Category: Randomness

Bing… “How much crap can I fit in my shed?“

I’ve been digesting the announcement from Microsoft on the launch of its AI-powered Bing search. Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, the creators of the ground braking ChatGPT AI chatbot is now paying off in ways so big that I don’t think anybody truly understands how impactful this is yet.

Bing’s new AI search is so good, it hurts my head and yes it will take some time for people to get used to it, but when they do…. Internet search will be changed forever.

Anyone that has tried ChatGPT will have had that moment of amazement. The way that it will not only answer your questions in detail ,but will also let you step it up to “write me an example essay about it” and down to “can you explain it to me like I’m five”.

These amazing responses have been done while still running a old version of the AI and with no recent information or access to the internet.

Well now OpenAI and Microsoft have opened the Flood gates and given it access to the whole internet. They have also customised how it works to be focused on supporting internet searches.

You could ask how many cans of beer will fit in the boot of your Vauxhall. It will search the internet for the owners manual, find the dimensions of your boot, then calculate the answer using the average size of a can of beer.

It will give you the right answer, but it won’t JUST give you the right answer; it will give you detailed context on why it’s given you that answer. It will let you know that the capacity of the boot and shape of it will not allow you to perfectly fill it as not all the sides are straight, instead it will give you its best guess… and it will give you the links to all the places it searched to get that answer.

You could search for a new dress and once you have found one you can ask it to see if it can find you a bag that would match that dress. It will search fashion sites to find out what colours work best together, check that against your dress then search for bag’s that match.

It’s hard to fully get your head around how unreal this new AI search is.

Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips did a live demo on “The WAN Show” recently where he put it through it’s paces and at some points he was totally gob-smacked and speechless on how good it performed.

Watch the clip HERE

If you have the time I would recommend you check out the full demo on the show they did (from around 43mins in)

Linus Tech Tips: WAN Show February 10th

To use the service you need to join a waiting list or you can “jump the queue” by going all in on Microsoft Edge Browser, Default search to Bing and downloading the Bing search App.

Google have some work to do to play catch up and for Microsoft they have nothing to loose. Microsoft are the underdog of search when (not if) this works out for them they are going to sky rocket, search was worth $257 Billion in 2021. Something tells me google are not going to be leader for much longer.

Anyone else wish they had stock in Microsoft right now.

Phil GB

Microsoft announcing the new AI powered Bing: https://blogs.microsoft.com/

Google’s new AI: $120bn wiped off Google after Bard AI chatbot gives wrong answer

Villain Welsh Rapper made to look like a villain in front of his tiny fanbase

Dight – “The Welsh rapper, who has 23 monthly listeners on Spotify”

Could “A Welsh Rapper” be the the new “A Florida Man”?

When I spotted this one I thought it was a news story from The Onion when in fact it’s from the BBC.

Basically this guy invited his “fan base” to turn up at a field with their dirt bikes (presumable because he’s only has an Electric push bike) for a music video he was going to make for his 341 Facebook followers.

The field was then trashed and now local volunteers have set up a £3,500 fundraiser for Betterment Park in Cwm, to try and fix the damage.

Hard boy Welsh Rapper Dight says… It’s nothing to do with me mate.

i have no clue if he was involved or not but I can however, officially confirm that he looks like a dick.

Full Article: bbc.co.uk

Mastodon: Its a big Ocean but I will sink this ship if you keep Fu%$ing about!

Mastodon has grown into a beautiful community of 7,519,214 users across 18,458 instances.  Every one of them instances is a floating boat in a worldwide ocean that’s interconnecting people in the best way.  

It’s a breeding ground for great ideas, conversations, learning, information and Dogs on skateboards.  The best thing, it is not controlled by one individual or company with views and opinions of how everyone should behave.  Every boat has a captain, and that captain can set down the law for the people on their boat… not rules, but more guidance and a moral code, what they consider right or wrong and what they consider cool.  The captain can also invite like-minded people to get on board and share a viewpoint around a common goal.  

