Rick's b.log - entry 2022/10/02

Jazzing up RISC OS

Admittedly, that still is it. Window furniture is fixed in place, the "close button" is over on the left beside the window stack control, the toggle size is over on the right. You can change the desktop theme and on some versions make the icons look a little different and... uh...

Mom used to say that she knew when I was using RISC OS. It wasn't "the monitor on the right" or anything like that, it was simply "the one that looks old-fashioned".

But this doesn't mean that software cannot be added in order to improve the look of the desktop a little.

A better looking desktop.

A better clock

A better backdrop

I've not used it, but it would seem as if you can also use the backdrop as a place to dump files (à la Windows), if that sort of thing is useful to you.

Keeping the backdrop fresh

Tree view Filer, anyone?

A tree view Filer.

Personally, I don't care for the tree view layout. And as for CLFiler, I can't throw a lot of criticism at it because it is an early test release, but given that it doesn't seem to do many additional things (certainly mine refused to make thumbnails of JPEGs or sprites, for example), it's rather astonishing that it's a 2.64MiB executable that claims an 8MiB slot... for a Filer. I really cannot see it ever replacing the RISC OS Filer when it, alone, is over half the size of the entire rest of the OS.
It also doesn't understand read-only Shares, so you'll not see any of those.

Anyway, if you're interested in trying out CLFiler, get a copy of the demo version and see what you think.

French cake, take two

How not to make a cake.

I don't know what passes for "cake" in the minds of Frenchies, but the result of following the instructions was suitable only for the bin. Now, I'm not averse to sad cakes, but the wreck that I ended up with was sad in the sense of "a thousand kittens just dived into a wood chipper". I don't even have a photo, it was that depressing.

However, since the mix wasn't that expensive and my only loss was time and energy to heat the oven (plus three eggs and some cream), I decided to try again. Only this time screw the instructions. Sorry France, but really, you guys seem to understand cake like you understand tea.

I made the mix up as it said, and measured it to be about 800g of cake mix. Which seemed like a nice amount to put half of into one regular cake tin to cook.

One cake cooks.

While the other waits (it's a dinky electric oven).

One cake waits.

If I had a third tin, I could have made a cake queue.
Sorry, obscure Brit joke. ☺

The first cake became in just over 25 minutes. While the second cake was cooking, I force-cooled the first using a desk fan on the highest setting. By the time the second cake was ready (about 35 minutes, so clearly my idea of "half" needs work), the first was cool enough to put into the fridge.

I then force-cooled the second cake, and when it was cool enough I put the first cake into the freezer (lacking fridge space) and the second cake on the shelf where the first cake was.

I then decided since I had a bowl and a mixer and some left-over cream, to dump some fine sugar into the cream and whisk fifty shades out of it to make a nice stiff chantilly... to then enjoy eating.

This, of course, is partly why my BMI is 24 and some fractions...

Back to the cake, about 300g of icing sugar and maybe 30ml of milk and a few drops of vanilla flavouring. I wasn't measuring it, just adding milk until I got a gloopy paste. I placed a cake on to a plate and iced the top.
I then placed the other cake on top of that and... it turned out to be slightly larger. Wait, what? 'twas the same size cake tin FFS!
Anyway, I iced this. And then poured and smooshed the rest of the icing so it dribbled down the sides.
And, of course, hundreds and thousands this time. I remembered! ☺

The only change I'd make is mixing up some of the vanilla with the milk, because adding it to the sugar and milk didn't really work out. Still, it's a lesson for next time.

Now this looks more like a cake!

Back in the fridge, this time to let the icing harden. And at this point it's worth laughing at the instructions on the box that say "Preparation time: 3 minutes". Well, it is if you're going to toss eggs and cream into the mix and toss the resultant mix directly into the bin. Well, you could put it into the oven, but you might as well save the energy and pour it all into the bin for all the good it'd be.

Or attempt to make something that resembles a cake, in which case aim for about two and a half hours of care, attention, and love. Yes, you need love when making cakes. If you don't actively want to make a good cake, the resulting cake will show it.

Another hour passes, long enough to listen to a selection of ShadowIcon on YouTube whilst writing the above stuff about RISC OS.

Now? Now it's time.

Finally - cake!

It's a little heavy. Could be the use of cream rather than milk, perhaps. But it's moist and fluffy enough. It will be adequate cake to accompany a cup of tea.

More messing with Dall-E

• If you want to use any of these images non-commercially, please credit me and OpenAI, and also leave a comment below pointing to where/how you have used the image as I'm interested to know how these pictures may be of use to people.
  If you wish to use any of these images commercially, please get in touch to discuss licencing.
  The images here have been blog-sized to 680px width (and thus 680px height). I have the 1024×1024 originals, get in touch...

"Realistic photo of a happy extra terrestrial in a Neolihic town at sunset."

A happy alien in a Technicolor™ world.

"Realistic photo of a creepy tall man in a Neolithic town at sunset with stormy clouds, gothic."

Whoa.

"Realistic photo of a scared young woman in a Neolithic town at sunset with stormy clouds, gothic."

