You’re not going with that title, are you? I might. There are no actual trophies or awards. Correct. There are three Rands Useful App Awards this year, but before I award them, I will define the criteria I used to select these products. The application has substance. This is not a one-shot utility that does… more
There are two classes of songs I listen to when writing. Words and no words. Word songs are used when I the writing does not require flow — deep thought. The problem with words is they get in your head, bump around, and start creating more words. At a time when I am attempting to… more
Second year of UCSC. Decades ago. A predilection for Domino’s Pizza and a fundamental misunderstanding of how credit cards worked left me in a financial hole. I needed a job, any job, and the School of Social Sciences offered a job aligned with my computer science degree, lab technician. A solid interview with a prompt… more
Prologue. Westworld was an HBO reboot of the 1973 Michael Crichton movie. The pitch: we’ve built vast amusement parks populated with ultra-realistic robots (called “hosts”) who act their parts within the park. The first season is set into motion when the creator of the hosts, an inspiring Anthony Hopkins, uploads a new software update, which… more
Destiny. You’ve got some time on your hands right now. It’s the holiday season. You’ve got free time. Take a call. There’s quite a bit of content. Destiny has been around for almost ten years. A lot is going on in that world, but more importantly, they’ve had a lot of time to make the… more
You’ve had a small number of career-defining moments. These are the select few moments in time when the trajectory of your career changed instantly and drastically. I have two buckets of these: ones I expected and ones that completely blindsided me. While the surprise and subsequent scrambling involved in being blindsided are chock full of… more
Gruber alerted me to the new beta of Photoshop with a compelling name: generative fill. The pitch: ask the robots to fill in parts of your existing photograph with, well, whatever you want. Yes, I am not showing these initial trials deliberately. The first case I tried was inserting an object into a photograph. A… more
Drinking a glass of Ridge Cabernet on the deck. Night time. Starry night. Mrs. Rands was traveling, so the house was quiet. I was staring at the stars doing what I do best: letting my mind wander. Both good and bad ideas enthusiastically arrive at these moments. This evening, a science fiction story popped into… more
Level 1: NOT BUSY My schedule is wide open. I can choose infinite paths. Zero commitments. The weekend. I sleep like a baby. Life is good, but am I living my best life? Level 2: STUFF TO DO I have a few commitments wandering around my brain. They are reasonable, knowable, and not deadline-based. I… more
Elden Ring, developed by FromSoftware, wants you to rage quit the game. This is an undocumented feature of the game. You’re introduced to this feature promptly. After choosing your character, you’re plopped into a castle wondering Why is there no onboarding training? You walk through dark hallways reading warnings on the floor from other players.… more
