"Manufacturers of food and soap have long known that the best way to improve a product is to place a large "improved" sticker on the front of the box. Computer journalist Jim Seymour, amused by the proliferation of supposed artificial-intelligence products, has expanded that concept to the computer market by developing his own AI sticker… Continue reading Look for the AI Label…
Tragedies & Paranoia
These are various micro stories/flash fictions about assassinations, inspired by recent events. Brian was an important man, running a difficult business. Health insurance. He had to juggle getting enough money to his shareholders, employees and claimants. He managed to do it admirably, replacing employees with AI and denying as much as 40% of claimants, leaving… Continue reading Tragedies & Paranoia
Cat attacks on limbs as pseudo-randomized number generators
Cats can be used as a substitute for coin tosses, provided adequate calibration.
Cat (2)
How Civilization 7 exposes faulty thinking in nationalist beliefs
The announcement of Civilization VII sparked controversy with the introduction of a civilization-switching mechanic and in doing so, accidentally revealed the big flaw of nationalism.
Cat
Observations of the VTuber scene – 4 years later
4 years ago, I wrote a blog post on the VTuber scene. Since then, I've learned a lot. Let's go through the old thing once more. I will go through the old post chronologically, but putting the section on umbrella brands (Hololive, Nijisanji) at the end, because... well. If you have paid attention to the… Continue reading Observations of the VTuber scene – 4 years later
How I live in a rural area without a car
or: eBikes, the underestimated mobility revolution.
Kagi: A Google alternative that just kinda.. is?
After seeing the raving reviews about Kagi by esteemed authors Doctorow and Koebler, I decided to use the search engine myself. Compared to my reviews of other services (especially: Ground News), this one is somewhat more difficult to grasp for me. But just to get started, here's some thoughts: Using kagi becomes very transparent very… Continue reading Kagi: A Google alternative that just kinda.. is?
Why did guestbooks on websites disappear?
TL;DR: Guestbooks aren't too useful anymore as most of what they do, social media does better. What are guestbooks and how popular were they? For the youngens out there, a guestbook was a page were strangers visiting your site would just write whatever. Basically a comments section without a concrete bit of content attached to… Continue reading Why did guestbooks on websites disappear?
Leo Wattenberg 