Dyson Swarm è uno di quei giochini che possono farvi passare parecchio tempo a cliccare sulla trackpad.

Money quote: "You are a game developer who dreams of building an O'Neill Cylinder, an idyllic spinning space habitat where you and your loved ones can live in utopia. The only way to accomplish your goal is to sell as many video games as possible, inspiring the public along the way."

https://compellingsciencefiction.com/games/dysonswarm.html

Altro giorno, altro giochino. Questa volta si gioca a Doom per risolvere il captcha.

Money quote: "Play DOOM® and kill at least 3 monsters"

https://doom-captcha.vercel.app

Stamattina è mancato Fausto Colombo, per me maestro e amico. Lo ricorda così Giovanni Boccia Artieri.

Money quote: “Per le ricercatrici e i ricercatori della mia generazione, Fausto è stato una sliding doors che ci ha mostrato come gli studi sulla comunicazione e sui media potevano evolvere in Italia dopo gli anni fondativi, parlo degli anni Sessanta e Settanta, che avevano visto al lavoro nelle sedi universitarie studiosi come Gianfranco Bettetini (suo “maestro”, capace di muoversi fra semiotica e televisione) e Francesco Casetti a Milano (che si muoveva fra semiotica, cinema e televisione), Umberto Eco a Bologna (semiologo), Mascilli Migliorini a Urbino (comunicazione e giornalismo), Alberto Abruzzese (mediologo) prima a Napoli poi Roma”

https://mediamondo.blog/2025/01/14/fausto-colombo-una-vita/

https://youtu.be/B4GAijo2UPQ?si=mL-EHZPr9Pa_9oM0

Mi era scappato, ma secondo me è ancora interessante vedere quali dei suoi stessi prodotti Google ha fatto fuori nel corso del 2024.

Money quote: "Google's no stranger to sunsetting products, even relatively popular ones: Google+, Hangouts, Stadia — the list goes on. This year's been relatively light on big-ticket Google projects petering out, with the more noteworthy shutdowns including the likes of the Google Podcasts platform and Dropcam connected security cameras. But with the year waning fast, we thought it'd be a good time to take a look at all the products Google killed in the past 12 months. Here's everything Google shut down in 2024".


https://www.androidpolice.com/google-killed-in-2024/

Servizi cloud: quando un'azienda che offre un servizio critico chiude o viene venduta all'improvviso i battenti, ci possono essere dei problemi notevoli per i suoi clienti.

Money quote: "Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that left thousands of customers locked out of their accounts after it suddenly shut down last week, will be acquired by Employer.com for an undisclosed price in a last-minute deal, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
The San Francisco-based HR tech company Employer.com focuses on payroll and onboarding, in contrast to Bench, which specializes in accounting and tax. Employer.com’s chief marketing officer Matt Charney told TechCrunch the company will revive Bench’s platform and provide instructions for customers to log in and obtain their data.
Customers will be given the choice to port their data or keep their service under new ownership, Charney told TechCrunch. Bench’s previous recommendation to file for a six-month extension with the Internal Revenue Service to look for a new bookkeeper is no longer needed if customers decide to stay on, Employer.com confirmed."

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/30/bench-to-be-acquired-after-abruptly-shutting-down/

Chi sono i cinesi di DeepSeek e perché stanno rivoluzionando il mondo dell'AI con algoritmi e modelli innovativi addestrati in pochissimo tempo e con pochissimi soldi.

Money quote: "Deepseek’s strategy is grounded in their ambition to build AGI. Unlike previous spins on the theme, Deepseek’s mission statement does not mention safety, competition, or stakes for humanity, but only “unraveling the mystery of AGI with curiosity”. Accordingly, the lab has been laser-focused on research into potentially game-changing architectural and algorithmic innovations."

https://www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseek-ceo-interview-with-chinas

Un paragone tra ChatGPT oggi e la ricerca di Google nel 2000.

Money quote: "Open AI's ChatGPT search results have entered the scene. It's not perfect, but it's not Google.

The visual clutter is not there because it's a conversation, not a list. It's one answer instead of 10.

