Post

I was reading an article this morning. As I was reading the following passage I had a memory about a conversion with a previous boss some 20 years ago.

Thus, as Mark Atwood, an open source policy expert, pointed out on Twitter, he had to keep telling Amazon to not do things that would mess up FFmpeg because, he had to keep explaining to his bosses that “They are not a vendor, there is no NDA, we have no leverage, your VP has refused to help fund them, and they could kill three major product lines tomorrow with an email. So, stop, and listen to me … ”

I had found some open source software that I wanted to use and could not convince my boss it was a good idea. I now have the thought that he might have foreseen an issue where the company relied heavily on the software that was no longer maintained and could not be updated without significant cost.

As we barrel forward through technology, issues brought forth as indicated in the article cause me to pause. What systems do I use now that rely on the kindness of strangers whom are maintaing their projects out of passion? What if that passion fades? We're already seeing this in video games. Some publishers decided to make their cames function only online and as new games come out, the servers that power this game gets used less. This causes them to shut it down due to costs to maintain. They game you paid $80 for 5 years ago is now useless, save as a coaster (if it's a disc) or a curiosity. Meanwhile we have games that are literally 40 years old that run just fine (as long as you have the original hardware in good working order and your TV has the requisite interface to dispaly the video signal from the hardware). Still, not-so-old TVs have the ports, and most of the vintage consoles I own still function just fine.

I used to claim that I had technolust. Now I'm older, perhaps a little wiser. I still like new tech and get excited about the possibilites afforded by ever advancing technology. I think Open Source software is awesome and will continue to use it. I am grateful for the authors and maintainers who keep that software running. I wonder if maybe it's advancing too quickly.

Here are some links I came across today that I found interesting in my RSS Feeds:

• Time to start de-Appling. Beth and I are going through how to best de-couple ourselves from the mega-corps. This article affects me more than it does her, though it matters more to people whom live in the E.U.
• The Joy and Pain of Learning New Things as an Older Human. Kotke posted this on his blog in June. It;s been sitting in my tabs waiting to be shared, here you go.
• Why Doctors Hate Their Computers. Another (even older) article that I came across recently. I like it becuase it aligns with my views about technology getting in the way of getting things done. This one is from the New Yorker and may be paywalled. I don't have a subscription.
• You Need to Be Bored. Here’s Why. Kotke strikes again. I haven't watched this video yet though I aim to. As soon as I put down the phone.
• Just a Little Longer. Another summer discovery. This is a post about the Chapter. I found it interesting to read and wanted to share with anyone who's reading along with me.
• Greatest irony of the AI age: Humans being increasingly hired to clean AI slop I am amused by this story and I recall seeing Cory Doctorow a few weeks ago talkign about the AI bubble. I'd like it to come sooner rather than later.
• I Am An AI Hater. I agree with Moser here. I highly recommend that everyone read this story.

Most of these links come from Hacker News and other blogs that I follow (like Kotke).

This coming weekend I am going to be participating in 24 hours of (board) gaming on November 15th and 16th. I reached out to friends and family to sponsor me to raise funds for CHEO. My goal is to do 24 hours of straight gaming, and I'm not sure how far I'm going to get. We'll see.

The games I played will be added to this post. As a pre-game, well game, tonight I played Nexus-Ops with friends. I placed 3rd (out of 3) with 8 points. As usual with me, I play games to play, and not to win. If you wanted to donate, you can follow this link.

I am taking inspiration from Shane.

My name is Trevor. I now write a blog. I have the thought that this is the thing that I want to do. A place to record thoughts. Something light and easy to manage. Maybe even supporting RSS. This is now a thing. I have RSS installed, though I still need to configure it to work.

I have built this because I have the thought that's it's not enough to bitch about the "good old internet" without working to help build out what I want the Internet to be. I want to make the Internet personal, less siloed, more erzatz. Bring back the Geocities and Angelfire sites. Let's build a webring. Let's do the tacky animated buttons at the bottom of our pages. Let's get weird.

What's Next?

• So far, things look good. I'm only adjusting the built in content.
• Check out my Extra-Life post now appearing in the blogroll.

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Use your favourite RSS compatible feed reader and you don't even have to visit my site anymore.

First Post!

I've been messing about with things and the blog site seems to be working. I have the thought I will use this to capture thoughts as well as capture links I want to share with others. I aim to write at least one post a week. Here's my accountability.

For a topic I am sick of I seem to come across it a lot. XDA reports that the DRAM and NAND prices are spiking and they don't trust the industry's reasons for it. RAM and SSD prices have dramatically increased and the common discourse seems to be the collossal needs of AI. AI is already thirsty and using up energy and water at a scale that is unsustainable and reports of OpenAI buring through cash and losses that could solve world hunger problems seem like we (as a poeple) are making decisions that actively go against our best interests and longevity.

There is good news though. Some awesome people have created a learning tool that helps everyone learn to spot AI. This is a great idea and I am going to have my kids go through this game with me and hopefully we can all improve our critical thinking skills.

A few days ago there was a thread on X, as reported by PC Gamer about Tim Sweeny (of Epic fame) calling for the removal of an AI reporting tool in digital storefront. This is a bad idea and I would like more places online (and in real life) notify users (and customers) that AI was used to create the product. I already shy away from obvious (to me) AI generated products and I don't like using AI powered services.

As someone who is not atristically talented, I like the idea that I can get art (and story or descriptions) generated quickly for my D&D setting. I am tempted though. If I had the time, I would draw more and get better so that I can have the art and write more so that I can have the story. Not onluy does this build better skills, it's all human generated. Sadly free time is not something I have a plethora of due to my inability to say no.