"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

figures. new (refurbished) desktop computer acted like someone/something unplugged it -without warning- while was typing.
Naturally, it will not turn back on. 😡🤬
A bit of web searching for known problems with the make & model (Dell Optiplex 990) indicates problem is a defective power switch, or the power box.
Of course, the cost for The Geeks to repair costs more than a new Windows 11 Pro laptop, complete with a WORD Office Suite "lifetime" license ... let alone more than I paid for it ... with a 19 or 20 inch flat screen monitor. 🙄

I "think" I'll just get another computer. 🤨
I found another (same brand & model) with a 2TB hard drive, AND a Windows 11 compatible CPU with no monitor, for "a good price". (read "considerably less than the cost to repair, and considerably less than I paid for the one with a monitor." 😁👍)
If still in stock, I will order it on/about 08-01-25.
I need a new desk first, which I will order on/about 06-01. ("L" desk, much larger than what I been using.)

I will be using the cheap tablet that keeps turning off the WiFi reception, requiring a reboot, and my new smartphone. (for the much better camera.) until I get the new computer.

It could be "worse"(?). At least I am still waking up "alive" ... which unquestionably pisses off my ex wife & younglings. 😇👍
 
afishhunter said:
figures. new (refurbished) desktop computer acted like someone/something unplugged it -without warning- while was typing.
Naturally, it will not turn back on. 😡🤬
A bit of web searching for known problems with the make & model (Dell Optiplex 990) indicates problem is a defective power switch, or the power box.
Of course, the cost for The Geeks to repair costs more than a new Windows 11 Pro laptop, complete with a WORD Office Suite "lifetime" license ... let alone more than I paid for it ... with a 19 or 20 inch flat screen monitor. 🙄

I "think" I'll just get another computer. 🤨
I found another (same brand & model) with a 2TB hard drive, AND a Windows 11 compatible CPU with no monitor, for "a good price". (read "considerably less than the cost to repair, and considerably less than I paid for the one with a monitor." 😁👍)
If still in stock, I will order it on/about 08-01-25.
I need a new desk first, which I will order on/about 06-01. ("L" desk, much larger than what I been using.)

I will be using the cheap tablet that keeps turning off the WiFi reception, requiring a reboot, and my new smartphone. (for the much better camera.) until I get the new computer.

It could be "worse"(?). At least I am still waking up "alive" ... which unquestionably pisses off my ex wife & younglings. 😇👍
Click to expand...
Enjoy your new stuff!
 
afishhunter said:
Just wanted to let y'all no, I might be offline for a week er to starting tomorrow.
Click to expand...
mbkr said:
I'm going to try and go to Tennessee next week where I'll be mostly be off the grid.

See ya on the other side Steve 👍
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I sincerely hope only good reasons for these absences. 🤷‍♂️

Btw, can you remind me where you do store your collections? 😉
 
mbkr said:
Thank you for asking :) I just need to check on the place in Tennessee. I try to get down there every couple of months and I haven't been down there since February.


You'll need this:
View attachment 2876496
Click to expand...
That treasure map gives me some good ideas, Mike, although my immediate urban neighborhood is totally landlocked.
(I think that having your island shaped like your seahorse is very cool! :cool::thumbsup:)

- GT
 
It's been three days since my carpal tunnel surgery, and I removed the large bandage and washed it this morning. The incision is under the band-aid and only a centimeter long,
but look at the bruising! Still stiff and sore but much improved over the first two days.

cG0nmUA.jpeg
 
black mamba said:
It's been three days since my carpal tunnel surgery, and I removed the large bandage and washed it this morning. The incision is under the band-aid and only a centimeter long,
but look at the bruising! Still stiff and sore but much improved over the first two days.

cG0nmUA.jpeg
Click to expand...
Hope the results are good, Jeff!!
 
For any who may be concerned about the accuracy of AI - I wanted to see what a couple of 7 foot 2x12 boards I have weigh and it wasn't convenient to weigh them so I googled the question. Here's Google AI's answer verbatim:

AI Overview

A 7-foot long pine 2x12 will weigh approximately 128 pounds. This is based on the fact that pine is about 2.5 pounds per board foot. A 2x12 is a board foot, and a 7-foot piece is 7 board feet.7 board feet multiplied by 2.5 pounds per board foot equals 17.5 pounds per linear foot. 7 feet multiplied by 17.5 pounds per linear foot equals 122.5 pounds.