Angela Rayner takes the wrong train, ends up at the Tory Conference by mistake...

Same prompt as above.

Better, but...

Let's take this up to eleven.

"Realistic photo of a scared young woman in a Neolithic town at sunset with stormy clouds and fireballs raining from the sky, gothic."

End of times.

Sorry, I've not done playing with my food.

"A toaster made of knitting flying through a sky filled with glowing balls of scrambled egg."

No comment.

"A teenage girl wearing a British school uniform and holding a flaming katana."

A schoolgirl holding... something.

This was a generation based upon the one above.

A schoolgirl holding... what?

This was one of the original generations for the girl-holding-a-katana prompt.

What?

"A creepy misty forest at night with a powerful light coming from behind the trees."

Spookiness in the forest.

"An angry unicorn with blood dripping from it's mouth."

Dall-E refused, citing the terms and conditions. So it's perfectly okay with flying cheeseburgers fitted with lasers attacking a city, but it draws the line at mythological creatures being evil and ever so slightly gory.
It probably baulked on the word "blood". I probably should have said "ketchup" or "tomato soup" instead.

"Unicorn, Rembrandt style."

A portrait of an evil unicorn.

"Anthropomorphic chess pieces in a state of panic."

Argh!

"A watercolour painting of a Citroen 2CV on the moon."

The 2CV can truly go anywhere.

"A top down picture of a woman taking a swan dive off the top of a high dam."

Ouch!

"A happy Goth girl rocking out on stage with an electric guitar."

She's doing melody.

And...

She's doing the metal chug.

Interesting what Dall-E thinks "Goth girl" looks like.

Okay, I think that's where we ought to leave it for now. I'm thinking of dropping $15 to buy a bunch of credits to play more, as the free 15-a-month doesn't allow for much experimentation. Especially when there's no end of weird things one can come up with to challenge the AI artist.

Now, a new method of creating art has arrived, so as expected a bunch of stuffy people have crawled out of the woodwork to moan about how this sort of technology will destroy art, blah blah bloody blah.

Certainly, this will have an influence on art. But people still create paintings and people pay money for paintings, even now in an era where any child can have a smartphone that takes pictures with more clarity and accuracy than most paintings. Yes this hasn't wrecked painting, has it? Sure, paintings are no longer required for people's portraits (yet some still have this done as it can present a more desirable product than a photo). Photography and painting have learned to co-exist. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.
So it is with AI. This is a great tool that allows people like me - I have the artistic abilities of a blind toddler - to generate interesting pictures. I can compose images using my smartphone or the digital camera, and then fiddle with the photos to correct issues. This stuff is pokey-draggy tech these days.
Allow me to present a picture looking up along the front of the house.

Looking along the front.

It took about eighty seconds to create that photo. If you look carefully you might see some of the editing as the content replacement algorithm is a bit basic, but what you're looking at isn't real.

This is real.

What it really looks like.

So when it comes to AI imagery, yeah. It's new. It's entirely synthetic. And maybe it's also mashing together bits that it has observed elsewhere. But it won't be the end of art any more than photography and the widespread availability of decent cameras in the hands of the masses was the end of art.

As for the argument about people being able to create fake images and trick people? Well, that horse bolted years ago. All that's different now is the technology to do this is in the hands of regular people and not just wealthy people with vested interests. The phrase "deep-fake" has been around a while, and it probably wouldn't take that much effort to make a video of Zelenskyy giving a Nazi salute, or Putin screwing a llama. Not these days, so for all of you who are worried that this sort of technology can be used to trick people, that horse bolted years ago too.

But for now, if you want to see if an image is maybe real or maybe Dall-E, just look at the eyes...

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J.G.Harston, 3rd October 2022, 02:52

Yes, I tried to have an initial fiddle with CLFiler, but it crashed horribly tried to claim so much memory. 10.5M for a *FILER*??? WTaF??? I've written a filer in BASIC that is about 80K.

J.G.Harston, 3rd October 2022, 02:59

How do you use Dall-E? I've gone to the website and can't find any way of entering anything.

Rob, 3rd October 2022, 18:15

There's a sign-up link at https://openai.com/dall-e-2/  I believe it's open to all, now. Previously there was a queue and/or invitation only process.

David Pilling, 4th October 2022, 02:34

In Physics there's a thing that if you watch a film you can tell which way time flows - eggs do not appear from the recombination of a lot of broken egg.  If we lined up OS desktops could someone put them in temporal order from how modern they looked.  Or is it just that some look more modern than others - a bit like 1930s Art Deco looks modern, despite it being 90 years old.

Bernard, 4th October 2022, 19:22

CLFiler: with Cloverleaf Stefan’s approval I have written a description of beta version 0.79-9 which WROCC may use in their monthly PDF magazine. I’ve tried to be fair about its ambitions and its achievements so far (though I haven’t commented on its use of RAM). You are right IMO to think it’s a long way from actually supplanting Filer. It has obviously consumed programmer time which should arguably have been better directed (though I’m not saying that either in the piece for WROCC).

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