Training AI and my embarrassing naïvité
The Verge wrote an incredibly depressing article on the gig-economy workers teaching genAI models. Laid-off lawyers, history PhDs, and scientists are now part o...
Author: charlie
Why you: the sublime realism of Maria Popova
Maria Popova, writer of the Marginalian, a collection of dense, emotional, and inspiring writing, has a gift for touching the ineffable. She has a sublime (in t...
Highly suggestive uncertainty: Is Claude smarter than a puppy?
For almost 20 years, I, and some others, have been using puppies as a yardstick for smart things. We kinda push back at this idea that software and services nee...
How Creative Commons powers my designs
I remember the early days of Creative Commons. Such a subversive idea to make copyright so nuanced and so easily used. To me, the heart of it is all the folks w...
My first sales event on Grey and Slate, Haberdashers!
My first sales event on Grey and Slate™! All shirts 25% off thru 02 Dec for Etsy’s Black Friday promo. Hand-drawn circuits and maker references (NE555, op...
Pause for station identification
Yay. Another year, another pause for station identification. MeWho am I? I’m Charlie Schick. I’m passionate about exploring how the intersection of ...
Did Qualcomm kill Arduino for good?
Six weeks ago, Qualcomm acquired Arduino. The maker community immediately worried that Qualcomm would kill the open-source ethos that made Arduino the lingua fr...
GenAI needs editors – just like humans
Go to the back of any blockbuster novel and invariably there’s a slew of acknowledgements from the author. Acknowledgements that are common are for the ed...
Airbnb wants to make sure your vacation rental has a well-stocked fridge | The Verge
For the longest time I’ve wanted some sort of AirBnB welcome service that would deliver the spices and oils needed for cooking. I tend to prefer rentals w...
Oura Ring: In 2025, sticking to their knitting. In 2026, healthcare delivery juggernaut?
Last year, I wrote an article, sparked by a brainwave, on the Oura ring. Since that time, Oura has continued its amazing growth. And I have continued to ru...