#Model-Driven Apps

[sridigitalmarketingworld]

[ritikay]

Model-Driven vs. Canvas Apps in Dynamics 365: Choosing the Right Approach 

In the evolving world of Microsoft Dynamics 365, the choice between Model-Driven Apps and Canvas Apps plays a crucial role in shaping an organization's digital transformation strategy. Each app type offers unique customization capabilities, integration features, and user experiences, making it essential to understand their differences before implementation. 

Model-Driven Apps: Structured & Data-Centric 

🔹 Data-Centric Design – Built around Common Data Service (CDS), Model-Driven Apps offer a structured UI based on entities, attributes, and relationships.  🔹 Metadata-Driven Customization – Developers can rapidly configure forms, views, and workflows, ensuring a consistent business process flow.  🔹 Seamless Integration – These apps integrate effortlessly with Dynamics 365 modules, APIs, and external systems, enabling smooth workflow automation. 

💡 Use Cases:  ✅ Sales Management – Streamline lead tracking, opportunity management, and revenue forecasting.  ✅ Customer Service – Empower support teams with structured case management, SLA adherence, and service efficiency. 

Canvas Apps: Flexibility & Visual Customization 

🔹 Visual Design Paradigm – Create pixel-perfect UI with a drag-and-drop editor, making app development more user-friendly.  🔹 Formula-Based Logic �� Use Power Apps formulas to implement data processing, validation, and automation without extensive coding.  🔹 Device Independence – Build responsive apps for different devices using adaptive layouts and dynamic controls. 

💡 Use Cases:  ✅ Expense Reporting – Automate receipt scanning, AI-based data extraction, and submission workflows.  ✅ Field Service Operations – Provide mobile access to work orders, customer details, and geolocation-based services. 

[10001gecs]

i think there’s something to be said about how the gig economy makes things ostensibly more convenient but also worse. and not just like, doordash guys take too long to get to you so your food is cold. but because the business model is centered around a million people doing work without any familiarity with what theyre doing and decentralized from the businesses they’re working with, you get service that’s being reinvented from scratch every time it’s purchased.

it happens all the time that I’ll order an uber and when they pick me up, they’ll just stop in the middle of the street with their hazards on, making me dodge traffic to get to them and pissing off the cars around them. and then I’ll get in the car and chat with the driver and find out they’re actually from two counties over and they’ve never driven here before, so they don’t know where parking is or whether they’re heading to a wide open parking lot or a busy downtown. and then you start to realize that they’re not being a dick, they’re just given as little information as possible every time they pick up a ride so they have to just guess how and where to pick up a passenger. and since they’re paid by ride, they’re incentivized to pick you up as fast as possible. and all the people who cared about finding a safe place to pick you up quit the app or stopped doing that so all you’re left with is the pissed off cockroach motherfuckers.

and then you see that this happens with every fucking app. doordash sucks because you pay 8 million dollars for delivery and you still have to hike half a mile to find the guy because he got lost in your apartment complex. Instacart sucks because the guy picking your groceries couldn’t care less about getting ripe fruit and replaces your heavy cream with shaving cream. customer support for all this sucks because the guy helping you can’t do anything more than offer you $5 credit, beg for your forgiveness, and hope you get out of the queue fast enough for him to go to the bathroom. because all of them aren’t given enough time to do a good job or enough money to care.

and every time a gig worker makes the experience suck for you, it’s a rational decision. they’re evaluating the money they’re being paid and if it’s worth getting paid less to do a good job, and correctly deciding that it isn’t. so you can’t even get mad, because you’d do it too. and so the company manages to pass on its race to the bottom to its lowest-paid employees.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tesla accused of hacking odometers to weasel out of warranty repairs

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me at NEW ZEALAND'S UNITY BOOKS in AUCKLAND on May 2, and in WELLINGTON on May 3. More tour dates (Pittsburgh, PDX, London, Manchester) here.

A lawsuit filed in February accuses Tesla of remotely altering odometer values on failure-prone cars, in a bid to push these lemons beyond the 50,000 mile warranty limit:

https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-accused-of-using-sneaky-tactic-to-dodge-car-repairs

The suit was filed by a California driver who bought a used Tesla with 36,772 miles on it. The car's suspension kept failing, necessitating multiple servicings, and that was when the plaintiff noticed that the odometer readings for his identical daily drive were going up by ever-larger increments. This wasn't exactly subtle: he was driving 20 miles per day, but the odometer was clocking 72.35 miles/day. Still, how many of us monitor our daily odometer readings?

In short order, his car's odometer had rolled over the 50k mark and Tesla informed him that they would no longer perform warranty service on his lemon. Right after this happened, the new mileage clocked by his odometer returned to normal. This isn't the only Tesla owner who's noticed this behavior: Tesla subreddits are full of similar complaints:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/comments/1ca92nk/is_tesla_inflating_odometer_to_show_more_range/

This isn't Tesla's first dieselgate scandal. In the summer of 2023, the company was caught lying to drivers about its cars' range:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

Drivers noticed that they were getting far fewer miles out of their batteries than Tesla had advertised. Naturally, they contacted the company for service on their faulty cars. Tesla then set up an entire fake service operation in Nevada that these calls would be diverted to, called the "diversion team." Drivers with range complaints were put through to the "diverters" who would claim to run "remote diagnostics" on their cars and then assure them the cars were fine. They even installed a special xylophone in the diversion team office that diverters would ring every time they successfully deceived a driver.

These customers were then put in an invisible Tesla service jail. Their Tesla apps were silently altered so that they could no longer book service for their cars for any reason – instead, they'd have to leave a message and wait several days for a callback. The diversion center racked up 2,000 calls/week and diverters were under strict instructions to keep calls under five minutes. Eventually, these diverters were told that they should stop actually performing remote diagnostics on the cars of callers – instead, they'd just pretend to have run the diagnostics and claim no problems were found (so if your car had a potentially dangerous fault, they would falsely claim that it was safe to drive).

Most modern cars have some kind of internet connection, but Tesla goes much further. By design, its cars receive "over-the-air" updates, including updates that are adverse to drivers' interests. For example, if you stop paying the monthly subscription fee that entitles you to use your battery's whole charge, Tesla will send a wireless internet command to your car to restrict your driving to only half of your battery's charge.

This means that your Tesla is designed to follow instructions that you don't want it to follow, and, by design, those instructions can fundamentally alter your car's operating characteristics. For example, if you miss a payment on your Tesla, it can lock its doors and immobilize itself, then, when the repo man arrives, it will honk its horn, flash its lights, back out of its parking spot, and unlock itself so that it can be driven away:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

Some of the ways that your Tesla can be wirelessly downgraded (like disabling your battery) are disclosed at the time of purchase. Others (like locking you out and summoning a repo man) are secret. But whether disclosed or secret, both kinds of downgrade depend on the genuinely bizarre idea that a computer that you own, that is in your possession, can be relied upon to follow orders from the internet even when you don't want it to. This is weird enough when we're talking about a set-top box that won't let you record a TV show – but when we're talking about a computer that you put your body into and race down the road at 80mph inside of, it's frankly terrifying.

