Things you don't need to know...

Professor Flunks All His Students After ChatGPT Falsely Claims It Wrote Their Papers (https://www.rollingstone.com/cultur...ssor-flunks-students-false-claims-1234736601/)

Apparently he used the thing to find out if the students had used the thing to write their papers, and it falsely (for at least some students) claimed it had written the paper.
If that's true, he deserves to be sacked for not reading the fine prints when he used ChatGPT. Or even to base his actions on a beta AI program. ;)

It's an old and odd race between professors and students. The professors are teaching their courses to the students, and the students are teaching technology to the professors.

A few years ago, students could put formulas and documents in calculators like the HP-28/48 and later series. Then they could verify the grammar and spelling of their work, or use Math tools to solve differential equations. Then they had smartphones. Now they'll soon have AI. And each time the professors have to find tricks so their students don't cheat.
 
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If I should pick something from Genesis it would have been "Get'em out by Friday".

pibbuR who'll think about this during supper.
That's a grim song - albeit in a weird package, almost like a Monty Python show - that has a modern message even now.
For that - it's a good song, even although it's not quite an accessible song.

One of my favourite albums with music by Genesis is "We know what we like" with very interesting interpretations via the London Symphony Orchestra.
 
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Agreed, it's a great song, available on both Foxtrot and the 1973 live album, if memory serves. I'm so glad Gabriel continued to perform the song live, as it's simply incredible. I know it didn't get much air play due to the length, yet I was tickled every time one of the DJ's would slap this one on late at night.
 
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Unfortunately, his current tour seems to be already sold out. Or, at least, I wasn't able to get a ticket for Cologne anymore. Edit : I checked it now : Unfortunately Cologne is one of the few ones sold out. What a bummer !
I'm actually glad I was able to see him in 2014, but that was only because I was given a ticket as a birthday present that year before by my sister, if I recall that correctly.
Now I'm waiting for his next album to come out (this year, if I'm not mistaken).
 
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Come to Bergen@Norway. Available tickets here.

pibbuR who lives in Bergen but still haven't bought a ticket. And probably won't.
 
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I just saw that Total War: Shogun 2 just had an update. It's a 2011 game. o_O
Compiler upgrade - This is an update for the game to better use modern architecture and improve performance.
Fixed game crashing when running on CPUs with more than 32 logical processors

Alongside this, as the current chat systems in our game are both antiquated and limited in the modern online era, it is necessary for us to remove those services from Total War: SHOGUN 2 and our other legacy titles. We are, however, continuing to investigate ways to implement and support chat in our future projects properly and will keep you updated on any future changes or developments.
 
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For those of you (like the dark grim wolf) considering a new PC:
Weird AliExpress laptop with Intel 8088 CPU will take you back to the MS-DOS era
(https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...m-pc-complete-with-8088-cpu-and-640kb-of-ram/)

pibbuR who still remembers the first time he saw the IBM PC AT (6 Mhz 80286 CPU) in the back room of a local PC pusher. And was impressed with the jet plane comparable speed.

PS: Maybe Wolfgrimdark has got his new PC? Tell us about it. DS.

PS. I also remember the first 486 I saw, an Apricot machine (https://dfarq.homeip.net/first-486-computer-the-apricot-vx-ft/). Cost 150 000 NOK back then (15 000 EUR). DS.
 
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Ok, those are some refreshing visuals, lol. And yeah, I've some great memories of early machines that I saw back at expos during the early eighties, memories that simply never will be replaced.
 
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Windows 10 is such a mess when it comes to settings, and in particular language settings.
I think that it wasn't made to display English if the keyboard is not US; both must be the same locale.

Until now I managed to use it with English display language and an fr-BE keyboard, but yesterday after an update it completely broke down and installed 3 other languages. After some Powershell actions, I could remove the extra keyboards it installed, but now I have to constantly choose the correct language in the Welcome screen and in my user session. :cautious:

After 3 hours of trying to cure the system, the MS support spent another hour trying too and failed. That's why I'm not keen to add a fake US keyboard layout for those stupid games that won't offer keyboard rebinding - the OS is just too instable for that.

