taylorius

It's interesting - had they acted this schadenfreude out at all? Or did this confession come completely out of the blue. From what you said, it is the latter - and if so, should this person be judged for this unappealing inner thought, if they take pains not to let that thought influence their behaviour or actions?

I'm not claiming it was intentional on their part. My point was solely one of language, so how the sentence came to be written that way is out of scope. And given the word swap I suggested, I don't think it is awkward at all (unlike your examples from Dutch, which definitely are).

As for it being patronising, why is telling a non-native speaker their sentence is interesting unacceptable, but telling them it's awkward is ok? (Assuming both are genuinely held opinions).

I'll reiterate my point that common English usage (non-awkward?) has narrowed enormously in the last 50 years. I think that this is a bad thing.

I'm a native English speaker, and I partially disagree with your claims of awkwardness.

"when our servers are under high traffic pressure" - this is a bit awkward I agree, but only the last three words.

If we rearrange it to "when our servers are under pressure from high traffic", I think it sounds good. It's using a metaphor, and I think that should be encouraged. It's interesting. And the phrase "high traffic" conveys some drama.

"your requests may take some time to receive a response from the server" - I think that's fine, to be honest. I like it.

I think you are conflating "awkwardness" with linguistic flair. Technical documentation English has become standardised to a large degree, which of course is useful, and efficient. But it is also a narrow usage of English, and breaking out of its straitjacket does not make language awkward.

So many pronouncements on people's inner lives. The temptation to caricature the wedding guests in her paintings must be formidable.

Not if the process of trying to become one is itself enjoyable. I am a habitual setter of improbable goals. I decided I would become a world class acrobat (if you knew me, you would laugh at that idea). Did I do it, of course not. But did I learn to cartwheel, handstand etc. Yes.

Lol.

I would dispute that what is happening with AI music is well described by the phrase "expand and grow". In my view "democratzation" s a weasel word, meaning the removal of skill and effort from the process of production. The operator of such a system inevitably becomes more like a client, choosing between options served up to them. You could plausibly replace the human with a random number generator, and an external observer would not tell the difference.

"Also couldn’t they just retrofit a battery somewhere instead of a new steam generator?"

Kindly hand in your tail coat, stovepipe hat and brass head-up-display monocle on your way out, sir!

Data modelling, especially in high dimensions can be non-obvious to a human, yet a tractably small program can do well.

UX includes the possibility that the software will be actively influencing the user, rather than merely acting as a tool to be used. (websites selling you stuff versus a utilitarian desktop app).

"So you would say, if someone has a talent for cooking, specializes himself, becomes a professional," - do you typically know all that about the people who staff the restaurants you visit? And do you think it is the case?

"these tools have democratized creativity.".

For sure! After all, what could be more democratic than a monthly subscription that could get snatched away at any moment - and clearly there's nothing more creative than pressing a button and waiting for 20 seconds!

I don't think there's any stopping it, unfortunately. The internet is too good at "optimising" content. The future is Mr Beast, Instagram hotties and 6 pack guys, tiktok morons and onlyfans. Be happy, the market has spoken.

It's very good, really impressive demo. My feedback would be, Maya needs to keep quiet a little longer after asking a question. She would ask something, then as I thought about my reply, already be on to the next thing. It left me with the impression she was a babbler (which is not an unrealistic model of how humans are, but it would be cool to be able to dial such traits up or down to taste).

I suppose the lack of visual cues probably hinders things in that regard.

Beautiful! Both the story, and the aircraft.

No-one ever squanders anything by going to see David Lynch's Dune.

So if there's no solution in a particular area, you won't find it? You may be on to something there! :-)

Bob Lazar knows better...

Is there nothing that word can't do?

A catchy title is all you need (to get attention).

I agree - programming is it's own medium for creation - not just a tool to produce other media.

I see you Twirlip of the mists

Ah, ok. I didn't realise that.

Am I right to think that OwlEars is supposed to summarize a user's typed comment?

Anyway, here's a datapoint - I added this user comment.

"Spindeliver dropped my food on the road several times,as I watched the delivery cyclist ride wobbling down our street. I think he was drunk, and my food was pulled out of a puddle in front of my eyes, and handed to me. I declined to tip the rider and he became belligerent. I shall not use Spindeliver again."

OwlEars gave it a 55% positive score, which seems a bit optimistic.

All UK internal phone numbers start with a zero. However when you dial the UK from abroad, you omit the leading zero, so the UK version of the number in question would be 01831, which sounds a lot like an area code (though apparently is not one in current use)

"I don't know if they are just lesser musicians, but it definitely feels forced"

I think the art with that sort of stuff is making a rhythm and melody for the vocal, or lead instrument that feels natural, yet fits over the odd time signature.

There was a (slightly obscure) branch of Jazz funk in the late 80s early 90s called M-BASE that had a lot of this kind of stuff.

This track is called the X Format, by Steve Coleman, and i think it's in 13/8 time. But its always boggled my mind. It must be devilishly hard to play, but it feels quite groovy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydjcl65R9Lg

Plenty of people have definitely said they can't. But the lesson is - just don't listen to anyone, because nobody knows the future, and you can do whatever you want and let the chips fall where they may!

Thanks for replying! I agree with you.

Forgive me, but your last sentence seems like a platitude. What would such institutions look like, and how might they reduce the suffering of someone with, say, advanced dementia?

I'm not trying to have a go btw - it genuinely seems an intractable problem to me.

What sort of noise do they make? Do they sound like normal drones?