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pibbuR

pibbuR

Feeling ... lonely?
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Do we have a thread about that? If not, here it is. If we have, why the heck am I creating a new thread?

Bob Metcalfe has won the Turing Award (Nobel prize of computing) for 2022. Bob who? The man behind the ethernet of course. Read all about it here: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/50-years-later-creator-of-ethernet-wins-computings-top-prize/

pibbuR who is ethernally grateful for the invention.

PS. The article mentions that he didn't like IBM's Token Ring network, allegedly the most important competitor. I remember Token Ring. I installed it a couple of times back then, when I worked in a computer service company, a couple of years after leaving medicine. Those connection plugs were really clumpy. DS.

PPS. Likes, please. DS.

PPPS. Just kidding. DS.
 
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And terminators everywhere to match the impedance and avoid signal reflection. It was easy to forget them, and hard to find why the bandwidth was so poor.

I liked the principle of collision detection, primitive but easy, at least it didn't require any loop. I never used the Token Ring to compare, but I heard it was a pain to install.
 
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I used both. In the early days token ring had reliable performance whereas Ethernet didn’, collisions etc. But as PCs continued tp get bigger and Ethernet bandwidth wider issues became very much less relevant.
 
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The CEO of course is never fed into such a system ...
 
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arstechnica.com

Microsoft-signed “BGAUpsell.exe” pushes Bing on Windows and Chrome users

Pop-up isn't just a notification, runs as separate .exe in Windows 10 and 11.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

I've noticed that the program resides in c:\windows\tgemp\MUBSTemp. Maybe also elsewhere (search going on). I can't remember having seen the described behaviour outside Edge (I mostly use Firefox and Brave, with Startpage as a search engine (frontend?)).

pibbuR who now will try to find out if he can delete it without Windows (and as a consequence he) getting pissed.

EDIT: No, only found it in the location given above.
 
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Joined
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Joined
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Joined
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It really wasn't that difficult back at the beginning of the year when I did it for the first time. I dreaded the entire process and knew I'd mourn windows seven, yet now I'm comfortable and can appreciate the speed that the newer system offers. Just make sure to disallow your email being associated with the operating system, there are several easy ways to do this.
 
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A good article about generative AI, what it is and what it is not:

What is generative AI? Artificial intelligence that creates
https://www.infoworld.com/article/3...-ai-artificial-intelligence-that-creates.html

Well, at last to me it was good, no doubt some of you may know significantly more about it.

About hallucinations:
...consider the riddle “What weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?” ... ChatGPT will answer this riddle correctly, and you might assume it does so because it is a coldly logical computer that doesn’t have any “common sense” to trip it up
... However, if you ask ChatGPT whether two pounds of feathers are heavier than a pound of lead, it will confidently tell you they weigh the same amount, because that’s still the most likely output to a prompt about feathers and lead, based on its training set

It can be fun to tell the AI that it’s wrong and watch it flounder in response; I got it to apologize to me for its mistake and then suggest that two pounds of feathers weigh four times as much as a pound of lead.

About pictures
"A notable quirk of AI art is that it often represents people with profoundly weird hands." More details here: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/ai-generated-art-hands-fingers-messed-up

FmX1O9ZaAAE9RKt


pibbuR who (most of the time) (while awake) is not hallucinated.

PS. Another quote: Add to that the fact that hands are structurally complex—they’re notoriously difficult for people, even trained artists.

Not to brag (well, I'm bragging) but I do know how to draw hands. (Maybe I'll show you).
DS.
 
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I don't really see the difference between generative AI and other problem-solving tools. For me, this is only a misnomer: like any tool, it does what it has been programmed for and solves a specific problem. It just happens to manipulate language or other fuzzy information through neural processing.

When I give a compiler source code files, it reads them (the specification of a very complex problem), then produces an optimized list of instructions that meets the requirement, in a completely different language. I could argue that is has created something, so it's generative AI. Some will counter-argue that the result is always the same, but I could build a compiler with a random generator to vary the solutions within some range of optimization.

Asking GPTChat to create an article on a subject follows the same pattern (except the final result won't be as reliable).

If the tool had a mind of its own and started writing or drawing things for some higher purpose that hadn't been directly asked, then we could start discussing about creativity. But that tool would likely be worthless; it wouldn't be a tool anymore.
 
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Windows Copilot's is showing third-party Ads to Windows users
www.ghacks.net

Windows Copilot's is showing third-party Ads to Windows users - gHacks Tech News

Windows Copilot is an AI feature that launches in October 2023 officially on Windows 11. It may show third-party ads to users, which is a problem in itself.
www.ghacks.net

Two quotes (Reservation: I can't guarantee that the article is precisely describing the "feature"):

"Windows Copilot opens as a small sidebar strip on the desktop. This part of the desktop is reserved for Windows Copilot for as long as it is open or fullscreen games or apps are launched on the system."

Huh?

"The entire feature requires a constant Internet connection. Even Windows-specific tasks, such as turning on Dark Mode, require Internet."

HUH?

And as mentioned, 3rd party ads may be added (!).

Fortunately
  1. You may turn off the thing (for now?).
  2. Software I use, like Window Blinds, Start11 and DisplayFusion seems to block windows ads (for now?).
pibbuR who will only accept ads made by him (at the moment and in the foreseeable future no ads have or will been made).
 
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arstechnica.com

Thousands of Android devices come with unkillable backdoor preinstalled

Somehow, advanced Triada malware was added to devices before reaching resellers.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

"When you buy a TV streaming box, there are certain things you wouldn’t expect it to do. It shouldn’t secretly be laced with malware or start communicating with servers in China when it’s powered up. It definitely should not be acting as a node in an organized crime scheme making millions of dollars through fraud. However, that’s been the reality for thousands of unknowing people who own cheap Android TV devices."

pibbuR who prefers devices and apps that don't do dubious things. Permanently signing off from the net now.

PS. Actually, not. DS
 
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