@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

jakemiller

@jakemiller@federate.social

Founder of Datamancy LLC; Formerly Assistant Clinical Professor of Management (Strategy and Technology and Innovation Management), Drexel University; fan of high dimensional vector spaces and extracting weak signals, solar energy and electrification.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

"Trump could have saved lives by setting a better example during the early days of COVID."

This is true. But doing things like wearing a mask, being supportive of the public health education initiatives was not free for Trump it would have cost him politically. These actions would not win him acclaim with people like me (since to me it's "just doing your damn job") but they would have made him less popular with some of his base.

So he didn't do it.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird So true. We haven’t been talking about how deeply rooted this cynicism and rejection of altruism and duty has become in US political discourse over the last 50 years.

And when your voting bloc assumes that officials and civil servants are in it for themselves, they’ll give you permission to do exploit the system to enrich yourself. “The system is corrupt, so I’m fine if my side is.”

(Disqualifying attitude, IMO.)

atomicpoet , to random
@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

So wait a minute. Adobe is now claiming THEY OWN everything that you make with their products—even though you’re PAYING to use their products?

Shouldn’t they be paying YOU for SELLING stuff YOU create?

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird @albertcardona @doctormo @atomicpoet
In tech, managers definitely see the importance of switching costs. Remember how Excel implemented all of Lotus’s commands?
With communications systems including social media, the network of connections is the source of real value, which creates a huge motivation to stay. New platforms frequently are built via generational shifts…

JuliusGoat , to random
@JuliusGoat@mastodon.social avatar

I also believe that Donald Trump is Dennis Quaid's asshole.

https://ew.com/dennis-quaid-says-he-will-vote-for-donald-trump-8654898

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird @JuliusGoat I wonder what could be done to get Trump supporters to put out yard signs that say “Trump is my asshole.”

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Tesla charging chief Rebecca Tinucci cut 15-20% of her team after Musk demanded it.

She felt that would justify a major Supercharger network expansion, but when she met with Musk he wanted more layoffs. When she pushed back, he fired the whole team.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-story-elon-musk-mass-100216178.html

#tesla #tech #elonmusk #layoffs #ev

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@parismarx This jumped out at me:
“Tinucci was one of few high-ranking female Tesla executives. She recently started reporting directly to Musk, following the departure of battery-and-energy chief Drew Baglino, according to four former Supercharger-team staffers. They said Baglino had historically overseen the charging department without much involvement from Musk.”

The consistent theme: Musk’s businesses succeed (only) when they are insulated from him.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I just re-read Neuromancer for some reason and... I still don't really get it.

Though I'm not certain it's making any particular statement. The hero mall-ninja. The wasp nest of big money. It's like a bunch of dream images each with their own resonance rattling around in what would be unfair to call 90s pastiche... because to be fair to Mr. Gibson, he invented what was later imitated.

But, yeah. I still don't really get it.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird I think it’s the feel. The detail that he zooms in on gives the impression that the entire world is that full and rich, and it conveys this feeling of a possible future. (And it’s important writing because that’s as clear an example of the “Torment Nexus” as exists, inspiring half of Silicon Valley. Still.) IMO, Molly is the most sympathetic and rich character, as the reader and Case get behind her armor. Case mostly just lucks his way into survival.

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Went to a bar called "The Penrose" the other day and was very annoyed and disappointed they didn't have non-repeating tiles in the bathroom. BOOOOO

(Why did I think they were pentagons? It's been awhile. )

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird If I won the lottery, I would consider opening an establishment called The Kite and Dart, which would have the appropriate tiling!

parismarx , to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

Elon Musk is betting Tesla’s future on using self-driving fantasies to boost the share price instead of building a real car business. He just gutted the teams working on the Supercharger network (right as other companies are adopting it!) and new vehicles.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/tesla-to-lay-off-everyone-working-on-superchargers-new-vehicles/

#tech #tesla #elonmusk #evs #cars

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@parismarx I’m really curious about the Supercharger cuts. Do we have any clarity on whether they’re going to continue to upgrade existing stations to the next generation of hardware? IMO this is an important question because with the win on the charging ports they obsoleted all other networks. But, some of them (eg Electrify America) can run significantly faster than the current Super standards.
Big Technoking Energy.

