Mitch W
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  • I wrote this: Red Hat brings AI to IT operations. Red Hat is putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work in IT operations and event remediation, showing the technology is good for more than designing novelty socks or creating an endless Seinfeld parody.

    → 11:15 AM, May 24
  • Jealous of other people's excellent videoconferencing backgrounds

    Midjourney image. The prompt: Cartoon middle aged man sitting at a desk. There’s a computer on the desk. The desk has papers and office supplies on it. Shelves are behind the desk. The shelves have knickknacks on them.

    I have an expanse of blank white wall behind my desk, which always bugs me when I see myself on Zoom calls. This has been a stone in my shoe for three years since videoconferencing became commonplace. I’m jealous when I see other people have excellent backgrounds for their Zoom calls.

    A friend suggested I just get a couple of guitars and put them behind me. “But I don’t play guitar,” I said. “Doesn’t matter,” my friend said. “Anybody asks, you just make a sad face and say, ‘Oh, I just don’t have time to play anymore.’”

    I found a local shop that sells movie posters, with a focus on midcentury grindhouse horror movies. Having a poster for “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” hanging behind me for business meetings would definitely send a message.

    → 8:54 AM, May 24
  • I wrote: Red Hat secures the software supply chain. Red Hat unveils Trusted Software Supply Chain, which tracks where open-source components come from and whether they are trustworthy to “provide customers with the added assurance that the bits they are deploying are safe and secure.”

    → 6:45 AM, May 24
  • Oracle’s Larry Ellison gears up to spend millions to back Tim Scott’s 2024 run. Of interest to my Oracle pals.

    From what I saw working there two years, the culture within Oracle is extremely progressive. Inclusive, good benefits, supports environmental causes.

    On the other hand, Larry Ellison himself is very conservative. He supported Trump and now this.

    An odd juxtaposition.

    → 10:38 AM, May 23
  • Ray Stevenson Dead: ‘Punisher: War Zone,’ ‘RRR’ Actor Was 58. I’m sad to hear it. To me, he’ll always be Titus Pullo, the lovable cuddly murderous psychopath from “Rome.”

    → 1:18 PM, May 22
  • I can proofread my article or generate a cool Midjourney image to accompany said article. Gee, tough decision. Do I want kale or chocolate cake?

    → 12:01 PM, May 22
  • If the Apple VR/AR headset debuts, and it’s as described in leaks, it’s going to be the biggest flop in Apple’s history and one of the greatest tech flops ever.

    Nobody’s interested in wearing a Batman mask all day.

    → 11:29 AM, May 22
  • Ex-Apple marketing executive says the company’s upcoming ‘Reality’ headset risks being ‘one of the great tech flops of all time’

    → 11:20 AM, May 22
  • Mimestream is a Mac Gmail client that’s worth paying for

    A goofy cartoon mailbox, generated by MidjourneyMimestream is a native Mac app for accessing Gmail. It gives you Gmail’s advanced capabilities, including Priority Inbox, categories, and labels, in an app that looks and works like a native Mac app. 

    The alternatives to Mimestream are Gmail’s web interface, which I find cluttered, or native Mac mail apps, which look and work like Mac apps should but don’t give you all of Gmail’s capabilities. 

    Mimestream has been in beta and free to use for years. I’ve been using Mimestream for most of that time. Now, Mimestream exits beta and gets a few juicy new features for organizing multiple accounts, muting some accounts at scheduled times (for example, if you’d like to mute your work account during personal time), configuring filters and more. Templates with variables will be useful for people who repeatedly send versions of the same email, such as customer support. And a menu bar extra lets you check to see what’s new without opening the app.

    Other features of Mimestream: Support for Markdown formatting, Google calendar responses, Google Contacts integration, mentioning colleagues to bring them into the conversation, and syncing with Gmail signatures. More here.

    Mimestream is a fast app. With it, I can fly through my email quickly, with minimal hassle. I’ve been using Gmail for more than 15 years, and there are still aspects of that interface I find confusing. That’s not a problem with Mimestream.

    I’ve liked using Mimestream and will gladly pay for it. Pricing is US$49.99/year or $4.99/mo. Beta users, like me get 50% off for the first year. $25 is a reasonable price for a year of an app I use all day, every workday.

    People who are only occasional Gmail users looking for an alternative to the Gmail Web interface might be happy just sticking with built-in Apple Mail, which is free with your (expensive) Mac. In the past, Apple Mail was unreliable with Gmail, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem lately.

    Mimestream was founded by Neil Jhaveri, a software engineer who worked at Apple 7½ years, leading and managing engineering teams working on Mail and Notes. According to the product roadmap, the company is working on expanding Mimestream beyond Gmail to support other mail services, including Microsoft Outlook. They're also working on iPad and iPhone versions of Mimestream.

