Award-Winning Journalist & Speaker - Expert in ERISA Fiduciary, Child IRA, and Hamburger History
When generative artificial intelligence (“GenAI”) platforms first appeared, I tried them all. GenAI fails—but not in the way you’re thinking. They failed to collect the data I requested. Quite simply, the platforms couldn’t search the internet that well.
Ah, 2024. Those were the good old days…
Code that tapped LLMs did achieve—a bit—what I wanted, but the inconsistency drove me Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part V: Why GenAI (And All Search Engines) Fail”
Karl Marx (John Jabez Edwin Mayal) and Vladimir Lenin (Unknown, presumably official), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
During dinner at the recent New York Press Association Publishers’ Conference, talked turned towards the misuse of the term “click-bait.” In a strict sense, the term applies to misleading descriptions of internet links. These phrases “bait” you to “click” the link; hence, “click-bait.” Links that have nothing to do with the sentence that lured you to click makes this technique unethical. That’s why “click-bait” has such a negative connotation.
Copywriters for more than a century have searched for sentences that “sizzle.” Elmer Wheeler documented the early years of this journey in his 1937 book Tested Statements That Sell. If you don’t recall the name of this Rochester native dubbed “America’s Greatest Salesman,” you will certainly know his most famous phrase: Continue Reading “Are You More A Marxist Or A Lennonist?”
This wasn’t the first time something like this happened, and I doubt it will be the last. Call it “The Quiet Man” approach. Hmm, that sounds like a pleasant topic for a future commentary.
This episode, however, begins in the quiet world of Manchester, New Hampshire in June of 2017.
No, wait. It actually begins before this beginning. Early in April, I met Suzette Standring at the New York Press Association Spring Conference at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York. She is an award-winning author and a syndicated columnist. Suzette was at the NYPA conference to present on how to write better columns.
In case you haven’t noticed, this weekly sojourn is what we in the journalism business call a “column.” It’s not necessarily a traditional column (which Continue Reading “Jerry Springer Was And Wasn’t Who You Think He Was”
Do you enjoy reading this newspaper? Do you enjoy reading anything in print as opposed to reading a screen on an electronic device?
If the answer to either of these questions is “yes” the State of New York is brewing a budget that will certainly disappoint you. And the clock is working against you to prevent this.
As you can read from the Letter to the Editor below from Michelle Rea, Executive Director of the New York Press Association, the Extended Producer Responsibility Act may soon make it financially impossible for newspapers – and especially small newspapers like the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel – to maintain a sustainable business.
That’s too bad. We recently asked our readers “In your own words (not to exceed 25), Continue Reading “Why Is New York State Trying To Kill Print Newspapers?”
Did you ever have a dream you kept putting off? A place you always wanted to visit? A story you always wanted to tell?
So did I. (Notice the past tense.)
This site might give you a clue about how I accomplished this. Who knows? It may even reveal to you how you can realize your own greatest goals.
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The Last Manila Folder
Doesn’t matter. Every year around this time, I start filing away manila folders. It generally begins in mid-September, with the last one archived by the first week of October.
What’s in these mysterious folders?
A very small slice of my life.
Small.
But intense.
For, though the time may seem short, the mileage isn’t. And, if there’s one thing you have to remember, it’s not about the time, it’s about the mileage.
Now, here’s the misleading thing: this collection of folded manila card stock doesn’t even tell Continue Reading “The Last Manila Folder”