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André Alessi

@andrealessi.bsky.social

1.5K followers 1.1K following 3.3K posts

Philosophy PhD student at the University of Waikato (working on how regular people figure out when to trust experts) but I mainly joke about tech and cats. Former telco product manager, data guy and financial crime analyst. https://ko-fi.com/andrealessi

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · Mar 17

Onion headline: Guy In Philosophy Class Needs To Shut The Fuck Up

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 1h

"Um actually it's 'You are something but a hound dog' dumb ass"

- if they had Bluesky in 1952 I guess.

André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 2h

I watched a talk on de-extinction yesterday that spent a surprising amount of time discussing how kākapō get "crusty bum disease."

Study insights may save kākāpō from ‘crusty bum’

Relief may be in sight for kākāpō affected by an extremely painful disease, thanks to a University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka-led study.

www.otago.ac.nz

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Reposted by André Alessi

Matt Leone @mattleone.bsky.social · 4h

Getting off work? Finally have time to read a 10,000-word story? Or perhaps you live overseas... 👀

Design Room @designroom.bsky.social · 15h

For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.

Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).

www.designroom.site

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 2h

André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 2h

Unfortunately this picture looks like a robot with a disturbingly lifelike hand is hugging a naked lady.

RNZ News Feeds @rnzrss.bsky.social · 2h

Free breast screening opens up for thousands more women

From this week, women aged 70 and 74 will be able to access free mammograms, the government has announced.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Reposted by André Alessi

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3h

Glad to see the "Chicago rat hole" (rodent-body imprint) of January 2024 Internet fame was studied more, but just to add my $0.02: Many folks missed the tracks leading away from the body imprint, meaning the squirrel (not rat) fell & splatted in wet concrete, but then walked it off. 🧪🐿️🐾

Photo showing the outline of small rodent body as a negative (concave) impression in sidewalk concrete, with left two limbs clearly defined but missing the upper right limb (arm) and only part of the right rear limb (leg); a thin tail is implied by a pointed imprint behind the main body imprint. The photo is labeled with "Direction of rodent movement" and a red arrow pointing to the upper right of the photo, and a red circle is around a set of rodent tracks in the upper right near the body imprint, labeled as "Rodent tracks."

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Reposted by André Alessi

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 6h

recurring gripe of mine: stop talking about these people like they’re fucking supervillains, Palmer Luckey is grifter bullshit artist who is going to steal a lot of public money in exchange for buggy vaporware, he’s not Lex Luthor. they get off when breathlessl hyperventilating about them like this.

Kate Ross @kateross.bsky.social · Sep 6

The Merchant of Death, billionaire Palmer Luckey, rebranded the DOD the Department of War.

Peter Thiel/Palantir gave his company, Andruil, a billion dollars in January.

This is Palmer “I love killer robots” Luckey.

Origin story on rename below, as well as him hanging out with the worst people.

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Reposted by André Alessi

Spock's Brian @spocksbrian.worstpossible.world · 10h

Too many amazing stories from Gallup, and almost none I will repeat here. However I will talk about what I myself experienced. There was Something in the basement at the Old Rehoboth Church

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 4h

And not even the good kind of perverted.

Reposted by André Alessi

What’s the Hold Up Pod Dan @jacketdan.bsky.social · 1d

He did it again for the 5 year anniversary

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Reposted by André Alessi

Anne Trubek @atrubek.bsky.social · 4h

Probably best to chase it indefinitely

2covet @2covet.bsky.social · 4h

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rare-whit...

Locals stunned by world-famous white whale sighting off NZ coast

Locals near Kaikōura captured rare footage of a white humpback whale.

www.nzherald.co.nz

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 4h

He just like me fr.

Prince Charles's beach body has been admired. But does he share my ageing secret?

Adrian Chiles

It's good to see that, like me, the prince is looking after his body. However, I've found that bending down is now a planned event - never undertaken lightly

Thu 28 Mar 2019 07.00 GMT

André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 4h

He grew up in a house with a conker tree behind it! It's inevitable.