GottaLaff , to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

NEW: Border communities in have purchased a technology that tracks people through their Bluetooth and WiFi signals. It can track you through your wireless earbuds. The product is called Trafficatch & it's integrated into license plate reader systems

https://www.notus.org/technology/war-zone-surveillance-border-us

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@GottaLaff And for older people who might not already be concerned: it can track you by using your hearing aids.

w7voa , to random
@w7voa@journa.host avatar

USC announces it's canceling its main May commencement ceremony. There's been a campus backlash since the private university informed valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who had been opposed by pro-Israel groups, that she would not be delivering the traditional speech. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-25/la-me-usc-commencement-canceled

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@zachvat @w7voa I think most universities have both a college-level commencement as well as a university-wide one. Students actually walk at their college’s, and “big name” speakers headline the main one. So this is probably not crushing to students, but is remarkable.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

"Chain migration" is the BEST kind of immigration. You want people who move to you country to have a local network and support. You want new immigrants to bring their family, and the economic activity they generate and the value they add to communities to be in YOUR country.

I can't believe we let them use it like a slur. It's good and do it more.

What? They brought their elderly parents? That's good for US and for them (the new American we want to be successful and happy.) RIGHT?

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@Npars01 @futurebird Do you think that Donald is happy that his in-laws are in the country? 🤔

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Sometimes I think that instead of debunking misinformation* it might be better to simply celebrate what we know and how we know it. So, rather than explain why anti-vaxers (for example) are wrong go into detail about the production process for vaccines.

*Especially maliciously constructed misinformation, that is people who use their limited scientific knowledge to add credibility to 'theories' they know aren't well supported since they want to harm 'established science' for some reason.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird @Nazani @DavidM_yeg I would guess that in that worldview, the oil industry (in-group) using it to make money (proof of superiority, truth and God’s favor) would be really powerful evidence.

GottaLaff , (edited ) to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Sales Miss in First Year-Over-Year Drop Since Pandemic https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-02/tesla-sales-miss-in-first-year-over-year-drop-since-pandemic

ADDED: Link with no paywall: Tesla sales plunge far more than expected

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/02/business/tesla-sales?cid=ios_app

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@GottaLaff You can see why they just rebranded “FSD” from “Beta” to “Supervised” and are requiring demos of it at sale, and are giving a trial month. They need that subscription revenue.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I wonder what would happen if one ran a LLM on data representing analog TV or radio signals for a type of video or music... then generated an analog signal and played it on a TV?

Would it make any difference in the texture, look sound of the resulting output?

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird That seems like a really interesting question. I would think you’d get something, but would it be intelligible? The LLM technology is based on tokens, so you’d need to find a way to “tokenize” your signal, you’d need a large dataset, and probably a larger model than normal because there’s a lot of stuff in each piece of data. Text is “cleaner” than the signal would be.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

"You'd expect this from Joe Scarborough he's a far left opinion commentator."

-Fox Anchor

Joe Scarborough served as a Republican in the FL house. And ... as a member of the far left I'm deeply insulted. As I think Joe would be too. We are in crazy town.

"far left"

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird @sidereal @alloydflanagan @hazelnot My take is that Biden is a centrist in process and center-left (at least) in personal policy preference. And where a lot of discourse is about him being pressured into certain good policies, I see those “pressuring actions” as providing him cover to enact those policies while holding the coalition together. And while he needs to mobilize the left, drawing swing voters is also critical.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird 💯! He’s good at his job. But he’s focused on getting legislation, rather than laying out a sweeping vision. Broad, simple principles, but not inspiration.
He does a great job in understanding the space of what’s possible, and getting laws on the left side of that space.
For all of the shouts about him being a commie, it isn’t sticking. That’s why they have to accuse him of being old.
He navigates these contradictions better than I thought possible.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Termitophilous rove beetles live with termites in Australia. In order to solicit food from the termites the beetle has evolved a rear end that looks like a termite which it uses like a puppet to solicit food from it's hapless hosts.

