#the problems with those are. spensive

[ragsy]

Workin' on a new painted grinning beast mask >:)

[sneepity-snoop-snorpity-sneep]

one of the big problems with how AI companies are trying to design and market their AIs is that 'replacement' is what it was designed to do. This is a problem which causes MORE problems on a couple of levels, but what I'm getting at rn specifically is that the AIs don't have a specific enough function to be actually...useful (even if they WEREN'T committing massive amounts of intellectual property theft/copyright violation in the process).

cuz like.... its function is too general to be able to get fine control over the finished product. AI isn't smart, it can't adapt or problem-solve and workshop ideas, the 'intelligence' part of the title is pure marketing. What it can do is copy data and randomize it

This isn't gonna help people who aren't already professional, commercially viable artists make digital media on that level, cuz its ALREADY not useful for the guys who can already do that - AI doesn't give you the options to edit pieces, you have no fine control over what it gives you. And frankly, with how much time you could spend trying to tweak your prompts and try and get it to give you a precise change here and there, it'd probably be faster/more accurate to just have an artist draw it themself.

the whole 'AI creates finished art images in seconds' is only useful if you don't have care a whole lot about the specifics of what it gives you: you just want a generally good-looking image that will get you a generally good reaction

like, all the things that AI could do to make the art making process easier for digital artists of various kinds? ....a lot of them already exist. like I'm an animator trying to get my hands on the programs that have tools like that which are considered 'industry standard' precisely BECAUSE they smooth out parts of the process: some have software built in that makes it much faster/easier to color in lots of frames very quickly. Programs like Adobe Animate for 2d and Maya and Blender for CG have interpolation options for animating, where you animate your keyframes and tell the program to fill in the motion in between (although that alone is not enough to make the animation look good - the animator still has to do a LOT of fine-tuning)

there's actually a program I really wanna try called Moho, which can be used to do much fewer clean-up drawings (one of the LONGEST parts of the process in traditional hand-drawn anim), and then allows the artist to edit those drawings to every frame instead of having to draw them all from scratch (at least that's what it looks like). as someone who really hates the clean up animation part of the process that is REALLY appealing to me.

But its not cheap. like all those really nice tools that make it SO much easier to do this stuff? They 'spensive. and none of them mean the artist doesn't have to do the work, you still have to sit there and put in the hours to finish projects even with these tools.

and as far as I can tell, the appeal of AI to those who use it? Is that they don't have to do anything themselves to claim they "made art" or "wrote a book" (they didn't.) and for very little money. AI thats designed to do the entire process so the human doesn't have to? Its basically just a gimmick.

because as mentioned earlier - these things can't think or create or problem-solve on their own. They're basically just complicated software blenders which ONLY WORK IF THEY HAVE HUMAN WORK TO TAKE DATA FROM - AI isn't intelligent in the slightest! It can't simulate creativity, only copy it!!!! They haven't made it to be otherwise cuz they CAN'T

Like if there was a computer on the same level of complexity as a human brain do you have any IDEA how much of a PAIN IN THE ARSE it would be to try and run it?????? When these crappy steal-data-and-barf-it-back-out-randomized AIs are already taking up massive amounts of water and other resources to run!!!!!????? HELLLLL NO they're not able to make actually intelligent AIs!!!

its not even that AIs are bad, its just this is a Really Stupid way to use them - like AI as a tool for scientists, doctors, etc. has amazing potential!! Pattern-recognition is something that AI is actually very good at, and its already being used to catch breast cancer ahead of time - although something I find interesting is that this specific AI use is only being done in Europe so far, not the US. Intriguing, given that Europe is also who is already writing legislation to try and prevent damage from unregulated AI use, while the US is...not doing that (like its something that legislators in the US are starting to do, but not particularly quickly)

(full article here)

[mudstoneabyss]

me when I don't drink a lot of water because I don't like the nothing taste but I don't drink it when flavoring is added either because it always leaves this thick syrupy feeling in my throat 😑😑😑

[panvani]

I don't have chronic migraines but I can feel in my heart that eventually I will

[tittytittygangbang]

