🔗 WWW
There are a lot of links out to different parts of the web on this site. I try to mark them all so they get listed here.
🔗 How’s that AI tsunami looking, a year on? (Charles Arthur)
🔗 Eleven Predictions: Here’s What AI Does Next (Ted Gioia) (This one is a Readwise link that includes my highlights)
Related. Very related. Yet different
From 🔗🎙️ Sean Illing’s Podcast Overview
Absolutely FASCINATING
How is the origin of our universe like an improvised saxophone solo? This week, Sean Illing talks to Stephon Alexander, a theoretical physicist and world-class jazz musician. Alexander is the author of The Jazz of Physics and his most recent book, Fear of a Black Universe_. This episode features music by Stephon Alexander throughout, from his latest 2024 album Spontaneous Fruit _and his 2017 EP True to Self.
The Crafting of Craft.
🖇️ Talking about knowing what you’re talking about - nobody who knows what they are talking about would confuse me with a real programmer.
That said, I just read 🔗 Going the Extra Mile — Beyond CSS, most of which is well above my technical pay grade - but still I was fascinated by the attention to detail around ‘crafting Craft’.
Consider - a whole post (well 75%) devoted to the process behind getting a check box ‘just right’ and the remaining 25% explaining ‘push away’, which I knew had to be coded in some way - but who knew there is a phrase for it?
Great read - even if you aren’t technical you get the idea of their focus on good design - Steve would have been proud of them
“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
💬 Steve Jobs
… which probably explains why they won app of the year and were name called (not once - but twice) in this year’s WWDC.
The article ends with …
All of this for what? Will all users see the difference? — Probably not. Was it worth it? — Absolutely. These are the minor details that often go unnoticed when present, but become conspicuous when missing. We strive for having as many of those details as possible, making the experience great but at the same time — seamless.
Kudos to Craft - a Great App and a serious tool for writing documents in the 21st Century.
Read and agree with a lot of the @gruber post 🔗 The iOS Continental Drift Widens
After I read it - I jumped to my Readwise queue - and up pops this.
My reading habits are clearly being tracked.
Pageless Writing Apps
🔗 Lex raises $2.75M for its AI writing tool that helps writers get past blocks.
The AI stuff is cool, but there was one thing about this app that made me want to keep using it: It has no historical baggage. I find it odd that many modern word processors like Google Docs and Word retain a bias toward pagination — the UX is intended for printing documents onto letter-sized paper. Lex, in contrast, does away with all that.
💬 TechCrunch
Been exploring 🔗 Lex.page for a couple ‘ months. I even pay - but not yet used it enough to know whether I am going to continue to pay.
That said, the above quote is interesting and I agree with the ‘historical baggage thought - but they are hardly at the vanguard of that kind of thinking!
It as if the writer has never heard of;
- Craft
- Ulysses
- IAWriter
- Drafts, et al
Let alone, Obsidian, Roam and Notion
Side note - Craft. Most definitely a personal favorite. And I am increasingly using it to share thoughts, ideas, minutes, reports to specific audiences - most often under ‘loose’ password control.
Cant wait to get my hands on the new stuff they have in Beta - though even that still wont solve what I really really want!
Adding to which their own foray into AI support, I just want to tie apps like that into a single world - and not have different versions of different LLMs spread around various apps. ANNOYING.
Shout Outs To @dsearls@journa.host and @dave in the 🔗 latest entry from ‘Jobsworth’
BTW - while I am here 🔗JP published another great post the other day about Cricket - specifically Cricket stats and records.
He opened with:
You have been warned. This one’s for hardcore cricket nuts. Red-ball nuts. Five-day nuts. The hardest of the hardcore. No coloured pajamas here.
I am definitely not a hardcore cricket nut - and still read the entire thing to the end. Fascinating.
📺 Kleo
Each episode kept me coming back for more. An increasingly difficult thing to do in theses ‘streaming times’.
Kleo on 🔗 Reelgood
People Don't Read Anymore - Except When They Do.
🔗 Raw data: Book and newspaper consumption - Kevin Drum
There is a mantra in the world that people ‘don’t read’ (anymore?).
And on top of that - if they do - (very) short form - definitely not books.
I have long thought this to be wrong.
They certainly might not read your stuff. Or my stuff, but they do read - BUT - they read what interests them , what engages them and definitely not limited to stuff that appears at the top of lists.
Kevin’s short analysis on the data says that today we are spending twice what we spent on physical books 40 (or so) years ago. As he says - buying is not reading (👋🏼 to the Unlibraries) .. but beyond physical books there are ebooks, blogs, newsletters … yup - we definitely aren’t reading any more - except when we do.
🔗 Shocking revelations about Sarah Wilkinson’s arrest and bail conditions
I am hoping there is another side to this story. But so far - only a hope.
Got off the ferry yesterday and looked for my usual scooter, and noted that the purple ones (Beam) weren’t there - only Lime available. Having lost Ola in the city earlier in the year - got me to wondering.
It would appear at first glance that Beam have been ‘naughty’.
They who are being parodied are apparently seeking this ‘lol’ site to ‘cease and desist’ - because really - there is nothing more important … right?
🔗 Failing What Matters Most - Your Premier EDR (Endpoint Destruction and Razing) Partner Since 2024!
Just in case you think that all VCs are like Thiel and Andreesen … no … no they are not - they are just the loudest voices with the quietest money.
🔗 VCs for Kamala
Well 🔗 THIS goes a long way to explaining the Andreesen, Horowitz, Thiel, Musk position on Trump.
Youngsters probably don’t remember Autonomy. I do.
No time to write too much about it, so look it up and then don’t believe everything you read. Like this …
Federal prosecutors on Monday painted one-time British tech star Mike Lynch as the ruthless mastermind of an $11 billion deal that defrauded Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard.
Prompted to post this now because I just listened to 🔗🎙️ Mike Lynch (Founder and CEO of Autonomy) and ‘Danny In The Valley’ talking. Mike was found innocent by the DoJ after TWELVE years and tens of millions defending himself against America’s ‘finest’.
Death Is Not Free
🔗 It’s time to ask once again why it costs so much to die in Aotearoa.
I for one did not know this and come to think of it - I don’t know what the ‘cost of dying’ is in other countries either.
In New Plymouth, for example, it could cost over $7,200 for a burial … represent(ing) the burial plot itself.
Umm - burial?
Once you’ve covered the expense of the burial, there are a number of additional costs that can make the actual cost of dying far greater – the figure often cited in the media for an average funeral is $10,000.
Rough dollar translation … take 60% of those numbers for the US dollar.
Meanwhile in California …
Then again the average Californian income is three to four times that in New Zealand.