Andrew Raff

The Era of Truthiness

Thu, 21 May 2026 19:21:52 -0400

Stephen Colbert’s Late Show ends tonight – and the Late Show itself – ending one of New York’s largest comedic institutions after 33 years. I hope that the Ed Sullivan theater will find a suitable new tenant that continues to have as much joy and respect for its audience and terroir as the Late Show, in both incarnations. Unfortunately, I have little confidence that the Ellison CBS will treat the theater with any more respect than it is with the 11:30 timeslot, which is simply renting to Byron Allen.

While it is disappointing that the Late Show is ending, having time to prepare enabled David Letterman to come back to the Ed Sullivan Theater last week to throw more things off the roof. The Boss performed Streets of Minneapolis. David Byrne came by to burn down the house. Lewis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine talked about their time on the show (and dropped an album). It was fitting that Monday’s preantepenultimate Late Show was for the LSSC staff more than anyone else. While Colbert will certainly have many opportunities, the show’s cancellation leaves talented and funny Late Show staffers out of work.

We are well past peak-late night talk show. Conan O’Brien, Samantha Bee, The Late Late Show, After Midnight, and all of Comedy Central’s post-Colbert Report attempts at 11:30 shows have ended. The Late Show is by far the most prestigious of these properties to shutter – and it is frustrating that it is due to not merely to financial pressure, but to oligarchs trying to curry favor with a President who lacks the ability to laugh at himself.

Back in the very first episode of the Colbert Report introduced The Word segment and the word Truthiness to the world¹. . As aptly summarized by Wikipedia, Truthiness is “the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.”

Truthiness is even more broadly relevant today than it was in 2005. We now live in an era of truthiness.

LLM chatbots confidently and quickly generate text that has the appearance of accuracy and knowledge. But this is just a facade. LLMs do not know anything, they return the most statistically likely response to a query. In many cases, the responses are good to excellent. How leading-edge models turn natural language into software code is nearly magical and can be readily tested. In other areas, they produce output that resembles what a good response should appear to be.

Using an LLM to produce legal advocacy often produces a properly structured argument that usually identifies the applicable legal theories and cites to authority where appropriate. However, the LLM work product often creates cites to non-existent cases that feel like authority. The LLM will claim that a doctrine supports the desired result, regardless of what the actual doctrine might be.

LLMs produce copious amounts of truthiness with speed and authority, but too many people treat it as truth.

Colbert’s time in late night may be ending, but now we all live in a world of truthiness.

Unfortunately, Comedy Central does not have Colbert Report episodes or clips readily available online -- and certainly not in the highly-linkable and embeddable way that CBS posts The Late Show content on Youtube. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Colbert Late Show channel after the show ends.↩

Apple at 50: Let's remember some computers

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 22:26:55 -0400

Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. It feels weird (and slightly wrong in this era) to be a fan of a company, but this is a company whose products have been my connection to professional activities, creative activities, and communications, and the world on a daily basis for nearly 30 years. Across multiple eras, Apple has maintained a spirit of creativity and a consistent belief that computers can support people in being more creative. Considering how different and larger the computer industry is in 2026 compared with 1976, that Apple is still making products that people feel passionate about is a huge accomplishment.

Whether or not Apple invented any technology, like the personal computer, WIMP interface, portable media player, smartphone, or any other technology, Apple focused more on making the technology accessible as a fully-formed product than any other competitor. Which is why Apple is still making computers today, while IBM sold off its PC division 20 years ago.

Over its history, Apple has usually held itself to a higher standard of quality than the rest of the computer industry. Even in Apple’s malaise era in the late 90’s, Mac OS maintained a refinement that Windows 95 and 98 never had, even though the Wintel PCs were generally faster and more capable. While other companies might release a version 1.0 that was rough around the edges, Apple would typically hold off until what other companies would ship as version 3.1.

I used Apple IIe at elementary school, IIc and IIgs with my friends, but mostly learned computers on IBM PCs at home. Eventually, my parents added a Macintosh II and that opened my mind to what computers could be. The smooth graphics, polyphonic sound, and directly manipulating files in the GUI were so much more advanced than a 286 PC with CGA graphics running MS-DOS. In middle school, we had a computer lab with Macintosh LC computers and the most memorable project from that time was the Hypercard stack I built about plate tectonics. When I was in high school, one of my first jobs was helping with maintaining and networking Mac computers for our elementary school.