Obviously, most people would prefer to have the final say over how their computers work. I mean, maybe you trust the manufacturer's instructions and give your computer blanket permission to obey them, but if the manufacturer (or a hacker pretending to be the manufacturer, or a government who is issuing orders to the manufacturer) starts to do things that are harmful to you (or just piss you off), you want to be able to say to your computer, "OK, from now on, you take orders from me, not them."

In a state of nature, this is how computers work. To make a computer ignore its owner in favor of internet randos, the manufacturer has to build in a bunch of software countermeasures to stop you from reconfiguring or installing software of your choosing on it. And sure, that software might be able to withstand the attempts of normies like you and me to bypass it, but given that we'd all rather have the final say over how our computers work, someone is gonna figure out how to get around that software. I mean, show me a 10-foot fence and I'll show you an 11-foot ladder, right?

To stop that from happening, Congress passed the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Despite the word "copyright" appearing in the name of the law, it's not really about defending copyright, it's about defending business models. Under Section 1201 of the DMCA, helping someone bypass a software lock is a felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine (for a first offense). That's true whether or not any copyright infringement takes place.

So if you want to modify your Tesla – say, to prevent the company from cheating your odometer – you have to get around a software lock, and that's a felony. Indeed, if any manufacturer puts a software lock on its product, then any changes that require disabling or bypassing that lock become illegal. That's why you can't just buy reliable third-party printer ink – reverse-engineering the "is this an original HP ink cartridge?" program is a literal crime, even though using non-HP ink in your printer is absolutely not a copyright violation. Jay Freeman calls this effect "felony contempt of business model."

Thus we arrive at this juncture, where every time you use a product or device or service, it might behave in a way that is totally unlike the last time you used it. This is true whether you own, lease or merely interact with a product. The changes can be obvious, or they can be subtle to the point of invisibility. And while manufacturers can confine their "updates" to things that make the product better (for example, patching security vulnerabilities), there's nothing to stop them from using this uninspectable, non-countermandable veto over your devices' functionality to do things that harm you – like fucking with your odometer.

Or, you know, bricking your car. The defunct EV maker Fisker – who boasted that it made "software-based cars" – went bankrupt last year and bricked the entire fleet of unsold cars:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/10/software-based-car/#based

I call this ability to modify the underlying functionality of a product or service for every user, every time they use it, "twiddling," and it's a major contributor to enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Enshittification's observable symptoms follow a predictable pattern: first, a company makes things good for its users, while finding ways to lock them in. Then, once it knows the users can't easily leave, the company makes things worse for end-users in order to deliver value to business customers. Once these businesses are locked in, the company siphons value away from them, too, until the product or service is a pile of shit, that we still can't leave:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#franklinite

Twiddling is key to enshittification: it's the method by which value is shifted from end-users to business customers, and from business customers to the platform. Twiddling is the "switch" in enshittification's series of minute, continuous bait-and-switches. The fact that DMCA 1201 makes it a crime to investigate systems with digital locks makes the modern computerized device a twiddler's playground. Sure, a driver might claim that their odometer is showing bad readings, but they can't dump their car's software and identify the code that is changing the odometer.

This is what I mean by "demon-haunted computers": a computer is "demon-haunted" if it is designed to detect when it is under scrutiny, and, when it senses a hostile observer, it changes its behavior to the innocuous, publicly claimed factory defaults:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/18/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

But as soon as the observer goes away, the computer returns to its nefarious ways. This is exactly what happened with Dieselgate, when VW used software that detected the test-suite run by government emissions inspectors, and changed the engine's characteristics when it was under their observation. But once the car was back on the road, it once again began emitting toxic gas at levels that killed killed dozens of people and sickened thousands more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/upshot/how-many-deaths-did-volkswagens-deception-cause-in-us.html

Cars are among the most demon-haunted products we use on a daily basis. They are designed from the chassis up to do things that are harmful to their owners, from stealing our location data so it can be sold to data-brokers, to immobilizing themselves if you miss a payment, to downgrading themselves if you stop paying for a "subscription," to ratting out your driving habits to your insurer:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

These are the "legitimate" ways that cars are computers that ignore their owners' orders in favor of instructions they get from the internet. But once a manufacturer arrogates that power to itself, it is confronted with a tempting smorgasbord of enshittificatory gambits to defraud you, control you, and gaslight you. Now, perhaps you could wield this power wisely, because you are in possession of the normal human ration of moral consideration for others, to say nothing of a sense of shame and a sense of honor.

But while corporations are (legally) people, they are decidedly not human. They are artificial lifeforms, "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic" (as HG Wells said of the marauding aliens in War of the Worlds):

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/14/timmy-share/#a-superior-moral-justification-for-selfishness

These alien invaders are busily xenoforming the planet, rendering it unfit for human habitation. Laws that ban reverse-engineering are a devastating weapon that corporations get to use in their bid to subjugate and devour the human race.

The US isn't the only country with a law like Section 1201 of the DMCA. Over the past 25 years, the US Trade Representative has arm-twisted nearly every country in the world into passing laws that are nearly identical to America's own disastrous DMCA. Why did countries agree to pass these laws? Well, because they had to, or the US would impose tariffs on them:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/friedmanite/#oil-crisis-two-point-oh

The Trump tariffs change everything, including this thing. There is no reason for America's (former) trading partners to continue to enforce the laws it passed to protect Big Tech's right to twiddle their citizens. That goes double for Tesla: rather than merely complaining about Musk's Nazi salutes, countries targeted by the regime he serves could retaliate against him, in a devastating fashion. By abolishing their anticircuvmention laws, countries around the world would legalize jailbreaking Teslas, allowing mechanics to unlock all the subscription features and software upgrades for every Tesla driver, as well as offering their own software mods. Not only would this tank Tesla stock and force Musk to pay back the loans he collateralized with his shares (loans he used to buy Twitter and the US predidency), it would also abolish sleazy gimmicks like hacking drivers' odometers to get out of paying for warranty service:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/08/turnabout/#is-fair-play

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/2025/04/15/musklemons/#more-like-edison-amirite

Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Model_S_Indoors.jpg

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

[artbysconnor]

RenDog x Louis Vuitton

18/18 of LifeStyle: A Life Series Fashion Zine!!

