Dare Obasanjo

Opinions about product management, technology news and inclusivity in tech. Diversity is about demographics, inclusion is about creating a sense of belonging.

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Last Notes

2024-08-08 08:54:13

During ZIRP, tech products promised us convenience and lower prices.
While the convenience of Uber over taxis and streaming apps over cable TV was real, the lower prices were a mirage.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-broken-promises-streaming-ride-hailing-cloud-computing-2023-8
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/925/556/705/616/537/original/237b5fd234e79de3.jpeg

2024-08-06 02:31:38

The prompts for Apple Intelligence’s LLMs have been located in system file folders on MacOS. I find it fascinating that we are science fiction tropes from Asimov’s “I, Robot” series of books are now real.
Telling AI to perform tasks and not make stuff up is the new programming.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/5/24213861/apple-intelligence-instructions-macos-15-1-sequoia-beta
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/912/727/649/175/303/original/7efa49613add0400.jpeg

2024-06-28 21:04:21

I can only assume Microsoft has laid off all its lawyers.
https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-web-content-freeware-443775
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/696/272/603/995/539/original/1b14a43c331c43cf.jpeg
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/696/272/952/479/924/original/4e1c4b39fbdac2d1.jpeg

2024-05-24 14:32:06

I’ve lost hundreds of followers on Twitter this week writing about the potential and impact of LLMs on people and businesses.
No idea if people are bored with the topic or my takes were just that bad.😁
Either way I think LLMs are disruptive and the question is just how disruptive not if.

2024-05-24 05:22:57

OpenAI doing a content deal with News Corp is expected at this point as every major news site has erected a paywall.
That said it’s amusing to see OpenAI talk about “supporting the highest journalistic standards” when describing their deal to getting access to The New York Post and Thd Sun for use in ChatGPT.
https://openai.com/index/news-corp-and-openai-sign-landmark-multi-year-global-partnership/

2024-05-12 21:48:55

When I worked on the Metaverse, I talked with developers about whether generative AI would make creating games cheaper and they disagreed.
They also quoted the example of CGI in Hollywood movies. It simply raised the bar on expectations versus enabling cheaper special effects.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/430/319/635/717/025/original/273be7a3a904d614.jpeg

2024-03-31 18:46:49

Whenever people complain about their favorite intellectual property from their childhood becoming “woke” it’s usually because it simply went over their heads as kids.
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/191/786/510/696/406/original/ba461b56aa692b71.jpeg

2024-03-23 15:14:09

The hard part about evaluating successful people who’ve been at a company for several years is it’s hard to determine if they’re good at getting things done or good at getting things done AT THAT COMPANY.
Too many friends have shared stories of hiring ex-FAANG people who try to replay their previous company playbook without the same resources, culture or strategic advantages. This is important to filter for in interviews and interrogate yourself as well for similar tendencies.

2024-03-23 02:46:08

Really incredible that someone can be good at running companies full of rocket scientists (SpaceX) or brain surgeons (NeuraLink) but then totally 💩the 🛏️ running a social media site.
It really makes you wonder…
https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/112/142/710/452/054/380/original/db6997d949ef5c25.jpeg

2024-02-22 23:23:01

The past month of in tech has been this headline. Both Microsoft and Google announced over $20B in profits along with thousands laid off.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-company-is-doing-so-well-that-youre-all-fired
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/977/703/980/303/729/original/1e1a5b2f10a936e1.png

2024-02-15 20:13:54

As part of DMA compliance, Apple will no longer support Progressive Web Apps in the EU.
It’s going to be quite impressive if the primary outcome from Apple’s DMA compliance efforts are worse user experiences and no improvements in competition in the iOS ecosystem.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/937/324/950/609/799/original/13a3b03858a681e2.jpeg

