Algorithm Researches

Yesterday I ‘interacted’ with two sites by Liking them, sites that are apparently being used by Zberg’s AI bots to learn their trade on. So I get this in my Messages this morning … this is a screenshot, there are ‘six’ pages of it …

I didn’t ask for it and I resent the bot using my interaction, electricity, internet plan, adding to my carbon footprint unasked. those are my feelings about the matter. It’s good to have informed opinions, though.

These are the facts …

As well as the full instructions on how to solve a Rubrik cube, of about six pages, there were a further four pages with an explanation of an astronomical event I’d taken an interest in. Talk about information overload!

This is an example of a summary composed after ‘scraping’ knowledge requisite to the topic from around the internet. It’s not even the first time that we’ve been training bots. Remember teaching GoogleSpelling?

You have to accept this is a far more accurate process than the primitive efforts of the spelling bot.

But it is not yet a sentient bot. Doing a light edit, I discovered a lot of unnecessary repetitions, unseen by the bot. Lama 3.2 cannot think for itself.

Below the copy-and-paste about my comet inquiry. Interestingly, I googled my inquiry and this reply came by way of one of Zberg’s platforms.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has been visible in the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky since early 2025, and its visibility has improved as it moves farther from the Sun. Although it’s currently dimmer than it was at perihelion on January 13, 2025, it’s still a great target for binoculars or cameras ¹.

Here are some key visibility dates for Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) and other comets in 2025:

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS): Visible in the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky since early 2025, with improved visibility as it moves farther from the Sun. Its brightness peaked at magnitude -3.4 on January 13, 2025 ¹.
210P/Christensen: Expected to be visible via large binoculars in November 2025, with its closest approach to Earth on November 8, 2025 ².
24P/Schaussman: Will reach its brightest point in early 2026, with its closest approach to Earth on January 4, 2026. It may be visible with large binoculars ².
C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos): May become visible through small telescopes or large binoculars in the autumn of 2025, with its closest approach to Earth on February 17, 2026 ².

Then there are the facts of what it all costs … more research needed.

Cory Doctorow: Proud to be a Blockhead

Under the above title was going to be a link to Doctorow’s post of that name, but I don’t think so. Not yet. The link I pasted turned into a wall of text, virtually unreadable. So, again, this post will be the ‘About Blogging’ … how often already this year have I tagged a post that way?

Because what happens usually when I click on a Share Button, the title of the article/post to be shared and its URL are copied and saved on a virtual clipboard. Then, when I click and copy on a place in my post of my choosing ... usually after I’ve introduced the article/post as I intended to do here … the article/post will paste into the position directly under the title and shove the intro to the bottom, or into a never-never land where it can never again be found. (Yes, that is a hint to myself to save a draft though I’m not sure if that’ll work.)

I can but give it all another go.

Lol, this is a straight-out quote that reverberates in my head … from one of my own fictions, and when I say or think those words, I always feel like I’m hovering over Tardi Mack (trucker and surfer starring in Mongrel [published] and Meld [still being edited]) saying it while he is giving x y or z problem another go.

Intro

I’m proud to be a blockhead the same as Doctorow. Quoting from Doctorow’s article … “the most laughably false statement about writing ever uttered is Samuel Johnson’s notorious “No man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money”: … Yep. I’m definitely a blockhead.

There’s so much in this article that resonates with me, that I relate to, the whole article is rich with quotes about ‘making art’, creative endeavors of all kinds, how badly musicians are paid, and that by Spotify that people tell me I ought to be ashamed of not using them in preference to Apple Music, for example. All of them guilty of the same practices?

Why it’s important to read and read lots, how writing is a way of thinking, a way of working stuff out. While Doctorow is afraid his luck will run out in relation to his writing career, I’m often afraid that the internet will fall over and how easy that will be when it does, with all the links in the chain from me here typing this to you opening WordPress or your mail service, and reading. And there’s much more.