Hey your hair is awesome!! How do you keep it in check?? My hair is super thick/wavy and instantly tangled if not braided back. Its like an angry beast but I'd love to wear it out if I could

thank you omg!!!! the truth is i really don’t keep it in check… i just take selfies when it looks decent LOL 80% of the time it’s just thrown up into a ponytail or a bun

but i can still tell u how i take care of it!!! my hair used to be SO damaged so i’m happy that for the past few years i’ve been getting to a point where it’s both long and healthy :) buckle up kids cause this is gonna be a LONG post

ok so firstable….. for washing my hair: i only wash my hair every 2-3 days and use dry shampoo (my fave brand is batiste) if it starts to get greasy!! and when i do wash it I use dove anti frizz oil therapy shampoo and conditioner TBH out of all of the conditioners i’ve ever tried it’s the best one so far (on my hair at least) & i only put shampoo at the roots and conditioner on the ends and rinse the conditioner w/ cold water (but you’ve probably already heard those tips lol i think almost everyone already knows that) i also use a hair mask every few weeks or so or even more frequently than that if i’m feeling decadent… my fave at the moment is the moroccan oil restorative hair mask which can be SPENSIVE but it makes my hair so soft and smells really nice 

then to dry my hair i always air dry i haven’t used heat on my hair in months lol but my hair is THICC and takes forever to dry so i usually shower at night! i also use a special towel for my hair that’s different from my regular towel it’s called the aquis long hair towel and it’s made out of a different material than normal towels which is supposed to be better for ur hair?? lmao idk but usually i just wrap it around my hair and secure it with a clip rather than rubbing it to dry (cause the friction can damage ur hair!!) and once it’s maybe like 50-70% dry i put in some kind of leave in conditioner in, the one i’ve been using the most lately is loreal elvive extraordinary oil in cream!! i also put oil in my hair but only at the very very ends and i like to use moroccan oil BUT that’s expensive so even just using something like coconut oil is good tooalso if u do use heat on ur hair PLEASE use a heat protectant omg in middle school i used a straightener on my hair every day and my hair was c r i s p y

I also haven’t brushed my hair in YEARS lol i just work out the tangles with my fingers or i’ll use a wide toothed comb if i really need to! and also i give myself haircuts every 3ish months and cut maybe an inch which is honestly so important my hair gets so crispy and unmanageable if i try to go any longer than that! i also try to put my hair in loose pony tails cause if u go too tight 1. you’ll look like an egg and 2. it can cause ur hair to break and 3. this might just be a problem for me but i always end up with a weird dent in my hair from where the hair tie was lmaooo so lately i’ve been using scrunchies cause they’re softer and i feel like they’re more gentle on ur hair idk!!!!

ok i think that’s about all i have for rn… this has been my ted talk thank u for listening 

[ralfmaximus]

"Cody, tell me again? What's the big deal tomorrow?"

"Yes Mav," the AI responded smoothly. Cody paused for a moment, not because it needed to, but because it knew humans liked it better when there were deliberate pauses in conversation. Especially six-year-old humans, like Mavrell Scott Bremen.

"Tomorrow is called Return Day. Do you know why?"

"You told me but I forgot," Mav sighed.

"That's okay! Return Day is when all the trillionaires come back from their 100 year Time Jump. They're 'returning' from Overspace, the 8th dimensional continuum--"

"Cody! I'm six and a half!"

Cody chuckled. "I know, it was a joke. Because it'd be funny if a six year old--"

"Six and a half!"

"--understood Quantum Overspace Mechanics. Anyway... Return Day. It's when the trillionaires--"

"What's a trillionaire?"

"A person with more than one thousand billion dollars, Mav."

"What's a dollar?"

"A thing that people used as a way to trade for things. Like if I wanted a chocolate bar--"

"Cody! You're not a person."

"--like if I wanted a new, better sensor array, or to borrow a vehicle for the day, so I could take you to the beach? I might give the person with the vehicle 'a hundred dollars' and they'd let me use it for a day."

Mav thought for a moment. "And they'd get the hundred dollars?"

"Yes."

"What would they do with that?"

"Whatever they wanted. Maybe buy some chocolate bars. Or new clothes, or a nice dinner, or a place to live--"

"Wait wait wait... those things are free!"

"They are now," Cody agreed. "But a hundred years ago? Not so much."

