Bytes and Boulders

A happy corgi dog sitting in a black toddler swing at a playground, tongue out and ears perked, with green trees and a park bench in the background.

Time to swing into the weekend! 🎉 You made it through the week, and that is an accomplishment worth celebrating. Whether it was good, bad, or just okay, I am wishing you a brighter, happier weekend ahead. And remember, spread kindness wherever you go. 💛 #corgi #corgicrew #corgisky

Google has long been a key source of traffic for news and all manner of sites across the web.

This week @mattdpearce.com joins @parismarx.com to discuss how Google’s pursuit of AI is causing fewer people to click through, causing traffic to plummet.

Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/288_...

Agreed, some rain would be nice too.

An introduction to Long Lines The technology we use to communicate has a dramatic influence on how we connect, share information, and interact. Before the ubiquity of cell phones, AT&T’s Long Lines network was critical in e…

tedshideler.com/2023/11/07/a...

See also: spencerjharding.com/index.php/pr...

long-lines.net

Vintage Skynet: AT&T's Abandoned "Long Lines" Microwave Tower Network - 99% Invisible Between early wired networks and today’s fiber optics sat a system of microwave relay towers transmitting information from coast to coast across the United States. Built in the early 1950s, this line-...

My oddly specific dive of the evening 99percentinvisible.org/article/vint...

Hot & dry conditions will continue for Newfoundland until at least Wednesday or so.

Long range models show little to no rainfall for the island, especially for areas with wildfires.

Temps will be in the mid-upper 20s & low 30s as well for this stretch, with low humidity.

#NLwx

Just.... why?! 🤔

Yup - in this world, it's the little things that matter the most.

Is anyone else eagerly awaiting cooler temperatures, pumpkin patches, ominous mansions, fog-laden fields of corn, autumn festivals, pumpkin pastries, Halloween, resplendent trees, the full moon in October, spooky films, and the heartwarming sound of crows in the distance?

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you don’t have to justify that third cinnamon roll to anyone.

A screenshot of a news article from the verge. It reads “With Gemini, Williams says, you can just give the details of the message and a tone. Maybe you're running late, so you say, "Tell my spouse I'm 15 minutes late and send it in a jokey tone." Instead of having to think of what to say, the bot will write it for you.”

Grounds for divorce imo

Wikipedia is a treasure we should never take for granted with the current state of the internet.

Engineer restores pay phones for free public use In a rural Vermont county, spotty cell phone coverage is the norm. But a local tinkerer is using old technology to help his community stay connected free of charge.

In a rural Vermont county, spotty cell phone coverage is the norm. But a local tinkerer is using old technology to help his community stay connected free of charge.

Finished this yesterday, not bad!

Public Advisory: Temporary Closure of T’railway at Team Gushue Highway Crossing for Construction - News Releases The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure wishes to advise that the T’railway will be temporarily closed at the Team Gushue Highway crossing starting Monday, August 4, for approximately six ...

Looks like the T'railway is closing at the TGH site for 6 weeks starting Monday #nltraffic www.gov.nl.ca/releases/202...

I'm watching Buffy for the first time now and love it

chart: capital expenditures, quarterly shows hockey-stick like growth in the capex expenditures of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and meta, almost entirely on data centers in the most recent quarter it was nearly $100 billion, collectively

The AI infrastructure build-out is so gigantic that in the past 6 months, it contributed more to the growth of the U.S. economy than /all of consumer spending/

The 'magnificent 7' spent more than $100 billion on data centers and the like in the past three months *alone*

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sili...

Maybe 10 years ago: Technology is great and makes my life easier in many ways
Now (holding a big caveman club): We must destroy machine

truly iconic

Whenever people talk about how folks need financial incentives to do anything, I think about how one of our most valuable institutions is entirely volunteer driven

Awwww 🐱

Watched a couple episodes of the 2023 Disney+ Doctor Who reboot today. Pretty good, gotta check out more of the older series

Ugh.

I don't trust anyone who doesn't occasionally dream of going off the grid to become the caretaker of an ominous greenhouse on the grounds of a mysterious manor in the Scottish countryside.

I’ve had it with Microsoft The company is deceptively raising prices on existing customers to fund its AI spending

Last week, I got an email from Microsoft. It told me I’d be paying 46% more for my Office subscription, starting next month.

But when I tried to cancel, it offered me the same price I was already paying — without the generative AI features I never asked for in the first place.

How big tech is force-feeding us AI Plus, OpenAI's absurd listening tour, top AI scientists say AI is evolving beyond our control, Facebook is putting data centers in tents, and the AI bubble question — answered?

Big tech promotes the story that since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, AI has been so popular it's rushed to meet the demand. The reality is different. A study by design scholars shows tech co's have had to push AI on its users with a variety of intrusive tactics.

How big tech is force-feeding us AI:

We definitely do

I don’t really aspire to wealth or fame. My needs have always been simple. All I desire is my own castle, a library filled with thousands of classic novels, a cellar housing the world’s rarest wines, lush gardens all around me, an owl to deliver and retrieve my post, and my own personal pastry chef.

Sounds good!