Love Dogs on skateboards? Captain Daryl is your man.  Passionate about Badgers? Not as much as Captain Angie, get on her boat!  Like living in a cold place… Captain Pingu, we are on the way.

All these boats can listen to, and broadcast to, every boat in this wonderful Ocean.

But What about Captain Dennis… His boat smells a bit funny and he likes to pull the wings off flys!

Well here is the genius of Mastodon.  Captain Barbara’s bug boat doesn’t want to hear about that kind of messing about so her boat can just cut ties, so nobody on her boat has to put up with Dennis’s horrible behaviour.  Daryl however likes Dennis’s jokes so no drama as long as his boat doesn’t start to smell even worse.

Caption Bruno’s Boat?  We don’t talk about Bruno’s boat, no no no, he doesn’t broadcast to us and we don’t listen. I think that’s best for everybody.

Some of these boats only have a Captain and some are big superliners with multiple Captain’s and Catering staff, they have swimming pools, tennis courts, helicopter pads and a shit load of passengers, the biggest, Mastodon.social 929,480 Passengers.

The boat I am on Mastodonapp.uk currently has 69,738 people.  Actual not all are people some are random computerised weather Station that blast out interesting information from a place I have never been but I still look at the info every time I see it – check it out: newquayweather

Our boat’s common connection is simply the little island we all live on and I think that’s kind of cool because I’m awake when they are awake.

So, Ocean, Boats, Captains, Passengers and Bruno.  Beautiful, Beautiful Ocean

What do you do when the Passengers are dicks? Kick them off the Boat, simple.  What if you get rats on your boat?  What if your passengers start kicking off with the Captain?  If it was somebody else’s boat you could just stop listening but this is happening in the dining room, around the pool and the Captain is starting to get pissed off with it.  Have you ever seen one of those videos of a retail worker finally deciding they have put up with enough of Karen’s shit!!

In the Twitter Ocean, there was only one big boat, and they spent a long time kicking the rats off the boat, after a while, you get too many rats and you just don’t have the time to get them off the ship… you end up with rat shit… everywhere.  The Captain’s paid good money for his boat and is too busy trying to charge people entry into the pool to spend any more time dealing with the rats.  When the whole place starts to smell like that toilet from Trainspotting the passengers just swim off to the next Ocean.

Now in the Ocean of Mastodon, the Ships and Boats are free, yes you have to pay to keep the lights on and the shifts are long but the Captain’s focus is on that cool connection to their like-minded passengers, that common connection.  That makes it all worth the effort, right?

Well… one of the biggist ships mastodon.lol with 76,281 passengers just got rats and as far as I’m aware this is the first big ship in our Ocean to get rats, some have been kicked overboard by the Captain, passengers are starting to rebel and now there is shit… everywhere!  The passengers have been blaming the Captain, but they don’t want to leave the ship; they have asked to speak to the MANAGER! but we only have Captains here.

I’m my opinion the Captain has done the only thing a Captain can do, and should do, in this situation.  

Sink the fucking boat and teach them horrible rats a valuable lesson.  Don’t shit where you eat!

I feel bad for the passengers that were just chilling by the pool sharing the love with other like-minded passengers, I really do, I would be more than happy for you to hang out with me on my boat.  But I also hope that the rats realise that in this new world, people won’t put up with your shit and are more than happy to let the air out of your dinghy of yours if you don’t play nice.

Just play nice people.

Phil GB

(Source of Mastodon Stats: https://observablehq.com/@simonw/mastodon-users-and-statuses-over-time

The Shopping Trolly Theory

Spotted a very thought provoking message today on how to determine the difference between a good and bad person:

“The Shopping Trolly Theory”

The shopping Trolly is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing.

To return the shopping trolly is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping trolly is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their trolly. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping Trolly. Therefore the shopping Trolly presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.

No one will punish you for not returning the shopping trolly, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping trolly, you gain nothing by returning the shopping trolly. You must return the shopping trolly out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping trolly because it is the right thing to do; Because it is correct. A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with a law and the force that stands behind it.