-

Last, but most certainly not least, we have the Red King Mr. RenDiggityDog himself. I knew the instant I saw the reference for this pose that it would be what I use for Ren - the model had the perfect amount of charisma and attitude, and I think it fits him just perfectly. And before anyone asks, no, I didn't draw the pattern on his shirt by hand! I pulled it, and most of the repeating patterns for this whole series, directly from the item or brand site I was working with, to save time and my wrist (and my sanity).

-

(Click through for my Sappy Conclusions under the cut)

And with that (except for a special little bonus illustration vis a vis the unused Bdubs piece), we are finished with the LifeStyle zine. All 18 of the official pieces have been posted, almost exactly a year after I first saw a red shirt in the window display of an Armani store and started to compile a list of designers and brands on my phone notes app. The pieces are laid out here before you on my socials. A print copy of the zine sits on my bedroom shelf.

I really, truly could not have imagined the amount of love and support this community has poured out for these pieces. I am being 100% honest when I say I thought I'd be posting these into the void. Every single effusive tag, ever positive comment, and every single like means so much to me, from the bottom of my heart, especially for a project that was as passion driven as this one was for me.

This is the first time I can say that I've truly finished a long term project of mine, despite having ups and downs and stops and starts in between, and it feels surreal to be stepping away and calling it complete. But I also know that the community loved it just as much as I did, and it's made me even more passionate about wanting to make and do more moving ahead both for the MCYT and Life Series fandoms and far beyond, into my own original stories and crafts.

So here's to many more, for me and for all of you! Thank you so much for all your amazing support!!!!

[ms-demeanor]

got a question I was hoping you could answer!

why do all apps have to go through an app store? why doesn't anywhere have their app downloadable from the internet or something?

was wondering this because lots of issues with apps seem to stem from having to comply with app store guidelines and whatnot. So why not avoid that problem and make the app available off the appstore? And if part of it is because they're easier to find in the appstore, why not do both? why not also offer the download on a website or something?

there's gotta be some reason why there's afaik no one who offers a download for their app without the appstore right?

There are absolutely other ways to get apps, and the one that springs immediately to mind is the F-Droid App Repository.

Sideloading is the process of loading an app that doesn't come from your phone's OS-approved app store. It's really easy on Android (basically just a couple of clicks) but requires jailbreaking on an iphone.

The reason more USERS don't sideload apps is risk: app stores put apps through at least nominal security checks to ensure that they aren't hosting malware. If you get an app from the app store that is malware, you can report it and it will get taken down, but nobody is forcing some random developer who developed his own app to remove it from his site if it installs malware on your phone unless you get law enforcement involved.

The reason more developers don't go outside of the app store or don't WANT to go outside of the app store is money. The number of users who are going to sideload apps is *tiny* compared to the number of users who will go through the app store; that makes a HUGE difference in terms of income, so most developers try to keep it app-store friendly. Like, if tumblr were to say "fuck the app store" and just release their own app that you could download from the sidebar a few things would happen:

Downloads would drop to a fraction of their prior numbers instantly

iOS users would largely be locked out of using tumblr unless they fuck with their phones in a way that violates Apple's TOS and could get them booted out of their iOS ecosystem if they piss off the wrong people.

Ad revenue would collapse because not a lot of advertisers want to work with companies that are app-store unfriendly

They'd be kicked off of the main app marketplaces

So most people who develop apps don't want to put the time and effort and money into developing an app that people might not pay for that then also can't carry ads.

Which leads into another issue: the kind of people who generally make and use sideloaded app aren't the kind of people who generally like profit-driven models. Indie apps are often slow to update and have minimal support because you're usually dealing with a tiny team of creators with a userbase of people who can almost certainly name ten flavors of Linux and are thus expected to troubleshoot and solve their own problems.

If this is the kind of thing you want to try, have at it. I'd recommend sticking to apps from the F-Droid Repository linked up above and being judicious about what you install. If you're using apple and would have to jailbreak your phone to get a non-approved app on it, I'd recommend switching to another type of phone.

(For the record, you also aren't limited to android or ios as the operating system of your phone; there are linux-based OSs out there and weird mutations of android and such - I am not really a phone person so I can't tell you much about them, but they are out there!)

[blueaprondelight]

hey! did you know that duolingo is turning into an ai-driven company? here's what that means: per the USA Today article posted yesterday on this: "Duolingo is going to be "AI-first", the educational technology company announced, adding that it is replacing contract workers with artificial intelligence."

now yes. duolingo has used ai in the past. in 2024, the Duolingo Guides page reported that their AI uses user data to improve models. however, this did not literally replace human beings in the process.

according to their CEO, they believe this is going to be an example of how "generative AI can directly benefit our learners". despite the fact this doesn't benefit the human contractors you're replacing in place of robots.

here's why supporting AI is problematic: not only does it take away from human beings, but it also is bad for the environment. studies have shown that particularly during the training of complex models, the infrastructure needed to do this training results in high energy consumption.

this also leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions and puts a strain on water resources that are used for cooling data censors. as well, studies show that the manufacturing and disposal of AI hardware contribute to electronic waste and resource depletion.

so, below the cut, there's a list below of language learning apps that do what duolingo does but aren't driven by robots! (and no, you do not have to stop using duolingo. these other apps are simply ones that provide the same services while taking care of both the environment and - as far as i know - human employees.)

Mango Languages (4.8 stars on the Apple App Store) - this app has had really great reviews from people, citing that you can get free access by using your library card (so it supports libraries!) and teaches actual pronunciation whereas duo has been reported for not being accurate with its teachings.

Babbel (4.7 stars on the Apple App Store) - people have rated this app as being easy to use and convenient! they also report that they are backed by researchers at Yale University and Michigan State University, with MSU reporting that after 10 hours, researchers found that 96% of users saw better test scores and 73% became better speakers!

Lingvist (4.6 stars on the Apple App Store) - reviews cite this as a practical app, with one person saying it focuses on repetition and frequently spoken words instead of nouns and verbs you'd rarely use.

any other suggestions in my inbox will be included in this list. stop supporting "AI-first" companies, support human beings.