So I thought you might as well read the original … https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/21/blockheads-r-us/

Lego, Set #60439

On the weekend last I had my grandkids, aged 7 and 4, over for a few hours. While we played hide and seek, the box was inadvertantly discovered in Oma’s not-so-secret Christmas present hiding place.

And of course we opened it and set to with great gusto. And I’m happy we did, because though the set is recommended for age 6+ the 7 year old found it difficult.

He soon narrowed his focus to the wheelchair guy in Bag 1 and his buggy, while the four year old helped the 76+ yr old Oma by finding shapes amongst the contents of Bag Three.

Which was a lucky guess for it held a girl minifig, helmet, airpack, a bed/couch, microwave, mug, coffee machine and a bank of windows. In other words, a collection of playable elements.

The rest of the set was completed after the kids had gone home. and I was tickled pink to find another iteration of the frog element …

I laughed discovering how the slippery slidy minifigs are made to stay on their beds … “Oooh, is that what those bricks are for?”

The hinge joint pieces I first stumbled over in a mystery pack from http://www.brickresales.com and had no idea what to do with. Just in case you’re thinking … Well, duh! What else could they be? That’s right. Once you know, it’s obvious.

The number of different elements in this set was probably nothing out of the ordinary … count them if you like.

The ‘round’ hatch opening-and-closing mechanism is a joy to operate, as is the sliding up-and-down hatch. I think both these will get their real work-outs when the kids come again.

Now I’m wondering where and how to set up a moon base in my apartment. I’ll need to do some re-arranging.

Mmm.

And PS, what is the ring meant to represent?

Microsoft Word: the installation update …

I’ve cancelled! The only page I was able to access the whole time was my account page. I never was able to access the word processor, the bit I need more than all the other frills. All work is meant to happen in the cloud these days … I know that … I don’t have the inner fortitude to wrestle with passwords every single time I want to use a word processor.

I’d really like the installation to happen without hang ups. I’d really like it if after I click on Install, the behemoth just installed itself without hanging itself up somewhere. I’d really like it if I didn’t have to uninstall, then go through all the steps outlined in the Troubleshooting page then reinstall and go through it all again.

All the boasting going on in the clean no-frills accompanying text isn’t having the required effect, because I can already see, that despite that they have already taken my money–which wasn’t outrageous this week–this is not going to be a smooth operation. I wonder if the reason that it’s only the third week after the end of the Financial Year, that the buy-price was a full $30AUD less than the original?

[And you know what? There is a bot following me around. Just got a suggestion for a less complex word for ‘purchase’ … fits better in the grammar, apparently … ‘buy-price’. Sounds like US slang to me. And apparently following is also too complex. Not buying that and this is WordPress, not the subject of the post.

Well, my online account works. Naturally, they start pushing more products the minute my feet hit the deck. Like, will I want a co pilot? No thanks. I’m used to flying alone, and am quite capable. And why would I want to pay an extra $33 a month for having a co-pilot?

They don’t see any devices? Well, duh. No devices, thank you. Trying to do this on a shoe string. Why would I open an Outlook account when I have had one operating since I got this computer? Another problem rearing its ugly head. Well, that’s My MS Account explored. Seems to be working. Its hiccups might iron out overnight. Wouldn’t that be something?

Next? The installation process … was encouraged to save the License agreement. Have you ever noticed how an encouragement like that is hedged by the further choices being grey-ed out and your attention narrowed to the word that must be reacted upon?

It seems to be happening. Then … per-ling-lingk … that Microsoft-specific sound of success. it says it’s done. A couple more hurdles, because not quite done yet. It has to initialize.

You should to laugh, I think at myself. A window just popped up. 2 updates available! I haven’t even opened anything yet. Update in progress is the next message. At 27 minutes that’s going to take longer than the installation process.

So the Updates are done. I click it, and it then tells me that a number of the new programs, since they were installed back in May 2024,… which they definitely weren’t … need updating. Ha ha ha! It’s like a maze. And I still don’t have anything to work with.