The Shopping trolly is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.

Don’t be a dick, return that trolly.

Phil GB

Stolen from: thecolumbiastar.com/

They also stole it from somewhere else.

Donington Monsters Of Rock 95

Sometimes a simple image can hit you with a mountain of memories and that happened to me today.

The Official Therapy? Instagram feed this week posted this “Festival” poster for Donington Monsters of Rock 1995.

Donington Monsters of Rock 1995 / Metallica: Escape from the studio 95

It is without a doubt one of the most epic moments of my younger years.

Anyone that has ever been into music will tell you that the music you listen to when you were in your teens will always have the biggest impact on you.

I was 16 years old and was well and truly into the Rock/Metal/Grunge scene.  The year before (1994, The Greatest year ever for music) some of the most epic bands released some amazing albums.

  • The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails.
  • Vitalogy, Pearl Jam.
  • Dookie, Green Day.
  • Soundgarden, Superunknown.
  • Grace, Jeff Buckley.
  • Purple, Stone Temple Pilots.
  • No Need to Argue, The Cranberries.
  • Sixteen Stone, Bush.
  • The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers.
  • Deliverance, Corrosion of Conformity.
  • Troublegum, Therapy?
  • MTV Unplugged in New York, Nirvana.

It was an epic time of music in the UK, brit pop was at its hight and the fallout from the death of Kurt Cobain was driving interest in the Rock music scene.

One big name in the Rock industry that was missing however everybody wondering what they were going to do next.  Metallica.

Therapy? – Infernal Love

For me; Therapy? was my band.  They had hit it big in the UK with the track Screamager and I had not only become obsessed with the Troublegum Album I had also been absorbing their “Nurse” Album.

The day of Therapy?’s released the “Infernal Love” Album in the summer of 1995 I turned up at the record store first thing to get my copy with my best mate.

I sat in the living room of my mate’s house that morning, we put the CD in and pressed play.  We both sat there and didn’t move until we had really listened to it.  The amazing Photography from Anton Corbijn, the transitions between songs, the rock Cello from Martin McCarrick, the lyrics and the songs.  I was in love with “Infernal Love”.

Metallica was on the backend of the Black Album and hadn’t put out any music for a while.  While working on their new album they decided to start drumming up interest in preparation for their further release.  They picked up that phone and called in some big-name band to support them.  Metallica is a very big band and Therapy? by comparison was not, so when Metallica announced a massive UK gig that was basically a takeover of a whole festival for the “Mattalica: Escape from the studio 95” I was shocked to see that one line down on the bill was Therapy?

I had to be there.

My best mate and me as well as some only friends got coach tickets heading from Sunderland City Centre at 4 am in morning to Donnington for a full day of Epicness.

The full bill for the days in retrospect is one of the best lineups of a Rock/Metal gig ever.  Looking back Therapy? had no write to be on that bill for such a big event but for me thay 100% should have been there.

I didn’t tell my parents about the Gig… I simply got up at 3 am and made my way to the coach. 

My friends were aged 14-17 and not one of us should have been allowed into the gig without adult supervision…. But this was the 90’s.

I had my leather jacket, jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of boots.  I had no money to buy food or drink for the whole day.  I was just there.

One of my friends (14 years old) got drunk on the coach on the way and they made him wait at the gates for 2 hours to “sober up”.

During the Machine Head set I was down in the mosh pit when a guy ask to use my water to wash the sand off his thumb…. It was hanging off by the skin.  We offer to take him to a medical tent… he said he would after the set!!

At the front – Castle Donnington 1995

The Therapy? The set felt so epic after spending the last few months wearing out my copy of Infernal Love, Troublegum and Nurse.

I also remember being totally overwhelmed and transfixed with the fireworks/strobes when Metallica played “One” after a long day of no food or drink and struggling to keep standing.  I sat back to allowed it to take me.

In December of that year, me and my best mate both got the mirrored “?” logo tattooed on my body. It was my first tattoo.  Ozzie, an old-school tattoo artist must have thought we were gay and was so uncomfortable with the whole thing and didn’t check our ages.  I guess he just wanted the money, and us out the door.

