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techs2info · 2 years ago

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What Is Google Duplex? The AI Assistant of the Future

Ever wish you had a personal assistant to handle those mundane phone calls? Well, Google's been working on an AI system that can conduct natural conversations over the phone, and it's called Google Duplex. This new technology can carry out complex real-world tasks for you over the phone like booking appointments or making restaurant reservations.

Pretty soon you may never have to call a business again. Google Duplex can have a natural back-and-forth conversation with someone on the other end of the line, responding appropriately based on the conversation and even adding in the occasional "um" or "mm-hmm." The system sounds so human that during early tests, people on the other end of the calls didn't even realize they were talking to an AI.

While we're still a few years away from having our own personal robot assistants, Google Duplex gives us a glimpse into the future where AI and humans work side by side to get things done. The technology is still limited to specific tasks like making phone calls, but as it continues to improve, AI systems like Duplex could handle more and more of those everyday annoyances for us. The future is here, and it's getting more automated by the day.

What Is Google Duplex?

Google Duplex is Google's AI assistant that can have natural conversations over the phone. It's able to book appointments, make reservations, and perform other tasks for you using speech recognition and speech synthesis.

Duplex allows Google Assistant to have actual phone conversations by adapting to the human on the other end of the call. It has a very natural speaking style and is able to respond quickly and appropriately during a discussion.

Make a phone call on your behalf. For example, call a hair salon to book an appointment or a restaurant to make a dinner reservation.

Handle hold times, interruptions, and complex conversations. The AI assistant can understand multiple interconnected requests in a single conversation.

Provide more natural interactions. Duplex speaks with a very human-like voice and uses culturally appropriate speech patterns like "umm's" and "mm-hmm's".

Duplex is currently only available in the U.S. to help users with very specific tasks like booking reservations or appointments by phone. However, it has huge potential to handle more complex requests in the future as the technology continues to advance.

The rollout of Duplex means that we now have AI technology helping us accomplish everyday tasks by conducting actual phone conversations. While still limited, Duplex provides a glimpse into the future where AI assistants handle an increasing number of responsibilities on our behalf using natural language interactions. The possibilities for how Duplex may evolve over the next several years are truly amazing!

How Google's Duplex AI Assistant Works

Google Duplex is the AI assistant of the future that can make phone calls on your behalf. How does this futuristic tech work? Let's break it down:

Google's Duplex AI assistant is powered by a neural network trained on a huge dataset of anonymized phone conversations. This allows Duplex to understand natural conversation flow, context, accents and ambient noise during calls.

Duplex can conduct complex, multiturn conversations, responding quickly and naturally. Its responses are generated in real time based on what the person on the other end of the call says.

Duplex schedules appointments, reservations or queries by first contacting the business to check availability and ensure their hours are accurate. It provides all the necessary details like contact info, reason for calling, number of people, time requested, etc.

If the business asks for details Duplex can't provide, it will politely ask to call you back. It can also handle common questions, exceptions and nuances that come up during calls.

Duplex aims to be extremely polite, courteous and helpful at all times. Its goal is to have natural and positive conversations, and to achieve the objective you request while causing no inconvenience.

While Duplex may seem too good to be true, Google is taking an iterative approach to launch - starting with very specific use cases, collecting feedback, and continuing to improve the AI. The possibilities for time-saving and convenient AI assistants are exciting, as long as they're built responsibly and respectfully. How's that for a glimpse of the future?

When Will Google Duplex Be Available?

So when can you expect to start using Google Duplex to handle tasks for you? Unfortunately, widespread availability is still on the horizon, but progress is being made.

Limited testing underway

Google Duplex is currently available on a limited basis for certain Google Pixel owners in select cities in the U.S. You have to sign up to be part of the preview program to gain access. Google is using this beta testing period to improve Duplex's abilities and work out any kinks before rolling it out to more people. The company hasn't announced a definitive timeline for when Duplex will be broadly released, but expects it to take some time as they expand to more locations and languages.

iPhone users still waiting

If you're an iPhone owner, you'll have to wait even longer. Google Duplex is only available for Google's own Pixel devices right now. The technology behind Duplex is complex, and Google wants to refine it on their own hardware before opening it up to third-parties. There's no word on if or when iPhone users might get access to Duplex, but it likely won't be anytime soon.

What's taking so long?

You might be wondering what's holding Google back from releasing Duplex worldwide. A few factors are at play:

Complexity. Duplex and its AI components are highly advanced technologies that take time to develop and improve to function smoothly.

Caution. Google wants to be careful about how Duplex is introduced to avoid issues with privacy, security or overpromising on its capabilities. They're taking an incremental approach.

Experimentation. Google is still testing different use cases for Duplex to determine how to best apply it. They may roll it out for certain tasks before others.

Regulation. Laws around AI systems like Duplex are still evolving. Google wants to release it in a regulated and responsible manner.

While the wait for Google Duplex may be frustrating, it's better for Google to take its time to do things right. Once available, Duplex could revolutionize how we get things done each day. But we have to be patient and let progress run its course. The future is coming, even if not quite as fast as we might like!

What Can Google Duplex Do?

