Some AI Art

Win10 Starter Kit

We added some storage to the 2013 Rig, which is still performing well, but need to do a clean Win10 install with these:

Security

• Avast Free Anti-virus
• Private Internet Access
• CCleaner
• And turned File History on!

Utilities

• Ninite
• Chrome, Firefox
• Peazip
• Dropbox, Dropit, Allway Sync
• Bamboo wallpaper

Productivity

• MS Office 2019
• Adobe Reader

Media

• K-lite, VLC, GOM Player, MKVToolNix, Handbrake, 
• Adobe Photopshop Express, ImageMagick, Duplicate Photo Finder
• MP3tag, Sonos, iTunes :(
• SideQuest

Further Info:

New Monitor(s)

NEW RIG

Mobo for New Rig
Software for New Rig
And Now (Software)
And Now (Hardware)
Getting Closer to Next Project
Next Project
Windows 7 Starter Kit
2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)
Baby News
RKHTPC

Oculus Quest

Oculus Quest

• Display panel: OLED
• Display resolution: 1440 x 1600 per eye
• 72Hz refresh rate
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
• 4GB RAM
• Lithium-ion battery with 2-3 hours playtime, depending on what you are playing
• 6 degrees of freedom head and hand tracking
• Two touch controllers
• Weight: 571g
• Light sabers: Blue & Red (customizable)

Further Info:

Mi Box 3
Odroid XU4Q
Kodi Settings

2x LacIe-2big-NAS

I'm afraid I can't let you do that

• Status light: Off
• Send usage information: Off
• Static DHCP so that the Sonos Play 3 and media centre can locate it, especially through the Wifi Router
• The second one is off-site

Further Info:

[Solved] To NAS or Not to NAS

Oldest Torrent: Matrix-ASCII

http://takeovertheworld.org/matrix/

Best. Dystopian Future. Ever. (It's all a deep end).

Knowing the Path

Often the question I get asked is really just asking, "What do I say next to win the debate."

To date my answer has been along the lines of, "There is no spoon", an answer calculated to infuriate Orlando, but really directed towards rejecting the premise of the question in the hope of providing a purpose at the same time as providing a tool.

What do we mean by "winning"? Is it the journey? Will we only know once we get there? (In which case, yes, it's the journey thing).

Further Info:
"Eight ways to get exactly what you want" by Dan Jones and Alison Motluk, NewScientist, Issue 2655, 7 May 2008
"Digital billboards get a little creepier" by Alana Semuels, LA Times, 27 October 2008
"More Reflections on Bobby Fischer" by Patrick J Lyons, The New York Times, 18 January 2008
"The Behavioral Revolution" by David Brooks, NYtimes.com, 27 October 2008

if(x=hacked,??,false)

I think this question has to get asked by all policy makers and choice architects when implementing just about anything.

Further Info:
"Scientists breed cows that give skimmed milk" by Jonathan Leake, Sunday Times, 27 May 2007
"The rice with human genes" by Sean Poulter, Mailonline, 6 March 2007
"The Memory Hacker" by Stephen Handelman, Popsci.com.au, 3 April 2007
"How to use math to choose a wife" by Chris Matyszczyk, cnet news, 13 August 2009
"Be More Than You Can Be" by Noah Schachtman, WIRED Magazine, Issue 15.03 March 2007

Transforming Action Films

One thing I have been thinking a lot with more recent action films is that many have lost the 'battle narrative' - that story within the story that makes a big end battle interesting. An example of an excellent battle narrative can be seen in Braveheart - here we know what the heroes are up against (superior numbers, horsemen) and we have an idea of what they have going for them (bravery and wits). Finally, we have a hint of the chink in the enemy's armour (the arrogance of the commander). The enjoyment in watching the battle comes from watching the characters deploy a plan that takes advantage of their assets and exploits the weakness of the English. Wits --> Infuriating the English so they charge, using long pikes to impale the cavalry. Bravery --> Standing at the front of the line to face down the charging horses.

'Transformers' shows how recent films are bumbling around and messing up their battle narratives. It was unclear just what the characters had going for them other than that one was a 'soldier' and one wanted to make a 'sacrifice' at some point. It was unclear just what weaknesses the Decepticons (bad guys) had, except that they were vulnerable to certain "Sabre Rounds". Instead of using their assets to create coherent plans that exploited this weakness, the characters ran around almost as if they were in a cartoon, cooking up increasingly ridiculous things to do - like sliding a motorbike under a Decepticon and shooting away with a shotgun (after we've already heard that normal rounds don't work.)

This is not about plausible and implausible. Starwars had an interplanetary farmboy flying at a 'deathstar' but we knew what he had going for him (mad pilot skilz, rudimentary jedi training) and we knew the weakness (a small thermal exhaust port only 2m wide). Our enjoyment was not only about the visual effects, it also came from watching a plan unfold that referenced what we knew about the characters already.