Jon Evans
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engineer / novelist, former journalist / archivist / peripatetist / superintelligencist. Now CTO @strangelabai. Vanity authorial site rezendi.com
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Articles by Jon Evans
How a team at Epic Games tuned Amazon OpenSearch Service for Fortnite analytics
Since the launch of Fortnite in 2017, Epic Games has reached hundreds of millions of players worldwide. Fortnite runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and takes advantage of services such as Amazon OpenSearch Service to power certain internal analytics and drive decision making at scale. Amazon OpenSearch Service has been helpful in understanding the game ecosystem. OpenSearch Service powers two types of use cases: search workloads and analytics workloads.
How to OpenClaw your Raspberry Pi
The tech world has gone gaga for OpenClaw, a project that lets you run an always-on AI agent; give it “skills” such as deploying code, searching the web, or summarizing your emails; and communicate with it via Slack or Telegram. Is this fun and interesting? I think yes! Are people doing fun and interesting things with it? …Mostly no. But it’s an eye-opening glimpse of an agent-driven future, with fascinating emergent properties already.
Simulation, psychosis, and trajectory
“You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise. It’s crawling toward you. You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?” A question from Blade Runner’s famous Voight-Kampff test, designed to distinguish humans from replicants.
50% OFF Exadelic
When an unconventional offshoot of the US military trains an artificial intelligence in the dark arts that humanity calls “black magic,” it learns how to hack the fabric of reality itself. It can teleport matter. It can confer immunity to bullets. And it decides that obscure Silicon Valley middle manager Adrian Ross is the primary threat to its existence. Soon Adrian is on the run, wanted by every authority, with no idea how or why he could be a threat.
The Hidden Cost of EV Charging - Why Software Is the Real Infrastructure Battleground Original
With the number of EVs on UK roads rising fast and almost 90,000 public charge points now installed, the spotlight has largely stayed on physical infrastructure. How many chargers are there, and how fast are they being rolled out? Yet, much like an iceberg, the bulk of the EV infrastructure challenge lies below the surface. While the hardware grabs headlines, the true cost of keeping EVs moving increasingly hinges on what’s unseen: software.
Why 95% of AI Commentary Fails
A sad fact of the modern era is that whenever a scientific paper goes mini-viral, actually reading the paper almost invariably makes you feel like some kind of wild-eyed conspiracy theorist: you know the secret truth, while most of the chattering masses are deluded fools! This is ~1000% so when the paper relates to a hot-button topic like AI. The most recent example is MIT NANDA’s “The State of AI in Business 2025,” much better known as the ‘95% of AI projects fail!’ paper.
75% OFF Exadelic
When an unconventional offshoot of the US military trains an artificial intelligence in the dark arts that humanity calls “black magic,” it learns how to hack the fabric of reality itself. It can teleport matter. It can confer immunity to bullets. And it decides that obscure Silicon Valley middle manager Adrian Ross is the primary threat to its existence. Soon Adrian is on the run, wanted by every authority, with no idea how or why he could be a threat.
How to Successfully Update QuickBooks Desktop: A Complete Guide
Staying up to date with the latest version of QuickBooks Desktop is crucial for smooth operation, bug fixes, and access to the newest features. If you're experiencing trouble or don’t know how to start, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to update QuickBooks Desktop. For instant assistance, you can call QuickBooks Desktop support at +1(866)409-5111. Why It's Important to Update QuickBooks Desktop Regular updates ensure your accounting software stays secure and functional.
QuickBooks Error Code 80070057 - Complete Troubleshooting Guide
QuickBooks is widely trusted by businesses to streamline their accounting processes. However, when users encounter QuickBooks error code 80070057, it can be both confusing and frustrating. This error generally pops up when trying to open a company file and suggests that QuickBooks cannot access the file path or the file itself. Facing QuickBooks error code 80070057? Learn causes, signs, and step-by-step fixes to get your software back on track. Call +1(866)409-5111 for support.
