I figured, well, it’s been a bit since I really sounded off on stupid stuff, so here’s some one liners for everyone to enjoy because I think we’ve lost the art of calling people out so they feel shame, and without shame, we don’t have a working society, I shall help:
- I saw a headline the other day that said something about Microsoft commenting on their “AI rival” Anthropic. Which is so funny, because I am 6′-3″ tall and objectively terrible at basketball, but if you want to say Microsoft is an AI rival with Anthropic, then you might as well say I am a dunking rival with Shaq. I mean, it’s just absurd.
- Apple’s weird stance about FaceID not being on every device is the clearest sign that the financial peeps have a solid amount of control. We know this because zero product people think that Touch ID is in, any way, nearly as good as Face ID. I think this holds the Duo back more than Apple thinks it will, which also might mean good second hand deals on those? I still bet the biggest complainers about Face ID missing from the Duo, are the ones who buy the Duo the most.
- Gear Patrol had a headline that said “Benchmade accidentally released” and I cannot even with that bullshit. Benchmade didn’t accidentally do anything, unless you are talking about an uneven blade grind on your new knife. Benchmade is an old and large company, they don’t accidentally do shit, and that headline isn’t quirky or catchy, it just makes you look like a buffoon.
- AI companies are calling for regulations to cover their asses. It’s the same reason you CC your boss when you know you have to deal with an asshole, CYA that shit. If the USA doesn’t regulate AI companies, then they are just doing their thing, and if it does, well “that’s what we wanted” or some shit. Alternatively, they could just be pretty tired and in need of a good nights sleep. It’s hard to tell to be honest.
- A few months ago someone told me that they think the best movies are the ones where the Rotten Tomatoes score is pretty low, but the audience rating is super high. I’ve started to pay attention to this, and I’d have to agree. But maybe I’d pivot from calling those the ‘best movies’, and instead say “most enjoyable to watch.” Which is to say that movie critics are so up their own asses they, well I don’t know how to finish that sentence.
- This year is not the year of Linux on the desktop.
- Nor is next year.
- Apple Watches are still ugly, stupid, and you should not wear or own one unless prescribed by a doctor to do so. They are the orthopedic shoes of the wrist.
- Ford is releasing and F-150 Carhartt edition, and it’s baffling this is a new thing and not a historic collaboration. Did these two companies hate each other until now? Anyway, sounds terrible.
- There’s a Filson Bronco too. I guess.
- Companies that sell goods, who take pride in their ability to “make a bad order right”, but refuse to come get a very large item which arrived damage, are not making anything right. They are full of shit. Looking at you Wayfair. Thanks for making me pay to get rid of the stuff you sent broken to me.
- If you have never looked at external webcams, then you might not know this: they are among the ugliest things out there. It’s awful. And I find it hilarious that BenQ makes the ScreenBar, but not a specific Webcam for that, instead the webcam must be for another monitor you don’t use a ScreenBar on. And before you say “well that would maybe be too niche”, they make ScreenBars to match iMacs, so yeah.
- Two $20/mo AI subscriptions are the smart play, instead of over paying for one of the expensive ones. Which means that 2x the first paid tier in usage and price, and I’m in. But because everyone is greedy, I run a lot of stuff through the excellent Chinese models should I max out both the $20 plans in any given day (spoiler: that’s like once every two months).
- Any one blogging about the new iPhones who says that the $100 price increase is ‘not that bad’, or anything of that ilk has lost touch with reality. Apple made nearly $30 BILLION dollars last quarter. That’s $10 Billion per month. Yes, prices have gone up, that doesn’t really mean the cost of an iPhone needs to go up, but if it does, ‘not that bad’ is the wrong phrase by a wider margin than the distance from Earth to Alpha Centauri. I think, I am not actually sure how far away that planet is.
- Ever since my wife showed me how lip filler migrates away from the lip line and causes crazy bulges outside of that line, I cannot unsee it, and I hate it all. It’s unsettling.
- I am weirdly very entertained by the Matt Mullenweg drama.
- The most reliable news appears to be John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’, which is a comedy show.
- Flock cameras, and likely the company, are objectively terrible for society, but it’s also hilarious that they fail at security for their systems, and fail at it badly.
- I haven’t bought any major clothing things in a while, which either means I got complacent, or things are uninteresting. So I took a look, and things are uninteresting. That’s the side effect of buying higher quality, more timeless, designs: you buy fewer things over the long run. And you don’t know what you would do with some of the stuff that looks absurd companies are shipping now.
- Most woodworking content is on YouTube, and they all sound the same, and use the same tools. But it’s certainly not because they are all paid by Festool. No sir, a YouTuber who does the occasional build for a client can most certainly afford Festool’s starting price of $600/tool. Then there’s the one who can out cut me using a track saw with her Ryobi circular saw and a basic edge guide, she’s got skill. I don’t think she has Festool either, man she would probably make so much more of the same stuff if she had Festool though. I am, to be clear, legitimately jealous of how steady her hands are. (Pictured at the top, out cutting me.)
Alright, happy weekending.