Apple has always been at war with itself over how open or closed to make products. The Apple II started with a balance of being a complete product that could be expanded. The Macintosh started as a single closed product and later added expansion. And when they did add the expansion capability, the early modular Macs simplified the process compared with the PCs of the time. And Apple found unique balances between complete products and expandable ones. The SE/30 remains a favorite of the old-school heads in the know, because it represented the most complete balance of both. It maintained the luggable all-in-one design of the original Macintosh, but supported internal hard drive and floppy drive and could drive a large external color display, and packed the same leading-edge 68030 processor as the Macintosh IIx. When I took a Music Technology class in high school, and the lab also had faster 68040 and PowerPC all-in-ones with color displays, I gravitated towards the one SE/30, with the black and white display, it still felt faster than the newer Macs.

Today’s Apple Silicon Macs work so well because Apple controls nearly the entire stack of technologies, from the CPU to the hardware design to the operating system and backend services. Where Apple struggles, it is because its products are designed to work in a specific way and do not consider the other software and services that users want to use.

Apple has always been forward-looking. While Microsoft has prioritized backwards-compatibility so that tis enterprise customers can adopt change at their own pace, Apple has never been afraid to push forward. In some cases, like the iMac dropping legacy ports and floppy drives, that pushed the whole computer industry forward at once. It didn’t try to protect its most successful iPod products, but instead created new products. iPod was a great business, but iPhone is a far better business. If you don’t try to push yourself forward, competitors will.

At the same time, Apple has pushed forward because of competition. While the 90’s were the low point for Apple, they would not have bounced back if not for the competition – and collaboration – with Microsoft. But in areas where the product is not fundamental to the company’s bottom line and Apple does not have great competitors, it does not produce great products. In the connected-TV box space, the company flounders. tvOS on AppleTV (the device) is the only decent streaming platform. The AppleTV software is responsive, videos stream smoothly, and the interface feels less slow and complicated to use than all of the other devices. Google TV is not terrible, but it doesn’t challenge tvOS in the same way that Android and Pixel challenge iOS and iPhone.

Since Jobs' return to the company and continuing into the Cook era, Apple has focused on building more and more of its core technology in-house. Instead of relying on Motorola or Intel for CPUs, it now designs its own class-leading processors and is taking more and more of its technology in-house to build complete products.

As a company, Apple has had some of the most lasting impacts on the state of the world. USB is a ubiquitous standard thanks to the Bondi blue iMac. Every electronic and household gadget in the late 90’s and early 2000’s was wrapped in colorful translucent plastic. During the iPod era, everyone used white earbuds. Apple managed to offshore its entire manufacturing supply chain without compromising on quality. Thanks to Apple’s investment and scale, it has been a key driver for concentrating tech manufacturing to China.

Thanks to the success of iPhone and it becoming the template for the modern internet communicator media player phone, most everyone in the world has an internet-connected camera with them most of the time. As we are seeing, this is an important check on authoritarian storytelling. Enabling easy and high quality photography and videography of events and making it possible to share those instantly helps connect the world and support truth and transparency. And yet, these same devices are the primary small windows into social networks that are afflicting too many people with brain rot and hyper-polarization.

The App Store and services revenue are addicting Apple to extracting distribution fees from developers and services, at the cost of providing the best platform for its developers and users.

David Pogue, Apple: The First 50 Years Computer History Museum: Apple@50 The Verge Apple @ 50

In 50 years, Apple has had a lot of great products and some notable failures (Apple III, Centris, Newton), The Verge’s list of 50 best and/or most important Apple products is largely correct. But, there are four edits that I would make:

iMac G5 -> Macintosh IIfx In the pre-PowerPC classic Mac era, the IIfx was the ultimate expression of the first modular Mac lineup. The Verge excludes any of the Macintosh II line. I may have more affection for this era, since it was how I was introduced to Macintosh, but it was the first foray of Macintosh into supporting color displays and the ability to meaningfully expand, with support for expansion cards and multiple monitors. The IIfx pushed this design to the limit. The iMac G5 was impressive that it was able to take the powerful and power-hungry G5 processor and fit it into a flat-panel all-in-one computer. But it was less elegant than its predecessor, the sublimely well-designed iMac G4.
Original iPad -> iPhone mini (12/13) As a person who prefers small phones in an era of phones getting larger and larger, the iPhone 12 mini was a welcome embrace of the small phone. It offered all of the same capabilities of the larger iPhone 12 in exchange for things on screen appearing slightly smaller and a shorter battery life. At the time, there was nothing else like the iPhone mini on the market. Today, there is nothing The people who love the iPhone mini LOVE the iPhone mini. The iPad arrived largely fully-formed. Fifteen years later, despite massive improvements in hardware capabilities, it is still largely the same product. But the iPad really established itself with the iPad 2, which was thinner and lighter and the best expression of the original iPad design. (As someone who had the retina iPad 3, it was heavier and didn’t quite have enough power to draw that many pixels. The iPad 2 was the better product).
Powerbook 500 series -> 12" Powerbook G4 The 12" Powerbook G4 was an incredibly impressive computer for its time. It took all of the power of the 15" Powerbook and shrank it down to the width of the keyboard. Its aluminum case was slightly smaller than the 12" iBook and it felt more put together and coherent than the plastic iBook. The Powerbook 500 series was the first Powerbook to have a trackpad instead of a trackball, and it wasn’t anything like today’s trackpads. It was far better than the follow-up 5300 series, which had some problems with fire, but not as groundbreaking as the 100-series Powerbooks and not as good as the G3 Powerbooks.
Slim unibody iMac -> iMac with Retina Display This is a subtle change, but the Retina Display may be the best quality of life improvement that Apple has brought to computing in the 21st century. Once Apple launched the iPhone 4 which rendered text and graphics in quadruple-resolution for higher fidelity, that represented one of the biggest leaps in the ability to work with text on screens since the original Mac brought WSYWIG editing to personal computers. The all-in-one iMac was able to bring this to desktop well ahead of standalone desktop retina-class displays. Only recently has it become possible to find reasonably priced 5K 27" displays.

