Dell, v2

It’s almost 10 years later. My old Dell still works well, but it now shows some flaws. The battery only lasts a few minutes. The charger is broken and the power cords are visible. The plastic frame around the screen has partially disintegrated, leaving behind a strange greasy residue. It’s not possible to upgrade to Windows 11 because I’m missing some modern components. A few drawbacks, but as long as the computer hangs by its power cord, it still works perfectly. Nevertheless, I found it time for some refreshing new hardware.

Dell Latitude!My new Dell (arriving soon):
Name: Dell Latitude 7455
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
Memory: 32 GB
Harddisk: 512GB SSD

Why Qualcomm?
I initially had some reservations about getting a Qualcomm processor. They are more expensive, and quite new, which means they may not perfectly compatible with some hardware or software. I worried that it might be harder to get things to work properly, and if I needed to troubleshoot issues myself, it could take a lot of time or effort. However, since I don’t use my laptop for gaming and I don’t require many external devices, I thought I should be okay.

The alternative is an Intel or AMD processor. These would always work, are cheaper, and fast. Normally, they would be the logical choice.

Intel and AMD produce X64 CPUs based on a CISC architecture (Complex Instruction Set). This means that these processors have high speed during numerical tasks, but slower speeds for data transfer. In contrast, ARM CPUs, such as those used in Snapdragons, are based on a RISC architecture (Reduced Instruction Set). This implies that these CPUs have lower bus bandwidth, but are fast for simple tasks. Apple has been using a RISC architecture with its M processors for some years now.

When I bought my first MacBook, it came with an M1 CPU, and this initially required quite a bit of extra effort to install emulators and get stuff to work correctly. I was impressed with the performance when I got my MacBook. Two years later, I’m still happy to see that the AI reacts much faster than an Intel machine. This made me reconsider my initial doubts about Qualcomm processors and think they might be worth considering for their future potential. So, I decided to give it a try.

Why Dell?
My shortlist had two laptops on it. A Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 and a Dell Latitude. The Microsoft machine looks really promising, but I was unable to configure one easily with 32GB memory, and it had a glossy screen, with I viewed as a minor negative point. The Dell was easier to configure, but was a bit more expensive. The screen was not quite as good as the Microsoft one, but it was not glossy which I see as a plus.

I found out online that the Microsoft laptop is build really well, better than the Dell, but I remember that my old Dells were all very well build, at least the Latitudes are very sturdy machines so I just went with my experience. After a few days spend sleeping on the issue it was clear to me that I would be happier investing in the Dell, so that’s what I did.

Why 32GB?
Memory is expensive. It is like a small harddisk, but as fast as lightning. If you have enough memory your computer will be fast. Previously my Dell laptops were all bought with the maximum allowed memory, and I would buy an extra memory strip together with the system, so I could double the memory myself once I received the machine. Even after years of operation this resulted in fast and responsive hardware.
My new system cannot be upgraded after buying the system, so I had to get the maximum amount of memory right away. Right now the minimum about of memory seems to be 8gb, but the normal amount is 16GB. By doubling this I should have enough for a couple of years into the future. I think AI applications like it when you have lots of memory available.

Why 512GB?
Harddisks are essential to store loads of data, but being realistic, the harddisk in my laptops are used for the operating system, and for a couple of applications. The rest is temporal storage for backups, projects, etc. Long term storage is done on external harddisks. Only looking at my photos I have way over 2TB already (starting storing my digital images since 1994). External harddisks can be used on any system and a copy can easily be stored in different physical locations.

What else?
I got a Dell with a 14″ screen. A small screen makes for a smaller laptop, which is easier to take with you. A small screen usually means that you do not get a numerical keypad, but I never use the keypad anyway, so there is no loss there.

When?
My new Dell is produced in China. It is on its way right now, but the estimated arrival is in March. Almost one month waiting impatiently. That is probably the price I am paying for living in paradise on an island.

Disclaimer: A few days after deciding on the Dell I took another look at the Microsoft store, and found that getting a system with 32GB memory was possible, but at a price much higher than the Dell. I guess it confirmed I had made the right choice.

Online friends / Astroturfing

a big ear with lots of people whispering in itMore and more time is spend online. Your social circles are formed online with people that feel similar to yourself. Where our social circles used to be centered around the town or city where you live, right now they can be everywhere. The same way that your physical friends can influence you, you can now also be influenced by the options and views of your online friends. Friends that you might have never met, but with whom you can spend lots of time.

Imagine a very near future where your online friends might all think siilar to you. A bit group of similarly minded people. All individuals that reinforce your thinking in a certain manner. Maybe 10 good friends, and maybe 20 more people who also think in a similar way. Maybe such a big group of people can influence you much more that you would think possible. Each of the persons you know has his or her own personality, which you get to know and trust.

Imagine all these friends are not as you would think. All of them are uniquely generated by an AI. In the blink of an eye there can be tens or hundreds of people who all think the same as you, and who will all try and navigate your thoughts to a desired outcome.

Maybe suddenly some of them will tell you about their experience with a new product, using the AI’s for some kind of advertisement. Or worse, your ‘friends’ influence your political opinion. This has already happened, where less powerful AI was used to influence groups of people and to redirect their thoughts and actions to achieve a certain goal. Now, with AI getting more and more accessible, the big danger is an abuse so personal it will be very hard to resist. You will not even know it is taking place.

