One of the most annoying things as a developer setting up a Mac is that files with a dot are hidden by default. Here is how to set them always to be visible: Open Terminal (Command + Shift and type Terminal) Run defaults write http://com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true You can toggle them in Finder by using Command + Shift + . but having them show by default is a lot nicer.
Well, well, well, what do we have here? The guardians of Stack Overflow, those volunteer moderators who’ve turned the site into their personal fiefdom, are having a tantrum. As of June 5th, 2023, they’ve gone on a historic general moderation strike, joined by over 850 contributors and users. Their beef? Stack Overflow, Inc. isn’t giving them the attention they feel they deserve regarding being able to police AI-generated answers. To which I say, “Welcome to the club, mates.”
Hold the phone, everyone. Martha Stewart, yes, that Martha Stewart has decided to grace us with her hot take on remote work. Spoiler alert: she’s not a fan. Apparently, she believes you can’t possibly get everything done working part-time in the office and part-time from home. Martha, I hate to break it to you, but the rest of us aren’t trying to juggle a cooking show, a magazine, and a bedding line — we’re just trying to pay our mortgages and buy the occasional carton of eggs (thanks, inflation).
It’s been a while since we’ve seen something completely new from Apple, and after years of speculation that Apple would launch a headset of some kind, it has finally been announced (one of the worst kept secrets ever because we knew it was coming). The Vision Pro is undeniably impressive. With 4K displays, infrared cameras, and LED illuminators, not to mention it runs on Apple’s M2 chip and a new mixed-reality-specific R1 chip, the specs are nothing short of impressive (as expected).
The Metaverse, a term coined from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 techno-dystopian novel “Snow Crash,” has been a topic of discussion in the tech industry for years. It was envisioned as a new frontier, a virtual reality space where users could interact in a simulated universe. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, aimed to lead this virtual revolution by building a future where work and social interactions could be conducted from anywhere in an immersive 3D world.
It’s 2023, and a war rages on. On one side are businesses and mega-corporations, and on the other are the workers. While everyone argues about the future of work and the benefits of having employees back in the office (even in a hybrid capacity), the world around us is figuratively burning. Despite inflation peaking in most countries, it remains quite high. In Australia, the CPI rose to 6.8 per cent in March. While this is not as high as the 30-year record set at the end of 2022, when it hit 8.4 per cent, it is still stubbornly high. To put this into context, the Reserve Bank of Australia has a target of 2 to 3 per cent, which we are far from achieving. The current cash rate is 3.8%, combined with a rental crisis and inflated house prices.
Reading the latest update from StackOverflow’s CEO, I can’t help but feel a sense of disconnect. StackOverflow and the broader StackExchange network are facing a tidal wave of change with the rise of AI, and it seems like they’re just treading water. For many of us, AI tools like ChatGPT have become go-to resources. They’re efficient, user-friendly, and, most importantly, not judgemental. On the other hand, StackOverflow has become notorious for its hostile environment, particularly towards newcomers. It’s as if you need to pass a test of fire to ask a question, and that’s if you’re brave enough to ask in the first place.
When Apple released the M1 chip in 2020, it caused a significant shift in the industry—by abandoning Intel, Apple’s silicon achieved impressive benchmark numbers that widened the gap between Apple and its competitors. The laptop game was changed again, and Apple was leading the charge. With the M2 chip, not much has changed since the introduction of the M1. The design of the MacBook Pro and specs are mostly the same, except for a small bump in performance. You still get blistering performance, just a bit faster than the M1. It’s nothing to sing from the hilltops about but nothing to complain about.
Something interesting has happened with the famed GPT-4 model from OpenAI lately, and it’s not just me that has noticed. Many people have been talking about how GPT-4 lately feels broken. Some say it’s nerfed, and others are saying it’s possibly just broken due to resource constraints. There was a discussion recently on Hacker News in this thread which received 739 comments. All signs indicated that OpenAI had changed something significant with ChatGPT lately and its GPT-4 model. Users reported that questions relating to code problems were producing generic and unhelpful answers.
Designers and developers have had a very long and complicated relationship with Adobe. Over the years, we have seen scrappy upstarts come and take a bite out of Adobe’s lunch: inVision, SketchApp, Figma (which Adobe acquired in 2022) and countless others. Despite numerous attempts, Adobe is still standing. Here we are in 2023, and another attack wave is being set upon companies like Adobe in the form of generative AI. Tools like DALL-E and Midjourney make generating images easy and even manipulating images without setting forth inside Photoshop. But, Adobe is not taking this lying down.