COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

But how many people will take any notice? So many think that their demands on the system make so little difference it doesn't matter That's why action against global warming has failed.....

[Whyperion]

As it's AI I thought this thread might be the best place for it. Its a terrible squandering of energy...
`Everyone's jumping on the AI doll trend - but what are the concerns?' BBC
When scrolling through social media, you may have recently seen friends and family appearing in miniature. It's part of a new trend where people use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Copilot to re-package themselves - literally - as pocket-sized dolls and action figures. It has taken off online, with brands and influencers dabbling in creating their mini-me. But some are urging people to steer clear of the seemingly innocent trend, saying fear of missing out shouldn't override concerns about AI's energy and data use.

There is also a trend of taking "still"pictures and animating them To me IF the energy is from renewables (solar specifically) and the waste heat can be put to community heating projects then actually it is less of a climate chaging issue.

[Stanley]

We had a saying when I was a lad.... "When Ifs and Ands are pots and pans there'll be no need for tinkers!"

[Whyperion]

It seems put your datacentre in scotland - with better power interconnect to England needed too
"frequent situations where there is ample wind power in Scotland but no capacity to send it south, where electricity demand is highest. This forces grid operators to fire up gas plants that are closer to cities instead" - so wind is being paid not to generate and gas being paid to generate , which is ridiculous.

[Stanley]

Another 80mb of updates seamlessly delivered by Canonical. It never fails to amaze me that this service is free to ordinary users.......

[Big Kev]

My TalkTalk Fibre 65 contract expires in 26 days. I had the option to let it continue, with an increase to £34, or renew for another 24 months starting at £28. This increases by £3 each year, I chose to renew. There's no option for 'full fibre' here yet.

[Stanley]

My full fibre unlimited has recently gone up to £40. My attitude is better the devil you know.....

[Tripps]

Whe you look at a new topic on Youtube - it soon sends you several similar or related ones. This is sometimes a good thing, and can lead to interesting viewing.

Is there any way to prevent it directing you to sites you have no interest in, and would rather avoid?

I have had as much as I can take of Brian Clough, and Italian gangsters murdering each other. . . .

[Tizer]

We all know AI bots are not always accurate but it's causing more problems now because people are using AI to tell them whether news images are genuine or not. California Governor Gavin Newsom posted two images on Monday, which he said showed the National Guard troops sent to LA were "being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another”. People using ChatGPT or Grok (another AI) were told by the bots that the images were of other locations years ago. But BBC Verify found that the two images were first published by the San Francisco Chronicle, on Monday. The paper said it had exclusively obtained the images, which it said showed National Guard troops sleeping on the floor of “one or more” of the federal buildings in Los Angeles that they'd been sent by the Trump administration to protect. BBC Verify also ran a reverse image search on both photos and found no copy of them online before 9 June. So, AI is now spreading its own misinformation! BBC

[Tripps]

As Inspector Morse famously once said - "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

and Tizer wisely said "Nullius in verba": On the word of no one (Motto of the Royal Society).

and finally - TRIPPS said "Believe nothing you read , and only half of what you see.

[Stanley]

I was always taught that the most trustworthy sources of information are advertisements and the Hatched Matched and Dispatched lists.
I have my own small computer niggle this morning. When I went to send my usual morning email to my kids world-wide I got an error message saying my security certificate was wrong and needed attending to. I don't know what I did but after the third try it went away and the mail was sent. I have sent another email since and that was OK. I looked it up on Google and found a complicated hash of computer speak that got me nowhere. Has anyone got any experience of this problem?
David.... Re your question about getting Youtube to re-configure its choices for you. When that has happened to me I have gone into the settings for my membership and deleted my history. That seems to clear its head and you get a fresh start where it takes notice of what you actually watch.

[Tizer]

Has anyone got any experience of this problem?

Not me, I've never encountered it.

By the way, I see there are stories in the press saying BT is hoping to take over Talktalk.

[Stanley]

All seems to be quiet on the email front.

[Stanley]

You can tell ikt's Friday the 13th! This morning it's Whatsapp which is playing silly buggers. Something funny about the whole affair because it doesn't recognise my phone number in the login process. That's strange because your phone number is the whole basis of your membership and the app is working on my phone but not on the computer. I shall ignore it and leave it to heal up!

[Stanley]

I'm happy to report that when I revisited Whatsapp on my desktop at logging off time I found that it had healed up during the day and could be loaded. I have no idea what the problem was and am not interested in finding out. I am just grateful that it is functioning perfectly now!