And as much as I would like to find a way to fit the Watch Ultra into this list, I can’t justify it knocking off any of these other ones. In many ways, the G4 Cube was the model for today’s small and quiet modern Mac mini and Mac Studio, but it was decidedly not a success. Depending on the day, I might argue that Patel and Pierce selected the wrong Mac mini (M4) or iPod nano (2nd generation), but overall, it’s a fair assessment.

As far as ranking, I think there are a clear top 5:

Mac OS X - this is the foundation of Macs, iPhone, iPad, Apple watch, Apple TV and more for the last 25 years. From Aqua to Liquid Glass, it continues to prove reliable and elegant.
iPhone (2007) - Without considering how important the iPhone line is to the company now, the original iPhone was such a leap beyond the other smartphones at the time. It was magical.
Macintosh (1984) - Through 3 CPU platform changes and an evolution to a modern OS with OS X, the Mac is still trying to be a powerful, easy to use computer.
M1 chip - With a computer, making the whole widget includes the processors, and Apple’s shift to its own ARM-based processors has made them significantly better products.
Bondi blue iMac - this kicked off the Jobs/Ive era by showing that Macs would be both fun, simple, and good at being computers. The all-in-one iMac used the same PowerPC G3 processors as the larger, beiger PowerMac G3 and was not only simple, but it was fast, and a great value. Malaise-era Apple tried to protect its high-end products by finding ways to slow and devalue lower-priced products. The iMac showed that Apple could compete on design, price, and performance all at once. This is the product that enabled Apple to undertake the transformation from the Malaise era into the Jobs/Ive renaissance.

And a handful of key products that I would rank as the top of their respective categories:

Apple II/e - the best expression of the Apple II line. While the later IIgs brought more modern multimedia support and some GUI ideas from the Mac, it wasn’t the right computer at the right time like the II/e.
Macintosh SE/30 - This was the best expression of the compact Mac form factor and just an absolute beast of a computer for the time.
iMac G4 - Might be the best designed computer that Apple has ever made.
Wedge Macbook Air - This is the template for all modern laptops
iPhone 4 (A4) - Not only was this the first Apple device with the high-resolution Retina Display, but it was also the first iPhone with an Apple Silicon processor, the A4.
iPod with click wheel (4th Gen) - the best, purest version of the iPod. I had the third-generation with the awkward horizontal command buttons and should have waited for the click wheel one.
iPad 2 - This was where the iPad came into its own. iPad 2 was smaller and thinner than both the first iPad and the fatter and hotter iPad 3 with Retina Display.
Extended Keyboard II - Every keyboard nerd is still chasing the smooth but tactile feel of the Apple Extended Keyboard II. Despite its giant surface area, this may have been the best-feeling computer keyboard of all time.

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:34:59 -0400

SCOTUS: The DMCA does not expressly imposes liability for Internet service providers who serve known infringers. “The DMCA merely creates new defenses from liability for such providers.” Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment

Scenes from the class struggle in Westeros

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 13:29:33 -0400

The Song of Ice and Fire books are so compelling because of how they show how myth are borne from history, which history is a story written by the victors. As readers learn more details about that history, it unpeels those details and complexity of the various players' motivations like an onion. That onion, was slowly roasted over a spit in with a goose so that the fat dripped on the onion while cooking. When paired with a hearty black bread and refreshing pint of ale.

