Matisyahu's Blog

Finished work tonight, went for my 11.6km walk, jumped in and had a shower and now relaxing in bad watching some YouTube videos. The day so far has been rather uneventful, got up, had brunch, logged into my computer and found that Google hadn’t released an update for Chrome – maybe something happened and it had to be pushed back to Thursday NZ time (Wednesday US time)? I guess we’ll need to wait and see for what happens tomorrow when I check for updates.

If Microsoft want to know why there is backlash against their whole ‘agentic OS’ idea then here is another article pointing out problems that have been left unaddressed with Microsoft demonstrating via the lack of progress that they actually care about fixing the problem (link). I’ve been lucky enough to not have any of the issues expressed in the article but others have – when you cannot get the basics done well then don’t be surprised there is push back online for dopey ideas such as ‘agentic OS’ – something no body asked for and no body wants other than the insufferable people you hang out with in silicon valley that are completely divorced from the real world.

On the Microsoft 365 saga and how it has been impossible for me to close the account – it appears that if you cancel a licence that the licence isn’t officially cancelled until the end of the billing cycle. The reason why I bring this up is because when I try to cancel the account it keeps coming back saying that I have an active licence even though all the licences are cancelled on the account.

I’ve been watching a few YouTube videos of synth music playing to a video montage of photos and videos and there is a feeling of not only nostalgia but also a feeling that there was a time where there was an optimistic vision of the future only for the future to arrive and it has been a giant disappointment. The internet was envisaged as being a way for the world to come together only to find that the optimism about social media has turned into a dystopian hellscape – providing a platform of people to show the worst side of themselves and there being no shame for behaving in such a way then algorithsm amplifying and rewarding such behaviour.

Products that were exciting have now become boring, what is being launched is filled with crap no one asked for meanwhile said companies can’t even get the basics working. Let’s not get started on the pointless waste of resources and energy the whole AI LLM is going to turn out to be all the while we have an environmental calamity coming our way but silicon valley dude bros have got their head firmly planted up their own backside while they enjoy their yacht that has another yacht inside it along side a sports car that costs more than the average house.

Oh well, maybe I’m becoming cynical in my old age but the optimistic future seems to be replaced with faux futurism – the illusion of progress without an real meaningful progress. I think a good part of this has to do with neoliberalism – where as in the past the government would engage in big nation building based forward looking vision of where to take the nation where as today what the government now does is little more than managed decline at best and at worst indifference to the fact that things that were taken for granted in the past, eg building public housing, is now marked in the ‘too hard’ basket as politicians come up with elaborate PPP because god forbid the government directly build something for the common good.