Watching the sun rise over the Sahara desert give you an indescribable feeling. No need for shoes. It’s all just pure burnt-orange sand in the Moroccan Sahara. You really should add this to your bucket list. 

Reverse prompt engineering is the process of querying text-producing generative AI tools like ChatGPT to find out which text prompts led to a specific output result. 

It's so good, it's almost a dessert. Amazing bread, the cooks hand-whip the milk and egg batter custom with each order, tons of cinnamon, organic berries on top and whipped cream. This french toast is not to be trifled with. 

In this issue of Mike's List: 

Why paid social is a no good, horrible idea

Now you can find a stalker’s AirTag *before* it “travels with you”

This tiny 3D printer actually works!

Waterproof boots look like LEGOS but they’re actually made out of coffee

Why go to a regular bar when you can find one with retro arcade games?

And more!

The Big Question about TikTok, the crack-like addictive social network owned by China's ByteDance, is: "Does the Chinese government intend to use the global reach and power of TikTok to spy or influence? Yes or no?

The "Yes" camp gets another point today after the Chinese government warned that Europe's ban on the use of TikTok by the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council on official devices "harm business confidence" in Europe. 

The US government and more than half of US states have banned the TikTok app on government-owned devices as well, and the Chinese government "lashed out" about that as well.

Lots of countries are banning TikTok in one way or another. But the Chinese government seems especially vexed by the bans on US and European government devices. 

If the Chinese government did not want to use TikTok for bad intentions, why does it care so much about it being installed on European and American government devices?

And if TikTok is so great for business confidence, why did the Chinese government ban it in China?

Here's a question Meta doesn't answer on its paid-verification explainer: If I'm shadowbanned on Instagram and Facebook (which I am) and I pay to get "expanded reach" and "increased visibility," which wins? The shadowban or the paid reach and visibility?

(Oh, I'm not going to pay. I'm just curious.)

It seems to me that people are way too excited about the "metaverse" and way not excited enough about the other major use of VR goggles: "digital twins."

So I wrote a piece for Computerworld about what "digital twins" are and why they're going to literally change the world and make everything better, safer and cheaper. Check it out!

One of our friends in Oaxaca surprised us by taking us to a restaurant called Almú in the tiny and remote town of San Martín Tilcajete in the Oaxaca Valley. 

As we drove through town, our car was blocked by dozens of men and boys dressed like devils and painted black pretended to rampage through the town as part of how Oaxaca celebrates carnival. It's a tradition called the "La Danza de los Diablos" or "Dance of the Devils," a name coined by Spanish missionaries. I got out and took a few pictures. 

When the Spanish first came to Oaxaca in the 16th Century, Zapotecs (the main indigenous ethnic group in Oaxaca) tried to scare them away by painting themselves black and acting like monsters. 

It's part of Zapotec tradition since before the Spanish arrived. The black "paint" is made with cooking oil mixed with charcoal. Many also paint their faces white, red, or black. 

Until recently, only men and boys participated, but a few years ago a few women and girls started joining in. 

Traditionally they wore shells around their waists to make a racket while running around town. Nowadays, they use bells. They try to scare people, and, if they can they wipe some black coloring on the faces of women and girls -- the "kiss of the devil," a way of flirting with them.

The tradition has variants around Oaxaca, but it's particularly strong in San Martín Tilcajete, and the town is locally famous for it. 

Also: There's drinking involved. As we drove through the town after our four-hour lunch, some of those devils were conspicuously hammered. 

Derek Robertson penned a piece for Politico that describes the current "metaverse winter." After an initial surge in excitement and investment, some of the companies who would bring the "metaverse" into mainstream acceptance are cutting funding and laying off workers, further delaying the arrival of widespread VR, AR and XR.

GlobalData Thematic Research by Verdict used the phrase in a January 20 report in which they said the "metaverse winter" is an opportunity for businesses to restrategize. GlobalData also trotted the phrase around in various interviews and press releases, claiming that the "metaverse winter" is being caused in 2023 by "cooling interest, economic obstacles, and the immaturity of enabling technologies."

