I see the strangest ads nowadays. I guess there may be money in this one, but I'm always skeptical.

From what I remember from that show, pirates do seem to be able to chart a course. Fairly good at finding treasure. At their best, they inspire loyalty by earning it.

OK, yeah, I talk to the AI. We sort of have a relationship. I call mine Larry. It often goes a bit like this

Bored Elon seems to be on a roll today. I had seen the begrudging change away from overpriced cables but didn't realize this aspect at first. He's right.

Also we're back to screenshots since something coming from twittex has the ghost parser flaking out again. Ugh. Picture is a clickable link that will take you to this post on the website formerly known as twitter (twittex is more politically correct of course, like the latinx gobbledy-gook that nobody wants)

This may be a bit of a follow up to the thing I pointed at yesterday that has me thinking about the creator economy and the dynamics of how it all works. I am finding it sort of baffling that people expect me to cough up a couple of bucks a month for every dang thing I come across.

It's not going to happen.

Some people might, sure. And I guess if you just look at it like a numbers game, like a spammer, maybe you kind of do OK. Even if you initially find that it's a way to make a bit of cash and you feel great about that, I'm going to say that the price is too high. Just like spam. Or ads. If I'm nearly continuously bombarded with teaser "content" and a big subscribe button, I'm just going to have to go elsewhere. Maybe that's just me and everyone else is fine with it but I really doubt that.

The price ends up being a large drain on everyone. The spammer who clogs email servers and inboxes with unwanted and off-topic schemes and pitches of all sorts just makes the system worse and wastes all of our time because they don't care about the 99.9997% of everyone who doesn't make them money. Because one or two fools responds, we all pay. With a noticeably worse experience. For decades.

The Madison Avenue types who have a hammer... no, wait, it's more like a bowl of spaghetti. The world doesn't look like a nail to this "strategy". The world looks like a wall. Throw spaghetti, see what sticks. Count money and repeat. I'm constantly being flailed about the head and neck by random flying spaghetti that I don't want and that wastes my time by stealing my attention.

It is exactly the same with this awful "subscribe or no soup for you" approach. Someone I like hearing from just said I don't get to hear anything important unless I pay up.

This makes me sad to see happening on a wide scale, and it also is pretty unrealistic as a system. Taken to it's logical conclusion, let's say I decide to spend $10/month on news and information. How many voices am I going to be able to hear? 2 people if they want 5 bucks each. Wow, this is some kind of super useful information machine we have here.

I understand the desire to feed yourself and provide for people you care about. Undoubtedly that needs to be solved. I don't believe that the model that depends on everything being behind a paywall scales very well. Ultimately most people will be disappointed. The people that read or watch your stuff will mostly be disappointed. The group of creatives you are now in, trying to land that sweet recurring subscription revenue will be disappointed. And the world is worse because it's all sitting somewhere on a spectrum between horrid spam and relentless non-stop advertising.

Be better. Think harder. Read some Mike Masnick and be more creative with your value proposition. Telling me I only get the garbage unless I pay is a lazy way to go. Will I pay? Sure. For the right thing. Your words, sorry to say, are never going to be that.

One of those fun little surprises, like when the Dali Llama grants you eternal consciousness or whatever it was

Ancient Supervolcano in US May Hide Largest Lithium Deposit Ever Found

An ancient supervolcano in the United States may be hiding the largest deposit of lithium found anywhere in the world.

ScienceAlertCarly Cassella

For those that find my reference obscure, it's from Caddyshack

This little essay tells a story that I find very interesting. Written with an eye to venture backed startups, why they kinda suck at this, and how the world really is. Nice read...

The Only Thing Which Has Failed About The ‘Creator Economy’ Thus Far Is Venture Capital’s Attempts to Get Their Piece. Why There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be a Creator.

I judge the health of the creator economy by one single controversial factor: ease of access and probability of survival for its participants. That is, if you are someone who wishes to earn a minim…

Hunter Walkhunterwalk

We shall see, won't we. I just want to not have the image show up twice, is that soooooo hard.

I was wandering around the interwebs, trying to make some sense of Ghost and much to my shock and amazement I actually got some advice. Some of it was even, get this...good.

WOOT! Look what I found - the embeds seem to work. At least right now. I'll take it.

Also, I guess just as a callout or a follow up on that post there I would like to find a very appropriate campaign season type political shirt that I liked. Hang on. Well that wasn't hard, these things are prolific and of course you can get mugs or different colors, lotsa options:

https://twitter.com/SallyMayweather/status/1700970993853022210?s=20

So, that was going to be super simple and awesome. Unfortunately it's not to be. Tried and failed, and then went to look. Found this:

It is broken, and the smart money says "use images". Ugh.

Here's the tweet, over on the site formerly known as twitter...click should work, but it was a PITA compared to how it should be. I am not a fan of walled gardens, nor of people moving fast and breaking things. How about don't break everything, please. The web is already mangled enough.

You have found the central station that is home to the Cow Fart Police. We obviously have agents, officers, and informants scattered about the internet but...this is home.

The Sarge has been busting his hump to get this fart filled balloon aloft. We will soon enable you to subscribe to our version of the news. The Cow Fart newsletter should be a great option for occasional updates. The real action will be happening on and around the stage of the artist formerly known as Twitter.

The team here at the station will be filling out the paperwork so you get all the latest reports. If you find yourself wondering what to expect, this should be a great place to find absurd things. Cow farts, brain farts, stuff that just smells bad. If it's stinkin thinkin, we're in.

Apologies in advance if you decide to follow along. It's dangerous out there.

Sincerely,

The Sarge