Tech Lounge

This episode I speak with Ines Akrap at the recent We Are Developers event about how we can make the web greener. Trust me on this one, nothing captured the enthusiasm I felt from her in the room, but I try 😁.This issue is sponsored by Zencaster, who’s all-in-one podcasting platform helps me deliver my show episode.Use my special link zen.ai/chinchillasqueaks to save 30% off your first month of any Zencastr paid plan. State of Open: The UK in 2023 Phase Two, Part 1 “Show us the Money - The Economics of Open Source Software” Download the full report. Green energy tycoon to launch UK’s first electric airline → How to create a personal website, but it’s 1999 → Wikipedia’s value in the age of generative AI → How Do Lit Mags Make Money, Anyway? → Paul Nurse: The power of genetics, battling politicians, and the fight against cancer → The World’s Last Internet Cafes → The Wrath of Goodreads → Logitech buys editing console maker Loupedeck →From me CSS in Depth, Second Edition by Keith J Grant. Find the early version on manning.com. It’s Setapp month and all month I will be producing content around how I use this macOS application subscription service but I begin with an overview of my favourite apps that I use on a regular basis. If you like what you read and want to get your hands on a Setapp subscription to try some of those applications, then follow my referral link to get started, much appreciated 🙇! For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

This episode is a links show and I cover Red Hat’s latest open source upsets, lab grown meat, AI ‘aint that bad, happy birthday ethernet, and more!This episode is sponsored by Zencaster, who’s all-in-one podcasting platform helps me deliver my show episode.Use my special link zen.ai/chinchillasqueaks to save 30% off your first month of any Zencastr paid plan.Find full show notes here: https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com/p/lab-grown-forks?sd=pf For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

I am joined by hacker turned software entrepreneur, John Davenport to show me his new idea for using AI to summarise conversations and drill into topics covered.Also features… AI and Music-Making Part 2: Tomorrow Is The Question →This is Part 2 of our deep-dive into AI music-making. In Part 1, we learned what AI is; examined the challenges of applying AI technology to music-making; and explored uses of AI such as MIDI generation, timbral transfer, and analog modeling. Back to the Monolith: Why Did Amazon Dump Microservices? →It’s been a harsh couple of years for buzzy digital products and services. Crypto exchanges have been closing left and right. NFTs haven’t been panning out. Let’s Talk About YouTube Face and Clickbait →Today I’m taking off my publisher hat and putting on my content creator hat to examine “YouTube face” and clickbait titles. A few weeks ago, someone asked for my thoughts on YouTube face on my weekly livecast. Five big takeaways from Europe’s AI Act →This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review's weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. Your Fave Band Is Reuniting – But Not For the Reasons You Think →Blur, The Walkmen and Pulp are some of the bands staging comebacks. Is it a cynical sign of the times or has something changed? Nostalgia: It’s a hell of a drug, and the 2023 gig calendar is packed with reunion tours that show it’s more potent than ever. 30 years of change, 30 years of PDF →We live in a world where the only constant is accelerating change. The twists and turns in the technology landscape over the last 30 years have drained some of the hype from the early days of the consumer digital era. Today we are confronted with all-new, even more disruptive, possibilities. AI and Music-Making Part 1: The State of Play →Listen to this article. This is Part 1 of two-part aricle. Read Part 2 here. For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

Hello all! It’s been a little while and I’ve been holding on to a really great interview the whole time. In summary, after a long few years of running the podcast through varying shapes and sizes… I am joining a podcast network and agency! This is great news for me and will help me move the show to the next level, however I need to do a few technical transfers behind the scenes and that made me pause for a few weeks to avoid downtime. Unfortunately we hit a few issues here and there and that switch over will happen after this issue and episode now.Podcast versionSo, with that news over, the great interview mentioned above is with Aaron A. Reed, author of the amazing “50 years of text adventures”. I backed the book on Kickstarter, but Aaron gave me an advanced press copy and it’s a fantastic read! We spoke about the book, text adventures in general, and had a great conversation around the intersection of technology and writing.Flop or future?WWDC happened, and nestled amongst other announcements that actually excited me much more, was the new Vision Pro. I am extremely un-excited by VR, and while AR has interesting applications, we have seen many large projects from equally large companies fail. But who am I to know? Here’s some interesting links from the discussion around WWDC.With Vision Pro, Apple shows computing's future. But who's it for? →Tomorrow belongs to somebody, but Apple’s much-talked-about mixed-reality device, Vision Pro — unveiled Monday during a glitzy presentation at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference — won’t ship until early 2024.Apple will face an uphill battle convincing developers to build apps for its headset →The ‘one more thing’ announced by Apple at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year was the industry’s worst-kept secret. The Apple Vision Pro, the tech giant’s gamble on making mixed reality headsets a thing, has received a mixed welcome.News from WWDC23: WebKit Features in Safari 17 beta →It’s been a fantastic year for WebKit. We’ve shipped eight Safari releases since WWDC22, with more than 140 new web technologies in the first half of 2023 alone. Now, we are pleased to announce another 88 web features coming this fall in Safari 17. Web apps are coming to Mac.AInt so smart?It wouldn’t be a tech newsletter without AI news would it? This week, efforts to regulate and the sites feeding all those “smarts”.Inside the secret list of websites that make AI like ChatGPT sound smart →An analysis of a chatbot data set by The Washington Post reveals the proprietary, personal, and often offensive websites that go into an AI’s training data.Ethics — what ethics? For Microsoft, it’s full speed ahead on AI →Microsoft is all in on artificial intelligence (AI) for a very simple reason: it believes its lead in the technology will make it the tech world’s top dog again.Who should take responsibility for evil UX design and digital ethics? →Ethics = moral philosophy. It defines what’s good and what’s evi For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

