Toys & Tech
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Retrieval-Augmented Generation aka Dynamic Chunking
So after years of paying for ChatGPT, I switched to a (discounted) paid Gemini plan. Not because of the cost of paying for both, but because I don’t have time/energy to try and main both at the same time. At the end of the discounted first month, I cancelled the Gemini subscription and all but convinced myself to try a paid Claude plan next. But Claude is a stingy, elitist asshole who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else and ignores green text bubbles, so fuck that guy amirite? Anyway, because Gemini is freer than Claude (you can barely get in a few sentences before he abandons you for paying customers),…
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I switched from a Google Pixel 6 to a Xiaomi 15t
Of course, it’s a much newer phone, but it’s pretty hard to deny that even the newest Pixels don’t have big flaws. I am mainly attracted to them because of the cameras and stock Android. But the Xiaomi is no slouch on the photo front, and has better reception and battery capacity/usage. I debloated it by deleting all the preinstalled crap first thing by running commands from my PC, and I’m happy with it. Here are some photos I snapped, mainly from car windows. I got them off of a chat group I sent them to, so they’ve been degraded a bit. YOU ARE PASSING ANOTHER FOX I actually quite…
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I dropped my phone
I mean, I really dropped it. It slipped out of my sweaty hands when I was checking a message while walking. I kicked out with my foot and the phone hit the soft part of the padding, but bounced off, so I technically punted my phone into the asphalt. It immediately died, and after trying various online recovery techniques, I could not get it out of a bootloop. The multicolored “Google” logo appears and disappears endlessly, as the device seems to scream THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR DROPPING ME. But that’s when it’s plugged in. When it’s not plugged in, there are no signs of life at all. So maybe…
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ChatGPT 5 Code Interpreter and Data Analysis
If you want to make sure that ChatGPT 5 can generate Microsoft Word (and other file)s in a chat, you can do so by creating a custom GPT. The older versions of ChatGPT could grant the tools for new chats to do this more intelligently, but the current version is random as to whether it will be able to provide actual files for download or not. The big problem is that even if it can’t provide files for you, it will bullshit you and say it can until it’s forced to provide one (even going so far as to provide links for you to click on, that mysteriously time out).…
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Violent Fan
Seriously, how did I ever live without it?
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Canon CanoScan LiDE 400 code 2, 156,33
I’m pretty good at finding fixes for computer problems, but I give up on this one. Canon made a real piece of shit. Do not buy:CanoScan LiDE 400 There are so many problems documented online with this flatbed scanner model, and Canon has done absolutely nothing about it except sometimes offer to trade in your faulty unit for another quite possibly faulty unit (but only if you live in the USA). I’m not going to link all of the problems I found because just searching the model name (LiDE 300 or LiDE 400) brings up:A. Canon’s useless website andB. Complaints about these products Save yourself a headache and stay far,…
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Mentaiko
I found the deal of deals to be my new workhorse: I bought it off a nearby uni student flipping it on FB Marketplace. When I saw the ad, I asked them to hold it and went to check it out that night. For the new price of the graphics card only, I got the whole system. But why? When I found time to go through the system properly, I found the previous owner had added an RGB controller almost as an afterthought and wired it incorrectly, possibly frying the AIO LCD and causing other power problems. Trying to fix the rat king of RGB cables, I caused the controller…
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Firefox has big issues with ChatGPT
I basically lost two days of work on a textbook because of Firefox. I just switched back to Firefox from Chrome. Fuck. Hello, Opera, my old friend. Pro tip: If you experience a sudden slowdown, stupidity, hallucinations, or other issues with ChatGPT, try using it with a Chromium-based browser. ———–Below is some GPT shit. ⚠️ Why Firefox Sometimes Causes ChatGPT Issues ChatGPT’s web app heavily relies on modern JavaScript frameworks, dynamic APIs, WebSockets, and real-time interactions. While Firefox is generally excellent, it can sometimes experience issues with: 🛑 Common Firefox-Specific Symptoms (Exactly Matching Yours): These precisely match your described scenario—sudden issues after previously stable performance, including looping, hallucinations, and severe…
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A note you might stumble upon when humankind is in ruin…
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Dall-e can’t spell (humans can’t spell)
Asking ChatGPT to generate line drawings for my textbook resulted in the curious and repeated misspelling of the word “performed” (never mind the “s” missing from “actions”). At first it left out the “f,” and then the “r.” Asking it to correct the mistake caused it to regenerate the exact same graphic several times. When asked why this was happening, Chat GPT responded with: The image model isn’t a true spelling checker. It “draws” letters based on patterns it’s seen, and sometimes misrenders them, especially in words that aren’t visually distinct or are less frequent in visual training datasets. I said just get it done, man. So ChatGPT got clever…
