but these are my personal opinions.

Personally, I think RTSs are way easier to watch. Its easier to understand what is going on at a base level (i.e. build an army and beat the other side).

MOBAs seem super confusing if you dont play. Its 30 minutes of nothing happening, and then like 15 seconds of people getting really excited and then the game is over.

Yeah, and it seems stadia was more difficult to setup than a console.

That was my experience. (I tried it for a free trial). Graphics were poor and input lag was abysmal (and made a lot of types of games unplayable).

>Chinese gov generally can't do anything in US compared to US government, so personally I think facebook is more risky.

The Economist discussed this last week:

>The bigger, underappreciated problem with TikTok is the chance it offers China to manipulate what the app’s vast foreign audience sees. TikTok has gone beyond sunny entertainment to become a major news platform. Open the app and among the songs and skits you may see Supreme Court protests or a flailing Boris Johnson. A quarter of American users say they consider TikTok to be a news source. In countries with weaker mainstream media the share is as high as 50%.

>That makes TikTok’s Chinese ownership a serious worry. The Chinese government actively meddles in domestic media; four years ago it shut down another popular ByteDance app, unamused by the subversive jokes being shared on it. TikTok’s content moderators are outside China. But the app’s algorithm is nurtured in Beijing. A tweak here or there could give more traction to videos questioning covid-19’s Chinese origin, say, or blaming nato for the war in Ukraine. Because each user gets a personalised feed, tampering would be hard to spot.

>TikTok insists no such meddling has taken place. But a company vulnerable to bullying by an authoritarian government obsessed with media manipulation is clearly a risk. Anyone who considers this paranoid should consider China’s record in Hong Kong. Without new safety mechanisms, Western countries might one day have to shut TikTok down.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/07/07/whos-afraid-of-...

fyi, different roasts require different grinds, and changing bean roasts without changing grind can definitely lead to bad coffee (even if the beans are high quality). In general, you have to tune in your grind for each roast.

Simple overview here: https://coffeechronicler.com/grind-size-chart/

fyi, The Economist discusses this topic this week:

For foster children, relatives can make all the difference https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/06/09/for-foste...

"Research shows that children who have been removed from their parents but brought up by relatives do better in myriad other ways. They are less likely to have a criminal record or become homeless (as more than a quarter of those who have been in foster care or institutions do). Research also suggests why that might be so. Relatives are less likely than foster parents to request that poorly behaved children be removed. And they are more likely to take in groups of siblings, who are routinely separated in the care system."

It also discusses some of the institutional structures that make this difficult (i.e. requiring that relatives become certified foster care participants before they can receive any of the support regular foster care participants receive).

He said "may not", which is the same as saying "may".

Have you had Fatty Tuna? OToro? It is super flavorful and luscious, much more so than the leaner cuts of Tuna. In my experience most tuna in sushi places and rolls is Akami (which is good, but not as flavorful).

Might be worth trying out if you haven't.

More info here:

https://www.umami-insider.com/tuna-otoro-chutoro-akami/

Just wanted to respond and second the comment on the Economist. I have been reading it for a year, and it has really given me a much broader and more balanced view of what is going on in the world (including in the US). I really like getting a perspective on US events, from outside the US.

It particularly nice because its a weekly with a subscription, so they don't have to be as click baitey with the titles and articles.

For reference, I also read Washington Post / New York Time (not great, but some baseline whats going on), The Atlantic, Jacobin, Wired (not very good anymore), and when I have time National Review.

Not really anymore.

Synthetic-aperture radar is making the Earth’s surface watchable 24/7 https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2022/01/27/sy...

Also Ito-Ya https://www.ito-ya.co.jp/lang/en/index.html

It seems pretty simple, I can spend money to rent a place, and after 30 years (rent), have nothing to show for the money I put in, or I can buy a house (mortgage), spend money for 30 years, and then have an asset I own.

Not to mention the freedom to do whatever you want to your home / house without having to ask for permission, or being in a position of putting money into an asset that you don't own.

If interested in reading more on this, and other abuses on the sea:

The Outlaw Ocean https://www.amazon.com/Outlaw-Ocean-Journeys-Untamed-Frontie...

This is based on a series of articles the author wrote for the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-out...

Native Americans represent 1.7% of the US population: https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=6...

When I was in graduate school way back in the 90s, I had an old dot matrix printer that I would use to print out the daily RFE / RI (Radio Free Europe) email news reports from Eastern Europe.

Its a huge waste of resources over time, but I find its much easy to focus and take in the information sitting at a table and reading over printed word.

I wonder if e-ink / paper devices might be able to replicate this now.

Note, most Non-Alcoholic beer actually has a small amount of alcohol (usually around 0.5%) which can add up depending how much you drink.

I would suggest reading some sources outside the US. Specifically, I would recommend the Economist. While the Economist has a very distinct view, it does provide a little higher level, distanced view of US and world politics.

It has highlighted to me some biases from some of the sources I follow on a day by day basis (NYT, Washington Post).

Bonus points for the Economist, because you also get coverage and analysis of events across the world many of which get almost 0 coverage in US press.

The only concern isnt just death, but also longer term issue such as long covid (which may be a bigger concern for this group).

In my experience, the vast majority of people go vegan out of concern for animals, and not primarily because they want to be more healthy.

Doing a quick search seems to support that, but perhaps the trends / reasons are changing as veganism in general becomes more mainstream.

https://vomadlife.com/blogs/news/why-people-go-vegan-2019-gl...

https://vomadlife.com/blogs/news/why-people-go-vegan-2019-gl...

More and more games are providing cross platform play. I suspect this is one reason Microsoft was interested so PC / Xbox players could play with each other and communication.

Maybe Discord could monetize in game integration for its voice network, especially on console games.

The creative process isnt just the end result, but also the process and medium.

I dont mind Apple putting more restrictions around signing, but they make it SO onerous for Desktop users to explicitly allow unsigned apps.

Tell me its unsigned and the dangers, but then give me the option to run it. Stop treating me like some dolt.

Right now, you have to really jump through hoops:

https://github.com/mikechambers/dcli/wiki/Running-dcli-tools...

(this is for a open source project I run)