Google is having problems. It just updated its algorithms again, which it does periodically, and the fallout is that there are winners and losers. Plus, it has to cleanse its output of weird AI-generated results. Sounds like some people have a lot of work to do.
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This sounds like it could be interested just to plan geek meetings, instead as a way for singles to meet new people, as some seem to think it might be. It's called Flying Pig. When I was younger, I often imagined conducting a get-together of people interested in some specialized interest, and host a gathering, with a featured speaker to start the conversation flowing. Of course, this was before social media, and before video conferencing was made easier. It's not going to stay free forever, though, and that's when things will break down, I predict.
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Someone on Reddit wants an alternative to how news is reported and presented for consumption. I like reading postings like this to see if someone truly has something novel to offer. This person hasn't thoroughly thought out the problem, and really has no solution. Journalism is most lousy and biased as hell now. The value sometimes is more in the commentary, when motivated individuals shed needed light on a topic that the journalist fails to report. I've noticed that articles from mainstream sources in Seattle and Portland are really superficial and one-sided. I often get relevant news (with video) on X/Twitter, which I once studiously tried to avoid, as social media is a disease in itself. I've concluded that no one will present you with the news you want to read and will value. You have to curate this on your own.
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Swordfighting is not what you think. Not a game, but a matter of life and death. The last paragraph is significant.
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There's a new privacy-oriented smartphone, called Unplugged. I have questions, which the website doesn't answer. I still don't see how they can solve the cell-tower ping problem, which gives you away. Truly, the FBI/CIA are not going to be fooled by this phone, so I'm not sure who this phone is being marketed to.
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Portland high school’s Healthy Masculinity Club is ‘a place for guys to not be ‘guys’’. Huh? One of the problems with today's society is that men are being told to be emasculated. I look at the men in their twenties and thirties and there is a lot of soy in their blood. Masculinity is frowned upon. No wonder we're seeing a rise in transgender crossovers. Any masculiinity is always prefaced with the word "toxic". Even Boy Scouts are now just "scouts" and females are allowed. Thank goodness for other organizations like Trail Life.
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And in a related story: Oregon's birth rate is among the nation's lowest. All those soyboys don't know what to do, I guess. Well, there goes the taxbase.
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David Sinclair has stepped down from being the head of Academy for Health & Lifespan Research. No surprises. There hasn't been much ground-breaking research coming out of his lab. I see he's still a believer in resveratrol, while the rest of the field has moved on.
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Even at Apple, there is no sign of a clear AI strategy. Incorporating AI into things seems like keeping up with the Joneses, rather than implementing something that is truly of value. As Google has shown us, the world has no use for poorly-implemented LLM technology. Don't shove generative AI into things without clear demonstration of benefit. Already, I suspect many folks are using the "&utm=14" trick to remove AI from search results.
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AI tutors are quietly changing how kids in the US study, and the leading apps are from China. Well, one might as well learn from the people who are churning out the world's brightest kids. Kids who know how to use AI will have an advantage over kids who don't.
The Brain Stores 10x More Info Than Thought. My first thought was, "Who thought that?" Kidding aside, it's good that we can store more than we thought. Howefer retrieval is the key. We got to access all that stored knowledge more effectively.
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How do you tokenize pi? It's interesting to see how the different foundational model approach this problem. This doesn't translate into performance, but it's possible that this might explain why raw models struggle with math problems.
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What went wrong with federal student loans? One of the worst things Obama did was transfer the student loan business to the federal government. Funny how Maxine Waters was completely unaware of this. Since the government was underwriting all the loans, why wouldn't colleges hike their tuition? That's leaving money on the table.
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