My takes on GPT-5 thus far:
* Getting “veiled deprecation” vibes from this release. 4o’s image manipulation clearly regressed, likely due to legal risk, high compute et. c.
* OpenAI feels feature/integration-first, not cognition/performance increase-first. They're not pushing the envelope, they might budget and sprint to attempt to compete with Claude...but to me it's shocking how unable they are to deliver on this even with a model that is substantially more expensive.
* Yes, GPT-5 can beat 4o on some metrics, but it looks like brute compute and higher token burn. The price reflects that.
* My tests: first code task failed fundamentally even in interpreting what I wanted, as opposed to 4o.
* Voice assistant + Custom GPTs were hilariously bad. It even read my 500+ line template character by character and ignored “stop" when all I did was open my custom GPT (that formats journal-entries for me, referencing a template to show how it ought to work) and ask it if was ready to be of help. The same behavior DID NOT occur with 4o, I might add.
* Colleagues saw better PDF→MD/JSON understanding, but it was 4× cost and much slower. (so for paid actual GPT-5 model)
Worst part was during the Introduction video posted by OpenAI on YouTube (
https://youtu.be/0Uu_VJeVVfo?t=2072)
After about 30 minutes a woman comes in and I am sure that her account is authentic and I sincerely hope that she gets a career boost and active support from OpenAI to some extent but to me it's so abundantly clear, beyond reasonable doubt and plausible conspiracy that this was AT BEST, at the highest of good faith interpretation, PR-lotion but even more likely it's an attempt to get more people to provide OpenAI with their medical data for the provided value of said data which is morbidly cynical.
Nah, I'm good.
Well.. I still haven't written the summaries of the Portugal trip up north nor my Copenhagen visit... and now it's very late...but I'll do all I can to drop it tomorrow.
For now though, I can state that I have written two album reviews today!
They're both short and sweet, and will continue to be.
Consider it a part of my return to form as I have cut my Spotify subscription in favor of a #DAP. I got the SnowSky Echo Mini Blue from AliExpress a couple of weeks back. A bit bummed that it doesn't Scrobble (that is, keep listening history that can be sent to services like ListenBrainz or more commonly LastFM)...but other than that it's a great step back to being more deliberate with my listening, like I used to.
My first two albums are metal albums, so if you're not a fan of that this might not be for you.
First off was an album from Portugal. It's a thrash record from the band Mindtaker. The album is called Toxic War
And then, as I was cleaning, I listened to an old extreme metal favorite of mine. A deathgrind treasure. Necrobreed by Benighted
It connected the three HDMIs fine...but brought in smidges of screen stutter capped at 30fps...
Worse yet, it handled the switching of the HDMIs but the USBs just did not budge, rendering it complely useless for what I'm looking for.
If anyone knows of a good KVM that would allow me to have my miniPC and my work laptop hooked up to my HP V28 4K screen and then, as I switch between 1 and 2, also switch a connected keyboard and mouse, that'd be fantastic.
Woooh... just got back from an amazing Workation in #Copenhagen where I brought my beloved @dotmargui
I have so much to deal with, but in the short term it's:
Salvation arrived!!!!!
More quiet, not as aesthetically pleasing.. bulkier... and no instructions at all on what to do with water but I guess I'll get curious enough later today and potentially break it. Stay tuned!
Central Portugal is most certainly a warm place to live in this time of the year.
Just listening to the two singles from the upcoming #Deftones album, Private music, which is slated for release later this year.
Deftones is one of my all time favorite bands and I feel like these two singles point to a return in vitality, songwriting and production that we haven't heard since Koi No Yokan.
* Getting “veiled deprecation” vibes from this release. 4o’s image manipulation clearly regressed, likely due to legal risk, high compute et. c.
* OpenAI feels feature/integration-first, not cognition/performance increase-first. They're not pushing the envelope, they might budget and sprint to attempt to compete with Claude...but to me it's shocking how unable they are to deliver on this even with a model that is substantially more expensive.
* Yes, GPT-5 can beat 4o on some metrics, but it looks like brute compute and higher token burn. The price reflects that.
* My tests: first code task failed fundamentally even in interpreting what I wanted, as opposed to 4o.
