It is turning out to be a summer of the Internet’s existential crisis, thanks to the rapid growth of Generative AI (artificial intelligence) systems. An information (and disinformation) tsunami not only threatens to upend the Internet information order, but it also poses a threat … | Continue reading
Batteries and transmission are in direct competition. Both enable electricity arbitrage – the profitable repricing of a resource by matching different levels of supply and demand. Transmission moves power through space (technically null space, at the speed of light) and batteries … | Continue reading
The pompous posturing of a space cowboy and his desire to understand the universe by starting a data-harvesting AI company, X.ai, I was reminded of this verse from Rumi: “Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” To understand ourselves, we have to embrace … | Continue reading
Facebook/Meta launched Threads, a Twitter competitor, last week. Mark Zuckerberg says 100 million people have signed up for the new social platform. Yes, I am one of them, in case you were wondering. My approach to social media is simple: controlled consumption. As on other platf … | Continue reading
Sometimes, Summer is not summer. At least in San Francisco, when the fog rolls in, winds kick off, and you feel as if you are in the middle of the winter. And it feels a tad worse when you are near the city’s top, the iconic Sutro Tower. The tower — about 977 feet in … | Continue reading
When the calendar turned to July, I decided to take a moment to check out the most-read articles on my website. Not surprisingly, they mimic the year so far in technology. Even before Facebook launched Threads, its show across the bow of Twitter, we have had an eventful year wit … | Continue reading
Over eight years ago, I was visiting Italy — Perugia, Umbria to be precise — for a journalism conference. Michael Williams, a menswear blogger and a good friend, saw one of my photos on Instagram and pinged me about Brunello Cucinelli, the founder of the luxury cashmere empire. M … | Continue reading
As an immigrant, you are blessed with the opportunity to celebrate “independence day” twice. In my case, I get to celebrate the independence day of the country of my birth and the independence day of the country that is my home. Happy July 4th to all my American friends. And for … | Continue reading
There must be something to this whole notion that “time flies!” I distinctly remember writing a short essay about the incredible adaptability of the Ethernet, the technology protocol, on the 31st birthday of the technology that came from Bob Metcalfe’s work at Xerox PARC in the e … | Continue reading
Occasionally, I come across reports about the environmental impact of the Internet and cloud services. While most reports make theoretical assertions, a new research report offers quantifiable data on the environmental impact of the Internet across Europe. I have highlighted what … | Continue reading
An interesting Twitter thread offers a sobering counter-narrative to the hype around “AI” applications. It is sobering because the media headlines are either dominated by “fear and loathing for AI” or full of hype around apps that are overnight sensations. For example, Lensa, a p … | Continue reading
We went from drive-in theaters to indoor theaters to multiplexes. And that is a good arc to follow to understand where we are going. The driving forces of change in the movie experience have been the human desire for comfort and convenience. The same forces have pushed us from VH … | Continue reading
It has been quite some time since I picked a camera and went out to take some photos. In fact, since coming back from New York, I have barely touched my camera. I wasn’t inspired, and as a result, I stopped making an effort to go out and capture whatever my eyes saw. I stopped … | Continue reading
A friend recommended Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 3-part docuseries on Netflix a few days ago. And I did. The series focused on Arnie and his life in a way that portrayed him as a hero. I got that feeling as well. I almost believed what I saw. It turns out it is an infomercial at best … | Continue reading
There are shades of Digg disaster in Reddit’s current woes. Social media companies often are run by people who don’t understand that community has a will of its own. Harness it, and you win. Mess with it, and you end up like MySpace and Digg. Good piece. The article echoes some o … | Continue reading
Whenever you read a piece about OpenAI, ChatGPT, or ChatBots, the common refrain is that it is a massive manifestation of the concept of garbage-in-garbage-out. “One of the most important traits that a system can have is that one can reason about that system in a consistent and p … | Continue reading
“Obviously Elon can afford to pay Twitter’s bills: it’s couch cushion money for him. So he must have a reason for not doing so, which of course he’s not sharing.” Puck’s William Cohan asks the question that is on the mind of many: why is Elon Musk not paying his bills? He owes re … | Continue reading
Over the past few months, I have experimented with various generative AI and AI technologies, protocols, and platforms. One application that has caught my attention is MacWhisper, developed by independent developer Jordi Bruin. MacWhisper utilizes OpenAI’s Whisper technology for … | Continue reading
US and China might be in a bitter chip (and cold) war, but don’t tell that to Nvidia. The company is (or was) selling a shit ton of GPUs to Bytedance and Alibaba. Bytedance has ordered a billion dollars worth of GPUs and according to rumors, has so far “received a total of 100,00 … | Continue reading
Average June temperatures are already higher than they have been in decades. You can get the data about our ongoing climate catastrophe at The New York Times. June 16, 2023, San Francisco | Continue reading
“The US pay-TV industry lost a record 2.31 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023,” Lightreading reports, pointing to a report from MoffettNathanson. “For Cable in particular, video is increasingly viewed to be lost cause,” noted MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett. … | Continue reading
What would that day look like if all 8 billion humans and their 190 billion hours in a day were to be viewed as a single person with 24 hours in a day? That is a question a research team from McGill University decided to answer, and they did so by looking at time usage … | Continue reading
Cormac McCarthy, one of the great American writers, died this past week. Longreads aggregated some of the best writing by and about him. All of the pieces they recommend are worth reading. A photographer friend notes that McCarthy’s road to success wasn’t as straight or instant. … | Continue reading
Reddit is going dark. In a big way! The community that makes up the platform is protesting against the company’s decision to impose draconian pricing for access to its application programming interface, aka API. The pricing is so exorbitant that it will kill third-party apps that … | Continue reading
