§ Spring break! With a full two weeks off, I should put together a list of things I would like to work on during this time. Let’s see…
- General spring cleaning
- Get seeds started in peat pots
- Make some progress on the greenhouse build
Hmm… that is not too bad, actually. I will check back in on how it went in a couple of weeks.
Speaking of spring break, after a super mild Winter, we finally got some snow this week… ugh.
§ To help wrap my mind around the possibilities enabled by GPT-4’s multimodality, I got a copy of the graphic novel Unflattening by Nick Sousanis. I have not had a chance to read much of it yet but what I have read so far has been interesting. I hope to have more time to dive into it next week. Watch this space.
§ A guilty pleasure of mine has alway been watching “wilderness survival” television shows. Alone is the best example of this genre that I have seen in a long time.
The general premise is this: ten participants are dropped off alone (get it?) somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. They are only allowed to bring a few basic items — a tarp, fire starter, hand saw, etc. Whoever is able to stay out for the longest amount of time wins $500,000.
What makes the show good is that isn’t overly dramatized. It is more like a personal diary of each participant’s day-to-day experience as they build a shelter, forage for food, and explore the environment around them.
§ My Google Home pronounced the opera Gianni Schicchi like it was “Jonny Squishy.”
§ Links
- An open source web interface for the ChatGPT API
- Harry Whittier Frees
- Emergent abilities of large language models
- “An amusing toy, nothing more”
- Alpaca.cpp
- Jeff Kaufman on bushels
§ Recipes
- Rosemary beer battered fish & chips
- Delicious but quite a bit of work. It reminded me how infrequently I cook fish, though. I hope to incorporate some more fishy dishes into my usual repertoire now.