2024-02-15 11:29:23

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that governments asking tech companies to provide encryption backdoors violates human rights.
This is awkward as various European countries are trying to pass laws mandating exactly that. Hopefully this is one more nail in the coffin.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/human-rights-court-takes-stand-against-weakening-of-end-to-end-encryption/

2024-02-11 17:24:45

A huge flaw in American socioeconomic policy is that housing is seen as an investment.
So much that increasing housing supply is seen as a disaster because rents decline and become more affordable.
Housing should be a utility like water or power not a 401(K) with a roof.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/914/010/633/593/712/original/1fc7b4a7b9251f0e.jpeg

2024-01-31 10:19:03

Microsoft justifies its spot as the most valuable company in the world by beating expectations and a positive outlook for the rest of the year.
• Revenue +18% to $62B
• Profits +25% to $27B
Maybe employees can get raises this year after none last year.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-beats-q2-earnings-on-ai-cloud-strength-shares-flat-185023451.html

2024-01-27 17:02:43

I can’t speak to other countries but the US literally elected a rapist as president (potentially twice) and is banning abortion in multiple states along with other anti-women policies.
This trend is like the ground being wet after it has rained.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/828/989/116/293/953/original/afd65e65243d5878.jpeg

2024-01-18 11:27:38

As callous as Google’s and other big tech layoffs have been by sending you an email saying you’re unemployed, the viral Cloudflare layoff video is proof that it would be even worse optics for companies to do more.
Best to realize we’re all just numbers on a spreadsheet to corporations. Expecting loyalty from them is like expecting a hug from a rock. It’s so impossible as to be nonsensical.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/776/710/972/057/914/original/8c11e226982ec1a0.jpeg

2024-01-15 17:01:01

US Customs have approved Apple’s workaround to get around the import ban on the latest Apple Watches by disabling the pulse oximeter features which violate Masimo’s patents.
It is wild to me that Apple has gone this route instead of licensing the patent.
https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/15/apple-watch-blood-oxygen-feature-remove-ban/

2024-01-12 13:00:26

Silicon Valley CEOs are working overtime to ensure they never get asked questions about four day workweeks ever again.

2024-01-07 04:56:12

This is like writing a news story about how water is wet and the sky is blue.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/712/885/981/511/396/original/60bb03d033a05286.jpeg
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/712/886/002/278/175/original/5510b1b591008202.jpeg

2023-11-12 03:51:57

A Tesla whistle blower was fired after raising concerns about the safety of Tesla's Autopilot driver-assistance software and has leaked thousands of accident reports.
Anyone who's watched Elon running Twitter into the ground while also unmasking his far right tendencies is probably not surprised that Tesla cut corners on safety and retaliates against anyone who complains.
It's stunning to me how many people keep buying Tesla's each month and put their lives in his hands
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/business/tesla-whistleblower-elon-musk.html

2023-10-30 21:57:03

The new business model for X is the original business model for Twitter which Elon dismantled on taking over the company.
An entire year to pull off the strategic equivalent of standing in place while driving away users, decimating its advertiser base and creating openings for competitors.
Truly, a business genius walks among us.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/326/201/041/913/196/original/eda5979330afeda1.jpeg

2023-10-06 11:54:44

I love the banality of Trump’s crimes. People think he’s a criminal mastermind selling nuclear secrets to the Saudis and he’s just trying to impress dinner guests at Mar-a-Lago with juicy gossip.
Was he subservient to Putin because of kompromat? No, he just thought Putin was a cool guy he wanted to impress.
74 million votes in the last election. 91 felony indictments. GOP front runner currently polling at 57% to win the nomination to run again as president.

2023-10-01 21:57:07

One of the fun challenges of building social products or even multiplayer games is that you can give people tools but can’t control how they use them.
You can tell people to use quote posts positively but can’t control people using them to dunk. Your game can limit communication to a fixed set of emoji reactions and users will find a way to imbue them with both positive and toxic meanings.
People are the hardest part of social software.

