What made me unhappy today ?

[Rad Scribbler]

After having recovered from an extremely bad strain of the flu virus, I switched on my work laptop only to be greeted by a couple of pages of emails. Think I'll phone my boss telling her I'm still sick and crawl back in to bed.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Good luck, Rad Scribbler. Glad to hear you're feeling better. The flu is no fun at all.

Take it easy with the emails. You'll get there, I'm sure.

 

[Rad Scribbler]

Good luck, Rad Scribbler. Glad to hear you're feeling better. The flu is no fun at all.

Take it easy with the emails. You'll get there, I'm sure.

Thanks Rath.

 

[GrahamLewis]

Called my somewhat reclusive kid brother to wish him a happy birthday. We had a nice conversation, but during it he mentioned that among his gifts was a bright red MAGA hat. I bit my tongue.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I hope that whoever gave the hat to your brother didn't know him very well.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Had a meeting with my core chefs and managers today to tell them I was leaving. It was rough. Lots of mixed emotions. I couldn't be happier but it's sad to be leaving some of the most talented people on the planet. That's not hyperbole either. Their list of awards and recognition is legion. I tell everyone, be the dumbest person in the room and focus your energy on actuating the talent. Gonna miss them.

 

[big soft moose]

Its unfortunate if the boss is the dumbest person in the room but doesn't realise it tho

 

[Homer Potvin]

Its unfortunate if the boss is the dumbest person in the room but doesn't realise it tho

Yup. That's the worse.

 

[Luxuria]

I am nervous about the speech I am supposed to give tomorrow. Need encouragement!

 

[Louanne Learning]

You can do it!! (Picture your audience naked?)

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I am nervous about the speech I am supposed to give tomorrow. Need encouragement!

You'll do great. Nervousness is simply anticipatory energy, revving you up to give your best presentation.

 

[GrahamLewis]

I hope that whoever gave the hat to your brother didn't know him very well.

Unfortunately (IMHO), it was his kids, and he's glad to have it.

 

[Also]

Oh. :-( Sorry to hear, Rad Scribbler ... that stinks.

I hope you're getting plenty of hot drinks. I found that hot tea with sliced raw ginger, lemon juice and honey is wonderful for easing the pain. (Berries are good too - they're full of vitamin C and antioxidants).

Hope you feel better soon!

The flu is very bad this year, and even worse for the young with strong immune responses, a lot like the one in 1885-86.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I am nervous about the speech I am supposed to give tomorrow. Need encouragement!

You can do it!! (Picture your audience naked?)

Please don't picture your audience naked. You don't need the brain bleach on top of your nervousness.

You'll do just fine. *hug* Nervousness is simply your body's way of giving you extra energy. (You'll feel a bit tired afterwards, because your body is "borrowing" the extra energy to give you more ... so afterwards, you'll feel an "energy drain". Treat yourself to your favourite hot drink afterwards. I recommend a hot chocolate with honey and cinnamon. Yum!)

 

[ps102]

My laptop has 16 CPU cores, but I can't use all of them to compile code because I don't have enough memory (you need a certain amount per core). It would be helpful if I can compile faster so I looked into purchasing a 32GB kit.

It's super expensive now! It would cost me 100+ pounds to get one. Why? Because all those stupid AI data centers they are building are sucking up all the memory chips. So us humble citizens have to pay a lot if we want any.

AI was supposed to make our lives better. But it is making them worse. And if you've been keeping up with the news, there is a real chance that the whole AI thing is a giant bubble that will burst. If it does, the tech giants won't suffer. It's all of us that will.

My favourite part is how the tech giants can't actually pay for the absurd amounts of electricity those data centers require. Their solution? Pass the extra costs to everyday people. Yes, you read that right. Some people are paying more so Little Jimmy can cheat in his science class using ChatGPT.

The fact is, AI models are very power hungry. Needless to say, LLMs are not smart. They just run a very complex and highly advanced algorithm (which makes equally expensive computations underneath) to predict what the next word is. That's what they do at the end of the day. It isn't as if we actually emulated intelligence, let alone sentience. This technology is currently being praised as revolutionary. I am sure it will have its uses. But it might not live up to this crazy amount of hype.

