David Pritchard
@drpritch.bsky.social
3D graphics : web + mobile : threejs
Apple
Apple
Reposted by David Pritchard
Pleased to share my views in a new TEDx talk on how AI offers compelling new ways to simulate the Earth with unprecedented resolution and interactivity:
youtu.be/I0nxFLh-iBg?...
youtu.be/I0nxFLh-iBg?...
AI is making whole earth simulation possible--why that matters | Mike Pritchard | TEDxBoston
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
youtu.be
February 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Pleased to share my views in a new TEDx talk on how AI offers compelling new ways to simulate the Earth with unprecedented resolution and interactivity:
youtu.be/I0nxFLh-iBg?...
youtu.be/I0nxFLh-iBg?...
Reposted by David Pritchard
Print edition @theonion.com ads don’t miss
October 30, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Print edition @theonion.com ads don’t miss
Reposted by David Pritchard
Always nice to see people still referencing El Topo, even if they’re dunking on how slow it is 😆 #siggraph2025
August 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Always nice to see people still referencing El Topo, even if they’re dunking on how slow it is 😆 #siggraph2025
Reposted by David Pritchard
Today at The Reveal: The Laser Age, a new podcast about science fiction films from the second half of the 20th century. I was thrilled to have the great @hodgman.bsky.social join me to discuss SILENT RUNNING, a 1972 film about ecology, robots, cantaloupes, and... murder.
Introducing ‘The Laser Age,’ a New Podcast from The Reveal
New Feature: The Reveal's first podcast takes a close look at science fiction films from the second half of the 20th century. Where did they come from? And what did they say about what was coming next...
thereveal.film
July 14, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Today at The Reveal: The Laser Age, a new podcast about science fiction films from the second half of the 20th century. I was thrilled to have the great @hodgman.bsky.social join me to discuss SILENT RUNNING, a 1972 film about ecology, robots, cantaloupes, and... murder.
Reposted by David Pritchard
Don't doom scroll.
Put down your phone and sleep as best you can.
Get up when you're supposed to and don't skimp on breakfast.
What you have control of right now is you.
Start there.
Maintain that.
Be good to yourselves.
Be good to each other.
Put down your phone and sleep as best you can.
Get up when you're supposed to and don't skimp on breakfast.
What you have control of right now is you.
Start there.
Maintain that.
Be good to yourselves.
Be good to each other.
June 22, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Don't doom scroll.
Put down your phone and sleep as best you can.
Get up when you're supposed to and don't skimp on breakfast.
What you have control of right now is you.
Start there.
Maintain that.
Be good to yourselves.
Be good to each other.
Put down your phone and sleep as best you can.
Get up when you're supposed to and don't skimp on breakfast.
What you have control of right now is you.
Start there.
Maintain that.
Be good to yourselves.
Be good to each other.
Reposted by David Pritchard
I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
June 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
Reposted by David Pritchard
Customers: We want a faster horse
Henry Ford: Ah. In fact—
Kubernetes: Let me stop you right there. What you really need is 1000 horses that die randomly
Henry Ford: Ah. In fact—
Kubernetes: Let me stop you right there. What you really need is 1000 horses that die randomly
June 12, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Customers: We want a faster horse
Henry Ford: Ah. In fact—
Kubernetes: Let me stop you right there. What you really need is 1000 horses that die randomly
Henry Ford: Ah. In fact—
Kubernetes: Let me stop you right there. What you really need is 1000 horses that die randomly
Reposted by David Pritchard
In the Disney lawsuit, 10 pages are dedicated to citing the work we did. In pursuit of this evidence, Midjourney banned me 3 times and updated their ToS. The first ban encouraged me to dig a lot deeper, so I'd like to congratulate CEO David Holz on his massive unforced error.
🔥 It's happening! Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney and they cited mine and Gary Marcus' work exposing their infringement in their filing. LET'S GO! 🔥
June 11, 2025 at 9:13 PM
In the Disney lawsuit, 10 pages are dedicated to citing the work we did. In pursuit of this evidence, Midjourney banned me 3 times and updated their ToS. The first ban encouraged me to dig a lot deeper, so I'd like to congratulate CEO David Holz on his massive unforced error.
