In favor of crushing 2,000 Cans of Miller Highlife

Trees do not grow in straight rowsThis picture clarified what it’s like to be an American living in Europe. Everyday, you’re confronted by how old everything is. The word “old” deserves attention, and explains the whole point. To an American, “old” tends to be a negative term. (Well, a left leaning American, at least.) But in Europe, you are surrounded by old and there’s a certain comfort to it. I live in The Netherlands, and the thing you realize quickly is that there is very little “nature” in The Netherlands.

Lots of Marvel super heroes this halloween, but a little more clowns than the last two years

Not much today. Halloween Clown TailwindsFrom Chris Rogers at S&P Global Market Intelligence.“Among outfits, the best performers have been those linked to clowns, which increased by 43% year over year.” Somewhere, there's a financial analyst who really cares about the increase in clown costumes this Halloween. Wastebook“So I quit my job as an engineer at Memorex’s disk drive plant in Santa Clara, California, and we flew to Kuala Lumpur. We found an un-air conditioned hotel room for $10 a night above a brothel with genial trans prostitutes and ate $1 meals served on banana leaves from the nearby restaurants.

New Report on Platform Engineering - what is it?

Jennifer Riggins and The New Stack crew have a good booklet out on Platform Engineering. I read over it and talked with Jennifer a couple times. I should have recorded those calls to munge into some articles, but, whatever. You should check it out, I think it’s a good go at trying to nail down exactly what that term means. This month, at least :) Download the ebook for free

ChatGPT finds a role playing Dungeons & Dragons - This is what spurred me to start using ChatGPT as a ChatDM. I’ve yet to ask it questions like “describe drinking games that the satyrs are taking part in that are so dangerous someone could get hurt doing them” or “why would a Displacer Beast Kitten leave the safety of its den if it believes an intruder is nearby?” One interesting point that’s worth raising into the bigger AI/LLM discussion. “Hallucinations” can be bad if you want real, truth (in which cases, they’re “lies” from the wide meaning of that word). But, when you’re creating and story telling, “making things up” is the whole game. Thus, ChatGPT’s downside of making things up becomes an advantage when you’re trying to be creative.

Europe’s new rules for Big Tech start today. Are they ready? - “Under the DSA digital service providers - including hosting services, online platforms, VLOPs and even intermediary service providers like ISPs - have obligations to ensure that products sold are safe and not counterfeit, and to eliminate advertising that targets minors or is served using sensitive data. Another requirement is to get rid of dark patterns in advertising. Clarity on how orgs moderate content and a requirement to present their algorithms for scrutiny is also required.” And larger services that reach 45m+ EU people have more, they “have to share data with ‘vetted’ researchers and governments, allow users to opt out of profiling recommendations, submit to regular audits, and have risk management and a crisis response plans in place."