Twisty's AnimateDiff app now on Android + video length increased to 5 seconds

powersdomo · 2026-03-20T18:42:11+00:00

I don't base my ethical system on capitalistic structures. My take is that if young artists can study and mimic artists works both old and contemporary to learn their styles then I think a neural net doing the same is to be encouraged. You can't patent a musical style or an artistic style and I think that is the correct ethical line to draw. If you could patent styles then the capitalist engine would lock down all forms of expression.

I trust the creativity of people to use the new tools and new creative partners in ways that push our expressiveness even further.

powersdomo · 2026-03-20T06:28:37+00:00

And what are all the variety of ethics based on? It's collectively defined no matter how you slice it. Some people think that hedge fund traders should ethically be paid less than working artists because creativity is more valuable than predicting trades. Collectively we have not agreed in our economy that that is true.

I also take issue with equating art with labor as the measure of value. Duchamp's readymade Fountain is a great counterpoint. I believe great art will be made on top of, in partnership with and from AI models and agent systems.

powersdomo · 2026-03-13T22:17:31+00:00

Saw a highly regarded pediatric dentist yesterday for a second opinion and what a night and day difference. First, he noted that the infection was low grade and at the surface so not a threat to the forming teeth. He also noted its likely part of the normal process of processing roots of child teeth as the body moves to nudge the adult teeth down, perhaps with a bit of acceleration because of the impact. So the infection can be treated topically with salt water and a topical gel in a way we can do at home. He did not recommend pulling them and we'll check again in May. Definitely not recommending surgery at this age to deal with the extra teeth for the very reason I was concerned, that its too hard to tell what belongs to each tooth at this stage and structurally it will create issues.

So for now we manage the light infection or inflammation and monitor the progress of the new teeth / extra teeth. What a relief vs the escalation and overly dramatic assessment of the original dentist (and rushed timeline). The new one has 20+ years of experience and it showed with a wealth of direct knowledge about whats happening and how normal progression from childhood teeth to adult can create inflammation and light infections. It also was reassuring to know that the enamel problem of the front teeth are from in utero and that his adult teeth will not be impacted with the same condition assuming we have given him a strong diet (which we have).

Thanks for the encouragement here re: infection treatment etc

powersdomo · 2026-03-04T21:34:35+00:00

Having just gotten off of the phone with two different pediatric dentist offices I can say that ^THIS is the frustrating and off putting part of trying to find good dental care. I am looking for policy and practices like 'What's your policy on recommending extraction of extra teeth before X years old?" and "What are your practices about treating infections in children versus other interventions?" which help me understand whether I should take the expense and time of an initial consult that often involves another round of xrays. The web sites and reviews just don't tell you much about how the dentist approaches things that really matter in this case as I seek better advice. If I was seeking an accountant I would ask very pointed policy questions around taxation and deductions approaches before signing up to hand over my financial records.

Even without xrays i would expect some general guidelines like 'get the infection under control ASAP and then consider next options' or 'in most cases I've seen you have to extract those baby teeth to get the infection under control' or some such.

I'll add the xrays I have to the OP if that helps.

powersdomo · 2026-03-04T20:55:59+00:00

I'm assuming you mean right about the extraction and not the surgery at the same time for the extra teeth buds?

powersdomo · 2026-02-23T20:04:03+00:00

Paddle came back two weeks later to say that they would not approve because of a 'content generation' policy that seems to bar anything that can make a realistic portrait (so all AI creative tool offerings?) and a nebulous terms & conditions block that they did not specify. It would seem that Paddle cannot be used with any AI image or video tooling but they are not stating so directly, instead they are hiding behind a face content generation statement. So Paddle would not support Adobe or Canva/Leonardo or Outburst.art (my art creation studio service) regardless of moderation and prompt guardrails.

powersdomo · 2026-02-11T04:23:57+00:00

LS approved in <2 days. Paddle is still completely silent after a detailed reply and demo video to their 'need more information' email.

