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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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What kind of bubble is AI?

My latest column for Locus Magazine is "What Kind of Bubble is AI?" All economic bubbles are hugely destructive, but some of them leave behind wreckage that can be salvaged for useful purposes, while others leave nothing behind but ashes:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

Think about some 21st century bubbles. The dotcom bubble was a terrible tragedy, one that drained the coffers of pension funds and other institutional investors and wiped out retail investors who were gulled by Superbowl Ads. But there was a lot left behind after the dotcoms were wiped out: cheap servers, office furniture and space, but far more importantly, a generation of young people who'd been trained as web makers, leaving nontechnical degree programs to learn HTML, perl and python. This created a whole cohort of technologists from non-technical backgrounds, a first in technological history. Many of these people became the vanguard of a more inclusive and humane tech development movement, and they were able to make interesting and useful services and products in an environment where raw materials – compute, bandwidth, space and talent – were available at firesale prices.

Contrast this with the crypto bubble. It, too, destroyed the fortunes of institutional and individual investors through fraud and Superbowl Ads. It, too, lured in nontechnical people to learn esoteric disciplines at investor expense. But apart from a smattering of Rust programmers, the main residue of crypto is bad digital art and worse Austrian economics.

Or think of Worldcom vs Enron. Both bubbles were built on pure fraud, but Enron's fraud left nothing behind but a string of suspicious deaths. By contrast, Worldcom's fraud was a Big Store con that required laying a ton of fiber that is still in the ground to this day, and is being bought and used at pennies on the dollar.

AI is definitely a bubble. As I write in the column, if you fly into SFO and rent a car and drive north to San Francisco or south to Silicon Valley, every single billboard is advertising an "AI" startup, many of which are not even using anything that can be remotely characterized as AI. That's amazing, considering what a meaningless buzzword AI already is.

So which kind of bubble is AI? When it pops, will something useful be left behind, or will it go away altogether? To be sure, there's a legion of technologists who are learning Tensorflow and Pytorch. These nominally open source tools are bound, respectively, to Google and Facebook's AI environments:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

But if those environments go away, those programming skills become a lot less useful. Live, large-scale Big Tech AI projects are shockingly expensive to run. Some of their costs are fixed – collecting, labeling and processing training data – but the running costs for each query are prodigious. There's a massive primary energy bill for the servers, a nearly as large energy bill for the chillers, and a titanic wage bill for the specialized technical staff involved.

Once investor subsidies dry up, will the real-world, non-hyperbolic applications for AI be enough to cover these running costs? AI applications can be plotted on a 2X2 grid whose axes are "value" (how much customers will pay for them) and "risk tolerance" (how perfect the product needs to be).

Charging teenaged D&D players $10 month for an image generator that creates epic illustrations of their characters fighting monsters is low value and very risk tolerant (teenagers aren't overly worried about six-fingered swordspeople with three pupils in each eye). Charging scammy spamfarms $500/month for a text generator that spits out dull, search-algorithm-pleasing narratives to appear over recipes is likewise low-value and highly risk tolerant (your customer doesn't care if the text is nonsense). Charging visually impaired people $100 month for an app that plays a text-to-speech description of anything they point their cameras at is low-value and moderately risk tolerant ("that's your blue shirt" when it's green is not a big deal, while "the street is safe to cross" when it's not is a much bigger one).

Morganstanley doesn't talk about the trillions the AI industry will be worth some day because of these applications. These are just spinoffs from the main event, a collection of extremely high-value applications. Think of self-driving cars or radiology bots that analyze chest x-rays and characterize masses as cancerous or noncancerous.

These are high value – but only if they are also risk-tolerant. The pitch for self-driving cars is "fire most drivers and replace them with 'humans in the loop' who intervene at critical junctures." That's the risk-tolerant version of self-driving cars, and it's a failure. More than $100b has been incinerated chasing self-driving cars, and cars are nowhere near driving themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

Quite the reverse, in fact. Cruise was just forced to quit the field after one of their cars maimed a woman – a pedestrian who had not opted into being part of a high-risk AI experiment – and dragged her body 20 feet through the streets of San Francisco. Afterwards, it emerged that Cruise had replaced the single low-waged driver who would normally be paid to operate a taxi with 1.5 high-waged skilled technicians who remotely oversaw each of its vehicles:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/technology/cruise-general-motors-self-driving-cars.html

The self-driving pitch isn't that your car will correct your own human errors (like an alarm that sounds when you activate your turn signal while someone is in your blind-spot). Self-driving isn't about using automation to augment human skill – it's about replacing humans. There's no business case for spending hundreds of billions on better safety systems for cars (there's a human case for it, though!). The only way the price-tag justifies itself is if paid drivers can be fired and replaced with software that costs less than their wages.

What about radiologists? Radiologists certainly make mistakes from time to time, and if there's a computer vision system that makes different mistakes than the sort that humans make, they could be a cheap way of generating second opinions that trigger re-examination by a human radiologist. But no AI investor thinks their return will come from selling hospitals that reduce the number of X-rays each radiologist processes every day, as a second-opinion-generating system would. Rather, the value of AI radiologists comes from firing most of your human radiologists and replacing them with software whose judgments are cursorily double-checked by a human whose "automation blindness" will turn them into an OK-button-mashing automaton:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/23/automation-blindness/#humans-in-the-loop

The profit-generating pitch for high-value AI applications lies in creating "reverse centaurs": humans who serve as appendages for automation that operates at a speed and scale that is unrelated to the capacity or needs of the worker:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

But unless these high-value applications are intrinsically risk-tolerant, they are poor candidates for automation. Cruise was able to nonconsensually enlist the population of San Francisco in an experimental murderbot development program thanks to the vast sums of money sloshing around the industry. Some of this money funds the inevitabilist narrative that self-driving cars are coming, it's only a matter of when, not if, and so SF had better get in the autonomous vehicle or get run over by the forces of history.

Once the bubble pops (all bubbles pop), AI applications will have to rise or fall on their actual merits, not their promise. The odds are stacked against the long-term survival of high-value, risk-intolerant AI applications.

The problem for AI is that while there are a lot of risk-tolerant applications, they're almost all low-value; while nearly all the high-value applications are risk-intolerant. Once AI has to be profitable – once investors withdraw their subsidies from money-losing ventures – the risk-tolerant applications need to be sufficient to run those tremendously expensive servers in those brutally expensive data-centers tended by exceptionally expensive technical workers.

If they aren't, then the business case for running those servers goes away, and so do the servers – and so do all those risk-tolerant, low-value applications. It doesn't matter if helping blind people make sense of their surroundings is socially beneficial. It doesn't matter if teenaged gamers love their epic character art. It doesn't even matter how horny scammers are for generating AI nonsense SEO websites:

https://twitter.com/jakezward/status/1728032634037567509

These applications are all riding on the coattails of the big AI models that are being built and operated at a loss in order to be profitable. If they remain unprofitable long enough, the private sector will no longer pay to operate them.

Now, there are smaller models, models that stand alone and run on commodity hardware. These would persist even after the AI bubble bursts, because most of their costs are setup costs that have already been borne by the well-funded companies who created them. These models are limited, of course, though the communities that have formed around them have pushed those limits in surprising ways, far beyond their original manufacturers' beliefs about their capacity. These communities will continue to push those limits for as long as they find the models useful.

These standalone, "toy" models are derived from the big models, though. When the AI bubble bursts and the private sector no longer subsidizes mass-scale model creation, it will cease to spin out more sophisticated models that run on commodity hardware (it's possible that Federated learning and other techniques for spreading out the work of making large-scale models will fill the gap).

So what kind of bubble is the AI bubble? What will we salvage from its wreckage? Perhaps the communities who've invested in becoming experts in Pytorch and Tensorflow will wrestle them away from their corporate masters and make them generally useful. Certainly, a lot of people will have gained skills in applying statistical techniques.

But there will also be a lot of unsalvageable wreckage. As big AI models get integrated into the processes of the productive economy, AI becomes a source of systemic risk. The only thing worse than having an automated process that is rendered dangerous or erratic based on AI integration is to have that process fail entirely because the AI suddenly disappeared, a collapse that is too precipitous for former AI customers to engineer a soft landing for their systems.

This is a blind spot in our policymakers debates about AI. The smart policymakers are asking questions about fairness, algorithmic bias, and fraud. The foolish policymakers are ensnared in fantasies about "AI safety," AKA "Will the chatbot become a superintelligence that turns the whole human race into paperclips?"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/27/10-types-of-people/#taking-up-a-lot-of-space

But no one is asking, "What will we do if" – when – "the AI bubble pops and most of this stuff disappears overnight?"

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/19/bubblenomics/#pop

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

tom_bullock (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/tombullock/25173469495/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #ai #economics #business #hype #bubbles #bubblenomics #residue

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amyoffline · 9 months ago

Text

It's done! The outline for—

—is below the cut. The goal of this project is to explore the following phenomena with as much context and nuance as I can manage, tracing our history over the past 15 years:

What about us, and what about Dan and Phil, drew in and continues to draw in a very specific audience. If they are a ranch metaphor, we are a pizza metaphor 🥗🍕🫶🏻

Why we were Like That™, by which I mean so parasocially invested in them that we became, at times, the most annoying people on the internet. Much of that reputation is undeserved, and the videos on the phandom to date have been strongly negative. So, uh, I guess I'm going to put my face on camera and (mostly) defend us.

Reblog, share in your Discord servers, reply, or send me messages/anon asks with feedback or resources if you have any! Especially if your experience being in this fandom community has been dramatically different from mine. There are TIT spoilers near the end of the outline, but I'm not tagging because certain individuals seem to be lurking over there. Thank you!

Chapters:

Full outline:

introduction

cold open

felt personally attacked by jonathan haidt's last press tour

showed up to the phrenaissance 11 months late

had an unexpectedly strong response to their new content, needed to find out why

what the hell are we doing here?