You’re never too old to climb a tree – and I should know

As a boy, I was too terrified to tackle the beautiful horse chestnut near my home. But I’ve changed a lot in four decades

www.theguardian.com

André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 4h

I normally support trans women doing crimes, but...

André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 4h

I'm always unboxing my conkers at the wrong time.

Jill Twiss @jilltwiss.bsky.social · 5h

Hi what

Headline: “nature’s labubu: why are gen z unboxing conkers?”

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Reposted by André Alessi

Aaron Huertas @aaronhuertas.bsky.social · 5h

I don't see it as an ideology, I see it as public figures filling a niche in the media. A key mechanism, as the right has become more extreme, is media figures trying to find increasingly obtuse left wing things to criticize to balance out criticisms of elected officials on the right.

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 5h

Advertise your account with just one image.

A very handsome silver tabby sleeps on his side on a green towel. His feet are next to the back vent of a gaming laptop, which shines a bright red light on them.

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 5h

When I was a product manager for an ISP, I got to see how tight the margins for individual users really were, and it's always like this. You make almost nothing off most consumers, and a few (especially the problem customers or ones trying to spin up a business at home) can easily cost you thousands

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 6h

Jesus christ. AI coding platform Augment code had to jack up prices because 22.5% of their users were spending 20x of what they paid, and even after raising the prices, they're still running at a loss.
reddit.com/r/AugmentCod...

A handful of users abused the system so all are getting punished.

This isn't about a few high-usage users. The reality is that approximately 22.5% of our users are consuming 20x what they're currently paying us. This isn't sustainable for us to continue delivering the quality service you expect. We have built some very powerful tools and we don’t want to impose artificial limits on what’s possible, but we do need to be able to charge in proportion to the use customers are getting from our platform. Developers are always going to push their tools to their limits, and we encourage that — and we need to be able to charge for it appropriately, too.

You only care about professional developers.

Our core focus is on building the best AI coding agent for professional software engineers and their teams. If people outside of that group are finding value with Augment, they are very welcome to use the product, but we’re not prioritizing features or solutions that non-developers might need, and frankly, there are plenty of vibe coding/low code/no code solutions available on the market that will better serve those customers.

You are just squeezing money out of us at 20x margin.

20x margin sounds great, but isn’t the reality for AI tools: the vast majority are running at a loss, including us, while we work to build sustainable, long-term businesses.

André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 6h

We've had several beers from Karamu at the local beer club, and they're always fantastic. It's pretty interesting finding out where they come from!

The best wild beers in New Zealand come from a shed in the back blocks of Hamilton

On one side, the country’s largest and most well-funded breweries. On the other, a guy called Daryl with some barrels.

thespinoff.co.nz

Reposted by André Alessi

Jody Avirgan @jodyavirgan.com · 8h

Kind of amazing that the photo Politico used of one of these folks -- the one who made a joke about gas chambers -- is from an event that Politico sponsored last summer.

Peter Giunta participates in a CNN-POLITICO Grill discussion at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, July 16, 2024. | Rod Lamkey Jr. for POLITICO

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Reposted by André Alessi

tal boger @talboger.bsky.social · 7h

can't believe the IRB approved this part — hope the children are ok!

methods from lapidow & bonawitz, 2023. children are "dropped"

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Reposted by André Alessi

Clay Ranck @clayranck.bsky.social · 7h

Trump playing up his bullet dodging skills at the Charlie Kirk memorial is really beyond parody.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8h

Trump at the Charlie Kirk memorial event: "They fired sniper rifles at ICE agents, and me. But I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. Charlie couldn't believe it, actually."

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 7h

If they replace every HR department and policy maker with chatbots, then sexting with chatbots on company time might become corporate policy.

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André Alessi @andrealessi.bsky.social · 7h

The tech economy is deliberately opaque, but there's genuinely no way that OpenAI can fund itself through consumer user revenue given how many free alternatives exist. Its only hope is corporate customers, who just aren't finding the benefits that are being promised.

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