Wasn't there a thread about interesting links?
Anyway, you probably don't need to know that not all AI-generated pictures are masterpieces. Sometimes they even are "off" in a creepy way.
Open link at your own risk:
www.oddvibe.com
Anyway, you probably don't need to know that not all AI-generated pictures are masterpieces. Sometimes they even are "off" in a creepy way.
Open link at your own risk:
OddVibe: The Finest Collection of Unnerving AI-generated Images.
Get your fix of creepy AI-generated images. But be warned, you may never sleep again.
www.oddvibe.com
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2022
- Messages
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pibbuR
Feeling ... lonely?
The Night Watch, from 1642, is a famous painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).
It's a large painting, measuring 363 by 437 centimetres. So, when it was from 1715 to be exhibited in the Amsterdam town hall, they discovered that the painting was a bit too large. No problem, lets just resize it. So they cut it on all sides, 60cm from the left side of the painting, 22cm from the top, 12cm from the bottom and 7cm from the right. They didn't ask the artist, after all he had been dead for 46 years, and actually it was quite common doing things like that back then.
The missing pieces were never found.
But we know how it looked, since one Gerrit Lundens (1622 – 1686) had made a copy of it (white lines show where the original was cut):
This copy was however very small, and perspective was distorted - apparently he stood a bit to the left of it when painting. And it was painted with other colours than what Rembrandt used. Despite these shortages, in 1921, the missing parts of the painting was reconstructed from this copy using a neural network technique, convolutional neural network (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolutional_neural_network). to compensate for the deviations . A detail of the result:
The painting, with the restored parts beside it was on display for 3 months.
pibbuR who would have liked to be (only!) partially restored to his 1973 version.
It's a large painting, measuring 363 by 437 centimetres. So, when it was from 1715 to be exhibited in the Amsterdam town hall, they discovered that the painting was a bit too large. No problem, lets just resize it. So they cut it on all sides, 60cm from the left side of the painting, 22cm from the top, 12cm from the bottom and 7cm from the right. They didn't ask the artist, after all he had been dead for 46 years, and actually it was quite common doing things like that back then.
The missing pieces were never found.
But we know how it looked, since one Gerrit Lundens (1622 – 1686) had made a copy of it (white lines show where the original was cut):
This copy was however very small, and perspective was distorted - apparently he stood a bit to the left of it when painting. And it was painted with other colours than what Rembrandt used. Despite these shortages, in 1921, the missing parts of the painting was reconstructed from this copy using a neural network technique, convolutional neural network (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolutional_neural_network). to compensate for the deviations . A detail of the result:
The painting, with the restored parts beside it was on display for 3 months.
pibbuR who would have liked to be (only!) partially restored to his 1973 version.
I think the museum has a special web page for that .... It could even be that I linked to it somewhere here ...
pibbuR
Feeling ... lonely?
OK, you may want to know this:
In the daily smile thread I mentioned the report "Putting a pause on AI won’t address the challenges, says Bill Gates" (https://www.onmsft.com/news/putting-a-pause-on-ai-wont-address-the-challenges-says-bill-gates/)
From the article:
There is an "open letter, co-signed by over 1,000 AI experts, including Elon Musk, that called for a critical halt in the advancement of systems that surpass Microsoft-supported OpenAI’s latest creation, GPT-4".
Because of "the need to assess the potential risks and benefits to society"
Mr Gates: “Clearly there are huge benefits to these things… what we need to do is identify the tricky areas,”
Mr Gates again: "implementing a pause in the given circumstances would pose complex enforcement issues. I don’t really understand who they’re saying could stop, and would every country in the world agree to stop"?
pibbuR who will haved stopped some time during the next 52 years.
In the daily smile thread I mentioned the report "Putting a pause on AI won’t address the challenges, says Bill Gates" (https://www.onmsft.com/news/putting-a-pause-on-ai-wont-address-the-challenges-says-bill-gates/)
From the article:
There is an "open letter, co-signed by over 1,000 AI experts, including Elon Musk, that called for a critical halt in the advancement of systems that surpass Microsoft-supported OpenAI’s latest creation, GPT-4".
