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ubicomp

161 karma · joined August 17, 2017

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ubicomp··on Giving friends custom text buzzes based on Morse code
I do this and love this! I keep an older iPhone because it allows you to make these kinds of taps. It's also fun to show people how to make their own haptics. Way less looking at my phone, and more living.
ubicomp··on Eat Real Food
Is there a note about glyphosate here? I don't see it.
ubicomp··on AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'
FINALLY.
ubicomp··on AI promised efficiency. Instead, it's making us work harder
Just like with "automatic checkout systems" at a grocery store. Passing the labor onto the individual, vs. the expert. We don't even get the same infrastructure professionals get. A PLU for a piece of fruit is a mind-blurring whisk of hands over a dial pad for a pro, and a bit of mind-numbingly arduously piss-poor series of taps for the ill-positioned entrant.
ubicomp··on Claude can now search the web
That's a great way to use it!
ubicomp··on Claude can now search the web
Excited to see this. I've really been enjoying Claude. It feels like a different, more creative flavor of experience than GPT. I use Claude a lot for dialogues and exploring ideas, like a conversational partner. Having web access will add an interesting dimension to this.
ubicomp··on Calm tech certification "rewards" less distracting tech
I love it when you post about Mark, Don. Thank you for this!
ubicomp··on Saying Goodbye to Open Source Bridge (2018)
It was truly magical. I went to as many of them as possible.
ubicomp··on Why tech's favorite color is making us all miserable
The bright blue light of flat, rectangular touch screens, fans, and displays may be appealing from an aesthetic perspective, but there is a deeper story behind the scenes.
ubicomp··on Super Resolution: Image-to-Image Translation Using Deep Learning in ArcGIS Pro
Super exciting. Have been wanting to see this for years. Great job, Esri!
ubicomp··on How should AI systems behave, and who should decide?
I think OpenAI has done great work in advancing the field of AI and developing powerful tools like GPT-3. At the same time, I also believe that it's important to ensure that the development of AI systems is as inclusive and diverse as possible.

While OpenAI currently has a team of skilled engineers, I think it could benefit from hiring individuals with from different social classes and backgrounds (like blue collar workers, historians, anthropologists and artists) to contribute to the development of AI systems. This could help to create more well-rounded and effective AI solutions that consider a wider range of perspectives and potential impact on individuals and society.

ubicomp··on Estimating square roots in your head
We played a game in high school that I called "The Root is Right!" We'd take turns coming up with crazy numbers for each other to estimate in our heads. Then we'd draw little pictures of prizes for the person closest to the real root. We all got super good at estimating roots!

We used a lazy version of Heron’s method, which was just to memorize a bunch of general number roots, and then average our guesses based on closeness to that root. It ended up being as easy as mental math around tipping at a restaurant. It definitely came in handy for engineering classes later on!

ubicomp··on The expanding role of Cyber-Physical Systems
Excited to see more articles about this appearing on HN!
ubicomp··on Ask HN: Does anyone here make a living only from internet gigs?
I do. I started during the pandemic. I used to give speeches a various conferences and write books before, but there’s more than enough gig work in crypto now that I can work for several DAOs at a time. It’s a lot different, and there are rarely meetings. Most work is done on Discord, and the organizational mechanics are more Tao-like and less ego-focused. I’ve really worked to find the right DAOs and I’ve had to re-work my brain to do well in this space, but I’ll never sit through a terrible meeting again. One where nothing gets done. Most everything on Discord has a purpose, and the emoji reactions really help reward contributions. It’s all small details that add up to a larger sense of fulfillment. The pay is twice what I was paid for full time before. I also work about part time most weeks. Sometimes I work odd hours on a launch.
ubicomp··on Show HN: Job board to find venture capital jobs
Yeah, this is the largest I've ever seen it. Do you know what's driving the boom?
ubicomp··on Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends, not influencers
Re-doing social networks based on one size fits all social activity streams seems like it's going in the wrong direction. Especially since these social shapes typically necessitate funding requirements like ads or pay to play.

I wonder when we'll go back to forums to connect. Earlier "slow social" methods (mailing lists / message boards). Forums can be free. People can self-host. They can run for years and years and years. Folks can organize around a single subject or a series of subjects and grow together over time at various levels of engagement without resorting to a one size fits all model that social networks force on users.

I really enjoyed running forums for my friends. I never had to pay giant server fees because it was just a few of us. We had 100K page views per month. We never had to have ads. We had forum permissions and mods and a lot of fun times.

I see Discord being similar to this vs. social media, where you can slowly join communities and get nearer to the core. More of an onion model of community. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in this space.

ubicomp··on Request your personal information
"We’ve received and are processing your request to access your personal data. We will provide your information to you as soon as we can.

Usually, this should not take more than a *month*.

In exceptional cases, for example if a request is more complex or if we are processing a high volume of requests, it might take longer, but if so we will notify you that there will be a delay."

ubicomp··on E.O. Wilson has died
Gosh. What an amazing human. I think about his work often. It has had great influence on how I perceive the world. Rest in Peace.
ubicomp··on Manyverse – A social network off the grid
It's awesome to see this evolve!
ubicomp··on The first webcam was invented to keep an eye on a coffee pot
One of the earliest webcams is still around at MIT Media Lab! When I was there, I would use it to give away free food. It's installed in a corner of the lab facing down so you can place free objects under it. I would place free food under the webcam and press the broadcast button. It would send an image to various IRC channels and other subscribers. Within minutes, hungry lab folks would rush in to grab the food. Probably my favorite memory of being at the lab.
ubicomp··on Thoughts of work invaded my life until I learned how to unplug
I struggle with this daily. As the founder of a startup, I would routinely pull 100 hour weeks. I remember being invited to a Halloween party and just showed up as "exhausted software person" because I had no time to prepare a costume.

I took a break for 8 years from startups, because I was unable to create boundaries in my mind.

This April, after what I thought was a long enough break, I just joined another one.

I'm writing this right now because I woke up early in a panic attack about an announcement from one of our competitors. We have a big launch coming up this week, and I'm afraid that we're already too late. I feel my stomach clench and my mind race when I think about the next steps for the company.

The problem is that I'm only 4 months into the startup and I've already alienated my partner enough that I have to move out. My whole life has become devoured by this puzzle, and I'm always checking Twitter and Discord to see what I can work on next. I can't slow my heart-rate down and just work at this job normally.

If any of you have a good way of "turning off" in order to keep your family stable and mental health okay, please let me know. And I'm not looking for a run of the mill response -- I really would like some advice from people who have really dealt with this before. It's easy to give advice if you have good boundaries, but I would like some help from those who have really struggled.

I love my work, but I don't like how it makes me feel. Thanks for your help, everyone.

ubicomp··on A call to minimize distraction and respect users’ attention (2013)
Also see the principles of calm technology at calmtech.com
ubicomp··on A call to minimize distraction and respect users’ attention (2013)
Also see calmtech.com
ubicomp··on Grumpy Website – a blog about everything wrong with modern web & tech
Wonderful website! Can’t wait to regularly follow this.