The verge produces some good articles. This is not an example. I tried to read it, but quickly got bogged down in irrelevant fluff. So I skimmed the rest.
Then I searched the article for "Sullivan". Every other occurrence is followed by, "is mad" "is pissed" "impatient corporate stooge", and other improbable attacks.
Wow! She wrote a metric ton of words just to say, "I hate Danny".
It is true that Google is a swamp. Thank goodness for Kagi.
On the Mac there is ff·Works. It is a terrific GUI for ffmpeg. The way it works fits my brain better than the command line interface. I can stack up a bunch of jobs with any of the parameters I need and it munches right through. Works on a single file or 60 files with different setup for each one. Cheap and actively maintained.
I love Keyboard Maestro for all my Macs. It takes a while to learn all the quirks, but it does heavy duty work for me every day. I am not aware of any equivalent for Windows.
I have used dedicated key pads for video/photo editing on my desktop mac for many years. I’ve found that what matters most to make it more efficient and enjoyable is the quality of the key switches.
I started with a Genovation CP24 that triggers macros in Keyboard Maestro. I was very happy with the setup, but when Stream Deck arrived I got the big one and dove into making it work for me. Stream Deck is pretty impressive but the switches on the Gennovation are just better, so I went back. With the Gennovation a finger can just reach where it needs and feel that the click has been done. I could never get that level of comfort with the Stream Deck keys.
I also found that I preferred just making a paper label and popping it under the cover worked better that the cute Stream Deck key system. I can very quickly make paper labels that visually group similar keys. I can also make a key that needs to stand out from the rest. (Such as my universal delete key that works in all applications – saves me a lot of time but I had to learn to not be hitting it by accident.) Once I have labeled my keys just as I like, I don’t change them so the Stream Deck system seems like overkill.
I now have two Genovation CP24’s and one CP48 hooked up to my mac. I am so dependent on them that I browsed eBay to pick up some spares incase I ever need them.
Keyboard Maestro is the other indispensable element to my system. I has it’s quirks but seems to me that everyone should know it (or the PC equivalent) backward and forward. I have about 50 macros that get used every day. I have 252 macros in Keyboard Maestro right now. (I keep a lot of old ones around to serve as notes for making new ones, or for when software updates make one not work.) I can work on other peoples machines but I REALLY love using mine. There is just nothing like having a dedicated key that does a series of steps that you need done very often. It frees up my mind. Some of my macros in DaVinci Resolve do many operations without me having to think about stepping through each one. Same with Pixelmator Pro.
Keyboard Maestro is not just a Macro Recorder. It can control most of the Mac interface and most applications. You can start using it as a recorder but when you learn to to incorporate applescripts and other tricks, it can manipulate the entire Mac experience. I would be lost without it.
I also use Molly White's write-ups to loosely follow the everlasting crypto train wreck. This particular one is amazingly concise and easy to read. I hope she keeps it up. There is no way I would have the energy to look up all of this on my own.
Hold on there. If you're getting coverage like this, where someone comes and takes flattering photos of you, that's the kind of thing you get when you or your supports can fund a PR team to wrangle major journalists into covering you. I think she's fine on support.
Doesn't mean the criticisms aren't necessary or good, just speaking to the issue of whether you've found a shoestring operation, barely able to survive.
Excellent FUD. No actual claims, just casting vague aspersions based on nothing but some absolutely generic photos that are typical of what a newspaper photographer will produce.
As long as we're making unsupported allegations, can you prove that you aren't funded by the crypto industry or otherwise benefiting financially from crypto? Because it seems suspicious that you're going to go out of your way to produce high-quality FUD for free.
Funny how HN is willing to accept that submarines[1] are a thing, but, when it comes to a story with a framing they like, they will robotically defend the notion that these articles were 100% organic content, that some honest, well-meaning journalist decided, with no prompting whatsoever from any interested party, that this person's work merits being covered.
The very fact that they went through the effort and expense to stage some photos for the article means someone is being propagandized. Yes, they do that in other stories -- those are PR-driven too.
>As long as we're making unsupported allegations, can you prove that you aren't funded by the crypto industry or otherwise benefiting financially from crypto?
