Aside from the old-man-in-a-wooden-rocking-chair-on-a-porch tone, it seems to me that the author's beef is mainly about back-patting, and how the "Whatever" machines are flooding the pat-me-on-the-back platforms with "Content" that makes their own stick out less, resulting in fewer back-pats.
The last line of the article summarizes it perfectly.:
> Do things. Make things. And then put them on your website so I can see them.
I subscribe fully to the first two sentences, but the last one is bullshit. The gloom in the article is born from the authors attaching the value of "making things" to the recognition received for the effort. Put your stuff out there if you think it is of value to someone else. If it is, cool, and if it's not, well, who cares.
> I can’t remember exactly what they said, but it was something like: “I created a whole album, complete with album art, in 3.5 hours. Why wouldn’t I use the make it easier machine?” This is kind of darkly fascinating to me, because it gives rise to such an obvious question: if anyone can do that, then why listen to your music? It takes a significant chunk of 3.5 hours just to listen to an album, so how much manual work was even done here? Apparently I can just go generate an endless stream of stuff of the same quality! Why would I want your particular brand of Whatever?
This gem implies that the value of the music (or art in general) is partially or even wholly dependent on whether or not someone else thinks it's good. I can't even...
If you eliminate the back-patting requirements, and the stuff we make is genuine, then it's value is intrinsic. The "Whatever" machines are just tools, like the rest of the tools we use, to make things. So, just make your things and get on with it.
I think there are more generous interpretations than "the value of art is dependent on whether someone else thinks it's good".
I had an interesting discussion with a piano teacher once. Some of his students, he told me, would play for themselves but never for any kind of audience. As the saying goes: if a musician plays a piano in a closed room with no one to hear it, does it make a sound?
Obviously there's nothing wrong with extremely personal art that never gets released to the wider public - not every personal diary should be a blog. But there's also the question of what happens to art when none of it gets shared around, and vibrant art communities are, in my opinion (and I think also the author's), something to encourage.
> if a musician plays a piano in a closed room with no one to hear it, does it make a sound?
I get what you're after, but that's not a very good example. If a musician is playing an instrument, then of course the musician hears it.
Now, imagine instead that it's a player piano, and the lone "musician" is not actually playing anything at all, but hears the sound of the tones he/she had randomly generated by a "Whatever" machine, resonating through the actual struck strings, and resonant body of a piano, and the hair on the back of their neck stands on end. Then the music ends, the vibrations stop, and all that is left of the moment is whatever memory the "musician" retains.
Was that music while being heard by the "musician"? Is it music when it's just an melody in the "musician's" head? What if it's wasn't a piano at all, but just birds singing? Is it still music? If it is, is it "good" music?
Yes, the world is changing fast, and no, we humans don't seem to handle it well. I agree with the article in that sense. But I see no use in categorizing technology as dystopian, just because it's been misused. You don't have to misuse it yourself, or even use it at all if you don't want to. Complaining about it though... we humans are great at that.
This is cool, but still lagging behind VS Code. I still can't the enterprise/premium models in VS (I can in VS Code) so no Claude 4 Sonnet. I even went so far as to try some C# dev in VS Code just to see how the Claude 4 deals with C# - Meh. In comparison, I just wrapped up a C++ microcontroller project in VS Code using agent mode and it was amazing. In retrospect I recognize that Claude will resort to grep and other text based tools. This works well when all the sources are included, less so with Nuget packages. If the models can aim better at intellisense tooling, they'd be more effective. IMO Copilot agents in VS are not quite there, but not far off.
It seems to me that the fundamental tenants of "education" are being disrupted here. I have always found learning in order to do things far less intuitive and interesting than doing things in order to learn. The incentive structures of our education systems are wonky (reflected in this post). Maybe they could use a good shakeup.
One step further. I just installed the Emporia Vue 2 in my distribution box. 16 CTs plus the three mains phases. It's ESP32 based and there is a great ESPHome project that you can flash it with for local only reporting. Add some HA and VictoriaMetrics, and now I can see how the whole house behaves with Grafana. Next up, Zero-Export using this data to steer my little OpenDTU solar plant. We live in such cool times!
Victoria metrics and grafana is great. I only wish I could enter descriptions for the metrics to populate the description in the grafana metrics explorer which is traditionally done by Prometheus metric metadata “help” field.
Victoria metrics/ grafana is supplanting our industrial historian, which is admittedly not a best in class product - I am sure osi pi is better
Eh, that's even more expensive. I think I'll end up having to develop my own hardware, even with Vue blowing $1500 for energy monitoring is a bit too much given how cheap the hardware can be.
The device the OP puts Tasmoto on from athom.tech can also be ordered for the same price pre-flashed with ESPHome to work with Home Assistant. I have used them with 2500W single-socket loads and been happy with them for a year or so.
For whole house load I'd recommend integrating with whatever smart meter tech your country uses.