[avantaritechnologies]

Koi Feature Demo

For Avantari Website. Please visit: www.avantari.org

[probablyasocialecologist]

To bring about its hypothetical future, OpenAI must build a new digital ecosystem, pushing users toward the ChatGPT app or toward preëxisting products that integrate its technology such as Bing, the search engine run by OpenAI’s major investor, Microsoft. Google, by contrast, already controls the technology that undergirds many of our online experiences, from search and e-mail to Android smartphone-operating systems. At its conference, the company showed how it plans to make A.I. central to all of the above. Some Google searches now yield A.I.-generated “Overview” summaries, which appear in tinted boxes above any links to external Web sites. Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, described the generated results with the ominously tautological tagline “Google will do the Googling for you.” (The company envisions that you will rely on the same search mechanism to trawl your own digital archive, using its Gemini assistant to, say, pull up photos of your child swimming over the years or summarize e-mail threads in your in-box.) Nilay Patel, the editor-in-chief of the tech publication the Verge, has been using the phrase “Google Zero” to describe the point at which Google will stop driving any traffic to external Web sites and answer every query on its own with A.I. The recent presentations made clear that such a point is rapidly approaching. One of Google’s demonstrations showed a user asking the A.I. a question about a YouTube video on pickleball: “What is the two-bounce rule?” The A.I. then extracted the answer from the footage and displayed the answer in writing, thus allowing the user to avoid watching either the video or any advertising that would have provided revenue to its creator. When I Google “how to decorate a bathroom with no windows” (my personal litmus test for A.I. creativity), I am now presented with an Overview that looks a lot like an authoritative blog post, theoretically obviating my need to interact directly with any content authored by a human being. Google Search was once seen as the best path for getting to what’s on the Web. Now, ironically, its goal is to avoid sending us anywhere. The only way to use the search function without seeing A.I.-generated content is to click a small “More” tab and select “Web” search. Then Google will do what it was always supposed to do: crawl the Internet looking for URLs that are relevant to your queries, and then display them to you. The Internet is still out there, it’s just increasingly hard to find. If A.I. is to be our primary guide to the world’s information, if it is to be our 24/7 assistant-librarian-companion as the tech companies propose, then it must constantly be adding new information to its data sets. That information cannot be generated by A.I., because A.I. tools are not capable of even one iota of original thought or analysis, nor can they report live from the field. (An information model that is continuously updated, using human labor, to inform us about what’s going on right now—we might call it a newspaper.) For a decade or more, social media was a great way to motivate billions of human beings to constantly upload new information to the Internet. Users were driven by the possibilities of fame and profit and mundane connection. Many media companies were motivated by the possibility of selling digital ads, often with Google itself as a middle man. In the A.I. era, in which Google can simply digest a segment of your post or video and serve it up to a viewer, perhaps not even acknowledging you as the original author, those incentives for creating and sharing disappear. In other words, Google and OpenAI seem poised to cause the erosion of the very ecosystem their tools depend on.

[edupunkn00b]

On a Butterfly's Wing, Ch. 14: A Broken Heart on Valentine's Day

Graphical representation of a Lorenz attractor, a model for the Chaos theory.

Logan Croft makes a decision.

Prev - A Broken Heart on Valentine's Day - Next - Masterpost - [ AO3 ]

On the long drive back from Bellingham, a text from Kelly popped up in Logan’s notifications. He took the next exit and pulled into a darkened gas station to read it.

"Plans changed. I'm on my way now to see my parents. I'll be back Tuesday night."

Logan slumped in his seat, staring down at the message. ‘Plans changed.’Plans changed?

Yes, plans had changed.

She had changed the plans, the entire family’s plans, suddenly deciding this was the perfect weekend for them to have time alone, to rediscover each other, to… She changed the family’s plans, upending the boys’ road trip home down the coast, the Thanksgiving dinner Logan had mapped out, the brainstorming they’d all planned to help Pat decide which college to fall back on if he didn’t get his first choice.

Trembling, Logan fought the urge to scream, to shout, to pound the steering wheel, blast the horn. To pitch his phone into the windshield, gun the engine and drive straight into the nearest median.

He took a deep breath and let the phone drop onto the empty passenger seat beside him instead.

Plans changed. Plans change.

He and the boys could still do all they’d planned. They could still have the Thanksgiving they’d originally planned for. He could turn the car around, get back on the highway and head north to get his boys and spend a quiet—if slightly shorter—holiday together. Setting the phone back into its dashboard mount, his finger hovered over the navigation app.

Another text message popped up. This one was from Virgil.

It was a somewhat blurry photo of all three of his sons—all four, actually. Four bright flour-dusted smiles turned to the camera as Patton appeared to be leading them through making something sticky and doughy and terrifically messy. They looked like they were having a blast.

“Pat’s in good hands Dad! Have a good weekend!!!!!!!!”

Yes, Logan could turn around and utterly disrupt their plans for a second time. He checked the route and traffic. If he was careful—and lucky—he’d get there just before midnight. Ring the bell and rouse them from their beds. More realistically, ring the bell at midnight and interrupt whatever movie marathon they’d begun.

Or…

Or he could grant them some peace and allow them to enjoy their weekend together uninterrupted.

In the end it wasn’t all that difficult a decision. Logan tapped the navigation back and shifted gears, following the route back home.

~

Thanks to a punctured tire just eight exits from home, Logan’s car crawled the final stretch at just 35 miles per hour on the spare. Finally home, he set down the keys just as the kitchen clock flashed over to 1:55. Physically exhausted, the drive and the day’s events had left his mind entirely too keyed up for sleep. He’d never been one to find driving relaxing and, heavy with fresh worry—it would be a trial to have a fresh tire installed over the holiday weekend in time to pick up Patton—he paced the hall, gnawing the edge of his nail until he tasted copper.

Shaking himself loose of his anxious stupor, Logan poked aimlessly in the refrigerator before finally having some juice—he promised himself he’d eat a proper meal in the morning—and headed upstairs for bed.

Moving more on autopilot than actual thought, Logan scrubbed his face then flossed and brushed his teeth. He stripped off his clothes, pulled on his pajama bottoms and reached for the top.

Before he fastened the first button, he paused and peeled the top back off. He stared down at it for a long moment before folding it back up and returning it to its spot in his drawer. He did the same with his pants. Feeling more than a little foolish but driven by an impulse he didn’t dare speak aloud, he slipped out to the hall closet in nothing but his boxers.

Working quickly, he rooted through the top shelf until he found what he was looking for: an old electric blanket. It was clean and smelled faintly of cedar moth repellant and dryer sheets. After returning to their bedroom, he plugged it in next to his nightstand.

The tiny orange light on the controls glowed.

He turned the dial to high and draped it over his side of the bed, pulling the blanket and his book close to his chest. As the blanket warmed against his mostly bare skin, he tucked it tightly around his body, the heat and the pressure nearly enough to trick himself into feeling like he had in his dreams; warm, strong arms wrapped around him, the comfort of holding and being held. The comfort of having someone close and caring and unselfish in their affection.

He felt safe and warm and… loved.

Happier than he’d been—in this bed, at least—in a long, long time, he smiled to himself and opened his book where he’d left off.

‘The two-body problem is easy. Newton solved it completely. Each body—the earth and the moon, for example—travels in a perfect ellipse…’

His eyes stuttered over the next passage, certain he’d read it before.

‘The three-body problem is hard, and worse than hard—‘

Remus’ laughter in his ears.

“’Worse than hard…’” he’d cackled, one hand sliding along Logan’s thigh as Janus chuckled beside him. He’d shivered, body reacting to the welcome touch even as he teasingly fought to maintain a stoic expression.

