I Can’t See AI Taking Over (But I’m Readily Wrong)
I was playing silly buggers with ChatGPT, Luma and Kling yesterday and put Sinultimata, (you can read it here) a short story I wrote years ago (which also gave me the band name) into ChatGPT and told it to create prompts for the image making AI and Chat had a spaz attack saying something about not being overly keen as it may breach their conditions so because it was being taken out of context I proceeded anyway. It did a good enough job, the first I grabbed to run through the AI Image was this ‘A teenage girl, her eyes vacant, kneeling beside her dead friend on a decaying staircase. She gently pulls back the shattered skull to feed on the still-warm brain. The scene is dark and grotesque, capturing the horror and madness of the moment.’Â It worked with Kling, Luma refused. It doesn’t show her feasting on brains but I suppose there, is the limitation of a lefty world that’s scared of everything.
The second (a static image) was ‘Samuel gently hugging the last standing girl, Theresa-Anne, whispering softly into her ear. Her face is wet with tears, a look of despair and resignation. Samuel steps back, his eyes distant, as dark, leathery wings begin to unfurl from his back, ready to disappear into the night sky.’Â The other prompts were stopped by Kling and Luma – hey ho t’is wot t’is.
Below are the results – it shows I need to play with AI a LOT more 😉 and for context feel free to read the story – essentially it’s the Seven Deadly Sins or my take on it.
Windows, Ya Gotta Love It
Just spent an age trying to download the Win 10 ISO so I can finish sorting the Dell Precision T3500 with the upgraded CPU and 48GB of ram – so much for the max ram of 24 😉 but I digress. Spent an age fuckin’ about with the media creator that M$ want you to use seeing as they’re discontinuing Win10 but finally got it sorted and it’s installing – yip fuckin’ ee as for Win11 fuck that junk, I’m not spending a fortune on a new machine just to keep M$ happy!!
I happen to like the Dell T3500, pretty much bullet proof providing you don’t knacker the CPU pins like I did so I ended up having to buy a replacement board grrrrr. That gives me two machines fully functional, that one and the one I’m on now, which is a HP Z820 with Dual CPU’s Intel Xeon E5-2687W @ 3.40GHz and 96GB of ram, 2 x 2TB SSD’s, 2 x 2TB spinners and a 2TB NVME drive, along with a GTX 1060 6GB running a huge Samsung curved monitor.
The bloody HP is great for games, well so’s the Dell but hey ho I’ll use the biggest 😉 hanging off them is an Asustor NAS with 16TB of space.
The pics below are not the actual machines, but I’m too lazy to fuck about with an iPhone and transfer pictures 😛
Auctions, a Bargain? No
Originally Posted 2016
I regularly wander auction company listings looking for keyboards/synths but usually never see any so it’s back to eBay to troll the never ending shite and bullshit prices. Let’s look at say a Korg Kronos 88 – retail is around the $5,500 mark +/- a bit and what is eBay full of? Yep new Korg Kronos 88’s for that price. I’m confused, where is the bargain that an auction is supposed to bring, sure as hell not anywhere near advertisers of Korg Kronos’.
That’s the new stuff what about ‘vintage’ and I use the term loosely. Let’s look at ermm a Korg M1 there is one retailer/spammer on eBay who seems to think they’re worth a small fortune (or their ego is as inflated as their prices on all their stuff which is fucked up) as in $500 to $600+. My personal opinion on the M1 is one of “BLEH” if you want something like that get a T2EX, but I digress. Other sellers look on eBay to see how much they’re selling for, see this idiots pricing structure and follow suit – my response to that is “BAHAHAHA you cretins!” As far as I’m concerned a mint and I mean MINT M1 is worth no more than $350 as they aren’t a rare piece of kit, and if you don’t like my offer then piss off I’m not that fussed.
There was one there the other week that had a dead keybed, broken keys and a fading screen and they wanted $300 as a starter – give me a break sheesh.
It seems to me that if you put the words keyboard and synthesizer together people assume they’re on a winner – you know the type, find a cheezy Casio at a garage sale for ten bux, take it home, grab a few snaps and stick it on eBay for ten or twenty times the price when in reality the damn thing is a door stop, nothing more nothing less.
Ehh I’m bored now, rant over 😉
A Pox On Non Supported Scripters
Originally Posted 2014
I’ve been using a gallery script for ages and since WP has been upgrading, the gallery script started to error and the author has pretty much said ‘tough’ – damn glad I didn’t give him money for it the wanker!! Now I gotta work out this new one that seems to like to knacker up the CSS
Hackers NOT
Originally Posted 2013
Children they are, I don’t get why they need to deface peoples sites? What is it a cheap thrill, is it to mass spam the planet with their bullshit religious beliefs, spam the planet with how to grow a 5′ knob just by chewing on a sweety, what?
This place wasn’t hacked, a couple of friends sites were and I have to help them sort out the issues, not that that bothers me, something hacked is soon unhacked and secured by me.
