The first amendment only applies to the oligarchs and their friends in the 3 branches of the United States. TikTok is only the first to be blocked, there will be more, and they will be DC political fodder too.
We need a distributed social platform. Distributed currency system. Distributed personal information privacy. Distributed AI. Where’s the tech YC?
Here's the lesson: We need our social media platforms to be distributed and out of the hands of any government to promote sharing knowledge and creating peace.
When the mass Tiktok exodus tsent Red Book [1] to the top of the App store, it was the first time in history that American citizens started talking directly to Chinese citizens in mass. I've heard all sorts of stories of both sides learning a lot about each other, including the lies and propaganda each others government places in the media, but mostly more positive things like art, fashion, cooking, food, healthcare and -- probably the most important, each other's different humor.
Video, and an AI algorithm to drive the For You page, is probably the most difficult part. We have some good ideas on privacy[2], and I can imagine some sort of crypto ledger system paired with AI learning, but video expensive to store/stream and at such a high volume of streaming, I don't know what kind of end points would really work to keep quality up.
Then there's the problem of policing such a system, and who the police would be. There's some dark places on the internet that I think everyone but a handful of people think should never be allowed on such a network, but more generally there's questions on politeness, stalking, harassment, "facts", memes, and other culture differences that would need to be ironed out.
Who's building this? We need it by Jan 19th, 2025.
I've visited the areas outside of the major metro areas (Athens, Thessaloniki) and found the vast majority of Greeks to be very friendly and family oriented. It really is a break from the American way -- you don't check a website, you ask someone or call someone. The boat is late, maybe call the captain's wife?
There's lots of real estate to rehab in all the smaller towns and even the tourist towns too. Book your flights already!
You could add just about any University to the list. At least in California, many UC IT people left due to poor pay and long hours, however the UTPE CWA 9119 union has grown in numbers and strength and the trend in pay and hours is quickly improving.
There's plenty of gray beards, the UC is starving for seasoned talent, and the HMO plans are inexpensive and cover a lot -- 5 years to vest in the pension that matches nearly 100% and you can take distributions starting at age 50.
It's not the bike lane. The price of going out has gone up and the amount paychecks that have gone up doesn't match it. Each wave of tech layoffs wipes out more customers that can absorb price increases. The city needs to continue lower permit fees and cut red tape for new business to start city-wide to get new money in.
As for the center bike lane design, I dislike it as a cyclist. The entry curbs make it difficult to pull out mid-block without someone behind me hitting me, and if I'm biking in the car lane I can't safely merge back to the bike lane with how the curbs are.
The best design is to make those blocks car free like Market St; deliveries, ADA drop offs, and local garage owners only. Ubers can drop off on the side blocks and back in parking can go in where it fits as well.
Excellent news. I’ve been worried that Sam moving to Microsoft would stall out possible future engineering efforts like GPT-5 in IP court.
As an example of how much faster GPT-4 has made my workflow was the outage this evening — I tried Anthropic, openchat, Bard, and a few others and they were between not useful and worse than just looking at forums and discord it’s 2022.
A built-in cell modem in Macbooks also means additional partnerships with telcos like with the iPhone, iPad, and Watch. Right now there's a clear line between a telco and an Apple laptop. With cell enabled devices, telcos can sell a lucrative "subsidy as a lock in" discount.
I think $5-$10 is a good price point for just the privacy aspect. As far as search, it's about 90% kagi and 10% Google if I don't like the kagi results. Maps could use some work and I'm always jumping back into Google maps.
About me: Hey team, I'm Mark and I've been doing compute infrastructure for over 20 years. I specialize in deployment automation, computing at large scale, high performance computing, and identity management, and security. I have a strong interest in AI as well!
I'm interested in co-founding and early stage startups, but if you are doing something really cool in corp or gov/mil (Cage Code: 8Q152) drop me a note too! I'm available for W2 or C2C, a US Citizen, and have previously worked with clients in UK, EU, Japan, and Thailand.
Burying is a good idea and I'm a fan of it for sure. The issues I've seen on my block is the transformer out on the pole fails about every 7 years.
