Top Story

• Axios sees artificial intelligence coming, and is shifting its strategy. (Seattle Times) (archive site)

  In the view of Jim VandeHei, CEO of Axios, artificial intelligence will "eviscerate the weak, the ordinary, the unprepared in media."

  Which is all of them. Yes, obviously Axios, but who is there in that industry that doesn't fit at least two out of three of those categories?

  VandeHei says the only way for media companies to survive is to focus on delivering journalistic expertise, trusted content and in-person human connection.

  Stop laughing, this is serious.

  "Fast forward five to 10 years from now and we’re living in this AI-dominated virtual world - who are the couple of players in the media space offering smart, sane content who are thriving?" he added. "It damn well better be us."

  Axios is a money-bleeding garbage mill, and always has been. As competition for stochastic garbage heats up and AI delivers for pennies a year what takes a six-figure salary for pompous overeducated leftists, we can only hope to see the evisceration VandeHei envisages.
  
  I wonder if bidding has opened on the hotdog concession.

  The company has also introduced a $1,000-a-year membership program around some of its journalists that will offer exclusive reporting, events and networking.
  
  "We're not prostitutes," said VandeHei. "Or if we are, we're the kind that expects you to shower first."

Tech News

• The purpose of a system is what it does: Maria Cantwell ran for the Senate promising privacy legislation. She has spent the 24 years since then blocking all efforts towards it. (Washington Post) (archive site)
  
  If you deliver what you promised, they don't need you anymore.
  
  
  
• Is that 368TB portable SSD just not the same as it was yesterday? Here's a 30,000TB tape library. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  That used to be a lot.
  
  The article says 75,000TB, but that includes compression, and I don't know who exactly has 75,000TB of data that isn't already compressed in some manner.
  
  
  
• Minecraft modpack update: The squirrels in Luminous are animated better than the ones in Zoo Architect.
  
  Since both are working I'm not fussed.  Also the ones in Luminous come in four colour variants, which fits the theme of the mod.  There are new variants for almost all the common mobs - sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, cats, and wolves - plus new zombies, skeletons, creepers, endermen, golems, and spiders.
  
  No crashes in the latest test world.  It loads and runs - just - in 4GB of heap.  Looking pretty good at this point.
  
  I put Blue Skies and The Undergarden back in, along with Aether Redux; I'd previously taken them out due to their size but it seems okay now.  That took the base heap size from 3.3GB to 3.6GB; I'm running with a heap limit of 6GB.