Heh, of course OpenAI would drop the Instant Checkout news the same day I was recording 12 gigs of video for my next post... Back to the drawing board. 😅

I stand with PBS. I stand with NPR. I stand with Stephen Colbert. I stand with Jimmy Kimmel. I stand with the First Amendment. PERIOD.* *Also #ReleaseTheEPSTEIN_Files

This is a long form version of what Adam Savage describes as having "a perspective" to share. I think it's a good razor for separation of AI-assisted creation and slop.

So, AI assisted art is absolutely a complex topic, but the position that it's entirely invalid because someone who uses that tool can't do it without the tool is a dead end. Just wait till those gate keepers hear about synthesizers... Besides, playing with AI has TAUGHT me so much...

Windows 11 is so shit, I'm going back to Mac asap. It's been a few years, but if I can't get my Ubuntu laptop to stop serving calendar notifications I don't want, and Windows can't disable the firewall hard enough to get to GOOGLE... Then I guess MacOS is the least bad option, again. Pity.

AI-assisted art is both spooky, and really fun for amateurs like me. For example, I wrote most of the lyrics, but couldn't sing or play it in any timeline of the multiverse. And yet, now this is a thing that exists, and I'm actually quite pleased with the result (3.5 hours of work, after all!)

When one of the friendly strays decides to hop on your lap. :3

Well, it's heavy on the "minimum" in MVP, but... Poolaroo is live!

On the left, the lie. On the right, reality.

Heading into San Francisco with a good friend and his dad for a day-long book-binding class. Excited to try something completely new, and with excellent company.

I may be late to the party, but does Oz remind anyone else of the Sheriff in Men in Tights?

This pub restroom is a crash course on color theory, with the shadows.

OpenAI has just announced a new shopping experience in ChatGPT 👀 Looking forward to test it and compare vs current Google product/merchant related results 👇 Will this accelerate the release a Google Shopping assistant?

Prediction: In less than 3 years, a major appliance brand will be based on something like "Low-tech, high quality." Not everything needs to be computer, my glitchy washing machine not least of all.

12 times in theater. A handful since then, too.

I took the day off, and while exploring, I was in two different locations that were playing Weird Al songs. We may just be okay, after all.

As a kid that grew up adoring Industrial Light and Magic, you know what held up well enough to still be a bunch of delightful, funny, cheesy goodness? Judge Dredd, with Stallone. It isn't 5th Element or anything, but it wasn't trying to be. I mean, the giant robot puppet alone...

It's convenient that AI coding tools speed things up somewhat, as I am definitely coding slower than I used to. Of course, long days and high levels of caffeine are no longer a lifestyle I want, or could do again. As long as tech keeps advancing faster than I age... I can make that work. 🤓

Two more buckets of litter extracted from the neighborhood. It's so nice to be out on a spring day, leaving things better than I found them.

The Wellermen were fantastic tonight! So glad they stopped in this little town on their west coast route. I can always use more Scottish/Irish/Nautical/Folk sing along music in my life!

It... is... ALIVE!!! Poolaroo's photo studio is finally to minimum viable product status. Now, to just take a few ranks in photographer... 😅

Paint is done, branding is up, and first product is waiting! Next... to set up and learn the flash controller and camera. That should be the easy part, right? 😅 #ecommerce #poolaroo #shopify #productphotography

My exhausted mug notwithstanding, getting pretty close to a working white seamless! That's just with the ceiling lights and my phone, so the actual light rig, camera, and post should work! #ecommerce #poolaroo

Oh, wow. My friend Blake is apparently a stunningly talented music creator. He just dropped a whole album, and it's some of the smoothest, grooving-est stuff I've heard in a while. open.spotify.com/album/75QLuW... Track 3, "younger" reminds me of hanging out with him, in fact.

Learning C++ in 2002: You have to be really explicit with your variable types. It's a hassle. Learning Javascript later: You don't have to worry so much about types, it'll figure it out, probably. Learning TypeScript now: What if javascript were more like C++? Time is a closed loop.