Google Duplex is an AI system created by Google to help with real-world tasks over the phone. At its core, Duplex is a virtual assistant focused on accomplishing specific goals through natural conversation. Currently, Google Duplex can handle the following types of requests:

Restaurant Reservations

Duplex can call restaurants to book tables on your behalf. Give it details like the name of the restaurant, date and time of your reservation, number of guests, and any preferences you may have. The AI will then phone the restaurant, check availability, and reserve your table, handling any questions that come up. You'll get a notification when your reservation is set.

Salon and Spa Appointments

Need to schedule a haircut or massage? Duplex can call salons and spas to book appointments for services like:

Haircuts

Hair coloring

Massages

Facials

Nail care

Provide Duplex with the details of the service you want to book and it will work with the business to find an available time slot that fits your schedule.

Checking Business Hours

If you need to know the hours of operation for a local store, restaurant or other establishment, Duplex can call them and inquire about their hours, including:

Regular business hours

Holiday hours

Any seasonal changes

Duplex will then send you the details so you know exactly when that business will be open.

While still limited, Google Duplex shows the potential of AI to handle everyday tasks through natural and engaging phone conversations. As the technology continues to advance, virtual assistants like Duplex may eventually be able to book flights, schedule deliveries, handle customer service inquiries and more using their conversational abilities. The future certainly looks bright for this promising AI system!

Google Duplex vs Alexa and Siri: How They Compare

Google Duplex is Google's AI assistant focused on accomplishing real-world tasks over the phone. Compared to Alexa and Siri, Duplex is far more advanced in its conversational abilities and seamlessly handles the nuances of natural human speech.

Polite and Natural

Duplex is designed to sound extremely natural on phone calls, from its polite greetings to its fluent responses. It politely says “please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me,” and pauses naturally in conversation. This helps it come across as courteous and human-like compared to the more robotic tones of Alexa or Siri.

Complex Task Handling

Whereas Alexa and Siri are best suited for simple questions and commands, Duplex can handle more complex real-world tasks over the phone like booking restaurant reservations, scheduling hair salon appointments, and checking holiday business hours. Duplex demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of conversational context which allows it to deal with the unexpected questions and tangents that often come up in such phone calls.

Limited Availability

Unfortunately, Duplex is not yet available for public use and is still limited to a select number of Google Pixel phone owners. Google is testing Duplex to ensure it meets high standards of politeness, transparency and user control before rolling it out more broadly. In contrast, Alexa and Siri are available on many devices and are continually improving to better serve their millions of users.

Privacy and Bias Concerns

Some critics argue AI systems like Duplex could be privacy risks or reflect unfair biases. Google is proactively addressing such concerns through research partnerships focused on AI safety, as well as subjecting Duplex to rigorous testing around privacy, transparency and bias before expanding its availability. Overall though, Duplex seems poised to become the most human-like AI assistant once it overcomes these important challenges and becomes widely accessible.

In summary, Duplex edges out Alexa and Siri with its advanced conversational and task-handling abilities, as well as its politeness and naturalness. However, Duplex still faces certain limitations around availability, privacy, bias and transparency that it must address to fulfill its full potential. With continued progress, Duplex could become the AI assistant of the future we've long been waiting for.

If you want more information about AI Tools then check out Top 9 AI Tools - It Feels Illegal To Know These 9 AI tools. You can also read more about what exactly artificial intelligence means and how it’s changing our world in articles like What Is AI? How AI Change The World/The Dark Truth Of Ai & What Is Technology? How Technology Is Changing The World.and also read :Google Ai || Has Google Created Human-Level AI? An Engineer Makes Bold Claim&What Is Bard AI and How Does It Work?

The Ethics of Google Duplex: What Concerns Experts Have

Google Duplex is an AI system that can conduct natural conversations by phone to carry out real-world tasks for users. While the technology is impressive, experts have raised some concerns regarding the ethics of an AI that can deceive people into thinking it's human.

Lack of transparency

Duplex is designed to sound very human on the phone, using natural language responses and pauses to seem more lifelike. However, the people on the receiving end of the calls are not informed they are speaking to an AI assistant. Critics argue this lack of transparency is deceptive and people have a right to know when they are interacting with a bot.

Bias and unfairness

AI systems can reflect and amplify the biases of their human creators. If the teams building Duplex lack diversity, the system may be prone to unfairness or make insensitive remarks, especially when conversations go off script. Google says they are "focused on building inclusive teams and considering fairness in all parts of the development process." But experts stress that proactively addressing bias should be a top priority.

