Feld Notes

Follow @martinfeld on Micro.blog.

My wife, Natasha, often forgets that the speaker in our bedroom is called ‘iPod Hi-Fi’ and instead refers to it as ‘old HomePod’. I love her invented moniker and may soon switch to using it too. 🔊🎵

→ 2:42 PM, Oct 12

My sister bought an awesome pair of Nikola Tesla socks for me and I am most pleased with them.

→ 11:37 AM, Oct 12

Windows ruins everything.

→ 9:07 AM, Oct 12

MONA’s famous poo machine…

→ 9:59 PM, Oct 11

Hobart has some pretty cool street art, if you look carefully.

→ 6:21 PM, Oct 8

The Memorial Garden at Port Arthur is exceptionally well done.

→ 10:34 AM, Oct 8

Port Arthur is fantastic for taking photos.

→ 2:38 PM, Oct 7

The artworks at MONA were astounding but in all honesty I was equally impressed by this wall in the building. The architectural design was fascinating.

→ 6:06 PM, Oct 6

This furry friend greets you at the entrance of Richmond’s Pooseum in Tasmania.

→ 12:57 PM, Oct 6

Everyone, this is my remarkably creative wife, Natasha, dressed as Mr. Bean’s take on the famous ‘Whistler’s Mother’.

→ 6:33 PM, Oct 5

Classics at The Mac Shop in Launceston!

→ 3:20 PM, Oct 5

Remembering the thylacine in Launceston, Tasmania 😔

→ 12:42 PM, Oct 5

Claude Road (under Mt. Roland) in Tasmania… the most awesome Airbnb site that we have ever visited…

→ 3:01 PM, Oct 4

Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain in Tasmania

→ 2:50 PM, Oct 3

DO NOT PAINT.

→ 9:53 AM, Oct 3

Lake St. Clair in Tasmania

→ 12:42 PM, Oct 2

Yesterday I had the pleasure of marrying my wonderful Natasha. It’s all very new and strange but I’m excited to see what the future holds!

→ 12:13 PM, Sep 30

Paco had plenty of room to enjoy on our new timber flooring (sans furniture). Of course, he just stayed in the one spot.

→ 12:58 PM, Sep 24

Our beautiful rainbow lorikeet friends returned for fruit snacks!

→ 1:40 PM, Sep 22

Ah yes… on this day two years ago, I was thrilled to perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in the intimate setting of the National Gallery of Macedonia in Skopje. The audience went wild.

→ 10:28 AM, Sep 21

There’s an Irish accent available for Siri?! Switching now…

→ 10:38 AM, Sep 19

The ability to assign shortcuts with text phrases for podcasts in iOS 12 is fantastic. I would often ask Siri to continue playing a certain episode but it wouldn’t always select the right one. It’s much easier to assign a natural custom phrase in the new system and have it just work!

→ 3:06 PM, Sep 18

Targeting

I remember the early days of Instagram, when it was an iOS-only app for simple, filtered photography. Fast forward to the current day and it has become a (mostly) narcissistic cesspool that is cluttered with ads. Much of this ‘sponsored content’ is supposed to be tailored to our own personal interests.

I have included two ad examples from my own feed that show how crude and idiotic some of these algorithms must be. (1) I have spoken out online against Coles for caving to angry consumers and reintroducing free plastic bags. (2) I have also shared my dissatisfaction with Medibank’s customer service and then left shortly thereafter.

If such content targeting is based purely on mentions and interaction online, then it worked. Given that these were negative interactions, these ads ultimately fail.

→ 12:41 PM, Sep 10

Say ‘hello’ to my deer friends! Even though they aren’t native, they are cute and welcome visitors in my backyard.

→ 1:13 AM, Sep 8

Back when I was working in Sydney, I often sat in a gigantic foyer in a building on Bligh Street. There were super-comfy chairs and it was interesting to watch all the frantic businesspeople racing past and zipping up and down floors in transparent lift shafts. This photo shows the exposed floors of the building from inside, looking upwards from ground level.

→ 10:27 AM, Sep 7

Martin Feld 2019