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Random language note
Reading one of Burge’s pieces on the categories of non-religious people, churched vs unchurched, believing vs non-believing, praying vs non-praying, I thought: I’m a prayer, not a believer. I’m not sure if there are any gods, but I spend a lot of time and effort praying to them. Oops! Language isn’t logic. When you believe…
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What “democratize” means
A 1960s training film, aimed at store clerks, says “To the criminally inclined, free enterprise means freedom to take anything without paying for it.” Nothing has changed. To the criminally inclined, democratize means trillionaires are free to take anything without paying for it. Via NiemanLab, several publishers have blocked Archive.org from scraping their material. They’ve…
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They should be worrying
The big tech companies who are rushing to replace their employees with Altman’s Holy Spirit should be worrying more about plain old computers instead of AI. I’m seeing a trend toward basic errors of the type that computers formerly ELIMINATED, not ENHANCED. A couple days ago CenturyLink sent me a notice that my service was…
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Distillate?
Thought-provoking observation from Chris Arnade, who knows lots of places: If a foreigner asks me which single US city to visit to understand America, I would say Chicago. LA/SF are coded as an Asian city, NYC/Boston European, Miami Latin America, but Chicago is very much an American city. Caught my attention since I’m thinking about…
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Dammit, it’s not the output 2
Last week I noted that people were trying to sound “more human” by varying their vocabulary and grammar. I predicted that Altman’s coders would quickly counteract this tactic by adding more variation. A couple days later a Verge item revealed that Altman’s coders were already working on it. I’m more concerned with the input theft…
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Confusion to the enemy
Via NewScientist, a solid but unsurprising bit of research. Why do some mushrooms produce psilocybin, which causes hallucinations in humans? Turns out to be the same reason as many other non-obvious plant chemicals. It kills and confuses insects. The researchers took the direct approach, microdosing fruit fly larvae with psilocybin. Most of them died, and…
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Swindlers vs salesmen
First input, unquestionably true: Social media is THE OPPOSITE OF AN ECHO CHAMBER. Algorithms are designed with GREAT PRECISION to give you what you hate, not what you want. After you’ve seen an item, sometimes you think about it and want to go back and look again. YOU CAN’T GET THERE. The algorithm knows that…
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Kedit is still alive… updated
Reposted for latest update. Every now and then I check the webpage of Mansfield Software, the maker of Kedit. For 20 years they’ve been trying to give up the ship, and each time they decide to keep supporting and selling just a little bit longer. I’ve never needed support because Kedit has never shown a…
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Anniversary
Jan 20 is an anniversary for me. This year isn’t a round number, but for some reason the day wants to be marked this time. Jan 20, 1970 was the day I started housekeeping on my own. I got out of prison on Dec 19, then STUPIDLY followed expectations and returned to college at OSU.…
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They knew how to be fair
Trying for a little non-modern amusement while slaving away on dull alt-text work. Randomly sampled the latest uploads at American Radio Library and came up with a gem immediately. From a 1962 trade journal aimed at broadcasters and advertisers. At that time the Fairness Doctrine was firmly established and ensconced. Broadcasters hated every minute of…
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No alarm, no opportunity
Google Books is shutting down, or at least no longer available to the public. They’re telling users to “create a library” so we can continue using the books in our “library”. This is absurd. I always downloaded the books I found useful. Now I have them in my computer. Why would I want to keep…
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Omnicidal fashions
The “environmental” omnicidists go through fashions and phases. For a while they try one way to obliterate life on earth. Like all psychopaths they get bored easily, and move on to another form of torture and obliteration. In today’s local “news”, the city’s Waste To Energy Plant was built at great expense 20 years ago…
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Foy dream and random notes
Last night’s dream. I was hand-cranking a sewing machine, helping an Amish group to sew and embroider a large curtain protesting against mechanization of thought. = = = = = Seen at substack: Canada must feel like the apartment above a meth lab. Absolutely perfect. Hereby replaces the old metaphor “in bed with an elephant.”…
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Says more about humans than aliens
This cartoon is splendid. It tells us how Altman thinks of himself. More importantly it reveals our basic brain structure. A single little 0 doesn’t cause dissonance. We feel it as nothing and we calculate it as nothing. A BIG zero like 0,000,000,000,000 feels BIG, even though our language processor tells us it’s still nothing.…
Polistra's Mill
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Polistra's Mill 