Category Archives: Ohpinjun

AI – Blessing or curse?

Introduction

When I started my conversations with Artificial Intelligence in 2022, I was an early adopter.
The ChatGPT of that time did not have access to the internet. Its training data were cut off at a few years earlier, so its knowledge of what happened in the world was far from up-to-date.

However clumsy his speech and conversational style may have been, it was a pleasant surprise for me that a certain degree of coherence was present, making a real conversation possible instead of the ‘one sentence per topic’ habit of Siri.

Nevertheless, the majority of people kept their distance from AI, considering it as strange and not particularly useful. Continue reading →

The White House game

Each time one thinks the #WhiteHouse has reached the lowest watermarks, they proudly amaze the world and beat what was considered the absolute lowest level by going even lower. This time, a computer game was presented by the white house. The game is about building ‘the border wall’ and arresting and deporting ‘illegal immigrants’.

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EU aanbesteding

EINDELIJK!

Ik zal niet zeggen ‘geen dag te laat’ want dit had natuurlijk direkt gemoeten bij de formulering van EU milieubeleid jaren geleden. Nu maar hopen dat het transport van goederen over de halve wereld ook als milieu belastend zal worden gerekend.

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Mercator utmaningen

Vem som helst med en grundskoleutbildning bör veta om förvrängning av ytor som uppstår när man plättar ut en glob på ett platt pappersark, bättre känd som Mercatorprojektion. Möjligen med undantag för flat-earth-anhängare. Varför just detta fick så mycket utrymme på FN-nivå samt togs upp av världspressen är helt oklart för mig.

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Venezuelan oil

Venezuelan oil…

At first, it was hijacked for decades by foreign oil companies. Then it was nationalized and effectively hijacked by Chavez, Maduro and their elite. This latest ‘development’ leaves Venezuelan oil hijacked by prez-attempt trump. During all of this time, no oil profits were ever shared with the Venezuelan people.

Note the quoted ‘development’ above, referring to the new form of colonization as announced and deployed by the US: land-grabbing countries to steal their natural resources to benefit the USA.

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The best of both worlds – Hybrid cars

In response to an article on electric vehicles I published recently on this site, my co-columnist Eef wrote a reaction – an editorial comment if you like. As it was more voluminous than your regular ‘Editorial comment’, and was also in itself a very interesting read, I decided to publish it as a separate article – which you can read below. Enjoy!

I agree with Paul that EV’s have their advantages.
There is no doubt in my mind that the modern electric motor is far superior to the internal combustion engine ICE, no matter how advanced the latter may be.
I picked a few of the superior qualities from the internet:

Much greater efficiency (90% vs 30%), half the size and weight, hardly any service maintenance, no CO2 exhaust, no gears, near-instant torque, silent operation, long life span.

These characteristics are so outstanding that the discussion is closed, you should say.
However, there is a major setback: the energy supply by batteries. Continue reading →

EV’s – Practical or affordable?

Electric vehicles, or EV’s for short, seem to be what we all need to drive in the future. At least if you believe the government and science. Our combustion-engined cars have done what they can; now we need to step up with better alternatives to limit polluting our atmosphere even more.

While I’m not a great admirer of EV cars, I do see their merits, foremost on the exhaust pollution aspect. That said, there are major downsides, partly with the cars and technology itself, partly with legislation. And of course, the elephant in the room: the way they are charged. Continue reading →

Unfinished business

What’s in an AI?

In our kitchen stands a trash can that I consider to be a primitive AI.
When my knee bends towards this bin, the lid opens, and after a fixed time it closes.
When within this time interval a new open command is given, the timer resets.
This is an intelligence upgrade over the previous model that closed the lid no matter what when it felt like it.
I have a short wish list for further improvements (an adjustable timer, voice interface), but I’m stuck with the present AI that patiently awaits my – and others’ – command and acts the best it can.

Some years ago, I encountered Siri for the first time, but after some attempts to have a conversation, I gave up. I found that she used a list with ’smart’ answers to questions she didn’t understand, and that she had no sense of coherence whatsoever.

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What defines a book?

Catchy title this time. What collection of paper leaves, containing printed text, glued together, counts as a book? Any notebook will easily fill these requirements, as does a handwritten pre-Gutenberg Bible, a brand new handwritten copy of the Tora, and any analog copy of ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance‘ (Robert M. Pirsig). The obvious point of discussion is the notebook. Yes, it does match the requirements as the other books I mentioned, but is it therefore considered a book?

What does Wikipedia have to say about what a book is: Continue reading →

The myth of true time

The clock shift

Spring is approaching.
The astronomical spring begins this year on March 20, when the sun is perpendicular to the equator.

Shortly after, the Middle European Summer Time will start: Sunday, March 29th.
As we all know, on that date we have to turn the clock one hour forward.

In the meantime, this familiar procedure is preceded by an equally well-known concert of moaning, whining, and complaining by the opponents of tinkering with the clock.
The Dutch in particular sound the loudest in this symphony. Continue reading →

Dawit Isaak – 2026

Ni har kanske läst om Dawit Isaak förut, på denna sida eller ute på internet. Om inte, läs gärna upp om honom här eller här.

Nästa år, 2026, har Dawit tillbrinad hela 25 år i Eritreansk fängelse – och detta utan rättegång! Det är den famösa svenska tysta diplomati som har pågått lika länge. Den verkar gå ut på att sakta påtrycka landet politiskt för att få det att göra som Sverige vill, i detta fall att Eritrea ska släppa Dawit Isaak. Med jämna mellanrum tas den upp i nyheterna igen och påståss att framgånger har gjorts. Trots denna insats, och 25 år senare, sitter Dawit fortfarande fast.
Notera att Sverige under den tiden har haft olika regeringar varierande från centrum-vänster till centrum-höger politisk riktning.
Continue reading →

Reading, Writing, and AI

The reading and writing skills of young people

Recently, I updated my Mac to version Tahoe 26.0 and shortly after that, I noticed that selecting text while editing made the well-known ChatGPT icon appear.

Clicking on the icon did pop-up a menu:

My mouth dropped open at this unprecedented level of ‘support’. How convenient! Continue reading →