If can even be done with less effort. Simply train an AI on how you interact with your environment. Let it learn how your friends and contacts behave, and at the right moment simply inject some additional conversation. Almost impossible to trace.

Even if this technology is used for good, avoid radical opinions, avoid unwanted behaviour, in the end the person that controls the AI controls the emotions and thoughts of lots and lots of people. A very dangerous future we are entering.

Lets just ask an AI itself

Would it be possible for an AI to generate a number of different identities all aimed at trying to influence someone to get them to buy a certain product?
Yes, it is possible for an AI to generate multiple identities to influence someone to buy a certain product. This is known as astroturfing, which involves creating fake identities or groups to simulate grassroots support for a particular cause or product.

The number of identities needed would depend on various factors such as the size of the target audience, the level of influence required, and the resources available for the astroturfing campaign. It’s difficult to provide a specific number without knowing more details about the specific situation.

However, it’s worth noting that astroturfing is generally considered unethical and can damage the reputation of both the product and the company behind it. Therefore, it’s important to approach marketing and advertising ethically and t

AI: Are we there yet?

A mind inside a fishbowl on top of a mechanical body walking through the sky on top of a cloudArtificial intelligence is a thing we keep hearing more and more about, but what are we really talking about? Is it really something smart and intelligent. It is certainly smart, but sadly the intelligent part still needs to be created.

A few years ago we had various very good search engine. You could give it a couple of words, and it would use those words to really quickly give a list of results that were related to the words you provided. They improved this search by remembering where people clicked. More clicks meant a result was probable better, so it got a bit higher score.

Now OpenAI has added a new layer to this. It’s tool ChatGPT can understand text, and can tell you something in a natural fashion. You can ask it a question, and it will give you an answer back, just like a normal conversation. Understanding someone is a very complex task. You can ask the same thing in lots of different ways, and small details can be very important or meaningless. The ‘engine’ is trained to know what is important, and what is not. Instead of giving you a list of sites, now you can simply get a summary as an answer. The AI is not storing a huge amount of links, it is reading everything, and storing the information it finds, which is what it uses to answer your question.

We are not there yet, but it is a huge step forward. Understanding language is really difficult, and making it seem ‘natural’ is very hard, but it looks like they really achieved something here. Still, there is no intelligence. For now there is no curiosity, no initiative, no desire. The AI only responds to queries. It remembers what you asked it, but thats it. You can ask it things, and it can tell you things, but it won’t do anything else. It is really good, and clearly the current ‘AI’ is much much better then the ‘old’ search engines.

We can even ask it directly.

Q: are you really intelligent?
A: As an AI language model, I don’t possess a conscious intelligence like humans do. However, I have been trained on vast amounts of data and algorithms to respond to various queries, so I can simulate an intelligent conversation with humans. I can understand natural language and can generate responses based on the information I have been trained on. My abilities are limited to what I have been trained on and what algorithms are available to me.
Q: can you repeat the answer in dutch
A: Als een AI-taalmodel …

Recognizable game

As a test/hobby project I have been building a game similar to minesweeper, but with a completely different theme. Instead of looking for mines you will need to look for mushrooms. The game logic was easy because it is shared lots of times online. The entire app structure was for me, and was basically what I wanted to learn/achieve. What I was missing was the assets. Images and sounds to make it all look perfect. For this I used fiverr and I hired an indonesian guy to make around 20 images for me. Great to have such a huge international marketplace. What I am still missing it some soundeffects. I will probably try and convince the kids to help me with this, because Alex has already showed me he does this very well, like the shooting effect in our stopmotion.

Canon G7X

Canon g7x ii!With two kids you really need to have a good camera to safeguard some images from their youth. They will love it in the future and it is even nice to review the material I have right now. For years I have been a Canon fan, so I did not have to look a lot for my new camera. I got a Canon again, but this time a went a bit more professional. I got a camera with a slightly bigger optical chip which has the big advantage that it can make great pictures, even when there is only a little bit of light.

What I found out later was that this type of camera is ideal for vloggers. A vlog is basically the same as this blog, but instead of textual entries a vlogger uploads small videos. Maybe I should try sometime. Anyone wants to see a short video by me?

Dell

Dell e5450!Sometimes you just need to get something that will work and that’s nice and robust. Something good. It might cost a little extra but quality is not cheap. For myself I had a nice desktop computer that was okay, but I needed something more mobile for my work so I started looking for a nice laptop.

One bit requirement was that the laptop could not have one of those slick mirroring screens. They look fantastic, but are very unpractical to actually use. Looking into a mirroring surface gets very tiring very fast. The CPU does not need to be the top of the line. Anything semi decent will do. I do require a bit of memory for my work so I need to get a system with at least 16GB of memory. In the end I found a very nice system at Dell. These are the specs:

Dell Latitude E5450
Edition: Windows 10 Pro
Processor: Intel Core i5-5300C CPU
RAM: 16.0 GB
System type: 64-bit
Harddisk: Samsung SSD 256GB
Removable: Lexar USB 32GB