Playing with AI Drawing Bots

I’ve been playing with the Midjourney AI Drawing Bot a lot this week. You access it by joining a Discord Server and entering commands, such as /imagine Cartoon Character Bulky Fantasy Knight.

I showed the bot to my six-year-old daughter and she immediately began feeding me prompts such as Pug Eating a Hot Dog and Cute Sleeping Kitten. We decided to make a game out of it where I’d feed the bot a prompt and she’d have to guess what that was. For example:

Yes the prompt was Fox Wearing Sunglasses. The AI has many limits, as you can imagine, but I found myself thinking about what the bot could be used for right now. The most obvious application is for Idea Creation. When a client says they want a picture of a Fox with Sunglasses, that’s often all you get. What is the fox doing? What are the exact colorations of the fox? Is he chubby or skinny? We all know what a fox looks like, but these minor details are completely left up to the artist who will often try all these variations to see which ones look the most pleasing or interesting. Being Creative isn’t something that’s always easy to turn on, especially several times a day for different projects. Artists will look at the world around them, flip through old magazines or (yes) surf the internet for inspiration. An AI Drawing Bot seems like a well suited tool for kick-starting the creative process.

It’s 2021 Ya’ll

I’m writing again. Right this moment. I enjoy writing and they say the only way to get better at writing is to write, so here I am. My last update to this blog was 2015. People don’t even really use the word ‘blog’ anymore. In 2015, my wife and I welcomed our daughter into this world and last night she lost her first tooth. In between that time we’ve had the Trump years and a global pandemic. Prince died, Pokemon “Go” was a sensation, and Notre Dame burned. We had the #MeToo movement, a total solar eclipse, wildfires, Russian hacking, hurricanes and Tiger King.

I’ll write about whatever’s on my mind. I’ve promised myself to not try to force this into anything. Just write for writing’s sake. Hopefully it will be good, or helpful, or somehow cathartic and positive. Hopefully I can stick with it. And if you’re reading this I hope you enjoy some of it.

When Fargo Season 2 Went Off the Rails

The Season Two finale of Fargo is next Monday on FX. For six episodes, Season Two was better than the first. The story was a creative yarn set in 1979, with another all-star cast and the same quirks, dark humor, and style as Season One. Peggy, the butcher’s wife, runs over the troubled son of the Gerhardt clan, who are in the midst of a turf war with Kansas City mobsters, and machinations begin. Five beautifully crafted episodes culminated in three showdowns: one at Peggy and Ed’s house with Dodd Gerhardt, another at the police station with Bear and his thugs, and a third at the Gerhardt’s homestead.

It’s just a flyin’ saucer, Ed. We gotta go. – Peggy

When Episode Six ends, the police station showdown is resolved and Mike Milligan is storming the Gerhardt compound, where Floyd and Simone are completely unprotected. That’s all fine, but Sheriff Larsson returns from consciousness at Ed and Peggy’s and instead of going back into the house or to the police station, he’s next seen intercepting Lou and Ed on a country road. (Hanzee the Indian is pursuing them.) Ed immediately gets away, to which Hank says “Don’t worry we know where he’s going.” Ultimately, Ed will somehow get home with enough time to pack up Peggy and get out of town. This is the first head scratcher leading into the next week, where the plot completely derails.

Episode Seven has so many plot problems it feels like the old team of writers were fired and a new group took over. We find out that off-screen, Mike Milligan was somehow runoff from the Gerhardt’s. Bear gets wind of Simone’s cavorting with Mike and, in the first sign of his dark side, takes her out into the woods and executes his own niece. In a waste of screen time, Lou visits Mike and tells him to leave town which of course he doesn’t. Floyd turns into an police informant, although we don’t know what evidence she hands over and looking forward, absolutely nothing comes of it. Mike Milligan, the trusted Kansas City man who has been quite competent thus far is not only racially belittled by his handlers in KC but they send a hitman to try to kill him.

The most troubling thing about Episode Seven’s non-sensical turns is they also push the show down a darker, more travelled path. When Bear kills Simone, it is an unnecessary, cold-blooded murder, beginning a trend that will only worsen in the next two episodes. In Episode Eight, Hanzee suddenly turns into a serial killer, executing citizens and police left and right including Dodd, his longtime employer and childhood friend. Hanzee continues his killing spree in Episode Nine, where it turns into full-blown treachery. The Gerhardt clan and a team of cops predictably gun each other down at a motel in Sioux City. Instead of dark comedy or violence in service of the story, it simply becomes killing for killing’s sake. It is every hack action movie ripping off Tarantino. Not only is it not true to the characters, it’s not true to Fargo.