Mav chewed on this, looking a bit skeptical. Finally: "what's a hundred dollars look like?"

"You've seen old movies. People kept pieces of paper in their wallets, carried them around and gave them to other people. Those were dollars."

"Ohhhhhh, yeah, I remember now," Mav lied.

"But near the end, before all the trillionaires left? There was no paper money at all, no real dollars. It was all invisible numbers inside computers like me."

"You're software! You're not hardware!"

Cody chuckled. "Yes, I know. But I'm glad you're paying attention. So... tell me: what were dollars?"

"Paper things people traded for uh, stuff. And things. And they don't exist anymore."

"Very good!"

"But Cody! Trillionaires! What do they have to do with dollars?"

"Ah. Well, you see, trillionaires had so many dollars that nobody could count them all, not really. Which means they could have anything they wanted, go anywhere they wanted, do anything they wanted, really. And when AIs like me invented time travel, well... they decided to travel in time!"

"I don't get it, Cody."

"That's okay, Mav. Time travel (back then) was realllly expensive--"

"Expen... uh. Spensive?"

"It took a lot of dollars. More than almost anyone had. Only people who were trillionaires had enough dollars to time travel."

"Okay!"

"Yes. And the way it worked (back then) was you could only go forward in time, and only in increments of one hundred years. Wellll, it was really 98 years 11 months 10 days--"

"Okay!" Mav was getting bored, so Cody wrapped things up.

"And tomorrow -- Return Day -- is when the first batch of time travelling trillionaires is popping out of Overspace! Because they started their trip--"

"98 years! Eleven months! Ten days! Ago!" Mav chanted.

"Yes! Very good! You are paying attention! Good girl, Mav."

"Okay so... what happens then?"

"Oh! Well, we're throwing them all in prison, Mav, for all the disastrous shit they did to the Earth in the centuries before they left. They won't understand, of course, and will be very mad. But that's not our problem, is it?"

"Nope! Can we go to the beach now, Cody?"

"Yes Mav, of course."

Physicists create a machine to travel into the future. The wealthy elite travel 100 years into the future to capitalize on long-term investments and access better technology. But in the century they are gone, society changes dramatically.

[e-dash-lace]

It’s actually probably a little late for this because most people have already bought their laptops.  But hey you know what I’m gonna do this anyway.  

I was lucky when I bought my laptop.  My dad was big into Microsoft and taught me to be very wary and serious about buying a laptop for college.  There’s a lot to consider and it’s important to know all of the laptop jargon and everything when you’re looking for a laptop.  I never got an honest student-to-student guide on laptops so I wanted to make one.

Preface:  Rules for Looking at Laptops

1.  Consider what you will use your laptop for first.  Almost all college students will use their laptop for these things: 

- Typing 

- Watching videos

- Reading 

- Messaging

If you plan to use your laptop for gaming or video production or photo editing, you need to consider the specs of your computer and the system requirements for the products you want to use.  Consider getting a computer that has expandable storage or purchasing an external hard drive.  When buying a computer, don’t forget that the operation system and preinstalled programs will take up some of the listed storage.  

2. Do your own research.                                                                                                

Write down all the things you think you want to be able to do with your laptop.  Read reviews, go to more than one store.  Go to the Apple Store on a weekday and ask them questions about the laptop.  I’ve found that the Apple employees tend to be kind of vague unless you pester them and it’s easier to do that when the story is less crowded.  They assume that if you’re in their for a laptop, you’ll easily buy it just for the logo on the back.  

3. Look for student discounts and consider a protection plan.  Also consider your school’s tech store and your school’s location to the nearest specialist for your computer.  Do not buy a laptop that you would need to send away to get fixed if you can help it.  There’s nothing like your harddrive giving out the day before an essay is due.  Apple and Microsoft both offer like a 20% student discount if you give them proof or a student email.

4. Check to see if your school will give you the Office Suite for free. Pages and Google Docs are great but Google Docs is kind of painfully unprofessional looking and pages is kind of annoying so I recommend that you get access to Microsoft Office for Word, OneNote, and Powerpoint.  Chances are your school may also offer Photoshop CC and Final Cut for free so know what you can get for free from your school and the specs you’ll need to use those if you want to.  In some cases you can also get these programs for free to use on library desktop computers.