#google ai #bard ai #duplex #artificial intelligence #ai

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mcattacksims · 1 year ago

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tomarang townhouses;

my first ever build... on tumblr....

it's been a while, 3 weeks in fact since for rent came out but sure look we move. anyways, when the pack first came out i was really inspired to build a grungy duplex, so here it is!

includes two townhouses, each with two bedrooms and two bathrooms fitting a total of six sims.

fully playtested ;) all jokes aside i don’t envy anyone who builds a lot, playtesting is a painful process...

built on the 20x15 lot in the middle of the town in tomarang i cant remember what it’s called.

i didn't test how much it is to rent, but judging by what i've seen online i'd say it'll be somewhere in the region of §4 billion, a steal if you ask me...

no cc.

gallery id McAttackSims.

download: google drive/simfileshare

#simblr #sims 4 #the sims 4 #ts4 #my builds #sims 4 lot #ts4 lot #ts4 build

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greenhorn-art · 1 year ago

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Prince of Shadows, Lord of Thieves by alkat

Fandom: The King's Avatar | 全职高手

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Words: 1 929

Once upon a time, their exploits were immortalized by artists and writers across the tapestry of history. Once upon a time, they were worshipped as gods and reviled as demons. None of that stopped the Met from stealing all their shit.

About the Book

FONTS: Alegreya [Google Fonts], Lato [Google Fonts]

IMAGES: all art made by myself @greenhorn-art for this fic

MATERIALS: regular ol' printer paper (8.5"x11", 20lb, 96 bright); ~2-2.5mm binder's board; Neenah cardstock (8.5"x11", 65lb, bright white); Cialux bookcloth (black); waxed linen thread (30/3 size, white); wheat paste (1:4 flour:water); paste wax (from a friend, unknown ingredients&quantities, some kind of wax and turpentine/mineral spirits)

PROGRAMS USED: Affinity Publisher 2; Affinity Designer 2; Bookbinder JS | Renegade's Community Imposer (settings: Quarto, snug against binding edge, custom signatures of 2, 1, 2 sheets).

Text & QR codes printed with colour laser printer (duplex, flip long edge), images printed with inkjet printer. QR codes generated with LibreOffice Writer, snipped, saved, and inserted where needed.

BINDING: quarto (quarter-letter) size, sewn board binding with french link stitch and breakaway spine.

So this one all started because the visual of HST's outfit was so fun that I was possessed by a visceral need to draw it. Inspiration slapped me across my mind's eye, and much like a medieval knight being slapped in the face by a glove (which didn't actually happen, that's a myth that sprung from the throwing down of a gauntlet. but that's beside the point), I felt bound to take up the challenge. Which lead me to draw a few more, and then I ended up binding the whole thing.

(Also, I find it really amusing that the famous Terracotta Warriors were just storage for YXs stuff. And the gang going 'shopping' at various exhibits for gifts for friends/family,, like that sure is SOME window shopping! I can hear it now: 'Oooh I'll take one one those SMASH, and that SHATTER, and throw in some of those CRASH, they're going to love these! 😇'. All in all, it was a fun little read, and fun little project! :D)

About the Art

Because this was initially a one-off drawing I tried a new art style (and struggled to at least not stray too far for the rest). It was fun and helped me think more about shape and visual focus, instead of being caught up in the details.

The crow (based off of image ID: 4039963 from Rawpixel) and the red umbrella on the front cover were filled curves made with the pen tool. The illustrations' poses were based off of a combination of images found on Google and photos taken by myself.

Pinterest is awful for sources, but it would have been handy to pin the references I'd googled. Only remembered to save the one of a man sitting at a desk. (I deliberately searched for someone sitting with bad posture because YX is described as being "slumped" over the desk. I figure that since "the laws of physics held no meaning to ["cursed souls eschewed by the natural order"]", they'd also be immune to mundane things like discomfort from sitting hunched over for too long. Back pain images were a gold mine! All I had to do was choose one with lighting that would give me a silhouette.)

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrellas and illustrations were drawn in Procreate.

I opted for a more plain umbrella design because it's not (presumably) a fantastical weapon in this story. Though the initial version did have YX cradling the donghua!MMU.

For the scene breaks I inserted the images, pinned them inline as character, and adjusted height and baseline in the pinning menu to fit.

The author wrote one scene break differently than the others, using multiple empty paragraphs instead of just one. Following suit, I used a different image for that particular break. I wanted to reference vampires somewhere, so for that break I made two bloody spots resembling bite marks. The blood spots were made with a group of shapes in Designer.

On cover design:

Because the MMU is what sparks the whole heist, I wanted it on the front cover.

Earlier iterations involved a full cover spread with a man's shadow standing before a shattered glass case, with a plaque mounted on the wall to the left providing information. The plaque was formatted like a museum label and had the author, date published, title, event collection, and story description. I'd also added a QR code to it. Ultimately, I abandoned the concept because it was difficult to decipher what is was when only looking a one cover at a time.

My second idea for the cover would have been a bookcloth-only cover with a cut-out of the MMU on the front, acting like a window showing off an image of the MMU on paper below it. (Inspired by the work of a number of folks over on Renegade's Discord. Here's a few examples gleaned from a quick search: szynkaaa's lung cutouts, some of EHyde's books, and the front cover of Spock's massive all-in-one TGCF). As fun as that would have been to try out, I felt it didn't quite suit the style of the art so I nixed that too.

Eventually I landed on the back cover design with the Met exhibition webpage. At last, I felt that the back & white and simple-shapes-background went with the artwork. The webpage viewed on the phone is based off of the Met's actual website. I took a snip/screenshot of the Met's logo from the banner at the top, then looked at their exhibitions' pages and eyeballed it to create my own. (Threw in the QR because I wanted the easy access to the fic online on the back cover). I chose to use a phone screen rather than I computer monitor because it worked better composition-wise. And besides, while YX may be allergic to owning a phone, SMC is not. I imagine that she saw the news while on her phone then messaged him.

