From MC Frontalot: A song about data encryption. Bits of the lyric were fed into the Midjourney text-to-image AI. This was the result. Performed by MC Frontalot. [MC Frontalot | Via LS]
A proposal could free up “hundreds of millions” of internet addresses, buying a little more time in the move to IPv6. Seth Schoen (pictured) points to four types of address that are reserved for special purposes that may no longer be needed. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, which allow for four billion possibilities. Just like counting […]
Photorealistic images of nonsensical scenarios are an astounding technical achievement according to Google. But it says its AI system Imagen is not ready for public use, thanks in part to cultural bias in the imagery. Instructions to produce images such as “teddy bears swimming at the Olympics 400m Butterfly event” (pictured below) or “A giant […]
From Gravity Industries: We proved you can scale a Lake District Mountain (3100ft Helveylln) in 3mins 30 seconds, despite very poor visibility that would have grounded a HEMS Helicopter. The Mountain Rescue foot response is over 70 minutes typically. The route was 1.2 miles and 2200ft of height gain. This is the latest in a […]
Google says a new camera will improve both the quality and scope of its Street View images. It’s also adding the “historical” mode to the mobile app version. The company is promoting both changes as a way to mark the 15th anniversary of Street View’s launch. The new camera weighs less than 15 pounds and, […]
A handheld game system designer recently celebrated the first units shipping by posting a text file on Gopher. If you’re old enough to understand that sentence, I hope your knees and back are doing OK. The Playdate console fits in a palm and has a small monochrome screen and retro-style arrow and A/B keys. It’s […]
Here’s an edit of an old computer tutorial video featuring a woman that just can’t stop saying ‘floppy diskette’ over and over again, along with a few variations such as ‘disk drive,’ ‘system disk,’ and ‘bootup disk.’ Boring video? Not really. It’s actually more entertaining than it sounds. [Milton Croissant]
A Google researcher says artificial general intelligence is inevitable and it’s now just a matter of scale. As often with the topic, it seems to come down to definitions. To put things simply, we already have plenty of examples of limited artificial intelligence with a computer or system performing a specific task (such as flying […]
From Fredrik Gran: The ‘robot cellist’, a non-human entity at the intersection of performer and instrument, consists of two industrial robotic arms playing a cello. …The robot cellist has developed individual playing style and techniques along with a reflexive compositional perspective. [Fredrik Gran]
A microprocessor powered by algae has now been running continuously for a year. Researchers at the University of Cambridge say the approach could help power Internet of Things devices. The system uses Synechocystis, a common blue-green algae, in a device around the size of a AA battery. It harvests solar energy through photosynthesis, creating an […]