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  • Social Media Influencers Left Adrift With The Odyssey

    I find this move by movie maker Christopher Nolan to be quite fascinating. Prior to the opening of his next film, The Odyssey, Nolan is skipping the now usual round of screenings for social media influencers. In and of itself, it’s a great way to generate the same kind of annoying buzz that typically follows social media screenings. In the bigger picture, perhaps it’s the start of a healthier trend.

    A Christopher Nolan film is going to generate its own momentum one way or the other these days, regardless of what critics and influencers say early on. So, you can argue that it’s a shrewd move for a movie that’s already generated quite a bit of social media furor over casting and other issues. That said, I hope this move starts a trend that has nothing to do with this particular movie.

    Social media influencers, like critics, are by and large out for themselves, more than whatever they’re covering. They were born that way. Critics evolved into that mutation. What we used to call critics will say they are there for their readers, relying on that trope far too often. Social media influencers don’t even try to fall back on that concept as an excuse. It’s a hit and run business.

    Those days when criticism on any level was an opinion to measure your own against are largely gone. The world wants others to form their opinions for them. Everyone’s just too busy. Taking the time to think on your own is too hard and time consuming. Heck, in that context, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t eventually see early takes on new films, books, theatre, etc… generated by Artificial Intelligence.

    In my opinion, we’d all be better off forming our own opinions, but that’s not how the world works. I’ve often derided the Siskel and Ebertization of thumbs up, thumbs down movie criticism. The move to creating another substrate of quick hit takes via social media was both a logical and illogical extension of critics as personalities pleading for attention.

    The equation is a simple one that falls back on the cliché that any mention, good or bad, is good for business as long as the name is spelled correctly. That’s still largely true, thus my opinion that this is a shrewd move on Nolan’s part as long as this game continues.  Since any level of criticism has become a sport, that cliché has opened the doors to rooms empty of thought, nuance, and dare I say, substance.

    When criticism becomes a contact sport for attention it’s no longer criticism, no matter the form. 

    That’s my critical opinion.

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • No Surprise. Apple Raises Prices Due To Memory Woes

    Don’t be surprised. Don’t be shocked. Apple is raising prices. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook said a week ago that Apple couldn’t withstand the price pressure brought on by memory chip shortages, likening it a 100 year flood. Put on your waders John Ternus.

    Apple logo2.jpg.

    Translating that a bit, what Cook was saying is that Apple doesn’t want to cut into its historic profit margins. 

    Bloomberg has the report. As does everybody else. You’ll see lots of screaming, hair pulling, and much gnashing of teeth about this in the next few days. But again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise given all we’ve heard for so long about the pressures AI is putting on the chip business.

    Just remember, every time you’ve talked to that chatbot, you’ve helped make this happen.

    Here’s a statement from Apple to the Wall Street Journal.

    “We have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices,” [Apple] said in the statement. “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.”

    Note that there’s no mention of AI is the root cause. Rationalizations and spin will replace AI hallucinations and eventually absorbed into the corpus of knowledge about this.

    So what costs more?

    Even Apple’s latest big hardware success story, the MacBook Neo, originally priced at $599 is going up to $699. That has to sting. But so too will the sting for price increases for iPads and Macs. 

    Here’s a list of some of what’s more expensive.

    • MacBook Neo entry $599 increasing to $699
    • MacBook Air 512GB $1099 increasing to $1299
    • MacBook Pro 1T $1699 increasing to $1999
    • iPad Air 128GB $599 increasing to $749
    • iPad Pro Wifi 256GB $999 increasing to $1199
    • iPad mini $499 increasing to $599
    • iMac $1299 increasing to $1499
    • Apple TV 4K $129 increasing to $199
    • HomePod mini $99 increasing to $129
    • Vision Pro $3499 increasing to $3699

    At the moment iPhone prices remain the same. Expect that to change come this fall. You’d be a fool not to.

    I think this is the beginning of a cycle that is going to see most consumer hardware become more costly, eventually reducing the number of units sold. Somebody thinks that will even out. I’m not so sure.

    All because of an overhyped technology that is being forced into consumer hardware and the much hated data centers that are required to run it. Less units will be sold. But if your eye is on the price per unit margin, you’re missing the larger point. Math is hard. But it’s not that hard. Sell less, make less.

    Simply put, we’re at the beginning of a nasty cycle. Ask your chatbot therapist how you should handle it.

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • iMessages Bug in macOS 26.5.1

    Discovered a frustrating macOS 26.5.1 in iMessages. While I can send and receive SMS and RCS messages to Android users on my iPhone, I can only receive them on a Mac or iPad. 

    I’m not alone in this as I’ve seen several reports. Most point to the same timing of the bug appearing after macOS 26.5.1 was released, although some as early as 26.5. There is talk of it being possibly corrected in 26.6. 

    Given all the attention and focus on the OS 27 releases, here’s hoping that’s correct and 26.6 rolls out soon. Because I’ve tried all of the usual and recommended steps to try and correct the issue to no avail. The issue also seems to fall in that small minority of users circle of hell.

    I’ll write more as I discover more on this. But I guess since I only discovered this today, it tells me how few messages I’ve exchanged with Android users of late. 

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • Moments Captured and Not Captured

    There was a lasting moment last weekend after my wife’s performance in Hope Summer Rep’s production of Always Patsy Cline. The memory of the occasion will last even though there’s only a few dark and blurry photographs of the moments immedieatly after. 

