🇰🇪 Kenyan expat 😉 living in Canada 🇨🇦 | UX Research @browsercompany
Join my free newsletter 👉🏾
Joined February 2009
- Tweets8.6K
- Following826
- Followers1.6K
- Likes10.8K
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
Starting today, the @browsercompany is back to shipping weekly updates. October's Dia releases include:
• More powerful memory (of your tabs)
• Redesigned Dia Skills
• Arc's Focus Mode (CMD-S)
All landing in @diabrowser this month. Oh, we removed the waitlist today too 🤗
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
The @browsercompany just signed a merger agreement to be acquired. We will remain independent. Our focus is Dia.
I’ve written and rewritten this post more times than I’d like to admit, but what I keep coming back to is simple: the work continues, and we’re grateful for this moment.
The work continues because when I stop by the coffee shop near our office, nobody is using Dia yet. Our “internet computer” vision hasn’t been realized. Dia hasn’t yet changed how you work on a Tuesday morning. This deal is about giving us the resources, distribution, and monetization muscle to get there.
At the same time, it feels disingenuous not to pause and briefly celebrate this milestone. It reflects our team’s craftsmanship and relentlessness, the support of our coaches, board members, and advisors, and the incredible effort from our deal team: Ryan Purcell from Gunderson, Nancy Peretsman and Leah Schwartz from Allen & Co., and Clare, Abby, Eissra, Rebecca, Cory, Nash, and Hursh from The Browser Company.
Most of all, we’re grateful for what this means for Dia. It means we can hire faster, ship faster, and bring Dia to more people. We can now invest in cross-platform support and secure syncing, train custom AI models designed specifically for Dia, and turn ambitious ideas about “computer use” and “memory” into reality.
To everyone who’s filed a bug, sent feedback, or shared a kind word: thank you. We haven’t always gotten it right, but we’ve always cared deeply. That will never change.
Dia isn’t going anywhere. We’ll be here for the long haul, with the same team just a new partner helping us push further. We’ll take a breath this weekend, and then get back to work. Big launch next month.
In the meantime...
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
SKILLS ARE FOR CREATIVES
so we cooked. @dangertesting's /samplecolor Skill pulls colors from our favorite artists and brings them into our apps
If our apps feel like Harmony Korine, this is why.
As @lee94josh pointed out in a convo, it's cool to see the connection between this /cuban and the /graham skill from @cpaik.
1. Distill knowledge/frameworks/ideas from another person.
2. Package it into a @diabrowser skill that allows me to apply it every day.
A new @diabrowser skill I've been using to get meetings with physicians and researchers: /cuban.
Creates cold emails based on the guidelines of @mcuban personalized to the sender and recipient based on your Dia context.
Prompt in comments & hopefully in skills gallery soon.
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
I can’t decide if this is a “bicycle for your mind” in the truest form, or a dystopian Black Mirror episode, or both.
Whatever it is @cpaik’s /graham skill in Dia was so emotionally resonant with our team that we made a video about it.
You be the judge, try it yourself…
I’ve been evaluating people using my @diabrowser /skill.
It’s called /graham and It’s scary good.
Watch me test it on a few victims live (incl. @nikitabier )
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
Been testing out the new @browsercompany 's @diabrowser for a few weeks now, and honestly—it’s a whole new way to experience the web. Here’s what stands out (and what I’m still figuring out) 🧵👇 1/7
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
Here's the big idea behind @diabrowser:
You know how TikTok gets better with every swipe? Dia gets more personalized with every tab you open.
This is 100x more context than ChatGPT, automatically. And we believe it changes what's possible with AI.
But we need your help...
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
Meet @diabrowser. Now available for Arc members.
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
The @browsercompany’s second product is a smart browser called Dia. Come build it with us:
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
Last Friday, we promised changes to @browsercompany's security. One week later, here's action:
✅ Arc's 🆕 Bug Bounty Program is live
✅ Arc's 🆕 Security Bulletin is live
✅ We redesigned internal security processes
Much more to come, details in thread 👇
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
On 8/25 we were made aware of a vulnerability in Arc by @xyz3va. On 8/26 this vulnerability was fixed - thankfully no Arc members were affected.
Firstly, I want to apologize for this vulnerability and our communications surrounding it. I’m not proud that this happened, but I do want to take this as a moment to share how we will learn and improve. How we — as a team, and I personally — will make sure these types of incidents don’t happen again. Trust is crucial to us as Arc users and builders.
You can find a full incident analysis from our team linked below, including what happened, mitigations, and next steps.
If you have any questions please feel free to DM me or write in to us at [email protected]. We will integrate all of your questions, thoughts, and feedback into our larger discussions and full retrospective.
Last, a heartfelt thanks for all the concern (and even outrage) you've all expressed about this incident, and for holding us to a high standard. We'll be using this opportunity to grow as a company, as an engineering organization, and personally as a founder. Thanks again and more to come soon.
arc.net/blog/CVE-2024-45489-…
gaining access to anyones browser without them even visiting a website (CVE-2024-45489)
kibty.town/blog/arc/
Two podcasts that I have on repeat recently:
1. @FoundersPodcast
2. Teachers Off Duty
Very different, but both very compelling.
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
@Zapier Central is now in beta! Say hello to custom AI assistants that work with you to analyze data, get answers, complete tasks and more.
Here’s what's new in Central🧵
I've been loving how much I can lean on @perplexity_ai to simplify a bunch of use cases, but the hallucinations/false positives (example screenshot) for *unknown* topics are just always in the back of my mind.
Unless I'm deeply curious, I often don't read the cited sources.
How different is Research Ops in for-profit vs non-profit? What are the unique challenges of enabling UX research in government, especially where representation is critical?
Stig Parfrey has answers to those questions, and more!
Listen now 👉🏾tinyurl.com/sr-stigparfrey
Every few months, I slowly drift away from focusing on 1-2 key tasks per day to juggling 5+ things.
When I hit reset, I wonder how I drifted because it feels so refreshing.
Here's to lengthening that drift cycle.
Roy Opata Olende retweeted
Thinking of making the switch from academia to industry? I'll be speaking at @PsychScience's virtual panel on Networking in Academia & Beyond on Wed. I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned through my journey from psychology PhD to running my own UXR consulting biz ✨