In any case, it looks like I'm stuck with what I have for now.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Please don't picture your audience naked. You don't need the brain bleach on top of your nervousness.

You'll do just fine. *hug* Nervousness is simply your body's way of giving you extra energy. (You'll feel a bit tired afterwards, because your body is "borrowing" the extra energy to give you more ... so afterwards, you'll feel an "energy drain". Treat yourself to your favourite hot drink afterwards. I recommend a hot chocolate with honey and cinnamon. Yum!)

I'm used to speaking in public, but if I had to use this trick, I'd visualize my audience in proper Victorian garb, likely from the 1870s, their best manners on show, with everyone sitting attentive and eager to hear what I had to say.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

My laptop has 16 CPU cores, but I can't use all of them to compile code because I don't have enough memory (you need a certain amount per core). It would be helpful if I can compile faster so I looked into purchasing a 32GB kit.

It's super expensive now! It would cost me 100+ pounds to get one. Why? Because all those stupid AI data centers they are building are sucking up all the memory chips. So us humble citizens have to pay a lot if we want any.

AI was supposed to make our lives better. But it is making them worse. And if you've been keeping up with the news, there is a real chance that the whole AI thing is a giant bubble that will burst. If it does, the tech giants won't suffer. It's all of us that will.

My favourite part is how the tech giants can't actually pay for the absurd amounts of electricity those data centers require. Their solution? Pass the extra costs to everyday people. Yes, you read that right. Some people are paying more so Little Jimmy can cheat in his science class using ChatGPT.

The fact is, AI models are very power hungry. Needless to say, LLMs are not smart. They just run a very complex and highly advanced algorithm (which makes equally expensive computations underneath) to predict what the next word is. That's what they do at the end of the day. It isn't as if we actually emulated intelligence, let alone sentience. This technology is currently being praised as revolutionary. I am sure it will have its uses. But it might not live up to this crazy amount of hype.

In any case, it looks like I'm stuck with what I have for now.

What gets me about this AI business is that so much of it is being used for entertainment purposes, while a whole lot of the productive aspects can be achieved more effectively (if not as quickly) by human beings actually using their brains.

I've used it a little to fill gaps between what I could do and what needed to be done (that is, changing the poses of the headshot photos I licensed for my cover, because I'm not artist enough to do it myself and I can't afford to pay anyone to do it for me). After that, I was feeding in descriptive passages in my book to see what the AI made of them. But I realized it wasn't improving my writing. I was just taking up energy to amuse myself, so I stopped.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I'm used to speaking in public, but if I had to use this trick, I'd visualize my audience in proper Victorian garb, likely from the 1870s, their best manners on show, with everyone sitting attentive and eager to hear what I had to say.

When I joined the high school forensics team, I imagined the audience as cows or watermelons.

 

[ps102]

After that, I was feeding in descriptive passages in my book to see what the AI made of them. But I realized it wasn't improving my writing. I was just taking up energy to amuse myself, so I stopped.

I'd say that's a good decision. For starters, many AI models tend to praise you a lot more than they should. It's their default mode. I think they are trained to act that way because if people are praised, they are more likely to feel good and come back. That's why it's probably not particularly helpful to get feedback on your text from AI.

I mean, for starters, AI won't be reading your stories. It's real people that will.

There is also the problem of hallucinations. LLMs hallucinate frequently, but what they say is worded with such confidence, you tend to believe it. It speaks with such undeserved authority. And that happened to me today. I searched for a "RX 9060 XT" card on Google and their AI just casually said that its a hypothetical upcoming card. But it's been out for quite a while.

Google's AI has even less of an excuse to hallucinate because it has access to the sites Google just returned, which clearly showed it on shops.

It's so important to remember that LLMs can't "think". They just predict the next word. It's also important to remember that the companies that host them have considerable control over that next word.

 

[Naomasa298]

I learned to speak in public by learning to sing. Once you've gone out there are belted out a few songs in full voice, a PowerPoint presentation or two no longer fazes you.