Toys & Tech
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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.
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Cheats Enabled?
I wonder how long it will take my students to figure out that they can use this for my online Public Speaking courses… I’ve already been asked to check papers written with ChatGPT, so this is just a natural progression. Still, I sometimes feel this year’s AI enthusiasm is just the evolved NFT fcukery of yesteryear.
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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!
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AI is watching.
I plugged in a phrase from my last post, “I had my first ever birthday on an airplane”, and the NightCafe AI spit out this: I mean, it’s kind of eerie, right? Compare it to the photos on my previous post.
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Boeing 787 Window Shades
The ANA Dreamliner B787 we flew on from BKK to Haneda was pretty badass; the crew can dim all the windows at the touch of a button. You can also set them individually with the button shown below. There’s a row of LEDs (to the left of the button) that aren’t really lit in the photo that show the dimness level.
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Jointly-owned Copyrights
This is interesting: Several startups believe that web3 technologies will upend how authors make a living—and how we define who owns a story. What if you could own a stake in Harry Potter? What if the book series functioned like a publicly traded company where individuals could “buy stock” in it, and as the franchise grows, those “stocks” become more valuable? If this were the case, someone who purchased just three percent of Harry Potter back when there was only one book would be a billionaire now. Just imagine how that would affect the reading experience. Suddenly a trip to Barnes & Noble becomes an investment opportunity. Early readers could spot “the…
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Minecraft’s Six Principles of Game-based Learning
The failure dynamic, fail early, fail often. Teach students to take risks in a safe environment- a game. The flexibility dynamic. Provide multiple paths to success. Old school video games had one way to win. Newer “sandbox” games are more open. The construction dynamic. Build something that matters. Students want to create things with a purpose. Minecraft lets them create something difficult and worthwhile. The situated meaning. Learn new ideas by experiencing them. Students learn vocabulary in real-time, as it pertains to playing with others in the game; or learn math as they understand construction. Systems thinking. Learn how all pieces can fit or be fitted. Games help players see…
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Windows Store Error Fix for Missing “wuauserv”
Today, I encountered serious Windows Update problems that started as a Windows store problems, namely, I couldn’t install anything from the Windows Store or any Minecraft programs at all – a big problem because I’m brushing up on MC, Roblox, and Scratch teaching skills. The guided walkthrough from Microsoft didn’t help, so I tried manually resetting the Windows Update Service: Open administrative Command Prompt and type following commands one-by-one followed by Enter key.net stop wuauservnet stop cryptSvcnet stop bitsnet stop msiserverRen C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.oldRen C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 Catroot2.oldnet start wuauservnet start cryptSvcnet start bitsnet start msiserverClose Command Prompt and see if Windows Updates works then. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/window-10-update-is-stuck-on-checking-for-updates/d4833fef-620e-445b-9b99-997c03b9a1f8 However, the “net start wuauserv” command returned…
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Buzz my Wave, yo
Should I be concerned that I’ve heard of most of these and used quite a few of them: Killed by Google I can’t bear to look for the greatest loss of all on there: After trying soooo many replacements over the years, I am finally on Inoreader, but most of the feeds I was ever subscribed to are of course dead.
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Sold my CRF today
Took some more photos and sold it for half of what I bought it for 8 years ago. It was fun to ride and served me well, and it was also the first vehicle I ever bought new… but I haven’t been able to ride it the past couple of years due to COVID, and the ethanol fuel mandated in Thailand just goes bad very quickly. I ended up having to replace the fuel pump and injector because the fuel had degraded into something nasty. Anyways, we put up an ad yesterday and got several interested parties calling today. A bike dude from Ubon Ratchatani made the drive out and…