Ehh I spose the kiddies need to keep themselves occupied as they’re not really hackers they just surf the web looking for links to scripts with security holes, they’d be better off wanking ’emselves but in sayin that they’d need a tool to wank first.
Roland, Roland – Wherefore art thou
Originally Posted 2012
I am still yet to receive my Roland Synth from the couriers so I called them. Below is a rough but fairly accurate text of the conversation I just had. Me: Can you tell me where my parcel is please? Them: Have you a consignment number? Me: Yes (gives it to her). Them: Umm One moment. Them: Can you give me the size and a description of what it is? Me: 139cm x 24cm x 10cm and 11 kilos. Them: Does it have any distinguishing features? Me: Well it ‘s a brushed aluminium vintage synthesizer, oh 88 key. Them: Anything else? Me: It ‘s got a birth mark just below middle C.
At this point she hastily said she’d look for it and ring me back then hung up. I’m sorta wonderin’ if she’s also psychic as well as thick as she didn’t ask for my number.
Update 15th November: Still haven’t got it,because Allied Express have lost it again – it’s either in Melbourne or Sydney they’re not sure, plus they have now told me not to contact them again but to go through my booking agent. Incompetence thy name is Allied Express.
Update 16th November: It ‘s official, Allied Express have lost my Roland RS-9 and I now have to go through proving to QBE that I deserve to be given my insurance claim. In a word “Gutted.” ;-( Or in more than one word FUCK ALLIED EXPRESS AND THE FUCKIN’ HORSE THEY RODE IN ON!!
You don’t DRIVE a bike
Originally Posted 2012
I’m a little pissed today and an ad on eBay has pushed me over the edge!!
I was just having a look through the bikes and came across a coupla Harleys that needed closer inspection and upon reading the blurb, “yes you too can own and drive a Harley at a cheap price” I sorta flipped.
DRIVE?? DRIVE?? You RIDE a bike not drive a bike you fuckin’ knob heads.
Online Auctions
Originally Posted 2012
As is my want, I spend alot of time wandering online auctions and wholesale sites mainly because I have this continual thought that maybe I might be lucky enough to fall over a bargain. Now of late all I can honestly say I’ve fallen over is total crap, crap as in sellers and whiney buyers – I shall elaborate.
Now I bought a set of Lucas knock off blinkers for the Bonneville off eBay and yes they didn’t arrive, neither did the replacement set they said they sent hmmmm methinks they are trying to take me for a ride – one Paypal refund later and that’s them sorted. Bought another set of Lucas knock off blinkers only these were dearer but I’d dealt with the seller before, anyway within 2 days I get an email saying that one of the blinkers wasn’t up to scratch and the shipping had been delayed by a week. Funny thing is, I got that same email off em when I bought the other set *pondering the significance of such a statement* – anyhoo I sent them an email and told em unless I get by the 2nd March I’ll be requesting a refund.
It gets better ya know 😛 I also bought a studio mic pop filter and seeing as I was bored and it was coming up on week three I sent that seller an email asking where it was. Their response? Well it can take up to 40 days for the item to arrive. 40 days????????? where the fuck is it coming from, or more to the point do they feed the pigeons before attaching the items to their legs and sending em on their merry way – 40 days my arse, they also got the 2nd March deadline. I did however buy a bass guitar from Melbourne, took 5 days to arrive – I unpacked it and inspected it and it looked sweet. Plugged it all in, tuned it then went to do summut, came back an hour later to have a muck about with it and damn near sliced me hand on the bloody great split in the neck – I swore, as you do!! I will give the seller their due, I emailed em, they sent me a prepaid post thingy and said send it back and we’ll give you another, cool now I just wait – again!
Now I did mention whiney buyers too and this was pure 100% classic. A nob head bought a Fender Strat for $325 inc postage ermmm I was pretty sure Strats were a little more expensive, but I digress. The site has a feedback section so I thought I’d check the seller out and what do I find, yep Captain Whiney Buyer Shit Head. And this was his feedback “This guitar is a fake, they sold me a fake, I want my money back” ROFLMFAO I think the price is a giveaway YOU DICK!! Anyway, here are a few recommendations from yours truly of eBay sellers that in my opinion are bloody good sellers. ccslightsound – I bought a Behringer 1002FX Mixer, a Behringer C1 Studio Mic and a Behringer UCA202 off this seller and talk about good comms and delivery time. BelfieldMusic – Bought a triple guitar stand off them Oz-Supplier – That was the bass Pick_Guru – bought a 100 mixed medium weight picks and a guitar strap for Dylan who got himself a strat copy and amp, case etc. Swamp-Industries – bought various studio cabling off them Jackmusical – bought a basic acoustic guitar rebuild kit for her who must be obeyed, she’s had the thing for nigh on 40 years so I thought I’d tidy it up for her, she can’t play it but her dad bought it for her so that’s a good enough reason. There are a couple more that I won’t add just yet as I’ve only just started dealings with them, although one of em is proving to be a nob head already so we’ll see.’