Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Travoli

Pages: [1] 2 3
1
Hardware & Technology / March of the robotaxis
« on: June 18, 2023, 07:20:19 PM »
Cruise (robotaxis) is now offering rides in Austin. It works just like Uber. The electric Chevy Bolt pulls up to your location, you unlock the doors via app. My first ride was... boring. Which is to say, truly amazing tech. I sent it into the most densely-trafficked area of downtown. It navigated with ease. When the fleet isn't driving passengers, they are still actively rolling around collecting miles and data. They're everywhere downtown between 8pm and 5am (currently evenings/nights only).

Perhaps most interesting is that my first robotaxi experience was in a GM-backed Chevrolet, not a Tesla.

https://youtu.be/EEWP0U9mAm8

2
Hardware & Technology / Runway Research (AI)
« on: May 11, 2023, 01:35:29 AM »
https://runwayml.com/

I've seen many mentions of this company recently. They are a "do it all" AI image and video production and editing company. Potential to be the next Figma or Canva?

The website homepage does a great job of visually explaining each area of expertise.

3
Hardware & Technology / HeyPi
« on: May 11, 2023, 01:20:10 AM »
https://heypi.com/

"A new class of AI, Pi is designed to be a kind and supportive companion offering conversations, friendly advice, and concise information in a natural, flowing style. The Pi experience is intended to prioritize conversations with people, where other AIs serve productivity, search, or answering questions. Pi is a coach, confidante, creative partner, or sounding board.

Pi stands for “personal intelligence” because it can provide infinite knowledge based on a person’s unique interests and needs. Pi is a teacher, coach, confidante, creative partner, and sounding board. Pi is:

-Kind and supportive: it listens and empowers, to help process thoughts and feelings, work through tricky decisions step by step, for anything to talk over;
-Curious and humble: it is eager to learn and adapt, and gives feedback in plain, natural language that improves for each person over time;
-Creative and fun: it is playful and silly, laughs easily and is quick to make a surprising, creative connection;
-Knowledgeable, but succinct: it transforms browsing into a simple conversation;
-All yours: it is on your team, in your corner, and works to have your back;
-In development: it is still early days, so information could be wrong at times."


It's quite good. Imagine how real it'd feel plugged into an AI voice generator.
Apple should buy it and turn your iPhone into your best friend (always complimenting your selfies).

4
Water Cooler / How America’s pickups are changing
« on: January 29, 2023, 10:04:47 PM »
https://thehustle.co/01272023-pickups/

"Less bed, more cab, and a whole lot of pleasure driving."

"The Ford F-150 has been America’s bestselling car for 41 years."

"87% of pickup owners frequently use their truck for shopping, and 70% say they do so for pleasure driving."

"To accommodate for this, today’s F-150s are 63% cab and 37% bed, a near-total opposite from early generations’ 36% cab, 64% bed design."

"Since 1990, the average mass of US vehicles has increased 25%."

"They’re getting heavier, too, as the industry electrifies them with enormous batteries. Ford’s F-150 Lightning, for instance, at ~6.5k pounds, weighs 35% more than its gasoline twin."


5
Water Cooler / Rivian takes on Hell's Gate in Moab
« on: November 12, 2021, 07:46:11 PM »
Hell's Gate is no joke. Part of the infamous Hell's Revenge trail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeth5v_5dPM

6
Monetization / Best SEM info sources 2021
« on: November 09, 2021, 06:34:05 PM »
I stopped buying traffic in the mid 2000's. A couple new friends (and startup founders) have been asking Internet marketing advice. I'd like to be more knowledgeable about the paid side.

Where should I read to get up to speed on Adwords/FB/SEM in 2021?

7
Water Cooler / Texas helicopter crash
« on: March 11, 2021, 11:23:10 PM »
Texas hog hunt helicopter crash is very Texas.

"Sorry about that boys"
"No worries"
"That's alright"
-AR-15 tossed out the door
"You're one hell of a f***ing pilot"

https://youtu.be/uYBf3XPwvaU?t=80


8
Water Cooler / Quarantine entertainment
« on: March 28, 2020, 07:51:18 PM »
What are y'all doing to stay busy during shelter-in-place?

