Published
Weekend Reading — Darth driver
I would get out of his way, right now. I need this truck!
Tech Stuff
Axel Rauschmayer Good to know!
TypeScript doesn’t use semantic versioning (semver): “A new major version of TypeScript (e.g. 5.0.0) is released if the minor version would have exceeded 9 (e.g. 4.10.0).”
https://www.learningtypescript.com/articles/why-typescript-doesnt-follow-strict-semantic-versioningIt’s interesting that people don’t seem to be aware of that and hesitate to upgrade to a different major version (peaks at 2.9, 3.9, 4.9): https://majors.nullvoxpopuli.com/q?minors=on&packages=typescript
Trace Pixels To Vectors in Full Color Automatically. Using AI.
Infocom’s ingenious code-porting tools for Zork and other games have been found “The Z-machine allowed porting from mainframes to TRS-80, Apple II, and others.”
PopUpOFF - Popup and overlay blocker Open-source browser extension to remove popups, overlays, cookie and 'please, disable adBlock' notifications.
Don Meltz I’m old enough to remember: “Map of the entire Internet on this day, 54 years ago. Nov 21, 1969.”
Eye for Design
The Magic of Details: How UX Microinteractions Transform Products
Why are Western apps more minimalistic than Asian apps?
Business Side
mekka okereke PSA almost nobody gets hired before the new year. Meanwhile, January is the most busy hiring month of the year:
Reminder that it's really hard to get hired in October, November, and December. So if you've been job seeking and have gotten very little traction the past few months, know that it's not you. Don't give up hope!
Hiring teams have the fewest open roles left at year's end
It's tough to put interview schedules together because everyone is on vacation
Even with the interviews, it's tough to schedule the debrief + hiring committee + offer review
Etc
How ChatGPT Fractured OpenAI Sam Altman’s weekend of shock and drama began a year ago, with the release of ChatGPT.
“After ChatGPT, there was a clear path to revenue and profit,” one source told us. “You could no longer make a case for being an idealistic research lab. There were customers looking to be served here and now.”
Dare Obasanjo “Tech companies that did layoffs without flattening management layers.”
Machine Intelligence
AI system self-organises to develop features of brains of complex organisms “Cambridge scientists have shown that placing physical constraints on an artificially-intelligent system – in much the same way that the human brain has to”
Our brains are not able to ‘rewire’ themselves, despite what most scientists believe “Contrary to the commonly-held view, the brain does not have the ability to rewire itself to compensate for the loss of sight, an amputation or stroke.” Sorry, but the brain is not as powerful as they say in the brochure. However, it does have alternative/secondary routes that can kick into action when necessary. So it does feel more powerful than a sponge.
No evidence screen time is negative for children’s cognitive development and well-being Probably not something you want your kids to read:
In a study of nearly 12,000 children in the United States, no evidence was found to show that screen time impacted their brain function or well-being.
Rama I actually think the tech (AI) is more capable than we give it credit. But also, we're decades away from “brain on a chip”:
I wonder whether we are giving sufficient thought to the possibility that we could be about as close as creating a Human-level of superhuman-level AI with Deep Learning as we were to reanimating corpses with electricity in 1818.
UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges I’m not an AI doomer. I don’t think AI will take over the world and eliminate people. But definitely, there are applications of AI that we need to worry about, eg improving the rate of healthcare denials.
Will AI Render Programming Obsolete? No.
It's exhilarating to think that, with the help of generative AI, anyone who can write can also write programs. It’s not so simple.
This concept should be obvious to anyone who has tried to follow instructions for assembling a piece of furniture. People make fun of IKEA’s instructions, but they might not remember what the state of the art was before IKEA came on the scene. It was bad.
Everything Else
Gregor “happy black friday”
NASA is launching a mission to say sorry to all the aliens.
They are calling it Apollo G.
Assaf I found the computer that was never obsolete!
The Story of Titanium Riveting:
The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100. But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment). Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature.
Assaf Best door mat of what?
Why Effective Altruism and “Longtermism” Are Toxic Ideologies TL;DR you can do horrible things today, but justify it as helping people someday in the very far future, so far out, you won't be alive and so not accountable for your decisions:
There’s almost no serious thought within EA, at least not that I’ve seen, about the origins of many problems around the world. Origins being in systems of power, structures that have enabled the individuals in the Global South to end up being very destitute—there’s no discussion of the legacies of colonialism. It’s about working within systems.
Bacteria Store Memories and Pass Them on for Generations Interesting.
The Secret Language of Ships “Signs and symbols on the sides of ships tell stories about an industry few outsiders understand.”
Sensible power output makes the DBA Mini eMastered a huge amount of fun The original mini, with an electric motor. Brilliant!
