I don’t think a day goes by here at the office that one of us old guys doesn’t make at least one Seinfeld reference. Sadly, most of the younger team members have no idea what we’re referring to. Travis sent me this one about a minor league baseball team’s recent “Elaine Benes dance competition” which was one of the high points of my week. And on the other end of athletic spectacles, you have this woman who is all that’s wrong with youth sports. Hoping she was banned from the rink and that her kid can somehow forgive her for being a complete and utter idiot.
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Pay to Search
For years, Jim Millican has said about Google, “you are the product” and the writer of this piece agrees. Here he rants about Google search results being too AI-driven and suggest paying a nominal fee to search using Kagi. I hate Google as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure I’m ready for another subscription. Would you pay for better search results?
Google Street View
I meant to include this one last week and forgot. A media artist took millions of images of NYC from Google Street View and entered them into a computer program that translates image to text. Bumper stickers, street signs, billboards, logos, and even graffiti. Then, he mapped those terms. So, if you’re curious to see what areas of the city have the most pizza, you can do that. You could also search on the Spanish word for ‘church’ (iglesia) to determine neighborhoods with large Spanish-speaking populations. No word on whether the artist profited from his work, but it’s probably something you could spend hours digging into.
Amazon Prime
After last week, I know that at least one person reads this and clicks the links. Thanks to my high school buddy Mike for pointing out that the link for the Amazon article last week actually went to a different story I’d included. So, if you were trying to find out about the warning to Amazon Prime members about a recent/current phishing email, you can read about it here. I promise.
Egg Tossers
The Brits always seem to come up with the most interesting competitions. If they’re not chasing cheese wheels down a hill, they’re tossing eggs at the World Egg Throwing Championships (world record is 93 meters, or .
And while we’re on the topic of random sports, the World Dog Surfing Championships took place last weekend, and were won by a Labrador retriever. Obviously.
Your MSP
To be honest, this article about managed IT services providers (MSPs) being under attack is 75% pointless. It’s not a new trend (we posted about it in our newsletter back in January of 2020), and there’s only one reference in the article to an actual MSP being attacked. So, if you don’t want to click through, I won’t blame you. However, there is one important takeaway;“If you’re relying on an MSP, you need to be asking better questions. What’s their plan if they get hit? How fast can they contain the damage? And are they thinking about their own security as critically as they do yours? Because if they’re not, your business is just as exposed.”
Food & Drink
Cocktails and sandwiches are two of my favorite things, and they both ended up in my inbox this week. First, a piece on the most underrated cocktails (on this list, I’ll go with the Dark n Stormy), and then one on the best cheap sandwiches from around the world (these all look really good but the Elena Ruz Cubano would be my starting point).
Nancy's Nuggets
Nancy sent me a Teams message yesterday about the possibility of Kroger using AI to change grocery prices at peak times. She then asked ChatGPT about it and the summary to the long response was; Dynamic pricing is real and slowly growing, Facial recognition for pricing is not being used “openly” and is unethical if not illegal, and online AI personalization (pricing based on past behavior, zip code, spending habits) is “very real”.
That exchange led to me mentioning it to Travis (especially as it related to recent news about Delta using this type of pricing methodology) and getting a few items from him, including one about Uber raising rates for situations like a user with a low phone battery trying to get home. Thoughts on that one?
That’s all for this week. Anybody have any big plans for the weekend, other than enjoying the heat? I used my new driver last week for the first time (I mentioned a few weeks ago that it was a Father’s Day gift, when in actuality it was an anniversary gift) and enjoyed it enough that I’m going to try and get out again this weekend. Technology can do some amazing things! Otherwise, it looks to be a quiet weekend for the first time in ages.
Have fun and stay cool!
Abbey