Many conversations are ongoing around image-generating machine learning “AI” such as Midjourney and StableDiffusion. Many of those conversations raise valid viewpoints and objections, and are worth careful deliberation. One of the more popular arguments I’ve seen lately centers around need. “We don’t need AI to make art,” one popular tweet opines. “We need AI to…
Category: General
It’s been a little quiet here…
So, yeah. I haven’t done great at writing here for a while, but that’s fixing to change this year. However, I *have* been busy elsewhere and it’s probably worth collecting some of that! I moved from Twitter to Mastodon, and you can find me here. Twitter’s also shuttered its newsletter app, Revue, where “The Cybers…
New Newsletter: The Cybers Are Weird
Been a little empty here, I know. Quite a lot’s been going on in the background but I haven’t had much time or brain for writing. That ice seems to be thawing a bit now from a few directions, one of which is: I have a new newsletter through Revue (owned by Twitter) called “The…
On Switching To Mac
Editor’s note/conflict of interest: this post was originally published on June 30, 2021. As of March 20, 2022, I am an Apple shareholder, particularly because I believe in the company (this is not investment advice). Even though it didn’t apply at writing, I want to make an after-the-fact conflict clear. Having read over the content…
What’s In My Bag
Taking some time to evaluate what goes in my daily gearbag. I’m a big fan of keeping all the small stuff in mesh bags for easy drag-and-drop into a different backpack if needed. 1 – Maxpedition Pygmy Falcon-II backpack 2 – iPad in keyboard case, Apple Pencil 3- Aukey USB-C 20000mAh battery 4- Folding…
In The Chair
A few years ago I found myself in the position of taking a pre-employment polygraph examination. I wrote most of this at the time and then sat on it for a few years due to the intensely private nature of the experience. It’s interesting to me to see how it’s aged. — In a slightly…
Nixon Impeachment Timeline
The Watergate Hotel burglary occurred in June 1972. From 1972 to October 1973 there were four unsuccessful resolutions to impeach Nixon (two were pre-Watergate). No traction could be found on the Nixon inquiry until the House Judiciary Committee took interest in late October 1973, after the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” in which Nixon’s order to…
Current Podcast List
I’m a bit of a podcast addict. As a rule of thumb I don’t listen to every episode of each podcast, I just focus on what interests me at the time that I go to download new episodes. Description by the podcast in quotes, any commentary by me in italics. A few current listens have…
Lessig, Ito, and Pure Absolute Fury
In the 2000’s I had a short-lived legal enthusiast blog inspired in part by law professor and legal reform activist Larry Lessig. I moved on from it after a few months but Lessig continued to be of interest to me. While I didn’t agree with everything he put forward he remained a guidepost of someone…
Fighting Back: Depression Ain’t Invincible
Consider this the second part to my last blogpost; in that one I talked about my experience of depression, especially as a depressive episode approaches and unloads. In this post I’ll be detailing some of the tactics and strategies I’ve used over the past three decades. Some are old hat, some are newer. Some are…