Author: mark.obrien

I’ve been inspired. By something really odd and simple. Find my thoughts here: https://medium.com/@obrienmb/changing-the-world-by-picking-up-sticks-9634c7a15fe1

Where I explain my journey to just getting going because sometimes that’s just what you have to do. You can find it here on Medium or here on Substack.

My first podcast effort. I think it went ok.

This is kind of funny/not-so-funny, and just demonstrates that although we sometimes look at the zeroes in the fines handed out to big tech for infringements of all sorts and think they’re big numbers, it’s absolutely a drop in the bucket. It’s the very minor cost of doing business. It’s a bit shocking, really. Seven… Continue reading A Drop in the Ocean of Profit

One day, we will all just become a photo. We should do our best to leave a little more than that. This thought came to me as I read an article recently about a man dying of Parkinson’s, who was sitting at a desk surrounded by old sepier photos of previous generations.

In this age of GenAI, and what seemed to be the blatant and flagrant ignoring of copyright in the way OpenAI scooped up everything it could lay its hands on to build its ChatGPT model, this will be an extremely important landmark case to understand whether copyright actually means anything in this new age. Let’s… Continue reading A Landmark Case

Given that San Francisco is the home to some of the biggest, most transformative technology companies in the world, this bit of news about the transit system running off floppy disks seems astounding and hard to believe. Surely a joke?!

Ethan Mollica’s advice is on the money. In a confusing space with lots of options, here’s some good, clear advice. Go for it. Play and learn.

It will be interesting to see whether this gets the same political airtime as the Optus drama. I think most of us would argue that access to our funds in our bank would be just as critical as our phone service. Should Westpac be looking for a new CEO…? 🙂

The recent chaotic events at OpenAI have garnered a lot of commentary. It has certainly been interesting to see Microsoft’s approach to what was happening. What also becomes crystal clear is that the OpenAI board should pretty much accept that they have now become a big rubber stamp to whatever Sam Altman wants to do… Continue reading Chaotic hype