Ust Oldfield

25 Nov 2024

Hey new followers! I'm Ust. I have a strange name. It rhymes with east. I post about children, France, how France compares to the UK, my love for food, and occasionally about tech and data. I sometimes communicate in gif, as well as Franglais and English.

17m

Well, that was a non-event

Ust Oldfield@ustdoes.tech

I believe that John Healey has an uphill battle to make the government more “pro-business” when a lot of the recent legislation and Labour policy has been distinctly “anti-business”. And tinkering at the edges doesn’t change that.

If the former employees of BioWare want to set up a new studio called Non-BioWare, I would gladly buy their games.

giftarticle.ft.comAIX sold the Dubai dream to investors. Now it is struggling to repay themProspective clients who flocked to the Burj Khalifa were promised double-digit returns but thousands are now facing losses

Big MLM energy. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... AIX sold the Dubai dream to investors. Now it is struggling to repay them

Ust Oldfield@ustdoes.tech

Redefining p(doom) to be the probability that a player (human or machine) dies before completing a level in Doom.

Redefining p(doom) to be the probability that a player (human or machine) dies before completing a level in Doom.

404media.coCharacter.ai's Bankruptcy Documents Show the Economics of AI Don't WorkCharacter.ai enshittified its product but was still burning tons of cash, its bankruptcy documents say.

One less competitor for compute = cheaper compute…?

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social

New: I pulled the Character ai bankruptcy documents. They show: - They were spending $14 million/month on compute alone at a time their revenue was around ~$1 million/month - Currently losing $9 million a month - They admitted they enshittified & that it didnt work www.404media.co/character-ai...

I’m still amazed that they managed to get a 30 minute film out of the gruffalo. The book takes 5 minutes to read.

Tom Ewing@tomewing.bsky.social

I am now wondering if there are *any* children’s books you could get an excellent 10 hour series out of

There’s something strange going on in American corporate accounting. I have seen examples of opex only being cloud costs, whereas employee and contractor costs are being capitalised.

Add to this OpenAI not including resellers under revenue and Anthropic excluding certain costs from profitability calculations. None of this is going to hold up against an auditor or scrutiny of an investor pack.

Sounds really boring, but it would be nice if there were accounting standards so that what gets reported is comparable.

giftarticle.ft.comgiftarticle.ft.com

Sobering read from @katie0martin.ft.com this morning. Now is a great time to be a hermit. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... The world of one trade — AI

*sees images of the Type 01* Good grief *shorts JLR stock*

Waitrose is basically “posh” Tesco.

James Heale@jaheale.bsky.social

Fun polling by More in Common Tories lead among M&S shoppers - but Reform most popular among Morrisons and Lidl Labour lead in Asda, Aldi and Waitrose (!)

giftarticle.ft.comTories vow to end £100,000 childcare trap but keep pensions triple lockKemi Badenoch says current threshold for free hours, introduced by previous Conservative government, punishes parents for working more

The issue isn’t that higher tax payers should have access to subsidised childcare, it’s that it should be tapered off so that earning more isn’t immediately penalised. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Tories vow to end £100,000 childcare trap but keep pensions triple lock

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Just introduce a version of the Quotient Familial, you cowards.

My biggest issue with the 100k cliff is that it penalises single income households. Two parents earning 99,999 each reap all the benefits and earn collectively more than a single income household on 100k. Basically, if you live together you should be taxed together.

There is no one who is a higher tax payer who is seriously arguing for free childcare for themselves. Or, if they are, they shouldn’t be taken seriously.

What is it with Manchester and terrible coffee?

Anthropic have non-cancellable obligations of $500bn yet they have $4.6bn of cancellable income. How on earth do they expect an IPO valuation of $2tn?! Is its existential risk to humanity the risk it presents to the market?

Huge asymmetrical financial distortion, with revenue concentrated in 2 customers, plus downward price pressures. Call me a sceptic, but I can’t see Anthropic as an attractive asset.

Kids are loss making, they keep leaving their sandboxes, and they’re non-deterministic in everything they do. The logic holds. Also applies to cats.

Matt Steinglass@mattsteinglass.bsky.social

Alert that from now on I will be terming OpenAI a super intelligence firm. Also, my kids are super intelligent. They will shortly be going public at a valuation of $1 trillion

giftarticle.ft.comAnthropic warns of ‘existential risks to humanity’ in IPO prospectusLong-awaited S1 filing reports Claude maker lost $8bn last year on $4.6bn in revenue

“Please invest, my profit margin is very sick. *cough* And my product may kill us all *cough*” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Anthropic warns of ‘existential risks to humanity’ in IPO prospectus

The government has an opportunity to use the tax and welfare systems to encourage the development of new companies and innovations. Will it? Absolutely not.