Rove beetles also mess with ants in a similar way, although nothing this elaborate.

(If we had to name an insect after George Santos...)

https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5336.3.8

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird @fivetonsflax Here I thought we were going to go with twerking jokes, but I can dig the picture of Karl as a butt ventriloquist, awkwardly improvising nicknames for people, stumbling over words sometimes…

CarlG , to random
@CarlG@esq.social avatar

Shocking that no company will accept as collateral for an appeal bond the very assets Trump was just found to have inflated in a years-long, half-billion dollar fraud.

Despite his braggadocio, Trump is not only too poor to post the bond himself, but his assets ("Beautiful buildings - worth billions!") are so leveraged that he presumably can't even secure a regular loan against them either to post the bond.

Trump's career of ripping off everyone he deals with is coming back to haunt him.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@mastodonmigration @kinyutaka @skydog @CarlG Habba kept talking big about how he’s a billionaire and of course he has the money.

So they may wind up being unable to appeal a verdict for misrepresenting his financial condition, in part because they were misrepresenting his financial condition.

futurebird , (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It's like we all decided that imperialism is bad, which it is, so the solution is no one talks about imperial ambitions or power unless it's to insult a bad guy.

So in the US press you might hear Russia call imperialist, but you'll never get an honest discussion of the vectors of American imperial power, this means that US foreign policy is inscrutable to most Americans.

"Why are we giving Ukraine so much money?"

Like we are handing out gift cards, Benjamins and Obama phones.

1/

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird Off the top of my head, it strikes me that “the right” is always in favor of their own power. Historically, that’s US power internationally. But domestically, it’s destroying (federal) government that they can’t control. Consistent if they’re very selfish and self-centered.

And so blocking funding for Ukraine means increased power for whom? Not just their imperialist ally, but also the guy who called for blocking it. Trump is already back in foreign policy.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I really would love to see some in depth interviews with the substantial group of CO Republicans who like Trump but hate Boebert.

I just assume it's some kind of sexism. They are so similar. But, I'm curious if they are aware of it "a woman just shouldn't be that way" or if it's just ... a unexamined gut feeling.

In other news, Ted Cruz is parroting Trump saying that Obama is somehow pulling the strings. This is a conspiracy theory based on a flubbed line and it's developing ... lore. WHY

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird Sexism, cultism, but also classism, I suggest. He came from money, and his dad bought him an Ivy degree. She conforms to a lot of class stereotypes on the flip side.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird Dang it, I’m not trying to empathize with Lauren Boebert here! And now you have me thinking about how her whole political persona is trying to bully people and omg she’s been on the receiving end of that her whole life, huh?
And tbh it puts that fight with Marjorie, who did inherit money, and goes to the gym all the time, in a different light.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Democrats seem to think they've "won" on the "border issue" because they've offered a plan to Republicans and predictably Republicans don't want to do anything (including things they claimed they wanted to do very badly not that long ago)

But, other than making liberals feel smug I don't think this matters because the only way Democrats can "win" on this issue with the people who care about it is by adopting Republican bigoted messaging about the border.

And then I might not vote for them.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird I am strongly pro-immigration (because this is the US, duh) and while I want to see the laws and administrative systems be fixed, I’m good with what the Dems are doing.
Since the failure of the bipartisan overhaul in 2008, Republicans have descended into xenophobia as a main policy plank and mobilizer for their base.
1/2

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Can someone who has more faith than I in "the market finding the most efficient solution" please poke some holes in what I'm calling The Inoperability Crisis?

The Inoperability Crisis is the tendency for firms producing software to have a great incentive to make their software work with their own, sometimes inferior, versions of software, rather than participating or contributing to universal standards.

It's the software version of one hundred dozen different USB connectors.

jakemiller ,
@jakemiller@federate.social avatar

@futurebird I think that the USB example you cite is the exact opposite. USB is defined by a consortium to ensure interoperability. But because there are so many different specific needs, they defined a bunch of different interfaces over time. But they still are not proprietary cables, locking you in to a single vendor for their profit.

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