I got a corner office.
Robot vacuum cleaner products are by far the largest category of consumer robots. They roll around on floors, hoovering up dust and dirt so we don’t have to, all while avoiding obstacles.
The industry leader, iRobot, has been cleaning up the robot vacuum market for two decades. Over this time, the company has steadily gained fans and a sterling reputation, including around security and privacy.
And then, something shocking happened. Someone posted on Facebook a picture of a woman sitting on the toilet in her home bathroom — a picture taken by a Roomba.
And the world responded: “Wait, what?!”
We’re quickly moving into a world of ubiquitous AI and computer vision. And these technologies need to be trained with real-world data. Locking that down, especially when these technologies involve hundreds or thousands of people around the world, is extremely difficult and likely to result in errors, leaks and hacks.
Here's what you need to know about how much your robot vacuum really sucks.
Amira bought these a few years ago, stashed them in a tagine and we couldn't find them until we unwrapped the tagine. (From my Nicebook.)
Augmented reality companies are working on the holy grail of AR: socially acceptable glasses that show high-resolution digital objects tethered to and interactive with actual objects and spaces in the real world.
The augmented reality people want to... augment reality!
But the generative AI revolution, led by OpenAI's ChatGPT, has changed demand. Instead of wanting to augment reality, the bigger demand that has emerged is the desire to augment the self through AI.
We still want AR. But even more than that, we want wearable AI appliances, so that are own brains can be augmented by the AI collective brain.
Dirt coffee cups, AI drawings from doodles, plus five great online resources and more!
I got to guest on TWiT with host Leo Laporte and fellow guests Nate Lanxon and Paris Martineau! We talked about all things Elon Musk, the enshittification of Twitter, Zoom calls for Parrots, AI, Chromebooks, Facebook, ARM, Tesla, Google, Sundar Pichai, YouTube TV, Imgur, Apple and more!!
Subscribe to TWiT and join the club already!
I'm staying at a pricey Airbnb in a fashionable district of Mexico City, working at the dining room table. Directly in front of me is a glass vase with a green ribbon around the top. The window is open and the blind mostly closed.
A sudden gust of wind pushed the blind, knocked over the vase, which started rolling toward the left edge of the cabinet. I shot out of my chair and lunged for the vase, in the process kicking my MacBook Pro cable with so much force it not only came out on the MacBook end, but the power brick end as well, ending up in a pile against the far wall.
My MacBook is actually perched somewhat precariously on a cardboard box, and could have been easily knocked off without MagSafe.
Well, I caught the vase as it was halfway to the floor. And my MacBook Pro didn't even move. Thank you, Apple, for listening to the people and bringing back the MagSafe feature!
One of the many complaints about remote work is that it's killing cities. Without all those suburban residents enduring soul-crushing commutes into the city every day to work in soul-crushing offices, cities are impoverished because empty office spaces neither bring in tax revenue nor support city businesses during the day.
Except they've got it backwards. By converting empty office space to housing for remote workers, they could massively increase tax revenue and business activity.
Here's my case for why remote work is the solution to the decline of cities.
This magnificent, spacious, friendly spot does it all: Las Barbacoas de Mexico slow-cook meat underground, they ferment underground, they grill, roast and bake. Super delicious place that you should not miss if you visit Oaxaca! (Full disclosure: It's owned by the Ruiz siblings, including Chef Alex Ruiz, who are friends. It's still fricken great.)
Portozuelo's Camping Under the Moon event with Chef Alex Ruiz and guest Chef Rodrigo Martinez involved this spectacular fire-roasted goat. This was slow cooking over the fire for hours before being chopped up and fulfilling its destiny to be part of some of the most delicious tacos ever. (That's the one and only Chef Alex applying herbs.)
This is a variation on a super popular snack here in Oaxaca. Normally, they just combine roasted peanuts and roasted grasshoppers, plus chili and other flavorings. This one, served at Los Barbacoas de Mexico, also has roasted agave larvae -- also known as agave worms or picudo del agave.
Amira and I attended Portozuelo's first-ever Camping Under the Moon event with Chef Alex Ruiz and guest Chef Rodrigo Martinez. Alex brought in a young mezcal maker to set up a coal-fired still and distill mezcal on the spot. (First, he sealed the parts of the still with corn flour.) He infused it with lavender and rosemary, and it was delicious. We drank it all night and then had more for breakfast. This is, after all, Oaxaca.
Seated from left to right, Chef Rodrigo Martinez, food super-influencer Salt Hank, the greatest cook in the world, Amira Elgan, me, the King of Oaxaca, Chef Alex Ruiz, some guy and, finally, Jesus Ruiz, who (along with the other Ruiz siblings) owns the amazing restaurant we're eating at and some other restaurants in Oaxaca.
The restaurant is an amazing new barbeque place called Las Barbacoas de Mexico where they slow-cook meat under ground.
Corn, cheese and hand-made salsa. I could eat these ingredients every day.
(I’m in the Oaxaca Valley at our friend’s organic farm and restaurant, called Portozuelo.)
This video is made from images created with Midjourney, animated by Kaiber.AI with an autobiographical poem written by GPT-4 and narrated by a voice made with Eleven Labs AI. The poem is conspicuously apt, meaningful and seems self-aware. (It's not, but humans won't be able to override their intuition that such AI is sentient and conscious.)
Holy week? More like holy shit!
The wait inside the airport gates looked like a couple hours. Fortunately we know of this spot some locals use that’s unauthorized but much quicker.
Another treat from Reina’s kitchen: ayote en miel. It’s squash slow cooked with water, panela, cinnamon and cloves.
Amazon just opened up a free, nationwide, low-power, wide-area network called Sidewalk. It's optimized for IoT devices. It’s great at securely and privately sending small quantities of data impressively long distances. It reaches 90% of the US population.
Some devices can connect as far away as several miles.
Here's a piece I wrote for Computerworld tell you everything you need to know about Amazon Sidewalk.
He said these are Brazilian coconut trees.
A mountain near El Salvador's capital, called Los Planes de Renderos is famous for eco parks, cool temperatures and, above all, top-shelf pupusa joints. Lining the roadways one can find dozens or possibly hundreds of pupusa restaurants, dives, street vendors and others. I call it "Pupusa Mountain."
Our current favorite is called Pupusaria Elisa. It directly faces another place called Pupusaria Isabel. (A few other restaurants sit in the same facility.) As you can see, Elisa is packed and Isabel is empty. We always find it like this. Last night, all tables were taken at Elisa, and all tables were available at Isabel. Quality counts, I guess.
Marinated in pineapple juice for a couple days.
We're spending a few days on the beach with friends and family. Not a vacation for me -- just another Thursday.
Ever heard of an icaco, or (in English), coco plum or paradise plum? It's a tropical fruit that grows on trees as close as 30 feet from the ocean. The closer to the water, the sweeter the fruit.
The tree is native to the tropical parts of the Americas, especially the Caribbean.
People eat them raw, cooked or made into jam.
The seed of the icaco is 21% oil, and some people burn them for light.
You can buy great pupusas in El Salvador -- great curtido (cabbage-based vinegar-flavored stuff) and sauce are harder to come by. But home-made is the best.