It's active intent searching, the thing that made Google successful. Plus, it's conversational. We are trained monkeys to be able to keep asking questions, with the context of the information that came before. It's simple because we are use to it."

https://chuckwnelson.com/blog/google-search-results-infested-open-ai-using-google-playbook

Letture per la domenica

Il senso della mosca di "C'era una volta il West", spiegato bene.

Money quote: "It is at this point that a fly lands on Elam's neck and Elam opens his eyes and tries unsuccessfully to blow the fly away, by directing his breath in its direction. After it has resettled near his lip, he finally shoos it off his face with a wave of his hand. He then turns to see where it has landed - on an adjacent wooden surface. With pistol now in hand, Elam slyly waits a moment, then rapidly turns and slamming the muzzle up against the wooden surface, captures the fly in the barrel of his gun. With an index finger blocking the muzzle so that the fly can't escape, Elam is visibly pleased with his exploit and holds the gun up to his ear, listening to the fly's desperate buzzing. He then looks down at the barrel of the gun with his one good eye, opening it exceptionally wide. And after holding the gun barrel to his ear once again to hear the buzzing of the imprisoned fly, he finally lets it go as the train approaches, by removing his finger from the muzzle and waving the gun in the air."

https://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_24/section_1/artc4A.html

Cose interessanti da sapere su quello che si vede di noi guardandoci negli occhi (la "finestra dell'anima")

Money quote: "You might have been taught that pupil-size changes are nothing more than a reflex response to changes in brightness. While it’s true that the pupils expand as it gets darker and constrict as brightness increases, they can give away much more information than that, subtly reflecting a person’s mental effort, their feelings – even the content of their imagination.

At a physiological level, the size of the pupil is determined by the two interacting muscles of the iris (the coloured part of the eye). These muscles are controlled by the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems – these are the two opposing branches of the body’s automatic control centre that manage relaxation and alertness, respectively."

https://psyche.co/ideas/the-pupil-of-the-eye-opens-a-remarkable-window-into-the-mind

Se a qualcuno non fosse arrivata l'edizione email, ricordate che la mia newsletter si legge anche sul web...

Dalla riforma della scuola alla fine del terzo luogo passando per l'immancabile AI, la mia newsletter Mostly Weekly è di nuovo in pista, come (quasi) ogni domenica

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/307/

A quanto pare ho iniziato questa serie di articoli scritti da altri sulla scrittura. Prima Kurt Vonnegut e adesso Ian Fleming. Chissà se vado avanti. Comunque, se volete scrivere un best seller, i consigli sono tutti qua.

https://antoniodini.com/come-si-scrive-un-best-seller/

L'Intelligenza artificiale in effetti produce valore per le aziende. Ma solo per poche, almeno per adesso. Chissà perché.

Money quote: "After years of investing, hiring talent, and launching pilots in artificial intelligence (AI), CEOs are now seeking tangible returns from the technology. But realizing its full value remains difficult. Even with the widespread implementation of AI programs across industries, only 26% of companies have developed the necessary set of capabilities to move beyond proofs of concept and generate tangible value, according to new research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG)."

https://www.bcg.com/press/24october2024-ai-adoption-in-2024-74-of-companies-struggle-to-achieve-and-scale-value

Jules Feiffer: 26/01/1929 - 17/01/2025

Un po' di fisica neanche tanto banale per spiegare perché i buchi neri in realtà non sono buchi e non risucchiano dentro niente.

Money quote: "You might then assume that the closer you get to a massive object, the larger these tidal forces would become. That’s correct, but the tidal forces get larger even faster than the gravitational force does: if you halved the Earth-Moon distance, the tidal forces wouldn’t be four times as strong, but eight times as strong!

Because black holes are both extremely massive and extremely compact, they are the objects capable of generating the largest-known tidal forces in the Universe. This is why, as you approach a black hole, you find yourself getting “spaghettified,” or stretched into a thin, noodle-like shape: due to the extreme tidal forces. It’s easy to see how this phenomenon leads to the misconception that black holes would suck you in: the closer you get to one, the stronger the attractive force of gravity gets and the stronger the tidal forces that work to tear you apart get as well."