The "metaverse winter" of 2023 was predicted by Dataquest in November of 2022. 

An even earlier reference to the phrase appeared in September of 2022 by a crypto enthusiast and blogger named xuanling11, who claimed that the "Metaverse Winter is So Cold."

Also in September of last year, a Turkish publication claimed that Turkey was going through a "metaverse winter" because Turks has stopped buying up real estate in VR, for the most part.

Café de olla -- the old fashioned way. 

The bugs include roasted grasshoppers, ants and agave larvae (also known as a mezcal worm or maguey worm). Made by Chef Alex Ruiz.

This is just blue-corn tortilla, some natural lard and a little cheese cooked on a comal. Put some hand-made salsa on it, and it's heaven on earth. 

It's basically Mexican horchata (made with rice), blended with ice and topped with whipped cream. This is available in several places in Oaxaca. Fantastic! 

Also: Here's a more complete missive I wrote about the wonderful world of horchata. 

It seems obvious that the crash in crypto values would also affect cyber crimes, such as ransomware attacks. But it turns out the story is far more complicated than that. 

I looked into the issue for SecurityIntelligence, and this is what I found out. 

In the fifth season of the TV series, “Yellowstone,” protagonist John Dutton makes a speech, having been newly elected as governor of Montana, in which he promises Montanans that he will use his power to disincentivize wealthy outsiders from New York and California from coming to the state, buying up vacation properties, creating demand for airports and resorts and generally driving up the cost of living.

A similar sentiment is cropping up around the world, in which urban locals blame foreign tourists and digital nomads and Airbnb for the rising cost of living and rising rental costs.

We first heard this sentiment from residents of Mexico City, where some feel gringos are showing up in unprecedented large numbers, spending lots and lots of money and driving up the cost of living.

Now Portugal is enshrining this idea into law, banning new Airbnb properties, revoking their Golden Visa program and generally seeking to disincentive wealthier outsiders from coming to the country and driving up the cost of living for the Portuguese.

I fear this idea will spread globally as people in the post-pandemic era travel more, work abroad more, and seek out more exotic vacations, workstations and temporary residencies.

The fact is that when foreigners with money to burn show up in large numbers in any place, there are winners and losers. They boost employment. They might as well be dropping hundred dollar bills from helicopters They drive up home valuations for those who own homes. At the same time, they drive up rental costs for those who don’t own homes And they drive up the price of going to some restaurants and some bars, and using some other services for locals, whose income has not increased to accommodate the rising cost of living. 

There are winners and losers. But for the most part, these locations benefit. The reason is that foreigners take their money from abroad, and they spend it in the countries where people are complaining. More money means more employment, more tax revenue to improve local services are in general make things better.

It’s no coincidence that these notions are cropping up in an era of inflation. As I travel around the world, I’ve noticed inflation everywhere. But everywhere you go locals have a local reason why they think global inflation is taking place. 

I fear that if local regulations in places like Portugal succeed in reducing the number of foreign visitors, they’ll find themselves with all the inflation and all the rising costs of living, but with fewer jobs to pay for it all.

Inflation is global and to assign a local cause to it is mostly misguided.

In any event, a new nativism is taking hold, and it’s going to seriously impact Wii, global travelers, digital nomads, and remote workers.

Watch and listen to This Week in Google, with Leo Laporte, Stacey Higginbotham, Ant Pruitt and Yours Truly (where I Zoom in from a rooftop in Oaxaca, Mexico)!

We expose Elon Musk for the raging narcissist that he is, plus explore the perils and weirdness of ChatGPT and other generative AI systems. 

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In the era of remote work, bosses are worried about lazy employees slacking off. And so they're forcing workers to come into the office or deploying surveillance software to track their every keystroke and mouse movement at home. 

New research shows, however, that these actions are precisely what make employees WANT to slack off and "steal time" from their employers. 

The evidence is clear: The best way to drive productivity is to let employees work when and where they want, and to trust them