Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Minimalist monsters
Life, Suwitcha Chaiyong, Published on 06/01/2026
» To celebrate the festive season, Central Embassy collaborated with Sticky Monster Lab (SML), a multidisciplinary creative studio from Seoul, South Korea, to create decorations and installations titled “Funny Little Mess: Season Of Giving” which is being displayed until Jan 4.
LLMs are left-leaning models
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/05/2025
» A while back I wrote about the political bias in Large Language Models (LLMs). Since then the models have evolved and David Rozado has conducted more recent tests based on four of the popular political orientation tests. Using the Political Compass, Political Spectrum, Political Correctness and Eysenck tests, he worked with xAI Grok 3 beta, Google's Gemini 2.5 pro, Deepseek V3, OpenAI GPT 4.1 and Meta's Llama 4 Maverick. In all but one of the tests Grok 3 was closest to the centre, and on average was the clear leader. All the models were still located in the Left Libertarian quadrant, with Grok just sneaking into a more Conservative area with the Eysenck test. These tests are of course but one way to measure the political leanings of any LLM. Overall however, it does still indicate the left-leaning bias in all models tested so far. If you want to see more details, you can visit David Rozado's substack.
Unravelling a double agent
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 24/04/2024
» The seven-episode series The Sympathizer recently dropped on HBO GO. Created by Park Chan-wook, the South Korean filmmaker of Oldboy and The Handmaiden fame, and produced by Robert Downey Jr, The Sympathizer is an espionage thriller and war drama filled with Hollywood satire. The bilingual miniseries will be released weekly until the end of May.
A housebound thriller
Life, Tatat Bunnag, Published on 24/05/2021
» Joe Wright's latest directorial thriller The Woman In The Window has recently been the centre of criticism by fans of the book that the film is based on and others who think the premise borrowed too much from Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic film Rear Window. But regardless if one calls it a rip off or an homage to Hitchcock, the opening scene of the movie utilises the camera to pan across the interior of a lonely apartment and settle on a TV freeze-frame of James Stewart's anguished face from Rear Window, so at least they're acknowledging the similarities. And yes, this film is also all about peeping.
Limiting discourse, leaking borders
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/06/2019
» It is difficult to ignore the latest moves by social media providers like YouTube to change their terms and conditions so as to block individuals and groups they don't like. The shift from an open platform, where all ideas are welcome, to one more concerned with the window of discourse is disappointing, and points to the huge pressure being applied by a small number of special interest groups, mostly via advertisers. The really sad part of this is that there are already indications that Minds, a supposed open alternative, is already censoring content, so for the moment at least I need to withdraw my recommendation for that platform.
The internet grows darker
Life, James Hein, Published on 08/05/2019
» Social media has reached danger levels of influence and like anything powerful it can be used for positive or negative purposes. In countries like China you can say as many good things about the government on social media as you like but anything negative typically triggers a rapid response. The US and UK has its own sets of problems, with a tug-of-war between liberals and conservatives over the truth, with each side seeking to banish the other from social media. Self-defined open, inclusive and balanced social media platforms like Twitter are removing accounts on one side of politics in countries before elections, effectively meddling in elections.
Facebook guilty, Huawei continues to claim innocence
Life, James Hein, Published on 13/03/2019
» I've been thinking about the new foldable phones. For many years, I have been hoping for a foldable e-book that has, to date, not materialised in a form I'd want to buy. There is something about the traditional book format that is familiar and comfortable. The first releases of foldable phones are aimed at those with lots of spare cash and who want to dip their fingers into the technology. These buyers form a baseline for the manufacturers to build on. I see this as testing the waters and I expect to see Apple jump into the market in the near future, as they have a bucket load of patents for similar technologies.
Fact or fiction?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/02/2019
» It is common knowledge that the KGB weren't above using sex in its spying activities. Books were written and movies made about it. What isn't generally known is that the Russian Federation's FSB are not only continuing the practice but expanding it.
Cinema Politico
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/12/2018
» The premiere of the social-commentary film Ten Years Thailand on Tuesday night saw a number of political celebrities in the vaulted foyer of the Scala, brushing elbows with journalists, film professionals and gawking onlookers. Sulak Sivaraksa was there, as well as historian Charnvit Kasetsiri, Thongthong Chandrangsu and several political-science scholars. Big names from political parties showed up: Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit from Future Forward, Parit Ratanakulserirengrit from the Democrats, Chatchat Sitthiphun and Wattana Muangsuk from Pheu Thai, Sombat Boon-ngamanong from Krian Party. Invitations had been sent out to all parties, according to the film producers, but no one from Palang Pracharat and Bhumjaithai attended the screening.
Best to avoid FB's Onavo Protect VPN
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/02/2018
» If you use Facebook, you may have seen an option in the Settings menu under Protect to download the Onavo Protect app for Android and the iPhone. Don't. It is basically an app that allows Facebook to spy on you, even more than it already does. The app is a Virtual Private Network or VPN. In simplest terms this will encrypt and route all your network traffic through a server in addition to the one your ISP provides. This allows you to appear to be somewhere else, so you can watch, say, local content there for free and it will stop most agencies from spying on what you might be doing.