Thoughts from Matt Taibbi.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
The BE-4 Explosion
Yes, you shouldn’t be learning new things in an acceptance test, but sometimes you do.
LinkedIn Weirdness
Well, the weirdness of some people on LinkedIn. Occasionally, I’ll make the mistake of accepting an invitation from someone, and they’ll immediately want to initiate a conversation with me, as though I have infinite time for such things. In some cases, it’s an attractive Asian woman (generally Chinese), which makes me suspect a scam. It would never occur to me to use LinkedIn as a penpal service, but apparently some people do.
[Update a few minutes later]
I should add that the easiest way to get them to stop bugging me is to tell them that I hate communicating on my phone (because they always want to chat on WhatsApp or Signal, or texting), which not only discourages them, but has the additional virtue of being true. When I tell them my preferred mode of communication is email, they tell me that they only use email for work. OK, your problem, not mine.
[Update on July 7th
Here’s an example of an invitation I just got. An Asian-appearing woman with a man’s name. Bizarre.
[Bumped]
AI Follies
An attempt to replace journalists goes awry.
Our New Space Race
A review of Ashlee Vance’s latest book. Highly recommended.
AI
Why it will save the world.
Not hot off the press, but worth a read from a smart guy.
Astra Carta
Bob Zimmerman isn’t impressed.
The Global Space Race
Assif Siddiqui says that we need new ways to think about it: “We need to let go of our nostalgia for Apollo and move on and work with different models to the old 1960s space races.”
I’ve been saying this for years.
Too Many Dishonorable People Are Honored
Hard to argue.
The Oceangate Disaster
An unofficial assessment from a submarine captain.
Rickover built a hell of an underwater navy, but basing the nuclear-power industry on submarine designs has been a mess.