* Voice assistant + Custom GPTs were hilariously bad. It even read my 500+ line template character by character and ignored “stop" when all I did was open my custom GPT (that formats journal-entries for me, referencing a template to show how it ought to work) and ask it if was ready to be of help. The same behavior DID NOT occur with 4o, I might add.
* Colleagues saw better PDF→MD/JSON understanding, but it was 4× cost and much slower. (so for paid actual GPT-5 model)
Worst part was during the Introduction video posted by OpenAI on YouTube (https://youtu.be/0Uu_VJeVVfo?t=2072)
After about 30 minutes a woman comes in and I am sure that her account is authentic and I sincerely hope that she gets a career boost and active support from OpenAI to some extent but to me it's so abundantly clear, beyond reasonable doubt and plausible conspiracy that this was AT BEST, at the highest of good faith interpretation, PR-lotion but even more likely it's an attempt to get more people to provide OpenAI with their medical data for the provided value of said data which is morbidly cynical.
Nah, I'm good.
Yesterday ended up being super-cozy.
Went to the movies with Margarida and watched the new Fantastic Four movie on IMAX with 3D glasses.
It's a bit weird that they spend so much time with promotion materials telling you how good of an experience it is before they serve up the experience. Like IMAX has these teasers for the 3D-experience after they show ads and trailers...
Anyhow, the movie was good! Classic MCU Marvel faire at this point. I rate it the "roughly 7/10 and I'll likely forget narrative and how the plot developed in no time but I will faintly recall thinking it was ok for what it was". And a part of me is fine with that. Another part of me remembers rewatching the Thomas Jane Punisher DVD some 600 times and Sam Raimis Spider-Man movies in the thousands of viewings and they just simply stick, they have an aesthetic, a narrative, a unique way of handling relations and tensions and cinematic language... You really sense that it's "by the guy that made Evil Dead" and that counts for something. Some MCU movies have that but they are few and far between in my opinion. This movie does some things in terms of establishing a unique aesthetic and then cross all of the nerd-trivia-boxes (different Earth, so different dimension et. c.) ... yeah. It doesn't fall flat and if you like Marvel movies you'll like this one.
I'm split between enjoying it as a "popcorn-faire" with my partner and also lamenting the fact that the characters I grew up with are now "just this", visual spectacle and intellectual property bent into aiming for that "slightly above 50% approval rate". To me it was very clear that the movie tried to nail a family-oriented narrative while also being "Guardians of the Galaxy enough" and being "Avengers enough" all at the same time. I do prefer auteurism every day of the week... but I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't have fun.
I am also very likely projecting the fact that I'm getting older and that I simply don't feel the same about my old heroes as I used to.
As far as the glasses goes? It was a cool gimmick that felt fresh to try this time. Not sure if it's the limitation of my eyes or the gear but focus seems to become a bit shifty and you don't really get to spend that much times with visual details. It cranks the spectacle at the cost of fidelity, basically.
So yeah. Fantastic Four (2025) gets a 73% rating from me with a likely risk of lowering a peg over time. There are so many movies I've rated 7/10 on iMDB that I now miss, and I doubt I'll miss this movie the same. #FantasticFour #Movietime
Very warm today.
But I'm very happy that I got to spend some of the morning refactoring the #Habsiad app... let's see how far I can sprint that throughout the weekend.
Played a really nice couple of rounds of #BeyondAllReason with my good old friend Sebastian. A nice way to greet the weekend!
I spent the weekend in the Mealhada municipality of Portugal with Margarida and our good friends Ricardo and Diogo.
I'll post a blob about it, images and all, soon enough!
AI Bubble Today Is Bigger Than the IT Bubble in the 1990s:
https://www.apolloacademy.com/ai-bubble-today-is-bigger-than-the-it-bubble-in-the-1990s/
#Thunderbolts
Definitely agreeing with critics that it's one of the better recent #Marvel movies.
It's a 7/10 from me
Rest in Peace Ozzy Osbourne, Prince of Darkness.
Glad you got that last show.
Loved seeing you in London at BST Hyde Park 2014.
Thank you for everything.
Cheers.
I'll be spending the next couple of weeks with Black Sabbath and Ozzy solo records, for sure.
#RestInPeaceOzzyOsbourne #RIPOzzy
Got to play some bass and work out this morning.
And then Margarida gave me a nice pair of sandals!
And Now!... well now it's time for Lunch
Stay tuned