Remus continued. “I think the hard problem of three bodies is quite easy to solve…”

Logan gasped when Remus’ hand moved further up his thigh and at his nod, Janus plucked the book up and marked his page.

“It’s a fun problem to solve, too… “ Remus’ voice went low and he slid closer under the covers as Janus turned down the lights. “Here, lemme show you…”

But that dream had been weeks ago. Logan thumbed through the remaining pages of the book—most of them, in fact. He’d been slowly, very slowly working his way through this tome. His marginalia stopped on the current page. He had not somehow mixed up the pages or lost his place, restarting at an earlier chapter.

Alone in his room, in his and his wife’s bedroom, the phantom memories of partners he did not have fresh against his lips and his skin, fantasized whispered words of their love in his ears, Logan hugged the book to his chest. Tears pricked his eyes.

What the hell was he doing?

If he could so clearly imagine finding and maintaining such love, what was keeping him from that kind of happiness right now, in his real life? Was he simply getting in his own way? Was it all just him holding back, shutting down and grey rocking, blocking himself from rekindling genuine love and maybe even passion in his marriage? Not in some impossible fantasy he’d dreamt up, but his real, actual marriage?

The marriage he’d come closer to abandoning than he wanted to admit.

Surely, even if he could snap his fingers and trade his real life for some fantasy, those other relationships would have challenges of their own. Roadblocks and fights, miscommunication and hurt feelings. Was it only in his dreams he could attract—and keep—the affection of those gorgeous, kind, brilliant men?

For heaven’s sake, in some of his dreams, Logan was in a relationship with Janus, his boss who—at absolute best—reviled him, barely tolerating his presence in the office and that only because of his casework and brief writing. Back in law school, Janus had actively despised him.

Even in a dreamworld where those golden eyes looked at his with softness and caring, Logan must have worked to earnhis affection, to earn his respect.

It was past time Logan strove to earn that same affection from his wife. And with just as much fervor. She’d loved him once. He would find a way to be the man she needed him to be so she could love him again. She hadn’t always been like this, hot then cold, with the boys afraid to share the most basic parts of themself with her.

He could find a way to rekindle the kindness she’d once held in her heart.

Pen in hand, Logan flipped to the mostly blank title page of the previous chapter and began to write. Eddies in a stream, it was up to him to change the course of his life. Starting right the fuck now.

~

The winter months crawled by.

But Logan’s determination to make his marriage work, to make his life work only grew stronger.

When Kelly messaged three days into her Thanksgiving trip with her parents, explaining she needed to extend her time there by a week and a half, Logan called back, extinguishing the disappointment in his tone as he left a voicemail to assure her he would miss her but that he understood and had everything handled at home.

When Kelly announced at the start of February that she wanted to stay in for her birthday that year, that she was tired of the crowds and the overdone laced heart decorations at all her favorite restaurants, Logan canceled their reservation at Jazz Alley and planned a special evening at home. Her favorite meal, her favorite wine. The antique birthstone pendant from Isadora’s.

And when Kelly sent him a text fifteen minutes before she was due home for that birthday dinner, Logan was slow to open the message, a sinking in his heart warning him what it would say before he even had to read it.

“Plans changed. I’ll be home Sunday.”

Water running, vegetable scrubber still in one hand, Logan stood in the center of the kitchen for a long time, staring down at his phone.

Pat wasn’t home, joyously spending mid-winter break with his brothers, the trip itself a well-earned reward for pushing up his GPA. Eyes burning, Logan didn’t need to school his expression into one of patience and understanding and strength. Didn’t need to keep his smile. To keep the despair at bay. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he could if he’d tried and he felt lucky Patton wasn’t there in that moment.

Gratitude and guilt collided in his chest, horrified at his own thoughts.

Logan turned off the water then blew out the tapers in the centerpiece and sank down into the closest chair. Between a bout of interminable insomnia, several frantic of weeks doubling up his court calendar to arrange for the time away, then shuttling Patton up to Bellingham last night, he was… drained.

He’d he’d left the bourguignon to rest on the stove… Might as well let it finish before packing it away in the refrigerator. Assessing the half-made table, he sighed. He wrapped the still-warm bread in a towel and stretched plastic wrap over the partially-made salad before refrigerating it. With a little extra effort, he finally wedged the swollen cork back into the wine bottle. Doubtless, it would be drunk another night.

Finally, he pushed aside the place setting in front of him. Arms crossed atop the table, he laid down his head and wept.

~

“Lo?”

The hand resting on his arm was warm and… strong. A pan sizzled faintly, turmeric and ginger and cardamon wafting to where he lay. He blinked, fuzzy, soft light filtering down from the tops of the packed bookcases across from him.

Bookcases?

The hand moved up to his cheek. “I’m terribly sorry to wake you, my dear, but you’d never forgive us for letting you sleep through our dinner.”

“Or for trashing your circadian rhythm!” another voice laughed from a little further away. “Dinner is ready, by the way! Come and get it while it’s hot…”

Slowly, Logan recognized Janus and Remus’ voices and smiled.

“Only dinner is hot and ready for us?” he chuckled, squeezing Janus’ hand as he helped him sit up.

Remus laughed, music unhitching the tight knot behind Logan’s sternum. “Well if you wanted desert first, all you had to do was ask!”

“Don’t encourage him,” Janus scolded, flushed cheeks and crooked smile undoing his efforts to appear stern. Remus winked at him over Janus’ shoulder.

The welcome comfort of Janus’ arm circling his waist and Remus’ lascivious grin reminded him just how long it had been since he’d dreamt of them. The last had been… perhaps December? Perhaps even earlier than that.

Janus stroked his hip, leaning close as Remus draped himself over the counter, unabashedly watching them. Logan could swim forever in the love and want pouring from their gazes.

God, how he’d missed this. How he’d missed them.

“Why don’t one of you help me serve and we can get this show on the road?” On his feet, the warm glow of the lights, the scent of spice and books and clay and… them filling the air, a rush of energy danced under Logan’s skin.

“I’d be happy to,” he said, turning to Janus. “If that’s alright with you?”

Head cocked, Janus peered at him for a moment before nodding. “Of course, Lo,” he said before leaning in for a kiss. “I’ll handle the table,” he added with a little smile. “Neither of you heathens know how to lay the forks properly, anyway.”

“Ah!” Remus gasped from the kitchen, trying and failing not to laugh. “Are you implying I don’t know how to fork you properly, Jannie?”

Eyebrows dancing, Janus smirked. “I suppose we’ll need to find out later, won’t we?”

A pot holder went flying through the little window between the kitchen and the dining room. “Just for that, Lo Lo and I will make you watch while he gives me a good forking tonight.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Janus chuckled, smoothing out the tablecloth. “I get winner, by the way.”

