FeedCity

I gave ChatGPT a picture of a man and woman, reading the screen of a computer to start, then asked for various renditions. In the style of Leonardo da Vinci. In the style of the cover of a John Steinbeck novel. As if it were an illustration inside Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. As if it were Mr Caputo and Chapman from Orange is the New Black. From Succession with Logan and Sioban Roy. From Severance, with Mark S and Helly R. If you step through the pictures after giving each a bit of your time, by the time you get here, if you were asked if it's art, I hope you'd say Who cares. If it's really art and it helps you see something new about anything (probably yourself) whether or not it's art is not really the most interesting question..

I believe it is. When people say my software thinks like they do, what's really happening is the software has gotten out of their way, they've incorporated the way it works into the base of their spine, so they can remain in the world they're writing about, and forget that they're using a piece of software. They perceive that as the software thinking like they do, which is fine -- it's the goal. But it's quite possible they have a totally different experience that takes them out of their suspension of disbelief by not working the way they expect, the same way it did the last 100 times, or it failes to open a file, or whatever might cause them to leave their own world and have to deal with the one I, and generations of software developers, have created, which can (as I know) be excruciating, humiliating, and whatever else you may feel.

Yesterday I posted four new ChatGPT-created drawings, created with the latest upgrade of ChatGPT's drawing functions which are better than previous versions. The usual controversy is rekindled on the networks. The concern as always is that it learned how from human artists, ...

This is the 83rd edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Maya and her blog, maya.land To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Frida...

As it currently stands, both the rapid growth of AI-generated content overwhelming online spaces and aggressive web-crawling practices by AI firms threaten the sustainability of essential online resources. The current approach taken by some large AI companies—extracting vast amounts of data from open-source projects without clear consent or compensation—risks severely damaging the very digital ecosystem on which these AI models depend.

adactio.com/links/21816

Please, make it stop.

Dirty as all get out, but seems to function nearly flawlessly. A full clean, oil, and adjust is mandatory as will be new ribbon, but in surprisingly solid condition for all the accumulated filth. Not all bad for a thrift purchase of $11.00.

Industrial typewriter cleaning Following the Eaton Fire catastrophe, our house is finally being cleaned. While the duct cleaners were here, I thought I’d break out a dirty Olympia SG3 and use the 175psi air compressor and industrial 300 pound air filtration to “dust” my machine. I now want one of these for the typewriter workshop! … Continue reading

Thursday session

A fun experiment in between bug fixing… I added a films page to Micro.blog, with posters for Letterboxd links people have recently included in blog posts. Might evolve into a more complete feature later.

Worked on some book-related improvements in Micro.blog this morning. We try to integrate with all sorts of things — Google Books, Open Library, Libby — but a lot of it is not exactly officially sanctioned. Added more Goodreads scraping today. In for a penny, in for a pound!

ChatGPT's drawing function has gotten a huge upgrade. I've been doing tests for the last 24 hours. First I gave it a screen shot of WordLand and asked for a nice colorful poster for the product. Then I had it make a movie poster for Mutiny on the Bounty with different actors, and As Good as it Gets, and then a stunning rendering of an El Salvador news photo in the style of Edward Hopper. It refused to do an R Crumb rendering or Doonesbury, but it was OK with Hopper. WordLand poster by ChatGPT. Mutiny on the Bounty starring John Belushi and Jeff Bridges. As Good as it Gets starring Jackie Gleason and Melissa McCarthy. An Edward Hopper rendering of Secretary Noem at the El Salvador prison.

I’ve been using Ko-Fi for almost 2 years at this point to run my One a Month experiment and so far it has worked I’d say ok. I like that there is—or at least there was—an option to pay a yearly fixed fee to get access to all the features rather than being tied to a % of what...

One of the reasons one doesn’t ship typewriters in packing peanuts without completely first wrapping the typewriter with something first is that the typewriter will be full of packing peanuts by the time it arrives at its destination. Thirty minutes to clean peanuts out of every part of the machine is annoying.

In generally solid shape out of the box. Some paint worn off body along the corners and a bit dusty with some white out to clean up. It’ll need some tweaks to the a few minor spots, but it should clean up to almost new pretty quickly. The one glaring issue is a needed tweak … Continue reading

Starbucks is running a promotion for their spring lavender coffee drinks. Earlier this week, I was in a Starbucks that had lavender plants resting in a glass pot with coffee beans at the base of the pot. I’m not sure what to say exactly about this, but it did make me smile so I thought I should share it on my blog. Lavender flowers in a glass pot with coffee beans at the base. The glass pot is at the counter in the Starbucks. P.S. I always get confused spelling lavender. I sometimes write lavendar with an “a”. P.P.S. Somewhat unrelated, but “Lavender Haze” is a great Taylor Swift song.

If you’re wondering why you can’t find any pineapples in Brighton, thank Fatto a Mano, where for a limited time you can exchange a pineapple for their Bella Disgrazia pizza. Fortunately they also accept tinned chunks!

Wednesday session