inconsequence
musings on subjects of passing interest
Blender Gets Real
The Oscar for best animated movie went to Flow, a 3d animated movie made with Blender by director Gints Zilbalodis.
Not only is a tiny team beating out the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks an incredible achievment on its own, it's also a big win for open source and anyone with a great idea and limited access to financing. This is the first Oscar-winning animated movie to be made without dedicated engineering support (e.g. Pixar uses tons of custom software and has two engineers for every artist). These folks had a total budget $4M.
— Tonio Loewald, 3/26/2025
Recent Posts
Blender Gets Real
3/26/2025
Flow, the Blender-animated film, took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. But it's more than just a win for a small team; it's a monumental victory for open-source software and anyone with a vision and a limited budget.
The future's so bright… I want to wear AR glasses
2/4/2025
So much bad news right now… It's all a huge shame, since technology is making incredible strides and it's incredibly exciting. Sure, we don't have Jetsons-style aircars, but here's a list of stuff we do have that's frankly mind-blowing.
Contrary to popular belief, AI may be peaking
1/21/2025
Is artificial intelligence actually getting *smarter*, or just more easily manipulated? This post delves into the surprising ways AI systems can be tricked, revealing a disturbing parallel to the SEO shenanigans of the early 2000s. From generating dodgy medical advice to subtly pushing specific products, the potential for AI to be used for nefarious purposes is not only real but the effects are already visible.
Large Language Models — A Few Truths
1/17/2025
LLMs, like ChatGPT, excel at manipulating language but lack true understanding or reasoning capabilities. While they can produce acceptable responses for tasks with no single correct answer, their lack of real-world experience and understanding can lead to errors. Furthermore, the rapid pace of open-source development, exemplified by projects like Sky-T1-32B-Preview, suggests that the economic value of LLMs may be short-lived, as their capabilities can be replicated and distributed at a fraction of the initial investment.
Adventures with ChatGPT
1/17/2025
ChatGPT excels at mundane coding tasks, akin to a bright intern who reads documentation and StackOverflow but lacks creativity and testing. While useful for automating repetitive tasks, its code requires refinement and testing.
Apple Intelligence—Image Playground
1/15/2025
Apple's new Image Playground is focused, and easy to use. If you want to produce cute "Pixar-style" people and animals, it quickly churns out consistent, but very limited, results. My M3 Max rendered images in seconds, but right now it's more of a cute toy than a useful tool