@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social
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bretcarmichael

@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social

Opinions about technology news, social media platforms, and policy. Interested in the future of tech and its power to shape society.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

bretcarmichael, to ai
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

This Verge piece highlights challenges with and search. When you a business capability, AI will give an authoritative result that is not authoritative — possibly a hallucination — like an AI-recommended electrician or doctor. There will be no click-through to a site, so Google won’t know it surfaced garbage. Consumers need to evaluate results. Also, new entrants will be excluded from recommendations, maybe for a lack of Google Business reviews used as weights.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/15/24154808/ai-chatgpt-google-gemini-microsoft-copilot-hallucination-wrong

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@peterbutler I agree there’s a lot of square-peg-round-hole. AI has value in specific contexts of search, not all of it. Also, Google’s AI is dependent on content, but it’s implementation is a one-way value transfer from content creators to Google. Publishers complained about but tolerated Google, because it sent them traffic and thus money. Once that stops, there’s e no reason to expose content to Google. AI search looks like cannibalism, and it creates room for a competitor.

bretcarmichael, to TeslaMotors
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

is doing more layoffs at . It’s sad, and it’s not a surprise. Tesla’s model line is stale, Musk’s pet cybertruck is a failure, and the stock has tanked. Those who stay will experience an “absolutely hard core” work environment, meaning they might mean enjoy sleeping at the office, like Twitter, with false promises of future compensation.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/30/24145133/tesla-layoffs-supercharger-team-elon-musk-hard-core

bretcarmichael, to twitter
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

There’s a healthy amount of disapproval for #X’s product direction in this (I don’t like it either). At the same time, Twitter’s change in product direction has changed its user base. It’s no longer representative of the general population. So, even if you support Twitter’s changes under , the platform is objectively less valuable as a research tool.
https://journa.host/@w7voa/112354269950647839

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post (and basically ALL of TV news) are calling the Trump campaign/election fraud trial the "hush money case". This is a clear preference for clickbait over core truth.

For those of us who hoped for better journalism in headlines -- which are the only thing a lot of people read -- we lost this one.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor I don’t have experience in journalism beyond consuming it. Few read the all of text beyond headlines. I think everyone would benefit from a serious of bullet points in a callout that are exactly the same across every story about a topic; headline, opening paragraph, bullet points. This story is one in a series about 1, 2, and 3.

dangillmor, (edited ) to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

By banning (or forcing sale of) TikTok (which I loathe), Congress -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- and a Democratic president just performed extreme censorship of the Internet.

They claimed it was for your privacy, but that is a flagrant and stupid lie.

They believe you have no privacy rights, and deserve none, and have made that clear again and again.

We need public spaces controlled by the public, not rapacious companies and control-freak lawmakers.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor The concern is legitimate. There are tradeoffs. The real risk is TikTok’s black box algorithm and its continuous misrepresentation of its relationship with parent ByteDance. *The bill forces a sales, not a ban. China may blocks it with its recent law classifying the algorithm as a national security asset.
*If China blocks the sale, it validates the US concern that it would use the algorithm to manipulate free speech or, it would prefer political discord over letting ByteDance profit.

gbhnews, to random
@gbhnews@mastodon.social avatar

what do you all think about the state of news visibility here on mastodon?

https://mastodon.social/@MediaOnMastodon@toot.io/112316173190323025

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gbhnews Good and improving as more journalists and orgs join. Mastodon has no algorithm, so the viral engagement found on Twitter is unlikely. Separately, Threads is deprioritizing news to measurable effect. While it has an algorithmic timeline, it won’t deliver the same news engagement as Twitter. Ultimately, Mastodon may be the best place for news, since any number of networks can federate, Twitter is declining, and Threads doesn’t want news. Peak clicks are probably in the past though.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gbhnews That’s a great point. Twitter has been sometimes open and sometimes vague about deemphasizing posts with links off its site.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gbhnews Based on what Meta has said and your own data, I think you’re right not to invest lots of effort on Threads. Meta’s financials have shown that the absence of news hasn’t harmed revenue. Its presence has created a lot of political and regulatory pressure, domestic and abroad. Also, countries have compelled Facebook to pay for content posted by publishers. Separating any moral arguments about Threads’ obligation to carry news, it’s in Meta’s business interests to lessen its visibility.

film_girl, to random
@film_girl@mastodon.social avatar

Masties help me out: is there a way in Ivory or any other app for me to search my own past toots? I opted into the search thing.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@film_girl At Google, this should work:

site:mastodon.social @film_girl

bretcarmichael, to TeslaMotors
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

wants a $56B pay package while stock is cratering; in part due to market conditions and in part due to Musk himself. Tesla has real competition (including China) in a struggling market that may not improve until EV tradeoffs improve. Musk made a $100K that fails as a truck instead, of an affordable $25K passenger vehicle which he canceled. Tesla has sold fewer than 4K trucks. He alienated liberal buyers who won’t buy Tesla because of Musk.
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/23/tesla-earnings-elon-musk

glennf, to random
@glennf@twit.social avatar

@gruber @benthompson Just realize that the tweets from the guy giving MKBHD grief about his potential to move a market: he is treating AI Pin as if it’s a beta product. I have, in fact, seen some savaging of beta stuff that seemed premature (unless real production fees were being charged and it was broadly available in beta). The AI Pin is so bad, that it seems like a prototype…

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gruber @glennf @benthompson When company launches a beta, it needs to announce it as beta. It’s not asking for customers; it’s asking for testers. Humaine didn’t do that. It launched a production product that wasn’t production-ready at full retail. If the expectation among some is that the tech press should sugarcoat the state of a product so consumers will give a manufacturer money, that shows little regard for the welfare of consumers. To Humaine’s credit, it did not imply that.

