Mike Rodriquez
@allthepages
Listening for the secret, searching for the sound ... interests: quilting, cooking, gardening, cycling, photography, cat-herding and too many more to list
Nothing to see here, just a 200+ mile tall storm (stretching from southern Nebraska, across the entirety of Kansas and into northern Oklahoma) and Lindsborg is pretty close to the middle!
This was kind of fun. I wonder who I would have been if I had answered my "not sure" questions slightly differently. britmonkey.com/2020s-politi...
As for external links, well. Almost half are broken, no surprise. What's kind of fun is how my report presents the various failures. I've never seen some of these 4xx codes in the wild before! 3/3
To scratch a personal itch I've created a word puzzle game for iOS called Paper Lantern. To play, one searches for words hidden in a jumbled grid of letters. It's surprisingly fun & fun to replay :-) It's ready for testing; let me know if you want to give it a try! #MikesOccasionalDistraction
TraceWords is now Paper Lantern. I did my due diligence. No app was using the name. The domains were available. No trademarks. BUT. Someone registered the name at Apple and now it's gone. That's ok. I like Paper Lantern better anyway. #MikesOccasionalDistraction #iosdev
Two days ago I looked for a word game on the app store. Not finding what I wanted, I set out to make my own. Within 24 hours I had a functional prototype, w/display issues. Now, less than 48 hours later, I have a functioning game and am working on all the details. #MikesOccasionalDistraction
Another chapter in: Why Do Designers Hate Their Users? See if you can tell where to click to change font size in this image. The issue is that there is a slider for adjusting font size, & the "grabber" is essentially invisible. Fuck 'em. Wait til they get old and can't even read their own works.
Why do designers hate their users? I had to ask the friggin' AI how to use this app, as the tickboxes are INVISIBLE. If you know they are there, you can click them. Otherwise? Argh! The app is "Actual Budget" which is otherwise pretty good.
But now she has another one, and it's not clear if further treatment over the weekend will save it or not. Still, w/out FIV, she has a chance to live a good life for quite a bit longer. It's not ideal, but blind cats generally do OK, so ... Here's Princess, teetering on an unstable platform. 2/2
This flock of seagulls(?) appeared over the house, flew around like shown for 3-5 minutes and were gone!
Clouds so dark the street lights just came on! Central Kansas, 11:40am.
It's been reported that Kansas wheat is at least 2 weeks ahead of schedule this year. I think our peonies are closer to a month early! Traditionally Memorial Day flowers, ours are in bloom now! So lovely. And a wonderful fragrance! #MikesOccasionalDistraction
In honor of the new photo limits, here is a picture of the Grand Canyon. #MikesOccasionalDistraction
The kittens turned 4 on April 10th. Here is a photo from a couple of weeks after they were born. Princess was so proud to show them off. She just strutted back and forth as we checked them out. #MikesOccasionalDistraction
My recent positive search experience using Google AI search. I have thought about this story off & on for years! I was motivated to search for it today by two things: * a recent post * recent search experiences The story: "It's Such a Beautiful Day" The text of the image is in the alt text
The image show what happened next. Later in the convo, it was absolutely clear it was AI and it admitted it: Me: steve, steve, steve. you just outed yourself as an ai. a human would not have so grossly misunderstood what I typed. AI: Yeah, but at least I am honest :P :P :P 2/2
We began the first day of our 53rd year of marriage with some welcome good news. Althea is getting better! She's had an upper respiratory illness & the meds finally appear to have kicked in. She's still a bit wheezy, but has a lot more energy compared to the weekend. #MikesOccasionalDistraction
I still miss someone. To underscore just how young he was when he died - he was only a year older than my daughter is now. #MikesOccasionalDistraction
Black cats recreate classic 9/11 scene when the president learns of the 2nd tower. (I found the picture and added the caption) #MikesOccasionalDistraction
Many of our bulbs came up with the early warm temperatures, then were heavily damaged by the recent late frost. But not all of them! This ragged edge tulip, one of the bulbs I planted last fall, did just fine! #MikesOccasionalDistraction
Another example of why one doesn't trust AI. If I had asked about the SEC I wouldn't have known the answer was wrong. (the initial query was about big 12 teams on Sunday. It did get that part right, but the volunteered info was wrong)
That reminds me of a screen shot I took last time I watched this movie. I was mesmerized.
I thought I'd try running an LLM on my Mac. It works, w/some problems, but that's not the point. The point is we've a long ways to go before they are generally useful tools. Look at the absolute BS shown in a recent exchange. Summary: it LIES. Flat out, "I did something" that it did NOT do.
I forgot I took this goofy picture a few days ago :-) #MikesOccasionalDistraction
It was probably around 150 times that this guitar contributed in the most inimitable way to my extreme joy & happiness. That would be the 10 year period when it was Jerry Garcia's primary guitar, with the Grateful Dead & the Jerry Garcia band. Close-up of Tiger; link to auction in alt.
Sweet Cassidy. She just sits quietly and watches me paint. #MikesOccasionalDistraction