markjgsmith

2024/06/21 #

• Cold and rainy night last night. I'm still feeling very cold this morning. Not much to add. I can't code or blog properly because no build minutes, I have hardly any energy because no food, body noticeably thin, still got to carry these damn bags though.

  Most of the podcasts I've listened to this week haven't really peeked ny attention. I've only started 4-5 so far this week, and most of them aren't even tech related. It will probably be a weird newsletter this week. Very difficult to stay motivated when almost everything is cut off. Even just walking to the internet place feels like it's too much effort.

  The bullying trend from the hive mind at the minute is to 'yah!' me. Young people, middle aged people, old people, male abd female, they just 'yah!', but my tank is empty and they know it. #

• The polls suggest not only is Labour going to win the elections, but that they will demolish the Conservatives. My worry with an ultra strong Labour government is that it's potentially very dangerous as it coincides with the hypergrowth of AI.

  Big majority sure, might even be good, we have many things to change in the nation, but ultra majority, I'm not so sure. You might be on the right side today, but what about in 20 years time? The nation will look very different indeed then. I think this is a non partisan issue. #

• The computer chips sector is going through big changes at the minute. The US, Germany and Japan all have big government subsidized projects, whether via tax breaks or loans, to build domestic chip manufacturing plants. Given how important access to chip manufacturing is going to be going forward, and that the UK has a general election next month, I'd like to know what each political party's plan is for chips going forward. #

• cat << EOF > My main worry with an ultra strong labour government

  This recent poll in the Telegraph is even worse than the last one I read about which was predicting only 100 seats, the worst defeat in 100 years. Here the prediction is they'll only get 50 seats. If that happens the Lib Dems might even have a shot at becoming the opposition. The colored map is almost entirely red.

  It occurs to me looking at this that my main worry with a Labour government that is so strong, with the economy so horrid, is we'll end up in another war. That's what happened last time. But the war this time might look very different, might be non-obvious, and especially with the exponential AI revolution happening, be much worse long term. Such a huge majority right now feels like it could be very dangerous. WW3 would be unimagineably bad, but what if it was an order of magnitude worse than even that?

  What's more, although it might not look like it, I think this is likely a non-partisan issue. It feels like a dangerous time for extremes. Big majority, sure, might even be needed, we have a lot of things to change in the nation, but an ultra majority as predicted here, that worries me.

  I think I'd maybe almost prefer it if the Lib Dems got 100 seats. How is Stalmer going to ensure we don't end up, in some way, at war again or worse?

  EOF

Today’s links:

• The Framework Laptop 13 is about to become one of the world’s first RISC-V laptops - Mostly aimed at tinkerers abd hobbyists, it's a first step in getting it into the hands of developers. Interesting because RISC-V is fully open and free, nothing propriety, so anyone can use it. However this incarnation is quite under powered compared to regular current laptops. The good news is that with a Framework laptop that shouldn't matter that much. Since it's modular you can easily swap out the main board for something more powerful when you aren't hacking on RISC-V. Pretty cool. www.theverge.com #

• Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine - Perplexity seems to be everywhere this week, multiple podcasts and articles. Reading this it seems they might be up to somewhat shady stuff but the whole article had this sort of flat nothing burger vibe about it. Perplexities answers and explanations often read like someone really struggling, just stuck between many rocks and hard places. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. A feeling I'm all too familiar with. Also I can't tell if it's an honest article or a hit piece. www.wired.com #

• Sunak to lose seat in Tory wipeout, major poll predicts - This poll is even worse than the one that predicted the worst defeat in 100 years. They say the Lib Dems might even stand a chance of becoming the opposition. The colored map is quite something. www.telegraph.co.uk #

• Threads API - I'm a bit suprised it took this long to release an API. I want to be able to auto-post new content from the website. Should be possible I guess. The tricky part is each social media has different character limits on posts. developers.facebook.com #

• New Post: My main worry with an ultra strong labour government markjgsmith.com #