So finally I get a couple of aliased icons on my desktop … and here is the test … open one of my previously clamped documents and get …. taraaaahhh! Drum roll, please!

Nope! Forget the drum roll! A bit of Bosley and his crew from long ago, see those two little angles just under the Header? The clamps. My stuff is still not usable. Up in the top left it says I must ‘Activate‘ Microsoft.

Huh? Haven’t I done that already? I click on Activate just in case …

You know what? I’m calling it a day. Cheers all

Flickering Touchbar …

I’m on my mobile phone … cell phone to some of you! So I can’t insert the 5 second video clip illustration of the above … either because I can’t find the instructions to achieve it or it’s not available.

Have to make do with a still photo of the problem

So you’ll need to imagine it. The whole touchbar—at the top of the keyboard in certain models of Macbook Pro—is now flickering the whole time the laptop is being used. For all that I know it continues to flicker when the lid is closed.

I’ve been putting up with it since about September 2022, when it began with a couple of centimetres or an inch. After trying to have it fixed, the malady extended to 5 or 6 centimetres, which was when I stuck some blue electrical tape over it. This year that spilled into the rest of the bar, and became unbearable to use.

Hence went out Monday afternoon to purchase a new laptop … thought I caught Covid that day … but it was probably earlier.

This Year Alone …

This year alone we’ll all spend the equivalent of 500 million years scrolling on social media.
(Collectively, the world spends 720 billion minutes a day using social media platforms. Over a full year, that adds up to more than 260 trillion minutes, or 500 million years of collective human time, according to a report from GWI, a consumer research company.)

This quote in a newsletter from Scott Pape, The Barefoot Investor.

Beggars belief, the numbers he quotes. see the whole article below.

Hi Rita,

There were two weeks in July 2012 that completely changed your life forever.

However, at the time you were blissfully unaware of what was going on.

(We all were.)

What happened?

Well, it all began when Facebook listed on the Stock Exchange, which was a total and utter disaster. Within a few months its shares had crashed by more than 54%.

Why?

At the time of its IPO (initial public offering), Facebook stated it had “no material revenue from mobile”. (Yes, in 2012 we were all checking our Facebook friend requests on our web browsers.)

Zuckerberg could see the writing on the wall. They were dead meat unless they got on mobile. And so, as legend has it, he pivoted the entire company to building a killer app – fast. He famously refused to have a meeting with anyone until they had presented him with what he wanted.

And in those few weeks the smartest behavioural psychologists and programmers in Silicon Valley created the very first social media app, something so powerful that it changed the course of history.

Seriously.

Let’s flip forward.

This year alone we’ll all spend the equivalent of 500 million years scrolling on social media.

(Collectively, the world spends 720 billion minutes a day using social media platforms. Over a full year, that adds up to more than 260 trillion minutes, or 500 million years of collective human time, according to a report from GWI, a consumer research company.)

In short, you’re spending way too much time on your phone, right?

Everyone is.

The Digital Australia 2024 Report by consumer intelligence company Meltwater shows that the average time users spend on TikTok is 42 hours and 13 minutes per month. Second place is YouTube, with the average user spending 21 hours and 36 minutes per month. And Aussies are some of the biggest users of Snapchat, with 17 hours across 619 individual sessions (!) per month. Facebook users spend an average of 20 hours and 15 minutes per month, and for Instagram it’s 11 hours and 45 minutes per month (which I thought would be higher, to be honest).

Is this a good use of your most precious asset?

Well, if you ask Mark Zuckerberg the answer is “Hell, yeah!”. Facebook’s profits were $US32 million in 2012 … and last year they were $US39,000 million.

Yet what about for the rest of us?

Well, Facebook interviewed eMarketer’s Ezra Palmer about the dramatically increased use of mobile, which is up 627% in the last four years alone. She glowingly described it as our “connected consciousness” and brushed aside the naysayers:

“If it were not a valuable way of interacting and being, we wouldn’t be doing it. Mobile is an extension of us … it’s a fundamental shift in our psychology … it’s one thing to look at the [daily usage] numbers, it’s another to think about the amazing ramifications of that”, she gushed.

