Category: Toys & Tech

Easy Solution for AMD GPU noise

A couple months ago, I put together a new PC out of cheap/used parts since I was still using an ancient 4th gen Intel CPU to power a superpotato tower (ambitiously named “fragmonster”). AMD GPUs are very unpopular in Thailand, so I found a Sapphire 6700xt for a song. I paired it with other decent-but-not-exorbitant components, and made a 1440p rig which made me quite happy. I was using it with USB headphones, and it was all good.

Then one day, I plugged it into my stereo amp via the analog line out and I couldn’t believe the whining and stuttering noises coming out of it that started as soon as Windows booted and got worse as I opened more and more apps. Although I first suspected my CPU cooling fans, I eventually realized it was from the GPU and tried every solution online — reinstalling sound drivers, replacing AMD dll files, running audio troubleshooters, Windows updates, etc. — to no avail. This went on for a few painful weeks, and I just tried to ignore it. I may have, even briefly, come to accept that I could never use the analog sound outputs (front or back!) on my new system.

Then on some obscure forum, in a post from a couple years ago, somebody recommended trying a hardware fix for Sapphire AMD cards in particular — a ground loop isolator. I happened to have one in my truck, since I was going to install it my sound system there. It was an simple RCA connector model, plug and play, and it worked instantly and flawlessly.

The downside to using one of these devices or other isolators/filters is that they may affect sound quality. I am using it for playing audio from a PC, so my expectations weren’t that high from the beginning, and I didn’t notice a difference anyway. What I did notice is that the coil noise (whining, stuttering, screeching) that made the normal use of my PC’s analog sound outputs impossible, was almost completely eliminated… and now I can truly Milly rock, hide it in my sock.

OpenAI Educator Guide

OpenAI has released an official guide for teachers using ChatGPT in their classroom: Teaching with AI

It’s nice to have something official posted, at least. There are some new resources in there that I’m slowly trying to get through.

The official answer to the question, “Do AI detectors work?” is:

In short, no, not in our experience.

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8313351-how-can-educators-respond-to-students-presenting-ai-generated-content-as-their-own

I asked ChatGPT the same question, and its answer was:

AI detectors, specifically those designed to identify plagiarism or academic dishonesty, can be effective in detecting instances of copied or improperly attributed content.

https://chat.openai.com/

So who knows better, the parent, or the child?

Toshino Kickass

It seems like a funny name for a safety product, but I guess they paid someone’s 12 year old nephew to design it, so whatever… Toshino actually makes some of the higher end power strips in Thailand, though (in a market filled with dubious/dangerous products).

Seen at the Thaiwatsadu home center near our home.

UPDATE: The Jetpack suite for WordPress now contains a built-in AI for providing feedback on my posts before publishing. It has told me:

The content mentions a safety product with a humorous name, suggesting that it may have been poorly designed. However, it also highlights that Toshino produces higher-end power strips in Thailand. The accompanying images showcase the product at a home center.

Overall, the post captures the author’s opinion about the product and provides visual evidence. However, it would benefit from the following actions to improve clarity:

1. Consider providing more information about the Toshino brand and its reputation in the market.

2. Elaborate on why the author believes the product name is funny and how it may impact its perceived quality.

3. Share any personal experience or observations with Toshino power strips or similar products to enhance credibility.

4. Include a conclusion or final thoughts to summarize the author’s opinion.

These improvements will help readers gain a better understanding of the product and the author’s perspective.

Groovy.

Missing seek bar anxiety

I want to coin this term, because it’s so real. Basically, when I watch a movie with no seek bar, I feel something is missing… It’s a big reason I don’t like watching movies in the theater anymore and hate video players that can’t easily and constantly display a seek bar. It’s also the reason I place my cursor on the volume bar in YouTube vids. I guess I just love the control it gives me over opening credits and uninspired dialogue/boring scenes.

Sous Vide

I waited for the better part of a decade for sous vide equipment to become cheap enough for me to get into.

The verdict is that sous vide with a cast iron pan sear to finish is definitely the best way to cook chicken breasts. I’m basically trying different proteins each week. Last week was chicken, and this week is pork. The main issue I have with sous vide is the plastic waste it generates. Also, the cheapo Chinese unit I bought requires a press for each tenth of a degree or minute when setting temp/time, which means I’ve already pressed the buttons about a thousand times, as the pulled pork I did the other day had to be set for twelve hours LOLOL. The unit was around forty bucks, so I guess usability testing wasn’t a high priority for the manufacturer. It does work, it’s just unnecessarily annoying.

Bing: Corporate AI Echo Chamber

The AI-enabled version of Bing is useless for search… Imagine using the bare bones search engines of the 90s on all of the useless filler on the web today, navigating by command line to a toddler – that’s the new Bing experience. You can pare down on its idiot responses by tweaking prompts, but it’s a huge step backwards from just Googling something. It’s also noticeably clunkier than using vanilla ChatGPT.

I’m not the only one who noticed.

Snap Camera Discontinued

The official announcement: On January 25, 2023, Snap Camera will no longer be available to use or download.

The online software alternative they are offering is apparently not very good. Snap Camera was an only very slightly helpful but immensely entertaining webcam filter suite that helped pass many long online meetings and classes during the pandemic years, so I’m sad to see it go. I did use it less and less over time, however, and only installed it so that I could blur the background during FB Messenger video calls for PC during the holidays.

Farewell, sweet filters!