As an aside, it's an interesting failure scenario because there's a loud explosion outside my window, then I get 120v 50hz power from whatever is left of the transformer so half the house lights work at an odd warm glow. :D
It's pretty easy to get to $700/mo. There's a lot of old housing stock without good insulation, leaky windows, etc. Leaving a typical server on is like $70. I can see a 3bd 2ba apartment easily hitting $700/mo with an active family living in it. Add in an EV, that's another $50/mo right there, maybe more!
SFBay doesn't have big freezes like Texas, but I have to wonder the wisdom of eliminating gas heaters entirely. The blower fan on a typical gas heater uses 120v and doesn't consume nearly as much power as a ~20a 240v heat pump. During a typical PG&E power outage a much larger back up battery will be needed to keep a home heated.
Over the last couple of years, I've had 4-5 power outages that lasted over 4 hours and I live in the middle of San Francisco. I do have a wood burning fireplace as a backup, but those have all sorts of restrictions on use and new ones aren't permitted. Imagine what a chilly 20 unit Tenderloin apartment is going to be like!
Unless cheap battery tech, microgrids, and major subsidies are put into place, it's going to be a cold winter when PG&E is out for hours at night in 2032.
I'm still around from wearing a helmet biking in San Francisco. I got my wheel stuck in the old street car tracks on Castro and Market while going 15 mph and went over the handles. My helmet cracked when my head hit the pavement, I was skinned up and shaken, but no serious injuries.
I think there are plenty of low speed urban bicycle accidents a helmet is good for based on this.
This whole thing is SGI syndrome. The tight knit teams that were either let go or quit Twitter will go and found the next equivalent Nvidia or Adobe. Elon is making the classic Valley blunder of trying to make a company something it's not, in this case x.com. See also AOL, Yahoo!, and Tumber.
If Elon turns brings Vine back from the dead, I might have to eat my shoe however.
I bought a PinePhone hoping to have some sort of freedom from iOS and at the time the threat of scanning all iCloud uploads.
I played with the PinePhone for a few days, but it really is still a development phone. It has promise but it'll be sitting in a box until the ecosystem matures. I'm really hoping more serious work gets done in making it a daily driver for someone like me, who is very technical but doesn't have the time to figure out why the screen stays dim or how to load in a game that works.
With how slowly these proposals roll out, 100/20 won't be enough. As others said, there is a lack of both competition and pricing to worry about too.
In a major tech hub like San Francisco, where I live, it's possible to get 1gb/1gb in some areas for under $90, but which those are isn't consistent nor wide spread. Home cell coverage at 100/20 is spotty at best, and there is only one flat rate vendor (T-Mobile Home, no Verizon Home yet). For those outside of the Bay Area exurbs, I can only imagine the horrors of Comcast/Xfinity or only DSL people must deal with.
Looking forward, the FCC is assuming that people are just watching Netflix, Tiktok, and making angry Karen posts on Nextdoor. We're not sure where web3 will lead, and how much bandwidth will that take: Distributed file systems/data privacy? Fast crypto transactions? Metaverse/VR/AR glasses/contacts? And what about latency?
BART goes plenty of nice places! If you get out at 16th or 24th, Valencia St one block over has lots of nice shops and bars. Head over to Folsom and 24th for lots of cheap shopping in what is like a little Mexico. Go see a show at New Mission / Alamo and get your lunch delivered to your seat while you watch a movie. Or make a reservation at Foreign Cinema and have a fancy dinner in a former theater.
Get out at Glen Park and and there's a the quaint Glen Park Village.
Get out at Balboa Park and head over a few blocks up Ocean for another neighborhood row of shops.
Or get on Muni Metro and take the KLM to West Portal. Or keep riding to Stonestown and do your shopping at Target, Wholefoods, or TJs, then go see a movie at the Regal.
Hop on the N and ride all the way out to La Playa and get yourself a cup of coffee and a sandwich at Java Beach. Then walk around the Sunset and see just how sleepy the western side is!
We need a distributed social platform. Distributed currency system. Distributed personal information privacy. Distributed AI. Where’s the tech YC?