Tech Lounge
Podcast version
Find the podcast version of this newsletter, including my interview with Bertrand of Canonical on the Substack podcast page or wherever you find your podcasts.
Tech
A mixed bag this issue covering everything from the slow death of Russia's tech scene, a visual history of Android, GPT-4 in role-play games in role-play games in classified comment leaks. Erm, yes, you read that right.
How Russia killed its tech industry → [https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/04/1070352/ukraine-war-russia-tech-industry-yandex-skolkovo/]
Seven days after the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Belugin packed up his and his family's belongings, canceled the lease on his apartment in Moscow, withdrew his kids from kindergarten, and started a new life outside of Russia.
My kids and I just played D&D with ChatGPT4 as the DM → [https://obie.medium.com/my-kids-and-i-just-played-d-d-with-chatgpt4-as-the-dm-43258e72b2c6]
My two oldest kids Taylor Anne and Liam, are 26 and 23 (respectively). My youngest son Tenzin is 15 years old. All of us are together at my house in Mexico City this week, and the discussion topic generating the most heat is OpenAI and GPT4.
Leaked Classified Documents Also Include Roleplaying Game Character Stats → [https://www.vice.com/en/article/ak3d5z/leaked-classified-documents-also-include-roleplaying-game-character-stats]
Over the past month, classified Pentagon documents have circulated on 4chan, Telegram, and various Discord servers. The documents contain daily intelligence briefings, sensitive information about Ukrainian military positions, and a handwritten character sheet for a table-top roleplaying game.
Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to 12 → [https://www.computerworld.com/article/3235946/android-versions-a-living-history-from-1-0-to-today.html]
What a long, strange trip it's been. From its inaugural release to today, Android has transformed visually, conceptually and functionally — time and time again. Google's mobile operating system may have started out scrappy, but holy moly, has it ever evolved.
And finally…
The Most Spoken Languages In The World, Ranked → [https://digg.com/data-viz/link/most-spoken-languages-world-countries-ranked-gPf8dA1zHS]
There are over 7,000 languages in use across the globe, but for various reasons (like, for example, colonialism), some are spoken a lot more around the world than others.
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