- phenomenology (academics are professionally insufferable) - research question 1: what drew the audience in? - research question 2: why were we Like That™?

what we're NOT doing here

- a strict content analysis or "wow we sucked" video - providing sources for things best left uncirculated, thank you

reflexivity (personal biases)

- american zillennial in public health - in the youtube audience by spring 2010 - lurking in the phandom on tumblr 2013-2015, back* since 2019 - fan behavior i did and did not engage in

(----): truly necessary background information, i swear

(pop) cultural trends, tech, and their intersection

- nerd/geek identity and the first online weirdos - broadcast tv & the music industry vs the internet - defining "emo" - blogging & vlogging - early internet comedy

broader social/economic trends

- so the U.S. economy collapsed in 2007 - a decade that sucked except for rom-coms and square enix games - the flip/slide phone + digital camera + mp3 player loadout

(05-8): early youtube and early phil

youtube: a great video uploader without a clear purpose

the content on the website

- crossposts, corporations, and creative/social outlets - omg guys it's amazing phil - contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: justin bieber

the audience of "early adopters"

contemporary social media sites and forums

(2009): origin story

a wild dan appears… in the comments

the global constant that is teenagers being messy online

daring my old school district to sue me

- "one town's war on gay teens" (literal rolling stone headline!) - epidemiology 101: rates of… ugh… "unaliving" oneself - ways kids cope when it seems no adults will help them

the earliest days of dan & phil

- hello internet + pinof - a chronically overexamined timeline - file deleted ---* so how big WAS the audience at the time? ---* acceptable funny/edgy language was just different

contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: lucas cruikshank

omg it's meeeeeee

- how amy & friends were using youtube - ways i was just destined to end up here - being in social environments with peers 3-6 years older

(2010): is it "twenty-ten" or "two thousand ten?"

youtube is a platform about to explode in popularity

- the algorithm before it was The Algorithm™, lost site features - let's take a trip through the wayback machine :3c - actual dan & phil content in 2010 - the green brothers found vidcon - contemporary youtube-to-legacy success: darren criss

social media: also about to explode in popularity

- facebook was cool at the time, believe it or not - law of equivalent exchange: 2010 amy cringe compilation - the birth of instagram and pinterest - youtube slash livejournal (the first phanfics… sort of) - shockfic and its place in the overton window

the beginning of "the great rewiring" as haidt calls it

- ways social media is about to dramatically change - third spaces become online spaces - confounding variable: changing expectations of teens

(2011): the end of an era, the start of an age

a very long tangent on fandom and pop culture

cultural exchange

counterculture and teenagers as concepts

the first british invasion: the 1960s

- beatlemania and its descendents - moral panic about the virtue of tween/teen girls - tv/film/fashion trends being imported from the uk - in parallel, star trek births the modern fandom

the second british invasion: the 1980s

- synth/new pop that came out of the punk movement (hi, emo?) - confined mainly to music and fashion - cool britannia

it's harry freakin' potter

- absolute titan of pop culture influence - the rise of online fandom: examining the horrors ---* what is "wank" ---* flaming, sockpuppeting, and general cyberbullying ---* censorship: ffnet purges, boldthrough, & strikethrough ---* other fandom shenanigans of the time (yaoi paddles, anyone?)

harry potter's over. now what?

- for those who needed coming-of-age hero's journeys ---* twilight and YA dystopia waiting in the wings ---* some pretty iconic tv shows start or hit their stride ---* the mcu's phase one ---* takeaway: the rise of "geek culture" generally - for those who just wanted to go to hogwarts ---* doctor who & the wider world of bbc programming ---* british vloggers, you say? where? on youtube? brb--

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

dan & phil in the first half of 2011

- a continuation of 2010… for now - the videos - british pancakes as a case study of bad fan behavior

streaming and social media

- the birth of snapchat, twitch, and younow - netflix starts developing original programming - multi-channel networks (mcns) - digitour

dan & phil in the second half of 2011

- and they were roommates (omg they were roommates) - fantastic foursome - youtube glitches out - the super amazing project - the first proper baking video + wait, is that the bbc?

~ baking interlude 1: christmas cookies ~

the family sugar cookie (sorry, delia)

amy's 2011

(2012): why is anyone nostalgic for this

the transition from desktop to mobile

- massive growth in smartphone ownership 2011-2015 - things one might do on mobile one might not do on desktop - non-online ways smartphones changed being a youth™

what is tumblr and why is my child using it

- how the site is meant to work - fandom, memes, aesthetics, and SOME public figures - want to be anxious and depressed in peace? come to tumblr - this site seems a little……… gay ---* tumblr's very queer, very neurodiverse userbase ---* legacy media representation in 2012: bad! ---* actual academic research on tumblr users (yes, it exists) - the tumblr experience for non-native english speakers

amy becomes a vibrating mass of panic and paranoia

- in context of the above - additional rant about the american public school system

the growing dan & phil audience

- investigating the origin of the term "phannie" - more collaborations = more viewers - more video uploads = more /invested/ viewers - younow and interacting with fans - watch time replaces clicks in the algorithm

online etiquette, or lack thereof

- mid-transition from the 2000s to the 2010s - "professional internet celebrity" is still basically brand-new - lack of boundaries - various ways to be an asshole online - unsupervised kids simply do not engage in best practices

the end of 2012

- dan and phil move to london - wikipedia vandalism - tiptoeing around a top contender for the phandom's greatest sin - super amazing project DONE, now it's BBC RADIO TIME

(2013): arguably the most important year

- wait. what's that six-second video platform over there--

[amy's curated vine compilation]

- a new wave of internet comedians (read: future youtubers) - the zillennial lexicon - other platforms start emphasizing short-form video content - magcon

emo is BACK - well, sort of

- fob hiatus ends, mcr breaks up. my god. you had to be there - more open ties to nerd/geek culture than in the 2000s - these things once again intersect at dan and phil

dan and phil in the first half of 2013

- siri, what's a "sex symbol?" why are you booing me i'm right-- - d&p are everywhere - radio shows, interviewing, hosting - youtube uploads on their individual channels

rapidly changing cultural attitudes towards queerness

- gay marriage will be legal in places other than canada soon - a lot of assimilationist rhetoric though tbh - parallels to the pop feminism of the decade

hey kids, let's talk about compulsory heterosexuality!!

- what is it and why do people do it - academic, tumblr-level, and anecdotal research - the dannies, the phillies, and the phannies

amy

- the closet™ - mental health stigma - 2013 dnp posts from my main blog

dan and phil in the second half of 2013

- subscriber milestones, vidcon - joint content before the gaming channel - phandom starts having a major presence outside tumblr

(2014): achievement unlocked!

it's time to talk about rpf

- definitions (a chance to be annoyingly pedantic) - academic perspectives and fan discourse on the ethics - when the subjects clearly aren't fine with it - so… we can acknowledge "shipping phan" was different, right? ---* sometimes the subjects are fine* with it, actually ---* how dan and phil started to handle the shipping ---* obvious differences between phan and other rpf ships ---* sharing my favorite passages as a first-time phanfic reader

dan and phil in 2014

- wikipedia vandalism 2: electric boogaloo - bbc request show → internet takeover - the 7 second challenge - youtube content, subscriber milestones, rewind - cons and award shows

tumblr reaches the peak of its influence

- yahoo's attempts to monetize the userbase - buzzfeed and aggregators steal our jokes and bait our clicks - legacy media dangles carrots and uses us for free marketing - the legend of korra breaks TV precedent, almost out of nowhere - the tumblr user experience ---* on mobile, without xkit ---* on desktop, with xkit ---* 2014 dnp posts from my main blog

gamergate and its long shadow

- trolling, renewed and revamped - algorithms push increasingly extreme content - the broad conservative backlash conglomerate - increased normalization of conspiracism in general

my greatest sin [not clickbait] [very funny]

- so, circling back to comphet… - the actual story

anyway, let's talk about danandphilgames

- a star is born: dil howlter - different types of gaming content on youtube at the time - why did 17yo amy not subscribe? well…

~ baking interlude 2: chocolate cupcakes ~

make your own frosting. it freezes well

roasting myself further

(2015): it's not queerbaiting when it's real people

facebook "pivots to video"

- mark zuckerberg lied. water is wet - causes other platforms to REALLY double down on video - the birth of musical.ly - corporate-branded creators (read: future youtubers)

queerbaiting enters mainstream public consciousness

- academic origins - early fannish and acafan writing - johnlock, destiel, and sterek - statistics 101: type i error, type ii error, and queerbait

dan, phil, and the phandom

- bbc, cons, & the brits - danandphilcrafts - phan conspiracies ---* japhan ---* body language experts ---* timeline truthers ---* floor plan investigators ---* no but seriously imagine it - regular youtube uploads ---* solo content ---* joint content ---* subscriber milestones, rewind - tatinof uk and tabinof ---* on "selling out" ---* revisiting the statistics 101 lesson: now with real people! ---* never meet your heroes (unless they're dan and phil)

amy's (temporary) exit from the phandom

- it's legal adulthood with a steel chair!! - growing discomfort with some fans' behavior - 2015 dnp posts from my main blog - the closer: final fantasy vii

(2016): season finale

vine's imminent demise

- content platforms behaving badly - content creators behaving badly

youtube after "the great rewiring" (as haidt calls it)

- version 1.0 of the modern youtube algorithm ---* deep neural networks for dummies ---* what's holding creators accountable, or not - advertising and sponsorships ---* basically every child and youth™ is watching now ---* the battle for our attention ---* regulators start to crack down on undisclosed ads - the rise of drama/tea content (and later, channels) ---* youtubers are now seen as regular celebrities ---* dan and phil as the butt of other youtubers' jokes ---* baiting the phandom for engagement

tatinof us and aus

- a proven new model for live show tours - show & documentary released to youtube red (now premium) - [sigh] the tour bus

sea change in online fandom

- the newer, sometimes queerer media in korra's wake ---* better and more representation in live-action tv shows ---* voltron (i'm sorry!!!) ---* the mystic messenger craze ---* alice oseman & heartstopper - the new dynamics of #discourse ---* proship is to anti as phannie is to phanti ---* the bad behaviors of the 00s get a new coat of paint ---* new, though: fans harassing creators ---* a personal note on ace discourse

dan and phil presence off-tour

- the internet takeover ends - regular content, subscriber milestones

so. uh. current events.

- brexit - sorry the united states is a font of chaos - ripple effects

closing out the year

- amy finally gets an anxiety diagnosis and treatment! hurray! - dapgo, rewind - bbc radio awards & the boncas - gamingmas

(2017): time for a rebrand

tangent - sit down!!! buckle up!!! today's lecture is on PSIs & PSRs!!!

"parasocial" as defined by the current zeitgeist

- summing up youtubers' and laypeople's opinions (not dan's) - an unfairly negative stance overall, imo

older academic literature

- the 1956 paper (yes, 1956) - with traditional celebrities - with fictional characters

current academic literature

- with youtubers and other content creators - positive effects on the audience - negative effects on the audience - broader societal implications

fandom spaces as a parasocial experience

- parasocial and truly social interactions with each other - phandom as a supportive, welcoming space for oddballs - what research i can find about neurospicy folks, + anecdotes - me and everyone else on planet earth move to discord

inherent transactionality

- the nature of celebrity - positive effects on creators - negative effects on creators

reexamining early phandom through a parasocial lens

- the good, the bad, and the ugly - the role audience demographics played in all of this - entering, exiting, and remaining in the phandom

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

vine is well and truly dead

- some had prepared to become primarily youtubers (smart) - some move to musical.ly, insta, facebook, or snap (less so)

the sun sets on danisnotonfire

- i am very normal about dan's hobbit hair, i swear. - the last dnp content before the rebrand - new apartment, new floor plan investigations

adpocalypse now

- youtube has become the village elder of platforms ---* increased scrutiny, increased responsibility ---* some youtubers had been getting away with !#$!#@% - the scandals ---* pewdiepie + logan paul ---* elsagate and being "family- friendly" (read: ad-friendly) - censorship and monetization ---* adsense revenue goes down as advertisers pull out ---* the glory days of posting whatever and making bank are over

amazingphil and ~daniel howell~

- youtube & younow content - that week in march - vacations and conventions - conjoined baking and the concept of a "soft launch" - daniel & depression → dan as a mental health advocate - truth bombs, ii announcement, rewind

(2018): the phandom vs the hiatus they told us not to worry about

interactive introverts

- "giving the people what they want" - in hindsight… - let's talk about dnp fans from the global south

youtuber burnout

- it wasn't just dan: (more examples than header fits) - the old model was simply not sustainable - newer contributing factors - research on burnout, plus personal anecdotal experience

other dan and phil videos

- phil's solo videos - gay and not proud - hometown showdown - other joint videos - phil's #shorts (sounds normal in american english)

panini updates

- vaccines soon, uwu??? + entrenched misinformation - pros and cons of remote work - pros and cons of remote school - pros and cons of remote socializing

you will get through this night

- younger me really could have used this book too, dan - thoughts as a professional in a related field - reflecting on some of my more unique circumstances

daring my old school district to sue me (again!!)

