quartz

This specific use case is awesome-- I use an integrated AI notetaker in my self-built notes app for my thoughts and I wonder if I could connect the index to it?

More broadly: Invisible wearable microphones are coming for everyone and perfect memory will follow. I'm incredibly excited about this for myself and simultaneously terrified about everyone else having it.

It's coming fast enough that I'm beginning to assume in any decently sized crowd of tech folks /someone/ is recording everything.

Agree with a lot of this methodology-- having lived in NYC with kids the #1 contributing factor to a feeling of claustrophobia for me is the size of the sidewalk and its buffering from the road.

Compared to even the suburbs where 1-2 people on a sidewalk can feel like you're dangerously close to having to step into an active roadway, sidewalks in NYC neighborhoods like the upper east side feel gigantic and are bordered by parked cars that provide a buffer to the roadway.

In 1811 the grid plan designated sidewalk widths to be 20ft for major cross-town roads vs. many suburban sidewalk widths at 4-5 feet.

I'm a big fan of this sidewalk width map: https://sidewalkwidths.nyc/

Since the astronauts were up there planting flags... I'd think it's less about the vessel in space and more about making it clear that the land visited isn't considered claimed as part of the US.

I use watermelonDB for offline-first sync. It’s pretty wonderful.

I wrote a notes app in react native just for myself a few years ago (out of frustration after changing notes apps every year or so) that does /exactly/ what I want and it has been the most used app on my phone for a few years now.

It's offline-first but syncs reliably, uses the exact interpretation and display of markdown I like, searches and sorts the way I like, integrates with AI only in the ways I want it to (specific search capabilities, summarizing), uses on-device dictation via whisper so speech-to-text works when I'm away from a data connection, tracks location... I could go on and on since I add a new feature every month or so from a note (inside the app!) where I keep track of little things I wish it had.

But most importantly nothing ever gets added to it that I don't want... ever. No one else ever updates the terms of service, the UI layout, the retention period, the formatting, the shortcuts... there isn't some subscription I have to keep track of, or "pro" modes, or popups telling me about new features I should check out.

And since I have access to the backing db I can do all kinds of fun stuff with the data-- I've been playing way more with local LLMs lately with it.

I think it's healthy to remember that not everything has to be a startup or a public github repo.

This is the web2 internet I remember and love. People sharing their lives.

I watched a blurry video of a family at the zoo, a father tickling his toddler (who is having an absolute blast), a middle school play rehearsal, some guy's high school class presentation in south africa (I think?), a random indie country band at a bar, lots of terrible dancing... all joyful, no agendas.

There was a thread yesterday about Facebook's little red book and a lot of nostalgia from folks who were there at the time about the optimism across builders then. This was the kind of content that drove that feeling.

Seems like it. Pretty messy too because it sometimes pushes you to reset your password which then doesn't work so there are going to be a LOT of reset email codes floating out there.

He clarifies that he had prior written agreement to work on shareware and this software specifically. You can do this at most established big tech still today (possibly tougher at startups).

And hey it worked out great for Microsoft— they got the software they wanted at a great price (1x used corvette * ~1.8 for taxes) with no negotiation, and they already employ the guy who wrote it so I imagine integrating it was even easier than they expected.

The incident count for very early onset Crohns is rapidly increasing [1]-- I wonder if they'll start to make these drugs available for younger children since today it's more or less forbidden for them to be used on kids under 16.

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10....

"Air Canada argues it cannot be held liable for information provided by one of its agents, servants, or representatives—including a chatbot," Rivers wrote. "It does not explain why it believes that is the case" or "why the webpage titled 'Bereavement travel' was inherently more trustworthy than its chatbot."

This is very reasonable-- AI or not, companies can't expect consumers to know which parts of their digital experience are accurate and which aren't.

Oh how that Soundblaster midi vibe takes me back.

Not sure if it's still the case but it used to be that if you changed your address to California you could cancel online since IIRC it's a law there.

I have this memory of having to do that to get rid of the wsj after I made the fatal mistake of forgetting to cancel after a trial.

I recently had my credit card stolen which is a great forcing function to audit subscriptions because you have to dig them all up to update the associated payment methods.

After combing through my credit card bills to identify all the recurring charges my conclusion was less that I have too many subscriptions but that cost creep is out of control on them.

Ex: I stopped paying attention to my storage unit monthly bill because it was on autopay. Turns out now after 4 years I'm paying more than double the published rate. Called the storage facility and they said the only way around it is to rent a new unit at the new rate and move my things there to start the process all over again.

Yeah I don't think they were doing it to save money. I think they just loved planes and also kind of hated driving & traffic, which from a place like Gilroy to the south bay tech campuses back then would have been absolutely brutal.

I knew an eng manager who lived in a flight focused community (each house had parking for an airplane!) like this one [1] way outside of town. They'd fly in each morning for their commute.

