FeedCity

The previous three post have been part of a series on geometric duality. The traditional but somewhat mysterious terminology is the pole of a line and the polar of a point. As explained here, the terminology was first coined in the context of spherical geometry where the term “pole” makes sense. It was then extended to the […]

The post Inversion in an ellipse first appeared on John D. Cook.

Because big tech platforms essentially do not have customer support and make it impossible for their users to contact a human, many people experiencing run-of-the-mill tech problems have turned to ChatGPT. And, increasingly, ChatGPT is telling people that have normal tech support problems that they have discovered something journalistically notable and that 404 Media, specifically, can help them.

— Jason Koebler, ChatGPT Keeps Telling People 404 Media Can Solve Their Tech Support Problems

Tags: jason-koebler, openai, journalism, ai, llms, ai-ethics, ai-misuse, generative-ai, chatgpt, 404-media

Buyer, beware of omissions

Mimicking the operation more accurately.

The post Puzzling out why a program doesn’t work when run from a batch file, but works when double-clicked from Explorer appeared first on The Old New Thing.

Today's links Sovereign citizens, but for news: By reading the LA Times, you agree… Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Patenting tax dodges; 6-word sf; Newscorp shareholders v Murdoch; Ancient German ophthalmology cult; Trolley problem is stupid; Trum...

Ik schreef eerder een hopelijk vermakelijke parabel over hoe de Nederlandse overheid “niet zo van de IT is”. Ook is er een follow-up met suggesties hoe je dit zou kunnen verbeteren.
Door mij (niet AI!) ingesproken audio versie van deze pagina: In dit stuk wil ik twee specifieke voorbeelden uitlichten hoe onmachtig de onze overheid is met IT, en ook hoe men dat niet erkent. En dat is erg, want dan los je ook nooit iets op.

confusing

Submissions close 1 December.

We may know a lot more, soon

This blog is the main place I write, but I also use other platforms, either to write new content or to announce blog posts. X (née Twitter) I have a several X accounts, one personal account (@JohnDCook) and several specialized accounts (@CompSciFact, @AlgebraFact, @DataSciFact, etc.). I announce new blog posts on the most relevant account. RSS […]

The post Where else to find me first appeared on John D. Cook.

Why shouldn't an opera be set in an office? Not merely set there; performed there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day. We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention? Both Grace…

Fourteen years ago this week, on October 26, 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8. Let’s just say Windows 8 was not their finest moment. It was their most significant UI redesign since Windows 95, and it flopped. Oddly, two of the

The post Windows 8 released Oct 26, 2012 appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Here’s Dave Rupert writing about all those emails, texts, phone calls, etc. we’re getting these days: Once upon a time it had utility, now it’s all noise and grifter slop demanding our attention and giving us to-dos That last part really hit: “giving us to-dos”. I feel thi...

Tool: Seam Cutter

I built this weird and very specific cropping tool - it lets you create a horizontal or vertical cut across an image, then slide the two sides relative to each other. Effectively it lets you crop out a section in the middle of an image.

I wanted this because I often use Tailor on my iPhone to stitch several screenshots together into lot long image, but sometimes I find myself wanting to crop out a section in the middle - to redact an irrelevant prompt from a transcript, for example.

Tags: tools

What is “the true cost of a token”?

The previous two posts have been about polar triangles. The first used a polar triangle to derive a theorem, and the second showed how to compute polars using linear algebra. But what exactly is a polar triangle and why is it called that? Poles and polars on a sphere Let’s start with a sphere S and a […]

The post Poles and polars first appeared on John D. Cook.

If AI restructures the economy, who benefits?

Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable! WHAT?! The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features. First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you…

How much you can make in an entry level cyber security job is a good question. We’ve all heard there is a shortage of people in cyber security, and while the money is good, there are certain limits. In this

The post How much you can make in an entry level cyber security job appeared first on The Silicon Underground.

Bryan Cantrill has a great line from a talk where he cautions against anthropomorphizing1 Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. I think it’s also a mistake to treat any tech company like a person. Here’s the full quote: You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmowe...