Voice For Liberty

Category: Computing

  • Sure, AI Can Do That

    Sure, AI Can Do That

    A post about AI reveals lack of knowledge and conspiratorial mindsets.

    Something making the rounds on Facebook makes claims about the ability of A.I. to read cursive handwriting. As can be seen nearby, I fed the image into a popular AI model, and it understood the writing without error.

    This post had over 300 reactions, and a number of comments like these:

    “True” No, false.

    “Powerfull!” Actually, weak.

    “very good! one step ahead of them!! you are! write down ur thoughts in cursive..screen shot and upload..” It seems this person believes cursive is like a form of encryption to keep your secrets from being read by computers.

    “…or because they don’t want the next generation to be able to read the Constitution.” For many years the Constitution has been available in non-cursive versions.

    “Ah ha! Now we know why cursive is being kicked out of schools” Difficult to understand the thought behind this.

    “I don’t think they uckingfay eadray igpay atinlay either LOL”

    I fed this to ChatGPT and asked: Can you translate this? (I censored the language.)

    Sure! The text you’ve provided is written in a playful code called “Pig Latin,” which involves rearranging the letters of English words. In Pig Latin, the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word is moved to the end of the word and followed by an “ay”. If a word begins with a vowel, you just add “way” or “ay” to the end.

    The text “uckingfay eadray igpay atinlay” translates to “f****** read pig latin” in English. The entire sentence would be: “I don’t think they f****** read Pig Latin either LOL.”

    What’s notable here is the level of knowledge about an important new technology that may have transformative effects on our economy and world. Of 28 comments, 27 comments showed no understanding of AI and its capabilities. Yet, they had opinions to express in public.

    But it goes farther than simple ignorance. I got the sense that many of these commenters were proud to show their lack of everyday knowledge. It’s another example of conspiratorial thinking, starting with the unfounded statement about vaccines in the handwriting sample. This mindset was evident in some of the comments, such as why schools stop teaching cursive and don’t want people to read the constitution. Unfortunately, some people are happy this way.

  • Firearm Mortality by State, AI Version

    Firearm Mortality by State, AI Version

    Artificial intelligence reads charts. Sometimes. (more…)

  • If you aren’t getting email from Voice for Liberty

    If you aren’t getting email from Voice for Liberty

    Troubleshoot why you aren’t getting email from Voice for Liberty or other senders.

    From time to time people ask me if I’m still sending email newsletters from the Voice for Liberty. The answer is yes, I am. But some people tell me they aren’t receiving them, even though I have verified that the emails are, indeed, being sent. So if you aren’t receiving your email from the Voice for Liberty or other senders, here are some troubleshooting steps. (I usually send Friday morning, but sometimes also on other days.)

    Spam. Just what is it?

    Most email programs or systems filter spam, that is, unwanted email, so it doesn’t reach your inbox. But there is not a clear definition as to what is spam, and spammers are continually innovating in order to bypass spam detection methodologies, just so you won’t overlook that Nigerian prince who wants to send you ten million dollars. So sometimes email that you want to receive is mistakenly marked as spam, and you may not see it. (Amazingly, sometimes Gmail — a service provided by Google — marks email sent from Google as spam.)

    Most systems have a spam or junk folder — or something similar — where spammy messages are placed. If you view that folder, you may find that email from Voice for Liberty, along with other desirable email, is there. If so, you can usually whitelist that email. That’s telling your email system that this email is not spam, and that future email from the sender should not be treated as spam.

    How to do this varies among email systems. In Gmail there’s a “Not spam” button. Other systems have a “Safe senders” list. Sometimes your contact list serves as the whitelist, so you need to add a sender to your contacts. (The email address Voice for Liberty emails are sent from is bob.weeks@gmail.com.) This helpful article from Constant Contact, the company I use to send the email newsletter, provides specific instructions for many email systems.

    Gmail categories, or tabs

    A few years ago Gmail added a feature that automatically sorts email into categories or tabs like Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. An article on LifeHacker titled Everything You Need to Know About Gmail’s New, Super-Confusing Layout explains.

    The problem may be that emails you want to receive are being sorted into a tab that you’re not paying attention to. If so, there are several things you can do.

    • On a desktop browser, you can drag an email to a different tab, like Primary.
    • Or, you can pay more attention to the tabs other than Primary.
    • Or — and a lot of people do this — you can switch off the categorized and tabbed feature. This article from Google shows how to do that.

    Did you unsubscribe, perhaps accidentally?

    It may be that sometime in the past you unsubscribed to emails from the Voice for Liberty, perhaps accidentally. If so, please be aware that I am not able to restore your subscription. (Constant Contact, my service provider, prohibits this in order to reduce spam.) If you think this is the case, here’s what you can do.

    • Click on this link and subscribe. You should receive a confirming email.
    • Or, send an email to me, and I can re-send your confirming email.

    Has your email address changed?

    If your email address has changed, click on this link and subscribe with the new address.

    Check your spelling

    Sometimes people subscribe by supplying email addresses that I’m pretty sure have spelling errors. So if you’ve subscribed but have never received email from Voice for Liberty, just subscribe again. Click on this link to subscribe. You should receive a confirming email.

    If you’ve having other problems, send me an email, and I’ll try to help. If I receive your email, that is.

  • Google Classic

  • I’m concerned about Google

    As someone who uses and relies on many Google products, I’m concerned when the company’s CEO says “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

    This quote is attributed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt in 2009. Tim Carney has more in the Washington Examiner at Even law-abiding people should oppose surveillance.

    “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in 2009, “maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

    This line was creepy enough coming from one of President Obama’s confidants and fundraisers. It takes on added weight now that the Washington Post and the Guardian have reported that the National Security Agency’s Prism program, in the days before Obama was sworn in, tapped into Google’s servers, gaining access to every message sent or received over Gmail.

    Google spokesmen, like spokesmen from all the tech companies, deny participating in any such program. So Americans are left to wonder: Was this corporate-government collusion? Was this federal hacking or infiltration of corporate servers?

  • I lost some data

    Yesterday afternoon my web hosting company, which I am satisfied with, suffered a mishap and some data was lost. This site was unavailable for some time, too.

    I reconstructed the posts from yesterday. The comments that were left were lost, at least in their normal form. I fetched them from my email notifications and included them within the text of the posts.

    Other than that I think everything is okay and back to normal, but I’d appreciate a notification if something isn’t working. Email to bob.weeks@gmail.com, or call 316-708-1837.

  • I’ll help you with technology

    I hate to see activists struggle with technology. Whether it’s creating and managing a blog, using Facebook or Twitter, or just using computers and the Internet effectively, I’d like to help.

    Crossloop is a tool that lets people work together remotely. By using it, you’ll be able to see my computer screen, and I — with your permission — can see yours. Working together this way, we can resolve many problems quickly.

    If you’re a center-right or libertarian activist and need help, contact me. It’s free. You’ll have to do an easy download of some software, but you don’t have to create an account or supply any personal information.

    Click on www.crossloop.com/BobWeeks to get started.

  • Google Classic

  • Pew Internet and American Life Project Redesign

    The Pew Internet & American Life Project has redesigned their website. This organization has been a valuable source of information about the Internet and how people are using it.

    As an example, here are some of their recent research reports:

    Twitter and status updating: “As of December 2008, 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others.”

    Adults and Social Network Websites: “The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% in 2005 to 35% at the end of 2008.”

    When Technology Fails: “Half (48%) of tech users need help from others in getting new devices and services to work, and many experience tech outages when there is a glitch with their home internet connection, computer, or cell phone.”