How to Resolve QuickBooks Multi-User Mode Issues
If you're facing issues with QuickBooks Multi User Mode Not Working, you're not alone. Many QuickBooks users encounter problems when trying to access the software in multi-user mode. This can disrupt your business operations, causing delays and frustration. In this article, we'll guide you through the common causes of this problem and provide solutions to fix QuickBooks Multi User Mode Not Working. For immediate support, contact +1(866)409-5111.
Keeping Up with ESG in Australia - 2025 outlook and recent updates
In our bumper first edition for 2025, we scan the horizon for key ESG regulatory trends impacting the Australian market. Climate disclosure readiness and broader ESG-related reporting developments will be key themes this year. Employment-related matters such as diversity, equity and inclusion are also expected to remain hot topics this year, as is sustainable finance and the development of Australia’s sustainable finance infrastructure.
Revving Up Auto Advertising: Strategies for Long-Term Impact and Market Growth
This Is an ANA Member Exclusive Access to this item is reserved for ANA members only. Already have an account? The industry's best insights and resources await: Username (email) Password Forgot your password? Use your business email address to create your free account; if you're a member through your company, we'll know. Members can access their benefits as soon as they sign up and log in. Think something's amiss? Let us know. Not a Member?
Capacity Investment Scheme update and the release of the Dispatchable CISA
Since our last update on the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) in December 2024, AEMO has sought and received tenders for an indicative volume of 2.4GWh of dispatchable capacity via the South-Australia-Victoria CIS tender process. AEMO has shortlisted a number of proponents and those proponents are required to submit their Stage B – Financial Value Bids by 31 May 2024.
Captivating Characters in Advertising: Harnessing the Power of Fluent Devices
This Is an ANA Member Exclusive Access to this item is reserved for ANA members only. Already have an account? The industry's best insights and resources await: Username (email) Password Forgot your password? Use your business email address to create your free account; if you're a member through your company, we'll know. Members can access their benefits as soon as they sign up and log in. Think something's amiss? Let us know. Not a Member?
An Immodest Proposal to OpenAI and the NYT
As you know, Bob, the New York Times has sued Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement. I would like to propose a solution that should satisfy both parties. Of course, I am no lawyer, and this is no legal proposal; it's much more sweeping than that. The problem, according to the NYT, is that OpenAI's large language models can be used to generate near-copies of NYT articles. Can these models be coerced into doing so easily, or consistently?
Exadelic a book by Jon Evans
(Author) FORMAT Hardcover$29.99$27.89(English) Buy new or used from an indie through our partner Biblio: Price Condition Seller When an unconventional offshoot of the US military trains an artificial intelligence in the dark arts that humanity calls "black magic," it learns how to hack the fabric of reality itself. It can teleport matter. It can confer immunity to bullets. And it decides that obscure Silicon Valley middle manager Adrian Ross is the primary threat to its existence.
Exadelic
Evans (Invisible Armies) returns with a mind-bending and breakneck novel about artificial intelligence gone wrong. After Adrian, a middle-aged, mid-ranking executive at a Silicon Valley tech company, wakes up to a SWAT team banging down his door with a battering ram, his life changes.
Managed Digital Transformation: Leading Businesses into the Future
What should an organization’s digital transformation (DX) look like? How do you know if your efforts are making the right impact? As artificial intelligence (AI) and technology advance at a bewildering pace, how do you make decisions with foresight? If you’re asking yourself these questions, you’re not alone. A DX strategy can benefit your organization through improved operational efficiencies, productivity and customer experience while also reducing costs. The bad news?
Dog Bites Man; Pope Condemns Violence; Publishing Still Doesn’t Get It – TechCrunch
I’m an author, but thankfully I’m not a member of the Authors Guild, that “not-for-profit American organization of and for authors”, who a few days ago issued a statement that first lauded publishers for not signing on to Amazon’s new Kindle book-lending program for Amazon Prime members, and then condemned those few publishers who did agree, citing a bizarre and convoluted argument that authors aren’t protected by such an agreement.
So Long, And Thanks For All The Quantum Research – TechCrunch
I’d like to be an optimist, like Matt Burns. I really would. Like Research In Motion itself, I was born and raised in Waterloo, Ontario. Like its former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, I studied electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo. I’ve seen RIM transform my home town over the years, giving it new parks, new buildings, huge bequests for the university, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. I’d love to see it survive its current dire straits and somehow thrive.