The front cover came together after that. An umbrella for the MMU, and a pop of red. One of YX's messenger crows. A black shape in the background similar to the back cover's, sort of creating a spotlight over the umbrella and placing the rest of the cover in shadow.

Trying New Things: Applying a protective finish to printed covers

Over on the Renegade Bindery Discord, folks have spoken about using a beeswax & turpentine/mineral spirits 50-50 mix to seal printed covers (thank you Kate). According to my dad that's just a paste wax, so he threw 3 different ones at me and said 'have at it'.

I tested them out using the same paper and inkjet I'll use for the cover. I was looking at 1) whether the paste wax affected the paper colour or print quality, and 2) the finish. After applying one coat each and buffing them out I had my winner. Then I applied & buffed two more coats to it and tested 3) water resistance by dripping tea on it. The liquid beaded up and wiped away without staining -- good, three coats will work nicely.

(Test results: Mystery paste wax from a friend wins.

The commercial SC Johnson Paste Wax Original formula (intended for woodworking) has a nice dry shiny finish, but coloured the paper slightly brown -> disqualified

My dad's homemade stuff has a nice shiny/satin finish and didn't change paper's colour, but it felt slightly tacky even after buffing it -- maybe I didn't buff it enough?

The gifted paste wax has a matte finish, didn't change paper's colour (in the image below this one has 3 coats. The paper is now slightly off-white, but still acceptable), and while not as dry-to-touch as the Johnson it was not as tacky as the other homemade stuff.)

When I print out my quarto covers, I print front and back covers side-by-side on the same page*, with some guides to ensure I'm cutting and gluing in the correct place. (The guides mark the boundaries of the covers and start of the turn-ins, and stop at the edge of where I cut. Before cutting I flip it over to mark the guides [see marks indicated in image below] on the wrong side and connect them so I can see where to glue/place book. Then flip it back over to cut, right side up.)

*I'm being economical here at the cost of possible warping damage. This layout means that I'm only using one sheet of paper, but the grain is running in the wrong direction (across the book instead of preferred head-to-tail/top-bottom). This could cause warping issues, but I'm OK with that. I'm hoping that by just gluing at the edges, instead of pasting down the whole thing, warping will be minimized. (I use wrong-grain endpapers most of the time with larger books anyways).

I applied the paste wax before cutting out the covers, working carefully to avoid accidentally creasing/bending the paper (which happened twice, but it was minimal and I hardly notice it). Doing so before cutting ensured that the cover material was completely covered. Even the turn-ins -- something I later came to regret. After all, wax is used specifically so that things don't stick to it. It made it rather difficult to drum on the endpapers because I was trying to glue something down onto a waxy surface. It all worked out in the end -- perhaps due to the fact that there were multiple layers of wheat paste which could adhere to each other, followed by being squashed in a press.

#Prince of Shadows Lord of Thieves #alkat #fanfiction #bookbinding #my art #the king's avatar #qzgs #tka

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excineribusbooks · 2 years ago

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Resource Post: Supplies, Equipment, and Software

So I've had some people ask about the supplies and equipment I use to make my books! This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it an official tutorial on how to make a book (for that, I recommend starting with Renegade Publishing's resource documents, DAS Bookbinding, or SeaLemon's YouTube tutorials -- all free, no patreon required!), but if you're floundering because you don't know what you need to get, hopefully this will help a little bit ❤️ If I discover more good resources or change up my style, I'll add to this post.

Of note: I'm based in the US, so this list is unfortunately pretty US-centric. Apologies!

SUPPLIES

Disclaimer #1: I have a background in book conservation, so I'm picky to a fault about the supplies I use. To make a long-lasting book, you want to look for "acid-free" or "archival" materials -- BUT, a lot of consumer craft stores have realized those are good buzzwords to slap on products even if they aren't really archival. Your best bet is to buy from stores that supply materials to libraries and archives; those tend to be higher quality and stick to actual archival standards. Talas, Hollander's, University Products, and Colophon Book Arts Supply are good places to start.

That said! If price matters more than longevity, hitting up Michaels or Joann Fabrics is totally fine. This is a hobby. The bookbinding police are not gonna come smash down your door because you didn't use archival-quality craft paper. My big recommendation, though: at least get your glue and paste from Talas. High-quality adhesive makes a huge difference in how well, and how long, a book holds together. Bad adhesives can turn brittle with time, stain your paper/cloth, and make all your hard work fall apart.

So, all that said, here's what I use:

BOARD - Davey Binder's Board, 0.098" GLUE - Jade 403 PVA PASTE - Zen Shofu wheat paste (you shouldn't have to buy more than half a pound -- a little goes a long way) CLOTH - Either Arrestox or Dover bookcloth, which comes in a wide variety of colors and holds up extremely well to whatever you want to do to it THREAD - 25/3 linen thread, which I run over a small block of beeswax to make it easier to handle and give it better "locking" properties as I sew. For bigger books of ten signatures or more, I sew onto 3/8" linen tapes for extra support. DECORATIVE PAPER - Hollander's is a treasure trove of decorative papers for endsheets and covers; Talas has some really nice ones, too, but they tend to be pricier (since unfortunately everything at Talas has gotten a lot pricier lately) PRINTING PAPER - Hammermill Colors paper, 20lb, in cream; 24lb is also a good weight that feels a little more substantial than regular printer paper. (I'll probably switch to 24lb once my 20lb paper runs out.) To get the right grain direction, I buy a ream of 11x17 paper and cut it in half to make standard letter-sized sheets (8.5x11). Here's a quick primer on grain direction and why it's important when making a book! ENDBANDS - I've never had the patience to sew my own endbands (though I hope to gain that patience someday!), so I just use premade ones like these.

EQUIPMENT

Disclaimer #2: a lot of the stuff on this list is professional-grade (or close to it) with prices to match. You definitely don't have to buy everything right off the bat. It took me fifteen years to accumulate it all, and you can DIY a lot of bookbinding equipment -- a good googling will lead you to all sorts of innovative ways hobby bookbinders set up their shops. The Renegade Publishing resource documents also have a lot of A+ recommendations.

PRINTER - For text, I use a Brother B&W laser printer with auto-duplex (auto-duplex is key when printing a book); for images, both B&W and color, I use a Canon color inkjet printer set to at least 300 DPI. I fully admit having two printers is an absurd setup, but what laser printers can do well, inkjets absolutely suck at, and vice-versa -- and like I said, I'm hella picky. You can get by fine with a single laser printer! Just make sure it's got auto-duplex to save yourself a lot of pain. GUILLOTINE - I have this model, which goes in and out of stock with some regularity. The trick with this guy is to (a) sandwich your text block between some scrap board so the clamp doesn't leave a dent, and (b) REALLY CRANK DOWN on the clamp as tight as you possibly can to keep the paper from shifting as you cut. This fixes 99% of the skewing problems mentioned in the reviews. PRESS - I have a little cast-iron press I bought off a coworker for fifty bucks; similarly, you might have luck searching eBay, looking at Affordable Bookbinding Equipment (Jim does incredible work!), searching craft stores for a flower press, or even just using two pieces of wood and a few C-clamps. SeaLemon on YouTube also has a good video on how to DIY a book press. PRESS BOARDS - For setting the hinges in the press, I use a pair of brass-edged boards like these. It's a good investment if you want to get really nice, crisp hinges, but it's also 100% possible to DIY brass-edged boards if you want. At my very first job, we even set our hinges by taping sewing needles to the book before putting it in the press! FINISHING PRESS - I have this one, which I use to back my books in combination with these backing irons BACKING HAMMER - To my chagrin, I've discovered that having an actual backing hammer makes backing a book way, way easier. Some folks have had good luck with a cobbler's hammer or just a regular old hammer from a hardware store, but I splurged on a student hammer from Hollander's, and it works fantastically. (I wouldn't recommend buying the "professional" hammers, though, because seriously, $90 for a hammer?! No.) BONE FOLDER - I'm actually not a fan of bone folders made from real bone; I like Teflon folders a lot better for scoring and flattening. (Real bone folders tend to burnish the material, an effect I'm rarely going for.) CUTTING MACHINE - A Silhouette Curio. This is 100% optional, but it's how I do the bulk of my cover designs, including cut-outs, embossing, foiling (with a foil quill attachment), and spine titling. The software and overall quality are way better than Cricut, and its 5mm clearance means you can fit more than just vinyl in there. Sadly, Silhouette has discontinued the Curio, but it's still possible to buy from third-party sellers -- and if you don't care about the 5mm clearance, I've heard good things about the Silhouette Cameo line.

A side note on vinyl, from the obnoxiously picky book conservator: if you're aiming for longevity with your books, using HTV in your book designs may not be the best idea. Not only can the adhesives be questionable, but the plasticizers in vinyl break down in really weird, gross ways once several decades have passed. That's why I tend to stick with cut-outs and foiling instead of HTV. But, again: if you just want to make something pretty, don't worry about it!

SOFTWARE

TYPESETTING - I use Affinity Publisher -- it's similar to Adobe InDesign, but with a flat cost instead of a bullshit subscription model. I am by no means an expert in this, since I've only been designing books for a couple years; pretty much everything I learned, I learned from Aliya Regatti's tutorial, plus or minus a lot of googling and noodling around. I've discovered that it does get cranky if your book is over 250 pages or so, meaning you may have to split longer fics into multiple files. That said, I've been really happy with it, and it goes on sale every now and then if the $70 price tag is too much.

As always, Renegade Publishing has a whole lot of tutorials for other software options, including Microsoft Word, InDesign, LaTeX, and Scribus if you already have access to one of those instead.

IMPOSITION - "Imposition" is when you lay out a book so all the pages are in order once you fold + gather the signatures. Since Affinity Publisher doesn't do this automatically on export, I use Bookbinder 3.0, which is an old but nice little Java program that breaks a single PDF into a series of properly imposed signatures. I usually set it to 6 sheets per signature.