Logan stood listening to their flirting, his earlier bravado weak before their easy back and forth. During a lull when Janus left to fetch more candles, Logan stepped closer to Remus. “You said you needed help?”

Turning so Logan could make out what was printed on his apron—The Chef Suggests You Try the Sausage, with a big arrow pointing down—Remus grinned at him. “Oh, yes,” he said, carefully scooping up a bit of curry from a bubbling pot. Full lips pursed, he blew at the steaming dab of of food before tapping it at Logan’s bottom lip. “Open up,” he sang.

The warmth flooding his cheeks had nothing to do with the chilis in the sauce.

“Delicious,” Logan murmured after he’d chewed, courage blooming under the heat of Remus’ answering smirk. “The curry tastes good, too.”

“Well, now I have to try it,” he laughed, turning toward the stove before feinting and spinning around. He pulled Logan close with one hand and captured his mouth in a slow kiss, humming when Logan belatedly kissed back.

“Oh, that is delicious,” he whispered against his lips when Logan broke away, breathless. Remus kissed down his jaw and his neck, mustache tickling the sensitive skin. “Sure you don’t want to just pack this all up and head upstairs first?”

“Tempting,” Janus’ voice was behind them. “The last time we tried that, Muse, we set off the smoke alarms when we forgot to turn off the back burner.”

Laughing, Remus pulled Logan closer with one arm and spun him. Tucked close with his back to Remus’ chest, he caught the flirty heat in Janus’ eyes and laughed at the way Remus brandished the spoon still clutched in his other hand. “Who forgot to turn off the back burner?”

Logan held his breath, watching as Janus smiled and plucked the spoon from his hand. Remus shimmied behind him, anticipation thick between the three of them. Slowly, Janus lowered his head and brought Remus’ fingers to his lips. He kissed each softly before nipping at his thumb.

With his other hand, Janus drew them both closer until Logan was pressed tight between them. He whispered near Logan’s ear, goosebumps sprouting where warm breath caressed his skin. “Can either of you blame me for being easily distracted when such glory is within my grasp?”

A shiver went down Logan’s spine and he shook his head. “I certainly cannot,” he whispered back.

Mouthing gently at Logan’s earlobe, Janus chuckled when Remus’ stomach growled loudly behind him. “I believe we have other bodily needs to attend to first. I know what kind of care you give yourself on big cooking days, Muse.”

“Booo,” Remus laughed, holding them both tighter.

Janus loosened his grip just enough to drag a hand through Remus’ hair. “Now, now… you’ll need your energy for what I have planned for us tonight.”

His low, barely voiced groan rumbled against Logan’s back and Remus nodded. “Fine,” he huffed., sounding put upon. But when Logan looked back, he was grinning, heat in his gaze. “I suppose you’ll all have to enjoy the wonderful meal I’ve prepared you first.”

“Excellent,” Janus murmured. He kissed Remus, then Logan and released them both. “I have something quick to attend to upstairs and I’ll be right down.”

Logan and Remus watched him float up the stairs. He turned just before he disappeared behind the banister and blew them one more kiss.

“Okay, time to show off,” Remus laughed, opening the cabinet over the refrigerator and pulling down a heavy ceramic dish.

Glazed in a full spectrum of painted hearts, the dish—a tureen, judging by the matching lid Remus pulled down next—was smooth and shaped like an open heart. The lid fit perfectly, gleaming gold and green and Logan’s favorite shade of blue. The green matched Remus’ hair. And the yellow… If Logan had to guess Janus’ favorite color, it would be that buttery, almost golden shade of yellow he wore nearly every day.

Remus held it proudly, fingers curled reverently around the handles. It was almost certainly his own creation.

“It’s beautiful,” Logan whispered.

“You always say that,” Remus blushed—flustered for the first time Logan had seen, well, dreamt by something less than salacious. “But thank you, Lo Lo,” he grinned, handing him the work of art.

Hands shaking, Logan clutched the heavy dish, feeling a bit like he had the first time he’d held Remy in the hospital.

“You can help me serve,” Remus said, already moving to the stove.

Cold doubt squeezed his chest as he looked down at the intricate work of art in his hands. “And you’re quite certain it’s… It’s acceptable to use your work to serve? I… I don’t know…” He gave it back, waiting until Remus’ long fingers wrapped around the handles before dropping his own hands.

Remus’ smile never faltered, but he tilted his head, eyes narrowed at him for a long, long moment before answering. “Of course it’s acceptable, Lo Lo,” he said, nodding. He pressed the heavy ceramic dish back into Logan’s hands. “It’s what I made it for.”

Accepting the tureen with both hands, he took a deep breath and fought to control the tremor running through him. “I shall be very careful with it,” he said, palms pressed tight against the smooth glazed surface to fight the sense of slipping. Turning, Logan set it down on the counter beside him before he lost his grip.

“You always are,” Remus grinned, turning off the stove. Spicy steam billowed when he lifted the lid on the cooking pot. “Here, if you can hold it for me, I’ll add the curry.”

Hands trembling, he lifted the tureen and cradled it in his arms as he slowly brought it closer to Remus.

Inches, inches from the stove, the tureen leapt from his hands, hitting the oven handle before bouncing and striking the floor.

Logan dove after it, fingers grazing the smooth handle. He failed to save it.

With a sickening crack, Remus’ dish hit the stone tile and broke into a dozen sharp chunks.

“Oh my god, no…” Logan whispered. He dropped to his knees, gathering the shards. Pricking his fingers, his palms, the edges grew red, matching the hearts Remus had so painstakingly glazed on the outside.

“Lo Lo?” Remus crouched near him, wiping his own hands on the apron. Logan found another piece by his knee.

“I’m sorry…” he choked out, unable to meet his eyes, afraid to see the anger and the hurt and the disappointment he was certain they held. For the first time ever, he wished he would just wake up. “Oh my god, I’m so, so sorry, Remus, I—“ Throat closing, Logan’s breath stuttered. “I’m sorry,” he whispered as he scooped up the last piece, cradling the shattered remains of Remus’ art, of his heart, in his palms. “I’m so, so sorry.”

[sciralta]

This is what I wrote for the survey lol

To be quite frank, both the quality of the material (clearly using AI generated assets in advertising, book covers, and in-game special art cutscenes — despite denials of its use) as well as the quality of of the storytelling itself has been in a marked for a few years now, and anything innovative or engaging has been rare if existing at all. The stories are lacking in diverging choices with meaningful and large-scale consequences. Characters, especially the MC, have to act like idiots to make the story happen. Though the apps has shifted towards more adult erotic-driven stories, the writing and voice is often juvenile and at times puerile. The waning trickle of gender of choice books especially alienates the mlm audience. Despite pledging to be an app where all can feel represented and welcome, at this point the extremely noticeable lack of queer covers of ANY kind in the past couple of years — especially and notably on the steamy adult romance style covers — is suspect. Especially when all those covers are becoming compositionally identical, the seeming desperate need to cater to the heterosexual eye (for what, marketability?) genuinely holds you back artistically and all these book cover blur together. The VIP model is overpriced; and if you want social media engagement, has killed fandom engagement on Tumblr where Choices used to regularly be on the top trending list — a feat which drew readers like me to this app in particular. I cannot deny that there have been recent, seriously entertaining books (such as Dirty Little Secrets, a success because it knew EXACTLY what kind of story it was), but they are not the norm, and feel to far between to tide people over for much longer.

