* Posts by Glenn Amspaugh

209 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2007

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Willy Wonka event leaves bitter taste with artificially sweetened promises

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: An inexplicably high-effort grift

Adds Wonko Experience to Fyre Festival and Dash Con grift pile.

I don't get all the work that was done on each of these grifts to just quarter-ass something to the public at the end.

I mean, computers are supposed to make it easier to grift.

/my AI kingdom for a ball pit

Apple has botched 3D for decades. So good luck with the Vision Pro, Tim

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: I don't get it.

Could see a class of identifying software showing up.

Am thinking of a wild plant app my kid has on their phone.

Glenn Amspaugh

One review mentioned requiring AirPods Pro 2 (?) for syncing with Vision Pro.

I haven't kept up with AirPod versions so my take might be off. Still, Apple requiring whatever the most expensive AirPod model is makes sense.

'The computer was sitting in a puddle of mud, with water up to the motherboard'

Glenn Amspaugh

Dude!

Working tech support at a small private collage (with private beach), I had a student tower brought in at end of year; wouldn't start. Machine was from the stoner dorm. Opening the case, everything was coated at least half an inch of ash and resin.

So glad that job did not entail drug testing.

Glenn Amspaugh
Childcatcher

Re: Apple II's… I'll take that off your hands

In late '90s, working for a Mom-n-Pop Apple/HP repair shop, we had a standing order to beg/grab/snorfle any Macintosh IIcx systems we came across in our daily on-site repairs (mostly schools and school related offices).

We had a manufacturing client running hyperspecific CAD/CAM cards that supposedly only ran in IIcx. I have no idea how much the boss made from each machine but profit had to be nice as most schools/offices were glad for us to clean up old kit from their stash closets.

HP exec says quiet part out loud when it comes to locking in print customers

Glenn Amspaugh

Got in early

Still using my HP 1000 from 2001 (free from school tech dump after prof offices updated). Toner is $50 a cartridge and that usually lasts 2-3 years.

Mostly use it for printing transparencies for screen printing and the occasional form requiring a signature. Fully expect this wee beast to outlast me.

Fark new printer!

Teens take a million metaverse Ryanair flights in Roblox

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Bathroom?

And Spiders.

Most distant observed star is blue – and it isn't alone

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Éalá Éarendel Engla Beorhtast

Waiting for them to find Velveeta, the beloved star of quick and easy dinner time and processed cheese-like products.

“In the eastern sky, Velveeta, beloved morning star of the elves and handmaid of the dawn, rose and greeted Noxzema, bringer of the flannel tongue, and clanging on her golden garbage pail, bade him make ready the winged rickshaw of Novocaine, herald of the day. Thence came rosy-eyeballed Ovaltine, she of the fluffy mouth, and lightly kissed the land east of the Seas. In other words, it was morning.”

Never mind room temperature, LK-99 slammed as 'not a superconductor at all'

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

Re: Sounds like that's about it, then

Copper Doped Lead Appetite for Destruction

is a great band name.

Producers allegedly sought rights to replicate extras using AI, forever, for just $200

Glenn Amspaugh

I think we need to get it in law that everyone has automatic copyright to their physical/vocal/movement existence from birth onwards.

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: @Grunchy

Can see gym and clothing chains adding in Hollywood scanners/displays for nice subsidies for monthly uploads.

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Generate Extras for free

Start training an AI with cgi capture data (just like they do with image and text data) and sure, clever systems are spitting out belivable animation.

Problem happens when AI produced cgi is fed back into the AI and you get iterative decline. They're already seeing it happen with text and image 'sources'.

Birthright should bring an automatic personal copyright to likeness/image/voice/gait/etc. and if some AI hoovering sucks up your image, they need to pay to use it in training/production/display.

Three signs that Wayland is becoming the favored way to get a GUI on Linux

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Still fundamental issues

Same issue trying to set up a new Fedora38 system; all sorts of display issues until I switched things to X11. PitA!!

