AI is Starting to Get Uncomfortable

Alibaba has an AI that they claim has passed the Turing test. However, they are using it for writing ad copy.

The Chinese-language tool is reportedly able generate copy that can be “promotional, functional, fun, poetic or heartwarming” with a single button click, and will be used on mainly Alibaba’s version of Amazon in China, Tmall and Taobao. There’s no word if it’s being developed for other languages just yet.

Unfortunately, I could see the real life Terminator shizz play out while I am still around. I was hoping to avoid it altogether. People do not pay attention or learn from movies, books, or history.

July 5, 2018 by Artificial Intelligence

Oh Yeah! Another Power Outage!

This is super cool. Well, since it is currently 92 degrees maybe cool is the wrong word.

Power went off around 11:00 am. Projected time of repair is 2:30 pm.

Makes for an interesting start to the week.

My guess is that a power transformer exploded (heat related) but it could just as easily be a stupid motherfonker who hit a stupid motherfonking telephone pole. Telephone poles, in and of themselves, is a funny term because we don’t use landlines anymore.

Update: 3:47 pm – “They” do not anticipate power restoration until the early evening hours. Some gizmo or “do-dad’ broke. It’s technical.

Updated: 7.16.2018 – Added a cool photo I took in extremely low light conditions.

July 2, 2018 by Sh*t Mike Says

Trello for Project Management

I was looking around for an easy project manager to use that would work with my iPad. I use the iPad for my planner (Pocket Informant) so it just made sense to use an app for project management as well.

Trello looks promising. They have some add-ons you can purchase but most of the functionality is free. Trello isn’t just an app but also has a web interface for those team mates that may not have Apple products. The folks that work for me don’t have iPhones, for example. No problem. The web interface works the same as the app on the iPad.

I have converted a couple of planner entries to projects and am looking forward to adding my team members to the process.

One of the major problems we have is reporting what we are working on and communication between us. We don’t always keep each other in the loop. This type of software should help fix that problem.

I’ll post back after using this for a week. I’m hopeful.

June 30, 2018 by Trello

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Just like to say for the record that I remember holding this guy as a baby when I was 13 years old.

Pretty sure he would have no problems holding me at this point.

Happy Birthday baby brother!

June 25, 2018 by Birthdays

Great Idea!

I saw this post this morning and totally agree that this would be a great way to go with the Mac Mini.

Apple could still claim that Mr. Cook’s promise is in force. Apple could offer the most basic configuration of the 2019 Mac Pro as the 2019 Mac mini. At Mac mini pricing levels.

Of course, if properly designed, that very same chassis could be outfitted with the highest level of computational power. Say, 32 Xeon cores, 256, 512, or 1,024 GB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD. Plus a monster graphics system and all kinds of other plug-ins that would be beyond the realm of an ordinary Mac mini. That’s the $10,000 Mac Pro we’ve always been thinking of.

By cleverly designing a 2019 Mac Pro modular chassis, Apple neatly avoids product overlap and gives the Mac mini user base the upgradable Mac mini they’ve been dreaming of. And so customers of all kinds could start low, upgrade as they go, or start in the middle or go right to the top. The Mac world will have achieved computational heaven.

June 20, 2018 by General Musings

Fonking Shizz

I’m reading a book series called “Space Team.” The characters have translation chips imbedded in their heads that allow them to communicate with alien species.

The funny part about the whole thing is that the company who created the technology doesn’t allow cursing. When it picks up a curse word, it substitutes that word with something considered “safe.” Just hearing that from the Audible book reader is enough to make you laugh.

And that…is some fonking shizz!

June 16, 2018 by General Musings

News App Fail

The biggest (and if I’m honest) only complaint about the Apple News App has always been the inability to remove politics from the news. I hate politics and I do NOT want to see ANY politics in the news feed. I see various promises that claim that they only populate your news feed with the items you say you are interested in but sadly, that is just not true.

 

June 10, 2018 by Apple News MacOS Mojave

Currently Reading

Infinitude

Infinitude

Series:Dimension Space Book Six

Author: Dean M. Cole