- updates: racism and transphobia - updates: right-wing freaks take over the school board again - residents vote against improving mental health resources

(2022): dan returns (still not on fire)

hey so politics are um getting worse

- americans lose the right to reproductive freedom ---* the quickest of histories on where these freaks came from ---* this shit kills people. - trans kids become the punching bag of culture war discourse ---* fuck off! (gently) ---* fuck off! (i have a knife) ---* checking in on terf island

we're all doooooooooooooooomed

- dystopia daily my beloved - the style, the substance, the metatextual analysis-- - not everyone loved it, though. why? - the promo - dan on tour + sister daniel

amy's 2022

- i got covid - then i got long covid: brain fog, pots-like symptoms

some more news (i will work on my warmbo impression)

- dan joins tiktok + danisnotinteresting uploads - phil: uploading less, busy doing remote crisis management - twitter is acquired by an idiot jackass - heartstopper on netflix! ---* the show and what it means to people ---* drama (revisiting "real people can't queerbait") ---* why this has anything to do with the phandom

~ baking interlude 4: cinnamon rolls ~

- lovingly, recipe changes and corrections :) - if i have an opinion about anything, it's sweet yeasted breads

(2023): the phrenaissance

phil

- joins tiktok! - youtube uploads through september - what even is phannie tiktok. i've never used this app. help.

dystopia daily b-sides

- dan memes of 2022 - the 2023 dystopia daily episodes

amy: the doctoral candidacy process

- purgatory, privilege, poverty, and free pizza - checking in on what this is like outside the united states

pretending the panini is over

- complaining about post-adpocalypse censorship standards - honest take about "giving up" on covid - who gets the short end of the stick

the youtube algorithm is BAD and UNINTELLIGENT, actually,

- unhinged rant about not hearing about the gaming rephrival - because i was offline from other platforms. like, @amyoffline.

pov: you are a phannie (not me) on october 15th

- what i was doing on october 15th - saying goodbye forever, spooky week, and november - gamingmas - phil uploads through december

(2024): fifteen years of terrible, terrible influence

hey what the fuck is going on

- dan and phil ---* joint and phil videos ---* jokes they never would've made ten years ago ---* a collection of emotional posts about how far they've come ---* people want fun and silly content again. we'll get to why ---* nostalgia, hope, and other warm and fuzzy feelings - the phandom ---* ancient parasocial attachments, reactivated instantly ---* people are way more normal now. let's discuss why ---* tumblr vs twitter vs tiktok phandom

we're all doomed, youtube version

- my thoughts - thoughts on "dan should/shouldn't" do video essays - i can't objectively evaluate anything he makes bc [gunshots]

terrible influence tour

- legally phlonde - the concept: healing one's inner child / taking it back - we gotta talk about phannies in the global south again - no but seriously imagine it? ---*ogres are like onions, they have LAYERS ---* [placeholder for whatever does(n't) happen]

anglosphere current events once again

- the likely us tiktok ban - the tories get fired - [placeholder for whichever hell americans manifest] - witnessing genocide and feeling powerless

ffx full-circle moment to the intro of this video essay

- the night i found out they came back - why i am doing this, now with context - reflections on a nearly 15-year (parasocial) relationship

whatever youtube uploads we get during fall/december

AMY SEES TIT (nov 14)

- the vibes at the phamily reunion - buying merch to apologize for eternal ublock origin use - how much should i document?? (not during the show) - phanspiracies confirmed - atlanta confessions - favorite bits - the alternate universe where i went to tatinof and/or ii

(2025): the horrors persist, but so do we

whatever 2025 content is out while i'm still working on this

our parasocial social club

- let me be philosophytube for a second ---* every interaction has a parasocial element ---* what are we obligated to do as a phandom, actually? ---* as people who parasocially care about these two dorks? ---* what else should we be doing socially to be at our happiest? - "they're my gay uncles" vs "i'm a little in love, even now" ---* riffing about the boundary/overlap between these camps ---* sibling reads me for filth in a single text (sister daniel...) ---* at least we're all in this together

what's going to continue to draw people in

- grown adults drawing our cat whiskers back on - updates on queer/nd kids - updates on anxiety/depression rates - updates on tech and the broader environment of content - world still feels doomed

tangent - the "hard launch" and why people want it

what are people referring to, exactly

- general definition and other examples - when it comes to dan and phil - maybe they hard launched already and we just missed the memo

the ludonarrative of phandom

- if you got here early on - if you got here in the mid-2010s - if you got here after they came out - if you got here post-hiatus - final fantasy comparison: ffvii's chokehold over first-timers

a rom-com for the ages

- the tropes in play - brief tangent on the evolution of the genre - queer romantic comedies - final fantasy comparison: ffviii's plot and squall/rinoa

phriends… or…

- wholesome influence, slice-of-life - projection - final fantasy comparison: ffxv's gameplay loop, the chocobros

humans don't like ambiguity

- from a media perspective (narrative tension) - research from the hard sciences - final fantasy comparison: fanille ---* the first gay final fantasy characters, actually ---* ffxiii's character development process ---* fang and vanille in the text. brb, clawing at the walls ---* so, if anyone is looking for a phyuri au prompt…

tl;dr: reality is not fiction. make peace with not "knowing"

end tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming

the phuture

- phil's big solo project when??? - dapg is just the joint channel now - youtube has changed since when dan last "regularly" uploaded - nothing lasts forever, and that's okay

~ baking interlude 5: ranch + pizza ~

- ranch propaganda and ranch metaphors - showing off my dough and sauce skills

conclusions

- a lot has happened in 15 years - [placeholders: don't write your conclusions before you do your research]

Proof this project can only be done in consultation with Tumblr: no other platform we're on could accommodate a post of this length and formatting detail lol

#dan and phil #phan #dnp #daniel howell #amazingphil #this took so long to format oh my god please read it and talk to me #except it's 1am in my time zone so i'm going honk mimimimi soon enough #amy writes

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secularbakedgoods · 5 months ago

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Fleeing the digital old country

This is a crosspost of my newsletter! If you’d like to get posts like this direct to your inbox or RSS reader, you can subscribe here.

For reasons that may be obvious at this point, my mother is thoroughly sick of Facebook and wants to leave the site. Unfortunately Facebook is the thing keeping her in contact with friends and family she'd otherwise never see, so she needs a different way to keep in touch with those people.

One of the options she's looked into is Friendica, an open-source and decentralized social network with much of the same functionality as Facebook. But while my mum at 71 years old is pretty tech-savvy, most of her Facebook friends can't say the same — to them, the process of navigating the Fediverse is a daunting proposition.

Of course, the big reason that platforms like Facebook are so easy to use is that the company is handling a lot of technical and logistical decisions for you. Which means they can make those decisions in their best interest, instead of yours.

And the moment that becomes a deal you can no longer tolerate, you really only have two options: you can switch to a platform you control — with all the technical overhead that requires — or you can switch to a new platform that somebody else controls, and hope that this time the benevolent dictator stays benevolent.

Video Appearance: Date Me, Dammit!

I periodically co-host on the YouTube series Date Me, Dammit!, where my friends Annie and Maq play through dating sims of varying quality. We've just started a run of the game Fatal Hearts, which makes vague gestures at being a Dracula adaptation and is stuffed to the gills with confusing minigames.

You can watch the first episode on YouTube here.

New on Ko-fi: "Jay Moriarty vs the Machine God," Chapter 1

The first chapter of "Jay Moriarty vs the Machine God" is now on Ko-fi and free for anyone to read. Subsequent chapters will be posted on Tuesdays as supporter-only posts. You can also get the entire novelette as an ebook.

This Week's Links

Why This OnlyFans Model Posts Machine Learning Explainers to Pornhub

Dar said she makes more money on YouTube overall because that’s where she gets more views, but in addition to higher rates, an added benefit of posting to Pornhub is that Pornhub is not likely to ban her for sharing adult content elsewhere on the web.

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Playing Cards

On December 14, James Harr, the owner of an online store called ComradeWorkwear, announced on social media that he planned to sell a deck of “Most Wanted CEO” playing cards, satirizing the infamous “Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards” introduced by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003.

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

More fic readers means more people in fandom, right? Instead, I read post after post talking about how distant writers felt from these newer readers—how impersonal and lonely the act of fannish creation has become.

---

My mum also has a side-hustle reselling rare/discontinued product from an MLM called Epicure. Epicure has just gone bankrupt. The vibe in my parents' house is like the end of that movie The Big Short right now.

-K

#newsletter #writers on tumblr

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fictionyoubelieve · 5 months ago

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Some of the current discourse is mentioning the James Damore Google doc again, as an example of DEI backlash within big tech. Nobody's rehashing the contents of the doc, but for those that haven't seen it or don't remember it that well, I just want to reiterate that it was really stupid.

It alleges that Google's DEI practices unfairly discriminate against men, and that acknowledgement--much less criticism--of this fact is strongly discouraged internally. Reasonable enough, if he had left it at that.

But then it goes on a long tangent about "Possible non-bias causes of the gender gap in tech", in which he makes many different claims about innate biological differences between men and women, ostensibly supported by embedded links to the shakiest of personality "science" and unfalsifiable evo-psych speculation. It is transparently the result of Damore googling things that he already believed and picking abstracts that agreed with him. (In some cases, the linked study does not even support what Damore is claiming in the link text!)

In short, despite being sandwiched between largely-unobjectionable generalities and reassurances, the gooey center of questionable assertions revealed Damore's own biases (and his ignorance thereof), which is a bad look when you're trying to call out other people's bias.

As an example, and because I was fired up about it, I dug into the very first claim:

Women, on average, have more: Openness directed towards feelings and aesthetics rather than ideas. Women generally also have a stronger interest in people rather than things, relative to men (also interpreted as empathizing vs. systemizing).

The first link is a Wikipedia page, which ultimately cites a study based on the NEO PI-R, a personality inventory used in psych research. Here are some example questions which might relate to "openness to ideas" (source):

I sometimes lose interest when people talk about very abstract, theoretical matters.

I enjoy working on "mind-twister"-type puzzles.