Because of "the need to assess the potential risks and benefits to society"
Mr Gates: “Clearly there are huge benefits to these things… what we need to do is identify the tricky areas,”
Mr Gates again: "implementing a pause in the given circumstances would pose complex enforcement issues. I don’t really understand who they’re saying could stop, and would every country in the world agree to stop"?
pibbuR who will haved stopped some time during the next 52 years.
Redglyph
SasqWatch
This open letter sounds artificial, but not very intelligent.
I doubt that it would be possible to stop everyone working on it, because the outcome will provide an advantage so there will always be companies and organizations to pursue this goal. Many people already make a living in that domain too, I'm sure there are grants and theses for the next few years - should they all find another job? What about the existing contracts?
Then it seems wiser to embrace this new technology and use other means to safeguard the society. That's how things have always been done, not by trying to stop progress. That would also avoid letting that limited number of people who would continue anyway to use it without any safeguard.
I doubt that it would be possible to stop everyone working on it, because the outcome will provide an advantage so there will always be companies and organizations to pursue this goal. Many people already make a living in that domain too, I'm sure there are grants and theses for the next few years - should they all find another job? What about the existing contracts?
Then it seems wiser to embrace this new technology and use other means to safeguard the society. That's how things have always been done, not by trying to stop progress. That would also avoid letting that limited number of people who would continue anyway to use it without any safeguard.
Any AI should in fact be like C-3PO.
pibbuR
Feeling ... lonely?
Today we (at least I) will express our sympathies to mr Schuster@Richmond@Texas who is probably not (he definitely shouldn't be IMNSHO) an Apple fan.
Why?
Because whenever an iPhone is reported missing in that area, the iPhone-losers are by the iPhone tracker app directed to his home. Read about it here: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2023/04/...-hordes-of-strangers-to-a-single-texas-house/
No surprise this can result in slightly unpleasant encounters.
“There are plenty of irrational people if they are angry, drunk, had a rough night and lost their phone and thought it was stolen,” Schuster told the outlet. His biggest concern? “Someone coming to he house potentially with a weapon,”
According to the article this has been going on since 2018. He has contacted Apple numerous times, without results.
Reservation: When reading stories like this there are at least three things one should consider:
PS. I once had a to some (very small) degree similar experience. Long ago (the end of the eighties) my phone number was 240489. Which looks like a date (1989-04-29), and surprise, surprise, said date also looks like a phone number (yeah, dates may be written like that in Norway).
So when the telephone company on that particular date sent bills for purchasing some extra services, I got two calls from people thinking they had wrongly being billed for purchases made by me, one of them quite angry.
Fortunately;
Why?
Because whenever an iPhone is reported missing in that area, the iPhone-losers are by the iPhone tracker app directed to his home. Read about it here: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2023/04/...-hordes-of-strangers-to-a-single-texas-house/
No surprise this can result in slightly unpleasant encounters.
“There are plenty of irrational people if they are angry, drunk, had a rough night and lost their phone and thought it was stolen,” Schuster told the outlet. His biggest concern? “Someone coming to he house potentially with a weapon,”
According to the article this has been going on since 2018. He has contacted Apple numerous times, without results.
Reservation: When reading stories like this there are at least three things one should consider:
- That it's only partially true.
- That it's not true.
- That he IS the local iPhone thief.
PS. I once had a to some (very small) degree similar experience. Long ago (the end of the eighties) my phone number was 240489. Which looks like a date (1989-04-29), and surprise, surprise, said date also looks like a phone number (yeah, dates may be written like that in Norway).
So when the telephone company on that particular date sent bills for purchasing some extra services, I got two calls from people thinking they had wrongly being billed for purchases made by me, one of them quite angry.
Fortunately;
- The phone company could confirm that the date was a date.
