Showing all posts about trends
Dumbing down Notepad by giving it artificial intelligence
19 November 2024
Having barely touched their simple text editor, Notepad, in years, Microsoft has been laying on the modifications in recent times. A few months ago, they fitted out Notepad with an autocorrect and spell-checker feature. That’s fine for people wishing to use Notepad as a word processor (in preference to paying out for a subscription to use Word, for instance), but these are features that may not suit everyone.
In the past, I used Notepad to write HTML, CSS, PHP, and other stuff, for my websites. Autocorrect and spell-checker would be worse than useless in those situations. Imagine Notepad trying to “correct” HTML markup? Unless there’s a way to disable these new functions, Notepad will no longer be much use for coders. Coders want what they write, to stay written exactly as they wrote it.
While Microsoft may have decided people long since stopped simple text editors to create websites, in preference to other tools, a plain, simple, text editor, is still useful to have. But the “improvements” to Notepad haven’t stopped with autocorrect and spell-checker functionality. Emma Roth, writing for The Verge, says AI features are to soon to be rolled out:
Microsoft is adding AI-powered text editing to Notepad, the stripped-down text editor originally introduced in 1983. The feature, called Rewrite, is rolling out in preview to Windows Insiders and will let you use AI to “rephrase sentences, adjust tone, and modify the length of your content,” according to the Windows Insider Blog.
Now, AI may be helpful in writing HTML and CSS, if the bot knows what they are, and is able to assist with the writing constructively. But that might be asking a lot.
RELATED CONTENT
artificial intelligence, technology, trends
People also need a motive to start a personal website
15 November 2024
Garrett writing on his Mastodon page:
How do we make it easier for “everyone else,” the “normies,” all those “regular” folk who just want to get online, how do we reduce the friction required to get them to make their own little corners of the web? How do we make the #IndieWeb easier? How do we make the #WebRevival more convenient?
It’s the question of the times, and one I think about. Thing is, almost “everyone else” is comfortable with the ease of using a social media platform to get online. Set up an account. Find friends and follow them. Ask them to do the same. Start posting stuff. Sit back and enjoy the discussion that might accompany a post. No special knowledge required. Nothing else to worry about.
It’s just too easy. But the personal website space really seems reserved for people with a keen interest in creating their own presence online, because there are a few hurdles to entry. I could say — with my relatively low-tech website setup — “well, look at me. I don’t have that much technical knowledge, but see: I have a website, therefore so can you.” But that’s not really much help.
I wanted to have a personal website, and was motivated enough to figure what I needed to do, to make that happen. The problem is, I just don’t think there’s too many regular people, who are the same. Even if there are free-to-sign-up options, such as WordPress.com, or Neocities, open to them.
So, it’s not just ease of setup. Some sort of motive is needed. And motives have come along before. Fifteen to twenty years ago people left, right, and centre, were setting up blogs, motivated by the prospect of making money from them. Some bloggers boasted of “six-figure incomes.” It was enough to see complete novices figuring out content management systems, hosting, content production, and how to build an audience, all in the name of bringing in a dollar or million.
I don’t know what the prospects are like for website monetisation today. Sure, there’s people making some money from their blogs, but like fifteen-plus years ago, only a handful are earning enough to make a difference. Making money from a website may not then be the enticement we’re looking for.
If we are to lure more people away from social media, and encourage them to launch personal websites, presenting them with a motive is something that also needs to be considered.
RELATED CONTENT
blogs, IndieWeb, technology, trends
Things Magazine latest list of links to things
14 November 2024
Things Magazine has been publishing lists of links for over fourteen years, and here’s the latest batch. I don’t exactly know where they source all their links from, which are all top quality, but it’s a process that must take a certain time. Next time someone tries to tell you publishing a link-blog is easier than a long-form writing blog, see if they can do better than Things.
RELATED CONTENT
blogs, history, publishing, trends
The science of standing desks does not quite stack up
13 November 2024
Pretty popular are sit/stand desks at the moment. I’ve helped a few people assemble them, when they’ve bought one for their home office. Good for your health, sit/stand desks, or so we’re told.
Mainly because you’re not sitting all day while working. Some recent research however, suggests the health benefits of sit/stand desks could be overstated. Sitting for extended periods may not be ideal, but too much time spent standing can also cause problems:
“More time spent sitting didn’t necessarily lower a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease, nor did it increase the risk,” Ahmadi says. “It was a null finding. But what it did do was actually increase their risk of circulatory diseases.” Standing for more than two hours a day increased that risk by 11 percent for every extra half hour, which is bad news for retail workers and the standing desk industry.