Microsoft's big bet on helium-3 fusion explained

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Rossi's E-Cat anyone? Orbo?

No, but I have a Que-Cat.

Glenn Amspaugh

And quick, reproductible power shots that do not heavily degrade the chamber and fuel equipment.

Open source AI makes modern PCs relevant, and subscriptions seem shabby

Glenn Amspaugh

I've seen folks on reddit post stuff they say is run on GTX 1060 cards and with the big N announcing RTX 4060 8GB cards for $299.00, guessing folks will be upgrading their render rigs soon.

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: costs

Heh, reminds me of the ear'y '90s and getting into 3D rendering and animation. New kit (Quadra 650 with AT&T coprocessor card) was taking a week to render 30 seconds of 640x480 ugly starships. But then I learned about distributed computing and shortly thereafter, was banned from using art school's new computer lab.

Tools and apps are pretty rough now but in 5-10 years children will be creating their own Star Wars films filled with Power Ranger characters (use whatever 'cool' films and tv shows kids will be into soon).

PC tech turns doctor to diagnose PC's constant crashes as a case of arthritis

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Don't get me started...

What's a seed drill got to do with things?

Midjourney, DeviantArt face lawsuit over AI-made art

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: I hope they have a case

[looks at print of Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp pinned on wall above drawing desk, overlaid with grid to aid in copying painting]

From ten years ago when I was taking another swipe at learning to paint. Only got about half of it penciled onto canvas, never opened a tube of paint.

It is possible to extract copies of images used to train generative AI models

Glenn Amspaugh

Wait, wait, wait.

You're telling me that if a picture of X is fed into an ai training glob, and someone enters 'picture of X' it will generate a picture of X?!!

Brilliant!

The return of the classic Flying Toasters screensaver

Glenn Amspaugh

Fold Art

Does it have the sound of manila file folders being flapped up and down?

FTX inner circle helped itself to $3.2B, liquidators say

Glenn Amspaugh

Croupier : "Your winnings, sir."

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: How did they think

Shoulda tacked on a charge for stealing cigerettes or commiting vandalism; lock him up for years on such charges.

Attackers hit Bitcoin ATMs to steal $1.5 million in crypto cash

Glenn Amspaugh

Movie Quote Time

"Now comes the part where we throw our heads back and laugh." – George Of The Jungle

Tough luck, Brits: Binance suspends UK deposits and withdrawals

Glenn Amspaugh
Mushroom

Re: Well certainly putting the "bin" in binance then

Real 'bros don't use corporate-gov fiat concepts like money but rather magic crypto numbers to buy magic beans.

Get with thuh times!

Adidas grapples with $1.3B in unsold Yeezy sneakers after breaking up with Kanye West

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Adidas and Funko!

Make some kind of Adidunko powered AI to figure this all out.

Techie wiped a server, nobody noticed, so a customer kept paying for six months

Glenn Amspaugh

Probably some end of fiscal year reports or tax documents.

60% of Germany's 5G network is Huawei, says Chinese embassy

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

60% of your base tower belong to us.

Yes, Samsung 'fakes' its smartphone Moon photos – who cares?

Glenn Amspaugh
Big Brother

Family Snaps

Why do all my family pics now look like some random sit-com actors?

The second dust bowl cometh for America, supercomputer warns

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: American Midwest

The "middle east" works.

More victims of fake crypto investor scam speak to The Register

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Common risk factor

Que?

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Complete this saying:

Dab-gummed investement scammers totalled mah truck, dated mah dog, kicked mah girlfriend and cryptoed mah wallet!

Spotted in the wild: Chimera – a Linux that isn't GNU/Linux

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: But why?

Think of it as evolution in action.

Guy accused of wrecking crypto exchange now hauled into court

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

I really do LOVE Crypto!

I can watch it for hours.

Scammers steal $4 million in crypto during face-to-face meeting

Glenn Amspaugh

Ownership entry of said "coin" is something else.

