🖇️ Today’s 366 Contribution is different again.
Continuing to experiment with both format and material in the 🖇️ 366 posts to see what resonates with others - because they all resonate with me. I mean, why would I bother posting things that don’t?
🎈023/366 | 9️⃣ Highlights From Yesterday
A different theme for today’s 366 … nine links to yesterday’s news - complete with pithy comment - courtesy of this author
1️⃣ 🖇️ Remember my post from a couple of weeks ago?
Well, it turns out that though he might have been expecting .. hoping for that … it might not be a slam dunk.
🔗 Tories hire coordinator to get expat supporters to vote in general election.
Who knew?
2️⃣ 🔗 Trump Says He ‘Aced’ Cognitive Test, Mind Is ‘Stronger’ Than 25 Years Ago
.. not exactly a high bar.
3️⃣ 🔗 Flanders government looks to force TikTok and YouTube to share revenue | Belgium.
Some lessons here. Most Governments pay (they don’t use that word … but that is what they are doing) to attract film production.
I think this is the right way round.
4️⃣ 🔗 Rise in measles cases prompts vaccination campaign in England.
Oh .. so it’s ok to get vaccinated now?
5️⃣ 🔗 The Musical Instruments Market Size Is Expected To Reach $14 Billion By 2027.
Wonder what constitutes a ‘musical instrument ‘ these days?
6️⃣ 🔗 January 21, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson
I wonder if Dobbs, with its announcement that when Republicans are given power over our legal system they do not consider themselves obligated to recognize an established constitutional right, will turn out to be today’s version of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
No Comment. Yet.
7️⃣ 🔗 Thousands of Māori gather to tell New Zealand’s government: you cannot marginalise us.
Got to say .. ‘Cristopher (sic) and crew’ were warned.
8️⃣ 🔗 DeSantis Might Be the Worst Presidential Candidate in Recent Memory
Say what now?
Isn’t The Orange Clown a Presidential candidate? Problem nailed .. ‘they’ve forgotten already .. and he is in the fucking race!
9️⃣ 🔗 It seems that ‘God sent a quitter’
If his campaign is remembered at all, it will be for setting fire to a pile of money big enough to be seen from space in order to win a grand total of nine Iowa delegates.
ROTFFLOL
🔗 LIfe Imitating Art? … that is if 🎬 Love Actually counts as ‘art’?
If you like playing around with AI image generators - I like and use Leonardo.ai (free version) - separately there is this … might be fun?
Never base your identity on politics. The world will eventually change, but you won’t.
💬 Mark Manson
… except I don’t agree. Unless I am missing something?
What do you think?
“Wisdom is when you stop over-investing in every shiny new idea, feeling, or person that comes along.”
💬 Mark Manson
Hell yes - tell me about it.
Well, except for apps … and notebooks … and pens of course - don’t forget pens … and that new craft ale … not to mention exploring that new idea that Jim shared last night, Oh and that new blogging tool thingy. Yeah - I think I am covered. Or maybe …..
Thought I’d try out 🔗 paid tinylytics for a while.
Some odd stats there - so now I need to check out what is being checked out!
📺 Ted Lasso
Just marvelous. No point in saying more, since I can’t add to all the other plaudits.
Ted Lasso on 🔗 Reelgood
🎥 The Covenant, 2023 - ★★★★
Massive fan of Guy Ritchie. This is not your usual Guy Ritchie. Do not miss it. Wonderful.
🎥 Fast X, 2023 - ★★★★
I’m not a massive fan of the FandF franchise, I am definitely not a ‘hater’. This one though .. X … OH MY .. and totally made my Jason Momoa. Played the ‘baddie’ brilliantly, highly recommend just to see him do his thing. This ain’t Aquaman.
🎥 Renfield, 2023 - ★★★★
Love and Hate Mr Cage … and his movies. This one is definetlu love. Over the top as only he can do, without it being bad. I’m not a Dracula dude. This was great.
Had a hankering for some Chinese, so looked up the local places.
Now trying to decide between taking out a mortgage or adjusting my palette.
Good Grief!
Steve Winwood and Carlos - and no - I do not know how I missed this 2 to 3 years ago - but missed it I did.
Well worth recording. Well worth a listen.
📼 .. and then a little older. … GROOVIN!
Heh Ron!
Bu Bye Now.
🎈022/366 🤖 AI Experiment
… is a picture I took this morning while I sat with a cup of coffee.
If you have been following along with these posts recently, you will have noticed that a lot of images I use in the 366 series are generated by an AI. (More often than not Leonardo.ai) I do not spend a lot of time on creating the perfect prompt. I am really just playing around and creating a little eye candy whilst learning what I can. Which got me to wondering, what would Leonardo make of my view?
I used this prompt.
“I am looking at Auckland Harbour from a balcony in the viaduct. The sun is shining, but the day is still quiet. Create an image for me that you think reflects what I am seeing.
I ran the prompt three times and these were the results.
I decided this was the closest to the right result as in ‘matching the prompt’.
- It has Sky Tower - so ‘Auckland’ - except if I was looking at the harbour from a balcony - Sky tower would be behind me.
- It is very clearly a balcony.
- I rejected the bottom left, because really - to match the prompt ‘I’ wouldn’t be in the picture.
- There were others that were as acceptable. None were ‘right’/
So - why no boats in the AI images? Because they weren’t included in the original prompt.
Just for kicks I modified the prompt
“I am looking at Auckland Harbour with some moored boats from a balcony in the viaduct. The sun is shining, but the day is still quiet. Create an image for me that you think reflects what I am seeing.”
Am I happy with the finished results? Well - no.
But if i didn’t have access to the actual image, for a few minutes of work - the results weren’t too bad.
(These are the results from the free version of Leonardo. I know they would be massively improved if I subscribed and added access to the other models they have available. First though, I want to learn as much as I can for free.)
What do you think?
📼 🔗 Ferret - Apple’s new multi modal AI
I found this rather interesting, of course when you think about it - their camera work and car dev will absolutely have given them an edge on understanding images … makes total sense.
Then I read…
Apple stopped using and supporting NVidia products in 2016, its Ferret model was developed using NVidia’s highly efficient A100 graphics cards. Therefore, the source code available on GitHub does not work on Apple’s products.
🤦🏽
So here’s an odd thing for anyone interested to do with the very excellent ‘Conversation on Micro.blog’ plugin. 🖇️ This link (2016) works - BUT at the bottom - it reads ‘Also on Micro.blog - and not the usual ‘Conversation on Micro.blog’ like on say 🖇️ this post.
‘Also on’ - just takes you to the home page of the blog.
‘Conversation on’ - takes you to the actual post.
On closer looking at the plugin I see something that is called a fall back link - which i THINK is new? Certainly newer than my original install - so I am guessing that posts of a certain age and/or posts that were imported (like this one) don’t work.
Is that right @sod ?
Anything a mere mortal can do to improve this?
It’s an Instagram account. Clever ideas brought to life …
I am not a paid subscriber ..so don’t know how this ends, but this is one of the best pre paywall cliff hangers I have ever read ….
🔗 Postcard from Sundance… Starting with H'wood Agents at Burbank Airport