I always thought that sounded like it would provide maximum flexibility since there are so many tiny airfields in the US you'd be hard pressed to work somewhere too far from one.

Seemed pretty incredible overall... at the time I remember looking it up and the cost working out to a bit cheaper than bay area housing all-in, but I didn't really know how to calculate the airplane costs accurately.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/cameron-airpark-estates-cali...

Isn't it the standard for basically the entire consulting industry? No consulting firm I've ever heard of is flying their people around (or feeding them) on their own dime when they're assigned to a project.

Hardware is tough. Medical hardware doubly (triply?) so. Also realtime audio processing in a power and space limited, heavily patented and proprietary industry isn't for the faint of heart.

That said with the recent changes allowing OTC hearing aids as of 2022 and companies like rewind.ai chasing always-on audio recording I imagine we'll see some interesting innovations in this space over the next few years.

Manually file your 83(b). Don't use Carta to do it. Instead, download the form from the IRS website, fill it out, and mail it to the IRS within the strict 30-day deadline. You'll need to get a signature from your spouse, too.

I could be wrong but last time I checked the IRS doesn't provide an official form for this. It does provide a sample election letter[1] but this sample does not include a space for a spouse to sign. You'd need to include an additional line for this yourself in the letter you draft if you wanted it.

Don't forget: if you do this yourself make sure to mail it certified mail with return receipt as physical evidence that it was delivered.

A few months after delivery you can also call any IRS service center and ask them to verify they have the letter on file (these days everything is scanned into the system so any IRS person can find it vs. having to call the center that received it).

[1] https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-12-29.pdf

Very much appreciate your writing on the topic-- it gave me the practical context I was missing while trying to spin up with automerge and CRDTs in general.

I ended up using y.js in my personal react native notes app and it works wonderfully.

If you're just getting started with CRDTs I'd also recommend Seph's "5000x faster CRDTs" post[1] and also his "I was wrong. CRDTs are the future" post[2] for some nice captures of the practical challenges and opportunities in the space.

[1] https://josephg.com/blog/crdts-go-brrr/

[2] https://josephg.com/blog/crdts-are-the-future/

Re: drag having such a large impact-- the aero wheels alone account for a 3% range improvement [1]. Everything about a tesla optimizes range, so it's probably extra-impacted by anything that doesn't (like a big trailer).

I also wonder if the regenerative braking is less efficient / engages less often when dealing with larger weight.

[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30169467/tesla-model-3s-a...

Merely an arcade game... for now: https://www.betson.com/amusement-products/lane-master/

and rides a 1952 Raleigh bicycle

My wife has a 1950's Raleigh women's bike we bought ages ago for $50 and it is hands down the most comfortable bike we own.

I own 4 other bikes (a cruiser, an e-cruiser, and two racing bikes) but always grab hers for my errands within ~15 blocks.

Everything about it just feels easy-- it's well balanced, has a great upright sitting position, a super comfy saddle, an easy to use 3-speed hub, big soft tires, and the frame is basically indestructible.

Occasionally something gets out of place or slightly off and I just whack it back into place.

I grew up in Chapel Hill and yes UNC Chapel Hill refers to itself as "Carolina" (in sports [1], research [2], and name [3]).

It's less commonly recognized outside the state... I live in NYC now and often have to catch myself when I say something like "I'm headed back to visit a friend at Carolina" since it almost always results in "oh? which one?"

[1] https://shop.goheels.com/mens-fanatics-branded-black-north-c...

[2] https://research.unc.edu/?s=Carolina

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwi4dIT-jIY

My son gets horrible blisters from mosquito bites (skeeter syndrome). Bought him a bug bite thing out of desperation on our last trip south and was blown away to see how well it worked to keep the swelling down.

The new UX does a really bad job of helping you realize when you're logged out and search results are being suppressed. It very much implies "zero results" when in fact it means to say "zero results, except in code, where there might be results, but you need to log in first to find out".

So many good scenes. Personal favorite, grappling with the role of journalism: "What are you?! Are you a businessman or are you a newsman?" Such a powerful question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe2vBnfKCC4

Definitely would use this.

Instructional video instead of step-by-step text is a personal pet peeve. I know it's a lot easier to just record a video to show something like "how to replace the battery on a cordless vacuum" or "removing a sink basin nut" but it's often such a painful experience for consumption (watch a moment, pause, scrub back and watch again, pause, continue, pause, all with potentially gloved hands often in tight working spaces).

Agreed-- this is an absolutely ridiculous looking vehicle and I hope they sell millions of them.

It lives under my sink where I have a bunch of piping to filters that feed the drinking faucet, fridge, and dishwasher.

I live in a co-op building from 1929 so it's really the only point of failure in the unit that would be my liability if there was a leak and it already saved me once when the old tailpiece on my drain cracked.