Reposted by David Pritchard
I think this may actually be news. I haven’t seen any other coverage yet. pxlnv.com/blog/apple-m...
Cycling Directions Have Expanded Across Canada in Apple Maps
Apple has made no announcement that can find about a significant expansion in the availability of cycling directions across Canada, but I thought it was worth noting here because it impacts me persona...
pxlnv.com
June 10, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I think this may actually be news. I haven’t seen any other coverage yet. pxlnv.com/blog/apple-m...
Reposted by David Pritchard
Oh hey, the renderer I've been working on for Persona got shown off at WWDC this morning www.apple.com/newsroom/202...
June 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Oh hey, the renderer I've been working on for Persona got shown off at WWDC this morning www.apple.com/newsroom/202...
Reposted by David Pritchard
"It really does disappoint me that so many brilliant colleagues—whose genuine breakthroughs I’ve profited from for years—would be so quick to condemn this newer, stupider way that I and others like me can make money off your life’s work, through stealing."
A Company Reminder for Everyone to Talk Nicely About the Giant Plagiarism Machine
Hey team. It’s your CEO. I know your time is valuable, so I’ll cut right to the chase: It’s come to my attention that some of you have been bad-mou...
buff.ly
May 24, 2025 at 1:30 PM
"It really does disappoint me that so many brilliant colleagues—whose genuine breakthroughs I’ve profited from for years—would be so quick to condemn this newer, stupider way that I and others like me can make money off your life’s work, through stealing."
Reposted by David Pritchard
I have not paid a ton of attention to the uproar over RTO policies, bc we are all in on distributed teams and not going back.
My impression (via social media) has been that these were shadow layoffs.
Last month I asked an investor why they are doing RTO. He said: "Retention, mostly. And morale."
My impression (via social media) has been that these were shadow layoffs.
Last month I asked an investor why they are doing RTO. He said: "Retention, mostly. And morale."
May 26, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I have not paid a ton of attention to the uproar over RTO policies, bc we are all in on distributed teams and not going back.
My impression (via social media) has been that these were shadow layoffs.
Last month I asked an investor why they are doing RTO. He said: "Retention, mostly. And morale."
My impression (via social media) has been that these were shadow layoffs.
Last month I asked an investor why they are doing RTO. He said: "Retention, mostly. And morale."
Reposted by David Pritchard
Watching o3 guess a photo’s location is surreal, dystopian and wildly entertaining
simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/26/...
simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/26/...
Watching o3 guess a photo’s location is surreal, dystopian and wildly entertaining
Watching OpenAI’s new o3 model guess where a photo was taken is one of those moments where decades of science fiction suddenly come to life. It’s a cross between the …
simonwillison.net
April 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Watching o3 guess a photo’s location is surreal, dystopian and wildly entertaining
simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/26/...
simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/26/...
Reposted by David Pritchard
A good rant. Interestingly my first impression of mastodon was “Ah, I’ve read this book before, it was called XMPP, I didn’t enjoy it”. I got the opposite vibe from early bsky. Not sure what the giveaway was in the first few seconds of each.
As I end-of-life my Mastodon sunrise/sunset bot, it seems an appropriate time to vent my complaints about Mastodon as a platform. v.cx/2025/04/mast...
Mastodon Exit Interview
I am currently winding down the Mastodon bots I used to post sunrise and sunet times. The precipitating event is that the admin of the instance hosting the associated accounts demanded they be made ni...
v.cx
April 16, 2025 at 10:21 PM
A good rant. Interestingly my first impression of mastodon was “Ah, I’ve read this book before, it was called XMPP, I didn’t enjoy it”. I got the opposite vibe from early bsky. Not sure what the giveaway was in the first few seconds of each.
Reposted by David Pritchard
real interesting slide set from Tim S at HPG 2009: web.archive.org/web/20090823... . You can see some of the seeds that led to his Verse language in here. Interesting to see some of the predictions that panned out and/or didn't ... (1/n)
web.archive.org
March 23, 2025 at 9:32 PM
real interesting slide set from Tim S at HPG 2009: web.archive.org/web/20090823... . You can see some of the seeds that led to his Verse language in here. Interesting to see some of the predictions that panned out and/or didn't ... (1/n)
Reposted by David Pritchard
I reposted this raw, but the interesting thing here is the subtext that living in America now makes you suspect to anyone outside America. In two months this has become a global fact that maybe a lot of Americans aren’t yet aware of. Or don’t care probs. But they should.
