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We met a couple in their thirties, from Dallas Texas, this evening at the cruise opening diner. Eventually, near the end of the diner, politics came up in the discussions. Nowadays, itās a tricky subject and we donāt force it outselves. We quickly discovered that they were anti-Trump and very caution about the Democrats too. Itās refreshing to meet people coming from those areas of the US that shares some of our views about the US, politics and general values. Iām French Canadian, mind you.
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Travel update #13: Bye Bye Split, Letās Do Another Cruise to Dubrovnik!
Today was our last day in Split, Croatia. We strolled through the streets of Split once again and had breakfast at the “Bepa” restaurant, which is accessible from one of the public squares. Once again, we ate very well. However, the prices for food are even higher than we expected. We’re coming to the conclusion that traveling in Croatia is almost as expensive as traveling in countries like Italy!
Today also marks the beginning of a short cruise that will allow us to visit the islands of KorÄula and Mljet before arriving in Dubrovnik, our last stop before returning to Canada. We still have many beautiful things to discover, fortunately. I don’t know if it’s a good sign or not, but the early experiences from the beginning of our trip already feel distant.
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Travel update #12: Visiting Hvar, Bisevo, Vis Islands, Croatia
Once again, with a bit of delay, Iām sharing a new update on my trip to Croatia. Yesterday, the day was primarily spent on the waters in front of the city of Split. We took a small speedboat cruise to visit three beautiful large islands. The tour lasted more than ten hours. We also passed through the popular Blue Lagoon and visited a cave located on the island of Bisevo, where the turquoise water offers a surreal setting. It was absolutely magnificent. We had a mini lunch in Hvar and spent two lovely hours there, strolling and enjoying this beautiful place. A fishing village welcomed us. Fishing is still practiced there, but tourism is by far the largest economic activity. The architecture of the buildings is similar to what is found throughout the Croatian coast, with light stone buildings and terracotta-tiled roofs in shades of orange. This is also similar to what you find in Italy, by the way. We had a quite bumpy return to the coast as the sea was much more agitated than in early morning. It was quite an experience. Thankfully, the boat operator was experimented.
Regarding food, restaurant offerings mostly consist of grilled dishes, mainly fish and meat. Tuna salads, NiƧoise, and Greek salads are also on the menu. Some restaurants feature typical Croatian dishes like goulashes. The sale of ice cream and gelato is very common in southern villages, where it’s warmer. I succumbed a few times, actually. The brightness on clear days here is absolutely perfect, just like everywhere on the CĆ“te d’Azur.
We are halfway through our stay in this beautiful country. Tomorrow, we will embark on a small cruise for a few days to visit other islands, ultimately leading us to our final destination: Dubrovnik, where we will spend a few days. Iām really looking forward to it.
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Travel update #11: From Sibenik to Split, Croatia
Yesterday, I didn’t have time to write the daily update because it was a transition day by car to our next destination: Split in Croatia. Of course, we took advantage of our route to stop in Trogir to visit and have lunch there. It was our last stop by car as we had to leave it at the airport in the suburbs of Trogir. From now on, we will take a boat. More details to come on that.
Our journey continued to Split, taking a taxi via Uber. The trip took a little over half an hour. Once there, we went to drop off our luggage at our apartment and took some time to explore the surroundings. What a strange but beautiful urban environment. Our apartment is located inside the old palace of Split. Accessing it is not easy as there are winding corridors and numerous stairs to climb. We felt like we were living within the walls of a medina like those found in Morocco. Itās lovely.
I took advantage of the late afternoon light to take some photos. What a beautiful city. I already know that I won’t have enough time to see everything and try to capture photos that are off the beaten path. I’ll do my best, and it will serve as an excuse to wish to return someday.
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Biden is losing much more by staying than by leaving. His career legacy will be: he lost because he didnāt want to let it go. For whom? For what? A real leader would just step back.
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Observation of the day: because of the trees, we can hear the wind. Travelling has great influence on my spirit.
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Travel update #10: Sibenik Take #2, Croatia
Once again, what a beautiful day we had in Sibenik. The main objective today was to visit the three forts of the city, which offer a splendid view of the town and the islands off the coast. The weather was magnificent even though storm cells were threatening the region. Fortunately, we were spared from rain and lightning!
We visited the three forts, which were overall interesting but are mainly worth visiting for the views they offer. We took advantage of the occasion to have a picnic at lunchtime while the wind was blowing moderately across the area. It was pleasant to hear the wind rustling through the trees, mostly mature pines.
After visiting the forts, we descended back into the city, this time making sure to choose a parking spot on the west side of town so we could walk along the long promenade by the docks. We ended up in the old part of the city to revisit and complete our tour from yesterday, which was merely a preview. This time, I had the good camera in hand, and I took the opportunity to capture new perspectives different from those taken yesterday.
We were back at the apartment around 6:30 PM to freshen up before heading out to a small neighboring village of Vodice, i.e., Tribunj. I can’t wait to see this little village.
I canāt wait to share some of my best pictures.
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My next trip to the US is to see a Sting show in New York in October. After that, I’m not planning to visit the US for at least five years. I refuse to visit totalitarian states. Fuck #Trump. Fuck those who supports this buffoon and clown.
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The ājoyā of trying to be iPad-only while traveling. Hitting ātry againā fixes the issue but itās a recurring one. Iām just browsing a folder containing images stored on the iPad itself for godās sake! š¤¬
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On My Writing Style As a Traveler
As you probably know, Iāve been writing and sharing my travel notes since the beginning of my trip to Croatia. Iām proud of maintaining the regularity to post each day, but not as proud of my writing itself. I canāt quite describe the quality of my writing, but when I read it back, it feels rather superficial. Why do I feel this way?
Well, my writing tends to list the places I visited and whether I liked them. But I almost always fail to explain why I loved visiting them. Take yesterdayās travel update, for example: I wrote that I fell in love with Sibenik and shared a photo of banners adorned with childrenās drawings. What exactly resonated with me in this place? What were my emotions when I entered the narrow streets of the village and first saw the banners everywhere? It was surprisingāthe childrenās drawings added a contrast to the old buildings’ walls, giving the city a sense of humanity. And you know what? It was the childrenās festival! Itās a great way to celebrate humanity.
Part of my problem is that Iām not a native English speaker, but a French speaker. I donāt have the same level of vocabulary to describe feelings or physical places. Iām wondering if I could first write a version of my travel update in French and then ask ChatGPT to translate it into English. For todayās travel update, thatās what Iām going to do. Weāll see how it comes out this time. Let me know if you notice a difference.
Disclaimer: this text was first written in English (yes, in English!) and I asked ChatGPT to improve to the writing. It made a big difference, trust me, but I still have this feeling of owning the ideas and the final results.
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Travel update #9: Krka National Park & Sibenik, Croatia
Itās been a day with ups and downs. We left the apartment at around 10:30 AM in direction of the Krka National Park, 45-minute drive to see some other waterfalls and translucide lakes. The first part of the visit was really nice because it was like a repeat of the other visit to the national park that we visited earlier in the week with great waterfalls and gorgeous lakes with transparent blue water. Unlike the first national park, this time, it was much more crowded to a point of being unpleasant at some point because we had to wait for people to finish their selfies. š¤Ø
We left to see another part of the park where a bigger waterfall was expected and was located further in the park, but we couldnāt locate it and wasted our time waiting for the bus to get us back to the parking lot. The last stop was to visit a secluded church rather hard to locate on the maps. We eventually ended up at the entrance and couldnāt buy any tickets to visit the area but a priest did let us anyway visit the monastery and the areas with a little smile on his face. It was a welcomed gesture.
Next up, we had to return to the apartment to exchange my pair of glasses otherwise I would have been enable to drive at night when coming back to the apartment. For dinner, we decided to go to Sibenik, a great little village near Vodice. Oh boy I instantly fell in love with it. I didnāt have my main camera so I was left with my iPhone to take as many pictures as I could. We decided to come back tomorrow and this time, Iāll bring my other big camera. I canāt wait for this.
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Travel update #8: Kornati Islands, Croatia
Hereās todayās travel update. What a wonderful day we had, thanks to this day-cruise around the Kornati Islands, starting from Vodiceās port at 9 AM. We had lunch at around 11:30 AM, right before a 3-hour stop at one of the island (canāt remember the name!) where we could spend some time swimming at the beach or in a very salty small interior lake. I decided to go for the trail around the lake instead, a 2.2KM quick trekking. While the temperature at the village was expected to reach 33C during the day, weather on the sea was cooler and very nice, with very little wind, except in the trail where the temperature probably reached more than 30C with partially shaded trail sections, thanks to tall pine trees. A bit scary discovery: while walking the trail in the forest, I encountered many big spider nets at about fifteen feet high each with a gigantic spider standing right in the middle, waiting for the next prey. It was a bit scary and disgusting, not my favourite thing to see. Overall, it was a great day.
I took my telephoto lens with me this time around and it was a judicious decision. I started editing my travel photos and I must say that without Adobe Lightroomās built in catalog, itās a bit cumbersome. I often get this error in Photomator as seen below. Itās a bit frustrating. I think itās more of an iPadOS instabilities than a problem with Photomator.
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M. G. Siegler musing about possible next iteration of the Apple Vision:
The most compelling idea would be allowing/forcing the ‘Vision’ to tether to an iPhone or Mac to run the computing of the device. Frankly, I think they should do this. I know they view it as a stand-alone computing device, one that could potentially do it all one day, but that day is far, far away. You already have to use the ridiculous (and ridiculously inconvenient) external battery to power the device. They should either put a Mac SoC in that brick or use their software screen-casting smarts to offload much of the work to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Now that people know they have to live with an external battery pack in order to use the Vision Pro, putting a small Mac-in-that-box to offload some of the weight off the Vision Pro could be a game changer too. Apple is clever at iterating on things to make them better. The Apple Vision is not done yet, just be patient.