2023-10-01 11:55:22

It’s kind of disappointing that almost 4 years after the start of the COVID era, the only lasting cultural changes are the destigmatization of making content on OnlyFans and the mainstreaming of anti-vaccine perspectives.

2023-09-30 11:42:19

There’s going to be a golden window of opportunity for knowledge workers where AI makes you better at your job followed by a through of despair when AI can just do your job and you’re not needed anymore.

2023-09-26 22:25:58

Welcome to the cycle of generative AI making search worse.
Quora uses ChatGPT which hallucinates an answer to a nonsense question.
Google Search picks up this nonsense answer from Quora which has high page rank and treats it as an instant answer.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/133/796/091/643/423/original/92f5286a1b2c5f45.jpeg
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/133/796/200/627/736/original/3bc9c49786554f27.jpeg

2023-09-24 04:41:01

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Tim Cook laid it out for his investors as to why the company will always be against users repairing gheir devices. When people can repair their devices, they don't buy new ones. When people don't buy new devices, Apple doesn't sell them new devices. It's that's simple.
Making cringe inducing skits about how much they care about the environment while doing everything they can to make iPhones disposable is the kind of corporate duplicity that’d make oil companies blush
https://www.inverse.com/article/52189-tim-cook-says-apple-faces-2-key-problems-in-surprising-shareholder-letter

2023-09-24 04:28:07

When Apple vocally switched sides to support California’s “right to repair” law, I knew there had to be a catch. Cory Doctorow explains the catch eloquently.
Apple uses VIN locking or parts pairing which is a process also used by car makers, printer manufacturers & Medtronic ventilators that requires a secret code from the manufacturer to enable replacement parts to be recognized. Bypassing it violates the DMCA which as a federal law beats state laws.
Checkmate!
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

2023-09-16 13:57:33

I can’t get over the rapid shift in power dynamics where various blue collar workers are going on strike snd earning 20% to 40% wage increases while tech workers are being laid off by email and threatened with losing their jobs if they don’t take their Zoom calls from the office.

2023-09-15 10:52:29

You can now pay to hide your likes from your profile on Twitter/X.
The problem with creating subscription tiers for consumer social software products is that you end up building features that are really valuable to everyone’s experience like editing posts and privacy features but then only give them to richer users.
All this, and companies will still need to run ads to pay the bills as Snapchat & Twitter/X. The paid consumer social model will need IAPs & whales to be truly free of ads.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/068/783/949/425/753/original/2ce63e5e927e10d3.jpeg

2023-09-10 16:08:34

One of the broken things about late stage capitalism is that we’ve decided that the executive who says we need to make touch screen smartphones or self driving cars is more deserving of recognition and financial reward than the people who actually build these modern marvels of technology.
This applies to every industry not just tech. Tech is just the one that I happen to be in.

2023-09-10 15:54:21

I need the Slack message version of this.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/041/659/308/153/349/original/3be9179fc285f0eb.jpeg

2023-09-10 14:29:44

One of the most useful mental skills you learn as a product manager is that every decision is about tradeoffs and there are rarely any perfect decisions.

2023-09-10 14:02:43

There are so many complaints about Cruise & Waymo’s robotaxis yet quite often the substance of the negative articles looks like making mountains out of molehills (e.g. claims that an ambulance was blocked by Cruise robotaxis when videos show it drove around them).
The societal value of autonomous vehicles is that they are safer than human driven cars. We should judge them on that criteria instead of the media’s incessant desire to pain tech as the bad guys.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/07/robotaxis-san-francisco-cruise-ceo/

2023-09-10 13:42:52

Are you passionate about technology? I’m passionate about having my bills paid.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/111/041/142/297/385/580/original/02df26a9157d733b.jpeg

2023-09-08 23:47:28

It’s hard to take any article that says web traffic to ChatGPT has been declining for 3 months seriously if it also doesn’t point out they launched an iPhone app 3 months ago followed by an Android app about a month ago.
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/08/chatgpt-web-traffic-decline-third-month#

