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Category Archives: Tech
Keep the crap going
Have you seen the new ads for Google Gemini? In one version, just as a young employee is grabbing her fast-food lunch, she notices her snooty boss get on an elevator. So she drops her sandwich, rushes to meet her … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Tech
Tagged advertisements, Apple Intelligence, artificial intelligence, Google Gemini
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To WordPress
I used to love WordPress unconditionally. Then Gutenberg replaced Calypso and the user experience became quite poor. Then WordPress.com rejigged their subscription plans, got it wrong, and fortunately switched back. Finally, Matt Mullenweg’s actions and words of late have really … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Tech
Tagged Bullenweg, Drupal, Ghost.org, Matt Mullenweg, self-hosting, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, WP Engine
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Off the rails
Either Matt Mullenweg’s screws have fallen off or I deeply overestimated how sensible a person I thought he was. On October 3, Mullenweg wrote on his blog that Automattic had offered those of its employees who disagreed with his actions … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Tech
Tagged Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, WordPress.com, WP Engine
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Matt Mullenweg v. WP Engine escalates
Update, September 26, 2024: WordPress.org has banned websites hosted on WP Engine from accessing its resources. As someone put it on X, this is Matt Mullenweg dropping a giant turd into the laps of millions of WordPress users. The Matt … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Tech
Tagged Automattic, GPL licence, Matt Mullenweg, trademark law, WordPress VIP, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, WP Engine
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Matt Mullenweg v. WP Engine
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-developer Matt Mullenweg published a post on September 21 calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress”. For the uninitiated: WP Engine is an independent company that provides managed hosting for WordPress sites; WordPress.com is owned by … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Tech
Tagged Automattic, Kevin Ohashi, MarsEdit, Matt Mullenweg, post revisions, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, WP Engine
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Feel the pain
Emotional decision making is in many contexts undesirable – but sometimes it definitely needs to be part of the picture, insofar as our emotions hold a mirror to our morals. When machines make decisions, the opportunity to consider the emotional … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Tech
Tagged +972 Magazine, Anna Mae Duane, artificial intelligence, Israel genocide, loneliness, The Conversation, Yuval Abraham
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The ‘Climate Overshoot’ website
Earlier this evening, as I was working on my laptop, I noticed that it was rapidly heating up, to the extent that it was burning my skin through two layers of cloth. This is a device that routinely runs a … Continue reading
Posted in Tech
Tagged Climate Overshoot Commission, computing power, Mozilla Firefox, solar geoengineering
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The AI trust deficit predates AI
There are alien minds among us. Not the little green men of science fiction, but the alien minds that power the facial recognition in your smartphone, determine your creditworthiness and write poetry and computer code. These alien minds are artificial … Continue reading
Posted in Tech
Tagged artificial intelligence, high tech, low tech, Mark Bailey, scrutability, self-driving cars, trolley problem, trust in AI
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Who are you, chatbot AI?
In case you haven’t been following, and to update my own personal records, here’s a list of notable {AI chatbot + gender}-related articles and commentary on the web over the last few weeks. (While I’ve used “AI” here, I’m yet … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Tech
Tagged artificial intelligence, Ben Thompson, Bing Chat, ChatGPT, Donald Trump, large language models, robotic assistants, Sydney
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