I have little interest in speculating on the nature of the universe or the human condition.

The second link goes to a study that is... pretty sus. It opens with a Margaret Thatcher quote, for one thing. And the author really likes to cite himself for his core claims (out of 48 citations, 5 are his own papers, with no co-authors). Anyway, the "people-things orientation" aspect is about reported vocational preferences in three other papers--two of which are his own. One of those two supposedly tracks sex differences across 53 nations, but it drills down to this:

BBC Internet survey participants also completed a 10-item measure of gender-related occupational preferences, which asked them to rate on 7-point scales ranging from ‘‘strongly dislike’’ to ‘‘strongly like’’ how much they were interested in the following jobs: car mechanic, costume designer, builder, dance teacher, carpenter, school teacher, electrical engineer, florist, inventor, and social worker.

...and of course, this BBC survey is only available in English. Plenty of cultural variety captured there, I'm sure.

The third source is actually the strongest, though it's included as an aside. The link goes to a Wikipedia page that cites research using an Empathy Quotient and Systemizing Quotient. These quotients include such questions as:

If I were buying a stereo, I would want to know about its precise technical features.

When I hear the weather forecast, I am not very interested in the meteorological patterns.

I am fascinated by how machines work.

When I was a child, I enjoyed cutting up worms to see what would happen.

After the above, Damore continues:

These two differences in part explain why women relatively prefer jobs in social or artistic areas. More men may like coding because it requires systemizing and even within SWEs, comparatively more women work on front end, which deals with both people and aesthetics.

Does it explain that, though, or just demonstrate it? Where is the evidence that these preferences are actually due to innate differences, and not gender bias? And, crucially, how much do these slight differences in preference actually matter when there are millions of dollars on the line?

If you simply want to prove that Google is discriminating, there are more direct ways to do that than speculating about the gender ratio of people who may be innately drawn to software. And if you want to argue that a skewed gender ratio doesn't necessarily imply overt discrimination, you can just say that, instead of writing several hundred words about what you think the innate differences are between men and women, and then sharing that with all your coworkers. Stupid.

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jcmarchi · 5 months ago

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DeepSeek's AI breakthrough: Fewer resources, big impact

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/deepseeks-ai-breakthrough-fewer-resources-big-impact/

DeepSeek's AI breakthrough: Fewer resources, big impact

On December 26th, a modest-sized Chinese company named DeepSeek introduced advanced AI technology, rivaling the top chatbot systems from giants like OpenAI and Google.

This achievement was noteworthy for its capability and the cost-efficiency with which it was developed. Unlike its large competitors, DeepSeek created its artificial intelligence, DeepSeek-V3, using significantly fewer specialized processors, which are typically essential for such advancements.

Cost efficiency and technological breakthrough

These processors are at the heart of a fierce tech rivalry between the U.S. and China. The U.S. aims to keep its lead in AI by restricting the export of high-end chips, such as those from Nvidia, to China.

However, DeepSeek’s success with fewer resources raises concerns about the effectiveness of U.S. trade policies, which have inadvertently spurred Chinese innovation using more accessible technologies.

DeepSeek-V3 impressively handles tasks like answering queries, solving puzzles, programming, and matching industry standards. Remarkably, it was developed with just around $6 million worth of computing resources, starkly contrasting the $100 million Meta reportedly invested in similar technologies.

Chris V. Nicholson from Page One Ventures pointed out that more companies could afford $6 million than the heftier sums, democratizing access to advanced AI technology.

Strategic implications and global impact of DeepSeek

Previously, experts believed only firms with substantial financial resources could compete with leading AI firms, which train their systems on supercomputers requiring thousands of chips.

DeepSeek, however, managed with just 2,000 chips from Nvidia. This efficient use of limited resources reflects the forced innovation resulting from chip restrictions in China, as Jeffrey Ding from George Washington University noted.

Recently, the U.S. tightened these restrictions to prevent China from acquiring advanced AI chips via third countries. This is part of ongoing efforts to limit Chinese firms’ potential military use of these technologies, which have resorted to stockpiling chips and sourcing them through underground markets.

ChatGPT vs Bard: What are the top key differences?

We’re taking a look at Bard vs ChatGPT and their key differences like technology, internet connection, and training data.

DeepSeek, a company rooted in quantitative stock trading, has been leveraging its profits to invest in Nvidia chips since 2021, fueling its AI research rather than consumer products. This focus has allowed it to bypass stringent Chinese regulations on consumer AI, attracting top talent and exploring diverse applications from poetry to complex examinations.

While leading U.S. firms continue to push AI boundaries, DeepSeek’s recent achievements underline its growing prowess in the field. It also highlights the broader shift towards open-source AI, gaining traction as companies like Meta openly share their technologies. This shift increasingly positions China as a central player in AI development, posing a strategic challenge to U.S. dominance in the field.

As the debate continues over the potential risks of open sourcing AI in the U.S., such as spreading misinformation, the global open source community, increasingly led by China, might shape the future of AI development, suggesting a significant geopolitical shift in the technology landscape.

Have you seen our 2025 event calendar?

From agentic AI to LLMOps, this year will be bigger than ever – join us in one of our 19 in-person events across the globe and network with other AI leaders.

Like what you see? Then check out tonnes more.

From exclusive content by industry experts and an ever-increasing bank of real world use cases, to 80+ deep-dive summit presentations, our membership plans are packed with awesome AI resources.

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accidentalcookies · 6 months ago

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You seem very excited about this Borderlands AU of yours. Might we hear more about it? (with a bit of the relevant background for someone unfamiliar with the source media, if you don't mind?)

AHHHHH THANK YOU FOR THE ASK AND I'M SORRY I'M LITERALLY A YEAR LATE WITH THE REPLY SKDFJHG

thank you so much for asking!!! i am so excited about it, even though it's very much "no plot self-indulgence: the au" LOL

i'll try to keep the borderlands world context lore dump brief skfjhg (edit: it was not brief)

so, borderlands is a sci-fi western series that takes place (mostly) on a planet called pandora. pandora is this barren wasteland apocalypse planet that is covered in extremely aggressive fauna, and is sort of mad max-esque—the people who live there live hard lives, struggling to survive in a dog eat dog world. there is a lot of murdering on a regular basis. living on pandora kinda sucks!! but the reason a lot of people ended up on pandora was because of these things called "vaults." years ago, one of the (many) gun corporations that essentially own pandora was able to open a treasure trove full of alien technology called a vault, which caused a super valuable mineral (eridium) to start growing across the planet, and caused a sort of gold rush of "vault hunters" who, like their name suggests, trying and hunt for vaults, because if you manage to find one, you're basically set for life.

the world itself is very much focused on its technology, with little magic to speak of, other than the "tech so advanced it may as well be magic" thing. it's a first person shooter, so you can imagine the guns (and the fact that gun corporations are a huge major part of the worldbuilding) are a big part of the daily lives of people on pandora.

the only bit of magic magic are creatures called sirens. they are a group of 7 people who have (essentially) magic powers, which they gain when one of the existing 7 dies and passes their power along. you can think of it kind of like being the avatar from avatar: the last airbender! so when 1 dies, their powers get transferred to either some random person in the universe, or to someone they chose on purpose. when they're born with it, usually it takes them a few years before they discover their powers, so they aren't obvious at first.

sirens are super powerful, and can do a lot of cool things. their powerset is individual to each "type" of siren, so you'll have one that can control technology, or one that can do telekinesis-esque stuff. but the other really important thing about them is that they have some sort of connection to the vaults, and can get SUPER powerful if you juice them up with eridium (which is effectively torture), and also they're the only thing that can charge up vault keys, which you need in order to open a vault. so they're a pretty hot commodity, as you can imagine.

PHEW BORDERLANDS LORE DUMP (HOPEFULLY) OVER!! ONTO THE AU!!

so in this au, sy's family runs one of the aforementioned gun corporations, called Oceanus. "corporate versus pandoran" is very much the borderlands world's flavoring of upper vs lower class, and it honestly fit really well. also the name is because canonically, in his dnd world, sy is the great great (x many) grandson of the living manifestation of the river oceanus, of the underworld rivers.

i realized i was typing up an absolute beast of a plot summary, so i have started over in order to try and be a little less verbose 😂 maybe not on an ask, i will elaborate further—just so i'm not hammering you with an absolute wall of text 😅

so, as the family at the head of Oceanus, sy and his siblings are expected to contribute significantly to the company in some way and take on important roles. in the past, this meant forcing them through training from hell to make them all hypercompetent murder machines.

but now, in the present, his older sisters, qinhui and qinli, take on being the main intelligence officer and the ceo respectively. shaoquan becomes a lawyer. shaoyuan, knowing that all he's good for is death, follows his expected path and becomes a Oceanus' assassin and enforcer, "cleaning up" problems before they can become problems, traveling throughout the galaxies, but especially to pandora, to do his dirty work. i am honestly just imagining like a mafia situation here, lol

we would be here for another year (haha...) if i went into all the details of sy's job, but the most important thing to know is that at some point, qinli tasks sy with capturing a siren alive, which he does, and then through experimentation, Oceanus figures out how to use them to create revolutionary new technology that helps them break onto the MAJOR corporation scene. stonks go up and all that.

and this is the status quo for a while. after the nie parents have an "oops we did a pregnat" and spawn new baby siblings, sy manages to convince qinli to have some leniency with the babies, so they aren't forced to go through that training from hell. for Reasons, she agrees.

and then. because nothing good can ever stay for long. the status quo changes.

remember when i said that sirens take a little bit before they show their powers? well, that was important for this major plot beat.

which is that the babies turn out to be sirens.

nianxiu, in particular, turns out to be a death-touch siren. she sucks the life force out of anything she touches directly.

guess how shaoyuan found that out!

i have the fic half-written up, and hopefully someday it'll be posted! but essentially, on an otherwise normal night, shaoyuan quite literally just picks the babies up for uppies, and then nianxiu eats his life force and makes his body spontaneously start dying. imagine what necrotic damage from dnd would be like, when manifested into our real world, and that's what she does to sy, and nearly kills him.

i can share one line i'm really proud of from that fic though!! so the context for the fic and sy's ultimate survival is that sq comes back to the apartment at just the right moment to pick something up, and comes across this unholy horror movie of a scene and experiences this:

"It’s a sound they never want to hear again; the sound of his brother, drowning in his own blood."

sy (barely) manages to pull through, and is sick and in recovery for a while. he loses an arm, a lung, and an eye, and he gains the white hair streak that i usually find a way to give him. eventually, this being a futuristic sci-fi universe, he gets cybernetics to replace most of what he's lost, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows and he definitely has side effects and lasting consequences from it all. as is the whump writer's prerogative.

and then, of course, you have the siren sibling problem. because already, having access to just one siren has allowed Oceanus to rapidly rise through the ranks. in fact, qinli probably already had sy looking for more.

and now she has two sirens basically hand-delivered to her doorstep.

and sy can see the hunger in qinli's eyes.

so, he tries to bargain. he promises qinli to hunt down another siren, as long as she lets the babies live their life, free from unimaginable torture.

and qinli agrees. (she's lying.)

i actually kinda imagined the next bit in terms of an actual borderlands game. there are usually 4 main protagonists of each game, one of whom is always a siren, and all are wannabe vault hunters. i imagined in this hypothetical game, sy would be a main quest npc that travels with the protags across pandora and goes on adventures with them. and in doing so, becomes genuine friends with them. and once that friendship has formed, he confesses that his baby siren siblings are held captive by Oceanus, and he's been trying to find a way to get them out of there.

and of course, this happy band of adventurers agree to help! they find a way up to the space station Oceanus is based in...

and there, sy shows his true colors. which is that he used all of this to lure them, but especially the siren, up onto Oceanus' base, where there is no escape.

sy is the lesser villain of this hypothetical borderlands game, basically 😂

from there, i imagine sy quickly finds out that qinli has no intention of holding to their agreement (after all, now she has FOUR sirens), and, in his desperation, turns to the team of vault hunters that he just betrayed to try and get them to help him. as you can imagine, there may be some hard feelings still.

god, this is still a wall of text 😅 but these are the main ideas of the borderlands au!!! god now i'm hype about it all over again, maybe i need to kick the perfectionism and just start posting...

