NYC AI Chatbot Touted by Adams Tells Businesses to Break the Law thecity.nyc
New neighbors look nice.
The condo association rules say no pets.
I think we may have an ant problem.
How Would You Turn This Dial To Make The Freezer Colder? kottke.org
“The most accurate thing you can base your self worth on is what a dog thinks of you.” — @ennuidoofen.bsky.social. bsky.app
There were people born in the 1800s who used the Internet. reddit.com
Here’s something I saw while walking the dog.
I can envision myself starting to learn Photoshop soon. I look at this photo and think how much it could be improved if we just removed that darn green trash bin.
Lately, it feels like I have to tie myself up in a pretzel to make Obsidian do what I need and want it to do. Today, I’m experimenting with going back to DevonThink. If I get unhappy with that, maybe I’ll just use documents in the Finder.
Today I learned that Cleavon Little, who starred as Black Bart in "Blazing Saddles," grew up in San Diego.
Little graduated Kearny High School in 1957. He went on to San Diego State College, worked his way through college as a janitor and gave Black poetry presentations to clubs and groups, graduating in 1965 with a degree in speech therapy. He appeared in “A Raisin in the Sun” in 1962 at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. en.wikipedia.org
I rarely use Venmo, and when I do I’m always startled by its news feed. It seems like such a bad idea to broadcast records of payments. I’m not particularly concerned about privacy here—it just seems like a lot of noise. Why on Earth did someone think this was interesting information?
For the past two nights, I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to induce lucid dreaming
This started with my listening to a podcast episode about lucid dreaming on Inner Cosmos, hosted by Stanford University neuroscientist David Eagleman, with guest Jonathan Berent. I can’t find out much about Berent’s background; according to this website, he’s an “entrepreneur” and “lucid dream expert,” and he’s selling an app. Which, tbh, all sounds kind of sketchy. But he seemed reasonable in the interview, and I respect Eagleman so onward.
The podcast advises three techniques to induce lucid dreaming:
Keep a dream journal. Look for common factors in your dreams that can indicate you are dreaming. Berent says he grew up in Indiana, and though he now lives elsewhere, most of his dreams occur in Indiana. So when he finds himself doing something in Indiana, he assumes he’s dreaming. (Must be awkward on family visits.)
I forgot the second thing. Maybe review the dream journal?
Test yourself throughout the day to determine whether you are dreaming. Tap your teeth. Flick a lightswitch on and off. Push one finger against the palm of your other hand. Look at a clock or some text, then look away, and instantly look back.
We know what happens with those things in wakefulness; the behavior will be unexpected and weird in a dream. For example, your finger might push through your palm. The clock or text might change drastically when you look back at it. Your teeth might float away. If any of these things happen, you’ll know you’re dreaming.
I’ve been doing the reality testing several times a day; I set an alarm on my phone to remind me.
I haven’t done well at dream journaling. Ideally, you should wake yourself up after 5-6 hours and journal at that moment. But I have chronic insomnia—difficulty returning to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes three or four nights a week—and so I do not want to mess around if I’m getting a good night’s sleep. I did wake up once last night and got out of bed (for the normal reason one awakens and leaves bed—more common in middle-aged prostate-havers and pregnant people) and brought my phone with me and dictated a recap of my most recent dream. I haven’t listened to that recording; it may just be a minute of mumbling, a stream of water hitting water, followed by a toilet flushing.
I woke up many times in the night and was aware of having many dreams, but I could not tell you details of any of them—other than the one I journaled. I remember that one with a fair amount of detail.
From my listening to Eagleman’s podcasts and other reading about sleep, my failure to remember dreams is unsurprising. When we sleep, the part of our brains that records working memories—short-term memory—is switched off. Without recording short-term memory, nothing can get saved to long-term memory. Dreams are forgotten within seconds of awakening.
I said earlier that Berent sounded reasonable on the podcast, and that’s only 99% true. When Eagleman talked about “reality” and “dreaming,” Berent talked about “consensus reality” and “dream reality”—that they’re both equal somehow. This is bullshit. There is only one reality. Anybody who’s ever kicked a coffee table while barefoot knows that.
📷 Here’s something I saw while walking the dog.
What is lucid dreaming? [eagleman.com]
In 51 minutes since I posted this update, I’ve received two requests from companies asking me to take their customer service feedback surveys.
No, I will not take your customer satisfaction survey. Not now, not ever.
No, I will not take your customer satisfaction survey. Not now, not ever.
I’m doing more writing for Silverlinings and the upcoming Fierce Network site and looking for news, feature and trend ideas related to cloud infrastructure and platform, networking and AI for the enterprise. Hit me with your pitches and ideas at mitch@mitchwagner.com.