Greg's Newsletter Launches a Podcast 🎙 [No. 050]
June 9, 2017
It's 2017. Why not have a podcast?
It took a while, but we made it to 50. And to celebrate, I’ve launched a podcast. It’s called Hot Sauce Radio. Listen to episode #1 here. I even made shitty cover art for it.
It’s basically a radio show (and I probably talk too much in it), but episode #1 features my favorite album openers of all time. I’m still an album nerd and whenever I find a dope album I like, the opening track always says something. It might be bold. It might foreshadow what’s to come. Who knows. But opening tracks on great albums are a category unto themselves and I’m excited I finally found a way to share that.
Send me feedback, if you give it a listen. You can say things like “your voice sounds nasally,” “you say UMMM too often,” or “your Michigan accent really comes through when you say AAAAAND.” Any constructive feedback is welcome. I’m probably a bit awkward on the mic, but the idea is that this will get better over time. I’m thinking there will be 3 main episode categories:
Themed episodes: like episode #1, or maybe “The Best Music from Along I-94,” or “Summer Jamz”
New music showcases: new, good stuff (with some older stuff mixed in, of course)
Free form: probably little-to-no talking. Might get weird. Could get awesome.
Anyways, I’ve already typed too much. Listen to it - at work, in our car, at home. It works wherever.
Now! To some good stuff!
Machine Learning (ML) is getting good. Here’s a really neat video that showcases that. Using videos recorded from train windows, an ML algorithm was trained. First, it learned how to predict the next frame of the videos by analyzing the examples. Then, it produced a frame from the first picture, and another frame from what was just generated, and so on. The result: graphics that were 100% generated by that ML algorithm, on one consecutive shot (set to a really dope piece of music). This basically has the feeling of a machine dreaming. It’s rad.
This owl has life figured out Yee-haw!
If only symbolically, it’s interesting that so many states (and governors) are agreeing to uphold the U.S. role in the Paris Climate Agreement. Curious as to what this ends up looking like in practice.
Did you know: most new printers print nearly invisible yellow dots that track down exactly when and where documents are printed? I didn't know this! It's kinda messed up, IMO! This is how the NSA figured out who had leaked documents regarding Russian election tampering to The Intercept. Here’s how the printing technology works. Also, if you haven’t read it yet, check out The Intercept’s report that details Russian hacking efforts before the 2016 election. it’s… fucked.
Speaking of Russia! Turla is a Russian-speaking hacking group that targets governments around the world. They figured out how to use comments posted to Britney Spears’ official Instagram to somehow control the servers it uses. I only claim to really understand like 3% (tops) of what they’re doing, but just take a step back and imagine that, in 2007, you were asked to imagine an outlandish news headline 10 years down the road. “Russian hackers use comments in Britney Spears Instagram posts to hide nefarious activity” would be like the most outlandish thing you could possibly think of. But here we are.
Clocking in at around 12 hours, you should also definitely subscribe to my running playlist on Spotify: HOT SAUCE MUSIC 2017. It features my favorite music of the year, from brand new releases to old, unearthed gems.
Here’s Tomo, a Facebook Messenger bot that supposedly sends you crazy deals on flights to cool places from your local (or extended area) airports. It’ll just send you the deals when they come, so no need to, like, “monitor” anything. Just wait and be ready to strike.
Bonus: I have Twitter alerts set up for @thriftytraveler - the account tweets out some dope flight deals, as well.
Mary Meeker is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who churns out an annual “Internet Trends” report and it’s always widely cited and super interesting (also, it’s long as hell). If you want the full version, check it here. You can also find an abridged version with Techcrunch’s “must-read” slides.
OK, that was a really tech-y newsletter. But lots of good music to listen to, so dig in!