#asks #WAHHHH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK #again i cannot apologize enough that this has taken me so long AKDSJHF i really appreciated you asking about it 🥺#oc: shaoyuan #i also have the team of vault hunters that sy travels with in mind! i just didn't want to make the wall even more of a wall haha #they're ocs that i haven't introduced yet!#au: borderlands #sy has a bad time in this one but also he usually has a bad time in most things so. business as usual #also he gets to be a villain in this one for real and i love that for him

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theromanticscrooge · 4 months ago

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My dad has been a computer programmer for 20+ years. I grew up listening to rants about the 'superiority' of Windows as an OS because it was corporate-backed and proprietary. Supposedly, proprietary means there's a stronger series of checks and balances for how the OS works because everyone working on it is getting paid vs the more community driven and volunteer based foundation behind open source (a.k.a. Linux). Dad has installed Linux on my grandpa's computer for casual use. He sees the utility of it. I think he's relaxed the hard line stance he had on it when I was younger, but I digress. He bought into Windows' propaganda. The exact propaganda that led to Windows as the default, ubiquitous OS on just about everyone's PC until more recently.

My partner (pretty much my wife but without official paperwork) is an active coder and HUGE proponent of open source everything. They convinced me to switch to Linux after Windows' stunt of force updating and killing computers running anything less than the then current version 10. My partner shared some of their experiences with the early horror show Linux was. They navigate everything computer related through a freaking terminal. Thankfully, modern Linux has user friendly versions like Mint or Ubuntu. Games run more smoothly on Linux. Updates are user driven and optional. There's actually more eyeballs on tech issues with most Linux OS and related programs as well as needed bug fixes than Windows sees because of corporate mandated nonsense.

I'm especially happy to see fellow Sims 2 players switching to Linux to get away from graphic glitches like the infamous pink soup! Yes! You guys get to experience what I've enjoyed for the past two years because I have a tech savvy partner so knowledgeable about this shit and willing to help me get my precious game up and running.

Its just so damn funny to me. I can point at OS preference to highlight some of the worldview and philosophy differences between my dad and my partner.

That's...a big part of why I was so hellbent on writing tech illiterate Professor Venomous or even play with ideas like 'Boxman uses an open-source OS for all of his tech.' It's an excuse to poke fun at some of this shit as an average tech user who's lived with different garden varieties of computer nerd most of my life. Plus, it fits when the actual cartoon went out of its way to make a pro-coding and pro-open source episode with "Dendy's Power."

#rambles #personal

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rydrake6 · 1 year ago

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I'm setting limits for how many youtube videos I watch in a day because I spend a disturbing amount of time watching stuff.

You never really realize how dependant you are on something until you decide to cut back on it. I'm trying to cut back on the time I spend on youtube by limiting the amount of videos I'm allowed to watch in a day, and I'm so freaking bored now that I've exhausted the limit. Like, what else is there to do in the dead of night if not watch video after video? I know it's for the best though. The first limit I set was 64 videos a day. I watched like, up to 57 or so videos. But it really put into perspective just how much time I've been spending every day just watching youtube videos. Like, if I say my average amount of youtube videos I watch in a day is somewhere around 55, then that means that I watch 385 videos per week and 1,650 videos per month on average. Some of the videos are short, sure. But that's a disturbing amount of videos I watch on an estimated average. That is an unsettling amount of time I waste just watching video after video on youtube.

It really puts into perspective just how much youtube controls my life. I'm hoping that by cutting back, maybe the internet won't be such a large portion of my life. I've seen all of this stuff about how the internet used to be vs how it is today. I bet back when the internet was in it's infancy, tech addiction wasn't such a big thing. But then people started specifically engineering things like apps and social media websites specifically to be addictive.

I'm hoping that weening myself off of constant consumption can allow me to have a healthier relationship with using internet and that at some point in my day, I'll be done with it. I don't really have any other social medias that I use outside of youtube and tumblr. I've got discord, but I'm not really active on there. I made a reddit account once, but I never posted on it and if I ever feel like doing so I'm probably gonna delete it. I used to have a twitter, but it fucked up my brain chemistry so badly that I'm still dealing with some of the effects to this day(Side note: Do not make a twitter account under any circumstances. It's not worth it. Especially post Elon Musk buying it). And I don't think I'd ever consider getting a tiktok, instagram, or any other type of social media. So Youtube's really the main, if not the only, source of this.

I'm also hoping that less time spent doom scrolling will help me to work on other stuff I want to/have to work on. I've got game dev goals for this year that I've gotta work on and I want to try my best to get as close to meeting them as I can before the year ends. Also, I haven't really been talking about it too much lately, but I've got a show I'm working on that I think I can actually make. I'm not gonna reveal too much about it though, but I've already composed an opening theme and made a reference sheet for one of the characters. I'm a bit hesitant to announce something like that though because 1, I'm afraid I might lose interest like all the other times I've announced that I'm gonna make a thing, and 2, it's still in the very early stages of development. Somewhere along the line I kind of realized that I need to start small before I go for the big projects.

Anyways though, my point is that less time watching absurd amounts of youtube videos = more time for creativity. If anyone else wants to try this, all you have to do is pick a number that you think is close or somewhat less than the amount of videos you watch. If it feels like it's regular for you, then at the end of the day, reduce the limit. It's also important that you keep count of how many videos you watch and stop watching when you've reached the limit. (I keep count using tally marks on a whiteboard, but you could use anything that works.)

It's normal to feel a bit of discomfort after reaching your limit, your brain is addicted to the endless flow of dopamine and once you stop, it's going to be like "Hey where's my dopamine?" You're probably also gonna feel the urge to watch another video and go past your limit. Try to resist that urge.

After you've reached your daily limit, don't watch any more videos unless you have to watch them to do something. Like for example, tutorials are fine so long as you're going along with them and doing the thing the tutorial is teaching you how to do. If you have to watch a video for school or something, then that's also fine. It's okay to make exceptions that don't count, but make sure that those exceptions are reasonable. I'd recommend that videos that were sent to you by friends or family, tutorials, or music are ones that you don't have to mark down. You can set your own rules, but try not to make it so that you're just watching tutorial after tutorial. Like, if you've reached the daily limit and you're watching a baking tutorial, bake the thing along with it. I've been rambling so I'm just gonna assume that you get the point by now.

I do this with Youtube, but you can probably try it for other social medias as well to break your doom scrolling cycle. Like, limit the number of posts you scroll past on tiktok or twitter or something. Basically just make rules for yourself that restrict your time on the apps. It's not gonna feel good, it'll probably be stressful, but it's worth it.

#youtube #social media #doomscrolling #social media addiction #twitter #tiktok #instagram #do you consume a concerning amount of content?#Well then restrict yourself in the walls of cthulhu!#Yeah #idk about the last few tags either #I need to go to bed #I'm writing this at 11 at night

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silentstaresfanficandfanart · 6 months ago

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I can confirm this is such a thing

now that I'm an adult the best advice my moms boyfriend ever gave me was

"make something to look forward to every day, every week, every month, every year" one thing for each thing little things and big things my big year happy thing will be getting to be with my boyfriend for new years and experiencing my very first romance stuff with him : ) its so exciting and cool! My monthly stuff tends to be a fun project Im loving like writing a book, (like right now ) or making games, or otherwise having a BIG large scale project i'm working on , this sometimes goes on for months but its a HUGE source of happiness for me, this can also be visiting af riend or loved one or going to a fair of some sort!

my weekly big happy is usually going out for dinner or to a cool store or making dinner with my mom or otherwise doing something cool like that! Or doing a smaller scale craft, like I made a little top hat bag out of eva foam!

Finally my small scale things are usually small art projects, video games, watching LONG FORM content like an anime or a movie or things like that.

I think a lot of peoples issue when it comes to technology addiction also partially come from trying to feed a brain thats incredibly bored that just doesnt have something fun and stimulating going on, It offers a level of happiness thats so minor that most people wouldn't consider watching a youtube video a special treat, unless its something really specific.

(example: charlie the unicorn vs say, a tiktok compiltion, you're not going to remember that tiktok compilation years later, BUT almost everyone who's my age remembers charlie the unicorn, I'd consider the amazing digital circus this too, and asdf movies, those are all "long form content" in a way)

it's weird how that works and I love my tech so im not saying technology bad lol, just that like,I'm feeling so much better mentally now that I'm specifically searching for things Im looking for, avoiding short form content where I can, and making mindful choices about what i watch. I'd 100% consider watching an indie animated show mindful watching, I mean whoa just look at the artistic magnificence that is lackadaisy!? I'll never stop replaying that opening sequence in the first episode!

let's face it, it's NOT fun to scroll through tumblr all day finding 50 posts that really suck and one or two that are somewhat entertaining, and algorythms specifically are designed on most websites to keep you JUST bored enough and entertained enough that you keep going and keep going as long as possible and never are quite happy. Make at least one special thing for yourselves, it makes a HUGE difference, and remember to actively chose to have fun and do silly things sometimes, you're your own zookeeper, after all!

what they dont tell you about adulthood is that it’s startlingly easy to go long periods of time without having any fun at all not even a little bit. btw this causes ur brain to try to kill you with knives and hammers.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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"Open" "AI" isn’t

Tomorrow (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

The crybabies who freak out about The Communist Manifesto appearing on university curriculum clearly never read it – chapter one is basically a long hymn to capitalism's flexibility and inventiveness, its ability to change form and adapt itself to everything the world throws at it and come out on top:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007

Today, leftists signal this protean capacity of capital with the -washing suffix: greenwashing, genderwashing, queerwashing, wokewashing – all the ways capital cloaks itself in liberatory, progressive values, while still serving as a force for extraction, exploitation, and political corruption.

A smart capitalist is someone who, sensing the outrage at a world run by 150 old white guys in boardrooms, proposes replacing half of them with women, queers, and people of color. This is a superficial maneuver, sure, but it's an incredibly effective one.