Finding this a little bizarre I immediately Googled the exact same question again and this time I got this answer:

A 7-foot long pine 2x12 will weigh approximately 41.7 pounds, according to Osborne Lumber Company. A 2x12 is typically 5 pounds per linear foot. Therefore, a 7-foot piece would weigh 7 * 5 = 41.7 pounds.

Closer but some strange multiplication. I did have a knife in my pocket while I was on my computer.
 
Headwinds said:
For any who may be concerned about the accuracy of AI - I wanted to see what a couple of 7 foot 2x12 boards I have weigh and it wasn't convenient to weigh them so I googled the question. Here's Google AI's answer verbatim:

AI Overview

A 7-foot long pine 2x12 will weigh approximately 128 pounds. This is based on the fact that pine is about 2.5 pounds per board foot. A 2x12 is a board foot, and a 7-foot piece is 7 board feet.7 board feet multiplied by 2.5 pounds per board foot equals 17.5 pounds per linear foot. 7 feet multiplied by 17.5 pounds per linear foot equals 122.5 pounds.

Finding this a little bizarre I immediately Googled the exact same question again and this time I got this answer:

A 7-foot long pine 2x12 will weigh approximately 41.7 pounds, according to Osborne Lumber Company. A 2x12 is typically 5 pounds per linear foot. Therefore, a 7-foot piece would weigh 7 * 5 = 41.7 pounds.

Closer but some strange multiplication. I did have a knife in my pocket while I was on my computer.
Click to expand...
ChatGPT in particular regularly hoses basic math, so your results don’t surprise me at all.

This is long, so no harm in ignoring it unless you are interested in this topic:

At work we are being encouraged to experiment with ways to use AI to increase efficiency or at least automate some tasks where it makes sense to, while maintaining a healthy skepticism about the quality and accuracy of its output

I tried to get it to write a calculator program to perform some pretty simple geodetic computations, and it failed miserably, even after many attempts and much refining of the prompt. I even specified which web page to get the equations from, and that no, it did NOT need to convert degrees to radians first.

I gave up on that, and tried to get it to convert state plane coordinates to latitude and longitude and plot them in google earth. That seemed to work a little better - until it didn’t. Using the exact same prompt, in which units and coordinate system and coordinate file format were all clearly spelled out, it decided randomly that my points were several hundred miles to the west.

Ok, let’s try to get it to do some simple text file manipulation. Extract some data from long GPS data files and their corresponding processing reports and print a summary. My very specific prompt included the instruction to convert the (metric) orthometric height to US Survey feet using the formula “meters x 39.37 / 12”. Bogus results, but close enough to be believable at first glance. Ok, then “multiply the orthometric height by 39.37, then divide the result by 12”. Still bogus results - or at least mostly, with the occasional correct answer thrown in to keep you off guard. How can it get basic math wrong?

It did work pretty well making goofy pictures of coworkers, though.
 
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Headwinds said:
For any who may be concerned about the accuracy of AI - I wanted to see what a couple of 7 foot 2x12 boards I have weigh and it wasn't convenient to weigh them so I googled the question. Here's Google AI's answer verbatim:

AI Overview

A 7-foot long pine 2x12 will weigh approximately 128 pounds. This is based on the fact that pine is about 2.5 pounds per board foot. A 2x12 is a board foot, and a 7-foot piece is 7 board feet.7 board feet multiplied by 2.5 pounds per board foot equals 17.5 pounds per linear foot. 7 feet multiplied by 17.5 pounds per linear foot equals 122.5 pounds.

Finding this a little bizarre I immediately Googled the exact same question again and this time I got this answer:

A 7-foot long pine 2x12 will weigh approximately 41.7 pounds, according to Osborne Lumber Company. A 2x12 is typically 5 pounds per linear foot. Therefore, a 7-foot piece would weigh 7 * 5 = 41.7 pounds.

Closer but some strange multiplication. I did have a knife in my pocket while I was on my computer.
Click to expand...
Just Tom. said:
ChatGPT in particular regularly hoses basic math, so your results don’t surprise me at all.

This is long, so no harm in ignoring it unless you are interested in this topic:

At work we are being encouraged to experiment with ways to use AI to increase efficiency or at least automate some tasks where it makes sense to, while maintaining a healthy skepticism about the quality and accuracy of its output

I tried to get it to write a calculator program to perform some pretty simple geodetic computations, and it failed miserably, even after many attempts and much refining of the prompt. I even specified which web page to get the equations from, and that no, it did NOT need to convert degrees to radians first.