2023-09-07 01:13:48

Apple’s moral high ground exists only as much as it helps them to justify anti-competitive moves. By buying ads on Twitter, they are directly funding payouts to people like Andrew Tate, Ian Miles Cheong and the End Wokeness account.
But Tim Cook sure knows how to clutch his pearls when talking about other social media companies especially those who he’s planning to compete with in AR/VR headsets.
https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/elon-musk-thanks-disney-apple-twitter-advertisers-1235545858/amp/

2023-09-04 23:11:56

Still trying to figure out how Apple has confirmed it has over 1 billion active iPhones but less than 45 million iMessage users in the EU.
I’m guessing it’s the difference between iMessage as a network (blue bubbles) and iMessage as an app that includes SMS (green bubbles).
So they could be arguing less than 45M iPhone users in the EU message other iPhone users and get blue bubbles. Even that seems unlikely but it’s the only plausible argument I’ve come up with so far.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/09/04/apple-allegedly-arguing-imessage-isnt-big-enough-to-be-eu-gatekeeper-service/amp/

2023-09-03 00:34:00

The moral of this story about a developer who helped the team by pair programming and coaching junior engineers at the expense of his own individual metrics is “you shouldn’t judge a fish by how well it climbs a tree.”
Unfortunately companies tend to standardize on performance review systems that are easy to measure. So there are often people who add a ton of value who end up penalized by the system.
https://dannorth.net/2023/09/02/the-worst-programmer/

2023-09-01 04:17:23

All of Elon’s Twitter shenanigans have built up to this moment.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/987/957/548/017/908/original/676ba07c16550057.jpeg
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/987/957/729/731/388/original/3f47c65b277e9502.jpeg

2023-09-01 02:00:53

https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/987/421/278/427/045/original/b8aca0f8e37a9330.jpeg

2023-08-31 03:18:50

Atlassian’s CEO goes to the office once a quarter and says remote work allows employees to live in cheaper areas further away from the office.
As I go into the office multiple times a week to sit on Zoom calls with people working from home, I think he has a point.
https://fortune.com/2023/08/29/atlassian-ceo-scott-farquhar-office-once-a-quarter-remote-work/

2023-08-27 13:29:58

Tech media coverage is particularly embarrassing when it comes to covering EU regulation. I remember the coverage of GDPR being misleading and its repeating with the DSA.
You read a bunch of headlines about the EU is finally clamping down on big tech but the story is actually that you can now report fake Gucci bags on Amazon and Twitter has to explain why your tweet was taken down.
So anticlimactic and so little depth or nuance in the coverage.

2023-08-27 13:06:18

The Digital Services Act went live in the EU on Friday. The below is a handy list of the most visible changes Europeans will see
1. Chronological views are now a required option in social media apps including TikTok.
2. It’s easier to report harmful content.
3. You’ll get an explanation when your post is moderated and taken down.
4. You can report fake products on marketplaces like Amazon.
5. Teens under 18 won’t see targeted ads based on their interests.
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-europe-big-tech.html

2023-08-27 02:21:11

When you exist only to pull people down into the same suffocating blackness that fills you — “you are a tar pit”
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/959/189/535/121/818/original/714d4bb007180c40.png

2023-08-27 01:54:51

His sacrifice now in vain
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/959/085/957/990/925/original/6f0fa3b8cadf31aa.jpeg

2023-08-26 18:00:41

Several years ago at Microsoft, I saw an observation that there were 3 primary business models in big tech. Selling
1. Software
2. Hardware
3. Ads
The challenge for companies was that your core business was being given away for free by someone with a different business model. You sell Windows and Google gives away Android for the search ads revenue. Lots of hardware sold at a loss to make up the difference in subscriptions.
This is what’s happening with streaming. https://stratechery.com/2023/disneys-taylor-swift-era/

2023-08-26 16:50:00

14 years later and the only industry that Bitcoin has revolutionized is the ransomware industry.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/956/943/503/916/092/original/83e85f9fc56d78c1.mp4

2023-08-26 15:20:48

It’s been about a year and a half since I switched back to being a manager after a stint as an individual contributor.
It’s taken almost that long to fully switch my mindset back to the focus being 100% on supporting and enabling others to do the work versus doing the work myself except for rare exceptions.
Both the manager and the team are better for it once this mindset is fully dialed in.