RELATED CONTENT
Doomscrolling social media does not result in brain rot
12 November 2024
So say psychologists at the Sydney based University of New South Wales (UNSW):
Dr Poppy Watson, adjunct lecturer with UNSW’s School of Psychology, says while the idea warrants exploration, there is a lack of evidence showing excessive doomscrolling of social media is responsible for the mental fatigue, lack of focus, and reduced cognitive function often attributed to ‘brain rot’.
Doomscrolling is hardly a harmless undertaking either, but the UNSW researchers attribute so-called brain rot, particularly among teenagers, more to poverty, socioeconomic status, and poor diet. Brain rot does not, for instance, seem to have impacted IQ scores, which continue to rise:
If intense, prolonged digital consumption were stultifying young people’s minds, then we could expect to see a drop in average IQ scores between pre- and post-digital generations. But as Dr Watson points out, average IQ scores have risen from the start of the 20th century and into the 21st, known as the Flynn Effect.
This as the Australian government proposal to ban social media access to people under the age of sixteen, has been attracting criticism.
RELATED CONTENT
psychology, social media, trends
Great movie title drops are like clever cameo appearances
8 November 2024
Title Drops, by Germany based data visualisation designer and developer Dominikus Baur, analyses the number of times a movie’s title is mentioned during the story.
It’s something that’s not always possible though. I’m looking at 2001: A Space Odyssey, as an example. Although if you can think of a way it could, somehow, happen, let me know. Time-travel classic Back to the Future, however, is, I think, the gold-standard when it comes to title drops.
I’m not sure movies named for a main character, Barbie for instance, really count. It’s surely a given their name will come into the conversation sooner or later. But something like: “next Saturday night, we’re sending you back to the future“, is self-referential in both a smart, and funny, way.
One thing that seems apparent form the data here is that title drops are becoming more frequent.
RELATED CONTENT
The music has stopped for musicians and their support workers
6 November 2024
Just as it is becoming near high impossible to make a full-time living as an author, unless a writer’s work is regularly topping best-seller lists, the same increasingly goes for musicians. And their support teams. Gone are the days road crews, stage hands, recording studio workers, and the like, can make a full-time living in the music industry.
And Hua Hsu, writing for The New Yorker, notes that the word gig, which once chiefly referred to a music show or concert, has found greater relevance in the on-demand work sector, or gig-economy. Doubtless many music industry workers, and I dare say, one or two authors, supplement their income through on-demand work, in response to fewer opportunities to make a living in their preferred occupation.
RELATED CONTENT
Mr Big police stings: true crime that reads like crime fiction
30 October 2024
A police method of prosecuting people suspected of being responsible for committing a serious crime, almost reads like something from a crime novel:
Police manufacture a chance meeting with the suspect, then offer them paid work of a non-criminal nature before introducing jobs that appear to break the law. Through a series of interactions over several months, the sting makes the suspect believe they are being adopted into an organised crime gang with powerful connections to corrupt police, government officials and even judges.
Long story short, police — undercover officers — go about extracting a confession, or admission of guilt, from a suspect they believe committed a crime, but do not have sufficient evidence to place charges. The so-called “Mr Big” technique, which originated in Canada, has resulted in numerous convictions. Legal experts however are concerned some people may be wrongly convicted, as a certain pressure is put on would-be suspects to confess.
RELATED CONTENT
Australia, Canada, law, trends
No one stopped writing diaries, they started publishing blogs instead
28 October 2024
Mali Waugh, writing for The Age:
I also think that keeping a written diary is not really done any more. I wonder whether part of this is that people are much more accepting of traditionally private things being put in the public domain. For the most part, this is a good thing but also sometimes disgusting, like when people share their nose job recovery pictures or their recipes for microwaved brie.
I kind of keep a dairy — but it’s more a listing of the day’s happenings — on some of my socials pages. In fact, my diary-style posts are just about the only content I publish on those pages.
But I doubt handwritten journaling has declined because people necessarily want to make details of their lives and thoughts more public. It’s simply because, no brainer, easier ways to keep a dairy have come along: the web, personal websites, blogs, social media, etc.
I couldn’t see myself starting a handwritten dairy at this point though. It would be more work. Another mouth that would to be fed content. It’d be too much like having a second website. Plus, paper diaries would be more stuff to haul around. It’s like I say: one personal website is enough.
RELATED CONTENT
Apple said to be reducing production of Vision Pro headset
25 October 2024
Hartley Charlton, writing for Mac Rumours:
Citing multiple people “directly involved” in making components for the headset, the report says that the scaling back of production began in the early summer.
My take here is people thought Vision Pro was going to be the next WOW Apple product, and units would fly off the shelves, as they (eventually) did with the iPhone. But Vision Pro, based on pricing alone (leaving aside lack of content, and use thereof potentially being socially isolating), was always only going to appeal to a relatively small group of consumers.
Of course, there’s nothing yet official from Apple, as I type, so the news remains unsubstantiated, even though word of the production cuts have been widely reported.
RELATED CONTENT