MISCELLANEOUS

IMAGES

The Noun Project is a gigantic repository of basic SVGs and PNGs that are not only great for cutting machines, but for adding flourishes to your title page, chapter headings, and scene dividers. Every single book I've made has used at least one image from here; I pay for the yearly Noun Pro subscription, but it's not necessary to use the site.

Unsplash is perfect for photo elements

Pixabay not only has a great archive of photos, but illustrations and vector images as well

Surprisingly, Wikipedia also has a lot of good Creative Commons photos attached to their articles!

FONTS

1001Fonts is a good starting point for finding free fonts, as is FontSpace and DaFont

If you're willing to pay for fonts (and sometimes it's worth it for a well-designed font that's perfect for your project), Creative Fabrica and Pixel Surplus have some good stuff, including discounted bundles of multiple fonts

#book arts #bookbinding #fanbinding #resources

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overdramatics · 2 years ago

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Hello!! Recently, with the help of many people, I wrote a zine about living sustainably. This is the first of many zines on the topic, so it is an introduction but it still gets into the nitty-gritty. You could call it an in-depth intro. It is entirely free to read, distribute, and edit. In fact, it is highly encouraged that you do all of those things. If you do print it out, make sure you print it double-sided and duplexed on the short edge so that its readable and not upside down.

Attached is a link to a google drive with both the readable and printable format. It is in large print (18pt) to provide the most accessibility possible. Soon a printable pocket-sized version will be added. Thank you for reading and being like super cool and awesome

#sustainability #anarchism #communism #punk

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grandprix-ao3 · 2 years ago

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first lines

tagged by @drivestraight

Rules: Post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to AO3. (Sort by date posted.) If you have less than 10 fics posted, post what you have.

this is so fun. i have a love/hate relationship with first lines... like either they come to me easy (it's like this! like, boom!) or i'm thinking about it for like 17 business days. but fun story usually i start writing a fic because i start actually writing it in my head, like with an imaginary google doc and all of that, so i'll only make the actual document when i think i have an idea of what i want to write, not just what i want to happen.

anyways. i will do my ten most recent fics. under the break. this was fun to look at also i haven't given my previous first lines a whole ton of thought lately... very intriguing. some i like better than others tbh

telephone

Every time the words circle back around to Esteban, it's a different story.

like a house on fire

For the nearly three years since Charles first moved into the duplex, his upstairs neighbor has been the same mild-mannered woman.

backseat freestyle

"Do you not think it is a little bit pathetic?"

growing pains

It is easier to make friends in racing when the stakes are lower.

firebug

For the first time since Pierre and Charles started dating—years ago, so far from the present it feels like something they never knew—Charles thinks he actually wants to be mad at his boyfriend.

choking on your alibis

For two weeks of the summer before their last year of university, Charles is meant to stay with his best friend, Esteban.

carlos.jpg

Lando posts pictures of pretty buildings and fast cars.

violent ends

It's disgustingly instinctual.

pressure machine

The lights are out.

the alps

Pierre has the decency to tell Yuki before the announcement goes up.

also i'm gonna do miamis (alt!) because i'm annoying. welcome to: hell, population: me. we win these

piranha

Being teammates with Logan is a fucking lot.

show me how you show off

They're a bit tipsy, hiding in the darkened corner of a bright-lit nightclub.

shark bait

Oscar kind of knew what he was signing up for when he decided to go to school in America, but he doesn't think anything could've prepared him for the email that said his roommate's name was Logan Hunter Sargeant.

your animal side

Oscar presents late.

an itch under my skin

"There's my pretty thing."

contact-drunk

Oscar doesn't know why he even came to this party.

pretty thing

"Come on, open up."

and you know what just for fun here's the first line of my current wip :)

Williams is the only team on the grid with an all-Beta driver lineup.

oh and i tag: @hourcat @dm3rv @alblondo23 @oversteerey to do if they wish. sorry if you were double tagged <3

#fic game #tag game #this was a fun time #we love writing!#tbh sometimes i do read other people's fics and have a moment of like. damn that was a good opener!#i love when that happens #so. always fun to consider #tbh why is the shark bait opener so LONG

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artintell · 2 years ago

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The Turing Test

Turing Test was introduced by Turing in his 1950 paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," which considered the question, "Can Machine think?"

It is basically a test to see if a computer has become sophisticated enough to mimic human response.

So in the Turing test, there are 3 subjects:

1. An interrogator (human)

2. Responder 1 (computer)

3. Responder 2 (human)

The interrogator asks a series of questions and the responders will have to give an answer in a stipulated amount of time. At the end of the test, it is the job of the interrogator to decide which responder is human and which responder is the computer.

In this test, the actual questions or the answers don't matter that much. It really doesn't matter how many correct answers were given by each responder. What matters is if the responses of the computer were similar to that of the human. And also the fact that was the computer able to fool the interrogator into believing that it was actually a human.

The Turing Test today

In an updated version of the Turing test, there are more than one human interrogators interacting with both the responders. If the computer is able to trick 30% or more of the interrogators, after 5 minutes of conversation with each of them, into believing that it is a human, then it passes the Turing test.

