AJ Sadauskas / is on Nostr

Australian urban planning, public transport, politics, retrocomputing, and tech nerd. Recovering journo. Cat parent. Part-time miserable grump.

Cities for people, not cars! Tech for people, not investors!

Pixelfed: AJ Sadauskas (npub1eer…gagn)
Lemmy: AJ Sadauskas (npub1zxj…fpsc)

Last Notes

2024-06-11 05:38:58

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They all seem to be busy mansplaining 'well acktuallllly LLMs are good if you just understand them' as fast as their single-mouse-button-grasping fingers can type 😄

2024-06-10 14:47:28

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I watched your video today on Shinjuku and it was entertaining and insightful 😊
A lot of urbanist content on YouTube tends to really focus on North America. So some European balance is not necessarily a bad thing on tgat front.
Especially given that even some of the most car-centric cities in Europe tend to perform well against some of the best in North America.
And yes, there should be more videos on YouTube about HSR in China, or the excellent rail and metro systems in cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.
But they should be made by people living in those cities!
Your videos have singlehandedly inspired people in countless cities to advocate for Dutch-style protected bike lanes.
Keep up the great work! It's definitely appreciated! 😊

2024-06-09 13:33:43

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"In Q1 2024, Tesla reported that it made 433,371 vehicles. Of those, 386,810 were actually sold. This means the automaker has an extra 46,561 vehicles it didn’t sell."
https://jalopnik.com/so-many-unsold-teslas-are-piling-up-that-you-can-see-th-1851526312
Tesla's market cap was several times GM's and Ford's, despite lower profits and revenues.
Most of tgat value was hype. The expectation that Tesla would disrupt tge auto industry with EVs, and self-driving tech that never existed.
The rest of the auto industry has figured out how to make decent EVs.
Elon has completely squandered the massive first mover advantage he had.
There's now a glut of EVs.
One in every 10 cars Tesla makes isn't selling, and is sitting in an open-air lot somewhere.
Elon's talk about Tesla now being an AI company was hype to keep the share price inflated long enough for him to make an exit.
He's now trying to rip as much cash as he can personally from Tesla before the bottom falls out of its share price.

2024-06-05 12:47:54

So Microsoft is shipping a new feature in Windows 11 called Recall, which takes screenshots of what the user is doing every few seconds, and then feeds it into OCR.
And I've read a number of people describe it as useless.
But I disagree.
I'm sure plenty of people will find it very handy.
For example, your friendly local law enforcement agents and prosecutors are likely to find a feature like this very useful.
As will the NSA, the other three-letter agencies in the US, and intelligence agencies around the world.
Including the ones in authoritarian states. A couple of back doors, and it will be so much easier keeping track of who's been typing naughty words like "Prigozhin", "Navalny", or "free Hong Kong".
Not in the state surveillance business? No worries!
Assuming this data isn't locked down properly — and we are talking about Microsoft here — it's sure to find plenty of more mundane uses.
Perhaps for bosses who will no longer need to install keyloggers to snoop on their staff.
Or jealous current and former partners.
Mark my words, this poorly-thought-through attempt to shove LLMs in another place they don't belong to temporarily spike Microsoft's share price will find its uses.
And the next computer I get definitely won't be running Windows.
#LLM #AI #GenerativeAI #Microsoft #Recall #Windows #Linux #OpenSource #Infosec #Apple

2024-05-29 11:29:11

Want to see the National Library of Australia on Mastodon?
Let them know by filling out this survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeU0qddTjTS_j7TG6t9MtuKWk7yWNYtRZZW-z6Ax2x6V7jOfA/viewform
And make sure you share this post so as many people as possible on here have the chance to fill in this survey.

2024-05-15 12:28:54

I'm thinking seriously about getting Google out of my life, and trying NextCloud.
Looking to get a personal account through a managed provider.
Does anyone have any experience with it?
How does it compare to ownCloud?
Any hosts I should look at or avoid?
Any apps I should get for it, or avoid?
Any issues I should be aware of before I switch?
@npub1cey…y3jx #NextCloud #OpenSource #Linux #Cloud

2024-04-22 23:14:43

There was no drone delivery future. There was never going to be a drone delivery future.
Just like there was never going to be self-driving Uber taxis. Or Amazon Go supermarkets on every corner. Or hyperloops. Or earth-to-earth space travel on SpaceX rockets. Or level-five full self driving Teslas.
Just like there will not be a general artificial intelligence ChatGPT in the next couple of years.
They were all scams designed to lure dollars from investors and generate good PR.
It was all bullshit. It was always bullshit.
Nothing more.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/22/24137383/amazon-prime-air-drone-delivery-closing-lockeford-california-phoenix-arizona