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Dividing by a fraction
I just finished the latest stage of ADA courseware with an especially hard and fast race to the end under pressure, and my mind needs to work on SOMETHING DIFFERENT for a while! This article on math teaching caught my attention. I used to teach math as part of teaching electronics. Fortunately we didn’t need…
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Impressive system
This monster has been SLOWLY rotating and SLOWLY sliding eastward for several days without weakening or breaking up. Thursday night it gave us an unusually strong storm with plenty of lightning and isolated big gusts. Fortunately the gusts didn’t hit my neighborhood this time. The central cyclone is clear. Right now the monster spans all…
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Not trying hard enough
Print media ought to be improving their products to fight the digital onslaught. Instead they’re lowering quality. This isn’t connected to AI. So far AI hasn’t made any difference in products, and I suspect it ultimately won’t matter much. It will just waste a whole fucking bunch of money and effort and time. The digital…
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Code-cobbler’s children
Supposedly AI is taking over programming by pumping out far more units of code than a real programmer can. Even if all these units work, WHERE ARE THEY GOING? I don’t see any improvement in the functions of the big platforms. I see lots of “offers” to generate shit for you. After I write an…
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Goddamn slimy
I rarely take the same side as CNN. I always take the side of Equipoise, paying for value. In this case CNN is on the right side, and the AI monster is pulling a sneaky slimy trick. CNN is suing Perplexity for stealing its copyrights. CNN tried to set up a licensing deal, which is…
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Missed opportunity
AI as a programming helper is picking up a ball that most software companies dropped. “Claude” automates tasks by talking to you in normal English. In the 90s every techie knew Basic, which was closer to natural English than other computer languages. As complex programs for editing, graphics and audio developed, most of them offered…
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Maybe could use a sensor
Seen at SpokaneNews. It takes a lot to twist a heavy truck’s frame like that. Apparently the driver failed to notice that his dump bed was still up, and started driving. It caught a powerline and twisted the truck. HOW DO YOU FAIL TO NOTICE A GIANT HEAVY MONSTER RISING 30 FEET UP IN THE…
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Update on last year’s arson
Last summer several arsonists caused a tremendous amount of damage and trouble. The fucking satanic “city” refused to prosecute them, then finally managed to keep ONE of them (Chad Horne) in jail for more than a few seconds. They still released other arsonists. At that time I wrote: = = = = = START REPRINT:…
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Lorem Ieepsum
One of my auto history books has a chapter of advertising for Willys variants in other countries. Willys covered more of the world than GM, and its foreign branches often developed totally original cars using their own talents and skills. This 1977 ad was a template provided by AMC during its ownership of Willys, letting…
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PO management doesn’t get it, postmen get it!
Last week I compared two attitudes toward AI. The Pew poll uses paper mail as a reliable human vs bot test. The Post Office, at least in its podcasts for publicity, emphatically didn’t understand their own advantage! = = = = = START REPRINT: Pew is smart on two levels. First, using postal addresses filters…
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Old joke
Dario was bragging to his friend one day, “I know everyone worth knowing. Just name anyone, and I know them.” Tired of his boasting, his friend calls his bluff, “Okay Dario, how about Tom Cruise?” “No problem, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it.” So Dario and his friend fly to…
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Parody was prophecy
Reddit’s stupid computer tricks section often shows Google AI answers like this: No, Cleopatra did not live in sand dunes. As the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII lived in luxurious royal palaces located in the13516515151515151515….. [looped on 15 forever] This reminds me of a VERY OLD parody of our Robot Overlords. From the era of…
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Version I
Somebody on substack was semi-joking about receiving a B in college because she refused to use Claude. I commented: If I were still teaching at this late date I’d make a new Inverted grading scale, “Version I”. FI = Fucking Intelligent (best) DI = Damned Intelligent CI = Could be Intelligent (if you try harder)…
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The sizzle matters
Social animals respond to symbolic actions, including attention and reputation. Duane Jones, the old master of advertising, slammed this point repeatedly. You need a good product FIRST. If you want to succeed, you also need the right kind of attention and reputation. An adman can’t help a bad product. Two current lawsuits deal with this…
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Should have the same argument
From Hieber on linguistics, How to use a dictionary: ❌ “What’s the One True Meaning™ of this word?” ❌ “What’s the One True Pronunciation™ of this word?” ✅ “What are some different ways this word is used?” = = = = = Prescriptive vs Descriptive is a VERY old argument in language, and it was…
Polistra's Mill
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Polistra's Mill 