Weekly Thing 298 / Tool, Solar, Circles
Weekly Thing 298 sending you good vibes from Minneapolis, MN and a bunch of interesting links, or at least links I found interesting. 😂
Good morning! 👋
After a couple weekends of travel it is nice to be home this weekend. It isn't all relaxation though as we our busy making candles for our Fall Candle Fundraiser!
The weather has been amazing and the fall colors are great. It is that nice bit of time where we get the beauty of the seasons changing but don't have to rake yet. 😬
Lots of links and a bunch of stuff from our weekend in Chicago below. Lastly, results from the first Straw Poll and another one about esports to get your opinion on! 🤔
Zoomed in view of ferrofluid under magnetic force.
Oct 17, 2024
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
Notable
Busy Status Bar — Productivity Multi-tool Device with an LED pixel screen
This is a cool looking device and if people distracting you is a common issue it could be a great tool for that. I wonder if anyone would actually follow the direction though? And maybe it results in even more distractions with people asking you about this cool device you have?
The technology addiction trope — BuzzMachine
Jarvis suggesting that the Internet itself isn't addictive (emphasis mine).
Griffiths’ observation speaks to much controversy about the net: it is blamed as the cause of many ills when often it is merely a conduit for them. I emailed Griffiths and asked whether his opinion had changed in the intervening decades of research. He replied with a paper that expressed his current view: “There are also much wider problems with the use of the term ‘internet addiction’: though the number of studies in the field of internet addiction has certainly grown, most have really investigated addictions on the internet rather than to the internet. . . . In short, the overwhelming majority of so-called internet addicts are no more addicted to the internet than alcoholics are addicted to the actual bottle.”
I tend to agree with Jarvis. There are many things enabled by the Internet, but that as a network it is itself without addictiveness. Similar to gambling, the room of a casino is not addictive but the games in it are. Is social media addictive? I believe yes. Is an online poker app? Very much so! Is the Internet, I don't know that it can be. Is your phone? Hmmm… I’m not sure.
EFF to Third Circuit: TikTok Has Section 230 Immunity for Video Recommendations | Electronic Frontier Foundation
I've been a long time supporter of the EFF and this may be an area where I diverge with their view.
In this case, the Third Circuit panel erroneously held that since TikTok enjoys protection for editorial choices under the First Amendment, TikTok’s recommendations of user videos amount to TikTok’s first-party speech, making it ineligible for Section 230 immunity. In our brief, we argued that First Amendment protection for editorial choices and Section 230 protection are not mutually exclusive.
I’m not the legal expert that these folks are, but I do believe that Section 230 should not cover editorial promotion whether driven by people or algorithm. I don't know how that then intersects with the First Amendment but I do think that they should be liable. And as the EFF says if they are it would change their practices and I think they should.
Meanwhile the open web exists and is ready to publish whatever you want.
Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader – Cory Doctorow
I've been using RSS and a feed reader for at least a decade but I suspect two. It is the way that I find all the content that you see in the Weekly Thing by the way. So, it could come as no surprise that I completely agree with Doctorow on this point.
And then I had a realization: the conduit through which I experience Molly's excellent work is totally enshittification-proof, and the more I use it, the easier it is for everyone to be less enshittified.
This conduit is anti-lock-in, it works for nearly the whole internet. It is surveillance-resistant, far more accessible than the web or any mobile app interface. It is my secret super-power.
It's RSS.
Doctorow does a great job laying out the argument and going into detail on all the use cases. It is a great read. If you are not using a Feed Reader today it is the number one thing I would encourage you to do so you can control and manage the inflow of information you get.
Personally I use Feedbin. I think it is a great service. Does exactly what I want and even has fancy features like rules and filters. I also like the user experience of Unread which gets my feeds via Feedbin. Feedbin is also great in a browser if you don't want two things.
What about content that isn't made available via RSS? Get rid of it. The provider is signaling their intention when is to get your attention and lock you in.
No RSS, no attention.
My solar-powered and self-hosted website | Dries Buytaert
I've seen other projects like this. He mentions Low←Tech Magazine as an example that shows you the battery level for the server in the background color of the content. The fun thing here is Buytaert shows all the components being used and how they are put together. You could follow this and do your own DIY version of this setup.
Chinese researchers break RSA encryption with a quantum computer | CSO Online
We know that quantum computing is a risk for encryption but that timeline may have changed with this event.
In a potentially alarming development for global cybersecurity, Chinese researchers have unveiled a method using D-Wave’s quantum annealing systems to crack classic encryption, potentially accelerating the timeline for when quantum computers could pose a real threat to widely used cryptographic systems.
The good news is that there are well known post-quantum encryption techniques. The bad news is that the amount of change to adopt those is incredibly large.
This Is A Tool – Rhoneisms
My friend Patrick reminding us how he frames the phone that he carries around — as a tool. I’m not sure I’m as far to the utility as Patrick is regarding my phone, but I particularly agree with his framing at the end.
If there are add-ons or functions of the tool that are meant to modify the tool in such a way as to be a distraction from the goals in using it, remove those add-ons or functions. Those features are not serving the goal of making the tool more useful. They are making the tool less so. They should be removed without prejudice.