In "Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI," a new working paper, Meredith Whittaker, David Gray Widder and Sarah B Myers document a new kind of -washing: openwashing:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807

Openwashing is the trick that large "AI" companies use to evade regulation and neutralizing critics, by casting themselves as forces of ethical capitalism, committed to the virtue of openness. No one should be surprised to learn that the products of the "open" wing of an industry whose products are neither "artificial," nor "intelligent," are also not "open." Every word AI huxters say is a lie; including "and," and "the."

So what work does the "open" in "open AI" do? "Open" here is supposed to invoke the "open" in "open source," a movement that emphasizes a software development methodology that promotes code transparency, reusability and extensibility, which are three important virtues.

But "open source" itself is an offshoot of a more foundational movement, the Free Software movement, whose goal is to promote freedom, and whose method is openness. The point of software freedom was technological self-determination, the right of technology users to decide not just what their technology does, but who it does it to and who it does it for:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The open source split from free software was ostensibly driven by the need to reassure investors and businesspeople so they would join the movement. The "free" in free software is (deliberately) ambiguous, a bit of wordplay that sometimes misleads people into thinking it means "Free as in Beer" when really it means "Free as in Speech" (in Romance languages, these distinctions are captured by translating "free" as "libre" rather than "gratis").

The idea behind open source was to rebrand free software in a less ambiguous – and more instrumental – package that stressed cost-savings and software quality, as well as "ecosystem benefits" from a co-operative form of development that recruited tinkerers, independents, and rivals to contribute to a robust infrastructural commons.

But "open" doesn't merely resolve the linguistic ambiguity of libre vs gratis – it does so by removing the "liberty" from "libre," the "freedom" from "free." "Open" changes the pole-star that movement participants follow as they set their course. Rather than asking "Which course of action makes us more free?" they ask, "Which course of action makes our software better?"

Thus, by dribs and drabs, the freedom leeches out of openness. Today's tech giants have mobilized "open" to create a two-tier system: the largest tech firms enjoy broad freedom themselves – they alone get to decide how their software stack is configured. But for all of us who rely on that (increasingly unavoidable) software stack, all we have is "open": the ability to peer inside that software and see how it works, and perhaps suggest improvements to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBknF2yUZZ8

In the Big Tech internet, it's freedom for them, openness for us. "Openness" – transparency, reusability and extensibility – is valuable, but it shouldn't be mistaken for technological self-determination. As the tech sector becomes ever-more concentrated, the limits of openness become more apparent.

But even by those standards, the openness of "open AI" is thin gruel indeed (that goes triple for the company that calls itself "OpenAI," which is a particularly egregious openwasher).

The paper's authors start by suggesting that the "open" in "open AI" is meant to imply that an "open AI" can be scratch-built by competitors (or even hobbyists), but that this isn't true. Not only is the material that "open AI" companies publish insufficient for reproducing their products, even if those gaps were plugged, the resource burden required to do so is so intense that only the largest companies could do so.

Beyond this, the "open" parts of "open AI" are insufficient for achieving the other claimed benefits of "open AI": they don't promote auditing, or safety, or competition. Indeed, they often cut against these goals.

"Open AI" is a wordgame that exploits the malleability of "open," but also the ambiguity of the term "AI": "a grab bag of approaches, not… a technical term of art, but more … marketing and a signifier of aspirations." Hitching this vague term to "open" creates all kinds of bait-and-switch opportunities.

That's how you get Meta claiming that LLaMa2 is "open source," despite being licensed in a way that is absolutely incompatible with any widely accepted definition of the term:

https://blog.opensource.org/metas-llama-2-license-is-not-open-source/

LLaMa-2 is a particularly egregious openwashing example, but there are plenty of other ways that "open" is misleadingly applied to AI: sometimes it means you can see the source code, sometimes that you can see the training data, and sometimes that you can tune a model, all to different degrees, alone and in combination.

But even the most "open" systems can't be independently replicated, due to raw computing requirements. This isn't the fault of the AI industry – the computational intensity is a fact, not a choice – but when the AI industry claims that "open" will "democratize" AI, they are hiding the ball. People who hear these "democratization" claims (especially policymakers) are thinking about entrepreneurial kids in garages, but unless these kids have access to multi-billion-dollar data centers, they can't be "disruptors" who topple tech giants with cool new ideas. At best, they can hope to pay rent to those giants for access to their compute grids, in order to create products and services at the margin that rely on existing products, rather than displacing them.

The "open" story, with its claims of democratization, is an especially important one in the context of regulation. In Europe, where a variety of AI regulations have been proposed, the AI industry has co-opted the open source movement's hard-won narrative battles about the harms of ill-considered regulation.

For open source (and free software) advocates, many tech regulations aimed at taming large, abusive companies – such as requirements to surveil and control users to extinguish toxic behavior – wreak collateral damage on the free, open, user-centric systems that we see as superior alternatives to Big Tech. This leads to the paradoxical effect of passing regulation to "punish" Big Tech that end up simply shaving an infinitesimal percentage off the giants' profits, while destroying the small co-ops, nonprofits and startups before they can grow to be a viable alternative.

The years-long fight to get regulators to understand this risk has been waged by principled actors working for subsistence nonprofit wages or for free, and now the AI industry is capitalizing on lawmakers' hard-won consideration for collateral damage by claiming to be "open AI" and thus vulnerable to overbroad regulation.

But the "open" projects that lawmakers have been coached to value are precious because they deliver a level playing field, competition, innovation and democratization – all things that "open AI" fails to deliver. The regulations the AI industry is fighting also don't necessarily implicate the speech implications that are core to protecting free software:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech

Just think about LLaMa-2. You can download it for free, along with the model weights it relies on – but not detailed specs for the data that was used in its training. And the source-code is licensed under a homebrewed license cooked up by Meta's lawyers, a license that only glancingly resembles anything from the Open Source Definition:

https://opensource.org/osd/

Core to Big Tech companies' "open AI" offerings are tools, like Meta's PyTorch and Google's TensorFlow. These tools are indeed "open source," licensed under real OSS terms. But they are designed and maintained by the companies that sponsor them, and optimize for the proprietary back-ends each company offers in its own cloud. When programmers train themselves to develop in these environments, they are gaining expertise in adding value to a monopolist's ecosystem, locking themselves in with their own expertise. This a classic example of software freedom for tech giants and open source for the rest of us.

One way to understand how "open" can produce a lock-in that "free" might prevent is to think of Android: Android is an open platform in the sense that its sourcecode is freely licensed, but the existence of Android doesn't make it any easier to challenge the mobile OS duopoly with a new mobile OS; nor does it make it easier to switch from Android to iOS and vice versa.

Another example: MongoDB, a free/open database tool that was adopted by Amazon, which subsequently forked the codebase and tuning it to work on their proprietary cloud infrastructure.

The value of open tooling as a stickytrap for creating a pool of developers who end up as sharecroppers who are glued to a specific company's closed infrastructure is well-understood and openly acknowledged by "open AI" companies. Zuckerberg boasts about how PyTorch ropes developers into Meta's stack, "when there are opportunities to make integrations with products, [so] it’s much easier to make sure that developers and other folks are compatible with the things that we need in the way that our systems work."

Tooling is a relatively obscure issue, primarily debated by developers. A much broader debate has raged over training data – how it is acquired, labeled, sorted and used. Many of the biggest "open AI" companies are totally opaque when it comes to training data. Google and OpenAI won't even say how many pieces of data went into their models' training – let alone which data they used.

Other "open AI" companies use publicly available datasets like the Pile and CommonCrawl. But you can't replicate their models by shoveling these datasets into an algorithm. Each one has to be groomed – labeled, sorted, de-duplicated, and otherwise filtered. Many "open" models merge these datasets with other, proprietary sets, in varying (and secret) proportions.

Quality filtering and labeling for training data is incredibly expensive and labor-intensive, and involves some of the most exploitative and traumatizing clickwork in the world, as poorly paid workers in the Global South make pennies for reviewing data that includes graphic violence, rape, and gore.

Not only is the product of this "data pipeline" kept a secret by "open" companies, the very nature of the pipeline is likewise cloaked in mystery, in order to obscure the exploitative labor relations it embodies (the joke that "AI" stands for "absent Indians" comes out of the South Asian clickwork industry).

The most common "open" in "open AI" is a model that arrives built and trained, which is "open" in the sense that end-users can "fine-tune" it – usually while running it on the manufacturer's own proprietary cloud hardware, under that company's supervision and surveillance. These tunable models are undocumented blobs, not the rigorously peer-reviewed transparent tools celebrated by the open source movement.

If "open" was a way to transform "free software" from an ethical proposition to an efficient methodology for developing high-quality software; then "open AI" is a way to transform "open source" into a rent-extracting black box.

Some "open AI" has slipped out of the corporate silo. Meta's LLaMa was leaked by early testers, republished on 4chan, and is now in the wild. Some exciting stuff has emerged from this, but despite this work happening outside of Meta's control, it is not without benefits to Meta. As an infamous leaked Google memo explains:

Paradoxically, the one clear winner in all of this is Meta. Because the leaked model was theirs, they have effectively garnered an entire planet's worth of free labor. Since most open source innovation is happening on top of their architecture, there is nothing stopping them from directly incorporating it into their products.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/leaked-google-memo-admits-defeat-by-open-source-ai/486290/

Thus, "open AI" is best understood as "as free product development" for large, well-capitalized AI companies, conducted by tinkerers who will not be able to escape these giants' proprietary compute silos and opaque training corpuses, and whose work product is guaranteed to be compatible with the giants' own systems.

The instrumental story about the virtues of "open" often invoke auditability: the fact that anyone can look at the source code makes it easier for bugs to be identified. But as open source projects have learned the hard way, the fact that anyone can audit your widely used, high-stakes code doesn't mean that anyone will.

The Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL was a wake-up call for the open source movement – a bug that endangered every secure webserver connection in the world, which had hidden in plain sight for years. The result was an admirable and successful effort to build institutions whose job it is to actually make use of open source transparency to conduct regular, deep, systemic audits.

In other words, "open" is a necessary, but insufficient, precondition for auditing. But when the "open AI" movement touts its "safety" thanks to its "auditability," it fails to describe any steps it is taking to replicate these auditing institutions – how they'll be constituted, funded and directed. The story starts and ends with "transparency" and then makes the unjustifiable leap to "safety," without any intermediate steps about how the one will turn into the other.

It's a Magic Underpants Gnome story, in other words:

Step One: Transparency

Step Two: ??

Step Three: Safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA

Meanwhile, OpenAI itself has gone on record as objecting to "burdensome mechanisms like licenses or audits" as an impediment to "innovation" – all the while arguing that these "burdensome mechanisms" should be mandatory for rival offerings that are more advanced than its own. To call this a "transparent ruse" is to do violence to good, hardworking transparent ruses all the world over:

https://openai.com/blog/governance-of-superintelligence

Some "open AI" is much more open than the industry dominating offerings. There's EleutherAI, a donor-supported nonprofit whose model comes with documentation and code, licensed Apache 2.0. There are also some smaller academic offerings: Vicuna (UCSD/CMU/Berkeley); Koala (Berkeley) and Alpaca (Stanford).