    → 7:22 AM, May 22
  • Daring Fireball notes that the first version of many Apple products is historically overpriced and underfeatured. That’s how Apple works. They grab the affluent early adopters first, and then over the years the price goes down and capabilities improve. Example: The Apple Watch.

    So if the Apple headset is overpriced and underfeatured, that’s no reason to declare it dead on arrival.

    → 6:57 AM, May 22
  • Surprisingly insightful art observations from “The Simpsons."

    → 6:22 AM, May 22
  • Kraft Heinz unveils Remix, a customizable Internet of Things sauce dispenser with more than 200 condiment combinations.

    → 9:53 AM, May 21
  • A man named Wilfred Pickles brought regional dialect to the BBC in 1941 as part of an anti-Nazi-propaganda strategy.

    → 8:14 AM, May 21
  • School librarians in seven states face possible jail times and hefty fines for giving kids books that acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ people.

    → 7:10 AM, May 21
  • A lawsuit in Florida illustrates how two racist LGTBQ-phobic fanatics can get books banned in an entire school district..

    → 6:54 AM, May 21
  • Pizza

    Pizza is my favorite food. We have pizza once a week. There have been times in my life when I have had it more often than that. I have had great pizza and I have had good pizza. I love the pizza they served on Fridays in the school cafeteria when I was a little kid. I loved riding my bike up Larkfield Road with my friends, and getting a slice of pizza at the place on that road. I love going back to New York and getting pizza from places with formica counters that serve you slices on paper plates. I love Chicago deep dish pizza, but I’m told it is not the pizza that Chicagoans eat. I love the pizza that we have when we go back to Ohio to visit Julie‘s family. Ohio pizza is covered edge to edge with pepperoni, cut into strips, and baked with a coating of cornmeal on the bottom to keep it from burning in the oven. Even frozen pizza, bar pizza and cafeteria pizza is delicious. Of all the thousands and thousands of pizza meals I have eaten in my life, only one was bad.

    → 4:58 AM, May 21
  • Walking with the dog the other day, I saw a big snake on the path. 5-7 feet long and fat. This was a couple of days after seeing a coyote walking down the street. I guess we live in Jumanji now.

    → 4:27 AM, May 21
  • What if we had a political party that represented working people? All working people. Everybody. All races, ethnicities, genders, sexes, and religions. White, Christian, Black, Jewish, Muslim, agnostics, atheists, men, women, trans, and nonbinary.

    → 11:51 AM, May 20
  • Am I too old to use the word “banger?”

    → 11:11 AM, May 20
  • There’s been a lot of ink spilled on the Trump transformation of the GOP, but Dems’ transformation from a party representing labor to a party representing McKinsey consultants is less well understood.

    — Cory

    Banger link roundup today: Medieval people didn’t drown cats; they LOVED cats. AI hype is a scam to allow bosses to “fire all our asses and replace us with shell-scripts.” And more.

    → 11:11 AM, May 20
  • Supreme Court Leaves 230 Alone For Now, But Justice Thomas Gives A Pretty Good Explanation For Why It Exists In The First Place.

    Thomas, of all people, wrote a nuanced defense of the principles underlying Section 230.

    Mike Masnick at Techdirt:

    … there was nothing specific to the social media sites that was deliberately designed to aid terrorists.

    → 10:26 AM, May 20
  • “It makes you really appreciate how free we are as a country when you’re hiding under a desk with bullets flying over your head.” The Onion: Americans Describe What It’s Like Surviving A Mass Shooting.

    → 9:28 AM, May 20
  • Jamelle Bouie: There is a reason Ron DeSantis wants history told a certain way. DeSantis is continuing a long tradition. Lawmakers in the antebellum South censored textbooks to remove criticism of slavery.

    → 9:23 AM, May 20
  • The Four Freedoms, According to Republicans

    Jamelle Bouie at the New York Times:

    There is the freedom to control — to restrict the bodily autonomy of women and repress the existence of anyone who does not conform to traditional gender roles.

    There is the freedom to exploit — to allow the owners of business and capital to weaken labor and take advantage of workers as they see fit.

    There is the freedom to censor — to suppress ideas that challenge and threaten the ideologies of the ruling class.

    And there is the freedom to menace — to carry weapons wherever you please, to brandish them in public, to turn the right of self-defense into a right to threaten other people.

    → 9:16 AM, May 20
  • It amazes me when I see someone has worked at the same company for 20+ years. I respect that stability.

    → 10:35 AM, May 19
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