Posts by mimsical@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AatqaMDTAxHOQLw3Xs by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-10-18T16:16:37Z
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@grammargirl mimsy is a portmanteau?? I thought he just made it up.
(DIR) Post #Aau4G3RAgVgnkTYc8u by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-10-18T18:49:52Z
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@grammargirl this is amazing and, as a person named "mims", have to say you have in some small way just changed my life :)
(DIR) Post #Aau5NBS5Nt5SaSwrc8 by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-10-18T18:54:24Z
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always baffled, in a world with more good, rock-solid OS options than ever, why anyone but gamers and people forced by corporate IT departments still use Windowshttps://mastodon.social/@thekitmalone@hoosier.social/111256228805152236
(DIR) Post #Aau5NDIwUqxgKggadk by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-10-18T18:56:36Z
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I mean of course I realize the answer to "why do so many people still use Windows?" is that people are creatures of habit and this is also why Americans regularly commit so many other acts of self-harm
(DIR) Post #AbxMXUPQdclkgNB1Xc by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-11-18T15:25:47Z
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Social media isn't dying.It's turning into broadcast media."Faltesek, of Oregon State University, conducted a two-year project to study exactly what kind of content TikTok pushes.At the end of this exhaustive process of gathering data on TikTok’s algorithm, the conclusion became obvious: 'TikTok is television.'"https://www.wsj.com/business/media/a-handful-of-accounts-create-most-of-what-we-see-on-social-media-bdafa8f3?st=1a2o70zybggwjhy&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink1/🧵
(DIR) Post #AbxMXWQv739OxZtF8y by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-11-18T15:26:38Z
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Of course, what we used to do on social media -- update friends and family about our lives -- *is* moving to messaging apps.Hence Meta doubling down on Whatsapp, the rise of group chats, the reason for the turf war over "green bubbles", the tenacity of Snapchat, the rise of Discord.But "social" media? It's now the place that algorithms push ever more content from a handful of pros, and the rest of us are meant to just applaud and amplify.2/🧵
(DIR) Post #AbxMXYH4GeSSfbIP44 by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-11-18T15:27:12Z
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This is having knock-on effects that could be profound.Serious question: What if social media platforms more or less eat the entertainment industry?Already, you're having existing TV serialized to TikTok, and new shows going straight to TikTok.YouTube, meanwhile, is more popular among those under 35 than Netflix - by a long shot.3/🧵
(DIR) Post #AbxMXa9hH1kaVJrXqy by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-11-18T15:27:50Z
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The entertainment industry has long been focused on streaming services disrupting traditional TV and movie theaters.What's coming next is the disruption of those streaming services -- by the same platforms we think of, today, as "social."https://www.wsj.com/business/media/a-handful-of-accounts-create-most-of-what-we-see-on-social-media-bdafa8f3?st=jsv7qo53hqiaaif&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink4/4
(DIR) Post #AcB8byx2LYt9Q6aG48 by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-11-25T17:57:06Z
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The only thing you really need to know about the entire OpenAI drama just passed is that it's the dumbest thing ever.It's essentially a religious debate. Two factions battling over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin -- that is, how fast we should achieve artificial general intelligence, a thing that is absolutely not happening anytime soon.https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-accelerationists-come-out-ahead-with-sam-altmans-return-to-openai-a249605c
(DIR) Post #AcjdeK57LvDq5Rq24G by mimsical@mastodon.social
2023-12-12T11:40:29Z
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the internethttps://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/instagrams-favorite-new-yorker-cartoons-in-2023
(DIR) Post #AhZ6lQOOni93rRFnQO by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-05-04T20:52:58Z
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Most of history is people living nasty, brutish and short lives and modernity is a paradise by comparison, example 9,328:Before the introduction in the 1920s of iodized salt, iodine deficiency was so widespread in the northeastern U.S. that it was known as the “goiter belt,” for the painfully enlarged thyroid glands that millions had as a result of this deficiency.https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/05/01/iodized-salt-100-years-deficiency/
(DIR) Post #AilkjCSOhksdY6ufTs by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-06-09T13:59:13Z
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4/🧵Here's the key thing: Once you start monitoring traffic in cities 24/7 using data that's *already available* from our cars + mobile devices (and yes, it's anonymized) you can actually chop down the cost of maintaining existing traffic signals.No more expensive traffic studies to re-time lights. Crews can be redeployed to adjust timing on existing signals. "Green waves" of lights can be orchestrated to speed traffic from one signal to another when needed.