Aside from unnecessarily detailed interludes about food (and a willingness to sprawl the scope of story), A Song of Ice and Fire is keenly aware that the powerful generally treat the powerless with little regard. With Game of Thrones, the politics and conflicts of the powerful were the focus of the storytelling.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the HBO adaptation of the Tales of Dunk and Egg, may be the most effective adaption yet from this world. Unlike Game of Thrones, where the scale and scope do make it feel epic, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is compact. But within this frame, it effectively highlights two of the biggest fundamental truths, that the powerless are often trampled by the powerful, and pre-modern times were not pleasant.

The focus on a single storyline allowed A Kinght of the Seven Kingdoms to show this world without the need to introduce as much plot and the storytelling benefitted from that.

Figure it out

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 13:22:28 -0400

This piece by Sam Henri Gold captures the excitement and enthusiasm that so many of us felt when learning to use computers in simpler times: “This Is Not The Computer For You”: “Nobody starts in the right place. You don’t begin with the correct tool and work sensibly within its constraints until you organically graduate to a more capable one. "

General purpose computers are great because they give users the freedom to dig deeper and discover more. Having the ability to explore and figure out how to do things is the best way to learn for many. Being able to take the time to learn and figure out how these systems work and use them to do creative, interesting, fun, and/or useful things is what brought me and many others to computers.

Today, where too many people are spending too much time listening to loud idiots or yelling at others through our magic communication computers, perhaps we should all spend more time slowly figuring out to do things on a slightly outdated, but perfectly functioning, general purpose computer.

The industry continues to push forward significant developments and improvements in processing power. The MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro performs very comparably to the 5-year old M1 in the MacBook Air, which is still a highly useful computer. But even if the A18 Pro is slower than the M4, given the choice between an iPad with M4 and a keyboard case and the MacBook Neo, the MacBook Neo would be far more useful. macOS continues to be so much more powerful and useful than iPadOS. I do use an iPad Pro as a secondary computer every day. But doing any kind of real work (which for me is primarily interacting with web apps and working with Office files) on iPad feels like using a cork fork. A totally useful Mac laptop at an accessible price is exciting. But even with Macbook Neo offering so much performance at a great value, I will be surprised if the Macintosh ever shakes the popular perception of being expensive and overpriced.

Ring my Bell

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:31:33 -0400

With Ring’s launch of Search Party and the weather finally warming up beyond brutally cold in NJ, I replaced my Ring doorbell. As 404 Media has reported, Ring is more interested in creating a surveillance panopticon to create some vaguely defined version of neighborhood safety. But that means that individual Ring owners do not have control over their videos. With the launch of Search Party, which serves the good purpose of helping find lost pets, users were automatically added in, rather than having to agree to opt in. 404 Media reports that this is how Ring expects to launch more features. 404 Media: Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs

Trying to stay as much as possible within the Apple HomeKit ecosystem, I went with a Logitech Circle View doorbell, which stores its videos in HomeKit Secure Video. It also does not require its own subscription fee. HomeKit Secure Video does require an iCloud+ subscription from Apple. The Ring installation was slightly easier, using wire nuts and screw connectors, while the Circle View requires jamming the wires from the doorbell directly into the back of the mount. And one of the wires didn’t not want to stay seated within the doorbell, so it took me a few tries to successfully install. Unlike Ring, the Logitech chime integration required more wiring. The Circle view has a narrower field of view, but both capture high-quality video. Ring does capture time-lapse stills throughout the day, while the Home app only records motion by default. Apple Home does offer face recognition in a privacy forward way. The recognition is done locally on device (on whichever Apple TV or HomePod is serving as the Home hub) using the identifications that you have added into your personal photos library.

The Circle View does not offer fully local recording to a memory card, just to iCloud. It also only works with Apple devices, and doesn’t have an Android app. Other options to consider beyond Ring include the Aqara G410, which works with HomeKit Secure Video, has local storage, and offers an Android app. However, the G410 does not support a standard chime. For Google Home partisans, the Nest Doorbell is an option.

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:12:41 -0400

NBC Olympics coverage crosses venues across Italy and then is sound mixed 4,000 miles away in Connecticut. www.youtube.com/watch

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:53:58 -0400

Under California privacy law, businesses must offer consumers the ability to easily opt-out of all sale or sharing of data. Services must allow for global opt-outs, not just preferences that only affect a single device or service . California Announces $2.75 Million Settlement with Disney, Largest CCPA Settlement in California History

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 10:29:30 -0400

‘Fuck You, Make Me’ is the founding principle of this nation.

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 22:36:29 -0400

L’shana tova. To a new year of peace, love, and understanding.

