In which I just [mostly] just compile things I posted about elsewhere…
Urban Circles’ YouTube channel. A maker designing and building small objects mostly with 3D printers but also with receipt printers, small screens/boards, and household chemicals.
That last one reminded me of Serota’s Underarm Balm, which I learned about via Robin’s 2021 gift guide and used for a while. For reasons I can’t remember I went back to regular drugstore deodorant, but it wasn’t cutting it over the Texas summers and was leaving unwashable sticky stuff behind over time. So I recently got myself another tiny jar of Serota’s and it still works as advertised by Robin. It’s expensive but lasts forever. My only complaint is the shape of the glass container makes it hard to get the dregs out, and because so little goes so far, the dregs might be a week’s worth. Urban Circles’ video made me think I could make my own at a fraction of the cost. Serota’s has already taught me I don’t need a complex 3D-printed applicator, it just needs to be soft enough to apply by hand.
Adding a feature because ChatGPT incorrectly thinks it exists
To my knowledge, this is the first case of a company developing a feature because ChatGPT is incorrectly telling people it exists. (Yay?) I’m sharing the story because I think it’s somewhat interesting.
Adrian is a bit of an internet legend due to his co-creation of Django, after which he moved from creating web frameworks named after his guitar hero to creating a music site and music styled after his guitar hero. I was there for his XOXO talk about the former.
Vidura BR is my new favorite stand-up comedian (who apparently always sits down) based on content and delivery (“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between”). The beginning of this bit made me think of my time in TX:
I’ve been living in TX for 21 years, and thinking about leaving TX… for 21 years…
McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data to Hackers Using the Password ‘123456’
Would you like an IDOR with that? Leaking 64 million McDonald’s job applications
One of the biggest problems of any hype cycle like AI isn’t the tech, it’s the business pressure to release software that leads to hiring incompetent third-party companies that fail to employ basic security practices. You just know McD’s has a rigorous 3rd-party vendor vetting process that’s either just theater or was bypassed for this project.
How Social Media Is Fueling Gen Z’s Sex Recession
I just worry that there is a dearth of willingness to be vulnerable in a way that I think is not only bad for individuals but bad for politics, because it diminishes our ability to connect with one another and understand one another’s differences.
I spent the first part of my life in conservative circles that demonized sex outside of marriage, and most of my extended family still holds that view under the guise of God-given morality frameworks. The fact that that framing isn’t about morality but power would be incomprehensible to them. This results in dishonesty, divorce, and Pinocchio-style escapes to The Land of Toys. And, more generally, is one of many similar onramps to the misogynist-incel-racist-nationalist Christian hypocrisphere.
Somewhat related internet hot-take I made yesterday:
It is a little funny that the US spent ~100 years taking OP geo and exploiting it for money and power, another ~100 years doubling down [on that] while also working really hard to be the global superpower, and now is own-goal foot-gunning itself out of that position because a fascist reality TV star got elected thanks to Jerry Falwell and Mark Zuckerberg. Mike Judge should make a movie about it.1 😉
I have an urge to get into more detail about this, but…meh…let’s just see what happens.
Into the Mystic by Van Morrison is a salve for anything.
duh-duh-trip-o-let-duh-duh