For the in-between size loads eg. 32A breakers in a consumer unit I have not found a reliable and cost effective solution yet.
I bought a CURB Energy monitor about 6 years ago. Does anyone know if it's possible to flash open source firmware on it? It only has a cloud integration, but I would really like to hook it to to home assistant.
I did some scouting about for what microinverters would be usable without a full professional install, for a small under half kilowatt playing around. I was hoping I could snap up some used enphases & try stuff out with a 200w panel & my existing batteries. But I really didn't turn up much; most discussion online made it seem like you needed special installer access to get anywhere with Enphase. Exciting to hear maybe this microinverter idea might not be totally dead in the water.
I had a close friend with T1D who asked me to help him set up, and dial in a closed loop APS about two years ago. I took a deep dive into it and found it to be much, much more complicated than the PID type regulation I was expecting it to be. Plus, if I made a mistake, he might die. So I declined out of fear.
Unfortunately he did die just last March, alone in his apartment after slipping into a coma. His pump kept right on pumping him straight to his grave because the feedback loop of the system required human intervention, even if the human is incapacitated.
I wish I would have taken the risk, and I do hope this complicated, but solvable problem will be, and the solution made available to those who need it.
I am really sorry for your loss. I know you want to blame yourself but you could have just as easily killed them setting up the loop as well. Plus with no one to maintain the system they would have likely run into many issues. It isn't a system to be set up or maintained by those who aren't willing to dedicate a lot of time and understanding at this point and who are not technically inclined.
For most T1D the best prevention if you can afford it is still a CGM(which you need for the loop too) and making sure your low alert system works and you have another person connected to your data in case you are incapacitated with their low alert system set up. I'd also love to see this hooked up to EMS eventually too.
Unfortunately for many people the cost of a CGM or getting insurance to cover it is the prohibitive factor though. I really hope this part of the equation changes someday soon.
We designed and built the RIME antenna for this craft. It deploys to 16 meters long and weighs only 1.5 kg! See [1] for some more info.
If you are already in, or are willing to relocate to southern Germany, I'm looking for flexible, multi-domain software engineers to build out our small team here at SpaceTech. Check my profile if you are interested.
I had a brief look at the open positions listed on your website. The only (pure) SWE role that doesn't require a degree in electrical or aerospace engineering seems to be this one:
Yes, that's the role I'm looking to fill at the moment, but it's a small company, and the horizontal coupling is tight. A SWE here will be confronted with many hands-on EE and ME challenges as well (hence the on-site requirement). People who thrive in such environments are a good fit.
Lol, that neutral buoncy, super light material nervousness in the video for the deployment.
Dont touch it, but also do not break it, its machined from electrically carrying carbon fog.
I'm a SWE at SpaceTech GmbH trying to get our solar array factory up and running, and I'm looking for another SWE to help me out ASAP.
We're a small company specializing in space projects. We've delivered hundreds of solar panels to help power the OneWeb constellation, and now were building out our solar array factory to produce thousands more. If you:
* feel comfortable in C# and computer vision (HALCON experience would be awesome)
* can think for yourself and work independently
* are not afraid to get close to the metal and move some axes
* are already in the Bodensee region, or are willing to relocate there
For folks interested in a more basic, low level, open source approach to this topic, check out Electrodacus [1]. I built a small system using the SBMS0 in my camper van and have been pretty pleased with the results. If having access to schematics and source code is important to you, have a look.
I just this week shared my Open-Source DIY Eurorack Module [1] with the world, so I can fully relate to the article.
It is a TON of work to pull off what Thea is doing here, and then to execute it all with such exquisit marketing on top. I'm impressed and wish her all the best in this fun (but crowded) market.
The last line of the article summarizes it perfectly.:
> Do things. Make things. And then put them on your website so I can see them.
I subscribe fully to the first two sentences, but the last one is bullshit. The gloom in the article is born from the authors attaching the value of "making things" to the recognition received for the effort. Put your stuff out there if you think it is of value to someone else. If it is, cool, and if it's not, well, who cares.
> I can’t remember exactly what they said, but it was something like: “I created a whole album, complete with album art, in 3.5 hours. Why wouldn’t I use the make it easier machine?” This is kind of darkly fascinating to me, because it gives rise to such an obvious question: if anyone can do that, then why listen to your music? It takes a significant chunk of 3.5 hours just to listen to an album, so how much manual work was even done here? Apparently I can just go generate an endless stream of stuff of the same quality! Why would I want your particular brand of Whatever?
This gem implies that the value of the music (or art in general) is partially or even wholly dependent on whether or not someone else thinks it's good. I can't even...
If you eliminate the back-patting requirements, and the stuff we make is genuine, then it's value is intrinsic. The "Whatever" machines are just tools, like the rest of the tools we use, to make things. So, just make your things and get on with it.