+24

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 23:35:24 -0400

In Congress, July 4, 1776

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 08:21:42 -0400

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 23:04:36 -0400

Roubaix weekend cobbles

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 23:03:29 -0400

Cat sameach

Why is this so hard?

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 19:15:52 -0400

While there are many reasons to be disappointed in elected Democrats right now amidst the overwhelming amount problems in our current situation here in the US, one of the most disappointing and aggravating is how easily too many of them are willing to abandon support for transgender people.

What does it cost anyone to acknowledge the rights of transgendered people to simply exist as they are? Do you recognize calling someone by their preferred nickname? Can you remember to do that? It should be no harder to avoid deadnaming a transgender person! Does it matter to you how someone dresses?

Caring about restricting and infringing the rights of transgendered people takes far more work than just not thinking about it. If, for whatever reason, you have a problem with transgendered people in general, find better things to do! Not caring about how other people live their lives is incredibly easy. You can take that time to do something useful for yourself, your family, or your community.

Are we really that concerned that mediocre male athletes are going to rework their entire lives to compete against women? While yes, at equivalent levels of competition, elite male athletes are usually going to beat elite female athletes. But how many men really are going to upend their entire life to compete for glory in women’s sports? Across nearly all sports, women’s sports still lags far behind men’s sports in attention, money and support, even where quality of play is just as good – if not better – on the women’s side.

On this Trans Day of Visibility, let’s acknowledge that all people have a right to exist and a right to dignity. Let’s abandon politicians who are not willing to stand up for the rights of transgender people. It really should be the easiest thing to just say, “I support your rights to exist and equal protection under the law.”

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 09:49:10 -0400

When mediocrity, excuses, and bullshit take root, they take over. A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three.

Daring Fireball: Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 20:40:42 -0400

Finally. daringfireball.net/linked/20…

Training AI search on Westlaw headnotes is not fair use

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 20:38:29 -0400

Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH and West Publishing Corp. v. Ross Intelligence, Inc.

Ross sought to license a database of legal materials from Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw database, in order to to build a legal search AI. Westlaw does not merely store the public domain case law, but also writes its own Westlaw headnotes, which summarize and analysis points of law.

Thomson Reuters refused to license data to a competition. Rose contracted with a third party, LegalEase, to get training data using “Bulk Memos”.

The court found that Westlaw headnotes are sufficiently creative to each have a valid copyright as an individual work. The court granted summary judgment on the copying of 2243 headnotes, where “actual copying is so obvious that no reasonable jury could find otherwise.” In each of these instances, the court found that the Bulk Memos merely reproduced Westlaw headnotes with minimal changes.

The court rejects all of Ross’s defenses to infringement, including innocent infringement, copyright misuse, the merger defense, and the scenes á faire defense.

In the fair use analysis, the court finds that Ross’s use is commercial and not transformative. Ross uses the copies for the same purpose as Westlaw, to index and search relevant case law. Factor two goes to Ross, because the headnotes have sufficient creative for copyright, but the material is not that creative. The amount and substantiality of the work used also favors Ross, since Ross’s output to an end user does not include West headnotes.

The fourth factor leans in favor of Thomson Reuters. Even with the best interpretation of facts, all Ross is doing is creating a direct competitor to Westlaw. “There is nothing that Thomson Reuters created that Ross could not have created for itself or hired LegalEase to create for it without infringing Thomson Reuters’s copyrights.”

The court grants partial summary judgment to Thomson Reuters on 2,243 of the Headnotes at issue in the case.

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:51:10 -0400

Yes. “The whole tech world needs more projects that aren’t trying to become billion- (let alone trillion‑) dollar ideas, but are happily shooting for success as million-dollar ideas” daringfireball.net/2025/01/r…

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 16:44:57 -0400

Nice, cold day, with flurries at Plattekill

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 20:57:44 -0400

Low-knead low-rye

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 19:50:38 -0400

An appropriate beer for today (National Emergency from Montclair Brewery)

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 12:08:36 -0400

Snow way

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 01:37:34 -0400

So, 2025. We are going to make it through [this year] (https://youtube.com/watch?v=T_qkVPZ8DJI&si=hSa9hZrlK89GbdAp)

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:10:47 -0400

Right after I cataloged most of my independent media subscriptions, The Verge launched their own subscription plan, including a full-text RSS feed. The Verge is the rare media properties that is fully comfortable being its own thing on its own website and they produce some of the best journalism and insightful analysis of the tech industry.

While I don’t know that I’d consider Vox Media independent in the same way as journalist-owned/community-funded outlets like 404 Media, Defector, or Escape Collective, The Verge is essential coverage of the tech industry and culture and II’m happy to support it directly.