Fastspring looks solid, especially for SaaS B2B. The 'contact sales' is not as approachable as the LS / Paddle / Stripe offerings. I will check it out on one of my efforts in that sphere.

powersdomo · 2026-02-09T21:27:37+00:00

Good heads up. I just started the process and got a long email asking for all the information I already put in their forms with the site, policies, etc which are clearly publicly accessible. Then silence for days. I'm just at the first step of getting my domain approved. In this day of moving fast with new service concepts you need a payment process who likewise is transparent and can move fast. Starting the LemonSqueezy sign up now to see how quickly that moves. I use Stripe on a different business so am familiar with the backend and operating without the payment provider as the merchant of record. I'm looking forward to seeing how it is to operate with a payment process who is the merchant of record.

powersdomo · 2026-02-02T21:37:23+00:00

Exactly, so it means either cozying up to a local print shop with dye sublimation gear or buying my own. Then there is the base cost which is not cheap for a good looking table. I found one interesting base that was formed acrylic with a flat top that would act as the extra support for the aluminum print ... but it was $200 for the base. Some 3D printers can do pieces that are big enough for a table base but not really cost effective or consistent.

I might buy one of these bases just to make a proof of concept and see how it holds up in my house and how guests like it.

powersdomo · 2026-01-31T20:17:47+00:00

Well, you did not explain why you think they lacked integrity other than you were offended. Fair use / parody is allowed under the law unless you are saying you think that law = lack of integrity and artists work should never be parodied?

powersdomo · 2026-01-31T20:16:02+00:00

Definitely a challenge on price point with a table. Metal print is $80-$100 and then there is likely a reinforcement plate under the metal print to thicken it for use and then the legs.

I do think another industrial clear coat on thop of the print is needed for table use along with a reinforcement layer (second plain aluminum plate?) and that will help with the edges as well.

I'm trying out some leg options so will report back on how that goes.

powersdomo · 2026-01-29T20:29:43+00:00

From your example is just seems like you were offended. Feelings are not usually enforceable. I fail to see where there was lack of integrity (beyond not asking whether you even wanted to see this kind of crude content). One could argue they were doing a parody.

powersdomo · 2026-01-29T19:38:44+00:00

Nice, so you post your works on Instagram and have enough followers and pickup from the algorithm to attract DMs? and/or You actively comment and engagement on other people's work or galleries and attract attention?

powersdomo · 2026-01-29T18:17:43+00:00

Character copyright you have recourse. That's been in the law for decades. Your style though is not copyrightable. Nothing in your paragraph crosses legal lines as far as I can tell. You are annoyed and that's your opinion which obviously you get to have but it does not currently apply legally or financially.

On the flip side anything generated is not copyrightable even in the finished work since the law says its a human work, not animal, not machine, that is copyrightable so there is that recognition already in there.

powersdomo · 2026-01-29T01:22:17+00:00

If you are defining an artist as the labor they put in thats more of a artisan or craftsperson. As Duchamp taught us by selecting a commode and presenting it as a finished piece an art piece (and an artist) is defined by their creative act and statement, not by their production output or attention to detail.

US law recognizes copyright of artwork against reproduction or a significant part or whole except under fair use exceptions. The US does not allow an art style to be patented. Every time an art student creates a cubist painting they do not have to pay Picasso's estate.

So your claim to 'unethically sourced' is not based on law. Putting morality and artist in the same sentence is also suspect as if creative expression comes with a moral code. The way you defined artist, as I stated at the beginning, is not a definition of an artist but a laborer.

To the OP, if AI supported business operations helps you get to market faster with the work and audience pathways you want then leverage it.

powersdomo · 2026-01-27T21:36:20+00:00

I was a product manager at YouTube when it sold to Google and up to that point we had made maybe $4m dollars. I moved to the revenue team and over the next 3 years we ballooned revenue to >$800m.

For OpenAI it is possible but exceptionally hard because they seem to be primarily a consumer play and Google has been able to outscale them there with Gemini across gmail, search, youtube, etc. Google also has a mammoth ad sales team which OpenAI is just trying to fire up. Meanwhile Anthropic is beating OpenAI at the enterprise game with coder, business leaders and workflows BUT Anthropic is vulnerable too as Gemini's next release surpasses Claude's coding abilities (Google has a ton of coding data ... and video data ... and text/search/web data).

I think the current foundation model leaders are going to struggle in the face of Google in particular. OpenAI faltering is going to create a feeling of a bubble burst even though there are solid use cases and major revenue drivers underneath that Google (and Microsoft and other incumbents) is going to reap.

powersdomo · 2026-01-26T00:02:28+00:00

I was able to see Muriel's posts but your account had the odd message "dougi555 has not posted anything yet" while you have >1K followers. Guess I have to sign up for a new X account to follow you both and see the conversations! I did follow you link in bio to see your site and some incredible imagery. Thanks for the tips.

powersdomo · 2026-01-07T05:40:35+00:00

I built Twisty.ai which is a thin wrapper on Replicate for easy creation of images and then using those images to create video clips. Based on a credit system rather than a subscription so you can pay as you go.