    A bevy of family members had come into town for the show from several points on the compass. They included our grandchildren, eager to see Grandma T on stage. After the show the family fan club waited for my wife to appear and when she exited the theatre from the backstage door she was about a block away.

    Our grandson saw her, and holding a bouquet of flowers took off running at a full gallop to greet her. As speedy as he was, the run seemed to last forever.

    Now every adult had a camera on hand. But no one captured the run. Afterwards we all admitted that the length and speed of his running had us all holding our breath, afraid our sprinting grandson would take a tumble before he reached his grandma. 

    He made it. In high style. The photo above shows him and his sister, (who eventually caught up at a slightly safer pace) giving their Grandma T big hugs. 

    It’s a moment we all captured in our hearts, if not on video. It’s also one none of us will ever forget, but always share.

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • Today I Climbed Trees

    Spending the day with the grandkids. And today my grandson and I decided to climb a few trees.

    Actually he decided to climb a few trees. I just snapped the pictures.

    And it was good.

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • Sunday Morning Reading

    It’s been a crazy whirlwind of emotions lately. A death in the family. Keeping up with the grandkids. Celebrating my wife’s latest theatre gig. With that, Sunday Morning Reading is on hiatus this week. 

    Enjoy your Sunday, while I enjoy time with the grandkids. (If they don’t wear me out!)

    Thanks for reading. Feel free to subscribe if you want. It’s free. If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • What A Day! What A Night!

    That was some humdinger of a day and night yesterday. First up, we celebrated the grandson’s graduation from pre-school. 

    We followed that up by taking the grandkids across the state of Michigan to see Hope Summer Repertory’s production of Always Patsy Cline, featuring their “Grandma T” playing Louise. We weren’t the only family there for that evening’s fun and celebrations, as others made their way in from Chicago.

    Watching two youngsters (4 and 2) watch their grandma on stage was a delight for this cynical SOB of a grandpa, let me tell you. 

    It was quite a day. And in many ways, the weekend and the crazy week ahead is just beginning. 

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • Congrats To The Grad!

    Congrats to my grandson Sylvester, (we call him Sly) on graduating from pre-school today.

    Glad I got to attend the ceremony with his proud parents, and his oh, so skeptical sister. Her time’s coming. Now, on to bigger and better things in kindergarten this fall and beyond. 

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • Dear Algo Shenanigans

    I’m looking for someone to tell me I’m wrong here. Then we’ll laugh together. At the moment I’m laughing alone at what I believe is a masquerade that’s hiding the ball while promising social media users new capabilities. 

    According to reports, Threads, Instagram, and TikTok are offering ways for users to tune their own algorithms, providing better control over what they see in their feeds. 

    That’s the masquerade. I’m sure users will have a ball jumping at the chance to fine tune their feeds. That may indeed prove beneficial, but the way I see it this is just a way for Meta (Threads and Instagram) and TikTok to fine tune user preferences for better and more specific data collection and targeting. 

    I love this quote from the TechCrunch article:

    The shift reflects an evolution in how recommendation systems work. Social media feeds are moving away from a one-size-fits-all TV channel and toward something more like a streaming service, where users can tune recommendations to their interests and have more control over what they see. 

    Like that works so well on streaming media services.

    The “Dear Algo” posts, which I’ve seen on Threads for a while now, may send a signal saying none of, or more of this or that, but a signal is a signal that throngs of users will think they control, but it’s serving the companies more than it ever will the users. It’s the same game as before. The house always wins.

    Go ahead, call me crazy. But bad things get masked behind supposedly good things all the time. Oldest trick in a very thick book of tricks. 

    Looking at the big picture and speculating further one could argue that this is a tacit admission that these tech companies have discovered better, perhaps or perhaps not more efficient ways to capture data than their algorithms ever provided. I’m guessing AI has something to do with it.

    Actually, I’m not guessing.

    (Image from the author)

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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  • More Thoughts On The Economics Of AI Not Adding Up

    I wrote a piece last month expressing some thoughts on how and why I think the economics of Artificial Intelligence don’t add up. I’m expanding on a couple of those thoughts. 

    Shutterstock 1845864553.

    First, the cold feet of the bean counters are getting colder when it comes to the cost of token usage. Tokens, being the measure of how the cost of computing all of those requests to whatever AI engine is waiting to invoice for hallucinating, are proving to still be expensive and probably will be for some time to come. Unless the costs have been vastly overvalued to increase margins, those costs aren’t going to come down any time soon. 

    Second, in order to keep the pumps primed the race seems to be shifting from cloud servers to on device use. That sounds smart. It certainly is as a possible security measure and selling point. But at the moment, and probably in the end, already rising costs of hardware will continue to inflate as the memory demands needed to turn those on device dreams into hallucinations escalate. Segmentation of the market will continue. 

    Already we’re seeing strong hints that more and more memory is required to run the latest and supposedly greatest. That means newer devices with more memory, already becoming too expensive a proposition for many. As an example, only the newest Apple devices will be able to run all of the new features of Siri AI. Frankly, I don’t think that will turn into big new hardware upgrade cycles.

    Third, for those already turned off and pushing back on the AI curve I don’t think any of this matters at the moment. Will it matter down the road? Most likely, yes. It’s not about more expensive devices or service prices, it will all be about how the costs are spread around in other ways that we’ll never really see outlined in any price or feature comparison. 

    The bottom line is still the bottom line. Costs are going to continue to rise one way or the other, whether bubbles pop or not. And then the advertising will kick in. 

    (Image from Viktoria_P on Shutterstock)

    Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links. 

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