Our grimdark meathook cyberpunk now – TechCrunch
Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and a book of travel writing; and TechCrunch's weekend columnist since 2010. More posts by this contributor Ten years ago, the joke was: “It’s weird how, once everyone started carrying phones with cameras all the time, UFOs stopped visiting, and the cops started beating everyone up.” It was darkly funny, then.
Living and working in a worsening world – TechCrunch
Jon Evans @rezendi / 7 hours Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and a book of travel writing; and TechCrunch's weekend columnist since 2010. More posts by this contributor Not long ago we lived in a world which kept getting better.
人気C向けアプリはいかにして初期ユーザー1000人を獲得したのか？ | TechCrunch Japan
【編集部注】本稿は米国スタートアップやテクノロジー、ビジネスに関する話題を解説するポッドキャスト「Off Topic」が投稿したnote記事の転載だ。 こんにちは、宮武（@tmiyatake1）です。これまで日本のVCで米国を拠点にキャピタリストとして働いてきて、現在は、LAにあるスタートアップでCOOをしています。Off Topicでは、D2C企業の話や最新テックニュースの解説をしているポッドキャストもやってます。まだ購読されてない方はチェックしてみてください！ はじめに 元Airbnbのグロース担当のLenny Rachitskyさ（レニー・ラチツキー）さん「How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users」の記事を直接許可を頂き翻訳しました。レニーさんのコンテンツをもっと読みたい方はぜひ彼のメルマガにご登録ください！Lennyさんの「マーケットプレイスの作り方」の翻訳もしていますので、そちらも気になった方はご一読ください！...
Why are people who cite videos always wrong? – TechCrunch
Jon Evans @rezendi / 3 months Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and a book of travel writing; and TechCrunch's weekend columnist since 2010. More posts by this contributor I’m sure you’ve experienced it too. Some kind of discussion — perhaps a dispute, perhaps just a friendly exchange of ideas — arises online. People regurgitate what they know, or what they think they know.
Seven viral futures – TechCrunch
Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and a book of travel writing; and TechCrunch's weekend columnist since 2010. More posts by this contributor The entire world has run smack into the biggest economic wall since the Great Depression, and the US stock market is … above where it was this time last year.
Let housing rise from the empty offices and malls – TechCrunch
Jon Evans Contributor Jon Evans is the CTO of the engineering consultancy HappyFunCorp; the award-winning author of six novels, one graphic novel, and a book of travel writing; and TechCrunch's weekend columnist since 2010. More posts by this contributor It’s hard to work out just how different pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world will be, because it’s changing so comprehensively. Consider movie theaters.
Magic Leap’s $2.6 billion bait and switch – TechCrunch
Two years ago I attended an “Innovation in Immersive Storytelling” event at Industrial Light & Magic, featuring the Chief Game Wizard of Magic Leap. I should have known then, from all the strained corporate sorcery in that sentence, that their demise was inevitable. But in fact I went into that talk a Magic Leap skeptic, and came out … less so.
How to make sense of the coronavirus chaos – TechCrunch
We are beset on all sides, daily if not hourly, by COVID-19 data, hypotheses, speculation, and crackpot conspiracy theories. Even if armed with a mathematical mind, and some kind of grounding in critical thinking, how are we supposed to make sense of it all? Assuming you even want to make sense of the chaos; assuming you haven’t already decided on a fixed position and a rigid lens.
What do we do with the positives? – TechCrunch
Here come the blood tests, and it’s about time. Serosurveys, to determine what percentage of populations have already contracted COVID-19. And, individually, tests to indicate whether you, too, already caught it, but suffered only mild symptoms, or none at all. In America alone, millions will soon be recovered from COVID-19 infection.
GrubHub/Seamless’s pandemic initiatives are predatory and exploitative, and it’s time to stop using them – TechCrunch
Times are exceptionally hard, especially for local restaurants, which were always in a precarious business even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But when times are hard, people pull together, right? Or at least they don’t take advantage of the suffering and desperate to exploit and profit from them. Right? We’d all like to think so, but it’s not always true. Case in point: GrubHub, which owns Seamless.
