The Flash – Official Trailer is here. It looks good.

Even though Ezra Miller is problematic, I’m pretty hyped for this one.

The Flash is all about time travel and explores the commonly-discussed paradox of meeting your past self, which happens to the Flash’s alter ego Barry Allen. Also, the paradox of changing the past big time and ruining everything is the main plot. However, the real hook in this trailer is the return of Michael Keaton as Batman. I am not making this up. In fact, there are two Batmans, the other played by Ben Affleck, and two Flashes. And, of course, a whole bunch of other superheroes and supervillains. The Flash hits theaters on June 16.

Ted Chiang explains how ChatGPT is better understood as a lossy compression algorithm:

Imagine what it would look like if ChatGPT were a lossless algorithm. If that were the case, it would always answer questions by providing a verbatim quote from a relevant Web page. We would probably regard the software as only a slight improvement over a conventional search engine, and be less impressed by it. The fact that ChatGPT rephrases material from the Web instead of quoting it word for word makes it seem like a student expressing ideas in her own words, rather than simply regurgitating what she's read; it creates the illusion that ChatGPT understands the material.

There is very little information available about OpenAI’s forthcoming successor to ChatGPT, GPT-4. But I’m going to make a prediction: when assembling the vast amount of text used to train GPT-4, the people at OpenAI will have made every effort to exclude material generated by ChatGPT or any other large-language model. If this turns out to be the case, it will serve as unintentional confirmation that the analogy between large-language models and lossy compression is useful. Repeatedly resaving a jpeg creates more compression artifacts, because more information is lost every time. It’s the digital equivalent of repeatedly making photocopies of photocopies in the old days. The image quality only gets worse.

Indeed, a useful criterion for gauging a large-language model’s quality might be the willingness of a company to use the text that it generates as training material for a new model. If the output of ChatGPT isn’t good enough for GPT-4, we might take that as an indicator that it’s not good enough for us, either.

I really like this whole analogy, and I think it pairs really well with experiments using Stable Diffusion as a lossy image compression algorithm.

Elizabeth Blair, writing for NPR, has the obituary of Burt Bacharach.

So many songs. What a body of work.

My favorite is “What the World Needs Now is Love.”

Joey Wagner, writing for the Illini Inquirer, has a well-written profile on one of the most interesting dudes in college basketball and one heck of a player.

Matthew Mayer is a little weird, which is a good thing. I think.

Ralph Hertwig, Stephan Lewandowsky, Anastasia Kozyreva, and Sam Wineburg have an interesting article in The Conversation.

I’d never heard of this concept before.

Critical ignoring is more than just not paying attention – it’s about practicing mindful and healthy habits in the face of information overabundance.

Something we all need.

The editors at Fatherly made a list of things every father should do for themselves.

It’s important to spend a little time every day attending to your mental and physical health. Why? Simple: Finding—no, making—the time to go for a walk, work on a hobby, establish a better relationship with your phone, give yourself some joy, push yourself, or make yourself sweat can lead to a better, more available you.

I liked #20, #28, #33, #44, #53, and #54. Of course, they are all good ideas.

This Saturday Night Live sketch was on point. Everybody remembers the finale of _MAS*H _and All About Eve, but we don’t share those experiences as a society anymore. There’s hundreds of streaming choices on dozens of platforms that anybody can watch anytime.

There just aren’t any touchstones.

Brandon Toews of Drumeo took a deep dive into the incredible, multi-faceted genius of legendary drummer [Stewart Copeland](The Genius Of Stewart Copeland). He further notes how Copeland’s international upbringing, sense of adventure, and search for knowledge gave him the percussive tools to make him one of the most distinctive drummers in the world, both with The Police and beyond.

Much later in my musical journey, I discovered how amazing Copeland was and continues to be. I love deep dives like this.

David Frum, writing in The Atlantic, thinks the GOP is obnoxious.

I believe Frum is spot-on here. It will take a transformative candidate to really make a difference in this political landscape. I’m not sure who that person is.

Who in the Republican party can exorcise him or herself from the Trump stink? Is there a Republican governor who is moderate?

Ashlee Vance, writing for Bloomberg, has a story about Bryan Johnson (no, not the one from AC/DC), who made $800 million in cash by selling his company to eBay. He decided to do everything in his power to de-age himself.

Johnson, 45, is an ultrawealthy software entrepreneur who has more than 30 doctors and health experts monitoring his every bodily function. […] Getting the program up and running required an investment of several million dollars, including the costs of a medical suite at Johnson's home in Venice, California. This year, he's on track to spend at least $2 million on his body. He wants to have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis and rectum of an 18-year-old.

“The body delivers a certain configuration at age 18,” he says. “This really is an impassioned approach to achieve age 18 everywhere.” Johnson is well aware that this can sound like derangement and that his methods might strike some as biotech-infused snake oil, but he doesn’t much care. “This is expected and fine,” he says of the criticism he’s received.

Johnson, Zolman and the team are more than a year into their experiments, which they collectively call Project Blueprint. This includes strict guidelines for Johnson’s diet (1,977 vegan calories a day), exercise (an hour a day, high-intensity three times a week) and sleep (at the same time every night, after two hours wearing glasses that block blue light).

[…]

There are some obvious signs that Johnson is at least healthier than most 45-year-olds. The dude is way beyond ripped. His body fat hovers between 5% and 6%, which leaves his muscles and veins on full display. But it’s what has happened inside his body that most excites his doctors. They say his tests show that he’s reduced his overall biological age by at least five years. Their results suggest he has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old and the lung capacity and fitness of an 18-year-old. “All of the markers we are tracking have been improving remarkably,” says Toll.

