nikhil.io

“Do you take reservations?”
“How many?"
“Two"
“Just come in. Bye.” *Click*

I ♥️ NY

My friend ML adds “That or it’s ‘earliest booking we have is 2028’.”

Last night, I told the bartender that I needed to step out for a bit and if he needed my card. He said “If you fuck off I’ll just have a Guinness won’t I?” and walked away. I ♥️ NY

Here’s one way to recycle batteries (via). I remember BestBuy having a battery dropoff but they don’t appear to accept them anymore.

I’ve used Panasonic’s Eneloop rechargeable batteries for a long while with very few complaints. The last ‘regular’ battery I purchased was an Energizer Ultimate Lithium for a 10-year AirTag in my traveling suitcase.

I accidentally committed the faux pas of hitting reply-all on a message yesterday. One of the affected participants replied-to-all starting with a “Dear Nikhil: Thank you for connecting all of us over this issue.”

I was chided but smiled in awe of how wonderfully and delicately she handled this egregious breach of decorum 🤌 A masterclass in civility.

I have spent a lot of time trying to kill a tube of toothpaste and am now convinced that the last 10% of the tube hosts 90% of its payload. The Pareto Principle in action, in defiance of physical laws.

What I say each time I engage with the cornucopia of paste:

Read these two articles on the OpenAI and Jony Ive collab. Smelled some familiar bullshit first and felt some déjà vu next.

Thought the biggest thing you set out to do was Artificial General Super Intelligence (for the benefit of all humankind, of course).

Anyway. Ive’s company has a “staff of roughly 55 engineers, scientists, researchers, physicists and product development specialists” (source) who appear to be experimenting furiously with what to make, for this is what we’re told the thing will do:

The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk, and would be a third core device a person would put on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the device won’t be a phone, and that Ive and Altman’s intent is to help wean users off of screens. Altman said the device also isn’t a pair of glasses, and that Ive had been skeptical about building something to wear on the body.

Sounds like a sleeker version of this flaming piece of shit daring foray into the future of artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction:

Can’t wait for the Ive video introducing it. And he wouldn’t be the first ex-Apple person with too much money who had an idea on how to transform our relationship with our computers. Altman invested in that disaster too.

But I’m a know-nothing curmedgeon and it’s certainly possible that this will be an unalloyed success in the hands of these wizened titans of industry (even if Uber-Curmudgeon Ed Zitron doesn’t think so.) I wish the happy couple the very best of luck 💝

“Ni lerdo, Ni Perezoso”

My co-worker from Argentina shared this idiom after another delivered some delightful Friday Value™. It means “neither slow nor lazy” and is commonly used to describe people who attend to a situation quickly, decisively, and sometimes unexpectedly, with no hesitation.

Saving this since I look it up at least once a year.

This really sad article (cached) on how the author lost an older loved one to the unbelievable racket that’s Amway contains the most hopeful passages I’ve read about the current times. Emphasis and exorcism mine:

It’s hard to leave a delusion behind. In the run-up to the 2024 elections, I noticed the ways in which ****p’s political followers likewise struggled to abandon him. Some prominent ****p supporters may see him as a means to wealth or power. Others find meaning and community—or even vindication—in accepting the lies he tells. Maybe, eventually, when they see what his second administration delivers, some voters will peel away.

That’s what happened with Amway. The company is still a multibillion-dollar, global enterprise, though its domestic profile is now so much smaller that it has a page on its own website answering the question: “Does Amway still exist?” In the end, more people left than stayed. Those who came to their senses or were unable to sustain the delusion eventually quit. But things can get bleak in the middle.

This too shall pass. Let’s hope that we are all strong in what we choose to build after it does¹. But it’s going to suck for a while, and for the most vulnerable amongst us. Thoughts and prayers.

Perhaps a bit embarrassing since I’ve read the book so many times¹, but I had no idea that The Count of Monte Cristo was based on a real life story, thanks to this video.

Perhaps not as incredibly astounding as this overlay of Spectre¹ on the opening credits of the movie but this one of How to Disappear Completely over a few scenes from Lost in Translation just fits somehow.