I may never be rid of the cornstarch-fine dust from multiple rounds of putty/sanding... But down to maybe one round left! Close enough I picked up the paint and rollers on the way. Overkill product photo backdrop? Yes. Regrets? None.

Phew! I was so worried those panels would split as I bent them, but it works! Buckets of wood putty alternating with rounds of sanding are next! #ecommerce #productphotography #cyclorama

Modern everything-as-api logic is basically like saying "well, there's already a service to deliver things to my door, so I'm going to use FedEx to move my laundry from my bedroom to my washing machine." What did I get myself into... 😅 #oldmancoding #nodejs

After spending the workweek at my desk, working on Poolaroo, it's kind of nice to get back over here. So many hand-cut curves, I've generated literal buckets of sawdust, and taxed the hell out of the saw's (several) batteries. ...but this cyclorama is going to be worth it! Baby steps. 😅

You may not like it, but this is what peak performance (in e-commerce product photography) looks like. Only like eight more of those cyclorama ribs to cut, once the backup saw batteries show up. 😅

Links still matter to Google (no matter what they say), and so it's no wonder there's lots of companies selling links. But I'm amazed at how many really bad linkbuilding still goes on...and how many people charge for complete garbage. www.michaelcottam.com/laughably-ba...

This is how the pros do French onion soup, right? Well, it worked brilliantly!

I am experiencing equal measures of "wait, is this real?" and "holy shit, this is going to work."

There is so little competition for authenticity, I'm really having fun doing the opposite of what I see everywhere. No automated outreach. No AI-driven "personalization." When the bar is so low, why not go for it. As a wise friend of mine once said, "don't automate relationships."

While building a fully remote company has many rewards, there is still something magical about securing a physical space that makes a project feel... real. Welcome to Poolaroo's new product photography studio and return center!

"You should lower the price of your biggest seller to get even more volume!" is going to be the new "you should raise your budgets and bids." Conflicts of interest are real, and should not be ignored. Google is far from a neutral party in this. #googleads #ecommerce #aipricing #itsatrap

Another week done, and a lot of boxes ready to go to the new warehouse. Could have keys today or Monday!

After finally training my feed out of sports, it is 80% cats, 10% other animals, and 10% marketing geeks.

Google claiming they're doubling down on AI in 2025 is exciting and all... But I still feel like they're way behind OpenAI and Anthropic so far. Competition will be good for users, though, so I'm still rooting for them to catch up.

What would you test if nothing was off-limits? 🤯 This is half-mad, but I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with it! #ecommerce

SEMICOLON.

the new normal

This was inspired by something a friend mentioned about a similar puzzle they saw for their expertise, and I realized... that could work pretty well on LinkedIn... AND I could probably get AI to write the generator. And so I did. #ecommerce #ai #digitalmarketing

Can't wait for more clarity on the OpenAI rumors about Ads on ChatGPT... While I hope paid accounts are exempt (for my own selfish reasons), it would be interesting to see if it more closely resembles Search or Social in performance. Just rumors so far, but useful to think a move or two ahead.

Despite recommending *against* chill managers, I think @paddymoogan.bsky.social makes a lot of great points in this recent piece: thenewleader.digital/why-chill-ma...

Hopefully Bluesky recommendations improve with more interaction, as for now, my Discover seems to be, in order: 1. Political refugees from X talking politics. 2. Furry art. 3. Huge shirtless dudes. 4. SEO & Ecom (due to actual follows). Glad it's more inclusive, even if it's sometimes...

I believe 2025 is going to be renaissance for custom software solutions. In the mid-2010s, commercial software got good enough to tip build vs. buy. But with AI tools making coding faster/cheaper, I foresee a resurgence of custom solutions. And while cruft is a threat, innovation is EXCITING.

Okay, okay, after @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social's latest YouTube video, I suppose I'll rejoin digital society by joining BlueSky. At least I beat the other guy with my name to the platform. It's always a race to adoption with that guy. 😅