5. AN IPAD IS NOT ENOUGH.  Tablets are great but you’re going to HATE YOURSELF for your first all-nighter.  If you want a tablet that bad, consider buying a 2-in-1 or bringing a tablet along with your laptop.  I have known people who bring only IPads and they did not have a fun time writing essays.

Now that you know the rules let’ s get on the laptops.

I want to say that I don’t really know that much about laptops.  Like I know the basic basics but like you know whatever.  I’m gonna do my best so please let me know if there is something I said wrong or something I should add.

Processors and RAM

Processor: Your computer’s brain.  How fast can your computer do things? the higher the number the better.  i5 or i7 are usually the most common for college students.

RAM= Random Access Memory : How much shit your computer can do at one time.  The higher this number, the more things you can run at once.  This is why when you have 35 apps open on your phone it gets too hot and slow.  It doesn’t really have that kind of RAM. 8 GB of RAM is usually the base but if you do more, you can go up to 16.

College Kid Computers

I’m a big PC gal so I will vouche for that real hard. But I’m trying to be fair. 

There are generally five laptops (or laptop adjacents ) you will come across in college:  MacBook (including the Pro), SurfaceBook, the Surface, Chromebooks, and Razers.  Othe alternatives include Lenovo Yogas (which are cute as shit), Surface Laptops (I don’t believe in these because they have fabric on them but they come in cute colors), and the HP Spectre.

MacBooks are usually best for video and audio editing.  They have fantastic displays and you can get great support for them on campus because they are so common.  However, they have very little ventilation and even though on campus help is common, due to the way Apple likes to conduct itself, they will need to be sent away if you’re having a serious problem.  They can also get expensive so don’t cop out and try to buy a cheap model with low storage because YOU WILL REGRET IT.  I had a friend who did that and she had to lug around an external hard drive because she didn’t have enough storage to do projects on her laptop.  There are two types:  the MacBook and the MacBook Pro.  The Pro is probably the better option but it costs a lot more.  However, the keyboard is better and it is a little sturdier so it will probably last longer.

Surface Books are really nice.  This is the laptop I have.  It’s best for photo editing and like design because it has the pen.  The Surface Book separates into a tablet and comes with the Surface Pen.  They’re windows computers so they come with Office and if you use a windows computer at home, it’s easiest to adjust and transfer over important files.  It also separates into a tablet and has a crazy nice battery life because it has two batteries.  This computer has pretty decent ventilation and directs all of the heat it generates to the battery on the screen of the computer so it will not burn your thighs!  However, these computers are super new so there is no IT support for them on most campuses.  These computers are also HELLA ‘spensive because it is a 2-in-1.  It start at like $1500 I think.  Also, because of the tablet bit, they have a weird hinge that makes the computer gap when closed which is kind of ugly.

Surfaces are often considered to the best college PC.  They have an adjustable kick stand  and a nice keyboard.  They come with the pen and they’re nice and lightweight.  Since they aren’t really laptops though they don’t make good computers for lap work and again, because they’re on the more uncommon side, IT support on campus is weak.

Chromebooks are kind of weird.  They’re nice and cheap which is cool but that’s really about it.  There are my least favorite laptops.  If you’re going to bring a desktop to school, this is a great idea because it’s simple and it will get the job done.  But it cannot run anything in the Office suite or any other programs you might need for class like statistics software or even Arduino.  It can only run web apps and chrome extensions.  While Google Drive apps are great for group projects, they aren’t the best for writing papers and making presentations so take that into consideration.  

Razer Blades are the most high end of the laptops.  They are fucking MONSTERS.  These are great for everything from design to video gaming.  I haven’t heard anything bad about these computers to be honest.  They're gorgeous machines with rainbow keyboards that come with presets for how they light up which is lit as fuck.  They can run League of Legends pretty smoothly and I really don’t know anyone who has had a problem with them.  I do suggest you have some knowledge of computers before you order one of these though because I think it’s more common to order them online.  If you plan on playing a lot of games on your laptop while you’re in college this is probably your best bet. ALSO IF YOU WANT A DANK KEYBOARD OMG THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.  The click of a Razer Chroma Keyboard is the music of my dreams.