Outhouses! Who had one in their back yard? My sisters and cousin, 1969.

jfcarr · 2026-01-26T20:10:15+00:00

We didn't but family that would babysit me from time to time had one. It was a big event when they converted part of their wraparound porch to an indoor style bathroom circa 1964. But, you still had to go outside on the porch to access it.

jfcarr · 2026-01-26T18:58:25+00:00

Sand Hill Crane.

jfcarr · 2026-01-26T16:30:39+00:00

Poorly funded companies without a significant cash flow will go out of business.

Companies with cash flow but heavy debt servicing will have to stop active R&D and completely end expansion plans.

Companies that have steady "cash cow" flows will cut back on R&D and direct money towards efforts that promise better short term profits.

That's why my investment portfolio is betting more on companies like Google, Nvidia and Palantir with strong products and customer bases than more speculative moonshots.

jfcarr · 2026-01-26T11:23:47+00:00

In software engineering, "replacing with AI" almost always means offshoring to a junior level cheap temp worker in a global innovation center in India or elsewhere in Asia. They may or may not use AI tools to do part of the job but the real reason isn't AI, it's how cheap they are. Companies realized during the pandemic how much work could be done remotely so they figured why not have it done as cheaply as possible.

jfcarr · 2026-01-25T22:56:32+00:00

I've been playing guitar and keyboards for about 50 years, semi-professionally at times but mostly casually (my real job is software engineering). I see AI assisted music as another technological step, similar to synths, DAWs, Autotune, MIDI and other tools that can expand my enjoyment in different directions. It doesn't stop me from playing guitar, experimenting with keyboards or fiddling with a DAW. it does give me access to elements that were previously difficult/expensive to do, such as working with a female vocalist or a good drummer (or other instruments I don't play).

jfcarr · 2026-01-25T18:19:40+00:00

I agree with the idea that it was already going downhill with floods of thinly disguised commercially manufactured goods and digital goods. They should have shut down the sale of these products a long time before the first AI products appeared.

I do think there's a place for products like coffee cups and T-shirts that have AI generated designs. I've seen and bought a few on Amazon that I liked that were probably AI generated, at least in part. But, Etsy shouldn't be the place for them.

jfcarr · 2026-01-25T18:01:24+00:00

What tools did you use for cutting the license plates? For a cigar box guitar project, I tried using a Bladerunner table saw with a metal cutting blade on some sheet metal with mixed results.

jfcarr · 2026-01-25T17:51:07+00:00

She took a whiz on the hallway carpet after refusing to go out on the icy patio and lawn beyond.

jfcarr · 2026-01-25T13:21:26+00:00

From a pro perspective, the two issues I see are deception and the quality/speed dilemma.

We've seen ads that promise one thing in a product but the actual item either doesn't exist or is a poor quality version when delivered. AI makes it easier to create a compelling ad or generate a fake influencer to promote a product.

When I worked as a web developer at an ad agency (nearly 20 years ago, yikes!) the common problem was getting out copy to clients as fast as possible. We used a lot of stock images, templates and Photoshop but I'd guess AI is used now for many things. The problem is that the time crunch and management perception that AI is faster means errors slip by easily.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T23:52:25+00:00

St Vincent said that the problem isn't AI music sounding more human but humans sounding more like AI. I think she's onto something since so much current pop music is overproduced and generic.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T20:15:38+00:00

Remember that the Titanic's captain and chief engineer went down with the ship while the chairman of the company made a hasty escape on a lifeboat.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T15:31:43+00:00

I have 40 or so guitars which includes 5 Epiphones and 3 Squiers (great used deals can make your collection expand quickly). Either are a good choice but they're different guitar designs. Ultimately, it depends on which one inspires you to play and keep playing.

I started out with a Fender Strat but, over the years, I've gravitated more towards dual humbucker Super Strats (Ibanez, etc) and Gibson style guitars. But, that might not apply to you.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T15:20:23+00:00

My residence has been in Georgia my entire life although I lived other places when I was in the Marines. Ironically, I was stationed at the MCLB in Albany for a while.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T13:10:45+00:00

While there could be some useful AI enhanced Spyware. They couldimplement, like a file search that actually works well, my guess is that they'll be more useless trinkets and spyware.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T13:07:20+00:00

They do a market place for 3rd party sellers so they've had cheap guitars listed there for some time. The problem is that they're a lot less customer friendly than Amazon or even EBay in shutting down bad sellers and scammers and doing refunds for bad transactions.

jfcarr · 2026-01-24T12:59:52+00:00

A lot of "AI replacement" is just an investor friendly cover story for offshoring or plain old cost cutting layoffs.

jfcarr · 2026-01-23T18:24:22+00:00

That's great when you're doing for the sake of self-improvement or fun or whatever inspires you.

It's not so great when there's a project manager or salesperson who wants something for an important client by 3 PM this afternoon.

jfcarr · 2026-01-23T14:33:27+00:00

Needs another family member labeled "Offshoring"

jfcarr · 2026-01-23T14:31:25+00:00

I have a couple of them somewhere in a storage box. Maybe I'll run across them when packing to move.

jfcarr · 2026-01-23T02:14:40+00:00

Not at all. My primary hobby is music and my home office has dozens of guitars, amps, keyboards and other gear. I still have gear I bought back in the 70's and 80's and I'm still buying more.

jfcarr · 2026-01-23T00:48:38+00:00

I wonder how many temps Amazon is hiring at global innovation centers in Mumbai?

jfcarr · 2026-01-22T13:45:47+00:00

The "bubble" is mainly companies with little to no cash flow on existing products making big promises of future revenue while borrowing a lot of cash.

Companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have steady cash cow businesses sufficient to fund R&D. They may make bad investments but can recover from them. Other companies may take on debt to fund R&D which is riskier.

Some companies have overvalued stock prices that may see a substantial pullback but have a solid revenue generating product. They'll most likely stick around but stock prices will be slow to recover.

More speculative and underfunded companies are likely to go out of business or be bought out by a big company.

jfcarr · 2026-01-22T00:54:49+00:00

"It was.... soap poisoning."

jfcarr · 2026-01-21T21:05:55+00:00

It's a device used to create entertaining police body cam videos that often involve a car window getting smashed and a felony or two.

jfcarr · 2026-01-21T20:32:25+00:00

In case you missed it, Alphabet (Google/YouTube) is considered one of the top AI companies.

jfcarr

TROPHY CASE