I finally got around to finishing off the newsletter in between training sessions and the odd site visit for a client.

I’m pretty happy with the way it went. It was succinct despite being over 2500 words. I’d originally written it, or at least the basis of it, as a report for a project a year or so ago.

I decide to get it up to date and rewrite a few sections to consider changes in the region.

I didn’t get around to documenting and writing what happened the week before last. And to be fair, it’s probably a good idea. It was a difficult week, to say the least. I’m not inclined to go into any detail here but suffice it to say, I was a little stressed about the happenings despite being totally on the right side of things. I have no idea how it will all play out, but it is behind me now, and I can move on.

I won’t dwell on it, but it will remain in my consciousness and influence how I deal with that person in the future. Sadly, in business, some are not very honest. This specimen falls in that category. I know I have been upfront and honest and haven’t screwed anyone out of money, and If I’ve made a mistake, I’ve done everything possible to correct it.

On to other matters.

Much like last week, the week started on a bank holiday. I know there are a lot of them in May in France. However, unlike in other countries, the bank holiday days are fixed to the calendar day of the month. That means in practice, if the bank holiday falls on a weekend, the day off is taken on that day, and it is not moved to the following Monday like in the U.K.

I’m trying to kickstart this mini-project to help me document and reflect on my life. So apologies from the outset if this is not interesting or even boring for you. In reality, it is more for me and complementary to a personal journal that is, for obvious reasons, private. So why put this out in public? I guess it’s like trying to have a personal coach or supervisor forcing me to write more.

There’s a number which is called Dunbar’s Number. It’s around 150 or so.

It’s a significant number in that it seems to indicate that, as humans, we are incapable of having a meaningful discussion and keeping personal links with other humans if we have to do that for a group larger than this number.

Think about how many friends you have, no not Instagram acquaintances, real friends? Now think about how many of them you can keep in touch with in a meaningful way. It’s probably much less than Robin Dunbar’s suggestion.

From Wired:

Unless you’ve been hiding, in a coma, or purposefully ignoring Social Media, you will have seen the explosion of the use of GPT-3 through a website called ChatGPT.

The above is a transcription of what transpired when the model was used for interactions of a health-related matter.

Despite being criticised, and rightly so for some products, much hi-fi equipment is far from being snake oil. It tends to follow the laws of diminishing returns, for sure, but looking at that from the starting end of the graph, it means that spending just a little more will yield large returns on investment in sound quality. It generally follows that build quality and robustness also follow when you increase the budget of your hi-fi equipment.

Unless you’re a hermit or not in any way linked to the tech industry, you’ll be aware that Apple has released its in-house designed processors to replace the current Intel-supplied ones used in the low-end line of Apple’s computers; the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro 13” and the Mac Mini.

Upon reception, people have been benchmarking these processors with nothing short of absolutely stunning results. They are that good it seems. Everything from switching resolutions —which is, by the way, instantaneous with no blanking or delay— to running Apple M1 optimised tasks at over three times the speed for some functions, as compared to even the fastest of the Intel family.

In my timeline of doom and gloom, I put forward my theory that the recent divisions in societies around the world would push them into civil war. In particular, I (still) feel that Brexit will be the spark required to turn Europe against itself and I'm feeling even more confident that the United States will slip into civil war in the next decade.

A recent news article on BBC World has done nothing but solidify my feelings. Donald Trump’s appalling behaviour, too, is pulling the US deeper and deeper down that rabbit hole. It is not a good place to be. It is playing with fire. The question is whether the civil war being started now is going to stay virtual and played out online over Facebook and Twitter/Parler —as it is currently— or whether it will spill over into physical civil war?