Dan Nosowitz hits the nail on the head in I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore:
And then, one day, I think in 2013, Twitter and Facebook were not really very fun anymore. And worse, the fun things they had supplanted were never coming back. Forums were depopulated; blogs were shut down. Twitter, one agent of their death, became completely worthless: a water-drop-torture feed of performative outrage, self-promotion, and discussion of Twitter itself.
Wow! Lobe’s introduction video is really well done. This is LEGO for AI.
Jacob Silverman:
For the better part of two decades, an important set of assumptions has underwritten our use of the internet. In exchange for being monitored — to what degree, many people still have no idea — we would receive free digital services.
Switching off of Google in 2018 is easy because you’ve probably abandoned most of their products anyway, and the ones you’re still using are stagnating.
Equipped with audio sensors, a ‘self-deploying sensor network’ and the ability to call for human assistance, they can swarm en masse like insects across difficult or damaged terrains to search for anyone who needs help.
How to edit the titles of iCloud Photos Memories:
On iOS, you have to start the movie, and then you can tap the edit button. There you can change the title, title image and remove photos.
I only discovered this useful feature a few months ago. And although on iOS it feels like more of a workaround, I now use it regularly.
Wow! Google is going to make podcast listening on Android a first-class experience. And there is a world to win, because:
(..) the majority of people who listen to podcasts do so on an iPhone. It’s actually so egregious that on a device-by-device basis, the average iPhone listens to over ten times more podcasting than the average Android. It’s also Google’s first serious move in trying to become the dominant player in the podcast space.
I finally read the New Yorker article on Susan Kare, ‘The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile’. And loved this detail about the Command icon on every Mac keyboard:
The command icon, still right there to the left of your space bar, was based on a Swedish campground sign meaning “interesting feature,” pulled from a book of historical symbols. The hardest icons were actions that didn’t have a real world equivalent, like Undo.
Scientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles – by accident. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.
Very interesting article by Rob Rhyne on one of the main characters in The Expanse and Back Burner thinking:
I rely on my sub-conscious brain to churn through what I observe, and process everything into a cohesive picture. The shower, the dinner table, and the car are most often the places where an idea will surface that pulls everything together for me. At times I’ll gaze into the distance. Other times, I need a monotonous task which requires only a little attention.