I binged "Tiger King" on Netflix. Seven episode documentary. I couldn't stop watching and I think a lot of folks here would enjoy it. (For mature audiences.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acTdxsoa428

Taking a Udemy course on Fusion 360 (CAD software).

Running more - personal theory that aerobic/mitochondrial conditioning would be helpful if infected with COVID19.

9
Economics & Investing / U.S. Digital Dollar
« on: March 24, 2020, 02:10:50 AM »
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2020/03/23/new-coronavirus-stimulus-bill-introduces-digital-dollar-and-digital-dollar-wallets/#23dc68024bea

"As the markets continue to drop and the U.S. looks to Congress for agreement on a massive stimulus package to save the economy from impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the newest offer by House Democrats includes a very forward-looking kind of stimulus: the creation of a ‘digital dollar’ and the establishment of ‘digital dollar wallets.’ In what will send shock waves through the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, particularly for those following central bank digital currencies around the world, this signals the U.S. is serious in establishing infrastructure for a central bank digital currency."

Carmelle Cadet, Founder and CEO of EMTECH, a modern central bank technology and services company, is a technology provider in the world’s first live retail CBDC with the Central Bank of Bahamas called the Sand Dollar. She has recently started a new initiative in the U.S. called ‘Project New Dawn’ to ensure the unbanked and underbanked receive economic stimulus payments. Pointing to a FDIC report in 2017 that identified 63 million people that are unbanked and underbanked in the U.S., she notes, ‘If checks are the form of payment, the stimulus is not going to reach many of them. That would be approximately $100B underutilized of stimulus for lower income householders.’

10
Hardware & Technology / Drone show
« on: November 13, 2019, 01:43:17 AM »
This just happened at the edge of my new neighborhood. Looks like they launched from one of the movie studio lots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ILXdFnDmg

11
Water Cooler / Black Mirror Scenario
« on: August 26, 2019, 05:40:00 PM »
For those not familiar, the "Black Mirror" series often examines unanticipated, dark and dystopian consequences of new technologies. Episodes are usually set in the present or near future.

In 2016 they released an episode called "Nosedive" about social credit systems.

China has since begun testing social credit systems.

Today: "Silicon Valley is building a Chinese-Style social credit system"

https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is-building-a-chinese-style-social-credit-system

"It’s a technology-enabled, surveillance-based nationwide program designed to nudge citizens toward better behavior. The ultimate goal is to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step,” according to the Chinese government."

12
Hardware & Technology / Deep fake yourself
« on: June 21, 2019, 10:20:02 PM »
A lyft driver told me about this today, and played me his digital avatar. It was better than I expected.

"Create a digital voice that sounds like you with only one minute of audio. Simply sign up, record yourself for at least one minute and you will be able to generate any sentence you like with your own digital voice."

The 1 minute statement isn't accurate. They require 30 sentences, which takes about 5 minutes. The cleaner and more abundant your input, the better the output.

https://lyrebird.ai/vocal-avatar


13
Water Cooler / China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies
« on: October 04, 2018, 03:14:16 PM »
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies

"Nested on the servers’ motherboards, the testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community. Elemental’s servers could be found in Department of Defense data centers, the CIA’s drone operations, and the onboard networks of Navy warships. And Elemental was just one of hundreds of Supermicro customers.:

14
Water Cooler / Hedge fund billionaires asking the important questions
« on: July 15, 2018, 01:37:43 AM »
"Last year, I got invited to a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk — about half my annual professor’s salary — all to deliver some insight on the subject of “the future of technology."...

"They started out innocuously enough. Ethereum or bitcoin? Is quantum computing a real thing? Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern. Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

"They were not interested in how to avoid a calamity; they’re convinced we are too far gone. For all their wealth and power, they don’t believe they can affect the future. They are simply accepting the darkest of all scenarios and then bringing whatever money and technology they can employ to insulate themselves"

https://medium.com/s/futurehuman/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1

15
Water Cooler / Domain Valuation in 2018
« on: June 22, 2018, 05:56:15 PM »
Got an e-mail about a single word, 8-letter domain. Potential buyer threw out a $$$$ offer. I declined, saying we aren't in the same ballpark. He came back with "What do you want? I might be able to go there."

Where do you guys go for research, or what methods are you seeing for domain valuation in 2018?

Pages: [1] 2 3