Penny for Your Thoughts Edition

GPT-4o

OpenAI introduced GPT-4o to the world, and it is flat-out amazing. I was amazed at how the voice was totally conversational and fun—it could even sing! I believe this is another revolutionary moment in the world of tech. The presentation reminded me a lot of Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone, but in a more relaxed and interactive way. Shades of Her, too.

Megalopolis

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis trailer looks epic, weird, and mind-bendy. I have no idea what’s going on. Is that good?

Ex Machina and the Disconcerting Way That Sci-Fi Movies Age

This piece by Ben Ulansey is an excellent look back at science fiction technology shown in movies and television and how some of it is coming true. It also specifically looks at Ex Machina on its ten-year anniversary. Truly chilling today.

Commencement announcer butchers the names of graduates

About ten minutes into the College of Nursing graduation ceremony at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, the woman announcing the new graduates’ names was replaced. Why? Because she was mispronouncing their names in a comical way. Of course, it went viral. It was basically a real-world Key and Peele sketch.

Blue Eye Samurai

I’m late to the party, but this Netflix show is amazing. I’m not very far into it, but Blue Eye Samurai is worth the time. Beautiful animation, a strong voice cast, and a well-executed story. Here’s the trailer from November so you can draw your own conclusions if it’s right for you.

“I woke up with, for no good reason, a certain word on the tip of my tongue that I just couldn’t find. There was nobody around to talk to. My movement was a little more stiff and shambly than it normally is first thing in the morning. I clumsily fed the cats, staggered outside with coffee, all the time trying to find this word that was stuck in the mouth of my mind and wouldn’t come out. It was more frustrating than that sort of thing should reasonably be. Within an hour I was maddened by it. Why couldn’t I find and form the word? I find and form words for a living. It was driving me batshit. Two hours later, I found the word. It was ‘aphasia.’” — Warren Ellis

If time is money, and money is the root of all evil, then wasting time is fighting evil.

"I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it’s inside a frame." - Abbas Kiarostami

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and realize that I had no idea what the hell was going on when I first saw it.