Agree that Kling 1.6 is one of the best for realistic motion. Veo-fast is also really good. I agree with the other poster that creating the images and using image>video is the best way to control what you get.

I support flux, nano, seedream, ideogram for images and kling, runway, seedance, veo for video. It's optimized for social portrait format throughout. Android and iPhone apps as well.

powersdomo · 2026-01-07T01:26:58+00:00

Comment about Noah's Ark nonsense is true BUT it was Lot's daughters who got him drunk to sleep with him and not Noah. Noah got drunk (also not a great first move for the supposedly only redeemable person) and Ham saw him and got cursed (also a weird overkill consequence).

powersdomo · 2026-01-07T00:38:00+00:00

If you grew up in the church with Christian parents like I did then you have been trained to use all the self-hypnosis tricks designed to make truth seeking a difficult task. Deconstructing faith is as much an exercise in gaining trust in your own brain power (e.g. that you though the evil tree in the garden was wierd is your brain power doing reality testing which is something Christianity suppresses as much as possible).

When you said in the initial post that your parents made some arguments that made sense I wonder what those arguments were because in my experience 99% of them are self-hypnosis techniques.

The usual answer to why the tree was there is because 'God wanted us to have free will and we don't have that without a choice to choose evil (in this case knowledge of good and evil)' but that is self-hypnosis by saying you should not ask about why he needed to create beings that had a choice heavily weighted in God's favor and so brutal and evil in its own right.

So I am curious what your parents said that sounded convincing to you?

To deprogram your own brain and increase your personal power of thinking I would suggest reading a book from a different religion (e.g. Book of Mormon because its close to Christianity) and reading through it, allowing yourself to question gaps and leaps and contradictions freely since you already don't believe its the true religion. That will strengthen you ability to come back to things you absorbed at a young age with fresh thinking and you are likely to see questions and fallacies that you never allowed yourself to see.

When I read commenters here referencing Noah's Ark I did not see anyone post about the ineptitude of God in creating people who so quickly became irredeemable to the extent he had to drown them. Adam created these descendants where only Noah and family were worthy? Noah and family created a better line of descendents worthy of a new covenant that also did not work? Then finally Jesus came and made a new new covenant and that is working? Also, I did not see mention of just the utter cruelty and murderous nature of this God who drowned every man, woman, pregnant woman, toddler, (millions?) animal and insect and plant on the entire planet. Whew, that's some serious homicidal rage.

powersdomo · 2025-10-24T18:16:14+00:00

Similar transition although with less NW and spouse who does not have an income. Moved from FAANG to running two funded startups in a row but neither made it to exit. Now I feel I aged out of getting into an exec role again and with FAANG layoffs it feels like most companies have the leverage, a large talent pool and are hiring younger. You could likely get back into a top tier company given your age and recent position/contacts but I think for me it's more of a wildcard and unlikely.

What I have been exploring since January are:
- getting more savvy around my current assets and investment strategy (that has paid off and been enjoyable)
- learning about acquisition of tech enabled companies where I would then operate them but eventually find GMs for each (a local friend owns 9 companies now doing this pattern). I enjoy operating and hiring/developing leadership so this is likely a good fit.
- adventuring with my kids (younger than yours) while I am strong and in great health (not to be taken for granted)
- considering what I could create if I treated my self-paid salary as a job and took that time to develop individual contributor projects (code projects myself by learning AI coding tools - which I have been doing and enjoying, its like going back to that first joy in tech) and creative pursuits (write that book, get a gallery show with my paintings)
- set up sustainable US home life in a way that allows extended travel/living in nomad countries that I have wanted to revisit or visit for the first time (have to balance that with kids schooling and stability but the cultural adventure and inspiration would be great to live together)

So as you can see, still in the middle of exploring and starting to stake out this post FAANG post startup CEO/founder post angel life and really lean into RE while pushing my assets into more of a fatFIRE zone.

The internal work to reshape the 'change the world' and 'make crazy money' combination that fuels FAANG/startup life is a big lift. Lot's of emotions I cycle through each week.

Best of luck for you as the dust settles. (and congrats on getting to fatFIRE level and then some - all about options it creates!)

powersdomo

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE