Krugman said that Musk’s behaviour had shown that he’s nothing like Apple cofounder and former CEO Steve Jobs – who was famed for his high level of discipline and focus on Apple’s products.

And

“I don’t think even if Musk had been as disciplined as Steve Jobs was, that Tesla was ever going to be a sustained profit machine the way that Apple has been,” he added. “It’s just — it’s not his fault. It’s just not that kind of industry.”

And

“But then, you know, I don’t know anyone who’s done as much to hurt his image of cool in as short a time as Musk has done.” Source: Paul Krugman says Elon Musk’s Tesla can never be a ‘profit machine’ like Apple, because there’s no scope for that in the car industry

Comparing Musk to Jobs is tempting, but Musk a so few traits of Steve. Jobs didn’t hurt Apple’s brand when he was at Pixar. Musk, at Twitter is hurting Twitter… and Tesla. Poor guy.

So, Apple is rumoured to release new products through press releases tomorrow. I don’t expect exciting news (M2 MacBook Pro — specs bump). In fact, besides the iPhone 15 Ultra, I think 2023 could be the most boring year in a long time. Since Apple is known to be working its product lines many years in advance, does this reflect the COVID era, where it was hard for Apple to keep the momentum while everyone was enduring the pandemic from 2020 to 2022? Are we paying the COVID price?

Did you know I’m writing a newsletter named “Friday Notes” on Ghost? It’s free and probably more personal than what I’m writing here. Here’s the link. I also publish a monthly newsletter called “Numeric Citizen Introspection”, but that one takes longer to produce, so It’s not exactly on a monthly basis. Here’s the link. Of course, if RSS is your thing, both are available too. Shameless plug /end.

Arstechnica’s Jackqui Cheng:

“One way to look at the MacBook Air is as the largest and most capable iPod in Apple’s line—think of it as an iPod touch Extreme with a built-in keyboard.” “I found the Air’s size and weight to be nothing less than absolutely delightful.” “Despite all of the Air’s (sometimes glaring) flaws, I plan to keep it and use it as my notebook from here on out (maybe with a hard drive upgrade in the near future, and definitely with a battery upgrade when they become available).” Source: MacBook Air: The past, the present, and the future

The M1 MacBook Air is, I think, the culmination of the original Air design with a definitive fix for performance and battery life. I’m grateful for owning one.

Up until now, the Mastodon ecosystem felt like some sort of black magic to me. Today I spent a few minutes explaining to my wife what Mastodon is. As someone who already knows about Twitter and its subtleties, she got it pretty quickly. I couldn’t have done it a few weeks ago, but now, I could. I always thought that when you can explain something to someone, it is probably because you know enough about the subject. I think my explanation made sense to her, and for me! It was only then that the magic and the profound nature of the social and decentralized network became so clear to me. It was an enlightening moment, for sure. Better late than never. I instantly felt convinced that my awakening to the open web and Mastodon, a form of open web instantiation, would be a game-changer for me.

Today, for some reason, I decided to delve into the Write.as “ecosystem”. I’ve been subscribing to this writing service for nearly a year, I post from time to time like I did yesterday. I’m not so sure to grasp all of it. To get started, I went into Craft, and through the Craft Assistant, I asked a few questions (since ChatGPT seems overloaded). I got surprisingly good results, enough to get some context around the write.freely project. Then, I started a diagram illustrating all the components of the platform. This will become a blog post for sure. Today, I have a better understanding of this project.

What I want to emphasize here is the help that a service like ChatGPT (through an app) can bring to kick-start a small project like this. I’m blown away. But I’m staying critical too. More on that eventually.

This blog post was written by me.

Here's What I Would Do After Winning $1.35 Billion Jackpot

After I told my wife that the second-biggest jackpot had been won, she asked me what I would do with all that money. So here’s what I would do.

First, after the usual and probably mandatory press conference, I would get home and patiently wait for the deposit. Once received, I would call my bank to set aside a few million for my personal needs (and for my immediate family, of course).

Then the fun would begin.

Second, I would reach the highest Canadian Government representative, telling him I wanted to meet with Zelensky from Ukraine. The sooner, the better, and I would make sure he gets the message that he should accept my request and wouldn’t regret any minutes of this meeting.

Once in Ukraine, I would ask to meet with the government’s and army’s top lieutenants. My question for them: I have more than $1 billion at your disposal; what do you need the most? I would make sure they get what they are asking for.

After my meeting, I would ask for a joint press conference with Zelensky, telling the world about our agreement and explaining what will happen with all my money spent on helping this country and its people. Next, I would read a message aloud to the wealthiest people in the world and ask them to move their butt and make something out of their money to help Ukraine. Third, and lastly, I would read another special message, this time directed at Putin: “now is the time to put me on the ‘banned from Russia list’” and I would conclude with, “you can go fuck yourself.”

This is what I would do after winning a $1.35 Billion Jackpot. Thank you.