Setting up anything new, particularly if it’s unproven, is risky. Through tax and welfare, the risk can be reduced thereby encouraging new entrants.

theguardian.comTrump asked Xi Jinping if China would like to buy US weapons, American ambassador saysDavid Perdue’s remarks come after a Taiwanese minister spoke of the ‘severe’ military threat posed by Beijing to the self-ruled island

I’m sure that the Chinese would want to buy American weapons. To buy the blueprints is a lot easier than traditional espionage routes. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

giftarticle.ft.comWhy your holiday is good news for the UKFor once we should thank the Office for National Statistics for its productivity reporting

Basically, we have become European in our attitude to work. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Why your holiday is good news for the UK

22 Sept

Never trust someone who pairs brown shoes with a blue suit.

Olga Nesterova@onestpress.onestnetwork.com

Add a dose of propaganda to your morning coffee.. This smells of Russian-like “special operation”

bbc.co.ukMeet the pensioners spending the kids' inheritanceThe phenomenon sees retirees spend all their money on enjoying life to the full.

22 Sept

I hate everything about this article. It could have been a message: retired people enjoy holidaying. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ft.trib.alOpenAI joins call for US-led global AI standardsChief executive Sam Altman will brief the UN Security Council this week following outcry over safety concerns

21 Sept

Guys, the EU AI Act already exists

Financial Times@financialtimes.com

OpenAI joins call for US-led global AI standards ft.trib.al/yojKN1U

21 Sept

Just ruined Little O’s day by beating him in cards. I feel terrible, he feels even worse. Happy Monday!

bbc.co.ukEd Sheeran's persona as music's Mr Nice Guy worsened the biggest crisis of his careerSheeran tries to stay away from politics and controversy, but that stance has come in for criticism.

17 Sept

Moral of the story: don’t be nice, be kind. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

16 Sept

Proof that to be a bank requires more than just banking technology.

Tony Tassell@tonytassell.bsky.social

the Revolut hack story is quite something www.ft.com/content/97f3...

en.wikipedia.orgHarry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Wikipedia

15 Sept

Literally nothing in the plot line is remotely rational. It’s a wild ride (and not the good kind). Society is doomed if these people are in charge.

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com

Also, these people’s central source text, their Bible, is a Harry Potter fanfic, and I am not kidding. These dorkass weirdos are unthinkably wealthy and powerful now. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_P...

15 Sept

God bless SoftBank and all who have contributed to the unhinged shareholder presentations. The golden goose is coming home to roost - as I’m using it for inspiration for a conference session.

giftarticle.ft.comIs the modern economy a bit too . . . samey?The less willing we are to take a risk, the more safe options we are likely to be offered

14 Sept

One of @timharford.ft.com’s best columns. I particularly enjoyed the “all YouTube is Baby Shark” theory. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Is the modern economy a bit too . . . samey?

theguardian.comChancellor urged to fix £100k childcare ‘cliff edge’ that prompts parents to cut workThreshold pushes some to reduce hours or stop working to avoid losing entitlement, report warns

10 Sept

Come on household tax assessments www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

UPS is an awful logistics company

“Check that your ring doorbell is working”. Mate, I don’t have a ring doorbell. If you’re going to fob me off, at least get the description of my property correct.

as.ft.comBritain’s grid operator gave Palantir contract without inviting rival bidsNeso cited a legal exemption that removes the requirement to consider other suppliers if dependencies leave no alternative

Time to designate Palantir a Critical Third Party. One may argue “what does energy supply have to do with financial stability?” To which my answer is: everything.

Amy Borrett@amyborrett.ft.com

Britain’s state-owned electricity system operator has awarded Palantir a £21mn contract without inviting rival bids, arguing critical processes are too reliant on its tech to run a competitive procurement process Latest for @financialtimes.com: as.ft.com/r/7fe6c0b7-2...

Absolutely drown them in bureaucracy

Why does the discourse around the black clad thugs keep resolving to “illegal immigration”? These thugs have a problem with any kind of immigration - and their “concerns” should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.

giftarticle.ft.comRerun or sequel? Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor on end times fascismHow nationalists, theocrats and tech titans turned their backs on a shared future

7 Sept

I was reading this excellent article this morning giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Rerun or sequel? Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor on end times fascism And Little O was asking me questions about the images in the article, so now he knows when to speak up against fascists.

4 Sept

Superb pub crawl stamina

Small Robots@smolrobots.bsky.social

There are an estimated 3,500 pubs in London.

bbc.co.ukBritish army told to stop non-essential training exercises to save moneyUnits in the UK not preparing to be deployed have been told to cut back on training exercises due to cost pressures.

4 Sept

Training exercises are there to stop boredom. This is only going to exacerbate the retention and recruitment problem that the army already has. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

3 Sept

I feel like we need to start giving political donations the anti-money laundering treatment.