4606
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr #4606
Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️
124937 Follower 485 Following
I kinda like the new channel architecture because I think it weakens channels and strengthens the undifferentiated public square part 🤣
This is a good newsletter for keeping up with defense tech. Things are moving so fast, even Anduril already feels old. I now think of it as the “PC era” tech. We’re already in the “mobile” era with things like FLIR’s Rogue 1 tube-launched exploding drone.
4th Gen = mainframe era (motif: Predator drone)
5th Gen = mini/PC era (motif: ransomware, Anduril)
6th Gen = mobile (motif: hardened DJI-class drone like FLIR’s Rogue 1)
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-future-of-defense-e90402d0-8983-11ef-828b-432bdf546162.html
4th Gen = mainframe era (motif: Predator drone)
5th Gen = mini/PC era (motif: ransomware, Anduril)
6th Gen = mobile (motif: hardened DJI-class drone like FLIR’s Rogue 1)
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-future-of-defense-e90402d0-8983-11ef-828b-432bdf546162.html
The future exhibits sensitive dependence on Pennsylvania conditions
Wife scored me a decent haul of free technic parts and snot pieces from a swap group. Came in a nice compartment box too. Had to wash it all since it was a bit funky, but good as new now. I think a good deal of it came from some marine themed kit.
This meccano forklift truck was a bitch to finish
Interesting argument by @gord that Nostr represents an unrecognized third type of distributed architecture after federated and p2p (which he suggests don’t quite work due to rise of oligarchic or supermodel end-games) — a relay architecture.
Curious what people think of this typology in general. 2 or 3 seems like a weird number for a typology. If it’s not 2, 200 seems more likely than 3
Periodic table of distributed systems topologies? https://open.substack.com/pub/subconscious/p/natures-many-attempts-to-evolve-a
Curious what people think of this typology in general. 2 or 3 seems like a weird number for a typology. If it’s not 2, 200 seems more likely than 3
Periodic table of distributed systems topologies? https://open.substack.com/pub/subconscious/p/natures-many-attempts-to-evolve-a
Is being a fractional philosopher a thing?
Your periodic ritual reminder.
That’s some heavy lifting going on
My writing break has accidentally turned into an Asian mini-sabbatical. Read some Byung-Chul Han and some Yuk Hui (both Asians in European-philosopher disguise) and just watched some Miyazaki movies for the first time (Spirited Away, Princess Mononake, Howl’s moving castle). I guess I’m late to the (East) Asian century. I have a first manga lined up to read next. (Blame by Tsutomu Nihei).
Not sure quite what to make of it all. A lot of things are clearly popular mainly because millennials grew up with them, but I’m too old for. Gotta find an age-appropriate/interest-appropriate sampling strategy. I don’t think giant robot sagas and what seems like a surfeit of Bildungsroman fantasies are for me.
Not sure quite what to make of it all. A lot of things are clearly popular mainly because millennials grew up with them, but I’m too old for. Gotta find an age-appropriate/interest-appropriate sampling strategy. I don’t think giant robot sagas and what seems like a surfeit of Bildungsroman fantasies are for me.
Popup city people should rebuild a version of Kowloon, the OG popup city. Just add a fire code, utilities, and a bit of premium mediocre aesthetic touch-up. Keep the debsity and topography.
https://x.com/sustainabletall/status/1845365590539563430
https://x.com/sustainabletall/status/1845365590539563430
Archival debt: When you accumulate output in a fundamentally fragile medium that will eventually need an archival heavy lift or abandonment to bitrot
Really not looking forward to the ribbonfarm archival project
Really not looking forward to the ribbonfarm archival project
Is there a good read on why the starship booster has to use this chopstick catch maneuver instead of just landing like the falcon boosters? I’m guessing it’s too heavy and tall and thus way requires less attitude precision for stable capture?
@aviationdoctor.eth
@aviationdoctor.eth
Remote working in the same time zone is just a skill any individual or org can learn if they really want to. All the stuff about weakening work culture and Zoom soul sucking etc is just bs, and anyone pushing that narrative is either a whiny Gen X manager unwilling to learn new skills, an autocrat leader, or an IC trying to escape bad home environment.
But remote working across time zones… that’s a real challenge. Nobody’s quite figured out even the basic meeting scheduling protocol, let alone subtler things like circadian mood rhythms.