And to reiterate, nothing says “cheap, worthless schlock” like using AI generated material. We can plainly see you using it. I would suggest you stop unless your desire is for “schlock” to be your brand signifier.

[playstationvii]

Jest: A Concept for a New Programming Language

Summary: "Jest" could be envisioned as a novel computer programming language with a focus on humor, playfulness, or efficiency in a specific domain. Its design might embrace creativity in syntax, a unique philosophy, or a purpose-driven ecosystem for developers. It could potentially bridge accessibility with functionality, making coding intuitive and enjoyable.

Definition: Jest: A hypothetical computer language designed with a balance of simplicity, expressiveness, and potentially humor. The name suggests it might include unconventional features, playful interactions, or focus on lightweight scripting with a minimalist approach to problem-solving.

Expansion: If Jest were to exist, it might embody these features:

Playful Syntax: Commands and expressions that use conversational, quirky, or approachable language. Example:

joke "Why did the loop break? It couldn't handle the pressure!"; if (laughs > 0) { clap(); }

Efficiency-Focused: Ideal for scripting, rapid prototyping, or teaching, with shortcuts that reduce boilerplate code.

Modular Philosophy: Encourages user-created modules or libraries, reflecting its playful tone with practical use cases.

Integrated Humor or Personality: Built-in error messages or prompts might be witty or personalized.

Flexibility: Multi-paradigm support, including functional, procedural, and object-oriented programming.

Transcription: An example code snippet for a Jest-like language:

// Hello World in Jest greet = "Hello, World!"; print(greet); laugh();

A Jest program that calculates Fibonacci numbers might look like this:

// Fibonacci in Jest fib = (n) => n < 2 ? n : fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);

joke "What's the Fibonacci sequence? You'll love it, it grows on you!"; n = 10; print("The Fibonacci number at", n, "is:", fib(n));

Potential Domains:

Gamified education

Creative industries

AI-driven storytelling

Interactive debugging

Would you like me to refine or explore additional aspects?

Certainly! If we were to imagine Jest as the brainchild of a creative coder or team, their portfolio would likely include other innovative or experimental programming languages. Let’s expand on this concept and invent some plausible complementary languages the same inventor might have designed.

Related Languages by the Inventor of Jest

Pantomime

Description: A visual programming language inspired by gesture and movement, where users "drag and drop" symbols or create flowcharts to express logic. Designed for non-coders or children to learn programming through interaction.

Key Features:

Icon-based syntax: Conditional loops, variables, and functions represented visually.

Works seamlessly with Jest for creating visual representations of Jest scripts.

Sample Code (Visual Representation): Flowchart blocks: Input → Decision → Output.

Facet

Description: A declarative programming language focusing on creativity and modularity, aimed at artists, designers, and 3D modelers. Facet could integrate well with game engines and creative suites like Blender or Unity.

Key Features:

Embedded visual tools for shaders, animations, and simulations.

Simplified expressions for creative coding (e.g., animations and generative art).

Sample Code:

shape = circle(radius: 10, color: "blue"); animation = wave(shape, amplitude: 5, frequency: 2); render(animation, duration: 10s);

Quip

Description: A lightweight scripting language built for humor, similar to Jest, but more focused on natural language processing, chatbots, and interactive storytelling.

Key Features:

Syntax mirrors conversational English.

Designed for AI integration, especially in storytelling apps.

Sample Code:

character "Alice" says "Hello! What's your name?"; user_input -> name; character "Alice" says "Nice to meet you, {name}!";

Cryptic

Description: A language for designing cryptography algorithms and secure communications. Aimed at developers interested in blockchain, encryption, or cybersecurity.

Key Features:

High-level abstractions for cryptographic primitives.

Secure-by-design philosophy.

Sample Code:

key = generate_key(algorithm: "AES", length: 256); encrypted_message = encrypt("Hello, World!", key); print(encrypted_message);

Harmony

Description: A reactive programming language for building interactive user interfaces, designed to be highly interoperable with Jest and other tools in the suite. Perfect for web developers and app creators.

Key Features:

Two-way data binding with minimal boilerplate.

Component-based architecture.

Sample Code:

component Button { state: clicked = false; onClick() { clicked = !clicked; alert("Button clicked!"); } } render(Button);

Inventor’s Vision

The coder or team behind Jest and these complementary languages would likely be passionate about:

Accessibility: Making programming intuitive and fun for people of all skill levels.

Playfulness: Infusing coding with creativity, humor, and expressiveness.

Interoperability: Ensuring all their languages work well together for larger projects.

Would you like me to dive deeper into one of these languages, conceptualize others, or expand Jest further?

Expanded Concepts and Bridge Languages

Pantomime

Expansion: Adds support for AR/VR interfaces where users use gestures to program logic in 3D space. For example, drawing a loop physically creates a repetitive cycle.

Bridge Language: GestureScript: Converts AR/VR gestures from Pantomime into traditional code for broader applications.

Facet

Expansion: Enhanced for generative AI tools, allowing users to define complex artistic styles and AI-driven procedural designs.

Bridge Language: PixelForge: Focused on exporting Facet code into game engines, enabling real-time rendering pipelines for interactive environments.

Quip

Expansion: Includes pre-trained AI models for dynamic storytelling, allowing Quip scripts to evolve based on user interaction.

Bridge Language: Narrate: Combines Quip scripts with voice-to-text technologies for live storytelling in games or educational tools.

Cryptic

Expansion: Introduces quantum-safe cryptography primitives and allows simulation of blockchain-like ecosystems for testing purposes.

Bridge Language: CipherBridge: Translates Cryptic code into various blockchain frameworks like Ethereum or Solana.

Harmony

Expansion: Gains support for cross-platform development, allowing users to write code for web, mobile, and IoT devices simultaneously.

Bridge Language: Symphony: Converts Harmony components into platform-native scripts for seamless integration.

Additional Bridge Languages

Echo: Bridges Quip and Jest, enabling storytelling code to trigger functional scripts for immersive experiences.

Morph: A universal language that compiles any Jest family code into executable binaries for specific operating systems.

Thread: Integrates Cryptic and Harmony to build secure, reactive user interfaces for fintech applications.