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/black-hole-myth-suck/

Negli Usa gli aeroporti sono un caos unico. Per questo c'è pressione per aumentare la velocità aumentando anche la sicurezza. Solo che anche le file di quelli che seguono il programma della TSA sono arrivate alla saturazione.

Money quote: "PreCheck fliers who once breezed, but now shuffle, through airport screening lines might wonder: Is the old standard lane a better option?

Since the program debuted in 2013, the number of travelers enrolled in PreCheck, which allows participants to skip standard security scrutiny, has swelled. When factoring in people who acquired trusted traveler status through other programs and affiliations, such as active military and Global Entry, the PreCheck rolls exceed 41 million. The Transportation Security Administration said about 30 percent of fliers are PreCheck members, and it wants that number to increase to a 70 percent majority.

The idea of cramming more people into these designated areas seems to defy the point of the fast lane, especially if you have to show up at the airport earlier and stand in line longer. Price said travelers should lower their expectations, but he advised against quitting PreCheck."

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/have-we-reached-peak-precheck

È veramente la fine di un’epoca, Sony spegne la luce su Blu Ray e altri supporti fisici


https://www.macitynet.it/la-fine-di-unepoca-sony-spegne-la-luce-su-blu-ray-e-altri-supporti-fisici/

Era un po' passata in sordina e allora mi faceva piacere ritirarla fuori: Meta avrebbe usato dati contenuti in siti pirata per addestrare i modelli delle sue AI. Visto che il sito in questione contiene copie pirata di tantissimi libri (ma proprio tantissimi, soprattutto saggistica) il che equivale a dire che Meta ha allegramente aggirato qualsiasi blocco sul copyright o negoziato sul diritto d'autore. A quanto pare Mark Zuckerberg lo sapeva e questo secondo me vuol dire molto sullo standard di quell'azienda.

Money quote: "In an October 2023 email to Meta AI researcher Hugo Touvron, Ahmad Al-Dahle, Meta’s vice president of generative AI, wrote that the company’s goal “needs to be GPT4,” referring to the large language model OpenAI announced in March 2023. Meta had “to learn how to build frontier and win this race,” Al-Dahle added. Those plans apparently involved the book piracy site Library Genesis (LibGen) to train its AI systems.

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/14/24343692/meta-lawsuit-copyright-lawsuit-llama-libgen

"A Complete Unknown" è un grande film su Bob Dylan - Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2025/01/a-complete-unknown-bob-dylan-film-recensione/

Microsoft sta seppellendo Windows 10 e l'usabilità delle app di Office 365 su quella versione del sistema operativo. Non è obsolescenza programmata: è proprio esplicita.

Money quote: "“We believe that one of the most important pieces of technology people will look to refresh in 2025 isn’t the refrigerator, the television or their mobile phone. It will be their Windows 10 PC, and they will move forward with Windows 11,” said Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft."

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/15/24344209/microsoft-365-office-apps-windows-10-end-of-support

Come ogni domenica, Mostly Weekly è sempre gratuito, con un sacco di argomenti, incluso il vero motivo per cui non abbiamo la più pallida idea di come fare le vere diete

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/308/

Letture per la domenica.

Quando uscì Barbie (sembra ormai una vita fa) ci fu un gran parlare di quel film e anche di quello che c'era dietro. Cioè il rapporto tra Mattel e l'autorialità. Beh, all'epoca si prevedeva anche l'arrivo di una valanga di film che coprivano il mondo dei giocattoli come se fosse una delle grandi realtà della vita.

Money quote: "As the Vulture article put it, “It’s plenty of fun to imagine teams of screenwriters, locked away on major-studio lots, chugging coffee while grappling with how to graft plots onto stuff like the View-Master.” A View-Master film, as it happens, is one of Mattel’s current projects. But in other respects the company has apparently learned from Hasbro’s misadventure, by partnering with a range of studios and enshrining a series of timed “development gates” in each contract. If the creative team that Mattel assembles doesn’t deliver, and quickly, it can be disbanded, allowing the toymaker to move on."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/after-barbie-mattel-is-raiding-its-entire-toybox

archivio: https://archive.is/XSmaP