For eg: The @yak rover group I’m part of is a side interest group which means weekly meeting needs to get scheduled either early morning, lunch break, or evening… in a really tough set of time zones (US PT, EU CT, Japan). Somebody is always either a sleep-deprived zombie or coming off a tiring full day of work. We’ve lost group members because we couldn’t solve for their time zone (eg ET). We rotate occasionally so we can take turns being zombie.
But remote working across time zones… that’s a real challenge. Nobody’s quite figured out even the basic meeting scheduling protocol, let alone subtler things like circadian mood rhythms.
For eg: The @yak rover group I’m part of is a side interest group which means weekly meeting needs to get scheduled either early morning, lunch break, or evening… in a really tough set of time zones (US PT, EU CT, Japan). Somebody is always either a sleep-deprived zombie or coming off a tiring full day of work. We’ve lost group members because we couldn’t solve for their time zone (eg ET). We rotate occasionally so we can take turns being zombie.
When people said “life is hard” pre 1900 I suspect they meant physically hard, with lots of hard muscle work, hunger, disease, pain and fear. Then technology solved most of this.
In the 20th century it likely meant emotionally hard, dealing with stressful relationships, anxiety, depression, abuse etc. Then increasing individual economic agency solved that.
In the 21st century I think we usually mean computationally hard. Ie problems are too complex to solve properly and we end up settling for broken and shitty situations that are endlessly frustrating.
Here we face an issue: the apparent solution, computers, add more computational complexity than they remove.
In the 20th century it likely meant emotionally hard, dealing with stressful relationships, anxiety, depression, abuse etc. Then increasing individual economic agency solved that.
In the 21st century I think we usually mean computationally hard. Ie problems are too complex to solve properly and we end up settling for broken and shitty situations that are endlessly frustrating.
Here we face an issue: the apparent solution, computers, add more computational complexity than they remove.
Your sense of how old a thing is, for things in the same order of magnitude as a human lifespan, is a function of the ratio of the thing’s age to your own age. Right now my denominator is ~50. Beyond about 200 years, you get the same effect with other iconic cultural things you identify with. Like T-rexes or Shakespeare.
PHP and WordPress are both older now than Cobol was when I was born (1959, 1974, 1994, 2003, 2024)
PHP is also older than Cobol was when I learned to program (~1986). Wordpress will be in a couple of years.
PHP is also older than Cobol was when I learned to program (~1986). Wordpress will be in a couple of years.
WW2 was more recent when I was born than Gulf War 1 is today (1945, 1974, 1991, 2024)
Aging is a series of realizations that fit in this basic genre of relative-gap consciousness.
Aging is a series of realizations that fit in this basic genre of relative-gap consciousness.
Paper: The original content-addressed medium
Then Melvil Dewey invented the file and filing cabinet and the first location addressing scheme and everything went to hell
Do people have strong opinions about IPFS+filecoin vs Arweave still?
Then Melvil Dewey invented the file and filing cabinet and the first location addressing scheme and everything went to hell
Do people have strong opinions about IPFS+filecoin vs Arweave still?
Finishing Robert McKee's tetrology out of a completionist urge, but damn the guy kinda sucks. No wonder they made him the philosophical antagonist in Adaptation.
Of his 4 volumes -- Story, Dialogue, Character, and Action -- only Dialogue is good. The rest are incredibly banal with the yield from 5% good stuff (mostly pointers to other people's good stuff) not making up for the 95% tedium. His book read like a cartographer's grid for a planned survey. Not a map, but a plan to make one. The books are almost like extended tables of contents that lay out territory worth exploring but never actually getting out there. Just philosophizing in vague and shallow ways. He's like the VC tweeter type, except he does it in books based on his workshops.
But Dialogue is actually good. It's the one area of storytelling he seems to have good intuitions for. He's a beat-level guy who flails at all other levels.
Of his 4 volumes -- Story, Dialogue, Character, and Action -- only Dialogue is good. The rest are incredibly banal with the yield from 5% good stuff (mostly pointers to other people's good stuff) not making up for the 95% tedium. His book read like a cartographer's grid for a planned survey. Not a map, but a plan to make one. The books are almost like extended tables of contents that lay out territory worth exploring but never actually getting out there. Just philosophizing in vague and shallow ways. He's like the VC tweeter type, except he does it in books based on his workshops.
But Dialogue is actually good. It's the one area of storytelling he seems to have good intuitions for. He's a beat-level guy who flails at all other levels.
Gloomy vibes only.