Cleaner ignored 'do not use tap' sign, destroyed phone systems ... and the entire building

Glenn Amspaugh
Alert

Cleaners, amarite?!!

[small private US college in the '90s]

Had a late Friday page after a cleaner plugged their hoover into an orange "Do Not Use" labeled outlet outside the server room. [silence decends]

A new admin also plugged the old IBM chain printer (producer of much loved green and light green fanfold print outs) into an orange outlet and shut down the server room at 8:00 AM one day.

Reading signs is for chumps.

Engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

Glenn Amspaugh
Childcatcher

Old Tech Art

Heh, my kid (22) just came home with an old Gateway CRT, to mess around with. We're also planning a trip to local salvage shop to try and score an oscilloscope and amplifier parts. Some young folk are stil farting around with old kit.

But then she's a fine art major.

Not all vendors' Arm-powered kit is created equally, benchmark fan finds

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

Re: Really to get wider adoption....

Exactly!

Toy procs for toy computers that can't even run Doom.

CEO told to die in a car crash after firing engineers who had two full-time jobs

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Judge on results, not appearances

We need a router on the moon so there can be a 2-1/2 second delay in meetings.

This is the military – you can't just delete your history like you're 15

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Only Once...

Ewww!

IBM's self-sailing Mayflower suffers another fault in Atlantic crossing bid

Glenn Amspaugh

Look To Earlier, Successful Work

Why not look at what makes probes like Voyager 1 and 2 so resilient and make your ocean going craft based on that ancient tech?

I mean, with all these generator issues, why continue using a diesel generator? Use what they put on space and Mars probes.

The sad state of Linux desktop diversity: 21 environments, just 2 designs

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

Re: Why are they all the same?

I wonder if Kai Krause has designed a desktop environment?

https://mprove.de/script/99/kai/index.html

BOFH: Something's consuming 40% of UPS capacity – and it's coming from the beancounters' office

Glenn Amspaugh
FAIL

Our college server room (1990s, a few racks of Sun Sparc 5s and 10s, Novell file server) had bright orange plugs for UPS, beige plugs for mains.

New guy decided to rearrange server room for some unknown reason and plugged the chain printer (pale green and white fanfold printer) into the UPS.

Save us from the eager clueless.

Star loses $500,000 NFT after crooks exploit Rarible market

Glenn Amspaugh
Devil

Used Crater Sales!

NFTs remind me of those folks selling title to plots of land on the Moon and Mars or selling stars.

Yay, you gots yourself a fancy certificate!

Only with NFTs you don't even get a bit of shiny paper.

#Sad

If you fire someone, don't let them hang around a month to finish code

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Gardening leave

Early '90s, worked as GIS tech in St. Petersburg (sunny place with beaches and pubs). There were 4 or 5 GIS shops in the area and when one got a large contract (i.e. map all utilities of St. Louis), they'd hire a bunch of folks for contract duration and then let us go. Could quickly find a job at another shop. Or course, with large pool of trained cart/digi-techs, wages stayed low.

Still, gave me my first exposure to SunOS and then Solaris so moved on after a couple years. Still have my rapidograph pens!

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Fired...

Yup, heard of guy currently in prison after grabbing some code he worked on at previous employer. Said grabbing may have entailed actual physical trespassing.

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Unhelpful comments

Love those 'friends and family' hiring decisions.

Saw an entire help desk ruined after one guy with large, local family was made manager.

Took years for that to sort out after he was moved up management chain to where he's no longer dangerous.

Council culture: Software test leads to absurd local planning SNAFU

Glenn Amspaugh
Childcatcher

Re: Approving development without being bribed?

Eww!

Contractors argue umbrella companies need improved regulation, not outright ban

Glenn Amspaugh
Coat

Difficult To Operate

Is this because of the brolly trouble that harlequin clown had at a funeral?

Troll jailed for 5 years after swatting of Twitter handle owner ends in death

Glenn Amspaugh

Re: Sentence should have been far longer

Do they have to work at the Daily Mail or just read every article of every issue?

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