/GREG
every time i try to tell someone about greg sadetsky they go ????!!! & i have to hunt for links, so to save time, welcome to nyc-noise.com/greg/ for overview of WTF IS GREG???? :D
fyi greg has his own gr8 website –– greg.technology –– but he can't say, e.g., "I CHANGE LIVES & CODE LIKE AN UNUSUALLY INTUITIVE MACHINE" without sounding like a dick, whereas *i* can say TRULY // u can email greg, tho he is often... shall we say overextended; also github + youtube + patreon + linkedin + twitter + insta
(this is def already outdated, but ok)
some of the LOTS greg has done...
in viral demos:
december 2023:
in medicine:
• masters in biophotonics (2014), which i think is biology & LASERS??? light in medicine??? (idk link's to his master's thesis, which appears to use ~computer wizardry~ to solve a problem w/ microscopes for Live Stuff; it has an epigraph by BRETON bc OF COURSE) + journal of biophotonics pub (2015)
• work on open source ultrasound probe (2016)
• 2nd place, NIH pill recognition challenge (2016)
in MAPS + SAVING LIVES:
• bb greg (2005) built an app that layered updates from yahoo, traffic, & worldweather over google maps (tampa tribune, wired)
• co-founded a mapping startup (2005) w/ google earth competitor (2007) that was bought by apple (2009)
• greg helped RESCUE PEOPLE from hurricane damage (2017-2018) via custom maps for the coast guard's air station / helicopter ppl (he was not hired to do this, he just... did???) for hurricanes harvey, florence, & michael, leading to...
• coast guard's distinguished public service award & canadian meritorious service cross
• in pandemic-times, developed the official gov't of quebec covid-19 map (2020; "viewed 24 million times in the span of a year") & whyhunger map (2020)
• ran the NORAD Santa Tracker ~2007-2008
security disclosures:
i think legally he can't tell us about some of these lol... but highlights =
• when aol FUCKED UP (2006) & publicly disclosed 20 million search queries & didn't take the data down for ten days, greg provided the mirror then used by scholars, journalists, & Investigating Entities (see: federal trade commission doc)
• informed journalists of security issues w/ MTA/OMNY's contactless payment system (2023) (which yes most of us assumed would be a surveillance-state shitshow but is maybe worse than expected??)
music (MAKING):
• sonic garbage (2023)
–– music radar / yahoo (2023): "This web app randomly samples thousands of YouTube videos to create a playable grid of loops, giving you endless sonic inspiration"
• saxophone ring thing (2023)
music (GREG'S):
• sax & modular synth album proclamations (2019; i love this lol, "no" is yes)
• anticipation (2019; "a comedic interactive piece exploring unforeseen uses of the human voice as a musical instrument")
• the daniil kharms, post-gogol world (2022; translations of russian absurdist poetry with at-times-also-absurdly-cap-J Jazz ???? chunks of this make me uncomfortable &/but greg's voice work is legit amazing; try "pushkin and gogol" –– also he co-translated the daniil kharms poems from russian (w/ emily saltz) bc of course yes greg is trilingual)
• related: wmfu show (2023)
community resources / tools:
• restaurants.rip (2023)
• pdf to text (OCR) with no servers!! (2023)
• collaborative french canadian slang dictionary la parlure (2009)
• french urban dictionary dico2rue.com (2011)
art collabs:
include work w/...
• james paterson (terrifying ouroboros gif maker)
• luc mikelsons (crazy bike instrument velophone; "Using motion sensors and radio signals, Velophone algorithmically generates musical scores based on the rider's movements")
• ariel uzal (bosque; u can play w/ it!!)
• yehwan song (the way we touch each other in 2020) (2020)
• paterson/ramsay/dehart (kriller) (~2023)
• tristan l'abbé (chops app; "Chops was an iOS app that transformed vocal sounds into drum sounds") (2020)
... & way more
plus also:
• dictation for gmail chrome extension (2016, updated 2023)
• co-founder weird tv web broadcast network awesome (~2011-2014)
• french crossword app (2013)
• collective against empty trains (2018; greg says this was a "failed attempt at swaying public opinion against the use of algorithmic pricing by the sole passenger railway transporter in Canada," tho idk buddy, comments & stuff look like you swayed the public, just not the robber barons!!)
• bus stop schedule in the mile end, montreal (2019) it's nice :')
be likable, even tho he's a gr8 coder???!!!
