harrymccracken

harrymccracken, 2 days ago to random

Caught up with the legendary @danb at Jonathan Rotenberg and Christopher Whiteman’s wedding yesterday. My claim to fame is that I saw Dan and @BobFrankston demo VisiCalc at a Boston Computer Society in 1979, when it hadn’t yet been released and I was a junior high school student, and was smart enough to be impressed.

harrymccracken, 5 days ago to random

I’d like to see Humane remain independent and succeed, and probably don’t have to tell you what the possibility of them being acquired by HP brought to mind. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/technology/humane-ai-pin.html

harrymccracken, 7 days ago to random

I talked to Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz about its new AI teammates, one of the more intriguing productivity-centric uses of generative AI I’ve seen. https://www.fastcompany.com/91134681/asana-ai-teammates-dustin-moskovitz

harrymccracken, 8 days ago to random

Justin Long has now done paid promotions for Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm. I fully expect him to endorse AMD and Nvidia and possibly Mediatek before eventually decrying technology’s effect on our lives and going off the grid entirely. And then, by 2044, coming back to do more ads for a company that hasn’t been founded yet.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24170277/qualcomm-mac-guy-copilot-plus-pcs-apple-microsoft-arm

harrymccracken, 11 days ago to random

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank/Toluca Lake is one of California’s treasures. I had breakfast there last week!

(Not mentioned in this article: Ben Washam, who drew the original Big Boy, was one of the greatest Looney Tunes animators.)

https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/bobs-big-boy-burger-restaurant-history-19461955.php

harrymccracken, 12 days ago to random

Glad to see Google give a seemingly up-front explanation of what went wrong with Overviews. It’s consistent with my experience with the feature. And it’s surprising that they hadn’t already figured out what to do with the likes of The Onion. https://blog.google/products/search/ai-overviews-update-may-2024/

harrymccracken, 12 days ago to random

Now that OpenAI has opened up GPTs to all ChatGPT users, my Advent.ai retro adventure generator is available to everyone. It’s pretty fun! https://chatgpt.com/g/g-5shjWOaXt-advent-ai-create-play-80s-style-adventure-games

harrymccracken, 13 days ago to random

I wrote about why Google search telling us all to eat rocks isn’t as serious an issue as it claiming there’s a non-existent Dr. Seuss book. https://www.fastcompany.com/91132217/google-ai-overview-errors

harrymccracken, 16 days ago to random

Glad to see people trying to do comparison tests, though Perplexity still makes up way too much stuff to be taking seriously as a tool for looking up facts. https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/ai-chatbots-chatgpt-gemini-copilot-perplexity-claude-f9e40d26?st=qr25rixxk1o73s6&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

harrymccracken, 17 days ago to random

This was completely normal in 1994.

harrymccracken, 17 days ago to random

I’m working on an article for which some notes I took in 1994 are coming in handy. I know why I still have them, but I’m not sure why they’re so tidy. Maybe I was required to submit them along with the article they were for?

harrymccracken, 20 days ago to random

TRS-80 Model III imagery spotted at Microsoft Build. Or at least it’s very nearly a Model III.

harrymccracken, 22 days ago to random

Oh no, not again

harrymccracken, 26 days ago to random

Hey, I just met @Gargron. (Photo by @mike.)

harrymccracken, 27 days ago to random

Years later, I’m still in mourning. https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/virgin-america-history-19453763.php

harrymccracken, 27 days ago to random

Every year at Google I/O, I'm relieved to see that the Shoreline Ampitheater has had the good sense to not remove this signage, which is a source of never-ending delight to me.

harrymccracken, 28 days ago to random

I talked to Apple's Greg Joswiak and John Ternus about the new iPad Pro's design challenges, how the iPad relates to the Mac as an idea, what Apple is trying to communicate when it talks about AI, and more. https://www.fastcompany.com/91124983/ipad-greg-joswiak-john-ternus-interview

harrymccracken, 28 days ago to random

Google is showing lots of cool stuff at I/O, though plenty of it doesn't involve any specified launch dates and it's unclear how far along it is. The AI race has prompted more vague pre-announcements of things than I can remember in a long time.

harrymccracken, 28 days ago to random

I’m at a very crowded Google I/O, and am not entirely clear if press people are welcome in the area where I found a seat.

harrymccracken, 29 days ago to random

I reviewed the new iPads, decided that reducing the Pro's weight and thickness was a worthy goal after all, and expressed the obligatory concern about the future of iPadOS. https://www.fastcompany.com/91122368/ipad-pro-ipad-air-review-2024

harrymccracken, 1 month ago to random

For my Plugged In newsletter this week, I wrote about why the Humane Ai Pin and Rabbit R1 feel so similar to ... the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom. https://www.fastcompany.com/91118796/humane-ai-pin-rabbit-r1-reviews

harrymccracken, 1 month ago to random

I'm at a small in-person viewing of Apple's event, which starts in 11 minutes, and will write about it over at https://bsky.app/profile/harrymccracken.com.

(There are a LOT of events coming up in the next few weeks and I plan to cycle through social networks as I cover them.)