Colarusso

Colarusso, 15 days ago to random

Todays family movie—The Iron Giant. I remembered that Harry Connick Jr. was in this, and Jenifer Aniston wasn’t a surprise, but the Iron Giant is voiced by Vin Diesel?! 10yo and 5yo enjoyed themselves. I sketched this while watching.

Colarusso, 16 days ago to random

I can think of no better words to mark Memorial Day than these. 🇺🇸

Colarusso, 17 days ago to sketch

Today the Colarusso’s went to The Butterfly Place armed with sketchbooks. They suggest you dress like a flower (bright colors et al.) in hopes that the butterflies might land on you. 10yo drew some flowers, and one landed on his hand #FTW! I sketched a butterfly. #butterflies #sketch

Malachite butterfly on a 10yo’s hand atop drawings of flowers
Closeup photo of a Malachite butterfly
Colarusso with a butterfly on his backpack

Colarusso, 18 days ago to Birds

I’ve had the pleasure of watching this guy grow up outside my window. So, I figured I’d use him to see how my new sketchbook handled marker. #goldfinch #birds #sketch

Partially colored goldfinch in marker
Rough outline of a goldfinch in pencil
An American goldfinch perched on a bird feeder

Colarusso, 20 days ago to ai

I updated the primary LLM behind The Library of Unwritten Books from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4o, and I have to say, it really upped its game. You should check it out, share your favorite books, and tell all your friends.

What is The Library? From my 10yo, "Wait, is this a story or a game?" To which the correct answer is, "Yes." That's exactly the response I hoped for when creating the library. 😀

Enjoy: https://libraryofunwrittenbooks.org/

#AI #stories #RPG

design_law, 1 month ago to UIDesign

Question for the web design people in the fedi: Is anything shown in (the solid lines in) this drawing something you'd refer to as a "breadcrumb"?

https://mastodon.social/@meredithlowry/112321242194162393

#UIUX #UIDesign #WebDesign

Colarusso, 1 month ago to random

TL;DR: NASA engineers have fixed the issue with Voyager 1's computer. The spacecraft had stopped transmitting data in November. Engineers suspected a problem with the memory bank. After months of troubleshooting, they sent a command to recode part of the memory, and on Saturday, they received a signal indicating successful communication.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2019258

Colarusso, 1 month ago to random

10yo has been working to make his Halloween candy last as long as possible. The trick has been to make it last till other holidays and mix in their candy. Last year he made it to Valentine’s Day. This year, we’re still going strong post Easter. And yes, there’s still an actual Halloween candy bar at the bottom. #DeferredGratification

Colarusso, 1 month ago to random

5yo is seeing how high she can count (currently at 410). 10yo just asked me to show him how to use an API to get local weather data for a game he's building. WFH during school vacation week can be distracting but also really fun. :)

Colarusso, 1 month ago to random

TL;DR: Elisa Shupe, a retired US Army veteran, has been granted copyright registration for her self-published novel written with AI assistance. The US Copyright Office initially rejected her application but changed its decision after she appealed. The registration covers the arrangement of AI-generated text, but not the individual sentences and paragraphs.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/author-granted-copyright-over-book-with-ai-generated-text-with-a-twist/

Colarusso, 1 month ago to random

I guess the cat's out of the bag. I'll be keynoting¹ this year's CALIcon.² You should register and join us. Also, I want to say this is genuinely one of my favorite conferences. So, I am deeply honored and will do my best to make it worth your time. :)

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¹ https://2024.calicon.org/general-program/keynote-speaker/
² CALI = The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, event home: https://2024.calicon.org/

dgar, 1 month ago to random

“The floor is lava!”
~ Everyone, Pompeii, 79AD.

Colarusso, 1 month ago to random

We live in amazing times! Recalling a story about Lincoln’s attempt to square the circle, I performed a web search, found a blog post w/ a quote from a book recounting the tale,¹ realized I had the book, searched the text of that book online to find the page with the quote,² consulted the endnotes in my physical copy to find the source, made another search, & found the entirety of the source text online.³

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¹ https://divisbyzero.com/2011/02/18/lincoln-and-squaring-the-circle/
² https://books.google.com/books?id=ONhhui9SRsMC&q=During+his+nights+and+weekends+on+the+circuit%2C+in+the+absence+of+domestic+interruptions%2C#v=snippet&q=During%20his%20nights%20and%20weekends%20on%20the%20circuit%2C%20in%20the%20absence%20of%20domestic%20interruptions%2C&f=false p152
³ https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples/413/ p240

approximate construction according to Ramanujan of 1914 (not Lincoln’s)

Colarusso, 2 months ago to random

Sealing an envelope, I found myself remembering that I kind of liked the taste of stamps—something my kids will never know. :(

Colarusso, 2 months ago to ArtificialIntelligence

TL;DR: NASA/JPL researchers have developed a snake-like robot, called EELS, to explore icy ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus. The robot is designed to navigate through thick ice using existing vents and geysers. Equipped with cameras, LIDAR sensors, and torque force sensors, EELS operates autonomously using AI. While it has not been selected for a flight mission, the robot's design and capabilities could be used on Earth and other destinations.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/robotic-explorers-could-slither-into-ice-to-look-for-life/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#robots #space

Colarusso, 2 months ago to ai

This take from @pluralistic deserves more play.

TL;DR: #Copyright is not a fix for your #AI fears. Bullies want you to think they're on your side, but it's a trap. Bosses blame immigrants for low wages, while they actually take workers' wages. Corporations claim to protect creative workers from AI companies, but they exploit them just as much. It's a ploy to gain control and exploit workers, while deflecting blame onto others.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/13/hey-look-over-there/#lets-you-and-he-fight

#Labor #Unions #WorkerRights

Animated GIF of Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars saying, "It's a trap"

design_law, 2 months ago to random

Happy weekend, friends! What are we reading, watching, and listening to for fun (or distraction)?

Colarusso, 2 months ago to random

I feel like a fun frame for teaching LLMs would be to teach students how slide rules worked so they can get a feel for what they lost and gained by only ever having calculators. Then compare and contrast this with what they think "AI" will do.

FWIW, here's a very short slide rule explainer: https://mastodon.social/@Colarusso/109297312998326014

Colarusso, 2 months ago to random

Last night I introduced my 10yo to The Library of Unwritten Books¹ and he had the best reply, "Wait, is this a story or a game?" To which the correct answer is, "yes." It's exactly the type of response I hoped for when creating the library. 😀

You should give it a try yourself, then tell all your friends. 😉

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¹ https://libraryofunwrittenbooks.org/

Colarusso, 2 months ago to random

My inbox is laughably full, and I'm conflicted. I could jump in and do some work to bring the number down, but it's really close to a multiple of 100 that I've never seen before, and I kind of want to cross that line. 🤔

design_law, 2 months ago to random

Okay, friends, I'm calling it early: Happy weekend! What are we reading, watching, and listening to for fun (or distraction)?