• greg's briefly mentioned in this oft-annoying (2014) new yorker 10x piece (tho i did lol at one bit [not directed at greg]: "[They] realized that they were dealing with “a really familiar personality type”: talented people with zero business skills. “We were, like, ‘This is a musician! This is what we’re used to!’" haahahaha wompppp), but the better reflection is this...
• ...podcast episode about the ~mythical 10x coder (i think 2020?),~ where they introduce greg as a 10xer, & then (uh oh!!!) a bunch of ppl talk about how supposed 10x coders can be a pain in the ass & not worth it... except then a guy says something like, "but the TRUE 10Xer would be good at code AND a great pal!!!" & then the host literally just says "Greg Sadetsky :D" even tho he's already been introduced & there's a like, ~vibe of distant cheering~ while greg says something nice, lol :')
wtf does this have to do w/ nyc noise
[FEB '25 NOTE] the below is all over the place, chronology-wise, but gist is that in late 2023, greg TOTALLY REBUILT THE SITE; he kept the ~look~ (see: september '23, pre-relaunch), & let me give tons of feedback on new display, because he is a kind pal & also i think finds my old-school ways endearing :D but before, each month was legit a single page of html... it was the equivalent of a very long email, same functionality you'd get in tumblr or livejournal. NOW it is a DATABASE, meaning that i don't have to copy-paste venue information for every single listing or change a million things manually when i fuck up or load up an entire month's worth of events for every edit; it also means we can have stuff like ICAL/GCAL functionality, because the site actually knows that these are events w/ times.
in early 2025, he made the BEAUTIFUL DAILY MAPS!!!!!!!!!!!! which were also 100% his idea, an answer to my long-term "wtf" deliberations about how to make all the map data i've collected useful for people –– i showed him my (absurd & illegibly-cluttered, lol) google maps & was like, "idk how to make this helpful" & he *immediately* knew what to do –– hurray for greg :''')
he's also done a million other things for nyc noise / me personally, including...
_____________
...well NOW (dec'23) it's that he spearheaded building NYC NOISE 2.0, along w/ a team of recurse ppl he coralled into BIG HELPS FOR ME, see github of :').
but even BEFORE that –– i met greg on 9/2/23 at the lume public visuals show ft. lots of gr8 ppl (i was there bc gil kuno of GA•GA•GA (duo w/ aiida) v kindly put me on the list; i can't otherwise afford to go to shows lately lol/womp), which is fucking unbelievable bc i'm writing this in late oct & greg has already done like, YEARS' WORTH of contributions to the site & also my LIFE??????
in a few weeks of greg, he:
• set up the $5/month direct support subscription in top-of-site banner (tho he is not responsible for whatever nerdy msg i add asking u to click it)
• set up the gcal submission option that autofills needed show info parameters & shares yr event w/ me for easy-adding
• added code for sticky dates so u can tell what day you're looking at after the first few events (honestly HUGE –– also if u grab the lil scroll bar on the right & slide it around, it's... idk it's just v satisfying)
• MADE me this free pdf → txt conversion tool that doesn't collect or store data (the way like EVERY OTHER free option does???), so u can use it to ocr-read pdfs w/ out said pdfs being sold to randos
• made me a spreadsheet of the nearly SEVENTEEN THOUSAND venues live nation lists as affiliates (as an aside, i don't entirely understand their criteria for inclusion; according to recent sec filings, live nation owns, leases, operates, or otherwise has a "controlling interest" in over 300 venues, which is fucking disgusting but not 17k ?)
• taught me LOTS OF STUFF & introduced me to a slew of new tools & tricks & resources; off the top of my head, these include:
–– the linkclump chrome extension (open multiple links at once)
–– sublime text editor & its multi-cursor mode (honestly game-changer)
–– syntax for the google sheets concatenate function (trust me, v relevant to my life)
–– the fact that you can change text case via highlight + ctrl/right click + transformations (it is TRAGIC that i didn't know this sooner lololol ??? but hella gratitude 2 stopgap convertcase.net, which prolly added years to my life by minimizing rage over all-caps show listings)
during these weeks greg ALSO did lots of other stuff for MORE PEOPLE, i guess even more than usual cuz (FATE!!!) i met him just before he started a retreat at recurse; check out this overview of his recurse work if u wanna say things like "...lol how???"
• built a voice → visual graph tool (demo here)
• made a lovely/clean gallery of covers of 2600 ("hacker quarterly" mag)
• uber eats unwrapped 2023 (okay i hate spotify but love this lmao)
• get yr slow marathon count
• PLAY talk paper scissors (call 515-762-5762!)