Uh-huh.

Just like all those people at the casino wouldn’t be there if it weren’t a valuable way of being.

And let’s look at those amazing ramifications.

The rise of social media has coincided with an accelerating decline in teen mental health, and hospitalisations for self-harm have exploded, especially for young girls.

Not only are today’s kids more anxious, depressed and suicidal than in previous generations, they’re also getting dumber. Australian students are among the world’s biggest users of digital devices at school, yet academic results released in December showed teens have fallen a full academic year behind those who went to school in 2000s, according to the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA).

This all makes sense.

Social media (which has done another ‘pivot’, this time to 45-second viral videos) is the equivalent of junk food.

You wouldn’t spend upwards of 10 hours a day continuously gorging on highly processed junk food and expect to be healthy.

It’s the same for our mental health. You are what you eat … and what you scroll (and Zuckerberg is your personal chef serving us up dopamine-soaked donuts all day long).

Yet waving our fists at the tech giants is about as useful as blaming Macca’s for your kid eating Big Macs for breakfast.

We’re the parents, and we’re in charge.

And many of us have trained our children to see that a phone is the most important thing on earth. I’m ashamed to admit that at every milestone of my kids’ life – the day they were born, the day they took their first steps, the day they pedalled their first bike, and every birthday – they looked up and didn’t see my eyes … they saw the back of my phone as I yelled “Smile!”.

They also see Mum and Dad mindlessly scrolling on our phones while the world passes us by.

Again, what message do you think that sends them?

So I’ve come to a couple of conclusions.

First, if I want my kids to have a healthy relationship with technology, I need to model it myself. That means keeping my phone in a dish with my car keys and wallet at the front door – and leaving it there – so I can engage with my family without constant distraction.

Second, it’s my job to give our kids experiences they can’t get from screens.

Like what?

Like encouraging them to have friends over to hang out IRL (which is what kids actually want most). Or going on a family hike, to the beach, or to a sporting event. Or encouraging them to start their own little Barefoot Business (perhaps with a mate).

Now this sounds very aspirational, but how would you force yourself to actually do it?

Well, the fastest way would be to implement Screen Free Sundays. And that’s what my wife and I havedecided to trial with our family – starting this week.

Yes, we’re trying to put the internet back in the box, and live like it’s 2012!

Tread Your Own Path!

Much better than I could’ve said.

Plus, I overworked my shoulders today, can’t type.

Cheers, all.

Reading ‘Weaponized’

Reading Weaponized by Neal asher (2023) was a marathon.

There are a couple of Asher’s novels I’ve enjoyed, The Skinner and The Voyage of the Sable Keech, for example, the first two instalments of the Spatterjay trilogy, published in the early 2000s.

I found those inventive and engrossing. I still think with fondness about the living ship. The Polity novels that intervene between those and Weaponized are set in a human universe ruled by AIs.

In Weaponized a bunch of human characters from the polity intend to colonize an outer planet. They’re all in their second or third century and are bored. They intend to go back to basics somewhere new.

Ursula Ossect Treloon is their leader. The plot is a relentless competition for superiority between the human would-be settlers, and the native wildlife.

Neither of them wins when both appear to be taken over by superior Jain technology, from yet another universe. The end is is circular, a mystery, when a fragment of Ursula is saved by the Polity mole.

Most of the story is the ‘science’ describing the adaptations that need to be made to continue the struggle to survive an ever evolving enemy.

And this is an evolution happening at a daily at most week’s pace. The actual plot was told with a series of one liners buried in the almost baroquely detailed descriptions of the technology. Non-stop action as the back cover promises.

By about a third of the way through, I was wishing for a bit of ordinary narrative, describing the settlers ordinary time. But if anything proceedings notched up, there was never any relief.