Test and trace with Apple and Google – TechCrunch
After the shutdown, the testing and tracing. “Trace, test and treat is the mantra … no lockdowns, no roadblocks and no restriction on movement” in South Korea. “To suppress and control the epidemic, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace,” say WHO. But what does “tracing” look like exactly?
Into and after the viral storm – TechCrunch
The path forward now seems pretty clear. First we get through the grim month-and-more ahead, supporting health care workers in any way we can. (Tip: findthemasks.com lists where to donate PPE, personal protective equipment, in the US. If you have any, do so. We are very literally all in this together, and they need it a lot more than you do.) Then we ramp up massive, pervasive, frequent Covid-19 testing infrastructure everywhere. Then we take stock. Things will get worse before they get better.
Our infected machine – TechCrunch
We are handling the first real global crisis since the Cold War with staggering incompetence. People are already dying en masse. We all need to stay home and stay away from one another. If we wait until those who can’t do math see the awful consequences all too visible to those who can, things will get colossally worse. It is already later than you think. Look at this. Includes smart discussion of @mlipsitch's recent work.
Burn the EARN IT Act – TechCrunch
I want to talk about malignant incompetence on the part of our elected officials, and this isn’t even about the pandemic. Rather, it’s about the spectacularly misguided, counterproductive, expensive, and overbearing approach to end-to-end encryption by the USA along with Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand — the so-called “Five Eyes.” Consider the TSA Lock program.
May we live in interesting times – TechCrunch
It’s never a good sign when, in order to discuss the near future of technology, you first have to talk about epidemiology–but I’m afraid that’s where we’re at. A week ago I wrote “A pandemic is coming.” I am sorry to report, in case you hadn’t heard, events since have not exactly proved me wrong. The best current estimates are that, absent draconian measures like China’s, the virus will infect 40-70% of the world’s adults over the next year or so.
What happens if a pandemic hits? – TechCrunch
What happens if a COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hits? What will the repercussions be if the virus spreads worldwide? How will it change how we live, work, socialize and travel? Don’t get all disaster-movie here. Some people seem to have the notion that a pandemic will mean shutting down borders, building walls, canceling all air travel and quarantining entire nations indefinitely. That is entirely incorrect.
DeFiance: billion-dollar finance, million-dollar hacks, and very little value – TechCrunch
Over the last year or so, most of the cryptocurrency world has pivoted from the failure of “fat protocol” tokens and ICOs, and the faltering growth of “Layer 2” payments like Lightning and the late Plasma Network, to the new hotness known as “DeFi,” which this week was used to … hack? acquire? steal? It’s pretty ambiguous … a cool million dollars. DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance. It’s supposed to be an entire alternative financial system.
The war against space hackers: how the JPL works to secure its missions from nation-state adversaries – TechCrunch
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory designs, builds, and operates billion-dollar spacecraft. That makes it a target. What the infosec world calls Advanced Persistent Threats — meaning, generally, nation-state adversaries — hover outside its online borders, constantly seeking access to its “ground data systems,” its networks on Earth, which in turn connect to the ground relay stations through which those spacecraft are operated.
Everyone loves the coronapocalypse – TechCrunch
The 2019-nCoV coronavirus is a global public health emergency of significant concern. It is also, simultaneously, a fount of misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, and both over- and under-reactions. Whose fault is this? So glad you asked. I happen to have a little list. Purveyors of misinformation. As archly observed by The Atlantic, that misleadingly-self-described Harvard epidemiologist who tweeted “HOLY MOTHER OF GOD” followed by math errors was … well … wrong.
Technology is anthropology – TechCrunch
The interesting thing about the technology business is that, most of the time, it’s not the technology that matters. What matters is how people react to it, and what new social norms they form. This is especially true in today’s era, well past the midpoint of the deployment age of smartphones and the internet.
The marketplace of ideas is a weapons market now – TechCrunch
The most interesting thing I saw online this week was Venkatesh Rao’s “Internet of Beefs” essay. I don’t agree with all of it. I’m not even sure I agree with most of it.