Jim Nielsen on the best time to own a domain.

That is why owning a domain (and publishing your content there) is like planting a tree: it’s value that starts small and grows. The best time to own a domain and publish your content there was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

While, I don’t do a lot of active promotion here, that can always change. The good thing, I’m right here and not going anywhere.

Katie Woo and David O’Brien, writing in The Athletic, has the story on Chip Caray joining the announcing team for the St. Louis Cardinals.

I’m excited about the prospects of this change. I haven’t really followed Chip Caray’s career, but I love the Cardinals and St. Louis connection and I expect he will be here for the rest of his career.

Humorist/National Treasure David Sedaris went on CBS Sunday Morning to share his thoughts on “irritating word choices” like being called “boss” by other dudes. It’s completely spot on, I mean, perfect.

Still a legend.

Robbie Knievel has died.

I grew up idolizing Evel Knievel and always thought Robbie was the best extension of what I loved as a kid.

My favorite jump of his is Caesars Palace.

Twitter’s API, the data interface that allows third-party apps and websites to fetch tweets and post new ones, died mysteriously right before I went to bed last night. I refuse to use the actual Twitter app on my phone. Twitter’s official client is hot garbage and it isn’t worth downloading. It is unusable.

This is the quickest way for me to simply not use Twitter.

Last month, I stopped posting to Twitter. My life did not change drastically. I still read my curated list of people I follow, but my proactive use of Twitter basically stopped.

I’ll be honest since Twitter broke third-party apps, I might be done with Twitter for real. TweetDeck still works, so I’m not completely off the platform just yet. However, if I can’t use Tweetbot on my phone, I simply will not be checking Twitter on my phone. End of the story.

As of this writing, all the popular third-party clients like Tweetbot and Twitteriffic are still down. Of course, Twitter hasn’t said anything about this situation. The affected developers of those clients have heard nothing. Is it an unintended outage? Who knows? Twitter barely has any staff. If this were a strategic decision, I’d figure Musk would be telling everybody about it and pushing the actual Twitter app. None of that is happening.

If this is intentional and third-party apps are not coming back, my use of Twitter will plummet. Seriously, Tweetbot not working has been way, way more effective at keeping me focused on what needs to get done than any Screen Time or Self Control apps that I’ve ever used.

Ultimately, that’s probably a good thing.

I wish I could muster much energy to write about the clown show currently happening and has been happening for several days now in the United States House of Representatives. I’m not one for popcorn watching the proceedings with glee. I’m more in line with what Dahlia Lithwick of Slate wrote:

We’ve moved on to the next era, the post-Crazypants era, in which various unqualified gun nuts and racists vie for the empty throne, without either the purse or the limited vision of the reality-show star who came before them. None of the disruptors care about much of anything at this juncture. Whether the prospect of Trumpism without Trump chills you or relieves you, the fact is that the MAGA faction that has stymied the transition to a GOP-led House is essentially leaderless—but it is also powerful. That is not, at least to my eyes, a meaningful improvement on 2021.

Sigh.

If you are confused, watch this:

Understand how government works, so you can see that it’s not working. #Speakerofthehouse pic.twitter.com/bJVSE8ZW8K

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) January 6, 2023

I always find it fascinating how others set up their iPhones. Do they use widgets? Are they minimalist, or do they just have a springboard of icons in no discernable pattern? Do they use wallpaper from Apple or one of their pictures? Do they use a third-party app to change icons?

A simple Google search can yield thousands of ideas. Many of them use third-party applications to make specialized edits. For a time, I changed my icons using a Shortcuts instance and tried to create the most aesthetically pleasing screen. It didn’t last because I simply got bored with the icons and the hassle of changing them.

For the most part of 2022 and into 2023, I have decided to stick with the original app icons and make stronger use of widgets and, specifically, a single large widget stack to quickly roll through information. Additionally, I increased my use of the left-side pane for a stack of widgets at the ready. My home screen widget stack has Weather, Calendar, Inoreader, Google News, Spark, Overcast, Audible, Notes (for Family Food Orders), Reminders (This Week), and Photowidget. On the left is where I have Google Search and Apple Fitness, as well as specialized square widgets for my Reminders List for Shopping and Inbox for quick access. I also have squares for my work Notion page and Day One, which I restarted my use of in 2023.

When I upgraded to the new iOS 14, I was afforded the lock screen widgets. This is a pretty cool idea, even though all I’m really using it for is Calendar and Weather. I love having these on the lock screen, but they aren’t dealbreakers or anything.

At the bottom, I have Phone, Messages, Sleep Cycle, and Life360. I use Sleep Cycle every night to track my sleeping and Life360 to be able to track the people in my household.

Overall, this works for me. Inoreader is my RSS reader of choice, and I’m thinking I might upgrade to the paid tier. Overcast remains the single best podcast app. I’ve grown really accustomed to using Spark for email, but I could drop back into Mail.

While I’ve tried other third-party apps, I inevitably find myself going back to Weather, Calendar, Notes, and Reminders. The native apps work for me, and they are getting better with each iteration.

It will be interesting to see how my iPhone looks at the end of the year. I don’t anticipate big changes, but who knows?

Here’s a sneak peek at season two of Foundation.

I generally liked the first season even though I don’t think it uses it’s source material much. Dune was a better adaptation. Still, I get they had to deviate significantly from the original Asimov to make any of it work in the 21st century.

The bottom line for S2, I want to see the Mule.