Showing 11 - 20 of 3,732
2020 winners & losers in geek
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 25/12/2020
» The year of 'Rona meant a lot of changes in the way we do things hence the term "new normal", and Geekdom wasn't left unscathed. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it was all bad. There are things we enjoyed watching this year with all the time we had on our hands and fan events that we "attended" right in the comfort of our own home that we wouldn't be able to normally attend. At the same time, there were some things that sadly suffered because of the pandemic and a certain something that fell flat despite all the hype. Here's the winners and losers of 2020 in geek.
YouTube ramps up ads, moderation
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/03/2023
» If this was a YouTube video you would have to sit through up to 30 seconds of ads before you could even start. YouTube seems to be stepping up its advertising while at the same time providing less service. I still use it because it has things I'm interested in, like Chinese martial arts series and info on music products I like. If I'd written this using ChatGPT you would not see some of the material because the trust and safety filters on the AI product have repeatedly been found to be biased towards the US political left in the content it will return. Some people associated with ChatGPT have acknowledged this but it remains to be seen if anything will change.
Is the new Twitter just like the old?
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/02/2023
» The Twitter situation is complex and somewhat confusing. On the one hand, all kinds of people from The Babylon Bee satirical website to former US president Donald Trump have been allowed back on the platform. The stated aim is to allow freedom of speech to be supported by Twitter once again. On the other hand, you can be banned by linking to a public photo of a public person on a public platform. The rule for the latter appears to only be for friends of Elon Musk. A YouTube channel I enjoy watching, The Quartering, did this after someone else had been banned and was also almost instantly banned himself. This is of course wrong in every respect especially given the individual in question, apparently now hypocritically, is always banging on about freedom of speech. Update, the ban is permanent.
Brutality at its finest
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 29/11/2019
» Call Of Duty hasn't been MIA. Its latest title, Black Ops IIII (yes, that's how it's stylised so don't give me grief) just came out last year, but the general consensus is that the game has lost its gritty realism and traded it for near sci-fi elements. Well, the developers have heard everyone's cries because with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, the game goes back to its roots.
New chatbot can do a lot, but can you trust it?
Life, James Hein, Published on 18/01/2023
» Over the New Year break, I was digging a bit more into artificial intelligence and especially how the ChatGPT can be used and how it could affect society.
Burnin' up
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 06/12/2019
» In recent years, the Need For Speed franchise has tried to evolve but sadly, change isn't necessarily a comfortable thing for most people. It's the usual challenge of wanting to embrace the new yet keep the familiar things that made it so memorable. Thankfully, Need For Speed: Heat hits the sweet spot of new and classic, reinvigorating the franchise and at the same time bringing gamers familiar with the title back to the good ol' days of NFS.
AIS retains chief executive for another year
Business, Komsan Tortermvasana, Published on 02/02/2023
» The board of Advanced Info Service (AIS) Plc has decided to retain chief executive Somchai Lertsutiwong at the mobile operator for another year.
Google lays claim to 'quantum supremacy'
Business, Reuters, Published on 25/10/2019
» BERLIN/SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet Inc's Google says it has achieved a breakthrough in computing research by using a quantum computer to solve in minutes a complex problem that would take today's most powerful supercomputer thousands of years to crack.
EU demands Apple play fair
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/06/2022
» It looks like the Apple-specific charging cable may be a thing of the past with the European Union demanding that all smartphone makers use a universal USB-C port for wired charging by 2024. The same rule will be applied to many other electronic devices like tablets, cameras, headphones, handheld video game consoles and e-readers. In the future, laptops will need to follow the same rule.
Countryside mayhem
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 20/04/2018
» The latest entry to the Far Cry franchise is finally here after much anticipation. Its predecessor, Far Cry 4, delivered a pretty ruthless villain, a gorgeous open-world environment, but a story that didn't appeal to some and a gameplay that was criticised as being too similar to the previous game. The question now is whether Far Cry 5 avoided these pitfalls.