Posts in: Software

Riding the tilt-a-whirl, juggling machetes, rethinking the corn-dogs, so…pretty chill. What are you up to?


Blind taste tests need not remain exclusively the province of ads for drinks.
Conduct them yourself, on yourself, have some fun, and maybe even learn something!

  • Switch a familiar UI to a different language, see how that tastes.
  • Build a meal around a spice you have difficulty pronouncing, etc.

More Feudal Quotes

Yes, we are happy for them to mistake power for strength, why do you ask?


I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Right now in fact:

  • I am bored listening to millionaires talk about fairness.
  • I am bored listening to wolves talk about open coops being good for chickens.
  • I am bored listening to spell casters talk about the facts being the problem.


We see the same stupid, greed-head, get my boat this quarter thinking, repeated in variations.

EARLY .COM

It’s the clicks, that’s where the money is. Count the clicks. We have more clicks. Charge more for ads. Run ads about clicks.

LATER…

It’s the links, that’s where the money is. More links to your links. We have more links. Charge more for ads. Run ads about links.

STILL LATER…

It’s the likes and the boosts, that’s where the money is. Count the likes and the boosts. We have more. Charge more for ads. Run ads about who likes who and who boosts who.

LATELY…

Maybe ai could click things, and link things, and like things, and boost things for us. Then people can vote on how good of a job the ai are doing, clicking and linking and liking and boosting. That’s where the money is. Charge more for ads. Ads about which are the best ais!


Continuing this train of thought

Of course, I’m working from the luxury of believing I understand how this stuff works for my ends. Currently I compose my content on my devices and I store it there, and back it up locally. Then I post this material to my domain, bkryer.com. So folks can go there and read it and look at it. Then, instantaneously really, it is shared to people on micro.blog…and anyone who follows me there…or subscribes to my rss feed(s)…or follows me on deadbird where they can belittle or ignore it (☠️🙃🤪❥)…or the hairy elephant (mastodon, ho ho, I’m so funny) where they and I are mostly peers, in discussion at least, and I have no need for boost…and Tumblr, if I connected to it…or Flikr, if I connect to it…and so on. And not just services that can’t buy a vowel, but many others, via scripting and such.

So I have my private source, and my public domain. I can easily push from one into the other. I can interact with any/everyone on all the places where I’m bkryer, which is any/everywhere.

Thanks micro.blog for making this so easy. It is worth more than a $10 shake.


I think the reason so many of us in the language business are rightly worried about fAI (fake AI, aka Language Thingies) is because they can replace us. Not you, you’re special, but all those other talentless jokers—where’s that fork, cuz they’re done.

I do take some solace in the fact that this infatuation with fAI productivity will generate an information landscape with ever increasing amounts of bullshit. This will promote EVERYONE to the role of Quality Assurance Analyst in some sense, whether they want to be one or not. And with that promotion comes all the demands of resilience to tedium and arcane expertise that the role requires. Which will be discovered to be more difficult to fake than many had assumed. And so a new value proposition comes into view: “Can you tell me if that is worth the time?” rather than “Can you write something that is worth the time?”. Essentially, an editor, rather than a writer; oh, and a relevance ninja, and a fact ax, and…


Well…sure, you can take an umbrella into the shower with you, but…uh…maybe explain again what you mean by dry?


Just Noticing

I’m just noticing that a lot of my ground truth on matters internetty is based on the proposition that the internet is on a continuum with other means of individual creative expression; internet, tv, movies, radio…(skip ahead, brother)…live voice, our bodies. And that it is also this way with tools of individual education, certainly. But (ding!) others may see the thing differently. Perhaps as primarily a token game platform, or a herding mechanism.

Continue reading →


Mastodon