Even finding the options is complicated. Some are so well hidden that the user needs to launch commands to open the required panels.

I never had this problem with Linux, where it's a trivial operation to change either language or keyboard.

I suppose Win11 is even worse? Win7 was still fine.
 
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Ouch!

I have never had problems like that, not under Win 10 and not under Win 11. I use UK English display language, Norwegian keyboard layout and Norwegian settings for number and date formats. System is up to date.

pibbur who from personal experience (5 days in Gent) suspects that counter intuitive Belgian KB layout is the culprit, and MS is doing humanity a service by eliminating it. :)

PS. OTOH, there's this story: Windows 11 is so broken that even Microsoft can’t fix it (https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-is-so-broken-that-even-microsoft-cant-fix-it) DS.
 
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Well if all else fails, you could probably use it for self-defense. That thing is a brick. :)
Or for weight lifting.

pibbuR who remembers that before the laptops we had portable PC's. And before those, the haulables (dragables?, pullables?). And before that, of course, there was Stonehenge.
 
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pibbur who from personal experience (5 days in Gent) suspects that counter intuitive Belgian KB layout is the culprit, and MS is doing humanity a service by eliminating it. :)
We could hardly blame them. And that's not all, because we're complicated for such a small country. If you were in Gent, which is in the Dutch-speaking region, chances are you had a QWERTY keyboard, possibly a Belgian variant of it. The French-speaking region has an AZERTY (variant) layout because we need accents and other funny characters like 'ç', 'µ', '²', '³', and ... '£' which is our currency symbol, wait, this is wrong probably dates from the last time Belgae tribes were in Britain and had brought laptops to send emails home.

What is more confusing is why we need variants. For example, the French, 'normal' AZERTY would do fine, and it would be easier to buy (and to make) a keyboard that doesn't have to be specifically built for a limited number of people inhabiting a barely known country - or one half of it. But at least now, I have direct access to the '§' character, which I have never used (until today). ;)
 
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Well, the "Q" wasn't where it's supposed to be, so I guess it was AZERTY (or something like that).

BTW, in Norway we use QWERTY, with our three extra characters ('Æ'','Ø','Å') after 'L' and 'P'.

Wikipedia has of course a looong article about the QWERT* layouts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY, also about AZERTY and other variations.

112 105 98 98 117 82 who thinks maybe we should go to only numeric.
 
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Well, the "Q" wasn't where it's supposed to be, so I guess it was AZERTY (or something like that).
They must have stolen it from us, then.
BTW, in Norway we use QWERTY, with our three extra characters ('Æ'','Ø','Å') after 'L' and 'P'.

Wikipedia has of course a looong article about the QWERT* layouts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY, also about AZERTY and other variations.
Yes, it's funny how we hold onto old traditions. My mother had an old typewriter and the little hammers would sometimes stick together when keys were typed too quickly.

It's hard to break that spell, but there have been attempts. There's a big debate on whether DVORAK is more efficient than QWERTY, though, if I remember a story on that layout correctly, it didn't prove as beneficial as its inventors claimed it to be.

The French counterpart of Dvorak is BÉPO, which is quite nice and efficient but not widely used. It's quite alien to see, an ex-colleague came at work with his BÉPO keyboard, but he was kind enough to switch back to AZERTY when someone else had to type something. :D

1685124352152.png
 
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I heard a rumour, but I've no links and it may very well not be true: The QWERTY layout was invented to minimize the risk of stuck hammer-pairs by striking two neighbour keys very quickly one after the other, which could happen with very fast typists.

pibbbur aehoe dodesnøtnlnow iof this is true

PS. I've also heard that DWORAK should be better, but there's no chance in a very warm place that ??ERT? will be replaced by it (similar to Windows vs Linux?). DS.

PPS. Similarly. The specific Norwegian characters 'Æ','Ø','Å' could be written 'AE','OE' and 'AA' (the latter is actually quite common in names). So we could manage without them. But ask the average Norwegian if it's OK to drop them, and you will be met with a very cold shoulder (A Norwegian exprression, don't know if it exists in English), and that's not caused by the weather. DS.
 
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