2023-08-24 02:32:44

Zoom’s CEO justifies return to office policy by arguing employees can't be as innovative or get to know each other on Zoom. 🤦🏾‍♂️
https://www.businessinsider.com/zoom-ceo-employees-return-to-office-2023-8

2023-08-23 04:57:01

A lot of people need to stop trying to satisfy their inner child and instead get more comfortable with their outer adult.

2023-08-23 04:26:36

Hard to argue NFTs aren’t securities if someone is doing jail time for insider trading of them. Selling NFTs based on insider info and pump & dumps was fairly normal during the crypto boom.
I’ve actually been surprised no one’s gone after major VC firms given everyone from Sotheby’s to Paris Hilton has been sued. I doubt they’re as culpable as a bunch of obvious but unnamed VC firms.
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/08/22/ex-opensea-executive-nate-chastain-gets-3-months-in-prison-for-insider-trading/

2023-08-22 04:42:45

We’ve been giving more and more to shareholders after the past 40 years. Maybe it’s time for the workers to get a taste?
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/931/434/621/701/950/original/a8a2d8e16d144b8d.jpeg

2023-08-22 04:40:44

When you realize you didn’t invest in an NFT, you overpaid for a JPEG.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/931/426/727/535/688/original/2d63c8f785c8932f.jpeg

2023-08-22 01:43:18

The promise of unlimited PTO is that you can tell your manager you aren’t coming to work next month. The reality of unlimited PTO is that you might as well spend that month interviewing for a new job.

2023-08-21 20:04:15

Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap.
In other words, enshitification comes for us all. 😏
https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-broken-promises-streaming-ride-hailing-cloud-computing-2023-8?utm_source=reddit.com

2023-08-21 13:44:57

This post is a great reminder that when writing technical documentation, your readers will just copy your examples verbatim a lot of the time.
You have to be thoughtful about things like sample code or example configurations because that’s actually going to be a lot of your customer’s production code and deployed configurations.
This applies outside of technical writing as well. People treat analogies and examples as just as canonical as the thing you’re teaching.
https://blog.thinkst.com/2023/08/default-behaviour-sticks-and-so-do-examples.html

2023-08-21 13:35:35

Investors have finally caught up to the money saving scam that is unlimited PTO and soon every company will do it.
PTO not taken is money the company literally owes the employee which is paid out in cash when they leave the company.
Unlimited PTO removes this financial liability by saying just take any work day off you like and you just get paid as normal. The reality is people take less time off in that model and tend to work during time off in that model.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-14/unlimited-vacation-companies-seen-beating-s-p-500-investors-say?srnd=markets-weekly-mliv-pulse-survey&linkId=229837377

2023-08-20 18:05:10

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@npub1j0r…lmkr I have no idea what point you’re trying to make. The point I made was given the choice between hard news and right wing grifting masquerading as news, the #1 show in that time slot was the latter.
That is what viewers chose without being influenced by social media algorithms.
Whether or not Tucker Carlson still has fans without his show is irrelevant to the point I am making.