I didn't provide FUD -- I didn't even dispute the core these that White's ideas are worth listening to! I simply disputed one lesser, ancillary point that I think was over-the-top: that White is somehow short on funding or ability to get her message out.[3] Since you didn't do your research, I even personally made one of the very same criticism[2] as in her annotations.
So tell me, what about my writing made you miss the point this much?
I love Molly's work on web3isgoingjustgreat. I like following this slow moving train wreck, but just don't have the time or energy to read all the news reports on these projects. There is a lot of lazy "reporting" on crypto/web3 that seems to be lifted from marketing materials. Good critical analysis is out there but you have to hunt it down.
Molly's succinct write-ups are interesting to read. They are critical of the industry but never unfair. I drop by every few days to catch up. If a topic bears additional investigation I can dig deeper. Molly's work helps me easily sort through an entire class of news that I would probably just ignore. I hope she keeps up the good work.
I am not sure what you mean calling me a bot and implying that Molly does not work. It takes effort to keep up with all this stuff and post those summaries. I hope she keeps it going a couple more years.
Sorry about the delayed reply. I have busy schedule today.
A couple of very good computer forums that I depended on years ago were slowly destroyed by "long term users". A small group seemed to think that their long history and prolific posting made it their playground. Little by little it became less worth my time to check it out every day. This place is always worth a glance. Every day. On the best discussions you can sense that people only post if they feel they really have something to add.
I love what Dang refers to as HN's non-silowed nature. It is easy to find useful and fascinating discussions on any topic. When I have the time and energy, sometimes I dive in for a few hours. When I come up for air I'm tired but generally pleased with experience.
A common complaint here is that it ain't what it used to be. There may be a little more fluff now but when it's good - It's darn good.
This reminds me of a pub we used to go to occasionally in Berkshire. When one of the crusty old locals went to the bar, they were always served first, even if other customers had already been waiting a while. Great for them, but made for an unwelcoming vibe that definitely reduced their custom. We only put up with it because they had a great garden area for kids.
That last bit reminds me of Orwell's description of his ideal pub, the "Moon Under Water":
The great surprise of the Moon Under Water is its garden. You go through a narrow passage leading out of the saloon, and find yourself in a fairly large garden with plane trees, under which there are little green tables with iron chairs round them. Up at one end of the garden there are swings and a chute for the children.
On summer evenings there are family parties, and you sit under the plane trees having beer or draught cider to the tune of delighted squeals from children going down the chute. The prams with the younger children are parked near the gate.
Many as are the virtues of the Moon Under Water, I think that the garden is its best feature, because it allows whole families to go there instead of Mum having to stay at home and mind the baby while Dad goes out alone.
And though, strictly speaking, they are only allowed in the garden, the children tend to seep into the pub and even to fetch drinks for their parents. This, I believe, is against the law, but it is a law that deserves to be broken, for it is the puritanical nonsense of excluding children—and therefore, to some extent, women—from pubs that has turned these places into mere boozing-shops instead of the family gathering-places that they ought to be.
The Moon Under Water is my ideal of what a pub should be—at any rate, in the London area. (The qualities one expects of a country pub are slightly different.)
I'm sure the Moon Under Water would treat newcomers well, though!
Another feature of that pub I remember was a setup where patrons could dress up in Velcro vests, then jump onto a big trampoline and hurl themselves up as high as possible onto a Velcro wall where they stuck like flies. Fun times, if not Orwellian.
I'm not a fan of Musk overall, but Starlink is pure gold for us in rural America. Before this, my best option was 25Mbps for $125/mo.
I installed mine about 5 months ago. You really need to put it in a location that has no obstructions for the antenna's oval of coverage. The speed varies a lot but overnight and mornings I get downloads of 90 to 180Mbps. Afternoon and evening the range is 60 to 110Mbps. I measure these speeds myself from actual transfers of large files over the course of about one hour. Now and then I check to see what Ookla - SpeedTest - or Cloudflare report. They never agree with each other, even when running concurrently.