These are indeed more open (though Alpaca – which ran on a laptop – had to be withdrawn because it "hallucinated" so profusely). But to the extent that the "open AI" movement invokes (or cares about) these projects, it is in order to brandish them before hostile policymakers and say, "Won't someone please think of the academics?" These are the poster children for proposals like exempting AI from antitrust enforcement, but they're not significant players in the "open AI" industry, nor are they likely to be for so long as the largest companies are running the show:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4493900

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #llama-2 #meta #openwashing #floss #free software #open ai #open source #osi #open source initiative #osd #open source definition #code is speech

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unionsource · 2 days ago

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How to Find Wholesale Suppliers in China with the Help of a China Sourcing Agent

Finding the right suppliers in China can open up big opportunities—but also big risks. That’s where a China sourcing agent becomes crucial. In this guide, we explain when to use an agent, how to find a reliable one, and how to avoid hidden costs.

Do I Actually Need a Sourcing Agent in China?

1. Signs You Should Hire a Sourcing Agent

If your product needs certifications (like CE or FDA), or if your order exceeds $50,000, hiring a sourcing agent is a smart move. They help with supplier vetting, regulatory compliance, and on-site inspections. For example, agents can verify factory quality for items like medical devices or organic cosmetics—something hard to do remotely.

Sourcing agents also shine when tight deadlines are involved. They handle logistics and customs, helping you avoid delays during holidays like Chinese New Year.

2. When You Can Source Without an Agent

If you have a local office in China or staff fluent in Mandarin, direct sourcing may work. For simple, ready-made products (like standard USB cables) or small orders under $5,000, platforms like Alibaba or DHgate offer secure trade services. Still, an agent might help bundle shipments and reduce freight costs.

3. Sourcing Alone vs. With an Agent: Risk Comparison

Without an agent, you face a higher risk of scams and quality issues. For instance, buyers have received fake certifications or poor-quality products after skipping factory checks. Agents prevent this with supplier audits, contract enforcement, and logistics planning—saving you both time and money.

How to Find a Reliable Shipping Agent in China

1. Step-by-Step Guide to Choosing a Shipping Agent

Start by identifying your needs—whether it’s sea freight for bulk, air freight for urgent goods, or rail transport for cross-border trade. Use platforms like Freightos, Alibaba Logistics, or referrals from fellow importers.

Shortlist agents and compare service proposals. Beware of vague quotes or slow replies—these are red flags.

2. Check Licenses and Credentials

Your agent must have a valid freight forwarder license from China’s Ministry of Transport. Also, look for membership in CIFA (China International Freight Forwarders Association) as a sign of professional compliance.

3. Evaluate Communication & Capabilities

Choose agents fluent in both Mandarin and English. Test their response time with detailed inquiries. Reliable agents offer real-time tracking, case studies, and partnerships with major carriers like DHL

Who Are the Best China Sourcing Agents?

1. Choose Agents with Industry Focus

Agents with deep experience in your product category can save you thousands. For example:

Tech: Shenzhen-based agents familiar with CE/FCC requirements.

Textiles: Hangzhou or Guangzhou agents with OEKO-TEX-certified suppliers.

Machinery: Agents who understand ISO and local safety laws.

2. Ask for Real Data

Top agents share success metrics—delivery rates, savings achieved, and case studies. Avoid those who dodge questions about past performance.

Can I Buy from China Without an Agent?

Yes—but it depends.

When it’s safe: Small orders, simple products, and when you use platforms with buyer protection.

When it’s risky: High-value items, certified goods, or unfamiliar categories. Without boots on the ground, your chance of fraud or miscommunication increases.

For most growing businesses, a China sourcing agent is not just a middleman—they’re a vital partner who reduces risk, saves time, and ensures product quality. Whether you're sourcing from Yiwu Market, Shenzhen, or Guangzhou, working with the right agent can make or break your global supply chain. Contact unionsource to get started with your sourcing project.

#agent

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asapeventss · 4 days ago

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How to Choose the Right Audio Equipment for Events: A Complete Guide

Think back to a corporate seminar or even a wedding where sound was cutting in and out. Annoying right? Audio is the lifeblood of any successful event. Whether it's a business event, live concert, or special wedding, quality audio sets the tone for your guests to tune in, your speakers to engage, and the overall success of your event.

In this comprehensive guide, ASAP Events, a reliable partner in event equipment rentals in Dubai, will guide you through everything you need to know about choosing the right audio setup for your event, big or small, local or overseas.

1. Understand Your Event’s Audio Needs

Before picking up any gear, it’s essential to understand the nature of your event and the sound environment.

Event Type Matters

Different events have different audio requirements:

Corporate meetings need clear speech reinforcement.

Weddings require discreet, aesthetically pleasing audio.

Concerts need powerful sound systems with rich bass and coverage.

Outdoor events demand weather-resistant and high-output setups.

Audience Size and Venue Acoustics

The number of attendees and venue structure greatly influence your audio setup. A small conference room requires different gear compared to an open-air event.

Tip: For venues with echo or reverb issues, consider acoustic panels or cardioid speakers to minimize sound reflection.

2. Core Audio Equipment Components Explained

Getting the right mix of components is key to delivering crystal-clear audio.

Microphones

Handheld Mics – Great for speeches, Q&A sessions, and performers.

Lavalier Mics – Ideal for speakers and presenters who need to move freely.

Headset Mics – Perfect for fitness events or stage productions.

Speakers

Powered Speakers – Easy to set up, ideal for small to medium events.

Line Array Speakers – High-output speakers used in large venues for concerts.

Subwoofers – Add depth for music-heavy events or performances.

Mixers and Amplifiers

Mixers combine audio from multiple sources like mics, instruments, and laptops.

Amplifiers boost sound to levels that can fill your space without distortion.

Cables and Accessories

Never overlook the little things:

XLR and TRS Cables for secure, balanced connections

Stands, clamps, and racks for a stable, professional setup

Adapters and surge protectors to ensure reliability

3. Choosing the Right Setup Based on Event Type

When selecting audio equipment, your event type plays a critical role. Here's how to match your setup to your event:

Corporate Seminar: Use two wireless lavalier microphones for speakers, a compact PA system for sound projection, and a small mixer to manage audio input levels. This ensures clear, professional speech delivery.

Wedding Ceremony: Opt for discreet speakers that blend into the decor, a lavalier microphone for the officiant, and a playback system for ceremony music. This setup provides a romantic and interruption-free audio experience.

Conference or Expo: A podium microphone is ideal for keynote speakers, combined with a wireless handheld mic for audience interaction. Use multi-zone speakers to distribute sound evenly across large or partitioned areas.

Live Music Event: Equip the stage with dynamic microphones for performers, subwoofers to enhance bass, full-range speakers for audience coverage, and a multi-channel mixing console to control complex audio sources.

4. DIY vs. Professional Audio Setup

Thinking of setting it up yourself? Here's what to consider:

DIY Audio Rental

Cost-effective for small events

Works for tech-savvy users

When to Go Pro

Large audience or complex venue

Multiple audio sources

Live music or multi-day events

ASAP Events offers complete setup and on-site technical support, ensuring zero sound hiccups and professional-grade results.

5. Tips to Avoid Common Audio Pitfalls

Even with the best gear, mistakes can happen. Avoid these common issues:

Feedback: Caused by poor mic positioning. Use directional mics and avoid pointing them at speakers.

Dead Zones: Make sure speakers are angled to cover the entire venue.

Interference: Choose wireless mics with stable frequency ranges.

No Sound Check: Always test the full setup before the event starts.

6. Why Choose ASAP Events for Audio Equipment Rentals

With years of experience and a reputation for reliability, ASAP Events is your one-stop destination for event audio rentals in Dubai.

Here’s why our clients trust us:

Wide Range of Equipment – From handheld mics to full concert setups

Professional Consultation – We help you choose the right setup based on your needs

On-Site Support – Experienced technicians for seamless execution

Affordable Packages – Custom rental solutions for every budget

Local Expertise – We understand Dubai venues and local regulations

Need a tailored audio setup for your event? Contact ASAP Events today and we’ll help you sound your best.

Conclusion

High quality audio can elevate a good event into a memorable one. It doesn’t matter if you are laser focused on a corporate event or just a kick back outdoor event, choosing audio equipment of adequate quality is of the utmost importance. Use this guide to help you make your decisions - and keep in mind that with ASAP Events, we can provide you with professional quality audio equipment at the end of the line.

Ready to level up your event sound? Contact ASAP Events now for expert audio rental services in Dubai.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What audio equipment is essential for a small event?

For small events, a basic PA system with 1–2 wireless microphones and powered speakers is usually sufficient.

2. How can I reduce feedback during a live speech?

Keep microphones away from speakers, use cardioid mics, and ensure the mixer gain is set appropriately.

3. Can I rent a full sound system for an outdoor wedding?

Yes! ASAP Events offers outdoor-ready speakers, wireless mics, and even generators if needed.

4. Does ASAP Events offer setup and technical support?

Absolutely. Our team handles delivery, setup, testing, and on-site troubleshooting.

5. What’s the cost of renting audio equipment in Dubai?

Pricing varies based on the event size and equipment needed. Contact ASAP Events for a free quote.

#audio setup #audio setup for your event #asap events #event services in dubai

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cdrecre · 5 days ago

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Your Next Business Move: Top Commercial Space for Rent in Tampa

Sure, the beaches are stunning and the weather’s nothing short of perfect, but Tampa offers more than postcard-worthy views. Nestled on Florida’s sun-drenched Gulf Coast, Tampa isn’t just a vacation hot spot. It has become one of the most dynamic cities for entrepreneurs, retail brands, and startups seeking a fresh place to establish roots and grow.

Whether you're a savvy retailer, an up-and-coming wellness brand, or a seasoned pro looking to tap into new markets, commercial space for rent in Tampa is brimming with opportunity.

Why Tampa? Why Now?

Sun, Sales, and Serious Growth

Tampa’s not just about palm trees and waterfront views. It’s a thriving business ecosystem with a steady influx of residents, tourists, and tech-minded professionals. In fact, the city’s been racking up accolades for its business-friendly environment, low taxes, and consistent foot traffic in both suburban and downtown retail zones.

With a booming population and ongoing development, there’s a golden window right now to snag Tampa retail space for rent before prices skyrocket.

The Right Location Can Make or Break You

Downtown Tampa: Hustle and Flow

If you’re after that fast-paced, high-visibility buzz, Downtown Tampa delivers. Think high-rise offices, a constant stream of foot traffic, and a mix of tourists and locals. It’s ideal for boutiques, coffee shops, wellness studios, and professional service offices.

Ybor City: Vintage Charm with Modern Energy

Looking to mix authenticity with foot traffic? This historic district is known for its cobblestone streets and eclectic culture. Ybor’s creative energy is perfect for art galleries, unique retailers, craft cocktail lounges, and indie bookstores.