March 22, 2025 at 11:39 PM
I reposted this raw, but the interesting thing here is the subtext that living in America now makes you suspect to anyone outside America. In two months this has become a global fact that maybe a lot of Americans aren’t yet aware of. Or don’t care probs. But they should.
Reposted by David Pritchard
People discovering that Three.js + LLMs is more fun than Unity/Unreal.
Game devs are mad.
Game devs are mad.
March 19, 2025 at 1:44 AM
People discovering that Three.js + LLMs is more fun than Unity/Unreal.
Game devs are mad.
Game devs are mad.
Reposted by David Pritchard
They're libertarians who want a US Treasury bailout for their fake money
March 2, 2025 at 7:18 PM
They're libertarians who want a US Treasury bailout for their fake money
Why might Russia circulate fakes like these? Probably they want a repeat of how they spun the Steele dossier - they can call out a fake and then call absolutely everything a “Trump-Russia hoax”.
A widely shared audio of Donald Trump Jr allegedly saying on his podcast that the US should have sent weapons to Russia has been very likely generated using AI, audio forensics experts have told BBC Verify. @shayan86.bsky.social @herdjemimah.bsky.social and Jacqui Galvin www.bbc.com/news/videos/...
BBC Verify: Viral Donald Trump Jr audio highly likely AI fake
A widely shared clip of Donald Trump Jr allegedly saying on his podcast that the US should have sent arms to Russia rather than Ukraine has been very likely generated using AI, audio forensics experts...
www.bbc.com
March 1, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Why might Russia circulate fakes like these? Probably they want a repeat of how they spun the Steele dossier - they can call out a fake and then call absolutely everything a “Trump-Russia hoax”.
This still feels like the motive for much of Trump 1st month activity (tariffs, doge): change budget by $2trillion, make the 2018 tax cuts permanent - otherwise, they expire this year. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cut...
February 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
This still feels like the motive for much of Trump 1st month activity (tariffs, doge): change budget by $2trillion, make the 2018 tax cuts permanent - otherwise, they expire this year. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cut...
Via @simonwillison.net who also had a good addendum of his own.
Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO) responds to the DeepSeek news with some educated takes and clarity around the continued importance of chips and export controls.
In a nutshell: this innovation *shifted* out the cost performance curve of AI progress; it didn't destroy it. darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-...
In a nutshell: this innovation *shifted* out the cost performance curve of AI progress; it didn't destroy it. darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-...
January 29, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Via @simonwillison.net who also had a good addendum of his own.
Phrase of the day: “Professor of pyrogeography”.
January 9, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Phrase of the day: “Professor of pyrogeography”.
Reposted by David Pritchard
between nanite, virtual texturing, and temporal effects like TSR & TAA, basically nothing in modern realtime rendering actually works like you would find it described in a graphics textbook. You can't rely on meshes, textures, or pixels actually existing, in the way that nearly everyone is taught
December 9, 2024 at 4:27 AM
between nanite, virtual texturing, and temporal effects like TSR & TAA, basically nothing in modern realtime rendering actually works like you would find it described in a graphics textbook. You can't rely on meshes, textures, or pixels actually existing, in the way that nearly everyone is taught
Reposted by David Pritchard
Finding Product Market Fit in a VFX Studio, and Almost Winning a SciTech Oscar: The story behind the creation of the Deadline render manager.
benhouston3d.com/blog/buildin...
benhouston3d.com/blog/buildin...
Building Deadline
Sometimes big opportunities come from solving what seem like minor problems. In 2002, fresh out of university, I accidentally started what would become one of the most widely-used tools in Hollywood v...
benhouston3d.com
December 5, 2024 at 4:58 PM
Finding Product Market Fit in a VFX Studio, and Almost Winning a SciTech Oscar: The story behind the creation of the Deadline render manager.
benhouston3d.com/blog/buildin...
benhouston3d.com/blog/buildin...
