Blog
- Read, crap. ↩
- https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/apple-pencil-and-scribble ↩
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210319080820.htm ↩
- Incidentally, handwriting on a tablet, whilst better than typing, performed slightly worse than pen and paper. ↩
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Courier ↩
Digital IDs and Shitcoins
Step 1: Create an AI that accelerates its adoption and forces the creation of AGI.
Step 2: Roll out an iris-scanning tool capturing the biometric identities of those least in a position to protect themselves in exchange for a small payout of some useless shitcoin.
Step 3: Argue that AGI is coming and, therefore, we need to protect our IDs from this monster, and the solution is … (see step 2)
Step 4: As a private company spread across the globe owning millions (if not billions) of digital IDs with virtually no protection (let's not even talk about cybersecurity - fsck me, this would be one hell of a juicy target) extract value by choking the poor for access to essential services and/or human rights.
This is digital colonialism and must be stopped.
Do not, I repeat, do not give your digital ID to this company. They cannot be trusted with that type of information.
BTW, the shitcoin will be exploited, and those that can least afford it will lose money at best. At worst… it might be much more than you think.
25 July 2023 — French West Indies
I’m a British subject not proud of it
From the Conversation:
In announcing the scheme, then home secretary Amber Rudd apologised for her government’s appalling treatment of the Windrush generation. People had suffered devastating harm. They had lost jobs and homes, and been deprived of healthcare. Many had been threatened with deportation. Some were deported to countries they had not visited since early childhood.
In the five years since, however, this scandal has only deepened.
Fucking disgraceful.
With thanks to UB40 for the headline.
4 June 2023 — French West Indies
Hallucinations are not limited only to GenAI, they are also the domain of its creators
During an onstage interview with Sam Altman with Azeem Azhar, as reported by the Verge:
“My basic model of the world is that the cost of intelligence and the cost of energy are the two limited inputs, sort of the two limiting reagents of the world. And if you can make those dramatically cheaper, dramatically more accessible, that does more to help poor people than rich people, frankly,” he said. “This technology will lift all of the world up.”
This is utter rubbish. The ones that will benefit the most from this technology will undoubtedly be those with the means to exploit it the most, continuing their tradition of wealth extraction from those with the least means.
This will lift the world’s average in precisely the same way that the co-passengers in a lift with Bill Gates are all billionaires… on average.
Take note, equally, of the “if”. That’s doing a LOT of heavy lifting.
Once last quip. You see how these people see the world as binary — rich people and poor people. This is how they fail to understand and hence, mitigate all that messy in-between stuff existent in practically any topic, be it race, food, politics, etc.
Seriously, who the fuck do these people think they are?
24 May 2023 — French West Indies
AI hallucinations
I should have linked to this article from Naomi Klein in the Gruaniad a while back.
AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are.
If you’re unfamiliar with Naomi Klein, I suggest reading No Logo. A journalist’s essay on marketing, brands and the coopting of “difference” to sell more stuff.1 Written in 2000 but is still relevant today, and in some respects more so.
24 May 2023 — French West Indies
“Officer Naughty”
From the Grauniad:
What a twisted little egotistical world we occupy currently. ‘It’s ok, as long as I’m alright.’ Dreadful.
“While under investigation for the failings, Lee quit the force and reportedly set up an OnlyFans account called Officer Naughty. She now faces being barred for life from the police service.”
23 May 2023 — French West Indies
Rumours of a new journaling app in iOS
According to the WSJ, Apple is planning on releasing a journaling app that competes with existing apps:
The software will compete in a category of so-called journaling apps, such as Day One, which lets users track and record their activities and thoughts. The new Apple product underscores the company's growing interest in mental health.
The Apple journaling app, code-named Jurassic, is designed to help users keep track of their daily lives, according to the documents describing the software. The app will analyze the users' behavior to determine what a typical day is like, including how much time is spent at home compared with elsewhere, and whether a certain day included something outside the norm, according to the documents.
I’m genuinely interested to discover what this will look and work like.
I’ve used the excellent journaling app called Day One for several years. I like and use it because of its simplicity, syncing, and availability on iPhone, Mac and iPad. However, because of the poor support for the specificities of the iPad, I think Apple has an opportunity to provide the basics and go beyond what Day One delivers. The iPad is a pencil-supporting device; in this respect, I think Day One has consistently missed something. It offers basic Scribble and drawing support but leaves you wanting more.1
When you look at journaling as a practice, there is much worth in writing by hand. Studies that look at learning show that people tend to remember more and for longer when they have written their notes using pen and paper.2 There is just something connecting the brain and the information through the writing process.3
Apple should Implement something akin to current functionality in Notes or Freeform, although less clunky, please. What is needed is an unencumbered combination of digital text, handwriting, drawings, and scribbles, all free from constraint and really easy to use. Some of the most personal journals include handwriting, doodles and other markings that can signify something to the writer and possibly the posthumous reader of the future. Limiting a journal to markdown or rich text is too reductive for journaling.
I’d love the Apple app to have the ability to do either, or more precisely, both. There are days I’d like to handwrite and days I’m happy sitting at my desk writing through the keyboard. With this setup, it would be easier to journal when not at the office or possessing only an iPad —the typing experience of the on-screen keyboard on an iPad is less than optimal, and I’m being very charitable.
Microsoft produced a demo of something similar to this idea over ten years ago called Courier.4 Microsoft’s concept goes way beyond what is needed and wanted. But it gives you an idea of an entirely open-ended journal, just like paper, only digital, replicated, backed up and encrypted for privacy.
3 May 2023 — French West Indies
Take your coronation and shove it
I, for one, will not be pledging allegiance to “the King”.
Royalty is essentially a criminal enterprise and always has been. The gangs of the past successfully killed, terrorised, pillaged and set up elaborate rent-seeking schemes to consolidate enough power that still permeates to this day.
This current incarnation got rich off the backs of enslaved people and has so far refused to acknowledge such and do something meaningful to apologise and repair.
The ceremony itself is a silly fantastical ritual of Disney proportions for a well-connected, dubiously super-rich man having a metal hat —decorated with stolen diamonds— placed on his head.
And we’re supposed to bow down to this?
I don’t believe one strand of human DNA is more important than another’s.
Take your coronation and shove it.
30 April 2023 — French West Indies
The Guardian: Meloni praises Sunak’s immigration policies on visit to No 10
From the Guardian: Not the kind of endorsement that I’d be comfortable with —more of an indication of just how far right the UK has shifted in recent times.
This will not end well.
28 April 2023 — French West Indies
A tale of two headlines
From BBC News 24/04/2023:
Also, from the same day:
Both of these presenters got fired. Sacked. Booted out.
I’ll leave it up to you to spot the difference in treatment and the possible reason.
It’s so tiring.
24 April 2023 — French West Indies