AI-based music and art will include royalties Current AI models are trained on enormous and varied datasets, but can also be directed to create a work “in the style of”. That greatly changes the originality of what the AI model is creating. Possibly into a work that infringes on existing…

Can chatbots talk to each other? Let’s drop into a chatbot coffehouse and eavesdrop on some conversations. Due to our budget we’re only visiting the freehouse and can’t afford the more expensive and possibly more clever chatbots. The Cleverbot (www.cleverbot.com) and Simsimi (www.simsimi.com) are sitting at the same table but…

A short fiction-now future-fact story Networks had been secure for ten years, ever since quantum switches had become large enough to handle thousands of channels. The switches were inherently trusted. If they were successfully tapped, they instantly collapsed and all their connections dropped. Control of the network was managed using…

A rant and complete analysis of this expensive ink subscription plan TL/DR: if you sign up for the HP Instant Ink program for a small laserjet such as the HP209 and choose the 100 pages/month plan you will pay 30% more for toner ink forever compared to simply buying new…

Good choices for each cost and quality purpose You’ve inherited all the slides your parents took of the family while growing up, on vacations, at birthdays, and special events. Or you have your own enormous collection. …

A free speech platform — and a defi payment system Elon Musk stated one essential purpose of Twitter : “a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization”. It will take some cleaning up, but he’s right. First, deploy the Musk…

And exchange rates are always a problem I’m stuck doing my taxes — this piece is in sympathy for anyone else struggling through theirs! Or for tax, finance, and foreign exchange nerds. If you’re investing, the problem of the exchange rate comes up if you’re in Canada and trading…

There are LOTS of special cases Some Medium articles show how easy it is to get stock data and analyze patterns with Python libraries. Then what? …

Speculation on What is repairing spacetime Katrina Paulson wrote an interesting story a few days ago about theories of spacetime. One finding is that history cannot be changed because time is theoretically able to repair or prevent changes to the past, to itself. One possible explanation is quite — worrying…