The FCC is not going to use Ookla data. The antennas are self installed. Many will be slowed down by obstructions, bad cabling etc. As mentioned above, many people only test when they have trouble. Once the trouble is fixed the new speeds are not added to the Ookla database.
Viasat is in a sad position. I don't see how they have a future at all. I think they only have two satellites that were launched by cheap Proton rockets. With Russia gone, they would have to pay much more for any future launches. The one thing they can do is spread fear to keep their business afloat a little longer.
It's pure gold for people in rural Australia as well. Our country is extremely vast with most of us concentrated on the cost in major cities. Our fixed internet speeds are not that great at all in major cities, let alone in the country.
Starlink provides fantastic speeds that no other solution can currently provide in the country. It's also not bureaucratically tied with another company that needs to provide the infrastructure. Which means you don't need to go through the hassle of an ISP, then the ISP liasing with the company that actually owns the infrastructure.
100%. My brother and I ordered it for my parents. We had an absolute max of 20 down previously. Dad was able to set it up by himself and we’re north of 200 most of the time. Absolute game changer
I built my own WISP which I have run for 20+ years, to get myself connectivity. Now I'm seriously considering dismantling it because Starlink is almost as fast and way cheaper and less maintenance.
Proton was very unreliable and while the rocket was cheap insurance was incredibly expensive. Proton got destroyed in the market and virtual all new contracts went to SpaceX. Proton has been removed from commercial service and is now only flying for Russia.
Russia is now basically out of the global launch business, there is no coming back after the shanked OneWeb (they will launch on Falcon 9 now).
Even beyond that, Viasat and other will have huge issues. Amazon literally just bought up essentially the whole market of heavy lift for a long time. They essentially bought all available Ariane 6, Vulcan and New Glenn launch.
There literally can not be a series competitor to Starlink outside of Amazon because there literally is not enough global launch capacity (outside of China).
OneWeb Generation 2 sats are contracted to fly on Relativity Space, they have not even made it to orbit with their first rocket and OneWeb already bought flights on their second rocket.
Any other competitors will need to make equally shaky deals with unproven companies, that are promising rockets around 2025 but those will likely be late and even once they fly scaling their operation will take many years after that.
Expect existing companies to announce agreements to fly on RocketLab Neutron and Firefly Beta in the next 2 years. Because otherwise you are not getting a huge constellation into the sky. Except with SpaceX and then you are just funding your competitor.
I'm an avid cyclist and this was a fascinating article. Well researched and well written. The author put in a lot of time to track down all the lies, but it sort of glosses over one point.
There had to be a ton of people that knew it was made up and did nothing. Why did't anyone make him put up or shut up?
If I lived within a few hundred miles of his shop, I would have dropped by just to meet him and get something I needed, probably more than once. When I got home I would have looked him up. Not to find a lie but because this is what I do. I meet a new interesting person and I want to dive a little deeper. It makes the experience more satisfying to me when I flesh it out with more details and photos.
A lot of this narrative takes place before everything was online, but I would expect to find some things. Finding nothing outside of the fakeable stuff like LinkedIn I would have dived deeper. The temporary Wikipedia listing would have really lit me up.
Seems to me that a hundred bikers knew about this clown and just let it fly.
Yeah that part is interesting while unfortunately being largely unknowable. A lot of people might've been aware of one or two lies and thought "Well what's the harm?" It's only when (as the author says) you start to appreciate the full picture that you realize what the harm is.
Well the lies slowly grew. They didn’t get wide circulation until 2021. By then he had befriended a lot of folks who were blinded by friendship. He took it too far with all the bogus KOMs and the Pez article. People did notice and everyone knew in 2020. The guys at the bike shop did nothing because they wanted a job. The women did nothing because they believed the second round of lies (it was all a misunderstanding about doping). Ultimately no one really cared enough about this none sense because they had real problems like COVID to deal with and no one had the time the author did to publish it all in one place.
Then I searched the article for "Sullivan". Every other occurrence is followed by, "is mad" "is pissed" "impatient corporate stooge", and other improbable attacks.
Wow! She wrote a metric ton of words just to say, "I hate Danny".
It is true that Google is a swamp. Thank goodness for Kagi.