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

Did you all miss my post about my chiropractor problem? It was about a week back. 😏

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm 🥁

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

Why don't we put orange slices on cereal? 🤔

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm They’re too watery.

bretcarmichael, to twitter
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

The blue check used to be a status symbol for users. On #X, it’s embarrassing, so much so that X had to give users the ability to hide it. How things change.
https://infosec.exchange/@pburkholder/112212435762825901

siracusa, to random
@siracusa@mastodon.social avatar

Now here’s a company that knows how to leverage its market power to crush competition and then shrewdly “self-regulate” at the last possible moment in order to avoid severe consequences (or so it hopes…)

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/bowing-to-pressure-microsoft-unbundles-teams-from-microsoft-365-worldwide/

bretcarmichael, (edited )
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@siracusa For sure. Microsoft vertically integrates entire products and bundles them. I get that the practice of big companies doing that is legal in lots of places, but it does see morally wrong. As Microsoft did to Slack, its Notion clone, Loop, even looks like a direct copy.

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Is there a way to bet on the collapse of Trump's "Media & Technology Group Corp." stock?

Strikes me as a sure thing, though I can't be sure when, given that Trump world corruption could prop it up for some time to come.

So I won't short the stock directly. Better to look at put options, I suspect.

Related: I will have absolutely no sympathy for Trump cultists who lose money buying this BS stock.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor He can sell his shares in 6 months. I expect he’ll do that for 2 reasons: 1) he needs liquidity, and 2) if he loses the election, his value will decline and the network’s value will follow for being based on his value to the network.

bretcarmichael, to threads
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

is headed for IPO. It might attract short-term investors, but it has earmarks of a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency.

  1. launched in Oct. 2023. It now has 130M user. launched in Feb. 2023. It now has 5.2M users. Truth Social launched first, in Feb. 2022. It has only 5M users.

  2. Truth Social’s value is derived from one man posting on the platform, , who is 77 years of age. If he cashes out and leaves or passes away, Truth is worthless. 🧵 https://techhub.social/@Techmeme/112139919182094849

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar
  1. Truth isn’t brand safe. tried to serve that market and lost 60% of ad revenue.
  2. There may be a rush to IPO before the election. If Trump loses, his value declines along with ’s. Trump could sell shares in 6 months; he needs liquidity.
  3. Truth is built on ’s code. Maybe it could federate to attract an audience — no. Truth’s content doesn’t comport with the moderation policies of Mastodon’s largest instances that earned users from the #X exodus — blacklisting.
liaizon, (edited ) to fediverse
@liaizon@wake.st avatar

An important distinction is slowly being uncovered about the definition of the term "fediverse." Who is it that gets to decide what this place is? How are we being represented? These are not easy questions to answer and if we don't do a better job describing ourselves, then the job will get done for us by people who don't understand the underlying values we hold.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@liaizon Federation is a term used to describe an action or state occurring over the ActivityPub (or AT) protocol. It’s neither a brand nor owned. In app design, devs use different icons to define open-menu and close-menu actions, different symbols for sending emails — envelopes and paper airplanes — and different symbols to chat widgets among other actions. Meta serves users all over the world, and in some of those places, using a pentagram as a UI convention might be offensive.

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

It was really naïve to think Epic ‘lost’ its fight against Apple. Everything Epic fought for is going to come to pass, and Apple has trashed its reputation in the process while daring regulators the world over to start peeling the layers of its business apart with a crowbar.

This could all have been avoided; it's entirely Apple's fault, and they deserve what they get

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith Apple has been heavily-handed, but illegal, I’m not so sure. Epic also has a monopoly on the Epic Games Store. Not sure if Epic appreciates the irony of its argument of will escape it if Apple loses and sets precedent, since being big isn’t actually a crime.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith EU violations have more base in sentiment than the US, where antitrust it is harder to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and a company’s size does not make its conduct criminal. It’s possible that the court will decide that Apple should have opened its private APIs to everyone, and that it should invest in tools to facilitate migration to a larger platform in Android. I could be surprised. Instead, I think the government will first have to legislate for a world of aggregators.

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

In the today, we've been talking about how to monetize Fediverse content. I have talked about a rough outline for how to do it before -- setting up a private account, enabling out-of-band payment, and approving followers based on payment.

As a proof of concept, I've set up a premium account on my personal server. @evanplus is a subscription only private account (separate from my friends-and-family account) where I will post content I think is worth paying for.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@evan @evanplus @mike This is a great experiment for monetizing content on the . There’s an already-established business model for paid groups. You may also want to create a public account that acts as a lead magnet for the paid one, sharing snippets or occasional free private content. Otherwise, it might be a black box or hidden. Very broadly speaking, many people prefer to pay with attention (ads) over paying with real money, so I expect to see ad placements in content as well.

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

More Jedi w/ lightsabers running around looking brooding, more hapless space travelers getting devoured by xenomorphs.

This the best you can do? Meh.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm I’m actually pretty excited about it. It’s a new story in the High Republic era, without any association to Vader or the Skywalkers. It’s finally something that won’t just be filler content for a story that’s already been told.

dansup, to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

For the people asking about Sup, I've put it on hold pending the new EU laws that require interoperability with large platforms like WhatsApp and Signal.

I'm still working my way around the new laws and requirements so Sup can take advantage, but it requires some refactoring to be compatible.

I think @supapp has the potential to be a game changer for the fediverse, but I want to get it right.

After Loops, I plan to publish the app client + server, likely in May.

bretcarmichael,
@bretcarmichael@mastodon.social avatar

@dansup @supapp @pixelfed It’s only a requirement of large messaging platforms. To set the context of just how large a platform needs to be, Apple’s iMessage is exempted.

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