Hello everyone!A big dive into questioning artificial intelligence and an interview with Avi from Scarf, who aims to help open source developers gain insights into their usage.Questioning artificial intelligenceIt’s another AI-heavy issue, but this time I want to highlight some content that questions the technology and attitudes to it in some nuanced ways. I start with how AI creators and users are “hallucinating” its potential, wonder if it’s as smart as it looks, and look at the discussions around how to block AI using your content.AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are →Inside the many debates swirling around the rapid rollout of so-called artificial intelligence, there is a relatively obscure skirmish focused on the choice of the word “hallucinate”.ChatGPT Is Powered by Human Contractors Getting Paid $15 Per Hour →ChatGPT, the wildly popular AI chatbot, is powered by machine learning systems, but those systems are guided by human workers, many of whom aren’t paid particularly well. A new report from NBC News shows that OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, has been paying droves of U.S.A 23-year-old Snapchat influencer used OpenAI’s technology to create an A.I. version of herself that will be your girlfriend for $1 per minute →These boyfriends are dating a virtual version of Marjorie, powered by the latest artificial intelligence technology and thousands of hours of recordings of the real Marjorie.AI Tools Are Scraping Your Website. Is That a Good Thing? →The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been disruptive. Things are changing rapidly. And it seems like this technology is posing new moral, ethical, and existential questions each day. There are plenty of stories and opinions to choose from. But one recent incident caught my eye.Inside the Discord Where Thousands of Rogue Producers Are Making AI Music →On Saturday, they released an entire album using an AI-generated copy of Travis Scott's voice, and labels are trying to kill it.Before AI Takes Over, Make Plans to Give Everyone Money →The U.S. needs policies now to support workers made redundant by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is coming for all our jobs. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

Let’s start with some funThis newsletter gets dark quickly, so first something to enjoy.Farrago 2 soundboard for Mac arrives with 50 new features including Shortcuts and Stream Deck integration →Rogue Amoeba is releasing a major update to Farrago, the great soundboard app for Mac. Farrago 2.0 includes 50 new features ranging from fun emoji art to well-designed Stream Deck interactivity.Thanks for reading Chinchilla Squeaks! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Microsoft is busy rewriting core Windows code in memory-safe Rust →Microsoft is rewriting core Windows libraries in the Rust programming language, and the more memory-safe code is already reaching developers.David Rumsey Map Collection →111,792 RESULTS Media Type Year Collection Creator LanguageTech makes cutbacksFor years we’ve told people with less job prospects to “learn to code”, now tie cutbacks and AI, what do we tell people instead?Learning to code isn’t enough →A decade ago, tech powerhouses the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Amazon helped boost the nonprofit Code.org, a learn-to-code program with a vision: “That every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science as part of their core K–12 education.Tech companies are finally firing tech workers →Software engineers made up the biggest portion of tech layoffs in 2023. That advice is starting to feel even less welcome.Amazon and Microsoft’s AI Gains Mask Cloud Slowdown →(Bloomberg) -- The buzz around artificial intelligence that’s helped juice gains for Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. this year may also be masking struggles in a business far more critical to the pair’s bottom lines.AI, when and where will it stop?Palantir Demos AI to Fight Wars But Says It Will Be Totally Ethical Don’t Worry About It →Palantir, the company of billionaire Peter Thiel, is launching Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), software meant to run large language models like GPT-4 and alternatives on private networks. In one of its pitch videos, Palantir demos how a military might use AIP to fight a war.The first babies conceived with a sperm-injecting robot have been born →Last spring, engineers in Barcelona packed up the sperm-injecting robot they’d designed and sent it by DHL to New York City.Why I'm no longer writing stories with AI →Preface: Stories by AI is on hiatus. We may or may not be back soon. If you’d be interesting in writing stories for us, get in touch! contact@storiesby.ai I won’t be publishing any more stories with storiesby.ai. What was once a quirky lark of a side-side-project hits darker now.Thanks for reading Chinchilla Squeaks! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to d For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