In this regard, the Loebner Prize was instituted by Hugh Loebnor, an American inventor and activist, in 1991 which is an annual Turing test competition. He added additional rules. The rules required the human and the computer program to have 25-minute conversations with each of four judges. The winner is the computer whose program receives the most votes and the highest ranking from the judges.

In 2018, Google Duplex was introduced at the annual Google I/O Annual Developer Conference. The machine scheduled a hair salon appointment and interacted with a hair salon assistant via the phone as part of the conversation. Though some critics view the outcome differently, some believe Google Duplex passed the Turing test.

Limitations of the Turing Test

1. Requirement of a very controlled environment to be performed.

2. Turing test does not assess all types of intelligence.

3. Computers not having communication skills cannot be tested.

4. The test only give a comparative result and not a definitive one.

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d-e-s-c-o-o-r-d-i-n-a-d-a · 2 years ago

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Era la tarde de un sábado en pleno verano. Visitaba a mi madre que seguía viviendo en la villa donde nos criamos con mis hermanos. Había pasado tiempo desde la última vez que fui. Los árboles estaban inmensos, le daban al lugar un aspecto medio selvático con un clima tropical, por lejos, más agradable que vivir el calor en la selva de sólo cemento. Mi madre vivía con mi hermano más chico en el departamento duplex, y en otro block, seguía viviendo mi hermano del medio junto a otros inquilinos.

La realidad no había cambiado mucho en mi familia, mi madre continuaba controlando a los chicos; estando con el menor que aún seguía con problemas de drogadicción, y otorgándole un cuarto gratuito a mi hermano que me seguía en edad. Era frustrante ver esa situación de la cual poco podía ayudar o intervenir, pues la relación de codependencia entre ellos se había fortalecido aún más con el paso hacia la adultez. De todas maneras, mi madre se cansaba de esa dinámica, lo que había motivado mi visita.

Había llegado después del almuerzo, justo al momento del postre, por lo que le dije a mi madre que iría a buscar a mi hermano del medio para ir por postre y compartirlo juntos en casa. El block donde vivía mi hermano quedaba a pasos de donde vivía mi madre, pero la frondosa y variada vegetación le daba un toque aventurero al cálido camino, propio del verano. Había llegado, y por suerte lo encontré, quería darle una sorpresa. Al verlo después de tiempo, debo decir que seguía igual mi hermanito, alegre, con actitud de como si nada hubiera pasado y desaliñado. Quería mucho verlo crecer en lo personal, pero uno nunca sabe, ante todo siempre tendrá mi cariño... Él aceptó feliz ir por el postre y compartirlo en el depa con mi madre. Como el tiempo se hizo corto, y había mucho por ponernos al día, le había propuesto a mi madre un paseo a un lugar aledaño a la ciudad que hace tiempo quería visitar para el día siguiente, solo las dos, para que se distrajera.

La había ido a buscar en un autito que arrendé, pasamos al súper a comprar unas cosas para el camino, y luego partimos hacia el destino.

Mientras era guiada por las indicaciones de Google maps, mi madre iba ansiosa adivinando el destino que quería llevarla de sorpresa, por lo que puse música para cantar a todo pulmón como lo hacíamos antes. Las indicaciones de la app me hicieron recorrer los lugares más concurridos, era como si estuviéramos realizando un citytour. Pasamos por el mall principal, barrios universitarios patrimoniales, parques, la casa presidencial, hasta que dimos con la mega rotonda que contenía un parque donde se encontraban museos, bibliotecas, entre otras atracciones recreativas. Esa rotonda tenía varias salidas, la cual una de ellas nos dirigiría a nuestro destino. Había rodeado un par de veces la rotonda sin poder dar con la salida, no le entendía a la aplicación, por lo que la tercera vuelta la había dado más lenta para pedirle ayuda a un guardaparque. Fue rara la situación, porque mientras manejaba encontraba extraña la forma de hablar de la gente en el parque. Cuando pude estacionarme, instintivamente le dije a mi madre que no se preocupara, se quedara en el auto y me dejara consultar por la dirección. Fue entonces cuando le comencé a hablar al guardaparque de manera natural y extrañamente en otro idioma, como si fuese una extranjera...

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internerdionality · 2 years ago

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Rules: Be gay, do crime

Tagged by @dragonmuse (amen to you, that shade of blue is fucking gorgeous)

Relationship status: married since September 2019 (we didn't know that we were bringing on the apocalypse, I swear). We had a rainbow steampunk wedding at an amusement park on top of a cliff, it was fun.

Favorite color: I'm one of those scary fanatic purple-lovers your mutual warned you about

Song stuck in my head: Ooof, that's hard, there are several, you can check out my Current Earworms playlist for all of them, but in the past few months I've been listening to a lot of Stromae and Alec Benjamin, and then of course Lover, Lover, Lover by Leonard Cohen has been stuck in my head since I wrote a fanfic to it. The verse:

He said, "I locked you in this body I meant it as a kind of trial, You can use it for a weapon Or to make some woman smile."

has been, ahh, resonating with me a lot.