Being a fan of all things mechanical and analog, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I immensely appreciate watches. I particularly appreciate the work of Grand Seiko watchmakers. I have struggled to embrace the Apple Watch fully, as I like wearing my beloved Grand Seiko. None of … | Continue reading
Marc Weidenbaum chronicles The Rise and Rise of Voice AI. Talking about AI, fans are trying to keep slain rapper Moosewala’s voice alive. This is a creative conundrum for the future, and we will see more of this. Before there was iPhone, there was Blackberry & before Crackberry … | Continue reading
I have been in Silicon Valley long enough to see it transform from a group of outlier revolutionaries to play-safe career chasers. Recently, I have watched arrivistes who, if not in technology, would be running a penny stock brokerage based somewhere in Long Island or producing B … | Continue reading
There is a common thread in the torrent of words that have followed the announcement of Apple’s Vision Pro headset — it portends a dystopian future and social isolationism. Most, if not all, picked up on the idea that we might retreat into a social cocoon and become more detached … | Continue reading
Apple kicked off the 2023 edition of WWDC, its developer conference, with a 2-hour long keynote that saw the company announce the next versions of its five operating systems( iOS, watchOS, iPad OS, tvOS, macOS), three new Macs, including the highest-end Mac Pro, and most importan … | Continue reading
“Some of the smartest people in technology say they are worried that AI is worse than pandemics and nuclear weapons. What I worry about is not AI extinguishing humans, but our humanity. And that’s the real risk of this new wave of “AI” — we become more reliant on machines than ou … | Continue reading
“So benumbed are we nowadays by electric lights that we have become utterly insensitive to the evils of excessive illumination.” Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows My most recent trip to Japan was most enjoyable personally, but it was quite challenging from a photography … | Continue reading
Janko Rottegers, a former colleague, writes a newsletter focused on the cord-cutting phenomenon. In the latest edition of the newsletter, Lowpass Janko argues that Apple’s new mixed reality glasses, rumored to be announced next week, will disappoint. And that’s okay because it’s … | Continue reading
If you go to Amazon.com and type “Traffic,” you will find three top listings. There is a book, Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt, about how we drive the way we do. Read it. Then there is a listing for a movie starring Michael Douglas and Benicio Del Toro. If you have not watched it, the … | Continue reading
It has been a long time since I went back to New York. A very long time indeed. It was a work trip with some pockets of free time, so I took my camera with me — hoping to see New York differently. While those photos still sit on the camera’s memory card, waiting to … | Continue reading
WordPress, the open-source blogging software, is twenty years old. The software’s first official release (WordPress 1.0) was made available on May 27, 2003. I had been using the software for a little longer when it was still in alpha. In 2004, I switched my old website to WordPre … | Continue reading
Did you know that 10.08 million new tracks were uploaded to online music streaming services in the first three months of 2023? That’s 120,000 new tracks every day, according to estimates from Nashville-based Luminate, a company that tracks music industry data. At this rate, we ar … | Continue reading
It was a major news day for Leica — the Wetzlar, Germany-based company known for its iconic cameras released Q3, the latest version of the Q, the best-selling fixed lens camera. And new as it might be, Q3 is a big step backward for a product that won a Red Dot award for design wh … | Continue reading
Shall we put this one in the “I told you so category?” If you have been reading my blog and my twice-a-month newsletter, you know this was coming. For the past year, I have argued that Twitter is Elon Musk’s Bully Pulpit and the new Fox. Yesterday, that reality manifested itself. … | Continue reading
We, humans, like to think we are important. We think we can create the planet’s future. Or that we destroy that future. We think we are rich and powerful. We think we are beautiful. And yet, we are nothing when plotted on a long arc of time. Not even a blip. We come, and we … | Continue reading
We live in a society where everything is tradable. There is a marketplace for everything, from sneakers to cameras, pens to watches to clothes. A house is not a home but a cashable asset to be listed on Zillow. It is no surprise why everyone focuses on resale or whatever they own … | Continue reading
In my latest piece in The Spectator. As a financial investment, I make a case that Twitter will be a bust. However, the power it gives Elon Musk is unprecedented. Musk has bought the Fox News of the post-TV reality for $44 billion, a pittance considering how much power it gives … | Continue reading
Wendy’s, the fast-food chain, is teaming up with Google to automate its drive-through ordering system with AI-driven chatbots. “The goal is to streamline the ordering process and prevent long lines in the drive-through lanes from turning customers away,” Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor … | Continue reading
I have been a big champion for Substack and what they were trying to enable — an opportunity for independent writers to make a living from their work. I even considered setting up an email newsletter on their platform. It has a nice interface, a nice editor, and the price — it is … | Continue reading
A good teacher is less of a teacher and more of a mentor. She always teaches you by asking the right questions that help you learn about yourself. And then improve from that point forward. You need to trust your teacher and believe you share a common interest to get there. It beg … | Continue reading
My Spring Break was longer than I had expected. I didn’t realize how much of a break I needed from the constant stream of information that made up my day. And that is after I had already eliminated Facebook and Instagram from my life. Since then, I have slashed my daily Twitter u … | Continue reading
After many go-go years, fixed broadband growth seems to slow, especially in more mature markets. Sure, parts of Asia and Africa still show strong growth, but the overall trend doesn’t look good, according to PointTopic Research. The global broadband demand for 2022 saw the total … | Continue reading
Even though I was mostly offline, I did up tweeting occasionally this past week. In a typical week, these would have become a proper blog post. Nevertheless, here they are! When I read the ludicrous profile of known criminal and master manipulator Elizabeth Holmes in the New York … | Continue reading
Even though I am not in school and neither do I have kids, I am taking a bit of a spring break. I badly need a change of scenery, so why not. I am traveling a little, reading a little, and thinking a lot for the next fourteen days. Don’t expect much in terms of … | Continue reading