Maybe said another way, that phone you carry everywhere is a shapeshifter that can be many things. It becomes the apps you put on it. I have no social apps on my phone. I have no streaming services on my phone. So those are two whole categories of things my phone cannot be.
If we are super intentional about the apps that we install, and only add them if they align with the context that we want our phone to have, I think we will be much happier. Maybe a mobile streaming video thing is what you want? Then install those.
But above all, be intentional about it.
Future of Internet in the age of AI
Interesting interview with the CEO of Cloudflare on some longer term trends with the web. His "third place" analogy was interesting to me.
We've never really thought of ourselves as a CDN. Starbucks used to talk about sort of the third place -- somewhere that was in between office and home where you did a little bit of work, you did a little bit of socializing, maybe you got a bite to eat. While it is not a perfect analogy, I think at some level, we see the same opportunity for us, to be that third place.
There's going to be a role for edge devices -- for the Apples and Androids and Samsungs of the world. Every driverless car, every ring doorbell will have some amount of AI inference that happens on those devices. But in some cases, they are either going to be too low-powered, or the models are going to be too big.
At the same time, the governments outside the US are saying we're not going to make the same what they view as mistakes that they made with the kind of original rollout of the internet. We're not going to allow it to be something where every piece of our citizens' data gets sent back to the proverbial data center capital of America -- Ashburn, Virginia. All of those things then suggest a need for a third place and that's why we have created what we call a connectivity cloud.
Interesting perspective on a number of things.
Relationship circles - annie's blog
I’m a big believer in Dunbar's number, and in Dunbar's research he does go much deeper into different levels and such. I liked Mueller's post on this particularly for her definitions and the fact that she started with self and ended with everyone in the world. As I read that the math geek in me wanted to think about rings and how maybe ∞ and -∞ are the same and then how in Buddhist practice there is the idea that through meditation we become nothing and everything at once. So in these rings is there another dimension of self connecting with everyone in the world? I like to think there is.
How I Use Claude
This article is about Claude but the techniques that Balwit describe are applicable to any chat-based LLM that you may want to use. If you are having a hard time determining where to start with using AI technology yourself this may have some ideas to build off of. I've recently gotten a Claude Pro license along with my ChatGPT license. It is very interesting to interact with both of them and see how they respond and engage differently. Incredible that you can have that for just $20/mo each.
The Global Surveillance Free-for-All in Mobile Ad Data – Krebs on Security
Very detailed read on how location data is being captured by data brokers and being used in so many different ways. It is a good read to understand why you need to be mindful of giving location information to applications. This is a good argument for why we need comprehensive privacy legislation in the United States. It is scary how much information we are giving anyone that is willing to pay.
Straw Poll
Sports anchor on physical activity and capability. As you excel they also involve skill and strategy as well as teamwork. It seems pretty clear that in order for it to be a sport it likely involves breathing hard and sweating. So obviously sitting in a gamer chair staring at a screen can’t possibly be a sport, right? No way.
However Esports have gained significant legitimacy in recent years. They clearly involve strategy and skill at a tremendous level. Teamwork is core to winning. And the best Esports players for sure tend to their body and nutrition with a similar level of care but a different desired outcome. Being focused and calm in the heat of competition requires it. And to top it off, the International Olympic recently approved the creation of Olympic Esports Games, and many Universities offer Esports scholarships.
Is it possible that Esports shares a word with Sports but is just entirely different? I think of the mail we receive in our mailbox. It has nothing in common with Email, yet they share the same root word. Mail is entirely physical and Email is entirely digital. However this loses some context with Sports and Esports since Email could likely completely replace Mail, and for sure Esports are not going to replace Sports.
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Results
Results from Weekly Thing 297 about the prospects of NVDA stock having reached another all-time high?
Overall a positive outlook but cautious one would assume based on the high market cap of the company. Holds were the most by 2x, and buyers were 2:1 over sellers. Nobody feeling like this is a Strong Buy and one Strong Sell. Wonder what that person knows?
Journal
This morning we made our way to Arlington Heights and met CJ Chilvers for breakfast at Scratchboard Kitchen. I have followed CJ's blog and newsletter for years and have a ton of respect for how he approaches his craft. It was awesome to finally meet him in person!
Flying a 737
Oct 18, 2024 at 9:53 PM
Tyler and I had a blast at Extreme Flight Simulation flying a 737. Tyler got the pilot chair and I took the co-pilot spot. We did a full pre-flight routine making sure everything was good to go. We then took off, did a quick fly around 5,000 feet, followed with a landing. We got to pick our airports:
- MSP: Our home airport. I wanted to see if the terrain was familiar. The lakes and most roads were where they should be, but the buildings and downtown wasn't very current.
- CDG: We thought it would be fun to see the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe -- which we did!
- HHX: Tyler picked this as he knew it had a particularly difficult landing. You have to come in from a totally different heading and right at the end do about a 30° turn at 500 feet or so to land. We landed it but it wasn't pretty.
