Bernie Goldbach

Chainsaw Musk

From the New York Times Editorial Board, “DOGE is not building a better government. Instead, its haphazard demolition campaign is undermining the basic work of government and the safety and welfare of the American people. Mr. Musk directed the firing of nuclear safety workers, necessitating a …

I know the image attached to this post obviously came from an AI but I enjoy participating in workshops with students and co-creating playful content. So 10 years ago, this little post might emerge a reminder of the fun we had with prompts to DALL-E. #TUSdx

Sharing How to Produce a Talking Encyclopedia

I have a gigantic (encyclopedic) collection inside Readwise that I can use with NotebookLM. During INTED2025 I shared how I use NotebookLM to remember everything I have read. During one of my Prsctical AI Workshops I showed my collection of 9,271 quotes that I keep in a single notebook that Google …

From Obsidian to Public Working Notes

I have a system that starts at Markdown, moves to public view, and then gets micropublished with [content from Bernie’s topgold blog](Quick Notes after AI Workshop). I’m sharing the process with people learning [TUSdx])tus.ie/courses/c…) and they’re reciprocating with …

News Clips from an American In Ireland

A wonderful thing happened this week in the world of podcasting. Joe Rogan left the top spot on Spotify Podcasts, unseated by voices coming from the Meidastouch Network. And I’ve started introducing my 13yo son to the cacophony of American political discourse.Dylan holds both an Irish and an …

Thumbs Up to the Editor's Note by Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor, editor of Connected Magazine in Ireland, uses his editorial column to show "while Europe has been something of a laggard in terms of tech spending in recent years, the latest forecast shows it is all-change in 2025. “Tech spend on the continent is set to grow by 5 per cent, …

America the Pariah

Elizabeth Lopatto is a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg. Let’s pause and look at what the Elon Musk administration has done so far. There’s been a lot of panic about the immediate …

You know it is Spring in Ireland when you see frogs crossing the roads and when you hear frogs croaking to attract attention. We go walking in a local forest to observe these rituals. The cacophony is seasonal and so welcome.

560 billion for AI

I am working with dozens of people every week who are trying to get their heads around the financial and geopolitical forces surrounding AI. OpenAI is used by more than 300 million people every week and is raising a fresh round of financing, led by SoftBank, that would value it at $300 billion (€285 …

Inspired by my Inshored Kettle

If you’re tuned to the noise of Fox Business, you have heard all about reshoring and insourcing. The conversation is also happening in the Brexited UK and Tim Minshall, professor of innovation at Cambridge’s Institute of Manufacturing, is writing about it. Minshall’s book dwells …

Until today, I didn’t know know AI could get 275 tokens per second by accessing Deepseek R-1 through the American AI cloud, Groq. For reference, a human speaks at around 2-3 tokens per second. R-1 delivers much more efficiency than OpenAI o1 for a comparable level of performance.

Looking forward to Reconstruction

If a hot air balloon monitored arrivals to Battery Pier in the 1860s, the vessel carrying my German ancestors might have been captured moving dockside to disembark Prussian Lorenz Goldbach onto Manhattan. When my great great grandfather arrived in America, Reconstruction was just starting during the …

Letting Gemini Offer Me Previews

I’m learning a lot about the AI inside mobile tools. Today I discovered I could use Google Gemini to look inside a folder containing notes I’m using to teach a digital transformation class. I’m pasting the Gemini summary below so this post will serve as both a preview and a recap …

My email inbox is untamed

On the first day of Trump 2.0, I woke up worried about losing my mind because of an email overload–not caused by a broligarchy empowered in the States but by my email bloatage.Since I have several paid versions of AI services, I thought I could just put one of them to work but Larry Maguire …

Pushing Adulting Later

Research from San Diego State University shows American teenagers are less likely to have tried alcohol, had sex, acquired a driver’s license, had a job, or gone on dates than teenagers twenty years ago. Today’s teens are pushing those “firsts” into their twenties more and more, making modern-day …

Focus Starts on my Primary Screen

Although I haven’t written down any Resolutions for 2025, I have taken some steps to clean up my routines so that during every increment of time, I’m aware of what I’m prioritising at the moment. I’ve been helped along in this Quest by the screen that welcomes me on my mobile phone. That screen is …

First Tools of 2025

I started playing with the Substack app during the Christmas break, trying to see if it is strong enough to let me publish thoughts with my thumbs. I am podskills.substack.com because I like the networking effect inside the Stacks. I am sharing a photo that shows five tools on a table in front of …

Lots of friends are tuned out

It seems that most of my friends have tuned out of the discussions concerning the rise of fascism in America. They don’t see the pro-fascist sentiment because they don’t hear Project 2025. In 2015, 67% of Americans were very interested in the news. Today, the number is at 49%, down …

Insights from Ireland's AI Institute

Sandra O’Connell covers the clever rise of the AI Institute as she interviews Maryrose Lyons in today’s Sunday Times in Ireland. Twelve months ago Maryrose Lyons launched a new business, the AI Institute. As a digital marketing expert with decades of experience, her decision to go …

Experimenting with a Metaview workflow. The goal is to use the glasses to record shareable audio.

Purposeful Pivot Away from Scrolling

I'm with Cheyenne Macdonald, "In 2024, using social media felt worse than ever. These days, it feels like every gathering place on the internet is so crowded with content that’s competing for — and successfully grabbing — our attention or trying to sell us something that there’s barely any room for …

Planning Intergenerational Conversations

This is a post by Dylan. I want to show him how to use the Brydge 7.9 keyboard as he learns how to join the world as a young blogger. This is an extinct job title for a GenZ cub reporter but if he learns the skill, he will be able to continue the legacy of his dad, an elder blogger. The strategy, if …

Reconnecting with trusted friends

It’s quiet time during a Christmas holiday break and I’m delighted to be able to remember people who shared ideas about productivity with me that helped me become more productive. Several of those ideas are in the photo acompanying this post. In 2016, Greg Dickson in Alberta recommended …

I believe we will feel massive shocks about Spotify Payola in early 2025. www.honest-broker.com/p/the-ugl…

Class Action for Data Scraping

I started using ChatGPT regularly in mid-2023. Back then, I tried to see if OpenAI believed in a “transparency” principle because I wanted to know more about the source of data used by OpenAI to develop its systems. I’m still looking for that answer because using scraped data for …