2023-08-20 18:02:31

The philosophy inspiring 99% of the work done in corporate America.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/923/254/842/607/822/original/783fed54ac4e486d.jpeg

2023-08-20 17:15:48

Just looked at my list of chores for the day
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/923/071/132/083/529/original/94ac91bfe1be4c78.jpeg

2023-08-20 16:05:19

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The filter bubble discourse was a function of the hubris and entitlement of the media.
The hubris being the belief that if people just read their brilliant articles then they’d choose the “correct” politics.
The entitlement in being upset that social media companies weren’t making their content as popular as right wing grifters. Ignoring the reality that many more people want right wing grifter content than news which is why Tucker Carlson had the #1 cable news show.

2023-08-20 15:15:03

The media got a lot of mileage out if talking about “filter bubbles” by making it seem social media was harming society by encouraging people to only consume content they agree with.
However the reality is that
1. People don’t want to consume content they disagree with. The user exodus from Twitter as it tilted right is a great example.
2. You are more likely to encounter content you disagree with in a feed than on your favorite cable news show, newspaper, blog or podcast.

2023-08-20 13:13:13

Laying the groundwork for the inevitable bankruptcy
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/922/117/253/238/984/original/2f4d0806686fccee.jpeg

2023-08-19 22:21:54

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@npub1ag5…p822 This is extremely old news https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/11/23719578/microsoft-raises-salaried-employees-memo-ceo

2023-08-19 22:12:58

Microsoft employees right now.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/918/577/318/797/950/original/c364a8d8896e49fc.jpeg

2023-08-19 15:10:41

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@npub1z7r…rp7j indeed it is

2023-08-19 14:48:08

The Overton window has shifted from debating working from home versus the office to whether leaving the office at 5PM is a bad look.
We’ve lost. 🤦🏾‍♂️
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/opinion/corporate-work-life-balance.html?trk=storyline-feed_main-feed-storyline-activity-card_reshare_feed-article-content

2023-08-19 14:43:12

How I sleep knowing we didn’t deploy anything on Friday
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/916/808/774/403/324/original/5818a71ecb51a7eb.jpeg

2023-08-19 01:46:42

The best thing about Elon posting some crazy idea about how to ruin Twitter is when Jack shows up to agree and throw the old leadership under the bus forgetting he’s the old leadership.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/913/755/418/680/759/original/7fcb6178e673aa36.jpeg

2023-08-18 18:25:34

Even if you paid me to come up with ideas to ruin a social media app you spent $44 billion on, I couldn’t come up with ideas this bad.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/912/020/857/012/765/original/4002ccd8fc9ead60.jpeg

2023-08-18 12:24:55

A lot of tech journalism is just reporting leaks with no analysis or attempt to put the leak in context.
The story states that Spotify believes it could make $38 million more in profits if it stopped hosting podcasts with white noise like crashing waves that people use for sleep sounds.
What I don’t get is how a podcast of birds chirping is worse financially for Spotify than listening to Drake’s music or a Joe Rogan podcast? That would be an actually informative story
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-08-17/white-noise-podcasters-are-costing-spotify-38-million-a-year

2023-08-18 03:27:51

Hollywood is going to learn the wrong lessons from this and make more movies about toy franchises instead of more movies that center women’s experiences
https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/barbie-warner-bros-biggest-movie-us-beats-dark-knight-1235697702/

2023-08-18 01:16:57

Coinbase is such a caricature of a real company. It tries to be the most ethical player in a crooked industry but even then ends up having to do things like challenge the US Treasury’s attempt to regulate financial crimes in court.
And of course, it lost the case. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/08/17/coinbase-backed-group-loses-lawsuit-arguing-tornado-cash-sanctions-overstepped-us-treasurys-authority/

2023-08-18 00:45:32

Tesla failed to fix limitations in its Autopilot system following a Florida crash that killed a driver in 2016, company engineers said in a family’s lawsuit over a very similar 2019 fatal crash.
The company did not make any changes to its driver-assistance technology to account for crossing traffic in the nearly three years between two high-profile accidents that killed Tesla drivers whose cars slammed into the side of trucks.
Life or death bugs punted for 3 years.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/motoring/2631110

2023-08-17 11:19:21

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The primary cleverness of the Community Notes algorithm is that it detects political extremes in an emergent manner and then requires notes to cross a threshold of “both sides find this helpful” to be published.
While it means a lot if fact checks don’t get published it does mean that the ones you see are far less controversial than those you see in other fact checking schemes.

