I had to use mine as a desktop for two weeks while my PC was undergoing a repair. It was wholly uneventful: installed OpenOffice and had a wholly normal workweek. It’s perfectly fine to use as a regular, boring desktop if you need it to. Absolutely love the Steamdeck. Every gamer should have one.

And to emphasize: it really is essential to use the proper glasses for an eclipse like this.

I experienced a total eclipse back in 1999. You’ll be looking at the sun for a few minutes. And even though it might look dark to you, it WILL do permanent damage if you stare at it for that long without the proper protection.

Back in 1999 in the Netherlands, seven people had to be treated for eye injuries because of the eclipse. Two suffered permanent damage, with only about 10 percent sight remaining.

Don’t fuck around. It’s not worth it.

I’ve never had a Droid, but loved every other Motorola that I’ve owned. Including the original StarTac and Razr. They made some really nice phones over the years.

Well, while those flexible screen flip phones certainly look like neat tech, it’s not the same as the flip phones we used to have.

And it’ll need a few more versions before I’m comfortable buying one. Those screens tend to be just a bit too fragile.

Jesus, that’s a blast from the past for sure!

It really was the thing everyone latched on to with the N-Gage. I actually still own a first gen model that I bought on release. It was actually pretty decent, both as a phone and the games it played. Of course, it never really took off, but I enjoyed using it.

As for the sidetalking… I bought a headset for it to avoid that :D

For me, it’s just the fact that phones… are phones. They all look the same, function the same, there’s just nothing new happening with them.

Sure, chips get better and faster, they’ll add another camera to it and fiddle with the dimensions a bit, but that’s not innovation. All phones look like boring rectangular slabs.

Back in the late 90’s, phones had way more variety and personality. Candybar, flip, even the sidetalkin’ taco that was the Nokia N-Gage. A Motorola Razr looked nothing like say, a Nokia or Sony Ericsson. And those were distinctly different from your Samsung or Mitsubishi phones (Yes, Mitsubishi made phones!).

I’d love it if we went back to more phone variety, but I fear the smartphone has effectively killed every other style. Most people wouldn’t ditch their big screen smartphone to go back to a small flip phone.

They actually neutered their AI on thursday, after this whole thing blew up.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/google-suspends-gemini-chatbots-ability-generate-pictures-people-107446867

So right now, everyone’s fucked because Google decided to make a complete mess of this.

Well, the tech is of course still young. And there’s a distinct difference between:

A) User error: a prompt that isn’t as good as it can be, with the user understanding for example the ‘order of operations’ that the AI model likes to work in.

B) The tech flubbing things because it’s new and constantly in development

C) The owners behind the tech injecting their own modifiers into the AI model in order to get a more diverse result.

For example, in this case I understand the issue: the original prompt was ‘image of an American Founding Father riding a dinosaur, while eating a cheeseburger, in Paris.’ Doing it in one long sentence with several comma’s makes it harder for the AI to pin down the ‘main theme’ from my experience. Basically, it first thinks ‘George on a dinosaur’ with the burger and Paris as afterthoughts. But if you change the prompt around a bit to ‘An American Founding Father is eating a cheeseburger. He is riding on a dinosaur. In the background of the image, we see Paris, France.’, you end up with the correct result:

Basically the same input, but by simply swapping around the wording it got the correct result. Other ‘inaccuracies’ are of course to be expected, since I didn’t really specify anything for the AI to go of. I didn’t give it a timeframe for one, so it wouldn’t ‘know’ not to have the Eiffel Tower and a modern handgun in it. Or that that flag would be completely wrong.

The problem is with C) where you simply have no say in the modifiers that they inject into any prompt you send. Especially when the companies state that they are doing it on purpose so the AI will offer a more diverse result in general. You can write the best, most descriptive prompt and there will still be an unexpected outcome if it injects their modifiers in the right place of your prompt. That’s the issue.

I’ve never even heard of that, so I’m definitely going to check that out :D I’d much prefer running my own stuff rather than sending my prompts to god knows where. Big tech already knows way yoo much about us anyway.

Here’s one that was made, just for you, with specifically a VEGAN cheeseburger in the prompt :D

Doesn’t look too bad to me. I love a fair bit of crispy lettuce on a burger. Doing it like that at least spreads it out a bit, rather than having a big chunk of lettuce.

Still, it that was my burger… I’d add another patty and extra cheese.

Funnily enough, he’s not eating one in the other three images either. He’s holding an M16 in one, with the dinosaur partially as a hamburger (?). In the other two he’s merely holding the burger.

I assume if I change the word order around a bit, I could get him to enjoy that burger :D

Because sometimes you want an image of George Washington, riding a dinosaur, while eating a cheeseburger, in Paris.

Which you actually can’t do on Bing anyway, since it ‘content warning’ stops you from generating anything with George Washington…

Ask it for a Founding Father though, it’ll even hand him a gat!

Speaking for myself, it’s definitely not the lack of detail in the prompts. I’m a professional writer with an excellent vocabulary. I frequently run out of room with the prompts on Bing, because I like to paint a vivid picture.

The problems arise when you use words that it either flags as problematic, misinterprets anyway or if it just injects its own modifiers. For example, I’ve had prompts with ‘black haired’ rejected on Bing, because… god knows why. Maybe it didn’t like what it generated as it was problematic. But if I use ‘raven-haired’ I get a good result.

I don’t mind tweaking prompts to get a good result. That’s part of the fun. But when it just tells you ‘NO’ without explanation, that’s annoying. I’d much prefer an AI with no censorship. At least that way I know a poor result is due to a poor prompt.

I’ll look into it for sure. I tried Automatic1111 last year with SD, bunch of add-on stuff… it was finicky and didn’t get me quite what I was looking for.

Thanks for the tip!

Honestly, this sort of thing is what’s killing any sort of enjoyment and progress of these platforms. Between the INCREDIBLY harsh censorship that they apply and injecting their own spin on things like this, it’s nigh on impossible to get a good result these days.

I want the tool to just do its fucking job. And if I specifically ask for a thing, just give me that. I don’t mind it injecting a bit of diversity in say, a crowd scene - but it’s also doing it in places where it’s simply not appropriate and not what I asked for.

It’s even more annoying that you can’t even PAY to get rid of these restrictions and filters. I’d gladly pay to use one if it didn’t censor any prompt to death…

I absolutely love that story!

A tall angry dude dressed all in black leather with an eyepatch definitely would give me Snake Plissken vibes; either that or someone from an anime :D

Please do wear one if you want to! That guy made my day; he looked like a badass.

It’s such a rare thing to see, you’ll probably get a few jokes. But also some really fun interactions I imagine. If nothing else, you’ll give some kids a fun story to tell about that pirate they met :D

You know, I saw a guy the other day with an honest to goodness eyepatch. First time I’ve ever seen one in the wild.

Guy looked like older Snake from Metal Gear Solid, but clearly wasn’t cosplaying or anything like that. I assume most people with one eye just get a fake one here. If only to avoid all the pirate jokes that he probably gets.

As an 41 year old, I’ve actually used rotary phones and classic handsets when I was younger. And damn do I miss them. There was a distinct enjoyment in being able to properly slam down a phone when you wanted to make a point. Same thing with flip phones: you KNEW when someone hung up in a huff. Can’t quite get that point across on a smartphone.

I also miss being able to properly shoulder a handset to keep your hands free.