R.I.P. Goofy Times – TechCrunch
A strange new sensation has settled across the tech industry, one so foreign, so alien, it’s almost hard to recognize. A sense that some great expectations are being radically revised downwards; that someone has turned down a previously unquenchable money spigot; that unit economics can matter even when you’re in growth mode. Could it be … thrift? Well, OK, let’s not go that crazy. But we are witnessing a remarkable confluence of (relatively) parsimonious events.
Software and the war against complexity – TechCrunch
Look around: what is happening? Australia, AI, Ghosn, Google, Suleimani, Starlink, Trump, TikTok. The world is an eruptive flux of frequently toxic emergent behavior, and every unexpected event is laced with subtle interconnected nuances. Stephen Hawking predicted this would be “the century of complexity.” He was talking about theoretical physics, but he was dead right about technology, societies, and geopolitics too. Let’s try to define terms. How can we measure complexity?
It’s The Jons 2019! – TechCrunch
Happy New Year! It’s been another wild and wacky ride of a year in the tech world: breakthroughs and disgraces, triumphs and catastrophes, cryptocurrencies and starships, the ongoing rise of utopian clean energy and dystopian cyberpunk societies and, most of all, the ongoing weirding of the whole wide world. In other words, it was another perfect year for The Jons, the annual award that celebrates dubious tech-related achievements, named, in an awe-inspiring fit of humility, after myself.
IoT猫トイレのハチたまがマネックスなどから2億円調達、健康状態の自動判定機能を実装、そして世界へ | TechCrunch Japan
カメラや体重計、Wi-Fiを搭載した猫用IoTトイレ「toletta」を開発・販売するハチたまは12月25日、プレシリーズAラウンドで2億円超の資金調達を発表した。 マネックスベンチャーズなどを引き受け先とする第三者割当増資で累計調達額は4億円となる。主な引き受け先は以下のとおり。 マネックスベンチャーズ 羽立化工 横浜キャピタル 山口キャピタル ひびしんキャピタル シグマクシス 今回の調達資金は、猫の健康状態を自動判定するアルゴリズムと獣医師連携システムの開発強化に当てられる。同社は今後海外展開に向けてのシリーズA調達も予定しており、国内だけでなく海外の投資家からの資金調達も予定しているという。 写真に向かって左から、ハチたま取締役の平畑輝樹氏と羽立化工代表取締役の中村哲也氏 なお、出資先の1社として公表されている羽立化工は、tolettaの金型成形から製造までを手掛けている、静岡県湖西市を拠点とする創業40年のプラスティック加工会社だ。...
Whatever happened to the Next Big Things? – TechCrunch
In tech, this was the smartphone decade. In 2009, Symbian was still the dominant ‘smartphone’ OS, but 2010 saw the launch of the iPhone 4, the Samsung Galaxy S, and the Nexus One, and today Android and iOS boast four billion combined active devices. Smartphones and their apps are a mature market, now, not a disruptive new platform. So what’s next? The question presupposes that something has to be next, that this is a law of nature. It’s easy to see why it might seem that way.
The new new weird – TechCrunch
Neo-Pentecostal gangs in Brazil, driving out other faiths at gunpoint. A mob of 100 lawyers attacking a hospital in Pakistan to revenge themselves on violent doctors there. Anti-vaxxers, neo-Nazis, and red-pillers. Sometimes it seems like the world has fragmented into a jagged kaleidoscope of countless mobs and subcultures, each more disconcerting than the last. Much of this is selection bias: if it bleeds, it leads, in both mass media and social-media algorithms.
Away with them - TechCrunch
Every so often a story comes along which is unremarkable on its face but erupts into wider attention because it seems to represent some larger social fracture zone. …And then there’s the recent story of mismanagement and malfeasance at Away, which has caught the tech world’s attention because it seems a shibboleth for all the industry’s fault lines. This story is whatever you want it to be.
Mass media vs. social media – TechCrunch
In the waning years of the last millennium, at my university, one of the cause célèbres of the progressive left was a concept known as “Manufacturing Consent,” the title of a book and film, by and starring Noam Chomsky.
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