2024

23 December, 2024. 483 words.

Dispatches from @ultrviolet@gts.endgameviable.com:

Wednesday 12/18

08:40 # I love The Rest Is Entertainment but this new bit on AI is exploding my brain. There is a very common misunderstanding of how AI works that is too complicated to explain, but everybody just replaces the complicated process with “stealing” as a convenient shortcut. There are many, many things that need to be regulated/controlled/examined about AI but that’s such a fundamental misrepresentation of how AI works that it will be easy for Big Tech to push back against in courtrooms, and the result will be all lawsuits based on that premise will be lost forever and ever. Arg.
22:47 # It’s just me, arguing with ChatGPT Search trying to figure out what instrument makes that woo sound at the 6-second mark of the Night Court theme music. I think at this point ChatGPT is just telling me whatever it thinks I might accept just to get rid of me. I think it’s some kind of percussion but I can’t identify it and it’s been driving me crazy forever because I can always identify every instrument played in every piece of music I hear. [P.S. my current best guess is it’s a talking drum.]

20:51 # I’m sorry to say that Beast Games thing is pretty dern good television. Sure you can find a lot of rationalizations to pretend you’re too good for trash reality television but there’s a reason this dramatic formula has been around for so long.

17:43 # I’m having a minor revival of my interest in football so I’ve done the unthinkable and bought a Madden football game for the first time in my life.
- 22:14 # So I’m kind of new to whole Madden football thing but is it supposed to crash after every game? Seems like an odd design choice. [P.S. I returned it on Steam and bought it on PS5, where it was also on sale, and where it doesn’t crash all the time.]

16:55 # After today, Washington has a decent chance to go 11-4 this year. The last time that happened was the Doug Williams super bowl year of 1987. Granted, they had a soft schedule and aren’t likely to get far in the playoffs, but still. It’s downright shocking.
- 16:58 # Err 11-5 I mean. Weirdly Wikipedia says they went 11-4 in 1987.
- 17:00 # Oh yeah, there was a strike in 1987. Forgot. The point is, the possible for WAS to have 11 wins in one season is mind boggling after the last 20 years.
17:07 # Btw I think everyone in the nerd world is required to comment on the new Superman trailer: Meh. Looks like a typical superhero movie. Fake heros saving fake people from fake villains using fake powers, this time with fake dogs. It’s basically the modern equivalent of a bible story. Not into it.