Brian Dear

Author of "The Friendly Orange Glow" computer/tech history book (Pantheon, 2017) https://amzn.to/2ol9Lu6

In #NewMexico. Producer-arranger-musician, Confusion Boats.

Working on new #writing project.

Before: Founder of tech startups incl Coconut, Flatworks, Eventful, Nettle. Also stints at MP3•com, Eazel, eBay, Real.

#EVs #climate #books #techhistory #history #science #nonfiction #Film #Design #UX #UI #CX #product #architecture #Music #electronic #bass #keyboards #Movies

Music: Confusion Boats: http://confusionboats.bandcamp.com
Book: THE FRIENDLY ORANGE GLOW: https://amzn.to/2ol9Lu6
Blog: http://brianstorms.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/brianstorms_/

Public Key

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NIP-05 Address

brianstorms_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

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Author Public Key

npub1p2h7j28gajy7jqwc4rj36449gyzmvlgpzyjntssq3y446yx7szjsktj7r2

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Published at

2024-09-17T23:16:09Z

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Last Notes

2024-07-15 16:35:32

Item 82763 in my "I hate AI with the intensity of the heat-surface of the sun, but MY KINGDOM FOR..." list:
When I call some business or doctor office or anything that puts me on hold and plays "did you know you could go to our website" and other marketing message crap for many many many many many many minutes on end: I want #AI in my phone that filters all of it and just says "bla bla bla - still on hold" occasionally but then alerts you when a human comes on the line. I'd pay $$ for this app.

2024-06-20 17:32:15

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As a user I don't care how search functionality is implemented on the back end. I search, and as a user I get nothing, or very little. All I get is the confidence that Mastodon didn't find what I *know* is out there. And that's because of the policy decisions that were built right into the design and architecture, right into the DNA of Mastodon, decisions which essentially guarantee a disappointing search experience for users, regardless of how beautiful the code is.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/650/129/372/154/949/original/bfcd3f9b27cd5274.png

2024-06-20 17:16:18

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Oh, anything? Everything? Like, for example, I see something in the fast-moving river, and ten minutes later I think, I shoulda clicked on that link, and I try to search for it but no, it be gone, gone, gone, down the river and over the digital waterfall.
Search is always the single most consistent, most predictable, disappointment in Mastodon. In fact its lack may be the only disappointment in the overall Mastodon experience since I joined in 2017.
I wish it were not so.

2024-06-20 16:19:36

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And that is why Mastodon is stuck at 15 million accounts, only a fraction of which are active in any meaningful sense.
The lack of search functionality, blocked by a purist ideology held by another fraction of the user population, may be elegant (in the nerdy Linux sense) but it is an architectural form of pre-crime censorship and control, which has had clear and obvious effects on the “community” and on these so-called “conversations,” turning Mastodon into a fast-moving river.

2024-06-17 14:42:55

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I’d rather see detailed Emissions Facts labels and Surgeon General’s Warning labels about the emissions, required by law to be placed next to the Monroney sticker placed on the window of every new car and truck.

2024-06-14 16:02:22

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More lazy tech journalism. Let’s not actually do any investigating, rather, let’s just speculate and call it news.

2024-06-14 13:26:26

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Software running Mastodon on a shared blade or a few blades or even an entire aisle of racks of blades inside a vast data center full of countless aisles of racks of blades used by 1000s of other customers with their own compute/storage needs and applications is different than billion-dollar-plus LLMs running on systems that take up entire data centers and are forcing the construction of new ones with huge power requirements, Dave, as you well know.
https://time.com/6987773/ai-data-centers-energy-usage-climate-change/

2024-06-14 12:05:00

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Nah, ingest seems apt to describe a machine the size of several football fields that requires the power-equivalent a nuclear power station, whose purpose is to vacuum up, on a mass scale, not one book, not one newspaper, not one magazine, not one social media post, not one movie, not one image, not one tv show, not one audio recording, but all of them. To “learn” all culture, poorly, on an incomprehensible scale. To learn so we think we don’t have to. Doubleplus ungood imho.

2024-06-14 04:07:38

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So, if someone ELSE illegally puts, say, a copyrighted book online for free and Apple’s bots come across it and “ingest” it, that’s fair game? Yeah, I don’t think so.
This whole thing is one epic, gigantic heist, I tell you. Biggest heist in history. Trillions of $ are up for grabs and big tech wants it all.
And what is this big heist all about this time? Nothing leas than all knowledge. All culture. All civilization. Get #AI to ingest it all, sit back and then mo-net-ize. 💰💰💰

2024-06-11 23:51:35

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My next band name is Glue For Pizza.

2024-06-05 23:02:57

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Wimpy screen. For that much $, in 2024? Should be 20ft diagonal width.

2024-05-31 16:30:39

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All one need know about these Verge advertorials
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/536/651/903/926/946/original/5209432c40c7c729.jpeg

2024-05-24 18:08:11

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That does it.
My next band name is UDM 14.

2024-05-06 20:28:22

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Oil and gas industry, you mean. Do you really think Republicans are behind this? 🙄

2024-05-02 03:31:39

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I’ve been a Netflix customer for 22 long years. I miss their DVDs and Blu-rays. I will never see an ad on Netflix, and the closer they get to mandatory ads with a paid subscription (you’d have to be insane imho), the sooner I get to quitting their service. Ball is in your court Netflix. Whatcha gonna do.

2024-04-30 14:56:36

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NARRATOR: Kylie shows up at Verge HQ for her first day on the job and the receptionist is like, “uh, I don’t see you on any list here” and Kylie’s like, “I’m your new AI reporter” and the receptionist and another worker look at each other, puzzled. Then receptionist is like, “ohhhhhh I know what’s going on. Our publication now has an AI reporter… as in, an AI that does reporting. It just happens to be named Kylie… Sorry for the mixup, bye!”

2024-04-24 01:50:40

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Watch the media scramble to rewrite their narratives as they discover their old ones no longer fool people. Same as it ever was.

2024-04-19 21:56:26

LIMBO*, the new, grimy Australian Outback detective noir shot in exquisite, crisp, black-and-white in a super-wide aspect ratio, starts at a slow simmer and very carefully sticks to that pace for the duration, never lets up. Loved this film. Everything about it: bravo, well-done.
*There are many films named LIMBO but this is the new Australian one. See it. You may hate it. You may be bored. It’s not American. But it’s excellent imho.
#limbo #movie #movies #film #australia #outback
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/300/104/974/928/320/original/094da21c68cef01c.jpeg

2024-04-19 13:56:24

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One thing I dislike about Mastodon is how it is absolutely no different than Twitter, Reddit, etc.: Clickbait articles like this are more fuel on the Tesla bonfire, attracting drive-by potshots by ignorant whiners gloating over a tiny stupid recall about a plastic cover on an accelerator pedal of a brand-new vehicle that is nowhere near normal factory production levels yet. And yet utter silence from them about the MILLIONS of new vehicles that still have exhaust pipes in the 2020s.

2024-04-08 18:41:34

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People still have TVs?