A Lifetime of Creativity and Ideas in Music, Electronics, Bicycles and Environment. The blog of Filthynoises audio effects design and any other artistic pursuit by Crunchysteve
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The AI experiment in my "laboratory" is over. I've been running Ollama locally on my laptop, as in:- an 8G, local, offline language model, running on local, offline command line software. Don't get me started about the carbon pollution environmental disaster being created by serverside queries to AI like, "Does my partner really love me." The local-only model seemed like an affordable and accountable approach and my M1 Mac is energy efficient fast enough that even really tricky queries were sorted way under 2 minutes. The thing is, I never got a single, useful response to a query. Not one, that was fit for purpose, anyway, out of Ollama's "mouth." I figured that between my ability to describe a problem, and its probable solution, architecturally and simply, might result in useful code fragments for my various microcontroller coding and OpenSCAD design tasks. Not one. The work required to make anything useful was at least as much as designing i...
Having just watched this before getting up and having breakfast... As a lifelong scifi fan, I've consumed a tonne (well, a fair few kg) of this kind of story in my time. Until now, I've just revelled in the legends, but watching this, I've realised there is an ethical problem with "generation ships." Consent. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were volunteers and knew the risks. Collins went back as commander of Apollo 13 and got first hand experience of the life threatening risks. Space is treacherous and still largely unknown in Earth's perihelion (a wanky word for orbit), let alone beyond the heliopause, the end of the Sun's domain. What business do volunteers to crew a generation ship have, committing unwitting future generations of crew to such unknown?! It's one thing to risk your life on a tall ship to make a months long journey to another land, like has happened in previous centuries and generations, but how thoughtless and selfish do you have t...
So, how hard is it to convert a standard, common-or-garden touring bicycle to electric assist? You would be surprised! There was heartache, emotional and literal, there was swearing. My neighbours probably hate me. Let me say, right up front, I know bikes, I have the right tools and I know electronics. I found this project fucking hard! First up, my electronics background is audio production in radio and in live music. I worked for an Australian national radio network for 27 years, doing in-studio and outside broadcast audio. Before that, I studied electronic engineering to just shy of an Associate Diploma but work and putting bread on the table got in the way of my exams. When I say I know electronics, I don't just know how mix sick beats, I know how to run a studio, how to do a live mix, how to set up the sound system. Put me in a venue with sound system I've never used before, I'll have it making noise in time for doors open. I'll have the mix dialled like Giles Mar...
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