I gave up on that, and tried to get it to convert state plane coordinates to latitude and longitude and plot them in google earth. That seemed to work a little better - until it didn’t. Using the exact same prompt, in which units and coordinate system and coordinate file format were all clearly spelled out, it decided randomly that my points were several hundred miles to the west.

Ok, let’s try to get it to do some simple text file manipulation. Extract some data from long GPS data files and their corresponding processing reports and print a summary. My very specific prompt included the instruction to convert the (metric) orthometric height to US Survey feet using the formula “meters x 39.37 / 12”. Bogus results, but close enough to be believable at first glance. Ok, then “multiply the orthometric height by 39.37, then divide the result by 12”. Still bogus results - or at least mostly, with the occasional correct answer thrown in to keep you off guard. How can it get basic math wrong?

It did work pretty well making goofy pictures of coworkers, though.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the examples of some glitches in using AI. These examples don't make me feel very confident about corporate America rushing to adopt AI to improve the performance of many tasks required in their specific areas! :eek:

I've hardly used AI at all myself, so your examples made me google ChatGPT to see if I could get it to do some simple tasks for me.

First, I tried Headwinds Headwinds example of getting an approximate weight for a 7 foot 2x12 plank. (I wasn't sure which AI "machine" he used, so I tried ChatGPT because that's the one I've heard the most about.) It gave me a response that I considered reasonable, even telling me that although my plank was nominally 12" wide and 2" thick, it actually was probably closer to 1.5"x11.25". It gave me a formula for calculating board feet for a piece of lumber (without explaining why it works), but a little reflection convinced me that the formula was equivalent to simply calculating the volume of the lumber in cubic inches and dividing by 144 cubic inches per board foot. Then it multiplied the resulting board feet by 2.5 pounds per board foot for pine. That all seemed conceptually correct, but when I checked the actual computations, ChatGPT got the wrong number of board feet! Simple arithmetic error.

Next, I asked ChatGPT to do some Algebra 1 exercises, factoring some polynomials and simplifying some algebraic fractions. It did well on the 5 exercises I gave it.

Finally, I asked ChatGPT to count the letter frequencies in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. It explained how it intended to do it - it was a great plan!
Unfortunately, for the 5 letters I checked (a, b, e, g, and p), it had the wrong count on each one. Again, good approach, poor execution.

(I actually also requested a histogram of the letter frequencies in the Pledge, but it just gave me Python code that allegedly would generate the histogram I requested. I didn't take the time to check it.)

- GT
 
5K Qs said:
Thanks for the examples of some glitches in using AI. These examples don't make me feel very confident about corporate America rushing to adopt AI to improve the performance of many tasks required in their specific areas! :eek:

I've hardly used AI at all myself, so your examples made me google ChatGPT to see if I could get it to do some simple tasks for me.

First, I tried Headwinds Headwinds example of getting an approximate weight for a 7 foot 2x12 plank. (I wasn't sure which AI "machine" he used, so I tried ChatGPT because that's the one I've heard the most about.) It gave me a response that I considered reasonable, even telling me that although my plank was nominally 12" wide and 2" thick, it actually was probably closer to 1.5"x11.25". It gave me a formula for calculating board feet for a piece of lumber (without explaining why it works), but a little reflection convinced me that the formula was equivalent to simply calculating the volume of the lumber in cubic inches and dividing by 144 cubic inches per board foot. Then it multiplied the resulting board feet by 2.5 pounds per board foot for pine. That all seemed conceptually correct, but when I checked the actual computations, ChatGPT got the wrong number of board feet! Simple arithmetic error.

Next, I asked ChatGPT to do some Algebra 1 exercises, factoring some polynomials and simplifying some algebraic fractions. It did well on the 5 exercises I gave it.

Finally, I asked ChatGPT to count the letter frequencies in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. It explained how it intended to do it - it was a great plan!
Unfortunately, for the 5 letters I checked (a, b, e, g, and p), it had the wrong count on each one. Again, good approach, poor execution.

(I actually also requested a histogram of the letter frequencies in the Pledge, but it just gave me Python code that allegedly would generate the histogram I requested. I didn't take the time to check it.)

- GT
Click to expand...
Gary - I was hoping you would join in, given that math is your field of expertise. I find the errors in basic arithmetic to be the most puzzling aspect of the whole situation, as in the second solution I was given - "Therefore, a 7-foot piece would weigh 7 * 5 = 41.7 pounds." :rolleyes:
 
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