KubeCon, back to businessAhead of the event I arranged some interviews with companies that piqued my interest and don’t all fit under the headings in my write up that you can read here - https://chinchillasqueaks.substack.com/p/9c266812-78f0-4985-a719-2b745ff7053cSLIM.AII previously covered the slim toolkit from Slim.ai and in the interview I am joined by Nnenna Ndukwe, developer advocate at the company, to discuss their new vulnerability scanning and hardening features.MINIOAnother company I covered previously, I speak with Daniel Valdivia, MinIO’s Kubernetes expert to cover how their S3 compatible API helps users streamline object storage.INCIDENT.IOI speak with Christopher and Stephen about their new(ish) companythat attempts to solve the human side of incident management. The company also had some awesome T-Shirts that channeled their english roots with “Don’t Panic” emblazoned across them.HIVEMQDominik Obermaier joins me to explain why message queues may not be new, but there are still many niche use cases where companies like HiveMQ can excel, and for them it’s IoT end edge computing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

Podcast versionFind the podcast version of this newsletter, including my interview with Bertrand of Canonical on the Substack podcast page or wherever you find your podcasts.TechA mixed bag this issue covering everything from the slow death of Russia’s tech scene, a visual history of Android, GPT-4 in role-play games in role-play games in classified comment leaks. Erm, yes, you read that right.How Russia killed its tech industry →Seven days after the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Belugin packed up his and his family’s belongings, canceled the lease on his apartment in Moscow, withdrew his kids from kindergarten, and started a new life outside of Russia.My kids and I just played D&D with ChatGPT4 as the DM →My two oldest kids Taylor Anne and Liam, are 26 and 23 (respectively). My youngest son Tenzin is 15 years old. All of us are together at my house in Mexico City this week, and the discussion topic generating the most heat is OpenAI and GPT4.Leaked Classified Documents Also Include Roleplaying Game Character Stats →Over the past month, classified Pentagon documents have circulated on 4chan, Telegram, and various Discord servers. The documents contain daily intelligence briefings, sensitive information about Ukrainian military positions, and a handwritten character sheet for a table-top roleplaying game.Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to 12 →What a long, strange trip it's been. From its inaugural release to today, Android has transformed visually, conceptually and functionally — time and time again. Google's mobile operating system may have started out scrappy, but holy moly, has it ever evolved.And finally…The Most Spoken Languages In The World, Ranked →There are over 7,000 languages in use across the globe, but for various reasons (like, for example, colonialism), some are spoken a lot more around the world than others. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

It's time for open-source users to open their wallets →It was around the year 1999 and I was attending my first Linux convention at the Research Triangle where Red Hat was headquartered. I was, needless to say, excited.Internet Arcade →The Internet Arcade is a web-based library of arcade (coin-operated) video games from the 1970s through to the 1990s, emulated in JSMAME, part of the JSMESS software package.MS-DOS Meets ChatGPT →ChatGPT has to be one of the hottest buzz words right now. It seems to constantly be in the news as well as gaining more attention and users by the day. In addition, OpenAI has also released APIs allowing developers to integrate chatbots into their applications.Content from meCreating interactive fiction with Inform 7Dynamic repositories with GitHub BlocksCould you work all day on a phone? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/

Hello everyone welcome to my regular ramble through geeky subjects from tech, to history, games, writing, language, and more.This issue is a little light on links, but I have a great interview with Marshall Jung of Tabnine you can hear in the voiceover section of this newsletter or wherever you find your podcasts. We spoke about the company’s take on AI coding assistants and how they’ve been doing things differently from some time.Thanks for reading Chinchilla Squeaks! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.That aside I look at some of the best content for digging into what happened with Silicon Valley Bank, what will AI to do music, and more!xx ChinchTech"It's always going to be very biased towards the data it's trained on" – Red Hot Chili Peppers and Adele mixing engineer Andrew Scheps shares his views on AI machine learning, and his tips →Three-time Grammy Award-winning mixing engineer Andrew Scheps worked on Adele's 21, RHCP's Stadium Arcadium (both of which is won Grammys for) and has mixed for Black Sabbath, Metallica, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Neil Diamond and man, many others.How the Weekend-Long Freakout Over Silicon Valley Bank Ended →Unless you happened to take a digital detox this weekend, you probably witnessed a lot of online commotion regarding tech startups, the banking system, and the institution formerly known as Silicon Valley Bank.The Silicon Valley Bank Contagion Is Just Beginning →When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10, Garry Tan, president and CEO of startup incubator Y Combinator, called SVB’s failure “an extinction level event for startups” that “will set startups and innovation back by 10 years or more.What you need to know about the SVB bank rescue plan →Question and answers about the federal government's plan to stop bank runs.LanguageThe Moral Case Against Equity Language →What’s a “justice-involved person”? The Sierra Club’s Equity Language Guide discourages using the words stand, Americans, blind, and crazy. The first two fail at inclusion, because not everyone can stand and not everyone living in this country is a citizen.Content from meMy creative writing setupHow do I write my creative works? I tell you how…Technical writing with JetBrains' Writerside and GrazieAnd finallyThanks for reading Chinchilla Squeaks! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chinchillasqueaks.substack.com For show notes and an interactive transcript, visit chrischinchilla.com/podcast/To reach out and say hello, visit chrischinchilla.com/contact/To support the show for ad-free listening and extra content, visit chrischinchilla.com/support/