owlbynight

Joined 7 years ago

Karma
646
Submissions
126
Member since
Aug 29
Twenty-first century digital he/him. I love writing code, writing stories, and making music. Co-host of Two Idiots Talking Over Stuff at https://idiots.fm

Personal site @ https://owlbynight.com

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Recent submissions

Comment · 7 months ago
https://github.com/jstilwell/MacAudioInputLocker

I maintain a fork of this app, which allows you to quickly set and lock your audio input device, so that they don't switch your audio input device to bluetooth as soon as you turn them on. Mostly because of the first gen of these headphones. They LOVED to keep the mic on at all times with no way to disable that behavior.

I assume it's the same with the second gen.

Comment · 1 year ago
Predictably, Google has banned that extension from Chrome, but if we all ran AI agents in container swarms...
Comment · 1 year ago
If enough people did it, their entire business model would likely collapse.
Comment · 1 year ago
Neat, someone should develop an easy-to-deploy script that spawns a headless version of this agent that scrolls through and repeatedly clicks every single ad on X and Facebook using a session cookie.
Comment · 1 year ago
I find myself in the same position, but thought it warrants discussion at least.
Comment · 1 year ago
Comment · 1 year ago
Kagi is amazing. The ability to permanently remove sites from the results and promote sites you want to see is a game changer.
Comment · 1 year ago
Part of personality lives inside of our stomachs as well, apparently, and so much of who were are is driven by our interaction with our nerve endings. I think even with a perfect copy of consciousness, it's pointless without a perfect copy of our bodies as well.

I think that AGI, when and if we ever reach that stage of technological innovation, will enable us to live in a utopian world where our bodies are impervious to biological defects or age and we have little to no reliance on food and water — where we can control all aspects of how we feel with a slider, or a thought.

Like the Lotus-eaters from Homer's Odyssey, some alien tribe will eventually show up and decide we're imperiled instead of living a perfect life in blissful stasis, and kill us to stop whatever afflicts us from spreading to them.

Anyway, I don't want the brain preservation thing, thank you.

Comment · 1 year ago
Honestly, I'm not super worried about AI — at least this iteration of it — because of the uncanny valley effect. I would expect the VO industry to outlaw it purely because if people start to wonder if they're listening to an AI voice, that's a non-starter and they will stop paying attention. Even with the best AI, there are artifacts that make it easy to identify.

The primary goal of the voice actor is to achieve a personal connection, and I don't see how AI is a real threat to that end. I feel the same about other mediums as well. This will likely be used for scams, but I doubt it will ever draw as many eyes, or ears, as something a real human can produce. Thus, it won't be a valuable tool to marketers and largely unprofitable.

Comment · 3 years ago
BlueSky is going to win. Domain verification and custom feeds (user-generated firehose filters) are its killer features. It's already better than Twitter, and it's still behind invite codes as they refine it.

Once brands realize that they can utilize custom feeds to reach potential customers granularly instead of -- or in addition to -- paying for advertising, it's going to be over for Twitter. Twitter could introduce something similar to compete, but they shit-canned all of their talent, and in the process hamstrung their ability to innovate.

Comment · 3 years ago
These engineers won't be having fun, because these engineers will be working for Elon Musk. Also, it's a rebrand. He fired the vast majority of the engineers he had.

Everyone is hating on "X" because the people who possess the ability to think critically, i.e. engineers, are rightfully perplexed by every single move that this moron makes. It taps into the uncanny valley response for smart people, and it is amplified because Elon Musk has branded himself a genius.

This is a shitty rebrand from Twitter to something that is impossible to search for on Google, and nothing more. It is the X-shaped shadow of a fiery ball of mediocrity that is hurtling towards San Francisco pavement as we speak.

Comment · 3 years ago
Hey uh, why not pay top-tier talent to build a more modern platform from scratch, starting with zero technical debt, and then when it's ready, merge in the Twitter userbase, and sunset it?

It's because he's a fucking moron.

Comment · 3 years ago
I don't think you're right about this. In fact, I think the killer AR/VR apps will be utility apps.

My friends and I watch a movie in VR every week and it's the highlight of my week. It's all I use my Quest 2 for. Just sitting in a fake theater, not moving, talking over movies in spatial audio.

There is a problem with VR games. They eventually make you feel sick if you move around. They can make you sweat. Most people sit on their couch to watch T.V. to relax because they don't want to move around or sweat. VR/AR gaming is gimmicky as hell.

AR is going to kick start a revolution as soon as people discover they no longer need to go to a movie theater, deal with Ticket Master's fees, or buy a TV again. As soon as they realize they never need to buy another monitor -- or multiple monitors.

Comment · 3 years ago

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