Canvas: Bridges Facet and Pantomime to create interactive art in AR/VR, blending visual coding with gesture inputs.

Let me know if you'd like a deeper dive into any specific language or bridge concept!

Here's a detailed exploration of Echo, Morph, Thread, Canvas, and all previously mentioned languages, emphasizing their unique applications and advanced functionalities.

Expanded Bridge Languages

Echo

Purpose: Links storytelling elements in Quip with functional programming in Jest, enabling dynamic, immersive interactions between narrative and logic.

Key Features:

Story-driven logic triggers: e.g., a character’s dialogue prompts a database query or API call.

Integration with AI tools for real-time responses.

Use Case: AI-driven chatbots that incorporate both storytelling and complex backend workflows.

Sample Code:

story_event "hero_arrives" triggers fetch_data("weather"); response = "The hero enters amidst a storm: {weather}.";

Morph

Purpose: Acts as a meta-compiler, translating any language in the Jest ecosystem into optimized, platform-specific binaries.

Key Features:

Universal compatibility across operating systems and architectures.

Performance tuning during compilation.

Use Case: Porting a Jest-based application to embedded systems or gaming consoles.

Sample Code:

input: Facet script; target_platform: "PS7"; compile_to_binary();

Thread

Purpose: Combines Cryptic's security features with Harmony's reactive architecture to create secure, interactive user interfaces.

Key Features:

Secure data binding for fintech or healthcare applications.

Integration with blockchain for smart contracts.

Use Case: Decentralized finance (DeFi) apps with intuitive, safe user interfaces.

Sample Code:

bind secure_input("account_number") to blockchain_check("balance"); render UI_component(balance_display);

Canvas

Purpose: Fuses Facet's generative design tools with Pantomime's gesture-based coding for AR/VR art creation.

Key Features:

Real-time 3D design with hand gestures.

Multi-modal export to AR/VR platforms or 3D printers.

Use Case: Collaborative VR environments for designers and architects.

Sample Code:

gesture: "draw_circle" → create_3D_shape("sphere"); gesture: "scale_up" → modify_shape("sphere", scale: 2x); render(scene);

Deep Dive into Main Languages

Jest

Philosophy: A playful, expressive scripting language with versatile syntax tailored for humor, experimentation, and creativity.

Core Application: Writing scripts that blend functional programming with a whimsical, human-readable style.

Pantomime

Expanded Features: Includes AI-driven gesture recognition for predictive modeling and natural motion capture.

Advanced Use: Developing AR apps for rehabilitation therapy where exercises are coded as gestures.

Facet

Advanced Use: Procedural generation in games, defining terrains, weather systems, and NPC behaviors with artistic flair.

Quip

Advanced Features: Integrates pre-trained language models for nuanced, character-driven dialogue trees.

Advanced Use: Creating adaptive narratives in games where user decisions alter the story arc.

Cryptic

Advanced Features: Quantum-safe algorithms and AI-enhanced key generation for unbreakable security.

Advanced Use: Designing multi-layered blockchain ecosystems with Cryptic’s high-level abstractions.

Harmony

Advanced Features: Adaptive UIs that respond to user emotion, tracked via AI-enhanced cameras.

Advanced Use: Apps for mental health, where interfaces adjust to user stress levels.

Proposed New Bridge Languages

Chord

Bridges Harmony and Facet for designing interactive music-based visual art.

Use Case: Music videos where the visuals respond to real-time sound input.

Path

Links Cryptic and Canvas for secure AR/VR environments.

Use Case: Virtual meetings in secure, customized 3D spaces.

Fable

Connects Quip and Pantomime for storytelling via interactive gestures.

Use Case: VR education apps where lessons are taught through immersive narratives.

Would you like a specific implementation plan for any of these languages or applications?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Taylor Lorenz at Substack:

We need to know who is funding the creator economy

Yesterday, a federal indictment revealed that a Tennessee media company working with right-wing influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern, was receiving significant funding from the Russian state-sponsored network RT to push Russian disinformation. The indictment is absolutely wild and WIRED has a great rundown on the details, including how the propaganda efforts worked. The case serves as the latest high profile example of how “independent media” on the right is anything but independent, and underscores the need for more transparency around funding models in the creator economy. It also shows how disinformation efforts have increasingly focused on penetrating U.S. media through content creators, and how lucrative being a pawn in these schemes can be. While right wing content creators position themselves as scrappy upstarts, leaning into anti-establishment and populist brand positioning, they frequently accept money from far right interest groups, extremist billionaires, and even foreign actors.  Tenet Media received nearly $10 million, distributed out across a network of YouTubers and podcasters. As part of the disinformation campaign, Tenet Media influencers published hundreds of videos on social media that promoted Kremlin talking points. The videos were shared across platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok, reaching tens of millions of viewers.

[...] The far right recognized the opportunities in personality-driven media decades ago. After boosting talk radio stars in the 80s and 90s, when social media proliferated, they began to invest heavily in news influencers who seamlessly blend entertainment, news commentary, and far right political messaging into YouTube videos, Instagram memes, podcasts and more. 

[...]

Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire has been heavily funded by wealthy Republican donors, including the Wilks brothers, Texas-based billionaires known for their oil and fracking fortune. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, has benefited from significant funding from conservative mega donors including the Koch network.  When right wing creators began getting deplatformed more frequently on mainstream social media apps in the second half of the 2010s, an entire ecosystem of alternative platforms aimed at helping extremist influencers monetize and amass audiences, cropped up. Rumble, a video sharing platform similar to YouTube backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, began paying far right influencers and anti vaxx content creators hundreds of thousands of dollars to create content on its platform in 2021. Locals, a newsletter platform owned by Rumble, allows influencers to monetize through newsletters in a similar way to Substack. DLive, a right wing Twitch competitor, allowed influencers storming the Capitol building on January 6th, to make thousands of dollars off their live streams. Kick and Cozy.tv, two other right wing live streaming platforms, permit nearly any far right extremist the ability to create content and start earning money. And X, under Musk, has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to right wing influencer accounts.

The robust financial backing the right wing content creator ecosystem enjoys, allows extremists the ability to fund professional production teams, social media ad buys, and marketing initiatives that give them a competitive advantage online. In contrast, progressive creators are left to rely on meager donations and crowdfunding efforts to sustain their work. This financial imbalance has made it nearly impossible for left-wing content creators to match the reach or production quality of their right-wing counterparts. Already, several Russia-backed Tenet Media influencers, including Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, have been doing damage control. They've publicly stated that they had no idea about the origins of the money and claimed that they were merely unwitting victims who were misled by the company. 

Right-wing media influencers like Nick Sortor (even though he wasn’t named in the indictment), Benny Johnson, and Tim Pool aren’t “independent media” in any way.