When I got back home my parents were very confused while I looked like a sweaty hobo and simply asked…. “Where have you been?”

MTV’s Headbangers Ball – Monsters Of Rock, Castle Donington 26.08.1995

Still one of the best musical moments of my life and all i have to remember it by is memory and a bootleg Tshirt with incorrectly spelt band names on it. (I blaged £10 off a mate for it)

Phil GB

Offical Metallica Events Page: https://www.metallica.com/

Full Set List: https://www.concertarchives.org

The Psychology Of Serial Killers

It’s entirely possible that my wife thinks I’m a psycho and I’m okay with that.

For Christmas, she got me tickets to go see “the psychology of serial killers” at the Liverpool Empire. A talk from former Metropolitan police officer in crime scenes officer, now forensics lecturer, Jennifer Rees.

Spot the Serial Killer

Not really sure what to expect I took my seat and spent the first 10 minutes scanning the room, trying to work out who was the actual psychopath in the room. I’m not 100% sure if I spotted them, but there were certainly a few contenders.

The talk was fantastic. She covered the different classifications of serial killers and some of the statistics that sent them down that route. As my wife will content to, I do seem to know an unhealthy amount about some of the more popular serial killers in the world However, the thing I liked about the talk from Jennifer was that she covered some of the less common individuals and the stories around them and was linking that back to the statistical research done on serial killers.

The Psychology of Serial Killers

One of the most interesting sections of the talk was around hybristophilia (People who “fall in love with Serial Killers”.

The whole thing was fascinating, and I would highly recommend it if this is even remotely in your wheelhouse.

https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-psychology-of-serial-killers-with-jennifer-rees/

Jennifer has also produced a book about the lives of women in the Police force “Voices from the blue: The Real Lives of Policewomen”.

OnlyFans “Star” starts affordable housing scheme

Firstly well done to her bringing in £100k a month from bean flicking for the boys (and girls) or whatever she’s doing. I would hardly say that it’s a “affordable housing scheme”.

OnlyFans star earning £100k a month starts ‘affordable housing scheme’ for UK families

The Mirror

A Cynical person would suspect that if you needed to promote your non-standard business venture to the mass media. Buying a bunch of houses from the thousands of pounds you have already made, renting them houses out and making a small profit from that; promoting it as some kind of charitable deed would be a good way to increase your earnings on your main business.

Rebecca Goodwin rakes in £100,000 a month by creating adult content on OnlyFans, and now the mum-of-two is planning to use her earnings to create affordable housing

The Mirror

That said however, nice one for the families who are going to be getting a little bit of discount on the rent and fair play to her she’ll be bringing in £200K per month before the year is out.

You get that bean flicked girl?

Read the full article from: The Mirror

SMLP : Phil GB

No gorilla needed. Just Phil doing his thing.

Sometimes when you get, used to listening to great albums from back in the 80s and 90s you get used to hearing the epic songs and standout singles.

When they are this good however you maybe don’t fully appreciating how good they were back in the day and that they (for the lost part) would have been performed live at most point and you missed out

Phil Collins is one of these artists where I have never actively looked back at live performances thinking that the album version of these great songs was enough.

Nope

I stumbled over this live performance of Phil performing “in the air tonight” at Knebworth in 1990.

Amazing band, amazing vocal and epic drumming.

Somehow the song feels more special seeing and listening to it in.

This is definitely worth 7 minutes of your life. (6min 33sec to be exact the extra 27secs are for saying (wow”)

Brittany Murphy’s Death

Brittany Murphy

Watching the film “Don’t say a word” with Mrs GB and ended up going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole… reading about Brittany Murphy death.

Her death:

“the manner of death was accidental and that the cause of death was pneumonia”

And her husband 6 months later….

His Death:
“his death to acute pneumonia and severe anaemia”

I did not know how mad the whole thing was… crazy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany_Murphy

Full documentary on YouTube that covers and whole madness.