Throughout all of this, Episodes Seven through Nine are still completely watchable because it is still Fargo. The acting is top notch. They style is there. There are plenty of great moments, which is why the missteps are so disappointing. Although we know everyone’s gonna die, we want to see exactly how it goes down. With many of the characters either deceased or sidelined, the finale will come down to Hanzee chasing Ed and Peggy and Lou chasing Hanzee. As original as Season Two began, is there much doubt now that Ed and Lou will live, Hanzee will die, and Peggy will save the day?

In case you’re interested: How I Would’ve fixed Season Two of Fargo

Alone on the History Channel

I’m addicted to the new History Channel reality show, Alone. 10 men are dropped separately onto Vancouver Island, a remote area surrounded by sea water and home to 7,000 black bears, 200 coyotes and 1,000 cougars. Each man is by himself, with no knowledge of where the other men are located, limited gear, and no water. The last man to quit wins $500,000. One man only made it one night after he pitched his tent next door to a bear den. (Spoiler Alert!)

The show makes a big deal about the guys choosing only 10 items from a list of 40, not counting clothes. Here is a list of what each man “brought.” We do not know what the original 40 items were and the men were responsible for their own gear. If someone chose to bring a knife, they could bring any knife they wanted. Also, it turns out they were provided other items, like flares, bear spray, and a flashlight. Plus, each man was left with 45lbs of camera gear to document his struggle, and some men used tarps from the camera gear to build water catches, etc.

For the record, I’d have brought: 12×12 tarp, 20m paracord, sleeping bag, 2 quart pot, canteen, gill net, fishing gear, axe, fire starter, & a knife. Read more about my choices.

Each guy also has a satellite phone he can use to call for extraction. It is unclear if he can also call to request medical assistance and keep going, or how often the crew may return to swap out camera batteries, etc.

Still, it’s a good idea and after weeding out the weinies and a couple guys with bad luck, we got down to five worthy contestants. The first goal for each guy was to find a water source, and then to figure out how to make fire in a misty rain forest. After 4 episodes, several guys have proven to be very knowledgeable and resourceful. We’ve already seen one make-shift boat. Watching this show makes you think about what you would do in a similar situation. Plus, you know some guys probably provided a bunch of good footage and others didn’t, requiring some creative editing. But as usual, why only a bunch of white dudes? Where are the ladies?

Alone is on the History Channel, Thursdays at 9pm CST. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Update: On Mitch Mitchell’s Facebook page, he answers many questions about the show in replies to comments. He also linked to a video about the extra camera gear each man is issued. (7/14/15)

The Secret Life of Passwords

This incredible piece from the New York Times made the rounds this week. Ian Urbina dives deep into one of the most private, yet telling details of modern life: our passwords. In our attempt to make an increasing tangle of passwords memorable to us and only us, we construct them full of meaning.

These special passwords are a bit like origami: small and often impromptu acts of creativity, sometimes found in the most banal of places.
Keepsake passwords ritualize a daily encounter with personal memories that often have no place else to be recalled. We engage with them more frequently and more actively than we do, say, with the framed photo on our desk.

I thought about what my own passwords say about me. Some are jokes based on the very first password I was assigned by a Sysadmin back in college. That original password was itself a subtle joke. Another password, created with a fellow employee, commemorated the date a dispised boss of ours was fired. I also thought of what my passwords don’t say. Mine never contain truly personal information, like the names of loved ones. And most telling, my passwords are always pragmatic in structure. I never settle on a password without making sure it can be quickly typed, that it has a nice mixture of characters and symbols for the left and right-hand fingers. It must have a nice rhythm on the keyboard. I’ll be typing this password many times a day, the thinking goes. I can’t risk my fingers getting tied in a knot.

Macminicolo breaks down the new Mini

Macminicolo has a great blog post about the changes in the new Mac Mini and what they mean for users. These guys know too, as their Mac Mini data center in Las Vegas hosts over 1400 Minis. They also sell off their older machines and follow the value of past Mini versions.

The 2012 Mac mini will still be very popular, keeping the prices of used Mac minis high. That machine offers the SSD/RAM upgrade options, the quad-core processor, and can also run a number of past versions of OS X.