2023-08-17 11:18:32

Community notes is one of the most thoughtful and innovative features to cone out of Twitter.
It provides a model for fact checking of content across a breadth of topics regardless of importance of the topic which means you end up flagging both big lies like election misinformation but also small lies like rise & grind grifters posing besides rented cars claiming to be millionaires.
Centralized fact checking via companies like Snopes aren’t going to catch the latter. https://vitalik.ca/general/2023/08/16/communitynotes.html

2023-08-17 11:03:50

When Coinbase launched a blockchain I almost posted a meme of cops celebrating all the scammers they’d catch but thought it was tacky.
About a month latter and hundreds of scam tokens & rug pulls have launched on Coinbase’s blockchain.
So predictable yet still so disappointing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-16/coinbase-coin-blockchain-base-is-flooded-with-hundreds-of-scam-crypto-tokens#xj4y7vzkg

2023-08-17 02:33:52

The University of Chicago is the first of 16 schools to settle claims it participated in a price fixing cartel with Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, and Yale.
These schools limited availability of financial aid to students. U of Chicago will pay $13.5M to settle the suit.
It’s incredible how greedy these schools are despite their massive endowments. Many, if not all, worth billions.
https://www.businessinsider.com/do-i-qualify-for-university-of-chicago-settlement-financial-aid-2023-8

2023-08-17 01:35:55

The ugly truth about most subscription services is that a non-trivial amount of revenue comes from making it a hassle to cancel the service.
Even the New York Times which regularly publishes articles about “dark patterns” doesn’t let you unsubscribe without talking to customer service unless you’re in California (because that’s illegal there).
https://fortune.com/2023/08/15/subscription-economy-forgetfulness-boost-200-study/

2023-08-16 22:28:08

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@npub1tep…ms03 collecting

2023-08-16 10:31:41

There are two key takeaways from the Dot Com bubble that I believe are relevant today
1. The enthusiasm was right but the timing was wrong. A bunch of the ideas that were deemed failures then are huge companies today (e-commerce, online pet stores, food delivery, etc)
2. Investors bet on the wrong companies being the ones to capture the value (e.g. Cisco)
AI isn’t a bubble like say crypto was but we are at the peak of inflated expectations.
https://futurism.com/ai-dot-com-bubble

2023-08-16 10:00:34

My favorite thing about AI chatbots is how they’ve made this type of “hacking” from Isaac Asimov’s novels a reality. 😆
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/898/710/513/470/266/original/106183ad16d9a3b0.jpeg

2023-08-16 09:23:36

What it’s like to be one of Trump’s indicted co-conspirators who he never paid but now need to come up with lawyer money.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/898/565/095/855/204/original/3aa7fb043e7da410.jpeg

2023-08-16 03:13:50

The funny thing is that these price increases don’t take into account costs going up after they settle the SAG & WGA strikes.
So more price increases are likely coming which means more people questioning if they should be paying for all these services.
It’s definitely a transitional time for the streaming industry.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/897/111/121/135/223/original/75253534314e03e0.jpeg

2023-08-15 23:29:46

The head of Alexa, Echo and other devices at Amazon is retiring.
This was once considered the next big thing until everyone realized voice based user interfaces actually suck and Alexa never got smart enough to do anything besides set timers & play music reliably.
That said the flood of random Alexa devices like microwaves to wall clocks was an irrationally exuberant time in tech. 😃
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-leader-on-alexa-echo-and-other-devices-plans-to-leave-cde4f689?trk=storyline-feed_main-feed-storyline-activity-card_feed-article-content

