Computing, tinkering, reading, cycling, paddling, cities, transportation.
Toronto, Canada
| Site | https://www.hotelexistence.ca/ |
Just watched the 'Project Hail Mary' movie (I started reading the book yesterday - haven't finished it yet).
The way the 'Rocky' character spoke reminded me of 'Oh' from the 'Home' movie (2015). My family didn't necessarily agree, but when I got home, found that there is at least 1 person on the Internet who had the same thought:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectHailMary/comments/1s2ztds/rocky_reminds_me_of_oh_from_home/
(like everyone, enjoyed the movie and am enjoying the book)
On books, just finished 'Nexus' by Yuval Noah Harari: https://www.ynharari.com/book/nexus/
I generally expect AI will be similar to other innovations - self driving cars will be like self driving elevators, LLMs like the Internet. This was maybe the first book that made me think, "hmm, maybe this is different".
A neat term I hadn't seen elsewhere: "data colonialism" - the exertion of control through holding and processing other's data. A different take on data residency and sovereignty.
'NEXUS: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI' (published Sept 2024) is a non-fiction book by Yuval Noah Harari. In this thrilling new work, the historian and bestselling author looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has made, and unmade, our world. Harari explores how different societies and political systems have wielded information to achieve their goals and impose order, for good and bad – and he addresses the urgent choices we face today, as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.
I'm now reading the book Charles Beaumont's first book, "A Spy Alone".
Also really enjoying this one...
Hackernews comments on a OpenCiv1, a Civilizations re-write for modern hardware - I loved this one:
"I'm commenting this blindly so apologies if I'm wrong, but if it's possible I'd try and compile this against .NET Framework 3.5 instead of .NET 8.
A lot of people (myself included) have XP/7 machines for retro games like Civ1 and I'd personally love to use that machine instead of my modern one to play the game."
ie: Civ1 is targets too old, OpenCiv1 targets too new
If you live in #Willowdale two journalists are starting a new initiative to bring a new news outlett to the neighborhood.
They want to hear from the community, fill out this Google survey
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDK7C3D5D4VKVYtnaHAWuBZyAz2CWnZn4kR8TMHOH6Jao6Uw/alreadyresponded?fbclid=IwY2xjawQqMzRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEet51QIPPxyKvUotbQds-EULItPuzmv_SbSzusFaPeAztWrOHYKBHZCvMU3WA_aem_6e_CKGxToqLutsAfaxYchg
Hello! We are two journalists living in the neighbourhood. Everyday, walking around Willowdale, we keep coming across stories we think are worth telling. And so, we decided to start a publication to see if we can fill a gap in local coverage. We're keen to understand the issues that most animate this community, to help broaden our reporting ideas. To get started, we came up with this quick poll. Look out for more updates coming soon. - Aparita + Rachel
TVO's #onpoli podcast is always excellent - today's coverage of the Ford government's proposed freedom of information act changes was worth listening to:
https://www.tvo.org/podcasts/onpoli-a-tvo-podcast/how-free-is-information-under-fords-government
Ford is looking to exempt records of the premier, cabinet ministers, parliamentary assistants and their offices from freedom-of-information requests - useful for the media - or anyone - looking to understand the government's decisions on the Greenbelt, Therme spa, Ontario Place, the Science Centre, bike lanes...
As seen in Hackernews comments - a collection of fun, useless volume control mock-ups:
https://uxdesign.cc/the-worst-volume-control-ui-in-the-world-60713dc86950
A favourite was the curling-style control, designer unknown.
Jérôme