Westshore: Corporate Meets Convenience

Westshore is Tampa’s go-to for commercial leasing if you want proximity to the airport, hotels, and a highly professional crowd. It’s all about location—and this one screams “business ready.”

What to Look for in Commercial Space

Don’t Just Sign—Strategize

Before diving headfirst into a lease, think big picture. What kind of layout fits your brand? Is visibility a top priority? Will you need warehouse space, customer parking, or a flexible floor plan?

Here’s your quick checklist:

Zoning: Make sure it’s aligned with your business type.

Foot traffic: Especially for retail, restaurants, or service-based businesses.

Accessibility: Near major roads, public transport, and parking.

Lease flexibility: Short-term vs. long-term, renewals, upgrades.

Hot Listings You Can’t Ignore

Prime Spaces Are Moving Fast

From ultra-modern storefronts in Channel side to cozy converted bungalows in Seminole Heights, Tampa’s commercial properties are diverse—and in demand. There’s a little something for every budget, from sleek retail spaces under 1,000 sq. ft. to large, open-concept spaces perfect for showrooms, salons, or collaborative coworking hubs.

And let’s be real—if you find a space that checks all your boxes, don’t sleep on it. Tampa’s leasing scene is competitive, and great spaces don’t stay available for long.

Final Thoughts: Your Business Belongs in Tampa

When it comes to making your next bold business move, commercial space for rent in Tampa offers a rare mix of sunshine, strategy, and scalability. With strong economic momentum, diverse neighborhoods, and ample options in Tampa retail space for rent, it’s a no-brainer for entrepreneurs ready to level up.

So, go ahead—plant your flag in a city where innovation meets opportunity. Tampa’s got the space. Now it’s your turn to bring the vision.

Source: https://cdrecre.com/commercial-space/your-next-business-move-top-commercial-space-for-rent-in-tampa/

#Tampa Commercial Property

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uk-today · 9 days ago

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Farhan Naqvi iLearningEngines and the Real AI Dilemma: Who Governs the Machines?

We’ve officially entered an age where artificial intelligence isn’t just a tool—it’s a force, and voices like Farhan Naqvi iLearningEngines are calling attention to the elephant in the server room: AI is evolving faster than we can regulate it.

Naqvi, known for his strategic leadership in AI innovation, recently raised the alarm on how powerful AI models—think GPT, LLaMA, and beyond—are now shaping everything from how wars are fought to how students learn in remote villages. But here’s the catch: no one’s really in charge.

The Rise of Unchecked Intelligence

We’ve moved way past the days when AI just meant chatbots or recommendation engines. Now, generative models write political speeches, autonomous drones execute combat missions, and predictive systems are deciding who gets bail—or who gets banned.

Naqvi describes this as the era of “unchecked intelligence.” It’s not a sci-fi warning—it’s our current reality. The people building the most advanced AI are often not the ones using it, and certainly not the ones setting limits on it.

Why Regulation Keeps Failing

You’d think governments would jump on this, right? Nope. According to Naqvi, most laws still treat AI like it’s 2005. They rely on tools like data privacy rules or consumer rights frameworks that weren’t built to manage systems that update themselves and learn on the fly.

Plus, AI doesn’t care about borders. An algorithm trained in California could affect courts in Brazil, hiring in India, or media in Germany—all without local oversight.

A World Split by AI Ethics

Farhan Naqvi points out that the world is already dividing into three competing AI ideologies:

America’s “let it innovate” model (minimal federal laws, corporate self-regulation)

Europe’s “play it safe” strategy (AI Act, strict privacy-first ethics)

China’s “AI for state power” game plan (full top-down control with ideology baked in)

They’re all fundamentally different—and totally incompatible. Which means AI might end up being regulated like the internet: fragmented, politicized, and potentially weaponized.

Ethics vs. Power: The Silent Battle

Even more worrying? AI reflects the biases of its creators—and those creators are often big tech firms or governments. AI already reproduces racial bias in law enforcement, gender bias in hiring, and economic bias in credit scoring. It’s not just about flawed code. It’s about who holds the keys to intelligence.

Naqvi asks the hard questions: Who decides what’s ethical? Who audits the models? Who pays when things go wrong?

Can the World Unite on AI Rules?

There’s growing talk about a global AI treaty—like a “Digital Geneva Convention.” The UN, G7, and OECD are in early discussions. But there’s no real enforcement yet. What Naqvi proposes is a multilateral system with audits, risk thresholds, and cross-border accountability.

Kind of like how we manage nuclear weapons… except this time the bomb can also tweet, write essays, and optimize your finances.

Tech Giants: The Accidental Gatekeepers

Until real laws catch up, AI companies are the only gatekeepers. Some are trying—setting up ethics teams, delaying model releases, running safety trials. But Naqvi isn’t convinced this will be enough. Many of these ethics teams have already been cut in favor of profits.

And with open-source AI exploding, the risks are multiplying. Powerful models are being dumped online with zero oversight, accelerating what some call the open-weight arms race.

Final Thought: It's Not Just About Smarter AI — It's About Wiser Governance

Farhan Naqvi of iLearningEngines says it best: “We must govern intelligence before it governs us.” That’s the truth. AI will only get more powerful. But whether it empowers or exploits depends on what rules we set—and who gets to set them.

The future won’t be decided just by tech breakthroughs. It will be shaped by the people bold enough to demand ethical, transparent, and global governance.

#FarhanNaqvi #iLearningEngines #AIethics #AIGovernance #GenerativeAI #Farhan Naqvi iLearningEngines #Sayyed iLearningengines

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artisans-digital · 19 days ago

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What Does a Fit-Out Company Actually Do? A Beginner’s Guide for Qatar Property Owners

You’ve just signed the papers. That commercial unit in Lusail? It’s yours now. Empty. Concrete walls. Dusty floors. Nothing but potential.

You walk through it once. Twice. Still feels cold. Hollow. You’ve got the vision. But how do you bring it to life?

That’s where a fit out company in Qatar steps in. Quietly. Confidently. Turning the blank canvas into something people remember.

Let’s be honest — most property owners don’t really know what a fit-out company does until they need one. But once you know, you’ll wonder how anyone does without it.

First off — What Exactly Is a Fit-Out?

So here’s the deal. When you buy a property — whether it’s commercial, retail, or residential — you usually get what’s called a shell and core. Think walls, floors (maybe), and the bare minimum utilities. Basically, it’s the skeleton.

Now… how do you add the heartbeat? That’s fit-out work.

A fit-out company takes that cold, unfinished space and turns it into a fully functional, tailored interior. One that actually works for you.

“Design is the whisper of intention. Fit-out is the voice that makes it speak.” — Khalid R., Interior Specialist, Doha

Shell and Core vs Fit-Out — A Quick Reality Check

Here’s how it breaks down:

TermWhat You GetShell & CoreBare walls, windows, rough floors, plumbing points maybe. No soul.Fit-OutCeilings. Lighting. Flooring. Air conditioning. Wall finishes. Furniture. Basically — everything else.

It’s like buying a new phone. Shell and core is the phone with no apps, no sim, not even charged. Fit-out? That’s setting it up, customizing it, adding your wallpaper and contacts. Making it yours.

Real Talk: What Does a Fit-Out Company in Qatar Actually Do?

In simple words? They bring your space to life.

But let’s not be too vague. Here’s what a proper fit-out team usually handles:

Planning & Design

They sit with you. Understand your vision. Maybe you want something minimal. Or bold. Or warm. Whatever your vibe is, they shape it into floorplans, 3D views, mood boards.

Civil & MEP Works

MEP stands for Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing. Essential stuff. They install lighting, sockets, HVAC systems, bathroom fittings — everything that makes a place usable.

Partitions & Ceilings

Drywalls, glass partitions, wooden dividers. Want an open office but with a quiet meeting pod? Done. Need a false ceiling with LED strips? On it.

Finishes & Flooring

From marble to vinyl, wood to carpet. They help pick what fits your use — and your budget.

Furniture & Fixtures

Custom joinery. Desks. Reception counters. They either build it or source it. No more guessing games.

Project Management

Coordination. Timelines. Budget tracking. Dealing with vendors and approvals. You relax — they hustle.

Qatar-Specific? Oh Yes. Here’s What Matters Locally

In Doha or anywhere in Qatar, it’s not just about pretty interiors. Regulations matter. Deadlines are tight. And approvals? A whole other ball game.

A good fit out company in Qatar helps with:

Civil Defense approvals

Municipality documentation

Ashghal coordination

Fire safety compliance

Sustainability standards (Qatar loves green builds)

“I tried managing my retail fit-out alone. Big mistake,” shares Sara K., a café owner in Al Sadd. “One permit delayed the launch by a month. Hired a local fit-out company later. Night and day difference.”

Who Actually Needs a Fit-Out Company?

You might think, “I’ll just hire a contractor and tell them what to do.”

Sure. But unless you enjoy endless phone calls, coordination headaches, and rework — it’s not worth it.

Here’s who usually calls in the pros:

New café or restaurant owners

Office tenants in West Bay or Lusail

Retail stores in malls (Mall of Qatar, Doha Festival City)

Homeowners upgrading their interiors

Clinics, salons, gyms — you name it

Common Fit-Out Scenarios in Qatar: Some Real Ones

Tech Startup Office in Lusail

Zaid and his team got a 1500 sq ft space. Looked nice on paper. But no AC ducts. No light fittings. Their fit-out team came in, planned open seating, a chill zone with bean bags, added branding elements — and delivered it in six weeks. Start to finish.

Fashion Boutique in The Pearl

A high-end women’s brand needed elegance. Fast. They got a marble entrance, soft lighting, fitting rooms with full-length mirrors, and a ceiling-mounted scent diffuser. Pure class.

FAQ: New to Fit-Out? We Got You.

How long does a fit-out take in Qatar?

It depends. A small café? Maybe 4–6 weeks. A large office? Could take 2–3 months. Approvals take time. Plan ahead.

Can I just get design help and do the rest myself?

You could. But often, the design firm and execution team working together is smoother. Less drama.

Is fit-out only for commercial spaces?

Nope. Homeowners often do partial or full fit-outs too — especially in high-end apartments or villas.

What’s the cost?

Honestly, it varies. You’ll need a site visit and quote. But rough estimate? QAR 350–800/sqm, depending on finishes.

Final Word: Empty Spaces Don’t Tell Stories

You’ve got the space. You’ve got the dream. But until someone brings in the details — the lighting, the textures, the flow — it’s just… space.

A good fit out company in Qatar does more than construction. They translate your idea into architecture. Into warmth. Function. Impact.

So whether you’re opening a luxury spa or launching a co-working space, don’t go solo. Bring in the pros. Let them build your vision. Brick by brick. Wire by wire. Because sometimes? What’s between the walls is what really matters.

“Form meets feeling — that’s the power of fit-out.”

Ready to bring your property to life? We’d love to be the team that gets you from blueprint to brilliance. Let’s talk.

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