• Why did Microsoft-backed startup Builder.ai abruptly collapse after achieving a market cap of $1.3 billion?  (Financial Express)
  
  You might think it was because it's AI.
  
  You'd be wrong.
  
  The whole thing appears to have been fake.  The company claimed to offer AI-driven programming services, but it looks like it was just a bunch of coders in Bangalore doing that work.
  
  On the other hand, it actually did deliver the promised code, which is more than a lot of "real" AI companies have managed.
  
  
  

Tech News

• There has never been more to watch on TV.  You just can't find any of it because everything sucks.  (Salon)
  
  Yes, Salon.  Yes, they're complaining about the internet again.
  
  But in this one specific instance they're not wrong.  I cancelled my Netflix account because it was becoming an unbearable chore to crawl through all their garbage looking for something I actually wanted to watch.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which Netflix is making a series based on the FTX blockchain Ponzi scheme called The Aristocrats.  (Twitter)
  
  Sorry, The Altruists.
  
  But it should have been named The Aristocrats.
  
  
  
• Beware of the fastmath option when compiling C code.  (Simon Byrne)
  
  It does unexpected things, and you just turned off all the warnings that would tell you about that.
  
  
  
• Stack Overflow has a plan.  (The New Stack)
  
  Its plan apparently is to collapse into irrelevance and thence bankruptcy.
  
  
  
• Journalists have negative value.  (The Verge)
  
  The article is a rant about private equity investment companies, but the whole thing happened because journalists have negative value.
  
  
  

Musical Interlude

Posted by: Zendo Deb at Sunday, June 01 2025 03:31 PM (Y+MwZ)

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