It's been about 2 weeks since I stopped using nearly $1,000/year-worth of subscriptions and changed to free or paid-up-front options, and I wanted to give an update with some micro-details on how it's going. I have only resumed one subscription, but I've put a hard stop on all
Todd Vaziri: FXRant: The Most Egregious Example of "We Didn't Use CGI" Mythology (So Far) In 2023, I can't believe we're still dealing with these ridiculous, bold-faced lies. "Gran Turismo" had over 1,100 digital visual effects - digital effects that producer Qizilbash and director Blomkamp asked for and directed.
Case Marshall writing for Polygon: Hbomberguyâs 4-hour YouTube plagiarism video set social media abuzz Brewis systematically goes through Somertonâs content, calling out multiple instances in which he plagiarizes â or heavily lifts from, without proper crediting â authors from other outlets, academics, and documentaries. I know itâs a lot
Casey Newton reporting on Googleâs update to their AI backend, Gemini In accordance with Googleâs preference for chaotic branding, Gemini will be available in three âsizesâ: Nano, which is small enough to fit in a smartphone and will power features in the Pixel 8 Pro smartphone starting today;
Charles Pulliam-Moore for The Verge: Pixarâs Turning Red, Soul, and Luca are getting theatrical releases Today, Disney and Pixar announced that Pete Docterâs Soul, Domee Shiâs Turning Red, and Enrico Casarosaâs Lucaâ all of which ended up premiering on Disney Plus due to the covid-19 pandemic
Joan Westenberg: The block button is the ultimate source of dopamine. Use it It's your right to choose who you interact with digitally, and you don't need a detailed explanation for your choices. Your online space, your rules. Ideally our feeds would not have replies from people actively harassing us,
Casey Newton: How Facebook helps predators find each other This year Stanford found equally disturbing CSAM issues at networks including X, Telegram, Mastodon, and decentralized networks generally. That Meta is subject to more scrutiny on this subject is less of a commentary on the companyâs unique negligence than on
theunderground.blog is a blog that only exists in RSS form. There is a home page, but thatâs it. There arenât any permalinks and you canât link to a web page at all. Itâs weird and itâs wild and I kinda love it, even if
Steven Aquino writing for Forbes: Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley Talks OpenAI Boardroom Saga, âLife-Changingâ Tech, More Specific to Be My Eyesâ application of OpenAIâs technologies, Buckley explained he and his team provided Open AI with âvery direct feedbackâ based on needs of the Blind and low vision
Valve came out of nowhere last month and announced a new OLED version of the Steam Deck (my favorite product of 2022), and this new announcement seemed like a pretty mild upgrade based on Valve's messaging. Basically, they made it sound like the Nintendo Switch OLED update, which was the
Richard Leadbetter writing for Eurogamer: Arkham Knight on Switch is disastrously poor Lighting is savagely downgraded, texture quality is a total mess, shadows take a trip back to PS2 era standards and geometry is culled. Arkham Knight routinely fails to hit its 30 frames per second target, often lingering in
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue on his new podcast, Dot Social: Decentralization isn't a feature in and of itself. And you know, I think it's tough when, if you build a product that's just a clone of a closed product and it's decentralized, so you should care about this. I think
Jennifer Schuessler for the New York Times: Oxfordâs 2023 Word of the Year Is ⊠âRizzâ âRizzâ â Gen Z (or is it Gen Alpha?) slang for âstyle, charm or attractiveness,â or âthe ability to attract a romantic or sexual partnerâ â has been named as Oxfordâs 2023 Word of the
Tim Wu for the New York Times : Mergers Like JetBlueâs Proposed Acquisition of Spirit Usually Turn Out to Be Bad A comprehensive meta-analysis of 50 studies covering more than 3,000 contested mergers in the United States in recent decades found that âmost studied mergers result in competitive harm,
Andrew Webster for The Verge: Zach Gageâs Puzzmo gets acquired as the newspaper games space heats up As part of the deal, Gage and Therox will continue to develop Puzzmo, which currently operates as a website, with a mobile app in the works. But Puzzmo will also begin rolling