- LGA: Our last airport and we started in the air for this one and then landed. I wanted to land here since I've landed at this airport for sure over 50 times and it was very realistic. This was our best landing by a ways.
We got to finish by doing a full shut down of the 737. It was a great time.
After our flight simulator we went to Sixty to Escape and did the Mystery Manor room. It was a great room with interesting puzzles. We had to use one clue and won the room in 47 m 30s!
See list of escape rooms.
Browsing the Ebisu Life store at Gurnee Mall. All Japanese products.
Our evening plans were a bit in flux and we decided at the last minute, very last minute, to go to the Wayfarer theatre and see White Bird. Very good movie with a gripping story.
"The Bean"
Buckingham Fountain in the early part of the major display.
While walking from Buckingham Fountain to the Art Institute of Chicago we took in the Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State in Grant Park.
We visited the Art Institute of Chicago specifically to see one of the original Great Wave pieces that they have there. The Great Wave is one of Tyler’s favorite pieces of art. We also checked out the contemporary and modern galleries.
While making our way to a coffee shop in Lincoln Park we ran across Oz Park in Chicago. It was a fun discovery. We didn’t have time to find the Lion though.
Tammy had read about Soloway Coffee, a Ukrainian owned coffee shop in Chicago, and we rented some bikes and rode to the Lincoln Park neighborhood to try it out. They had Kyiv Cake, which I had never had, and it was great. They had Napolean Cake but the person in front of us bought he last slice!
The L crossing the river in Chicago.
We had a great time on the Architectural Boat Tour of Chicago.
Chicago skyline.
Our trip to Chicago for MEA was all electric in the Tesla Model Y. We’ve not done that many road trips using the Supercharger network and it worked great. The worst charger was the one on North Columbus in downtown Chicago, and the best was in Waukegan.
We saw Mike Birbiglia's newest performance The Good Life at the State Theater tonight. He is an incredible performer -- so many laughs.
Tammy and I made our first batch of candles for the Things 4 Good 2024 Candle Fundraiser! Tonight we poured Just Crackle and Winter Wonderland and drained 8 gallons of wax. 🕯️
Money and Elections
Oct 21, 2024 at 8:45 PM
In 2010 Citizens United.
The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, and other associations.
14 years later…
Elon Musk said that swing-state voters who sign a petition “in support of the constitution” will be entered into a lottery with a daily prize of $1m. The Trump-supporting billionaire previously promised $47 to anyone who convinced a swing-state voter to sign. The legality of the move is unclear. Seeking to “induce or reward” voters for “engaging” in acts “necessary to cast a ballot” is illegal. -- The Economist, Oct 21 2024
Sometimes it feels like we are on a straight line to just buying votes.
My Mom and I made our way to St. Olaf tonight to see Mazie perform in the Chapel Choir tonight. It was great performance titled I Want to Go Home: Reflections on Where We Are, Where We've Been, and Where We're Going.
Having this frustrating issue with iOS 18.0.1 on my new iPhone 16 Pro where it refuses to connect to any Bluetooth devices -- even my Apple Watch. A reboot of the phone solves it. Particularly annoying when this is the key for my car!
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Briefly
I’m old enough to remember dialing into BBS systems. I even ran a BBS out of my dorm room for a while with a single phone line. It was an amazing pre-Internet thing. → Ward Christensen, BBS inventor and architect of our online age, dies at age 78
Digital River, a Minneapolis company, has been struggling for a while now and maybe things are getting even worse? → Digital River Not Paying Developers - Michael Tsai
This made me chuckle. Via Eric. → All Those Meetings by Kaamran Hafeez and Helene Parsons
Self-hosting crypto and avoiding the traditional banking system has a lot of positive things for it but it changes the security and protection required in extreme ways. → A list of known attacks against Bitcoin / crypto asset owning entities that occurred in meatspace
For many years it was a joke amongst technologists to talk about IPv6 adoption — it was so low as to be irrelevant. But it is happening. It just takes a tremendous amount of time for a change so massive. → The IPv6 Transition - ISP Column
Ugh! → Internet Archive breached again through stolen access tokens
The reporting requirements for public companies regarding cybersecurity events have dramatically changed in recent years. And there are teeth in these fines as well. → SEC Charges Four Companies With Misleading Cyber Disclosures
What if the LLM you are using could have their own computer and do things with it? Well now it can. 🖥️ → Introducing computer use, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude 3.5 Haiku Anthropic
In iOS 18.2 Apple is releasing this new Genmoji capability to make whatever emoji you want with AI. This article is a good breakdown of how it works. → Hands-On With Apple's Genmoji AI Emoji Generator in Beta
Good background on the important role of tokenizers in developing AI solutions using RAG. → You Should Probably Pay Attention to Tokenizers - Cybernetist
It is hard to even conceptualize a number like this. I downloaded it as a file and it is a 41.8MB text file — that is just this number. And to think that there are infinite primes. 🤯 → Mersenne Prime Discovery - 2^136279841-1 is Prime!
Fortune
Here is your fortune…
You are magnetic in your bearing.
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