Showing 1 - 10 of 389
When more isn't better
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 27/08/2021
» Adding too much to something can make it overly complicated and almost unenjoyable whether it's putting too much salt in a dish or stuffing a bunch of superheroes in a movie, who weren't properly introduced in their standalone films (looking at you, original cut of Justice League). In the case of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the base game provides a chunky amount of content, which is mildly enjoyable. But its second expansion, The Siege Of Paris, seems to be an expansion for expansion's sake.
Don't call AI bigoted
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/11/2019
» Despite what some claim, Artificial Intelligence is not racist. Google built a system to detect hate speech or speech that exhibited questionable content. Following the rules given, it picked out a range of people with what some try to claim was a bias toward black people. Wrong. The AI simply followed the rules and a larger number of black people and some other minorities, as defined in the US, were found to be breaking those rules. It didn't matter to the machines that when one group says it, it isn't defined as hate speech by some; it simply followed the rules. People can ignore or pretend not to see rules, but machines don't work that way. What the exercise actually found was that speech by some groups is ignored while the same thing said by others isn't. As the saying goes, don't ask the question if you're not prepared to hear the answer.
Surprisingly, your personal data isn't safe with Facebook
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/10/2018
» Facebook has been in the news recently having large numbers of public profiles harvested by marketing conglomerates. Estimates from this incident alone range from 50 to 90 million users and there may be a lot more. The "more" part comes from the user search and account recovery features that may have been abused to scrape up to 2 billion or more accounts. In other words, if you are on Facebook and have any kind of public profile someone has more info on you than you might like. The feature has since been turned off but not before a lot of information went to the marketers.
Epic tales & epic scales
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 26/10/2018
» With a huge open world and hours and hours of content, Assassin's Creed Odyssey will keep you occupied for days on end.
The reality of AI is less scary than the movies
Life, James Hein, Published on 17/08/2022
» I was talking to someone at work recently and mentioned the Palm Pilot. He never heard of it. Some of us remember it being released in 1996 before the smartphone and social media, and in the early days of the internet. It drove the creation of the smartphone, though the people at Intel at the time didn't see how a portable, hand-held device like this could become common. One of the founders and inventors was Jeff Hawkins who also founded Handspring and worked on the Treo that evolved into a very early smartphone with a camera, which this brings us to today's topic, artificial intelligence.
Beware of TikTok snooping on your phone's data
Life, James Hein, Published on 02/03/2022
» If you didn't already know, TikTok is potentially dangerous. The app bypasses both Apple and Google protections and is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. According to reports, the app passes all your data back to servers in China, including unposted information and the contents of your phone. The app also has many security vulnerabilities allowing hackers to take over your phone. This is in addition to the expansion of your digital footprint across the planet. In China, people are rewarded for posting serious videos like those showing them using a chemistry set. Those outside China are rewarded for the dumbest presentations. I'll let the readers work this last one out for themselves.
Alternative social platforms can be expensive
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/11/2021
» The alternative social media platform Rumble recently bought out another platform for creators called Locals. Rumble is a YouTube-like platform and Locals is aimed more at the alternative blogging community, including names like Scott Adams and Dan Bongino. I don't think this will be a long-term successful merger for a simple reason, and that is money. To be fair Locals is an alternative to Patreon, a platform that will nuke your account if it doesn't like your politics as evidenced by a long list of conservative commentators being axed without warning.
Thais among top 10 global freelance hires
Business, Suchit Leesa-nguansuk, Published on 17/08/2023
» Thai freelancers are among the top 10 globally in terms of hires via Freelancer.com, the world's largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace.
A bloody Irish jaunt
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 28/05/2021
» You would think that a game as massive as Assassin's Creed Valhalla wouldn't need an expansion and yet here's Wrath Of The Druids, which was released earlier this month. Tagged by Ubisoft as only the first major expansion in an unknown number to come, the add-on gives the already hefty game even more stories, mysteries and locations to discover and explore. But is more necessarily better?
Playstation dominance
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 01/10/2021
» The console wars have raged on since multiple consoles came on the scene and the question of "which is the best console?" has been asked on forums and argued at gaming conventions for years. It's a question that doesn't really have a definitive answer, but PlayStation definitely had a "drop the mic" moment with their latest PlayStation Showcase.