- We (wife, me, children) no longer have date-like phone numbers
Redglyph
SasqWatch
That must be annoying. After two calls you must start wondering how many others will follow.
It's been a long time since we had so few numbers, even in our little country. We have to include the area prefix even for local calls, which makes it a zero plus 8 digits. In some zones we could have had the same problem long ago though.
The only odd calls I remember is when the local switch was misbehaving. When someone was calling someone else in the area, some combinations made two different numbers ring. So you'd pick up the phone and hear two strangers already engaged in conversation... It could be very annoying because it was also impossible to call anyone until they hang up, and since local calls were flat fees, those calls were often quite long.
PS: I'm sure it's a resentful Apple employee who made a joke at this person's expense! Maybe someone who don't like him. That's why it's not a good idea to insult Apple employees when they have your number.
It's been a long time since we had so few numbers, even in our little country. We have to include the area prefix even for local calls, which makes it a zero plus 8 digits. In some zones we could have had the same problem long ago though.
The only odd calls I remember is when the local switch was misbehaving. When someone was calling someone else in the area, some combinations made two different numbers ring. So you'd pick up the phone and hear two strangers already engaged in conversation... It could be very annoying because it was also impossible to call anyone until they hang up, and since local calls were flat fees, those calls were often quite long.
PS: I'm sure it's a resentful Apple employee who made a joke at this person's expense! Maybe someone who don't like him. That's why it's not a good idea to insult Apple employees when they have your number.
When creating the e-male account for my father several years ago, we noticed that his is not the only one with exactly this name - so we decided to add an the number 1 to his fist name in that e-mail adress.
One day, he got an angry remark that an invoice had been directed to a person having exactly the same e-mail adress without the number 1.
We quickly changed that.
One day, he got an angry remark that an invoice had been directed to a person having exactly the same e-mail adress without the number 1.
We quickly changed that.
pibbuR
Feeling ... lonely?
I don't find this XKCD very funny (so I posted it here). But I was a bit curious about that "ea-nasir". Something to do with Early Access? Or even more despicable Electronic Arts?
No.
Ea-Nasir was a travelling salesman. Nanni his customer, who was not satisfied with his recent purchase. The product was substandard, and his representative was allegedly treated rudely. Other purchases had also left something to be desired. So he complained.
What else is new?
Perhaps not new. The complaint was written in Akkadian cuneiform on a clay tablet in 1750 BC and sent to said Ea-Nasir in the city of Ur. The goods were copper.
You can of course read about it on Wikipedia who also provides this picture.
pibbuR who now wants to visit the British Museum where the object is on display.
PS.
The clay plate is considered the oldest complaint known. Still, in the ruins of Ea-Nasir's assumed home there are others. One customer like Nanni complaining about the quality, another (Arbituram) expressing dissatisfaction by having not received any copper at all.
DS.
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Redglyph
SasqWatch
I wouldn't have expected the oldest complain against purchases to come from Mesopotamia, Amazon isn't there.
pibbuR
Feeling ... lonely?
But amazons were fierce female warriors (according to the Greeks), and they did undertake raids into the area back then.I wouldn't have expected the oldest complain against purchases to come from Mesopotamia, Amazon isn't there.
pibbuR who thinks said fierce warriors may still be considered more benign than ...
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Redglyph
SasqWatch
Owlcat Games is looking for a professional English style editor, who is familiar with the WH universe.
View: https://twitter.com/OwlcatGames/status/1646875739441037315
I suppose the one who was familiar with Pathfinder just won't do.
Still, it's reassuring.
View: https://twitter.com/OwlcatGames/status/1646875739441037315
I suppose the one who was familiar with Pathfinder just won't do.
Still, it's reassuring.
Couchpotato
Part-Time Newsposter
See we don't need Trump.
Just this tiny green plant to make us dumber.
I can think of many things that contribute to making Americans dumber far more than smoking weed does. Watching Fox News for example.
Close!
Norway for me! Too cold though.