BREAKING NEWS
LATEST POSTS
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How OpenAI so royally screwed up the Sam Altman firing and joining Microsoft
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/19/tech/sam-altman-open-ai-firing-board/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/18/tech/openai-sam-altman-shakeup-what-happened/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/20/tech/sam-altman-joins-microsoft/index.html
A company’s board of directors has an obligation, first and foremost, to its shareholders. OpenAI’s most important shareholder is Microsoft, the company that gave Altman & Co. $13 billion to help Bing, Office, Windows and Azure leapfrog Google and stay ahead of Amazon, IBM and other AI wannabes.
So a day later, the board reportedly asked for a mulligan and tried to woo Altman back. It was a shocking turn of events and an embarrassing self-own by a company that its widely regarded as the most promising producer of the most exciting new technology.
The board angered a powerful ally and could be forever changed because of the way it handled Altman’s ouster. It could end up with Altman back at the helm, a for-profit company on its nonprofit board – and a massive culture shift at OpenAI.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67474879
But Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor, has decided not to take a chance on Mr Altman taking this tech elsewhere. He will be joining the Seattle-based tech giant, it has been announced, to lead a yet-to-be-created AI research team. His co-founder Greg Brockman goes with him, and judging from the number of staff members posting on X today, it looks like he’ll be taking some of OpenAI’s top talent too.
Many OpenAI staff members are sharing the same post on X. It reads: “OpenAI is nothing without its people”.
Is that a warning to Mr Shear that he might have some hiring to do? A BBC colleague outside OpenAI’s headquarters just told me at 0930 in San Francisco, there were no signs of people arriving for work.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/20/tech/openai-employees-quit-mira-murati-sam-altman/index.html
“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” wrote the employees. “We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees.”
The employees also warned that they would “imminently” follow Altman to Microsoft unless the board resigns and reinstates Altman and Greg Brockman, the former OpenAI president who was also removed by the board on Friday.
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VR-NeRF: High-Fidelity Virtualized Walkable Spaces
An end-to-end system for the high-fidelity capture, model reconstruction, and real-time rendering of walkable spaces in virtual reality using neural radiance fields.
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Epic Games Store Still Makes No Money
https://80.lv/articles/epic-games-store-still-makes-no-money/
Recently, Epic Games has encountered financial challenges, leading to significant steps. Towards the end of September, the company laid off around 16% of its staff, which is approximately 830 employees. Subsequently, in early October, Epic Games announced a price hike for non-game developers utilizing Unreal Engine. During this announcement, CEO Tim Sweeney openly acknowledged the financial difficulties that the studio has faced since July.
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Quiet Quitting at work – Causes and remedies
Quiet quitting isn’t about leaving a job.
It’s when people stay but mentally check out. They do the bare minimum. No excitement. No extra effort.It’s a silent alarm. Your team may be losing interest right under your nose.
And it’s a big deal. Why?
- Because it affects:
- Your team’s morale
- Your team’s productivity
- Your company’s profitability
- And everyone’s overall success
- Resources are already stretched thin.
- You need to get the best from your team.
What can employers do? Many of the causes are within your control:
➡️ Listen Well
Talk to your team often.
Listen to what they say. Then take action.➡️ Recognize Efforts
Public recognition can boost morale.
A simple “thank you” goes a long way.➡️ Promote Balance
Allow time for life outside work.
Overworked employees burn out.➡️ Give Chances to Grow
Invest in them. Provide training.
Show them a career path.➡️ Build a Positive Culture
Ensure everyone feels valued and respected.➡️ Set Clear Goals
Clearly define roles. Tell them what you expect.➡️ Lead by Example
Show excitement. Work hard.
Be the way you want them to be.Quiet quitting isn’t just an employee issue. It’s a leadership opportunity. It’s a chance to re-engage, re-inspire, and revitalize your workplace.
Resources
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/workers-disengaged-quiet-quitting-their-jobs-gallup/
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
FEATURED POSTS
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Arto T. – A workflow for creating photorealistic, equirectangular 360° panoramas in ComfyUI using Flux
https://civitai.com/models/735980/flux-equirectangular-360-panorama
https://civitai.com/models/745010?modelVersionId=833115
The trigger phrase is “equirectangular 360 degree panorama”. I would avoid saying “spherical projection” since that tends to result in non-equirectangular spherical images.
Image resolution should always be a 2:1 aspect ratio. 1024 x 512 or 1408 x 704 work quite well and were used in the training data. 2048 x 1024 also works.
I suggest using a weight of 0.5 – 1.5. If you are having issues with the image generating too flat instead of having the necessary spherical distortion, try increasing the weight above 1, though this could negatively impact small details of the image. For Flux guidance, I recommend a value of about 2.5 for realistic scenes.
8-bit output at the moment
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Magnific.ai Relight – change the entire lighting of a scene
It’s a new Magnific spell that allows you to change the entire lighting of a scene and, optionally, the background with just:
1/ A prompt OR
2/ A reference image OR
3/ A light map (drawing your own lights)https://x.com/javilopen/status/1805274155065176489