In other notes: the Vision Pro is coming to Canada this July and I canāt wait to book myself a 30-minute demonstration appointment.
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Travel update #7: Vodiceās Beaches, Croatia
We didnāt do much today: taking our time early in the morning when preparing and having breakfast and then spending time on the beach and relaxing. I did some writing too, from my iPhone while sitting on my sunbathing chair. Itās far from being ideal for writing longer posts but it is what it is. I had some thoughts to share about AI, generative AI more specifically (like this thought, this one and that one).
We came back to the apartment after having a drink at a beach club nearby. Then, again, we were quietly spending time online before getting ready to prepare the meal for dinner. Our plans for the rest of the day is to return in the villageās center to feel the villageās night life. Itās only a ten-minute walk from where we stay. Itās very convenient.
Thanks for reading.
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Pressure Might Be Mounting on Apple with Apple Intelligence in Unexpected Ways
Warning: Unsettled thoughts: I think many tech pundits are overestimating Apple Intelligence capabilities and influence potential. If Apple fails to deliver, even slightly, it might trigger a crash like the dot com crash. Some tech pundits are fast at expecting Apple to be the gateway to generative AI legitimacy. In this logic, if Apple fails, AI will fail too. I might be over simplifying things here.
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Could Generative AI Content Usage Be THE Biggest Problem?
Iām wondering if the way someone elects to use generated content from generative AI models is way more potentially problematic and subject to debate than anything related to models training using content from the open web.
Also: generative AI content used to train generative AI models is also source of concerns to me. I call that process āknowledge desinfectionā or āknowledge toxificationā or even better āknowledge asphyxiationā. Or should I replace āknowledgeā with āintelligenceā?
One more thing: the more I think about generative AI training, the less I think it should be considered plagiarism. More on that one soon.
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Maybe We Should Stop Crying Fool: Weāve Been Trained Ourselves!
Thinking out loud about generative models training.
In a way, weāve all been trained ourselves in our life by the books we read, the movies we saw, the music we listened. Some people have been trained on very specific knowledge bodies, in very specific fields. People use this accumulated ātrainingā also forming ācultureā to create new things and produce new content. Some people might be trained on a specific music style or dancing style. Weāve been trained by teachers. As ātrainedā creators, do we ask a permission when writing something new or writing music using our training data? Now because it happens at a large scale by large (and ānastyā?) corporations to create products, we cry foul?! Where is the line to be drawn here? I donāt know.
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Travel update #6: Zadar + Vodice, Croatia
Today we left for Zadar and Vodice where we will stay for five days in a small apartment. We arrived at noon in Zadar and had a nice picnic in a small park, under the shade of big trees. It was a quiet place and we wondered about how few tourists seem to be present since we arrived in Croatia. It might not be peak season just yet. We spent nearly three hours in Zadar, a great coastal city of Croatia, to walk in the cityās small streets behind the fortified perimeter. It felt a bit hot even for a coastal city, yet the weather was splendid. We saw (and heard) the sea organ and we were pleased by the sound of it.
We left Zadar for Vodice at 3PM, a one-hour drive on a coastal road. As we drove away from Zadar we saw the surroundings slowly change in appearance. Vodice is a small village where we can find great places to have dinner and visit the marina surrounded by typical summer houses and beach clubs. Tomorrow I should have more to say about this small village.
Thanks for reading my short travel updates!
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Travel update #5: Rastoke, Croatia
Earlier this morning, the weather was better than yesterday, so we decided to revisit Plitvicka Jezera National Park. The improved lighting allowed us to better appreciate the lakeās renowned blue and green hues, and there were fewer tourists. However, we didnāt stay as long as our previous visit because we wanted to explore a small village called Rastoke. This village, known for its charming houses and numerous waterfalls, was highly recommended by our host. We enjoyed a picnic there before exploring, and we were not disappointed; the place was delightful.
On our way back, we stopped to see the riverās source near the road. To our surprise, we found several old, barely standing buildings, which made for great photography. However, a thunderstorm was forming nearby, forcing us to cut our visit short. After checking the local radar, we realized we had just enough time to escape and return to our car.
And we were back at our B&B at four fifty. Itās another great day in Croatia. Now loading up a new batch of photos into my iPad.
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Travel update #4: Plitvicka Jezera Nation Park, Croatia
We left Zagreb today to go visit the Plitvicka Jezera national park. it was a two hour drive from Zagreb. After a nice and smooth ride we arrived at around 11:15 AM in the park ready to tackle the 4-6 hour circuit. Boy this place is wonderful! It took us about four hours. We had a rain shower or two but each time we were lucky to be at the right place either on the boat or in the forest so we didnāt get wet! Lucky me because I wasnāt ready for rain with my unprotected photo equipment. Speaking of photography, I donāt know how many shots I did but Iām pretty sure there are a few quite impressive with such natural surroundings. I canāt wait to process those images.
Tonight, weāre going to have dinner at a house near our B&B in Grabovac, a very small village be close to the national park. They served grilled fish and meat. It supposed to be really good. Weāll see, but I trust the Croatians so far!
