I abhor body shaming even if it's of someone whose ideas I find unacceptable. #
Last night's podcast about how AI is a revolution. I had just listened to a New Yorker podcast interview with the EIC at Wired, saying the hype was bullshit. You hear this from journalists a lot. The only way you can conclude this, imho, is if you aren't using the stuff. It's as if you were a journalist in the 60s and said the story of the Beatles is that their hair must be fake. OK, whatever you say, but have you listened to the freaking music?? I'm sure a lot of journalists in the 60s said bullshit like that but the Beatles did turn the world upside down, and it stayed that way. It marked the beginning of something very new. And, as with AI, journalism missed the story. If you don't trust the CEOs, that's okay, probably the right approach. But that doesn't mean they're wrong about the value of the tech. Develop sources the old fashioned way, and if you think money biases the CEOs in favor of the hype, listen to experts who don't have any stock in the companies. #
Another benefit of ChatGPT. It forces you to think and express yourself in tight logical language. Garbage in garbage out. All of a sudden rigorous thinking is required to get a result. This is very different from social media, where garbage is rewarded. #
BTW, I say ChatGPT instead of "AI" because I'm not comfortable characterizing it as intelligence. Deeper you get into it you learn that these beings whatever they are have serious character flaws that are counter-intelligent. #
Disclaimer: I own zero stock in AI companies, except for mutual funds and some Apple stock I've held for decades for sentimental and tax reasons.#
This is the rendering of my linkblog in WordPress. This is a major milestone. We have in WordPress, what you see on the Links page on scripting.com, implemented entirely in WordPress. Scott Hanson is in charge of the Baseline theme, the one that we're using to build out the WordPress side of WordLand's features. Here are his notes on the linkblog feature. #
Last update: Wednesday July 30, 2025; 5:12 PM EDT.
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)