1,713 karma · joined November 25, 2011
I'm picturing the scene in 'Saving Private Ryan' where the translator is trying to shoehorn his typewriter into his travel supplies and Tom Hanks slowly raises a pen instead.
I agree with you. I have enough paper and pens to last a good while of first drafts. My typing them into digital medium works for me like it does for you.
In the early 2000s I remember UBUBU which basically was a customizable 3D solar system cover for your desktop + internet links. I found it pretty cool, the possibility of rose-coloured glasses aside.
I was a contractor at Google when the Google//Boston Dynamics was happening, I now work//live in Silicon Valley, I grew up in MA, so I've been mildly following the story.
Is this sort of pinball "normal"?
I am wondering how humans may or may not understand this point regarding their self-described "life's purpose".
Legit wondering upon myself.
For conversation, I offer this image as to why reinventing the wheel may be necessary:
https://res.cloudinary.com/practicaldev/image/fetch/s--X_6jM...
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
I stopped using WordPress over a decade ago. I use other website//blog platforms now. I may go back if there is nothing better available, but I have a control-streak in me.
At the time I started WordPress I just didn't have the knowledge coupled with just needing to start something quick.
I moved on.
Years ago I purchased a laptop with two SSD hard drives RAID'd together at the factory. Of course, it came with Windows; I wanted un-RAID'd SSD hard drives and to install a flavor of Linux on the Primary. Some flavoring to the problem was that [IIRC] at the time there was a BIOS vs UEFI "Linux situation" with this type of setup, which this laptop was in the middle of.
So I went searching around for a solution. I ended up quilting together a solution from three different forum//blog posts and tested it out. I ended up writing myself a working procedure for this quilted solution because for me and this laptop was apparently just a bit different to need all three together in a particular order to work at the time.
Laptop still works [after numerous Linux-flavor OS installations] except for a hardware-level dead right speaker [not sure if my fault or just wear-and-tear over the years].
Fun fact: I had pyloric stenosis as an infant. IIRC, this condition tends to hit first born males of which I am one.
Dearest mother kept bringing me into the hospital. "He keeps throwing up no matter what." She kept being told the "oh you're just a new mother" song until finally one doctor switched on a lightbulb to check something out.
Next thing is that I'm this infant on an adult stretcher being prep'd for surgery.
My oldest scar.
I swear if I was born 100 years earlier I'd be dead by starvation at no fault of anything but medical innovation.
As much of a Science Fiction fan I am with "iris logins" and similar, I am also a retro-futurist who appreciates things like punch-number security for secured doors.
I mislike this current 2FA path of security for several reasons, the least of which is what if the email never comes or I don't have a cell phone (let alone a smartphone)? I'm screwed.
Passwords, passcodes, number pads ... seems to be quite more Human than all of this "prove yourself in the name of security theatre" these days.
Tell me more about how people hate writing documentation, and then tell me how they can't shut the fuck up about not having it when they need it.
This is a peeve of mine.
What do you expect?
The number of payday loan shops in the immediate surrounding area was astounding. I kept hearing word of "Don't Do Payday" financial help training for the Naval crew, who apparently were a prime target for the industry. Before working there, I had little idea such existed.
Think "worse than 'cash your cheque here'" places.
I don't know how many Naval folks I worked with took in to these places, but every time I passed one I frowned and shook my head.
I used to vacation there.
As one of those clueless people who can't buy marijuana in a legal state, I am equally clueless on the signs of terrible addiction if I drove through Cape Cod, MA today.
I'm not sure what makes me more sad -- the existence, or my incapability to notice the existence.
And Spock did have emotions.
How has that worked out for [at least certain types of] religion?
It is a great show.
> 2. No Dedicated Cameras and Camcorders I’m almost 40. I (finally) own a smart-phone. I also own a good digital camera. I tested smartphone cameras for “a leading tech company in Mountain View” for several years.
I’m fully aware of the saying, “The best camera you have is the one you have with you”.
One day I saw a coworker pointing to my digital camera and saying “That type of camera is obsolete”. I didn’t feel good about that, and I have no regrets owning it and still using it with no issues for quality or availability. When I go out for pictures, I bring my camera; when I don’t, I accept I have to accept smartphone quality.
> 7. He Won’t Go to the Movies I love movies (and television). I watch at home and out.
I go out to the movies for the experience and to get out of the living space. No regrets. I'm an introvert.
> 8. He Won’t Use a Mouse I cannot stand using a trackpad or the “mouse button” [there are more crude words for it, think the red thing on ThinkPads].
It is a mouse for me for life because it’s actually useable.
> 10. He Won’t Use a Remote Control Does a bluetooth mouse count as “remote control” for my computer dedicated for watching movies and television 6 feet away?
> 14. He’ll Never Use a Fax Machine If only some businesses or government I need to deal with was the same.
"You have a collect call from ... 'we-had-a-baby-it's-a-boy' ... do you accept the charges?"
"No." [Hangs up]
"Who was it?"
"Jimmy and Susan. They had a baby. It's a boy."
[Buy our better value telephone service!]
The prosecution projected a film with audio [cutting edge technology at the time] demonstrating the crimes in question [bribery and related charges].
Lamont ['The Shadow'] was able to hear the audio and read lips at the same time and figure out that what was heard was not was what said. "Believe half of what you see, and nothing you hear" was his takeaway.
As the story goes, that's what happened. The film shown at court was dubbed for audio by a hired guy who did great vocal impersonations. The accused was innocent.
Short story long: deep fakes aren't a new idea. 100 years and counting. Same trick, different tools.
I recall the film 'Network' with its "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" thread.
Among other messages.
I can only imagine the repercussions of this.
Although I did my paranoid pre-trip research [partial thanks to dad], I can understand the confusion.
Many comments here are correct. You're touching your wrist or sleeve to activate an assigned ding on your smartphone; some flashes a color when something happens; perhaps a voice tells you the time because you don't want to look at your watch [be it an analogue watch, that fancy proto-nokia digital watch in 1995, a Smart watch for your favourite walled garden, or the Dick Tracy watch I've wanted for decades]; and so forth.
The most I've ever washed this jacket is walking through the rain -- I wear almost daily, in northern California, and the electronics still work after several years. [I have good clothing hygiene, I swear].
On the other hand [ha ha], I'm still trying to use the electronics part in a significant fashion [ho ho] but I'm recently making an effort for some post-wallet giggles.
I have received some version of "cool jacket dude" a number of times though, which is nice.
I'll continue to see how the denim, electronics, pockets, &c hold up with continued almost-daily use. At least for my own sake.
To me it's akin to several scenes in the film "War Games" where you basically have to make a rogue AI in a computer sexy on film.
"Show a computer thinking. Make it scary. Inhuman. Enhance that it's impersonal."
So we get a camera person slowly walking around an obelisk-like table with ominous music. "This is where the AI lives, thinking on how to rain nuclear fire upon the vile Soviets, no humans need interfere, enhance and intensify, will Tic-Tac-Toe save us from our folly". And around and around the evil obelisk table we go watching bits flip up and down back and forth with nuclear missiles in question.
You can find similar elsewhere. Dramatic flashing lights on a server rack, a human taken over by external forces blindly jabbing at a keyboard or keypad with intense purpose. All of a sudden from these wonders computational magic happens.