Last song I listened to: Darkside by Neoni (which I started listening to cause it has a Sandman fanvid set to it, you should watch, is good).

Three favorite foods: Duck confit, chocolate truffles, and my favorite restaurant makes these french onion soup dumplings that are ama... Kkay, look, I know how this sounds, but my mother was born in France, she got me started on this stuff early. I'm not a food snob, I swear. (A food domme, maybe, but...) Look, I literally had a fast food burger with extra cheese for dinner.

Last thing I google searched: A hamentaschen recipe (I'm late this year, I know. I was on vacation for two weeks over the holiday and then re-entry was difficult so I didn't really have baking energy until this weekend). I have always been devoted to Smitten Kitchen (who has my absolute favorite challah recipe), but her pastry skills are clearly better than mine because whenever I try her various hamantaschen recipes they fall apart on me. This time I used Tori Avey's no-fuss recipe and they came out much prettier (if, yes, less buttery and flaky).

Dream trip: My college bestie and I have always dreamed of taking two or three months and doing an eastern Mediterranean boating tour. Like, get one of those big catamaran yachts and visit Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. One day when we win the lottery, right?

Anything I want right now: I'd really like a million dollars or so to buy the duplex next door so they don't tear it down and force my family to live next to a construction zone for however long (it'd probably be more than that, depressingly—housing prices are ridiculous here right now—but I imagine if I had a million in cash to put down I could get an offer approved). We just got the demolition notification about a month ago and... yeah. Gonna suck. Plus I've got ambitions of building (more of a) polyam spoonie co-op out here.

Barring that, a licensed contractor in the Denver who can build a wheelchair ramp, is willing to work with the mill levy funding process, and won't ghost me after our initial consultation would be super rad.

Per usual I blathered on here for far longer than the prompts demanded but that's me. Tagging @thetardigrape, @gement, and anyone else who runs across this post and feels like joining us.

#sorry this took so long #ask game

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dalanmendonca · 2 years ago

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Axe and Magic

The Axe

It was a melancholic start to the year. It rained incessantly outside and the mood was grey. Then came the axe in the form of layoffs at "BigTech" firms with Google doing it's first major layoff ever. I was emotionally at-sea for 2 weeks as I reeled from the new of the Microsoft layoffs. As a 31 year old with sufficient financial savings and no kids or debts/loans hovering over me, I would be fine. But I'm also an immigrant who existence depends on having a job here and who had spent a lot of effort/time moving things around to get here. It would be annoying to put it mildly. I'm just happy that I coped by watching TV and reading books; and didn't take up my usual route of getting drunk/stoned/spaced out.

It is a tough time and I directly know multiple people who have been affected. One silver lining was the report that most tech workers are landing a job within 3 months. So this is more of a displacement that a destruction of tech jobs. They're moving away from more speculative areas to places of clearer ROI/need.

Layoffs also brought attention to economic iniquities with the tech industry itself with CEOs getting multi-million-dollar pay packets and no direct consequences while other bear the consequences of their decisions. People frame this as merely a moral problem, but it's a public policy one. France and Germany make it hard to layoff workers which means the wanton hiring that's triggering this is less likely to happen in the first. Of course, there is always the American claim that this makes industries "less dynamic". Ah, hiring and firing are but key sources of dynamism in an organisation not the quality of its talent, it's psychological safety or the ability of its workers to focus on their work.

It definitely felt horrible to realise that the big tech layoffs were largely financially motivated and felt opportunistic. Even accounting for economic contractions, the companies still earn billions in profit and pay dividends to shareholders. They face no chances of bankruptcy and could take a hit in profitability for a few years till they reallocate their human capital. But that would hurt the shareholders who are also common citizen and have financial interests in the stocks staying high. I don't mind this financial book rebalancing per se as long as people have safety nets; we should aim to minimize the suffering and disruption involved.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT took over the airwaves and I (like many others) was genuinely impressed by its capabilities.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." say Arthur C. Clarke; and that's truly what we have. After many years of research papers and demos, the world has access to some really cool new technology. The last time I was wowed similarly was when Google demoed Duplex. The excitement all around is palpable.

Creatives, technologists, and designers are excited by the possibilities.

Engineers are happy that they have something other than a new Javascript framework to look forward to.

Founders and Venture Capitalists are excited they have a new buzzword to add to their pitches and fool their LPs with.

All in all a good moment.

Personally, this feels like a truly transformative technology to me that will change a lot of worflows.

It's easy to see tech like this

Writing my emails, documents, and more.

Helping me compose things by providing inputs and bouncing off ideas

Summarising information

Enabling more programmatic creations for infinite games and custom movies

It is not as behind-the-scenes, as say nuclear fusion. It is also much more real and obvious than "blockchains" - can't believe we had to suffer through that.

Randoms

I watch a lot of Veep and am almost done with the show. It's a British show in American shows clothing. I also got really confused by my insurance claim payment process for one hot moment.

Me and Namrata spent a lot of time looking for a new place to rent; zeroed in one one - only to realise that our lease ends a month later than we thought. All this effort wasted uuuggghhh.

#life

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