(DIR) Post #AilkjErHmByczsZZYG by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-06-09T14:00:03Z
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5/🧵To sum up, doing a complete modernization of an existing intersection can cost a quarter of a million dollars.Re-timing existing traffic signals using existing crews, and newly-available data and insights, actually saves cities money, while cutting down pollution.https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/google-green-light-traffic-light-optimization-992e4252?st=cnhqh4khkgroesu&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
(DIR) Post #AiwIEAt2NvphI5UxRg by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-06-14T16:55:20Z
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I'm a reporter looking to interview freelancers who have seen demand for their work go down -- or shift -- in the wake of ChatGPT and all the AI image generators. This is for a story about how freelancers, specifically, have seen demand for their labor change as use of AI has spread.Any help is greatly appreciated!
(DIR) Post #AlAECzPXtSizQb2zFg by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-08-20T12:19:46Z
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Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Now the Worst Buyout for Banks Since the Financial CrisisLoans of around $13 billion have remained ‘hung’ for nearly two years, weighing on banks’ balance sheets* The resulting write-downs have hobbled the banks’ loan books* "Twitter isn’t only the biggest hung deal by dollar amount since the 2008 financial crisis but one of the biggest of all time"(gift link)https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musks-twitter-takeover-is-now-the-worst-buyout-for-banks-since-the-financial-crisis-3f4272cb?st=c98dc9gatf4xozt&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
(DIR) Post #AlQtoOcqJZ2ezfa5s8 by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-08-28T17:37:40Z
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An early finding from research for a future piece: A neurologist and neuropsychologist I interviewed pointed out to me that the essence of mindfulness is to sit with one's thoughts and not pass judgment.But social media is often a slot machine designed to induce the compulsion to comment and pass judgment on *everything*, and is in this way precisely the opposite of what millennia of wisdom has revealed is one key to a good life.
(DIR) Post #AmApXT7QtQVtSfidA8 by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-09-19T16:50:52Z
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U.S. citizens are far more likely to commit pretty much every type of crime than either legal or undocumented immigrantshttps://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014704117
(DIR) Post #AmOj6sFVTKWC4RrzIe by mimsical@mastodon.social
2024-09-26T12:57:20Z
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Gamers, accessibility nerds, please help me:I need a video game controller for a person with good fine motor skills but extremely diminished gross motor skills (can't lift arms, etc.) so they can control an iPad and therefore a bunch of accessibility apps on it (including critical communication ones)should be small-ishthanks!
(DIR) Post #AuX0ab1JayYnjPTa8u by mimsical@mastodon.social
2025-03-22T14:38:18Z
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Thanks to Steve Jobs and Gorilla Glass, factories in America are now ramping up to make affordable windows, made from panes thinner than a credit card, that can:* save Americans $25 billion / year* withstand a 2x4 shot out of a cannon(gift link)https://www.wsj.com/business/corning-window-gorilla-glass-4f443b07?st=UPDbcE&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
(DIR) Post #AvlazEEMoMv1bCfWWe by mimsical@mastodon.social
2025-07-03T19:08:50Z
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Help a journalist out? I'm looking to talk to researchers, engineers, students or entrepreneurs who are considering leaving the U.S. because they lost funding or are worried about visas or anything like that. I'm at mimsical.94 on Signal