UPDATE: And here’s the MacFixit teardown.

Will we build R2-D2s or C-3POs?

Interesting read by Rex Sorgatz on the future of robotics. Will we create R2-D2s, selfless robots that excel in areas where humans are deficient like deep computation and endurance in extreme conditions, or C-3POs, personified facsimiles of humans, complete with our foibles?

It’s simple:
R2-D2 aspires to be a great computer.
C-3PO aspires to be a mediocre human.
We need great computers, not mediocre humans.

Or as Sorgatz puts it in a nice info chart: R2-D2 is Wall-E, C-3PO is HAL. I think this debate will continue for a long time, with R2-D2 always the safe choice and C-3PO designs continuing to annoy us, or just plain creep us out – until we reach the Scarlett Johanson AI stage from Her. Then we’ll gleefully welcome our new robot overlords.

Siracusa Reviews Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Brew a pot of coffee and turn off your phone, it’s time to settle in for a long read. John Siracusa’s exhaustive, entertaining and technically rich review of Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite is here. Siracusa’s yearly reviews of the Mac operating system have become an annual treat since he first began with Mac OS X 10.0. This year’s review spends a lot of time on Yosemite’s marquee feature:

In last year’s OS X release, Apple tore down the old. This year, finally, Apple is ready with the new. To signal the Mac’s newfound confidence, Apple has traded 10.9’s obscure surfing location for one of the best known and most beautiful national parks: Yosemite. The new OS’s headline feature is one that’s sure to make for a noteworthy chapter in the annals of OS X: an all-new user interface appearance.

Siracusa’s insight into the UI and technical design of Mac OS X is enriched by 30 years of Mac experience and a little OCD. Who else can lament on the move from pulsating default buttons, or wax nostalgic about Kaleidoscope schemes? His reviews have become so legendary, there are reviews of his reviews. Sadly, as listener’s of John’s Accidental Tech Podcast know, this may be the last year he writes his 25,000+ word review. Kick back and enjoy one last labor of love.

Hoorah for the Mac Mini!

There was an Apple event today where new iPads were introduced (the iPad Air 2 & iPad mini 3) along with a new iMac sporting an amazing 5K retina screen (5120-by-2880 pixels). Holy cow!

That said, I was just as excited about the newly updated Mac Mini. Apple’s diminutive desktop computer hadn’t been updated in two years and has always seemed on the brink of cancellation. Yet here we are, closing in on the Mini’s 10th birthday next year, and Apple gives us an updated Mini starting at just $499. Granted, this will only get you an i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB spinning hard drive, but you can configure this little badass all the way up to a 3.0GHz i7 with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. ($2,199 if that’s your thing.) I’ve owned several Minis over the years and they’re great as workstations, media servers, and even rack-mounted network servers. I’m glad Apple continues to keep the Mac Mini on the roster.

2013 Tech Podcasts

My three favorite tech podcasts from last fall have been taken from me. John Siracusa shuttered his geek-minded podcast Hypercritical in December and Marco Arment did the same with Build & Analyze. Earlier in the fall, John Gruber moved his podcast The Talk Show away from the 5by5 network and host Dan Benjamin to go it alone. In a great example of how chemistry and tastes can change on a dime, I’ve never found his new podcast, where he is the main host with a rotating sidekick, to be as good.

I tried Andy Inhatko’s podcast for a while, but as much as I like Andy as a guest on other shows, his own show didn’t hold my attention. I also tried going back to Leo Laporte and the TWiT network, but those shows feel too produced and shiny to me now.

One podcast I’m enjoying now is the Accidental Tech Podcast with Siracusa and Marco. It’s no surprise I’d like it with those guys. In fact, I’ll check out anything with Siracusa (except Anime!). Marco runs the discussion, Siracusa talks off the cuff, and there is a third guy who chimes in occasionally (and I guess is running the equipment?). The three cover what’s new every week in tech and it scratches the itch. I’ve also recently started listening to Debug with Renee Ritchie and Guy English. The production values aren’t great but the conversation with iOS and web developers is fascinating. At first I was a little off-put by Guy’s obvious lack of podcast experience, but he has a degree of charm and does the most important thing an interviewer can do: he stays out of the way.

I also enjoy occasional episodes of Jason Snell’s The Incomparable geek podcast. Add into the rotation the hilarious Flop House bad movie review podcast with Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington, and Elliot Kallan and you’ve got a solid slate of replacements.