format cells (11. 430)

Though once deemed too dangerous to release to the public—though the verdict is still out—GPT-2 has been crammed into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, as an AI heuristic tool offline and running locally to teach developers how large language models work and hopefully inspiring the next phase of improvement. Still working off the autocomplete, next token prediction principle that underpins all present chat applications, users input prompts in adjacent fields and the algorithm tries to triangulate a response, and interesting in a way that’s constrained and self-contained so that those experimenting might be able to debug themselves or understand how the sentence building went awry. The other uses that people have shoehorned into the accounting software are always pretty fascinating and the binary file is free to download. More technical details and a tutorial are at the file’s link and at Ars Technica at the link above.

riding the rails (11. 429)

Via Damn Interesting, the start-up Ironlev demonstrates that it is possible to achieve magnetic levitation on existing train routes, successfully testing a prototype vehicle on the Adria-Mestre line near Venice whose speed topped out at seventy kilometres per hour. No modifications were made to the track to accommodate the maglev test carriage, and given the network of underutilised and in some cases abandoned rail infrastructure linking all parts of the continent, the potential applications, despite technical challenges, are significant for efficient and quick transportation of people and goods. Aside from a levitating service run briefly in Germany (die M-Bahn) to supplement gaps left in public transit following the fall of the Berlin Wall until reunification and a few other proof-of-concept trials, there are only six operational lines in China, South Korea and Japan presently with the biggest expensive and barrier to expansion being the high cost laying new dedicated tracks.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit, a Gloria Gaynor classic plus “All You Tories”

two years ago: Leipzig After-Hours

three years ago: Joseph of Arimathea, Lost Horizon (1973) plus vaccination campaigns as portrayed in movies and television

four years ago: a homecoming staged for the cameras (1973) plus the art of Edward Hopper speaks to pandemic isolation

five years ago: St Patrick in the Russian Orthodox Church plus The Fourth Dimension and the Bible (1922)

heimatblick (11. 428)

 Before the weather turned, we took the dog on a hike up above Stockheim for a panoramic view of the village below. The diversion in the trail up the Tanzberg was a bequest from a local landowner stipulated in his will after an unfortunate farming accident. A bit further along the main path, we encountered a Blitzstein, a memorial for an anonymous resident and likely not the above donor struck and killed by lightning though now an unlikely occurrence given tree height in the vicinity though yet memorable and cautionary. 

I’ve noticed such small headstones before and wondered if they memorialised similar Acts of God—and wondered whether if this was all the individual received for funerary rites since it did sort of seem like divine punishment. When I first came to Germany and began noticing makeshift cenotaphs the just off the shoulder of the road, commemorating the victims of a traffic accident, I remember first thinking, there sure are a lot of people walking on the side of the road and getting killed by cars and thought that the country must have a problem with pedestrian deaths. 

Of course, during our walkies, I wasn’t preoccupied with such morbid thoughts, just wanted to know more about the practise and customs but was not able to find anything else out. Both spots were equipped with a nice picnic area and a wooden sun lounger for warmer weather.  It was a beautiful early spring day and we went on down the valley with a glimpse of the next town of Mellrichstadt off in the distance.

 

featherstonehaugh (11. 427)

Thanks to raft of gossip and speculation from 2019 revived in part due the obsession over the whereabouts of the Princess of Wales, we’ve been educated that the Marchioness of Cholmondeley of interest holds the peerage style of the Most Honourable Lady CHUM-lee, and so we appreciated these further lessons in pronunciation of historic British and Irish titles and surnames (respecting the fact that one’s name is pronounced how they tell you to pronounce it and subject to variation). There are some really non-intuitive examples like the title—usually said like Fernshaw—and while we would have liked more detailed explanations like with family name Menzies with its archaic letter ȝ (yogh), it was nonetheless interesting to contemplate how those estranging shifts might have occurred, like with Geoghegan (GAY-gən) or Wriothesley as RIZZ-lee.

auto sportive (11. 426)

Renowned Italian car designer associated with Gruppo Bertone, producing a number of iconic models for Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, Marcello Gandini has passed away, aged 85. His signature Stile Bertone developed chiefly in a studio outside of Turin, created many prototypes and concept cars, innovative wedge formats, like the pictured mid-engine mounted Miura, the futuristic flagship of the company in production from 1966 to 1973, scissor doors for the two-seaters, also lending his talents to Volkswagen with the first Polo, Lancia’s rally car and BWM’s 1970 Garmisch—as well as venturing into architecture and interior design. More from designboom at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Florida tries to outlaw cabaret shows

two years ago:  bicolour

three years ago: your daily demon: Andromalius, global stock markets crash, the bombing of Würzburg (1945) plus proposed repurposing submarines as oil tankers

four years ago: St Urho, a portentous sea monster plus pandemic restrictions and air quality

five years ago: Sushi Singularity, more Olympic pictograms, hydrogen-power plus the Vessel

stumbleupon (11. 425)

Though our favourite sites always deliver and never disappoint and there are aggregators like the Ooh! Directory and other webrings, true serendipity is an increasingly rare commodity on the internet. Granted this came as an appeal to narcissism—trying it out for this site and some PfRC adjacent friends of the blog—we were intrigued with this little fortuity engine, via Web Curios, in the form of a Google Chrome extension called Browser Buddy. Whilst a bit apprehensive about such add-ons as an invitation to scrap one’s data or target ads, it appears to be a non-intrusive co-pilot that pops up in a corner and offers a list of sites hosted on similar platforms with the same energy. A few recent discoveries to follow are sourced from these suggestions. Venturing outside of one’s zone without a map or agenda is still the best way to rewild one’s interests, however, even if it does take effort and often nets little on each excursion.

terra cognito (11. 424)

We are directed to consider the rather outstanding and preternatural cartographic abilities of another competitive prodigy in the player with the handle Rainbolt who ranks in the top tier of Geoguessr challenges, where one is presented with a random image from Google Street View and tries to surmise its location, dropping a pin on the globe to where one thinks it might be. Even if our featured contestant were not playing on hard-mode, only allowing the image to flash on the screen for a few seconds without time for study or applying a pixelated filter, there is at first a suspect element—like it’s a gimmick or trick, in the ability to distinguish a seemingly rather nondescript dirt road from another and zero-in on its coordinates in America, India, Botswana or Australia, but like the limited success we’ve had in national or regional versions of the game, especially in city-settings and found urban landmarks to hone in on, context clues emerge on deeper inspection for this champion and spectators. Rainbolt has profited from this success and is using their recognised talent to travel the world and explore those places previously only visited virtually and share some of the hidden markers of vernacular architecture, vegetation and signage that helps pin-point a place. Though internet fame tends to pigeon-hole one’s reputation like so much monotony of holiday snapshots, strangers have approached Rainbolt with old family photographs, hoping to identify where they were taken, and often mysteries were solved—making this game seem important and serving to expand one’s horizons rather than making the world a flatter place. More at the link up top.

symbolics.com (11. 423)

The above domain of the now defunct privately held computer company spun of from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s artificial intelligence laboratory in 1980 that developed and sold the first single-user workstations utilising a high-level programming language especially fluent for hardware and peripheral integration was the registered on this day in 1985, making it the first of its kind and as it is still active, sold to napkin.com investments, also the oldest. The venerable property now uses AI to rate one’s domain, it appears. Maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the other core and original generic top-level domains .org, .edu, and .net were registered to the US Department of Defence research and development agency DARPA in January of that year, whose predecessor was responsible for the ARPANET project (see previously) that created the first computing network that allowed communication and resource sharing amongst remote terminals.