2023-08-15 13:26:00

The average US president has been charged with 2 felonies.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/893/855/983/876/888/original/003a33701ae50bbb.png

2023-08-15 10:29:44

The Republican Party front runner is going to have multiple conflicting court dates for felony crimes while campaigning for US president.
And Ron DeSantis still has no shot of catching him in the polls. Can’t tell who’s the bigger loser, Ron or the political party who produces these as its best candidates.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/893/162/901/125/780/original/679cb53f43dab2b1.jpeg

2023-08-15 05:07:09

Alanis Morissette wrote a song about this.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/891/894/392/591/856/original/b78d4854bbf912d9.jpeg

2023-08-15 05:03:08

The master has become the student https://www.businessinsider.com/rudy-giuliani-indicted-georgia-trump-rico-2023-8

2023-08-15 04:59:40

Indictment number four. The GOP front runner infinity gauntlet is almost complete.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/891/864/967/369/233/original/2e7cb000cc1c0a5d.jpeg

2023-08-15 00:40:22

Another successful graduate of the college of Fuck Around and Find Out
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/890/845/193/798/319/original/66e273b8e91ebb79.jpeg

2023-08-14 23:41:12

This is a wild turn of events.
Former NFL player Michael Oher, subject of the 2009 movie "The Blind Side” featuring Sandra Bullock, petitioned a court Monday with allegations that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never adopted him, instead tricked him into a signing a document making them his conservators and enriching themselves.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38190720/blind-side-subject-michael-oher-alleges-adoption-was-lie-amily-took-all-film-proceeds

2023-08-14 13:22:56

I just noticed a nice symmetry between Mastodon and Threads.
On Mastodon likes are pointless (they don’t improve a For You page or act as recommendations to followers) and on Threads reposts are pointless (they don’t show up in the Following feed nor is there a count of how often an item’s been reposted).
I love how each Twitter replacement copies a feature from Twitter that actually is incompatible with their own view of the product.

2023-08-14 13:18:24

Software development is like being the hero of an open world RPG.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/888/163/772/670/013/original/276760f52dc5d6d1.jpeg

2023-08-14 12:35:13

I’ll never stop being blown away by Google visibly firing Timnit Gebru for pointing out the risks of AI only for its CEO to recite her talking points in a weekly basis once OpenAI launched ChatGPT.
If the tech industry paid residuals, Timnit would be getting a massive check from Google each month for this. 😁
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/women-warnings-ai-danger-risk-before-chatgpt-1234804367/

2023-08-14 12:12:07

The US wants TSMC to build a chip factory in Arizona but the company is having trouble getting visas for its workers because the local pipe fitters & HVAC workers union wants them to hire Americans.
America’s anti-immigration stance gets more self destructive each year. Big tech companies like Google & Microsoft wouldn’t have their current success if they were founded in today’s anti-immigration climate.
$52B CHIPS Act undone by an HVAC workers union. 🤦🏾‍♂️
https://www.businessinsider.com/tsmc-taiwan-semiconductor-phoenix-arizona-factory-chipmaker-job-qualification-debate-2023-8?utm_source=reddit.com

2023-08-14 03:57:15

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@npub1tep…ms03 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I’m pumped I bought it 😄

2023-08-14 03:22:08

What if generative AI turns out to be an overhyped dud? I think that question depends on how you define success.
This article has a few examples including generating trillions in revenue or helping OpenAI justify its $29 billion valuation.
I think generative AI will be immensely transformative but unsure if it’ll be in the way VCs expect. Python & ML recommendation algorithms have been immensely transformative but can we attribute trillions in revenue to them?
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/what-if-generative-ai-turned-out

2023-08-14 02:52:11

This is even more of amazing in person than the Instagram ad made it look.
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/885/701/203/014/409/original/e82c4924777a3257.jpeg
https://media.mas.to/masto-public/media_attachments/files/110/885/701/357/338/704/original/e3f280a22a27639e.jpeg