Category: Commentary

Recombinant Innovation

Was shared a link today, to a video showing off the newest Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra:

It’s fantastic technology, showing off the ability to translate (almost) live between Korean and English, functioning as a middle-man, or middleware, between the Sender and Receiver in the communication channel, reducing the overall noise in the system (in this case in the difficulty of two very different languages).

But in discussion today, we noted how simple some of the various components are: the translation, which exists already at both ends, Google translate, or any of a number of dedicated devices.

And this is the point: there are very few completely new things in the world. Most new things are combinations of existing things.

The interesting thing is how you put them together.

Hence, recombinant innovation.

The ability of these innovations to reduce friction (or appear to, at least; there can often be a dark side of it as well) can determine how well these tools get adopted. It depends on if people can see themselves using it.

And in this, the Youtube video above is very effective: we can readily picture ourselves in that situation needing to make a reservation at a restaurant, and deciding that this would work for us. And from there it’s a quick jump to see how we could use it in other areas of our lives. Talking with loved ones, or their families, and being able to speak directly (or with at most a quick pause), and share with them too.

There’s a lot of magic in our innovations. Let’s start the discussion.

Dashcam

Always wanted one. Something hands free to take a picture of what my eyes see on the open road.

Especially tonight, driving across the city with the snow falling.

It could be a beautiful sight, but the semis and oversized pickup trucks tend to make it a little more treacherous and hazardous than it needs to be.

Umm, yeah.

Anyhoo, safe home now.

The other reason for a dashcam is to catch the roadtrip images, as the twists and turns of the highway through the mountains reveals new sights with every bend in the road.

Can’t wait to show you some more.

Upcoming Trends

With CES wrapping up in Las Vegas this weekend, I’ve been seeing lots of reports of the new technologies that have been on display. I’ve never been, but I think it might be something to take in one of these years.

I want to find a decent article, and cover my commentary of it, but I haven’t quite seen one I want to use yet.

The Verge has some decent coverage here:

https://www.theverge.com/24026787/ces-best-of-samsung-ballie-lg-tv

Which talks about the new Transparent TV from LG:

World’s First Wireless Transparent OLED TV Redefines the Screen Experience

and I think that may be remarkable enough to talk about on it’s own.

But it’s been a long cold day, with the outside temp staying below -30 C for most of the day, and I’ve just been trying to keep warm. I’ll follow-up with a full write-up (and perhaps an episode if I’m inspired), and we’ll see what comes of it.

Snow day

In the midst of a bitter cold snap, with temperatures down to -30, dropping below -40 with the wind chill. Limiting travel to only the most essential, and staying warm as much as possible.

Still working on the website behind the scenes, and I’m starting to get the framework together, in addition to the material. Not sure we’ll do a full “launch”, but it’s definitely getting close.

The big sticking point is the artwork; a colleague mentioned a couple examples to mirror off of, so I may see what I can do with my (admittedly limited) image editing skills on Canva. Barring that, I may need to reach out to a professional and see what can be done.

But today was also a day to listen to some music:

This isn’t the most well known single by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, but this is one I grew up with.

Missing audiences; working on words

A couple unrelated observations from the weekend, though perhaps so far apart as is the way of these things:

First: had a good conversation with a colleague from University about the importance of working through words. It’s a language game, and sometimes you need to sit down and do the work and get your reps in, as mentioned a few posts ago. And in works the same in comedy as it does in academia or in writing. This conversation was with respect to the Echanger episode, so… more to come there.

And speaking of comedy, that brings us to point the

Second: that part about honing the jokes through touring was also mentioned by Katt Williams in his interview on Club Shay Shay (at about the 48:30 mark):

and the timing is impeccable. (The above episode came out a day or so before I made the last post. I hadn’t seen it yet, but it aligns perfectly with the Jeselnik comment too.)

Gotta get the reps in.

Which leads us to our third point, about missing audiences.

Because, while I’ve been seeing bits from the interview all over social media (well, YouTube and TikTok), it’s been completely absent from Mastodon and the Fediverse.

It speaks to a massive hole in the Mastodon and the Fediverse more generally.

And the clip’s absence here is very telling.

Now, the most charitable argument one could make – perhaps – is that the Fediverse isn’t obsessed with celebrity culture, and isn’t interested with the beefs that actors and comedians may be having with one another.

Fair.

But we know there is some celebrity and/or Hollywood discussion does exist there, if not a ton.

The audiences that are talking about the clip: Gen Z and Millenials, young people and people of colour, aren’t there having that discussion. They’re in other places.

Why are they staying away from Mastodon?

I’m curious to find out…