A suggestion to ActivityPub enthusiasts -- a very simple, highly factored toolkit for posting via ActivityPub might unleash a flood of compatible software, depending on how many obstacles can be removed. I've tried to evangelize the idea, but it didn't happen. In the end I punted, and used Mastodon's API, and thus my software only works with services that implement their API. #- I've been watching the news tonight, when there's some actual news, and it's good news. #
What they're not saying is that the US has the tools to defend itself from enemies like Trump, and finally we're starting to use them. Not impotent tools, like congressional hearings or impeachment, but the actual guardrail meant to serve as a last resort to keep a nightmare out of the government. An insurrectionist should be dealt with a lot more swiftly than Trump has and the penalty should be harsh to warn off other would-be coup plotters. But -- better late than never. #- And if they want to have a civil war, okay -- better to do it when the military is under constitutional control, at least theoretically. Tell the Republicans to try again, now before any primary votes have been cast. This candidate is prohibited from being president, as if he were born outside the United States. Not qualified. #
- I wanted a simple chicken soup recipe, so I entered.#
- Simple chicken soup #
- And hit Return.#
- It started drawing a picture. #
- I was fascinated, wondering what will it draw?#
- The caption was written by the AI.#
- Very different from previous cartoonish pictures.#
- I asked for the ingredients and got the recipe I sought.#
- I have a private group on Facebook, and just got this notice.#
- "Join the waitlist for Meta AI in your group! Meta AI can save you time and spark conversations by answering questions posted in your group, linking people to the posts they find most helpful, and more. Sign up your group to be the first to get access when it becomes available in your region."#
- When I clicked on the Learn More button, this is what came back.#
- A new way to get questions answered#
- Meta AI will comment on questions that haven't gotten an answer after one hour#
- Keep members engaged#
- Meta AI's answers will summarize earlier group discussions and share past posts from the group, helping to build community and spark discussion#
- Stay in control#
- You'll be able to delete any of Meta AI's comments, turn it off anytime, and customize it for your group#
- A thought -- this kind of feature could not have been offered a year ago. The online world and journalism would never have accepted it from Facebook. But now they're called Meta and that seems to matter. ChatGPT has created a new opening. Not sure I'm going to like it, esp since this is mostly a one-way group. It's not for discussions. But it's the only group they offered to, and I love this stuff and want to know more.#
- I haven't told the members of the group that I've requested this. Am I obligated to do that? #
- Also in private groups where people reveal personal info (not the purpose of this group) I could see where this would be very controversial.#
- I went to my first since-pandemic live show, at The Colony in Woodstock. It's small venue that goes way back. It's basically a bar, with a stage and a small seating area which can hold about 50 people, seated at tables. Very comfortable space. Woodstock as you might imagine is a great place for live music, one of the reasons I moved here, the other being that it's a magnet for creative people, like a lot of the other places I've lived (New Orleans, Cambridge, Berkeley, Madison, Seattle, New York). But the pandemic squashed that, now maybe we're starting to come back. #
- I decided to risk it because a friend was playing last night, Tony Levin, who I know through his wife, Andi. When I first met Tony, at a birthday dinner last year, I thought he was a banker. He's tall, an impressive-looking person, like the people who rose to be an executive at companies like IBM in the 80s. Just shows how deceiving appearances can be. He's an accomplished musician, and a very sweet, quiet person. Probably about as far from an IBM exec or banker as you can get. Until Sunday I had never seen him perform. #
- The group I was with arrived early, and Tony was at the front door, greeting people as we entered, and immediately he made a very different impression. He seemed soft, hippieish, relaxed, smiling. Later I realized this may have been the first time I'd seen him in his element. And the show, a four-piece jazz band, with his brother Pete Levin on piano, started off playing (to my uneducated ear) pretty plain improvisational jazz. But as the show went on, I could see that this music had been composed, and had all kinds of themes running through it. It seemed to me the music had been cultivated over many years? #
- The Levins and friends, are roughly my age. I imagined they had been playing together as long as I have been making software. And I felt certain what I was seeing here were two very talented brothers, who have been performing together their whole lives, and there was something I had been trying to understand about myself, how I feel about my art, almost fifty years after I started. There is an important difference in how I do it at 68 vs how I did it when I was 22. Exactly how it is different, I'm probably too close to it to really understand, but seeing what I imagined to being something similar in two people I kind of know, that was thought-provoking.#
- To me, music is as software probably is to most people who use it. I love it, but I don't have much of an idea of how it's made. The last few years I've been reintroduced to it in a new way, thanks to the Get Back documentary, which gave us a view into the Beatles' creative process, something I wish I could have seen when I was much younger. The Beatles were the music my generation grew up with, but I never really even understood that there was a difference between a John song and a Paul song. #
- The second great influence has been Andrew Hickey's 500 songs podcast. Now I have so many more stories to go with the music that my life was formed by. And I have a feeling that attending this event on Sunday will turn out to be a similar influence. #
- Now, what music should I go see next? 💥#
- PS: The concert was reviewed by a professional.#
